Snacks · Chips, popcorn & trail mix

Trail mix

Name: Trail mix
Prep time: 5 min
Total time: 5 min
Yield: 10 servings
Ingredients: 1 cup unsalted almonds; 3/4 cup pecans; 2/3 cup raw pumpkin seeds (pepitas); 2/3 cup raisins; 1/2 cup dark chocolate 70-85%, chopped

The original portable snack, mixed to your own ratio: almonds, pecans, pumpkin seeds, raisins and a little dark chocolate. Dense on purpose — the portion is the whole discipline.

Time: 5 min (5 prep + 0 cook)
Servings: 10
Per serving: 282 kcal
Protein: 7 g

Both directions are legitimate — the score measures fullness per calorie, not virtue. Every version is the same dish, rebalanced.

Ingredients

1 cup unsalted almonds150 g
3/4 cup pecans100 g
2/3 cup raw pumpkin seeds (pepitas)80 g
2/3 cup raisins100 g
1/2 cup dark chocolate 70-85%, chopped70 g

Every ingredient links to its food page — same data, same score, same formula.

Steps

Toast the nuts and seeds in a dry pan or a 175°C oven for 8 minutes and cool completely — warm nuts melt the chocolate into the raisins.
Mix everything and store airtight.
Portion into 50 g bags if you plan to eat it from a bag; the mix is around 290 calories per 50 g and a jar disappears without noticing.

Why does trail mix score low if nuts are healthy?

Because the score is per calorie, and trail mix is the most calorie-dense food most people snack on: 580 kcal per 100 g. It's genuinely good fuel for a hike, which is what it was invented for — and an easy 600 calories in front of a screen.

Why this score

engineered against fullness

Dense calories with little protein, volume or fiber to fill you up.

Three routes to fullness — one is enough

10% of kcal

8% water

13 g/Mcal

What pulls it down

16%

How scores work

Computed on the finished dish, not an average of the parts: 2824 kcal goes into the pot, 500 g of ingredients comes out as ~500 g of food → 565 kcal per 100 g. Cooking moves water, and energy density is the score's biggest lever — so we show the math. Full formula here.

Per

Calories: 565
Protein: (10%); 15 g
Fat: (67%); 43 g
Carbohydrates: (23%); 34 g
of which sugar: 18 g
Fiber: 7 g
Sodium: 9 mg

Percentages are the share of calories from each macronutrient.

Computed from the ingredients' USDA data — nothing typed by hand. Every number is traceable, every score recomputable.

More snacks

Photo: AI-generated. Nutrition and score are computed from the ingredients with the published formula — this recipe hasn't been kitchen-tested by us yet.