A Healthy Snack

Homemade trail mix.

My snacking habits were atrocious before I went gluten free, which is hard to believe for someone who eats organic food and does a lot of cooking from scratch. Now, my options are somewhat limited. To make it easier to have some readily accessible protein, I decided to make some trail mix. Here's what I put in my mix:

Cashews
Peanuts (one of my favorite nuts, and a cheap one too!)
Almonds
Dried cranberries
Shredded coconut
Sunflower seeds
Banana chips
Dried pineapple

I eyeballed the ingredients that I put in, putting more of the cheaper stuff in and less of the sweet stuff. The pineapple that I got at Farm Market was in fairly large chunks, so I cut it into smaller pieces. The beauty of making a trail mix at home is not only does it save you money and additives, but it also allows you to customize it.

Nuts and seeds are a good source of minerals- something we all need.  All of the nuts that I put in my mix have a higher amount of magnesium then some other nuts, such as pecans or walnuts. Magnesium, is very important because it helps the body detoxify, helps prevent allergies, and helps improve skin quality and relaxation (Mercola.com).

I added the coconut because the health benefits of coconut abound.Coconut oil is one of the most saturated fats that exists, which makes it highly stable (great for cooking), highly healthy, and great for weight loss. Coconut oil is also naturally antibacterial, antimicrobial, antioxidant, and antifungal, which makes it great for your gut too (Organicfacts.net). If you want to know more about coconut oil, I suggest picking up Sally Fallon's Eat Fat Lose Fat.