Make Your Own Trail Mix

Over the weekend I made my own trail mix using mostly healthy options which made a great snack for the whole family! Making your own trail mix is easy and completely customizable. You can use a variety of different nuts, seeds, dried fruit, yogurt chips, pretzels, etc. The possibilities are endless! Here is what I used to make mine:

Dry Roasted & Unsalted Almonds
From: Trader Joe's
Cost: $5.99 for a pound
Info: Almonds are a good source of dietary fiber and protein. These in particular are of the "nonpareil" variety (meaning "no equal") and are the most expensive variety due to their consistently high quality.

Organic Banana Chips
From: Trader Joe's
Cost: $2.99 for a pound
Info: This dried fruit is made entirely of organic bananas, organic coconut oil, and organic evaporated cane juice. They are super flavorful and worked great with this mix!

Roasted Coconut Chips
From: Trader Joe's
Cost: $1.99 for two ounces
Info: These coconut chips are dry roasted (which means there have been no added oils) and are vegan and gluten free. They have been soaked in coconut milk and coconut juice with a touch of salt and sugar for taste.

Reese's Peanut Butter Chips
From: Stater Bros.
Cost: About $4.50 for ten ounces
Info: Originally I had wanted to get the peanut butter chips from Trader Joe's but they were all out! I also checked with Fresh & Easy but they didn't have any either. The peanut butter chips at Trader Joe's are made with...

Sugar, peanut flour (which is defatted, ground peanuts), palm oil, dry milk and emulsifier and salt.

Now compare those ingredients to the Reese's peanut butter chips...

Partially defatted peanuts; sugar; partially hydrogenated vegatable oil (palm kernal and soybean oil); corn syrup solids; dextrose; reduced minerals whey (milk); contains 2% or less of: salt; vanillin, arificial flavor; soy lecithin.

As you can see, they are much worse so I only added a little to the trail mix. I wanted it to be as healthy as it could be!

If you have a party or casual get-together coming up making your own trail mix would add a great touch to your snack table!