Halloween Trail Mix

This may not be your typical trail mix, but it's perfect for Halloween... AKA candy season! Halloween Trail Mix combines multigrain cereal with pretzels, peanuts, candy corn, frosted animal crackers, and seasonal M&Ms. It's a delicious fall snack mix that's perfect for taking on the go or enjoying in front of a spooky movie.

You probably have a few initial questions about this post. First of all, can a trail mix filled with candy really be called a trail mix? And furthermore, do we really need a recipe for trail mix?

I'm going to answer a resounding YES to both of those questions. Please, just trust me.

A trail mix is really any kind of snack mix that you can eat on a hike (AKA a trail). And while they're often filled with nuts, granola, and dried fruit, lots of them have candy in them, too.

Are lots of them half candy? Probably not. But it's Halloween season, which means it's also candy season.

And maybe "recipe" is the wrong word. Since really, the only steps in this "recipe" are to put all the ingredients in a bowl and mix well. But I've found that lots of people want ideas for what to include in their trail mixes and this recipe is providing you with all the components of my ideal Halloween trail mix.

You can call it a snack mix if you want. I don't mind... And your family won't mind either when you present them with this glorious Halloween snack mix.

Why You'll Love This Recipe

There are lots of reasons to love this Halloween trail mix recipe, but the biggest one is that it's delicious! This mix makes for the perfect spooky movie watching snack and will be loved by both kids and adults alike.

It's also quite versatile and you can swap any of the ingredients out or just use your favorite Halloween candy.

Or you can wait until after Halloween when you've been blessed with an enormous supply of candy and are looking for something fun to do with it.

Ingredients

As I mentioned, you can truly use anything you want for a Halloween trail mix, but here are the ingredients I think makes for the ultimate mix:

• Vanilla Life Cereal (though you can also use any flavor Life, Chex, or any wholegrain cereal you want)
• Candy Corn (any true Halloween mix needs candy corn, but you can obviously leave them out if you're really adverse to them)
• Peanuts (these add a bit of protein to an otherwise sugar-filled mix.. Also, lots of people seem to only like candy corn if it's mixed with peanuts)
• Halloween M&Ms (flavor of your choice... I used the new Cocoa Crisp flavor)
• Pretzels (these add a little salty crunch to the mix)
• Halloween Frosted Animal Crackers (because frosted animal crackers are delicious and these Halloween ones are adorable)

How to Make Halloween Trail Mix

Of course, making this snack mix is as easy as can be. Simply put all the ingredients in a large bowl. In the recipe card below, I give you the ratios I use for the ideal mix, but you can use as much or as little of each ingredient as you want.

And toss to combine.

Feel free to bring the big bowl with you into your family room, queue up some scary movies, and sit on the couch and indulge.

But I highly recommend dividing the traIl mix up into small, individual bowls and putting the rest away. Otherwise... You may not be able to stop eating it.

If we still lived in a time where homemade goodies were acceptable for trick-or-treaters, this would be such a fun mix to package up for everyone in the neighborhood.

Variations on Recipe

Though this is my dream combination of ingredients, here are a few other ideas for what you could add to the trail mix to make it the mix of your dreams:

• Dried fruit like cranberries, cherries, or apples
• Freeze-dried fruit like bananas or mangos
• Different kinds of nuts
• Fruity candy like skittles
• Yogurt-covered raisins
• Popcorn (though I also have a Halloween Popcorn mix recipe for you)
• Reese's Pieces or mini Reese's Cups
• Sunflower seeds or pumpkin seeds
• Cheerios
• Goldfish

The world is your oyster when it comes to trail mix combinations and when you're making a Halloween trail mix, you really can include all the ingredients of your dreams!

More Halloween Recipes

My focus is on sweet and fun when it comes to Halloween recipes, so I have quite the collection of Halloween desserts and drinks ready for you. Here are some of my favorites:

• Halloween Party Popcorn (also a great spooky movie watching snack!)
• Candy Corn Simple Syrup (for making all sorts of fun drinks)
• Autumn Candy Corn Granola Bars
• Candy Corn Ice Cream
• Candy Corn Toffee
• Candy Corn Martini
• Milky Way Doughnuts
• Nutter Mummies (from Plain Chicken)
• Halloween Bat Cupcakes (from Noshing with the Nolands)

This Halloween Trail Mix is truly the perfect combination of sweet and salty... though it certainly has a bit of an emphasis on sweet.

It may not be the kind of trail mix you bring with you on a long, arduous hike, but it's the best kind of movie-watching treat and just the thing you need to get your family into the Halloween spirit.

Or just the thing you need to get all that leftover Halloween candy into one big bowl and eventually out of the house forever.

And now I know that I'll never truly be happy with a trail mix again unless it contains at least 50% candy.

What is your favorite ingredient in this Halloween trail mix??