How to Build a Healthy Trail Mix

We all need easy, nutritious snack ideas for families. One of my personal favorites is a healthy homemade trail mix. I love the endless amount of flavor combinations you can try (no getting bored!). It’s so easy to make a big batch of this trail mix to portion out for the week.You can customize the recipe to meet your needs and tastes. Good quality homemade trail mix, in moderation is 100% part of a healthy diet. This is especially true in those circumstances of high physical activity where you need energy fast. As the name suggests, trail mix is perfect to eat on the trail while hiking or after a workout session. A good trail mix includes healthy fats and antioxidants from nuts and seeds, quality dried fruit for energy, and the fun tasty stuff. Being healthy doesn’t need to mean sacrificing on fun. It’s based on nuts, seeds, dried fruit, and the optional fun stuff of air popcorn, dark chocolate, pretzels, cereal, or peanut butter chips.

To keep the mix fresh, store it in a glass jar with a tight lid. You can make a snack-sized serving for lunches. A typical snack-sized serving of trail mix is about one-fourth cup. For a more fulfilling snack, consider a half-cup. I suggest using wash & dry bags to store the snack in lunch boxes or small Tupperware type containers. It’s better for the environment, our budget, and our health.

How healthy is trail mix? It totally depends on what you put in it. When shopping for ingredients for the mix, avoid dried fruit coated in sugar, nuts and seeds roasted in hydrogenated oils. Otherwise, your entire mix is coated in bad-quality salt and oils.

Look for raw nuts with no oil or salt. Any kind of nut can work, like almonds, walnuts, pecans, cashews, hazelnuts, pistachios, or macadamia nuts. You can always use the same nuts, or vary by batch for a different flavor.

If you really love roasted nuts, you can roast them yourself. Roasting nuts without oil is easy. Place nuts in a single layer on a baking sheet and bake in a preheated oven (350°F or 176°C) for 5-10 minutes, or until golden brown. Stovetop toasting is also possible: use a dry pan over medium heat, shaking it occasionally to prevent burning. Add raw, unsalted seeds, like pumpkin, sunflower, or sesame seeds to your nuts.

Next comes dried fruit. Be careful when choosing dried fruit and look for sun dried or freeze dired fruit without added sugar and unsulfured. It’s more expensive, but it’s worth it. Great options include raisins, mangos, apricots, cranberries, strawberries, cherries, blueberries, coconut flakes, and banana chips.

Buying nuts and dried fruit, especially the healthy kind, can be very expensive. Although selections rotate in and out, both Costco and Sam’s Club often have a few good picks. Costco carries the dried fruit brand Made In Nature, which is free of additives.

Healthy, Thrifty Homemade Trail Mix

Use organic when available. Makes 4 to 5 cups

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