Snacks are golden, but they can be unhealthy. I love trail mix as a high energy alternative to the majority of prepackaged snack foods that we try to avoid but most prepackaged trail mixes might as well be candy with all of the salt, oils and actual candies added in.
In my weight loss journey, my quest to find high protein foods for strength training and a healthy way balance my diet I came to build my own trail mixes. This way I can pick and choose exactly what I want in the mix, dial in the flavors just right and most importantly avoid the less healthy aspects of the prepackaged “candy” trail mixes.
To start with most nuts are very high in calories so you don’t need to eat a lot. The good news is they contain a lot of protein and heart healthy substances. These include unsaturated “good” fats, Omega-3 fatty acids, fiber, plant sterols, and L-argenine. I honestly cant pontificate in detail here on why each one of these are good, you can research that easily on the Google. Short story, these are good things.
The Leather Bear
My favorite go to recipe we’re talking about here is what I call Leather Bear Trail Mix because it’s rugged, meaty, just a little bit sweet and salty. You can have have as much of it as you want because it’s low in salt, low in oils and uses natural fruits for the most part to fool your taste buds into thinking you’re eating candy.
This mix has a cashew base because I absolutely love cashews. Most canned cashews are cooked in oils and salty as hell – why they taste so good. Stay away from the canned or pre-bagged sources for your mix. Find a good bulk foods section at a healthy foods or baking store. Anything that comes from a prepackaged bag or can with a label on it should be suspect.
Doing it this way allows creating a mixture of both unsalted dry roasted nuts (2 parts) and a smaller quantity of the roasted salted nuts (1 part) mixed together. This way the taste buds still register the salty buttery taste enough to fool you into thinking it’s all that way.
Cashews though are awfully rich and thick on their own, not to mention expensive. To pad up the quantity of the mix I like to add unsalted peanuts (1 part) as a filler. Their taste is more neutral but in the right quantity disappear with the taste of the stronger cashews and you hardly notice they are there. It’s optional.
Now it’s time for some sweet and tart flavor tones and a little bit of color with dried cranberries, golden raisins and pumpkin seeds. The dried cranberries (1 part) add a sharp tart sweet tone. Most dried cranberries you find at the bulk foods section are more or less candied but at least they are natural.
Golden raisins (1/2 part) add meaty and chewy but most important help lubricate the mix in your mouth. They add some baseline sweetness that has more subtlety than the cranberries. You can also substitute regular raisins here too, the golden raisins are just generally larger. The pumpkin seeds (1/2 part) add a different texture and pop to the mix as well.
Why Go To All The Trouble
The best part of making your own mix is the almost limitless ways in which you can add and subtract other nuts and ingredients that meet your favor preferences. Most bulk food and baking sections at healthy markets have a wide variety of nuts, dried fruits and yes even candies to mix in. Get creative honey, you only live once.
They key here if a healthier and less fattening mix is your goal is to avoid the source contents cooked in oils. They will be high in cholesterol and fats your don’t want. Try to avoid salted nuts or candied items with high amounts of processed sugars.
The point is if you stay clear of these or keep them to a minimum, your mix will be far healthier than anything you can buy from a colorful bag hanging at the check stand. You can put some of these in just to give flavor notes to fool the taste buds, but don’t go all the way. Best of all building your own mix is almost half the price of the prepackaged products.
The Recipe
Below is a simplified list of ingredients for my own Leather Bear Trail Mix. If you shop at a good store each bin of goods usually has a label that shares all of its measurements for calories, cholesterol, sodium and more. This way if you are closely monitoring calories and other metrics you can do the math and figure out what a serving of your mix calculates to.
After mixed up well you can store it in an airtight container and it will stay fresh for a month or two before it might start tasting old. I love to drop a small handful into Greek yogurt or bring along on a hike. A couple handfuls in my tote for lunch is a nice add to whatever I’m eating. And for the road trip, just try to keep your hands out of it as the miles pass. Enjoy.
• 2 Parts: Dry roasted unsalted cashews
• 1 Part: Roasted salted cashes (for flavor)
• 1 Part: Blanched unsalted peanuts
• 1 Part: Dried Cranberries
• ½ Part: Golden raisins
• ½ Part: Pumpkin seeds
Smoker of fine tires, eater of natural foods, connoisseur of aromatic leathers, pusher of limits.