Holiday travel stress is almost as much a tradition as the holidays themselves. For many, hitting the highway or getting on a plane comes with the added issue of what the heck to eat. Do you resort to fast food or unhealthy convenience store snacks? Scour the airport for something green? Sometimes even the healthy-sounding stuff can be a sugar or sodium bomb—or leave you ravenous five minutes later.

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Yogurt parfaits, for example, can be loaded with sugar—think sweet granola and fruit on top of sweetened yogurt. Trail mix makes a convenient travel snack, but again, you’ll often spot added sugar (whether added to dried fruit or from chocolate or yogurt-covered pretzels and the like) and mouth-puckering amounts of salt. Even a lot of wholesome-sounding protein and energy bars are really just glorified candy bars with a laundry list of hard-to-pronounce, processed ingredients.

And those hotel breakfast buffets? Usually, you’re looking at stale pastries, juice, and an assortment of high-sugar cold cereals that will fill you up for all of five minutes. Happy fun times.

I’m getting stressed out just thinking about it! Let’s take a deep breath, though, because I have good news:

Holiday travel does not have to derail your diet.

In fact, healthy eating on the go is totally doable. Packing a few healthy items can help you stay sane and save the indulgences for your destination. I know I’ve talked about healthy travel snacks on here quite a lot, so today, I wanted to share a recipe for a snack mix you can stash in your purse or carry-on—or heck, on the passenger seat of your car if it’s just you and the radio making a hundred-mile trek or whatever. It’s cheap and easy to make and travels well without much hassle.

When Post reached out to me about doing a recipe featuring Great Grains* , I thought immediately of travel snacks. Great Grains features  less processed ingredients such as cracked wheat, nuts, real fruit, and wheat berry flakes—perfect for an all-purpose mix to stir into yogurt, use as a garnish for oatmeal, or enjoy on its own when your stomach starts growling halfway through your flight.

To cut down on sugar (10-plus grams of sugar per serving is still a lot, even in a whole grain, high-fiber product), I mixed the cereal with some seeds and unsweet stuff, but I garnished with a kiss of coconut chips, a touch of chocolate, and some tart, dried cranberries. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

• 1 cup sweet, whole grain cereal (like Great Grains Raisins, Dates and Pecan)
• 1 cup not-sweet, whole grain cereal (like Shredded Wheat, Bran Flakes, etc)
• 1/4 cup dried cranberries
• 1/8 cup dark chocolate chunks
• 1/8 cup roasted coconut chips or flakes

Directions:

• Mix ingredients together. Store in an airtight container or resealable bag.

Makes 5 ½-cup servings

What are your favorite travel snacks? 

*This article was sponsored by Post, but the recipe and opinions are my own.