Toddler Snack: Pumpkin Pie Popcorn Mix

As you know, my latest endeavor with a few other mamas is on Instagram called "What I Feed My Kid". I am constantly striving to discover delicious, healthy treats that LW will actually eat.

Since we began his journey with food through baby led weaning, he's always eaten anything in front of him. Recently the toddler picky eater stage has kicked in and some days for dinner he eats a tube of string cheese and a grape. It is exhausting and frustrating.

This afternoon I was cruising Parents.com for healthy snack ideas and struck gold in this article. Sure, it has a lot of obvious choices of hummus, fruit and cheese but I got an idea to start something new: Making my own snack mix!

Recently I got an air popper and I'm so obsessed with it that LW and I have popcorn as a snack nearly every day. I'm getting a little tired of the standard butter with salt (which that in and of itself is shocking) and have been thinking of making my own caramel corn for the holidays. Not healthy, but HELLO!!! Delicious.

Well, I decided to put that air popper to use and try something a little wacky today. I made my own snack mix for L-Dub. I used ingredients I had on hand and it was SO fun to create.

Tomorrow is grocery shopping day so we are out of fruit and I wanted LW to have a snack he'd really enjoy....that wasn't cheese. Jackpot! This one is a winner.

Ingredients
1/4 C unpopped popcorn kernels (I prefer white kernels)
1/4 C (heaping) dried fruit and nut mix, chopped
1/4 C sunflower seeds
1/2 C plain oyster crackers
2 T coconut oil, melted
1/2 t pumpkin pie spice
1/2 t cinnamon sugar blend

I simply popped the popcorn, melted the coconut oil, then tossed everything in the bowl and lightly mixed. I made sure all of the ingredients were evenly coated with the spices and coconut oil. 

The end result is sweet from the cinnamon sugar and savory from the nuts plus a little warmth from the pumpkin pie spice. When LW ate it, he had pumpkin pie breath too, which is adorably sweet :) 

I plan to keep this stuff around all the time now that I know LW loves it!

You can mix different things in, depending on what you have on hand. Next round I think I'll try a popcorn blend with ranch mix, salted nuts, pretzels and crackers..the possibilities are endless, really! Plus, with the holidays coming up, how adorable would this be wrapped up in a pretty clear bag with a bow on it for your favorite play date pals?!