Savory Toasted Seeds

Trail mix. It’s become a standard healthy snack for many. With good reason! Packed with nuts and some dried fruits, it’s the perfect blend of sweet, salty, and protein.

Until it’s not. When tree nuts are forbidden fruits, like they are for me, you have to find an alternative. When I became gluten and dairy free and cut out most processed foods from my diet, I turned to nuts as a healthy snack. I loved almonds and pecans and walnuts and cashews! I put them in smoothies, on salads, in baking and cooking. I ate them by the handful!

Then, the digestive pandemonium began again. Worse this time. Extensive food sensitivity testing revealed the truth. I love tree nuts but they really didn’t love me. Not even a little bit. While healthy for most people, they weren’t for me. Except cashews! My body doesn’t react to those. Then my son discovered that cashews aren’t tree nuts. They’re seeds. Ya learn something new everyday!

So, I created this alternative trail mix snack based on seeds. Cashews, of course. It also includes raw pumpkin seeds (a protein-packed super-food) and raw sunflower seeds. Why raw? I’m avoiding the unhealthy oils that many of them are roasted in, including peanut oil, soybean oil, cottonseed oil, etc.

Raw nuts and seeds can be a little bit bland. Noooo, you say. Well, yes. So my recipe includes the always healthy coconut oil and just enough savory spice to please my palate. And sometimes I add in a 1/4 cup of Enjoy Life allergy-free dark chocolate chips for a tiny bit of guilty pleasure. 😉

Feel free to experiment with what you put in this mix. If you tolerate tree nuts, add some in! Trust me when I say, though, the seed combo is wonderful!