Healthy Holiday Trail Mix Recipes for Tweens

Healthier Snack Ideas for Holiday Treats and Class Parties

Dec 18, 2008 Kirsti A. Dyer

Mixing up your own trail mix or gorp instead of buying prepackaged trail mixes is a great way to watch the ingredients and ensure you have a healthy holiday trail mix.

Trail mix is a great way to get children to eat more nuts, which according to research is good for their health. The current dietary guidelines recommend people eat 1 to 2 ounces (a small handful) of nuts each day. Trail mix is also a good way to mix up a healthy holiday treat.

Finding ways of making healthy holiday treats can be challenging. One way to ensure a healthy holiday treat for your children and their class parties is to mix up your own trail mix or gorp using healthy (or healthier) ingredients. This also allows you the option of controlling how much extra sweets get into the mix.

As with most other foods and treats during the holidays, these holiday trail mixes are also a bit more indulgent with the addition of chocolate, marshmallow, or peppermint.

These trail mix recipes are not the healthiest of the trail mix recipes, but are a fun Christmas treat to enjoy in moderation.

Rudolph Trail Mix or Reindeer Poop Trail Mix

This was inspired by finding other ways of representing reindeer poop. Raisins were selected for the reindeer poop, craisins for Rudolph's poop and yogurt covered raisins and marshmallows for snow man poop.

• 1 large container of Black Raisins (16 ounces)
• 1 bag of natural almonds (16 ounces)
• 1 bag of Craisins (Dried Raisins) (12 ounces)
• 1 bag of Yogurt Raisins (10 ounces)
• 1 bag of Mini Marshmallows (10 ounces)

Directions:

1. Mix all of ingredients in a very large bowl.
2. Measure into individual bags, cups or other containers.
3. Add a card to personalize.

Yield: 8 cups of Trail Mix

Note: The amount of mix made and nutritional information will vary depending on the ingredients used.

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Snowman Trail Mix or Snowman Poop Trail Mix

Yogurt covered raisins and marshmallows were selected to represent snow man poop. Yellow raisins were selected to represent Snowman Pee.

• 1 large container of Yellow Raisins (16 ounces)
• 1 bag of natural almonds (16 ounces)
• 1 bag of roasted soy nuts (16 ounces)
• 1 bag of Yogurt Raisins (10 ounces)
• 1 bag of Mini Marshmallows (10 ounces)

Directions:

1. Mix all of ingredients in a very large bowl.
2. Measure into individual bags, cups or other containers.

Yield: 8.5 cups of Trail Mix

Note: The amount of mix made and nutritional information will vary depending on the ingredients used.

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S'mores Trail Mix

S'mores are a great camping tradition and one that can be used to create a Holiday Trail Mix.

• 1 package of graham crackers (14 ounces) broken or crumbled into 1/2 in size pieces.
• 1 bag of Mini Marshmallows (10 ounces)
• 1 bag of mini chocolate chips (dark chocolate) or dark chocolate (at least 70% cocoa) bar broken into pieces (4-6 ounces)
• 1 jar of peanuts (16 ounces)

Directions:

1. Mix all of ingredients in a very large bowl.
2. Measure into individual bags, cups or other containers.

Yield: 6 cups of Trail Mix

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Elf Food

Elf Food was inspired by trying to figure out what Santa's Elves might be eating for energy when helping make all of the presents. It is pretty close to the food that the Reindeers are eating, which makes sense since they work together.

• 1 large container of Black Raisins (16 ounces)
• 1 bag of Roasted Soy Nuts (10 ounces)
• 1 bag of natural almonds (16 ounces)
• 1 bag of Craisins (Dried Raisins) (12 ounces)
• 1 bag of Yogurt Raisins (10 ounces)
• 1 bag of Mini Marshmallows (10 ounces)

Directions:

1. Mix all of ingredients in a very large bowl.
2. Measure into individual bags, cups or other containers.
3. Add a card to personalize.

Yield: 8 cups of Trail Mix

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More Information:

Mayo Clinic Staff. Nuts and your heart: Eating nuts for heart health. MayoClinic.com. May 2007.

Dyer K. Healthy Trail Mix Recipes for Tweens. Suite 101.

Dyer K. Healthier Holiday Trail Mix Recipes for Tweens. Suite 101.

Dyer K. Chocolate Can be a Healthy Treat: The Heart and Health Benefits of Dark Chocolate and Cocoa Powder. Suite 101.

The copyright of the article Healthy Holiday Trail Mix Recipes for Tweens in Parenting Tweens is owned by Kirsti A. Dyer. Permission to republish Healthy Holiday Trail Mix Recipes for Tweens in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

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