Stow away this crunchy treat in your carry-on bag and you’ll have a healthy, low-calorie snack to tide you over until you reach your vacation destination. Candied ginger chunks provide a spicy-sweet note and help quell queasiness from motion.

Traveler’s Tropical Trail Mix
Serves 10

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 tablespoon ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• Cooking spray
• 3 cups high-protein mini pretzels (such as Newman’s Own)
• 2 cups crispy corn squares cereal (such as Corn Chex)
• 2 cups crispy wheat squares cereal (such as Wheat Chex)
• 1 cup raw sliced almonds
• 1⁄3 cup roughly chopped candied ginger chunks
• 1 cup unsweetened freeze-dried strawberries
• 1 cup unsweetened freeze-dried pineapple

Directions: Preheat oven to 250° F. Stir sugar, ground ginger and cinnamon together in a small bowl. Set aside. In a large bowl, place pretzels, cereal and almonds. Toss to blend. Coat mixture lightly with cooking spray and sprinkle with sugarspice mix, tossing, spraying and sprinkling until the mixture has been thoroughly coated with the sugar.

Place on a rimmed baking tray and bake for 25 minutes. Allow to cool to room temperature, then add ginger, strawberries and pineapple. Store in an airtight container.

Arm yourself in the coming months with “Your Summer Diet Survival Guide,” 25 easy tactics to fight weight gain despite BBQs, wedding receptions, picnics, vacation blowouts and fruity cocktails in VIVmag‘s May/June 2007 issue.

Tags: snack, trail mix