Outside Magazine: Bam! Chocolaty Banana & Backcountry Recipes

If you eat my Bam! Chocolaty Banana recipe once a day for 365 days, you will have abs like this.

Thanks to Outside Magazine and Gina Begin for asking me to submit one of my world-famous Junior Ranger Backcountry recipes.

Great for big kids and little kids.

All of my recipes are plant-strong; that means much easier clean-up and transporting, since almost none of the plant-strong recipes require refrigeration for ingredients, as well as easy to turn over to the kids to make.

I gave Outside Magazine one of my favorites:

Bam! Chocolaty Banana
Love the sweetness of roasted bananas but want to try something on the simpler side? Kaki Flynn, Outward Bound professional guide and award-winning writer, takes her vegan tastes to the trail with this quick fix.

“I'm always eager to show people how easy it is to be plant strong in the backcountry,” says Kaki.

“This gooey, warm treat packs easily, especially for cold-weather trips.”

Bonus for being ultra-light on everything but flavor.

Ingredients 

• 1 banana
• Handful of dark chocolate chips
• Aluminum foil to wrap banana, but not really necessary. The banana cooks great in skin.

Optional 
Peanut butter, sprinkles. Can get very creative, but find simple flavors work best in backcountry.

Directions

• Keep the peel on the banana
• Using pocketknife, slit banana along the length, about halfway through
  “You are creating a pocket,” explains Kaki
• Fill slit with toppings and cook for 10 to 15 minutes
• When done, the banana and toppings will be warm and gooey
• Eat right out of the peel, using your spork or chopsticks

Kaki says that roasting by campfire works best.

Simply find a place along the edge to place your bananas.

“Resting on a rock as close to fire as you can works as well,” she adds.

If you’re without a campfire, use your stove by placing bananas in a row in frying pan over medium/low flame and cover.

Kaki loves the fact that there’s no cleanup with this recipe.

“Just fold up your banana peel and bam! you’re done.”

ASTEROID APPLES
One of my favorite. Great for all ages at a campfire, with supervision.

Ingredients & Supplies

• Apple
• Stick
• Fire
• Extra: Cinnamon
  After tasting the apple, people almost never end up using, because the apple is so warm and gooey all by itself, but can sprinkle in a pan for people to roll apple.

Cooking Instructions

You really can't mess this up:

• Cook the apple until it looks done.
  Think of these as "advanced marshmallow making" - same concept - some people like super crisp and blackened, some just like them warmed up.
• What if I drop in the fire?
  Doesn't matter. Scrape of skin with a knife.
• Takes 10-15 minutes to make.

Have great Junior Ranger backcountry recipes? Share them below, or send me links. 

Plant-strong recipes, please.