There are three core in­gre­di­ents that make a de­li­cious trail mix: nuts, dried fruit, seeds, leav­ing you with some space to cus­tomize your trail mix just the way you like it. When you make your trail mix, source nuts and seeds that are un­processed and not loaded with ar­ti­fi­cial flavour­ings and added sug­ar. Use nuts and seeds that are raw, dry roast­ed and for a bit of taste, try the ‘light­ly salt­ed’ vari­a­tion. This list of in­gre­di­ents pro­vides a list of rea­sons why you should al­ways have a con­tain­er of trail mix on hand. Fol­low the sim­ple recipe be­low to get your snack game on with home­made trail mix.

Rea­sons why Trail Mix is the Ul­ti­mate Healthy Snack

1 Nuts are full of pro­tein and fiber

A great source of pro­tein and fi­bre from the nuts and seeds which are es­sen­tial to a healthy bal­anced di­et. Mak­ing trail mix as your sta­ple snack will help you to re­place the oth­er junk foods like donuts, can­dy, chips, cook­ies and many oth­ers that do not come close to pro­vid­ing the same lev­el of nu­tri­tion you can get from trail mix.

2 You feel fuller faster and longer.

Nuts and seeds sat­is­fy hunger and re­duce ap­petite. This snack is a must if you are look­ing to cut down on your larg­er food por­tions and look­ing for a healthy al­ter­na­tive with­out feel­ing like you are starv­ing your­self.

3 Meet your dai­ly fruit in­take re­quire­ments

Sweet­en up your trail mix with some dried fruits. Dried fruit re­tains the ma­jor­i­ty of the nu­tri­ents from fresh fruit. Dried ba­nanas, paw­paw, cran­ber­ries, raisins, peach­es and man­goes are a few of the best dried fruits that add a pop of charm to your trail mix.

Great source of healthy fats

Some­times we get caught up in the wrong mind­set about fat. Fat from plant-based in­gre­di­ents is called un­sat­u­rat­ed fat is ac­tu­al­ly good for you! Un­sat­u­rat­ed fat in the form of nuts like cashews pro­vide an en­er­gy boost and nu­tri­ents our bod­ies re­quire from the food we con­sume.

TRAIL MIX RECIPE

IN­GRE­DI­ENTS

3/4 cup al­monds (light­ly salt­ed)

1/2 cup wal­nuts

1/2 cup sun­flower seeds

1/2 cup pump­kin seeds

1/2 part cashews (un­salt­ed)

1/2 cup dried cran­ber­ries

1/4 cup dark choco­late (or colour­ful choco­late pieces of your choice)

DI­REC­TIONS

Mea­sure all of the in­gre­di­ents in­to a large bowl.

Stir gen­tly to com­bine.

Store in an air­tight con­tain­er and por­tion out in sand­wich bags as an easy snack for work, school or trip.