Trail mix: the easiest snack ever

My dad believes in three square meals a day. My mom believes in eating when you’re hungry. As is usual in my life, I take after my mother. And when it’s 10 p.m. and you’re finally hungry, that’s too late to make a whole meal. That’s why I keep snack stashed about my room. The one I usually reach for when it’s that late is trail mix.

Trail mix is probably one of the easiest snacks to make. You pour everything into a container, you shake the container and you’re done. From prep to ready-to-eat in less than five minutes. If you want a record of how lazy I can be though, I usually buy trail mix already made for myself. Mainly to take out the decision making of what should be in the trail mix.

That’s the hardest part about making trail mix, to be honest. Should it be dark chocolate chips or milk chocolate? Raisins or cranberries? Should I add the candy or make the healthier decision to leave it out? But the hardest part about making trail mix is also the fun of it. It’s entirely customizable to you.

If you don’t like peanuts, almonds or pistachios work. If you’re allergic to nuts, a plain crunchy cereal or some pretzels could be good substitutes. I’m not a fan of banana chips (crunchy bananas are just weird to me) but I’ve seen trail mixes with those added in. You can basically put anything in the mix you want and call it trail mix. Or you can try different recipes every time you make it and see what fun combinations you discover.

You can also shift the balance between saltier or sweeter. I like a good midway point, myself, but tilting it toward salty would be as easy as cutting down the amount of chocolate chips or substituting them for more raisins or cranberries. If you want to tilt the mix to the sweeter side, add in some candies or marshmallows.

I usually like some candy in my trail mix, but this week I decided to make it without them. Halloween will be here soon, so it’s best to curb my sweet tooth now in an effort to keep it under control later when those half-priced candy sales start. I’ll admit, the candy adds a nice pop of color to the trail mix and it looks a little drab without it, but it tastes just as good.

I like to store my mix in a jar because I find it’s easier to set on my bed next to me and reach into when I’m three hours deep in a class project, but a good old-fashioned zip top bag works just as well too. There’s no wrong way to do this. It’s the easiest recipe ever, and even if you can’t make eggs, you can make trail mix.

What you’ll need:

1 cup of peanuts or mixed nuts

1 cup of almonds

1 bag of chocolate chips

1 bag of peanut butter chips

1 cup raisins

How to make it