A Story of Two Trail Mixes

 

Trail Mix!  I have to say that I love trail mix.  If I was in fantasy food world and could pick one food to just eat day in and day out, it would be trail mix.  BUT hold on... fantasy world??  Why is that necessary?  Isn't trail mix a healthy food?  It can be a healthy food but still has to be eaten very much in MODERATION!  Or it can also be the equivalent of eating a candy bar.  Given the addictive, calorie-dense and easy-snacking nature of trail mix, we can wind up eating a "king size" candy bar of trail mix way before we even realize that this is happening.  So how can we make a genuinely healthy trail mix and manage to stay close to a proper serving of it?  

 

Trail mix began as a classic food source for backpackers.  The contents  are lightweight, calorie-dense and easily preserved.  A hungry backpacker may be hauling 50 pounds over tricky terrain for several miles or more per day.  This individual is not going to be too concerned about putting on weight while on their trek.  They are burning up plenty of calories.  But a healthy trail mix is still beneficial for this hiker!  

Now, how about those of us who do not need a "super-hiker" mix?  How about the "sitting on the couch" or "having a snack at work" type of mix??   A common trail mix ratio is use 50% nuts and seeds, 25% dried fruits and 25% chocolate.  If you are not very careful in selecting your ingredients, you will wind up in the DANGER zone with your saturated fat and sodium.  Let's contrast 1 cup of cocktail peanuts with 1 cup of dry roasted peanuts.  The cocktail peanuts have 16g of saturated fat and 920mg of sodium.  The dry roasted have only 10 g of saturated fat and 9mg of sodium.  Let's talk about pumpkin or squash seeds.  These typically contain 2g of saturated fat and 12mg of sodium per cup.   

When selecting a trail mix, read the label!  Take note of the serving size and ask yourself if you are likely to eat double that amount?  Packages are labeled differently.  Also ask yourself if the nuts are salted?  Is there lots of chocolate in this mix?  Could I make something better myself?  Is there a better option available to me right now?    

Earlier this morning my seven year old daughter noticed me doing some research on trail mix.  She suggested that later in the day we should go to Wegmans and make a small batch of an "unhealthy" trail mix by utilizing some of the ingredients that are available in their "trail mix cart" which sits near the dairy section at Wegmans on Peach Street.  We could also buy "healthy ingredients" to come home and make our own trail mix.  We could take pictures and make a recipe for my blog. :)  I agreed that this would be a good idea!  Upon examining the trail mix buffet cart, there are many healthy options right there!  The nuts are unsalted.  You do not have to go with a big ratio of the available chocolate options.  We made a cup full of a mix that would be heavy on the chocolate.  That one is pictured on the right at the photo included at the top of this blog entry.  Next we picked up some bulk ingredients to make our own usual sort of mix!  I will include that recipe below.  Feel free to make your mix totally "you"!  To recap, here are a few guidelines to follow:

 

1) Use unsalted roasted nuts or raw nuts.

 

2) Use unsweetened dried fruit.

 

3) Seeds are typically lower in fat than nuts.

 

4) Choose only one chocolate ingredient and keep it at 10% or less of your total trail mix volume.  

 

5) After mixing up your batch, pull out a 1/4 cup scoop to portion out servings into snack bags.  This way you have something ready for when you are on the go!  More importantly, we are less likely to over-eat when being made mindful of a serving size of trail mix!

 

 

Kylee's Healthy Trail Mix

Cost is around $.30 for a 1/4 cup serving

 

Unsweetened Dried Banana Chips

Low Sugar Dried Cranberries

Unsweetened Coconut Flakes

Roasted Unsalted Sunflower Seeds

Raw Pumpkin Seeds

Raw Cashews

Raw Almonds

Chocolate Covered Peanuts