Humm Food's LaraBars

Generally, I prefer to make my own snacks (such as vegan chocolate energy protein bars), because most of the bars and mixes that you purchase are too high in salt and come with a ridiculous amount of packaging. But I do like to have some things in the kitchen ready for quick getaways, when I don’t have time for long preparations. In purchased products I look for light or minimal packaging, products that are non-squashable and don’t leak, products that are dairy free (I can’t eat dairy) and free from artificial colours and sweeteners.

This year at the Melbourne Good Food and Wine Show, I tasted many snacks and museli/granola bars, nuts and preserves. My favourites were Larabars and Mrs. Mays Classic Crunches. I’ve eaten Lara Bars before (when I lived in Canada) but had not seen them here in Australia until recently. It was the first time I had tried Mrs. May’s Naturals.

Both sell themselves on their ‘natural’ ingredients. Larabars have less than six ingredients in any product and are uncooked, unprocessed and are gluten-free, dairy-free, soy-free, non-GMO, sodium-free, vegan and kosher.  Mrs. Mays Classic Crunches have equally short ingredient lists and are vegan, non-GMO, cholesterol free, dairy-free, wheat-free, gluten-free, free from trans fats, contain no artificial colours or flavours or preservatives.

They are both really yummy, far superior to any other pre-packaged snack that I’ve tasted recently. I especially liked the Jocalat (chocolate), Key Lime and Cinnamon Roll Larabars. Like all of the flavours, they mainly consist of a base of puréed dates and ground nuts intersperced with larger pieces of nuts. All the bars contain about (it varies a few pper cent between flavours) 10% fibre, 8% protein, 50% sugars and 20% fat – not bad for a high-energy snack for endurance sports. The compositions of Mrs. Mays Classic Crunches vary much more between flavours. But as their major ingredient is either nuts or seeds and thus they contain more fat than sugar (not such a perfect endurance snack). They provide about twice as many kilojoules per 100g than LaraBars. My favourites flavours were Coconut Almond and Cashew.

The downsides of both products are that they are American (Larabar are from Colorado and Mrs. Mays from California) and therefore imported. The Larabar products I purchased were manufactured in the USA and Mrs. Mays Classic Crunches were produced in either USA (almond) or China (all other flavours).  I try not to buy things produced so far away, so I’ll probably be buying them infrequently while I live in Australia. Because I liked them so much and there really isn’t anything similar produced in Australia and because they both contain only real and recognisable ingredients, I think I’ll try and make some up in my own kitchen. I’ll let you know how that goes.

Mrs. Mays Classic Crunch

Another Easter in a share house with our friends, Rod and Vanessa.

We had hoped to surf on Friday, but the swell was huge and so we all took a walk around Cape Woolamai. Later we attempted a snorkel but the swell had stirred the bottom and I couldn’t even see my own feet! The bad ‘vis’ also put paid to the night dive that Rod and Vanessa had hoped to do. Bad for them but good for us as, instead, Vanessa cooked up a huge feast of Blue Grenadier.

Saturday we paddled a little, snorkeled and cooked a Greek feast of αρνί κλέφτικο, Γεμιστά, χαλλούμι and salads. Sunday, we got up early to catch the 8am low tide to dive at Smith’s beach. We had a great dive, the highlight of which was four Port Jackson sharks sleeping on the bottom.

After cleaning the abalone we had collected that morning we returned to Smith’s beach to play in the surf for several hours until exhausted :) Monday we all rose early again and drove to Inverloch for two dives with S.E.A.L dive services. The first was not so spectacular (almost all the divers missed the main wall) but the second had a good, low wall and plenty of large crays (unfortunately just out of reach; though several were caught by others). Also unfortunately the swell had picked up and a very, very strong surge at the bottom made photos impossible. We stopped at a few beaches close to Inverloch but plagues of biting flies drove us away quite quickly. Tuesday, Ross and I snorkeled and played in the surf until it was time to pack up all our toys and come home.

Good Friday morning we met up with 11 other MUUC members and debated the latest weather warnings and webcam shots of the rip.  It was decided that this was the best chance of getting to dive sites outside of the heads and so one boat set off for the 26m sub and the other (ours) for Castle Rock. The heads were smooth but outside there was a huge swell. We anchored and I rolled backwards off the side. A little water flooded my mask and while I removed it the surface current swept me back… it took all of my energy to swim to the anchor line, which was pulled rigid in the swell. The current probably would have abated below the surface but the surge would have been immense and the visibility poor, so I struggled back on board and we returned to the relative protection of the bay to dive Pope’s Eye instead.

Back at the dock we heard that only four of the six had made it down to the sub and those that had could only rest in the surge that swept them halfway along the wreck and back again every few minutes. A strong wind warning came over the radio … then several heavy showers. Whilst hot chips for lunch were being bought,  the afternoons’ dives were called off and the boats taken out of the water. Even Saturday seemed unlikely.

We returned to the campsite for hot showers and then took shelter in the pub. Beer and an open fire, followed by a seafood buffet to cheer us. Friday night was the ultimate test for new tents (thankfully ours passed). Gales and rain pounded us all night and well into Saturday.
Knowing there was no chance of boat-launching with whitecaps all over the bay, we passed the morning trying on new dive-suits, buying a new battery for my dive computer and a new mask for Ross in Geelong.  At lunch we went to St. Leonard’s Pier, the only site protected from the strong south-westerly winds, and found the rest of the gang there having the same thought. We hopped in at the middle platform and swam right along to the wall and back. The visibility was bad, with such bad weather, and there were hundreds of the ‘evil’ introduced starfish.  Also two dead rays, presumably from having taken a fisherman’s hook. My favourite sight on this dive was a school of baby leatherjackets nibbling all the bait from a hook! Of course while I was watching nothing large would go near enough to bite anyway!
We headed back to the dock where the club were hoping that the wind had dropped enough to launch boats for the afternoon slackwater, but no luck.  We took a walk along the fishing Pier and met ‘SharkBoy who claimed to be staying there all night since the previous night he had landed a 7.5 foot Bronze Whaler…. (I love fishing tales, no matter how tall). We declined to join him and instead retreated to campsite for a hearty chorizo and lentil stew.

Easter Sunday dawned realatively calmly and we met the boats for a slackwater dive on Lonsdale Wall. We descended to about 22m and found a shallow drop-off. We continued down to 27m but found only a shallow sandy slope and a few dispersed roaks with corals and sponges. After a while we went shallower as we were cold and found the bottom of the wall proper. It has been only a few metres away but visibility was poor enough to hide it from us. Still, we had had a good dive. Back on the boat we heard that another diver had retreated shallower earlier and had found several caves full of Port Jackson Sharks. Jealous and cold we returned to the dock.
There was an offer of a second dive that day, but I was too cold and tired. Instead we decided to try our luck with our fishing rods. And it was worth it :) We caught a good-sized calamari within half an hour, cleaned it on the beach and stir-fried it in our wok with chilli and lime.

Monday morning we reconvened at the dock and launched the boats to dive the Lonsdale wall at slackwater again and this time we were the lucky ones … We descended on the shot-line to 15m. Dropped over the lip and continued in the direction of the turning tide staying between 18 and 22m. We saw beautiful walls, corals and fish. Eventually we crossed another group of divers who were all crowded around a cave full of Port Jackson Sharks. The visibility was still bad from the changing winds but we managed a few okay shots. We also saw a sea spiders being tossed in the swell. We surfaced a fair way from the boat, inflated out safety-sausage and waited for the pickup.
After lunch the wind swung violently to the north and the boats came out of the water. We considered a shore dive but instead chose to fish… hopefully to take something big home for the freezer. We must have been just half an hour too late as every bucket was full of salmon when we arrived. I had one big, feisty bite that broke the line and then nothing. The fishermen drifted away and we returned home empty handed!

The questions that we ask ourselves now are…

1) when can we get back to dive ‘the arches‘ (yes, we did find a charter service… or a man with a boat and a phone number who’ll take folks out to fish or whatever…)

2) when can we go and travel though all those arches and tunnels and between those giant stacks on wee boats

3) given that the oh-so-powerful sea has made blow-holes that cut so very very deep into the land, will it ever be calm enough again to do these things?

Methinks I may have seen the ‘shipwreak coast’ one of its subdued days making these wants seem so very, very possible, nay simple… not to mention the presence of fur seals and their ever so slightly toothy predators…. hmmm… Watch this space… and if not then we could do this?

We camped Saturday night at Parker Hill in Great Otway National Park and on Sunday stopped at Lorne to fish on the way home. No fish, but two squids. One so very very big that Jane and Andy will come to help eat it tonight. Mmmm, stuffed squid…

After, we launched the ‘Silver Swan’ (David’s tinny) and headed out into the bay. After some delicate manuevering we got our tanks on and sploshed (more of a sidewards roll than anything else) into the water, somehoe without capsizing David and the boat. We hand-over-handed down the anchor line onto a soft, bumpy, silty moonscape.  Not much to see… not much except  SCALLOPS. Every couple of metres was a SCALLOP. We made an L-shaped course and picked them up until Ross said ‘no more’ by vigerously waving his hand over the bag opening (I think they got quite heavy!) Didn’t see much else… a few rays, a phallic ascidian, one lone dark red nudibranch and giant ugly spider crab dragging a scallop firmly clamped on one leg (hee hee). Getting back into the Silver Swan was much easier – we passed up weights, scallops, buoy and tanks to David then did the seal impression up onto the bow and in. Just as Ross was clambouring in, David landed a barracoota! We then lifted the anchor and fished for a while longer. In the end we kept six flathead and two baracoota, and threw back a bunch of undersize snaper, a beautiful mackeral and some smaller flatheads.
Back at David’s we shucked the scallops. 107! Dinner for Saturday and then some! They were yummy in white-wine and garlic with pasta :) Sunday night, we ate the fish. Hurrah for the sea.

Blue-ringed octopus, Rye Pier

Thursday night (Dec 29th) Ross and I picked up dive gear and headed down to the beach for the New Year. We did a couple of fantastic dives. Friday night we dived under the Rye Pier and saw heaps of seahorses, dumpling squid and sand octopus and also, the highlight of the week, a blue ringed octopus. The next day (New Year’s eve) was extremely hot and after I exausted myself trying on a few new semi-dry suits, we snorkled, jumped off the pier, wathed the rich kids with their jet-skis and lazed on the beach until it was time to go back to the beach house and drink champagne ;)
New Years Day rained hard all afternoon, but we spent an hour on the Portsea reef, where the highlight was a stargazer that wriggled its way to freedom from under Ross’s knee allowing us to get a couple of good photos!

Stargazer, Portsea

I also got a chance to try out my Christmas present (a rod and squid jigs). We caught three squid. The first two we brought onto Portsea Pier at the exact same moment… although Ross’s emptied its ink-sack onto his face before it hit the deck!! We stuffed the squid at home the next day with dilled rice and baked them in chopped tomatoes Greek style. Yum.