When you need a boost, or you're about to hit the road and need supplies, just reach into your cupboard or long-term food storage shelf for these tasty bars, which can be made with simple ingredients commonly found in most pantries.

They will give you a lasting boost of energy and will keep you feeling satisfied until your next meal. Learn how to whip up these easy-to-make survival bars by following the recipe below.

Ingredients: 2 cups oats (regular or quick) 2 1/2 cups powdered milk 1 cup sugar 3 TB honey 1 3 oz package jello (orange or lemon–these bars already have a high sugar content, and a sweeter jello just makes them more sweet) 3 TB water

Mix the oats, powdered milk, and sugar together in a bowl.

In a medium pan, mix water, jello and honey. Bring to a rolling boil.

Add jello mixture to dry ingredients. Mix well If the dough is too dry, add a small amount of water a teaspoon at a time.  Your dough should be crumbly, but stick together when pressed.

Press the dough into a 9″ x 13″ parchment lined pan. Press in firmly. Rolling it with a tortilla roller makes it stick better and be nice and flat all the way to the edges. Cut the dough into bars.  Parts that were just scored and not cut through crumbled when I broke them apart. Now you can bake it or dehydrate it.

To bake the bars, place the pan in a 200 degree oven and bake for 1 1/2 to 2 hours.  When the bars are done baking, remove them from the pan by lifting the parchment paper and allow to cool.  Separate the pieces. To dehydrate the bars, carefully pull the bars out of the pan using the parchment paper, separate, and place on dehydrator trays.  Dehydrate at 145 degrees for 4-6 hours until thoroughly dry. These crumbled more than the baked bars. The heat does help these stick together better, so baking gives a nicer result than dehydrating.

Pack them up.  When they are thoroughly dry and completely cool, pack them into a zip seal bag, FoodSaver bag, Mylar bag, or wrap in foil. These bars have a very long shelf life…at least 20 years properly dried and packaged.

Our favorite part about this recipe is the long shelf life. It's difficult to find snack foods that can be stored away for that long, and being able to make our own will go a long way to saving for whatever future circumstances may come our way.

We'd recommend this recipe even for those who don't subscribe to the prepper lifestyle, as they make great hiking or camping snacks that can be kept on hand with the rest of your camping gear to just throw in the bag when you need it.

Thanks to Angela at Food Storage and Survival for providing this recipe for us.