Road Trip Trail Mix Guide

I like to consider myself a pro road tripper by now. Over the last six years of living in North Carolina, we took many five hour road trips to visit friends and family. On top of that, I've moved cross country three times (plus a handful of back and forth trips during the summer) and had countless family trips growing up. I'm no stranger to spending 5-8 hours in a car and having to find ways to entertain myself as well as keep myself fed. I used to just grab a pack of powdered donuts or a candy bar when traveling, but over the years I've lost my taste for that kind of junk food especially on road trips. One of the best ways to make sure you avoid having to eat junk food or gas station snacks is to prepare your own snacks ahead of time. This road trip trail mix is the perfect solution!

Trail mix is always a favorite snack of mine. Until recently, I had never tried making it on my own and always bought store-bought versions. Then I finally tried making my own and realized how fun it can be! The best part about making your own trail mix is you can easily add in current cravings or stay away from adding in ingredients you may always pick around in-store bought trail mixes- for me, it's pretzels, I always pick around them!

You can also utilize pantry items that you may not use regularly or have extra of for the time being! Once you figure out the basics that are needed to make an amazing trail mix, the options are endless. So I decided to break it down for you and give you a step by step list of ingredients you need to make any trail mix!

Using this guide plus whatever is available in your pantry is the perfect way to create an effortless trail mix recipe that is perfect for the road. Make a large batch of trail mix and then pour into smaller baggies for each person traveling with you or a few for each person, depending on how long your road trip is. If you're traveling in the summer, be mindful of which types of sweets are more likely to melt than others.

If you want to go even a step further, you can easily make this trail mix into a snack pack for each person by adding in a small Gatorade bottle, a pack of Orbit gum and a Chewy chocolate chip granola bar. Add these all together for a convenient snack pack for the road!

I decided to sprinkle on just a bit of cinnamon to give the rice cereal a bit of flavor and also to break up the sweet and salty flavors of the mix! The only big salty item I had in the mix was the peanuts, though the peanut M&M's provide their own sweet and salty element as well. That's one of the things that make trail mix so iconic, blending so many flavors together!

Easy Trail Mix

This easy trail mix is perfect for taking on the go!

5 from 1 vote

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Prep Time: 10 minutes minutes

Servings: 4 cups

Author: Madison | A Joyfully Mad Kitchen

Ingredients

• 1 cup rice cereal
• 1 cup dried cranberries
• 1 cup M&M's
• ½ cup peanuts
• ½ cup mini marshmallows
• dash cinnamon

Instructions

• Toss all ingredients to combine.
• Add a few dashes of cinnamon (optional).

Nutrition

Serving: 1/2 cup | Calories: 266kcal | Carbohydrates: 43g | Protein: 4g | Fat: 10g | Saturated Fat: 4g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 5g | Cholesterol: 4mg | Sodium: 75mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 34g

With this trail mix snack pack in hand you're ready for the best summer road trip ever!