recipe: trail mix bark

By happy accident I stumbled upon a great new way to enjoy trail mix: in "bark" form. The "accident?" Leaving a container of trail mix in the car in the summer which melted the chocolate chips into a gooey mess, but upon cooling, perfected (at least in my books) the perfect on-the-go snack. God is good!

1. Preheat oven for about 5 minutes to 350 degrees. Then turn the oven off.

2. Select your favorite combo of trail mix ingredients. Currently this is what I mix:

• one 1 lb unsalted, whole almonds (roasted or raw works)
• one 8 oz package of dried cranberries
• about half a regular size bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips
• about half a page of raw pumpkin seeds
• about 1/2 to 2/3 of a 24 oz container of raisins
• bite-sized pretzels
• cashews

2. Pour ingredients in a large bowl and...mix! Set inside warmed (but now turned off) oven.

3. Let the bowl sit in the oven until you notice the chocolate getting melty. You may want to give the bowl a gentle stir a couple of times during the warming process. The more you stir though, the more the chocolate gets on the sides of the bowl, so take it easy with this part. ;)

4. Then set in a cool spot or on the counter until the chocolate hardens. And you're done!

I love this recipe because it's less messy in the car and the kids tend to eat all the trail mix instead of trying to pick out there favorites (i.e. the chocolate :) )