Homemade Trail Mix

Trail mix is one of those foods, at least for me, that I could eat and eat and eat and eat... Handful after handful. Can you relate? Fortunately, I have pretty good awareness and self control so I don't actually eat and eat and eat and eat treats such as trail mix. But I know that if I were to let my cravings get the best of me, I would keep eating tasty snacks like this homemade trail mix I made last week!

I actually made this batch of trail mix to give to Mike's brother, Dave (my future brother-in-law!), as part of his birthday gift. Dave is an avid bird watcher (it's an intense hobby if you don't know much about it!), and I thought it would be nice to give him a snack he could bring along with him on his birding trips that sometimes are hours and hours long.

Below I've listed the ingredients and proportions I used for this batch of trail mix, but obviously you can add whatever your favorite ingredients are in whatever proportions you'd like! That's the beauty of a treat like this. Trail mix doesn't require a very precise recipe since there's no baking involved, of course!

Ingredients:

-2 cups mini pretzels

-1 and 1/2 cups Quaker "whole hearts" cereal

-1 cup dried cranberries 

-3/4 cup dark chocolate m & m's

-3/4 cup pretzel m & m's

-2/3 cup whole almonds

-2/3 cup dry roasted peanuts

Instructions:

Mix all the ingredients in a large bowl. That's it. ;-)

Store in airtight containers or ziploc baggies!

I went a little crazy with the m & m's in this batch. Feel free to tone down the chocolate if you want a healthier version!

This made about 7 cups of trail mix for me. I don't know the nutritional information for this mix, but I'd guess that eating no more than 1/2 cup of it at one time is a safe bet. If you're afraid of overeating a snack such as trail mix, simply proportion the snack ahead of time into appropriate serving sizes. For me, when I take a snack like this to work, I only bring enough for one serving a day. That way there's no temptation for me to keep eating since after I finish that one serving, there's no more!

I had jury duty today, and I brought some of the mix with me to snack on when we got a break. It was perfect! I haven't made trail mix in so long. Making it this time around and remembering how much I love it will hopefully remind me to make it more often...

Oh, and in case you're wondering, I got out of jury duty, thank goodness! There was potential I'd be on a case for 3 weeks... Yikes! 

Some other ideas of ingredients you could interchange or add in addition to the above ingredients include: raisins, dried fruits (apricots, banana chips, etc.), other nuts, sunflower seeds, chocolate chips, soy nuts, and coconut. Oh, and Teddy Grahams! I love Teddy Grahams in trail mix. I didn't happen to add any to this batch because they weren't on sale at the store this week, but they are such a fun addition to trail mix...especially when it's a mix for kids! Or, for adults who are kids at heart. :)

What other ingredients do you enjoy in your trail mix? I'd love to hear about your favorites!

Oh, and stay tuned... I made a second batch of trail mix, and I ended up using some of it to make some pretty darn tasty trail mix cookies. That recipe's up next!!