Keto Trail Mix On The Go

Keto trail mix! A mix of dark chocolate, almonds, and macadamia nuts. 495 calories, 5g net carbs

A few weeks into Jessie's hike, she texted me asking for "more crunch!" A few days later, after picking up a resupply box, she sent "Just ate that whole bar of low carb chocolate again: is there any way to split it up?"

I solved both problems with this trail mix. I divided and chopped up a low carb chocolate bar, weighed out almonds and macadamia nuts, and zipped them up in a small Ziploc bag for each day.

When I joined her on trail, I was so grateful that we'd added this to her (and now my) daily meals. I looked forward to every day's trail mix as a pleasant afternoon snack, or as a pre-lunch distraction if I was getting hungry but we needed to do more miles before stopping.

Our Recipe

• 2 squares (1/6 a bar) Simply Lite dark chocolate
• 1 oz almonds
• 1 oz macadamia nuts

This mix was crunchy and salty and chocolatey and just perfect. On warm days, put this on the outside of your bag to melt the chocolate, then massage the bag to mix the nuts and cover them with chocolate. If it cools down, you've got a chocolate-covered nuts snack! And if it stays melted, grab a spoon and dig in.

If you've got the ingredients or want some more variety, here's a few ideas which add even more flavor: unsweetened shredded coconut, cocoa nibs, or a couple of freeze-dried strawberries chopped-up (at the cost of 1-2 grams of carbs).

Macros

• 2 squares (1/6 a bar) of Simply Lite dark chocolate: two squares are 0.5g net carbs plus 6.5g of sugar alcohols (note: they use malitol)
• 1 oz almonds: almonds are roughly 1 g net carbs per 10 g of nuts, so an ounce (28.4 g) is 2.8–3 g net carbs per serving
• 1 oz macadamia nuts: 5g net carbs per 100g, and we used approximately 30g, which is 1.5g net carbs per serving
• Total net carbs per bag: 5.0g net carbs, 495 calories

These macros are suitable for trail days, but I don't eat this around the house at home. Jessie and I each found we had a bit more headroom for net carbs per day when hiking so many miles, day after day. If you're looking for a more daily-use modification, cut the recipe in half and nibble throughout the day!

A note on Simply Lite's Dark Chocolate (and malitol in general)

Everyone reacts to malitol differently: I can have a couple of squares of this chocolate, but if I eat more than half a bar, I'll get stomach cramps and bad farts. Jessie's made of stronger stuff, and can eat a bar a day without any ill effects (but wouldn't recommend doing so on a regular basis...).

The nutrition facts for these bars are commonly mis-entered into MyFitnessPal and other sites. Their nutrition label has an inconsistency in the number of squares per bar: 3.5, but right now, each bar is scored into 12 squares. Additionally, some MyFitnessPal entries don't enter the sugar alcohols, so the net carbohydrates measurement is overstated.

Hope this helps get you up that next hill! If you have any ideas for better chocolates or other things to add, share them with us on instagram or twitter

– Christopher