Homemade Trail Mix

I LOVE trail mix….kind of.  The problem is I like most of the ingredients that are in the trail mixes I was buying, but not all.  Or a lot of sugar was added to it.  Finally I had one of those SMH moments (for my mom and others that don’t know – Smack My Head) – why wasn’t I making my own trail mix, which contained 100% of ingredients I like??

So, after reading, here is the low-down about creating your own trail mix – mix the following together:

• nuts,
• dried fruits,
• sweets, and
• flavor you like.

No joke – you can use that combination to create whatever flavor combinations you like.  For healthier trail mix, as you move down the list of ingredients, add less of each ingredient.  I use as a rule of thumb adding 1/2 as much of each ingredient as I go down, other than the flavors – which I add only 1/8-1/4 tsp.

So, here are two examples I’ll share –

Dad’s Fall Trail Mix

Ingredients:
Peanuts (nut)
Raisins (dried fruit)
Peanut M&Ms (sweet)

Almond-Cherry Trail Mix

Ingredients:
Roasted Almonds-toast raw almonds for 10 minutes at 350° (nut)
Dried cherries – Montmorency Traverse Bay cherries are my favorite – brand does matter with dried fruit! (dried fruit)
Semi-sweet chocolate chips (sweet)
White chocolate chips (for color contrast – just for looks!)
Cinnamon (flavor)
Sea salt (flavor)