Thanksgiving Trail Mix

It’s the perfect snack to have on hand when we’re out on a road trip - and a great alternative to the munchies we’d usually buy in gas stations along the way.

Not only can we use healthy ingredients (well, healthier ingredients, in some cases - we do have some fun with it!), we have endless choices when coming up with our own homemade trail mix.

We started out with S'Mores Trail Mix, then made a fabulous Caffeinated Trail mix - I’ll post that recipe soon.

THEN we got the idea of doing seasonal / Holiday themed snack mixes, and here we are!

As we do a lot of fall camping, having a Thanksgiving themed Trail Mix seemed like an obvious choice.

Those spiced nuts might have served as a bit of an unconscious inspiration for this recipe. The backbone of this trail mix recipe are the easy rosemary maple glazed nuts.

They take only minutes to whip up, and you can cook them on a stovetop or a campfire. ABSOLUTELY delicious - you might want to double the batch, and save some of the nuts to eat on their own!

Anyway those roasty maple rosemary nuts are joined with dried cranberries, making for a lovely sweet and savoury mix. Then, it’s rounded out with sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, and pepitas... bringing additional flavour, colour, texture, and fiber to the mix.

This might just be my favourite homemade trail mix to date - those glazed nuts are seriously addictive!

Anyway, let’s look at what you’ll need for putting on a batch of this delicious snack, yourself!

Ingredients

This recipe uses just a few simple ingredients, you shouldn’t have any trouble finding what you need in any grocery store.

We had everything we needed after just a few minutes in Bulk Barn - a great option for buying ALL of our favourite trail mix ingredients for making our own homemade trail mix!

I don’t have a LOT in the way of ingredient notes with this Thanksgiving trail mix recipe, beyond “use good quality ingredients and store it properly!”, but here are a few more pointers:

Pecans & Walnuts

You can use Pecan halves & Walnut halves.... or pecan pieces & chopped walnuts - I like to use the halves. I think they look nicer and hold up better to the glazing process.

Also: I use unsalted nuts, which I recommend. If you use salted nuts, you might need to adjust the added salt down a bit. You don’t want an overly salty mix!

Pumpkin Seeds

Thanksgiving isn’t Thanksgiving without pumpkins, so I use pumpkin seeds as the filler / fiber in this trail mix recipe - 2 kinds, actually!

These are Roasted Pumpkin Seeds, and Roasted Pepitas.

By “pumpkin seeds”, I mean the white seeds - outer shell and all. Pepitas are the green inner seeds.

I use roasted, unsalted pumpkin seeds, and roasted salted pepitas. If you switch up salted vs unsalted, just know that you may need to adjust your salt levels elsewhere in this trail mix recipe.

Dried Cranberries

I use sweetened dried cranberries - usually the regular kind, but the “Sweetened with apple juice” also work well. (They’re just usually harder to find and more expensive!)

I recommend using the plain variety of dried cranberries, rather than any of the flavoured ones. I’m not sure how orange flavoured dried cranberries would go in this recipe, but maybe I’ll give it a go someday and find out!

Maple Syrup

Use real maple syrup, not pancake syrup or a sugar free approximation.

While the sugar free version MIGHT work, I haven’t tested it using this glazing technique.

So, I’m not sure how well it will caramelize and harden - you might end up with a sticky mess, rather than the dry nuts you’d need for a trail mix.

Sunflower Seeds

I use shelled, roasted, and salted sunflower seeds.

Everything Else

Rounding out this recipe, you will need:

Dried Rosemary
Salt

The only thing I really have to add here is that I tend to give the Rosemary a little crush before adding it to the pan. This not only breaks it up into smaller pieces, but also tends to release a bit more flavour.

How to Make Thanksgiving Trail Mix

The full recipe is in the printable recipe card at the end of this post, here is the visual walk through, with step-by-step photos.

In a large pot, whisk together maple syrup, rosemary, water, and salt. Bring to a simmer over medium heat. (We tend to do this over a campfire, but you can do it over a stove!)

Once it starts to simmer, add the walnuts and pecan halves, stir well to coat the nuts and seeds.

Continue cooking, stirring constantly, until any liquid is dried up and everything is glazed.

Storage

Transfer to an airtight container for storage, or portion out into smaller containers. We’ll usually measure ½ cup amounts into snack size Ziplock baggies.

Store at room temperature - out of direct sunlight - for up to 3 months.

More Camping Snack Recipes

Looking for great ideas to cook on a campfire, bring on a road trip, enjoy while RVing? Here's a few simple recipes to start with!

Apple Fritter Bread Pudding
Basic Ground Beef Jerky
Best Marshmallows for Camping
Campfire Walking Tacos
Cheddar Jalapeno Cornbread
Easy Cheddar Queso Dip
Fire Roasted Spiced Nuts
Homemade Mushroom Jerky
Hot Chocolate Mix [Protein Powder Mix]
Jalapeno Cheddar Bannock
Jalapeno Chicken Jerky
Maple Cinnamon Apple Chips
Maple Snow Taffy
No Bake Cornflake Cookies
No Bake S'Mores Bars
Peanut Butter No Bake Cookies
Pepperoni Jerky
Pumpkin Spice Trail Mix
Roast Chestnuts on an Open Fire
Rosemary & Blueberry Beef Jerky
S'Mores Board
S'Mores Trail Mix
Tofu Jerky, 2 Ways
Traditional Bannock

Be sure to check out our other Camping Recipes, including Camping Desserts, Camping Snacks, Make-Ahead Camping Mix Recipes, and a ton of delicious Camping Main Dish Recipes.

Also, we had SO much fun designing gourmet jerky recipes for our camping trips, we started a whole new blog for them! Check out Dried & Tasty for all kinds of fun recipes to make in your food dehydrator!