Today is National Trail Mix Day. (Isn’t it amazing how everything has a day?) Mixing up trail mix can be a fun thing to do with your children. It’s also a great snack to bring along for Labor Day picnics and parties.
What I love about trail mix is that there are so many great flavor combinations. In other words, it’s hard to get trail mix wrong. It’s also a great cooking project for kids. Younger children can scoop, measure, and mix. Older ones can mix up this snack on their own, and come up with their own flavor combinations. It would be fun to hold a taste test contest with everyone’s creations.
Now, if my children had their choice, their perfect trail mix would be M & Ms, Reese’s Pieces, and chocolate covered raisins. We don’t let them have their choice. We do usually put some form of sweet or chocolate in. It may just be a handful of chocolate chips, but now they come in white chocolate, peanut butter, butterscotch, and mint. You have a lot of flavors to pick from.
To make trail mix go further, and be less calorie dense, you can add air popped popcorn, honey graham cereal, Fruit Loops, peanut butter flavored cereal (we like Panda Puffs), or really any cereal except for the flake kind. Flakes just crumble. Small crackers work pretty well too. And don’t forget pretzels, sunflower and pumpkin seeds, or chow mein noodles.
We also like to use the flavored nuts that are the market now. My husband loves Wasabi almonds. But he’s on his own there. The rest of us like the butter toffee or cinnamon glazed nuts. For a savory mix, I’ve been considering the Parmesan garlic almonds. But then we’d have to leave out the chocolate.
Trail mix is a great snack. It can be as nutritious or as much of a junk food treat as you want. It’s a great way to clean out the cabinets and to let the kids experiment and learn about flavors. For more ideas, check out the trail mix section at the store.
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