This easy Back To School Snack Mix is loaded alphabet cookies, book worm gummy worms, freeze dried apples, mini cookies, and more. It's the perfect treat to make with your kids and help them get excited about back to school.
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Why We Love This Recipe
- It's super quick and easy to make.
- Treats like this one help get kids excited about back to school.
- It's filled with yummy items that fit our back to school theme perfectly.
- It makes a great lunch box or afterschool snack.
It's that time of year again, time for back to school and we're getting the kids excited about it with a fun back to school snack mix. This is such a fun theme, and so much fun for celebrating the first day of school. Love back to school food ideas? Check out our Easy and Cute Back to School Treat ideas, Back To School Party Ideas, and a Back To School Family Dinner Party. You might also like our Free Back To School Printables perfect for celebrating.
We love snack mixes or trail mix and our favorite is a perfect combination of salty and sweet. If you prefer just a sweet treat, you could go for unsalted nuts, or leave them out entirely.
Make It With The Kids
This is a really easy, no-bake recipe, the perfect cooking activity to do with kids. Not only can they help you assemble it, no cooking required, but it would be fun to shop for the ingredients together. Have them pick out some of the different flavors and ingredients to include, and be sure to let them add in some of their favorites.
Ingredients
- Alphabet Cookies: The first ingredient in our snack mix is alphabet cookies. We found ours at Trader Joes. If you can't find these, look for other alphabet cookies at Walmart, or Earth's Best. These are the perfect back to school snacks. Your kids will love looking for the letters to spell out their names, or other words as they snack. The ones we used are cinnamon flavoured and pair perfectly with the apples we also included.
- Mini Cookies: We wanted to add some mini cookies to our fun snacks. So many of us grew up taking cookies to school as part of our lunches. We used the Trader Joe's tiny chocolate chip cookies, and they're so good. You could use any mini cookie that you like, such as mini chips ahoy, or oreos.
- Fruit: We wanted to include some real fruit in our snack mix and used freeze dried cinnamon apples. The texture of the freeze dried apples is crunchy and they're really delicious. The cinnamon is a welcome addition as well, but if you prefer, they're also available plain. If you can't find the freeze dried apples, or prefer the texture of dried fruit, then dried apples would be a great addition as well.
- Chocolate: We added in some milk chocolate covered pretzels. They're a family favourite, and milk chocolate is usually a good choice for kids. Dark chocolate could be a good option too, or plain regular pretzels. We also included some chocolate covered almonds, again they're a family favourite. There are so many chocolate snacks to choose from.
- Candy: I wanted to add a little candy in our snack mix as a special treat. If you're looking for a healthier version, you could leave these out, or just add smaller quantities. Colourful M&Ms seemed like a very "back to school" addition in their bold primary colours. We opted for mini M&Ms, but choose whichever is your preference. Peanut M&Ms would be a good choice too, if you're including nuts. We also added in some gummy worms. These made me think of book worms, and seemed like the perfect snack idea to include for younger kids, and gummy fans.
- Nuts or No Nuts: We made our snack mix with lots of mixed nuts in it, since it's one of our favourite salty snacks. See nut free options below.
Substitutions
- Nut Free: If you are making this snack mix to be part of school lunches, you may want to leave them out or substitute something that is allergy friendly and safe to bring to school. The nuts in our snack mix helped create that salty sweet combo that so many of us love. Ideas for substitutions for your salty snack mix are something like popcorn, snack crackers like goldfish or Annie's cheddar bunnies, or any pretzel variety.
- More Fruit Options: I think raisins would be a great dried fruit to include as well, since they always make me think of the little raisin boxes that are perfect for a school snack. You could include other dried fruits as well in the snack mixture. If you're looking to make it a little healthier, a great way would be to substitute some of the sweets for more dried and freeze dried fruit options like apricots, mango, cherries, cranberries, banana chips or whatever your family favourites are.
- More Chocolate Options: You might want to add plain chocolate chips to your mix, peanut butter chips, or mini peanut butter cups.
- Keep It Sweet: We used roasted and salted nuts, but if you don't love the salty combination with the sweet, you could use unsalted nuts.
How To Make It
- Step 1: To make the snack mix, combine all the above ingredients in a large bowl and mix together. Take care not to break the cookies or other ingredients as you stir.
- Step 2: Store the snack mix in an airtight container.
Back To School Gift
This snack mix would make a great thoughtful gift for kids or teachers. Package some up in a cellophane bag and tie it tightly so that it's airtight. Use our free printables for packaging. Choose a gift tag from our back to school free printable collection. Just print, cut out, and tie on to the bag with a ribbon as the perfect little gift.
Free Printable Gift Tag
We also have a really cute free printable pencil gift box. It would be perfect for gift giving to your kids or teacher. Just seal the snack mix in a cellophane bag and then put it into the cute pencil shaped gift box.
With back to school snack mix, life really is a party!
More Back To School Ideas
Frequently Asked Questions
If you're having trouble getting the alphabet cookies we used, do a quick on-line search for other options like the Walmart brand, or other store brands. You could also substitue alphabet cereal.
Yes. Leave out the nuts, and it you want something salty substitue something like popcorn or snack crackers.
No problem, leave the candy out and use more types of freeze dried fruit, or dried fruit instead.
If you tried any of our Back To School Snack Mix or any other ideas on my blog, please leave a star rating and let me know how it went in the comments below. Thanks for visiting today!
Recipe
Back To School Snack Mix
Ingredients
- 4 cups alphabet cookies
- 4 cups mini cookies
- 2 cups freeze dried cinnamon apples
- 2 cups gummy worms
- 1 cup mini M&Ms
- 2 cups mixed salted roasted nuts
- 2 cups salted and roasted almonds
- 2 cups salted and roasted cashews
- 2 cups chocolate covered almonds
- 3 cups chocolate covered pretzels
Instructions
- To make the snack mix, combine all the above ingredients in a large bowl and mix together. Take care not to break the cookies or other ingredients as you stir.
- Store the snack mix in an airtight container.
Dannyelle Nicolle-Ramjist says
My kids love this snack mix as the perfect after school snack with all their favourite ingredients.