This week I was given the opportunity to flex my culinary and organizational skills to complete a monumental task: prepare 50 days of dinners, cooked and frozen, ready to be simply reheated to feed four hungry men while they are out to sea this summer.

In the past, the crew has made do with what they could manage on their own, but these guys have much more important things to worry about than what’s for dinner, and they have much bigger fish to fry (catch) anyway, so I took the chance to be helpful and get their main meals sorted while they work on mechanics and logistics for the haul.

I had to pick dishes that would freeze and reheat well, would be balanced and calorie dense to keep them fueled for their exhausting days, and would be a comforting taste of home … for at least one of them. This week I’ve boiled 10 pounds of pasta at a time, made entire stock pots full of cheese sauce, assembled five giant lasagnas at once, and soaked 8 pounds of beans overnight, twice. Some of the dishes I’ve made include shrimp and sausage jambalaya, chicken and dumplings (with 8 pounds of dumplings made from scratch), tuna noodle casserole, and the biggest batch of beans and rice I have ever seen.

It was a physical and logistical challenge that my time in restaurants and catering prepared me well for but was nonetheless quite difficult to do in my home kitchen with my home equipment. On top of that, from start to finish I was also entertaining and caring for my very demanding 5-year-old, so this was a brag-worthy task to complete, if I do say so myself. I find great satisfaction in the job well done, and some comfort knowing that these guys will sit around the table each night to (hopefully) enjoy a meal made for them with love.

I wanted to give them a few little sweet treats to enjoy while they are away because I know at least two of them have serious sugar cravings. I sent them off with a double batch of the chocolate chip cookies I always keep in the house, and some of these banana oatmeal energy bites for a little boost while they make the final preparations. These little “cookies” are loaded with nuts and fortified with coconut oil to boost the fat and calories to keep them full and fueled. These treats also freeze and thaw without their texture suffering, so plan ahead and work in batches if you need to deliver a boatload.

Banana Oatmeal Energy Bars

(Makes about 20 cookies)

Ingredients

2 very ripe bananas

2 cups oats

¼ cup honey or agave syrup

2 tablespoons melted coconut oil

1 cup mini chocolate chips

1 cup chopped walnuts

Pinch salt

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and line a large baking tray with parchment paper.

Mash the bananas thoroughly in a large bowl.

Stir in the salt.

Add the oats, honey, and melted coconut oil and stir to combine.

Add the chocolate chips and walnuts and mix.

Allow the mixture to rest for 20 minutes. This will help the oats to soften as they absorb some of the liquid and will make forming the cookies easier.

Use your hands to roll balls about the size of small eggs, then flatten and shape them into disks about 1 inch thick.

All 20 should fit nicely on the baking sheet — they wont expand or flatten at all as they cook.

Bake for 20 minutes and allow to cool completely on the tray before moving to an airtight container for storage.

If you are freezing them, freeze flat on the tray before transferring to your final storage container.