Trail Mix for a cross country trek

I drove across Canada last September from Vancouver right through to St. John's. 8000 km. I was on a harvest trek and it was a fantastic experience.

This is a little 'on the road' recipe inspired by my experience and ingredients purchased in Vancouver's Chinatown. A homemade trail mix is very easy to assemble if you've got good dried whole food lurking in your pantries.

Here is one example...but I encourage you to play with your own recipes and enjoy a different snack for a change!

Cross Canada Trail Mix 

Roughly a 1/4 - 1/2 cup of each of the following:

Nori Seaweed, cut up with scissors
Sunflower seeds (I use unsalted)
Pumpkin seeds (ditto)
Cashews (ditto)
Sesame coated cashews (not sure I'll use these again, too sweet)
Dried apricots (chopped with scissors)
Dried dates (ditto)
Dried figs (ditto)

Seasoning, to taste:
Wasabi Powder (this is hot, don't be too generous) - start with 1/8 tsp
Horseradish/Wasabi Oil (this is super hot, again, exercise caution) - 6 - 12 drops
Mirin Sweet Cooking Seasoning (Japanese seasoning) - 1/2 - 1 tsp

Mix well. Story in a air tight container. Keeps well.

The last three ingredients should be easy to find if you have an asian grocery store available and many regular grocery stores are carrying Wasabi powder. You could easily replace the oil with olive oil and a bit of fresh horseradish too.

I recently served this at the livestreaming party for TEDxManhattan that I hosted here in Toronto.  I had a number of requests for the recipe so, voila.

The secret to refreshing summer wraps?

Shaved cucumber slices (use your veggie peeler).

Seriously.  It's that easy.

The avocado, tomato, yellow pepper, lettuce, mustard seed salami helped too.  All piled on top of a plain corn tortilla.

Add a splash of lemon juice with a dash of hot chili pepper and grind some fresh white pepper corns and it is really an easy masterpiece to pull off when the temperatures outside are hot enough to fry an egg on the sidewalk and you can't bear the thought of any food being heated.

Cucumber is a 'cooling' vegetable too, did you know that?  That is why Indian food often includes a side dish of cukes, usually with plain yogurt.  So shave away those cucumbers and keep the heat down.

Gluten Free Focaccia

2 tsp sugar
1 cup lukewarm water
21/4 tsp dry yeast
Mix the above together and set aside

Next
1/2 cup brown rice flour
1/2 cup white rice flour
1/2 cup tapioca flour
1 1/2 tsp xanthan gum
1 tbsp finely minced onion
1 tsp fennel seed
1/2 tsp salt
Mix the above together.

In a large mixing bowl mix the yeast mixture with 1 egg and 1 tbsp olive oil with a hand mixer.

Add the flour mixture to the wet mixture and beat at hi speed for two minutes - the dough will be fairly runny.

Oil a 9" x 15" flat cake pan and spread the dough flat in it.  Drizzle the top with 2 tbsp olive oil and cover.  Let rise for 25 minutes for fast acting yeast or 45 minutes for regular.

Bake at 400 F° for 20-25 minutes or until slightly browned.  Cut into squares to serve.  Best served warm.

Add other toppings like olives, sun dried tomatoes, fresh chopped tomatoes, capers, etc if desired.