The Organic Climber – Vegetarian running, cycling, swimming, rock climbing and raw foods.

Man, this weekend has been awesome despite my climbing trip to Arkansas being rained out, but hey no biggie, I will be going there this weekend anyway for Memorial Day Weekend!  The weather here was awesome, makes me glad I didn’t make the drive North to a weekend of rain and misery.  Sunday was especially enjoyable. While out on a walk a girl passed me running and I thought to myself I should actually be doing that. So, after finishing my walk I headed home and prepared some yummy crag treats for this weekend (recipe shown bellow). After my famous RAW Buckwheat Treats were in the food dehydrator I strapped on my shoes and went for a run.

I was quite surprised at how well I was performing. I had set out to run 1.8 miles, but ended up running 2.8 miles in just over 26 minutes.  I would say that is pretty good considering that I rarely ever run, but I will be running a lot more, as I am working on getting my cardiovascular system up for my trip to Longs Peak this summer. We plan on summiting via the North Face Cable Route. It should be a lot of fun, as long as my climbing partner and I both get into shape.

Anyway, I thought I would take some time to share with you one of my favorite crag recipes.  Since I started eating a high RAW diet I struggled with what I could bring on my climbing trips with me other than fruit and nuts, and then one day it hit me – RAW Granolla!  I bought a package from a local whole foods type store that had all the ingredients listed on the back, so I took most of them, added a few of my own, and came up with RAW Buckwheat Treats.  These are now my favorite snack for crag days, they pack plenty of calories and are extremely nutritious. Not only that, but they are extremely light and pack well.  I hope you enjoy these as much as I do.

Buckwheat Treats

12 Pitted Dates

1/4 cup Agave Nectar

1/2 cup of Water

1/4 cup Sunflower Seeds

1/4 cup Walnuts

1/4 cup Pumpkin Seeds

1 cup Ground Flax Seed

2 Teaspoons of Pumpkin Spice or Cinnamon (I prefer pumpkin spice)

1/2 teaspoon of Vanilla extract

2 cups of Buckwheat Grouts

Add 1/4 cup Sprouted Wheat Berries (optional)

Sea Salt

1. Place pitted dates, agave nectar and water in a food processor and blend until a paste is formed, scraping the walls as needed.
2. Then add the sunflower seeds, walnuts and pumpkin seeds to the mix and process again until seeds and nuts are mixed well throughout the paste.
3. Next add the ground flax seeds, pumpkin spice, vanilla extract and a few dashes of sea salt to the mixture and process again.
4. Once thoroughly processed, dump the mixture into a large mixing bowl, adding the buckwheat grouts and wheat berries. Now, with a spatula or wooden spoon mix thoroughly.
5. After this is done, place the mixture into clumps on a teflex dehydrator sheet and dehydrate at 100 degrees for about 12 hours. Makes about two sheets.

Don’t have a food dehydrator?  I am guessing an oven would work as well, but you will need to keep a close eye on them and will likely need to rotate the treats and even turn them upside down as well so they are thoroughly “cooked”. In order to keep the recipe RAW a food dehydrator is your best option, but either way they will still be really nutritious.

This recipe was also recently featured on Rawmazing.com

This weekend I will be headed to Horseshoe Canyon Ranch in Arkansas for a weekend of sport and trad climbing, but mostly sport. I will be there with The Texas Mountaineers and Zack of Climb DFW. If you happen to be around just ask the rowdy group from Texas who I am and say hi.