Trail mix. The fuel of many hikers. M&Ms with obstacles. One of the more calorie dense options for trail food that you can snack on all day to keep that forward momentum. Now you could be boring and just buy 20 lbs of premixed trail mix. Or you could make your own by visiting your grocery store that has bulk bins. Making your own obviously lets you include whatever you want in that delicious salty goodness.
I looked into how much it would cost to buy each of the nut types separately but found that it was much cheaper to find a premixed one that has everything that I want anyways. So I went to Sprouts and got couple different roasted salted nut mixes and then added in cocoa almonds and cinnamon roasted almonds for good measure. I got the roasted and salted flavored nuts since they taste good and it has electrolytes, (it’s got what hikers crave!). Then I went to WinCo and got their dried fruit mix because it was much cheaper than trying to get any other type of dried fruit other than raisins. Plus it has mango and that is delicious. Unfortunately it has dried pineapple and pineapple is terrible. But I can deal with it since it isn’t fresh pineapple so it’s not as bad. Then I got a bag of peanut m&ms and a bag of peanut butter m&ms. Just an FYI peanut butter m&ms are the epitome of taste perfection. Doesn’t get better than chocolate and peanut butter.
My recipe basically came to:
- 10 pounds of salty nuts
- 7 pounds of M&Ms
- 6 pounds of dried fruit
Once I got all my M&Ms and obstacles I dumped them all into a trash bag. Then I put that in another trash bag. Then I sat there mixing up my salty nuts for a few minutes. And proceeded to rip the first bag. Make sure to double wrap it kids.
After jostling my salty nuts I proceeded to make a huge mess all over the kitchen table scooping it into bags. I divided up the trail mix for each resupply that I will be mailing to and how many days of food I estimate I’ll need. It came out to a little over a 1/4 pound a day for 73 days. Hopefully, I don’t get sick of it too soon.
March 23, 2016 at 9:00 pm
I tried some after the mixing…quite good!!!
March 24, 2016 at 7:15 am
Laughing at your preferences; I never make trail mix without including pineapple. To each his own. I use pecans, peanut M&Ms, raisins and any other dried fruit I have, the season it with butter-flavored popcorn seasoning. Never hit the trail without a ziplock of trail mix in my pocket.
March 24, 2016 at 6:40 pm
Jason, you’re a nut, but I wish you all the best on your quest!