Today, more than ever, parents want to provide healthy snacks for their children. March seventeenth take along a mix of nuts, fruits and grains, instead of cookies and colas as you watch the St. Patrick's Day parade.

There are many ways to assemble a snack mix. You first need to decide whether you want it salty, sweet or fruity. All of these recipes call for easy to find ingredients. Just remember, when buying ingredients, look for fruits that aren't sugar coated and nuts and grains free of sulfites or other preservatives.

Note: Peanuts and other small nuts are choking hazards to small children. Make sure your children are quiet and attentive when enjoying their snack.

St. Pat's Sweet Mix

1 ½ cups- sugar-free green jelly beans 1 ½ cups- yogurt peanuts 1 ½ cups- carob covered raisins 2 cups- Teddy Graham Crackers @ 1 cup- golden raisins

St. Pat's Salty Mix

2 cups- mini-pretzel 2 cups- cheese crackers 2 cups- sunflower seeds 1 cup- honey roasted peanuts 1 cup- roasted Cashew

St. Pat's Fruity Mix

2 cups- banana chips 2 cups- apricot bits 2 cups- pineapple chunks 2 cups- dried Dates 1 cup- dried apple slices

Place ingredients for each mix r

ecipe in a zip lock bag, then shake to blend. Each recipe will make approximately seven to eight cups of snack mix, depending on the size of your pretzels, dried fruit pieces, etc.. Make individual portions in small sandwich size zip lock bags.

Of course you can always put your own twist on each mix. It's as easy as packing up the kids and a couple of bags of snack mix and enjoying the St. Patrick's Day parade.

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