With the weather cooling down, it's a great time for warming foods. Dahl is an Indian stew made with lentils. You can go fancy and add fresh seasonings to the dahl, but I use curry powder to keep it simple. It’s a tasty, warming dish for any time of day!  

  Rice balls are like the grown-up version Harry Potter’s Every Flavor Jelly Beans. They’re so easy, and you can hide all sorts of surprises inside. But unlike the jelly beans, you can make sure all of the surprises will be tasty ones!  

My friend Veronique and I met while snowshoeing the Grouse Mountain Snowshoe Grind in Vancouver one winter. Hooray for making friends on the trail! Here is V’s recipe for yummy energy cookies made with cereal and oats! In the photo, she included dried cranberries, shredded coconut, and sunflower seeds.

Polenta is a simple Italian dish of cooked cornmeal, but the variations are endless. You can simmer it until it is creamy like porridge, or make little cakes and grill or fry them.   Polenta goes great with a wide variety of flavors, and making it a great pasta or sandwich bread substitute. This recipe combines cultures, drawing on the rich flavors of Japanese miso (soybean paste). Miso also makes an easy broth base if you’d like to whip up a quick pot of soup.  

This recipe is a real refresher after a long day of hiking, or anytime the weather gets hot! The cucumber and green tea meld well together to create a subtly sweet tea. I use a cold-brewing method to infuse the tea, which brings out the tea’s natural sweetness. I used DōMatcha’s Organic Tencha Green Tea, which has a particularly rich, sweet flavor, though you can use other types of green tea as well 

Is it just me, or are granola bars expensive these days? I found it’s way cheaper and more fun to make your own. You can make this recipe with other spreads as well, such as peanut butter, cashew butter, or sunflower butter. You can also halve this recipe to make a smaller batch using a loaf pan instead of a square pan.

I know, it sounds weird, but baked chickpeas are truly a treat, and the flavor options are endless!    

Sometimes I just can’t be bothered to make breakfast in the morning when I’m getting ready for a hike. These tasty little squares are like granola, but softer. They’re a great cereal option if you’re camping or just in a hurry. Eat them on their own, or put a couple in a bowl with a splash of milk. I like to put three squares in a bowl with some soymilk, and heat it up for a few seconds for “fancy” oatmeal. In this recipe I use coconut oil, my new favorite seasoning :) Coconut oil lends a light tropical essence of coconut to your cooking and is a source of healthy saturated fats and may contain antiviral properties. But mostly, it just tasted delicious! The oil is solid at room temperature, so you must melt it before mixing it in with the oats. You can also halve this recipe to make a smaller batch.