Autumn Snack Mix

Miniature pretzels
Unsalted peanuts
Craisins
Candy corn

Hands-on Time: About 5 minutes

It's hard not to indulge in candy temptations this time of year, especially the seasonal ones that seem impossible to resist for another whole year's time, like candy corn. Yet I personally find that a little candy corn goes a long way, and to help stretch it even further so that I'm not tempted to eat too much at once, I made this snack mix. By mixing protein and carbohydrates, you can feel more full after eating less, and I find that only a few pinches of this are enough to make me satisfied. It's also a great treat if you've bought too much candy corn for Halloween festivities and want to use up your leftovers in November.

You can mix the ingredients in any proportion you like, but I try to use a little less candy corn that anything else, and I also find that you have to put in more pretzels than you think you need to if you want to make sure to have a pretzel in every bite. You can also leave out the pretzels and substitute salted peanuts--the salted peanut and candy corn combination by itself tastes like PayDay candy bars--but pretzels are usually less heavily salted than salted peanuts are, so I used salted pretzels and unsalted peanuts to try to limit the sodium. A suggested ratio to try might be roughly two parts peanuts and Craisins and three or four parts pretzels to one part candy corn.

Be sure to store the mix in an airtight container if it will not all be eaten right away. Even after about a week of storage, I noticed my pretzels were getting a little stale, which might be because of moisture in the Craisins, so you might also want to leave the pretzels out until you're ready to eat if you want to store the mix over a long period of time.