Portable Crunch for an Afternoon Bike Ride

For Memorial Day weekend, we planned an all-day family biking outing along the river road and to a favorite café for lunch. We always carry water and some simple snacks like energy bars or dried fruit, but for something special I decided to make Sweet & Savory Snack Mix. It’s like those pre-packaged snack mixes – equally addictive but with less sodium and healthier ingredients than our favorite bagged mix.

Making this snack mix couldn’t be easier, and I love that it includes cereal and nuts. Start by putting the cereals, pretzels and nuts onto a jelly-roll pan. Buy cereals and pretzel sticks you like because you’ll end up with some extras.

Next, simply melt the butter in a small pan, take it off the heat, and add the brown sugar and Worcestershire sauce.

Only three ingredients! Mix this up. I got distracted and left my butter on the stove a little long so the milk solids started to separate. I suggest you try to avoid this by melting it on Low and taking it off the burner as soon as it melts. Still, mine worked just fine and tasted fantastic, so don’t be worried if yours separates a little, too.

Now pour this tantalizing mixture onto the ingredients in the jelly-roll pan …

… and stir until everything is well combined and coated with the butter mixture.

Stirring pretzel sticks is a little awkward but kind of fun, too! Then smooth everything out and you’re ready to pop it into the oven.

The next part takes an hour, but very little effort. I grabbed an iced tea and watched an episode of Lost, pausing every 15 minutes to pull the mixture out of the oven and give it a stir. Time flew by! After an hour, take it out for good and let it cool in the pan on a rack. You can try it warm, but it doesn’t get crunchy and delicious until it’s cooled completely.

After cooling, put it into a container with a tight-fitting lid or a plastic resealable food bag. For the bike ride, I scooped out about a cup of the snack mix into each of four smaller bags, so everyone had access to their own snack anytime.

On the bike ride, we stopped at a favorite park for a welcome snack break.

It’s pretty hard not to love this snack mix. We have plenty left, so I’m sure I’ll be making up another travel bag here and there, for the car or to take on a walk over the next few days. I note the recipe lasts for a week, but I’m pretty certain it won’t be around that long. If you try this Sweet & Savory Snack Mix, let me know if you like it and if you took it on any adventures!

Check back in a few days when Mallory gets fancy with a crème brûlée birthday treat.

Liz is paid to write for the Land O'Lakes Recipe Buzz® Blog.