Jessica Barnes, PhD, RDN, LDHello Villagers. Spring break was last week, so the kids and I decided that they should help create this week’s recipe. We decided to keep it pretty simple and go with a kid friendly trail mix. As an added bonus, the recipe makes quite a bit so we got to snack on it the rest of the week.
I like to change up my trail mix and use new ingredients with each iteration, but I generally follow this basic recipe:
- 1 cup of unsweetened cereal
- 1 cup of dried fruit
- 1 cup of something a little salty (pretzels or crackers work well)
- 1 cup of nuts
- 1 cup of seeds
- 1 cup of something chocolate (usually semi-sweet chocolate chips or M&M’s)
The kids opted for plain cheerios as their cereal ingredient. While we were at the store, we came across a box of cinnamon oatmeal squares and thought that would be a nice addition too.
During our recipe development, there was an intense battle between banana chips and raisins as our dried fruit ingredient. I wasn’t in the mood to handle these passionate emotions regarding dried fruit, so we decided that adding both would make a nice hearty, fiber filled trail mix for us to enjoy. Unfortunately, I did not check the raisins I had on hand. When we were getting ready to mix up our snack we discovered that they were WELL past expired. Luckily, there was a stash of yogurt covered raisins in the pantry that saved the day.
My second child was really excited about adding pumpkin seeds to our mix, but after scouring the store for 20-30 minutes, they were nowhere to be found. We came across some roasted chickpeas on a random end-cap and thought we’d be adventurous.
Developing and making our kid friendly trail mix was a great way to spend our first rainy day of spring break. Measuring, pouring, and mixing are all fantastic tasks that even your littlest kiddos can do in the kitchen. This mix is packed with fiber thanks to the dried fruit and oat cereals. The nuts and seeds supply this snack with protein to keep them full until the next meal.
Enjoy!
Kid Friendly Trail Mix
Ingredients
- 1 cup plain cheerios
- 1 cup cinnamon oatmeal cereal squares
- 1 cup roasted peanuts
- 1 cup roasted chickpeas
- 1 cup banana chips
- 1 cup yogurt covered raisins or plain raisins
- 1 cup pretzels
- 1 cup plain M&M’s
Instructions
- Measure all ingredients and pour into large mixing bowl.
- Gently stir to mix all ingredients.
- Serve in 1/2 cup portions.
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