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Make a DIY Trail Mix station for your kids to create their own trail mix combinations to snack on all summer long.
One thing that I notice in the summer though is how often my kids want to snack. It must be all the sunshine, water, and fresh air, because my crew seems to be hungry all of the time. I love setting up a DIY trail mix bar for my kids every so often so that they can make themselves some custom trail mix to munch on when they want. Everybody wins!
I like to add all of my ingredients to a muffin tin so that the kids can easily see all of their options, then I hand them a baggie and let them fill it up with what they like. I do encourage them to try at least one fruit and one nut, and not just fill up on the chocolate. Even my pickiest eater will eat cashews, peanuts, dried pineapple, and the chocolate.
Table of Contents
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Kid-Friendly: My kids love being in charge of what goes in their trail mix and I’m always surprised at what they pick (the M&M’s are always the favorite, but they love trying different nuts and dried fruit too).
- Great for Parties: A DIY trail mix bar is so fun for kids and it would also be fun at a party as a make-and-take for guests or create custom trail mixes before hiking with friends.
- Cost-Effective: Buying bulk ingredients and making your own trail mix is a much more budget friendly way to get a delicious snack, plus you get to customize what and how much is in it!
Ingredients
- Dried Fruit
- Nuts and Seeds
- Candies or Chocolate
- Anything else you like!
See the recipe card below for full information on ingredients and quantities
How to Make DIY Trail Mix
Step #1. Gather all the things you would like to have for your trail mix.
Step #3. Give everyone baggies or containers to make their own trail mix.
Step #2. Put all the ingredients in the wells of a muffin tin or in separate bowls.
Step #4. Make family trail mix, if desired. Go on an adventure and bring your snacks!
Recipe FAQs
The options are endless with homemade trail mix and that makes it so fun. You can add dried fruit, raisins, coconut, nuts, seeds, or different candies. See the recipe card for lots and lots of ideas.
I have found the best prices for dried fruit from Costco, Trader Joe’s, or in the bulk bins from the health food store.
Be warned, if adding chocolate, you need to plan on keeping bags of trail mix in a cooler if you are hiking on a hot day. If you are just munching on it around the house, the chocolate won’t melt too easily.
You can use plastic baggies. Zipper-top sandwich size seem to work best – they don’t fill them totally full, but the bigger baggie lets them stick their hand in without spilling the trail mix all over like it does in a snack-size bag. Or, you can get reusable baggies like these.
Expert Tips
- Aim for a mix of sweet, salty, crunchy, and chewy ingredients. This keeps each handful interesting and satisfying.
- Don’t forget to add some grains! Pretzels, animal crackers, granola, cereal pieces, etc. are a great addition!
- If you’re prepping for a hike, consider adding more nuts and seeds to fueled up and satisfied for longer.
More Snack Recipes to Consider
No Bake Desserts
Key Lime Mousse {Key Lime Pie In A Jar}
Chicken Recipes
Homemade Chicken Taquitos Recipe
Snacks for Kids
149+ Summer Snacks: Quick Snacks For Kids
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9 DIY Trail Mix Everyone Will Love
Ingredients
Dried Fruit
- We love dried pineapple, blueberries, cherries, persimmons, apricots, cranberries, and peaches. You could also include dried apples, dates, raisins and banana chips.
Nuts and Seeds
- You can use just about any kind that you like/want/have. We like salted roasted almonds, honey roasted almonds, pecans, cashews, and peanuts. I also like to include sunflower seeds and hulled pumpkin seeds (pepitas).
Candies/Chocolate
- You can include all kinds of chocolate chips, dark, milk, white, or even peanut butter chips, M&M's of any variety, chocolate covered raisins, and even candy-coated sunflower seeds. Include what you like!
Other stuff
- Shredded coconut or coconut chips and animal crackers are also great.
Instructions
- Collect up your ingredients for making trail mix. I like to get a few things from each category though if we are hiking somewhere hot, I’ll leave out the chocolate category so that it doesn’t melt into a mess.
- Put the assorted ingredients into different bowls or into the cups of a muffin tin.
- Give your kids baggies/sacks/tupperware and let them pick and choose what they would like in their trail mix.
- Toss any “leftovers” from the bowls into a big bag. We call that “family trail mix” and we share it when their individual bags are gone.
- Go on an adventure and enjoy when you need a snack.
Notes
- Dried cherries, honey roasted almonds, milk chocolate chips, cashews, and animal crackers.
- Peanuts, salted almonds, dried cranberries, milk, semi-sweet, white, AND peanut butter chips.
- Dried cherries, dried blueberries, dried apricots, cashews, pecans, dark chocolate chips, and candy-coated sunflower seeds.
- Dried persimmon (Aren’t they pretty? Very chewy, FYI), honey roasted and salted almonds, pumpkin seeds, peanut butter chips, and candy-coated sunflower seeds.
- Dried white peaches, honey roasted almonds, pecans, sunflower seeds, and candy-coated sunflower seeds.
- Dried pineapple, white peaches, blueberries and cranberries, walnuts, sunflower seeds, animal crackers, chocolate-covered raisins, M&M’s, and milk chocolate chips.
- Dried pineapple and apricots, salted almonds, cashews, white chocolate chip, pumpkin seeds, and coconut chips (my personal favorite!).
- Dried blueberries, salted almonds, pecans, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, and white chocolate chips.
- Honey roasted almonds, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, M&M’s, and dark chocolate chips
I love all the ideas here. Thanks for the suggestions.
Yum!
This is a great idea, perfect for kids, so many great trail mix combinations!
One of our favorites….girl gorp….dark choco chips, pb chips, mini marshmallows. When we are trying to be healthier, we add macadamia nuts and cashews. Its a yummy melted mess in the heat! Thanks for idea of adding M&M’s!