Having an easy homemade trail mix is so much better than store bought because it's made with only the things I want! Some store bought trial mixes contain items that don't appeal to me and that aren't really healthy like pretzels, or salty peanuts! And for some reason store bought trial mixes usually have stale, hard, raisins in them...not appealing at all!
My trail mix recipe was inspired by the makers of this delicious new product called Simple and Crisp. These are thin sliced organic dried fruit. They sell individual packs of apple, pear, orange and blood orange. This is a totally 'guilt free' snack because it is just fruit...nothing else. The fruit is so thinly sliced and dried to the perfect crispness. I was given a few samples of their yummy product so that I could try to come up with a new way to serve them. The first thing that came to my mind was a trial mix because I wanted to stay in tune with the healthiness of their product! These Simple and Crisp fruits slices were perfect in my trail mix recipe because they added just the right amount of fruit flavor and brought the crunch factor up a notch...which is always a good thing when it comes to snacks!
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| Photo from the 'Simple and Crisp' website |
Here is my pairing idea using Simple and Crisp in a trail mix! This is fiber cereal lightly coated with semi-sweet chocolate, cinnamon and honey. Then tossed together with roasted sliced almonds and the fruit crisps! So much munchy, crunchy goodness, but good for you too!
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| Simple and Crisp Trail Mix INGREDIENTS: 1 Tbls. honey 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon 1 cup Fiber cereal - I used Fiber One brand original 2 Tbls. semi-sweet mini chocolate chips 8 slices Simple and Crisp apple slices - broken into pieces 8 slices Simple and Crisp pear slices - broken into pieces 1/2 cup roasted sliced almonds DIRECTIONS: Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. In a medium size bowl mix together the honey and cinnamon. Then mix in the fiber cereal and semi-sweet chocolate chips. Stir to coat the cereal thoroughly. Pour onto the parchment lined cookie sheet and bake for 5 minutes. Remove from oven and mix to coat the cereal with the melted chocolate. Bake again for 3 minutes. Remove from oven and stir again. Then let cool completely. After cooling, break into pieces and add in the Simple and Crisp fruit pieces along with the sliced roasted almonds. Now munch away and enjoy! If you have any trail mix remaining, store in an air tight container. *~*~*~*~*~*~*~* I also decided to use these fruit crisps as a topping for my husbands oatmeal! He eats oatmeal every morning! He usually just tops his oatmeal with ground cinnamon and honey, but this time I surprised him and put some crumbled Simple and Crisp fruit slices on top also! He absolutely loved it! It added just the right amount of fruit and crunch to his usual boring oatmeal! I think this is going to be his new way to eat breakfast!   |
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