Easy Football Trail Mix | Simple Football Party Food Idea (2024)

Looking for the perfect football party food for your next football gathering or tailgate?! My Easy Football Trail Mix recipe is the perfect salty and sweet snack to share with your family and friends on Game Day. I promise that your guests will be cheering for more!

To say I’m tired as I write this to you would be an understatement. Exhausted is more fitting and even that doesn’t seem like a strong enough word to get my point across to you.

What’s my major malfunction? No, I’m not pregnant so you can rule that one out quickly, my friend!

Yesterday was our first official home game of the season for the Miami Dolphins. Our first game also means our first tailgate of the season! Yipppeee!!

Don’t get me wrong, the exhaustion is totally worth it, but it’s still a very long day for our family.

Here’s a glimpse into a typical home game experience for Our Hernandez Clan:

1. 1. Get up at 6:00 am, get dressed, pack up the coolers, and head out of the house around 6:45 am.
   2. Make a 3 ½ hour (give or take) drive down to Miami to have enough time to tailgate before the game.
   3. Tailgate from about 10 am – 12:30 pm. You can check out my post on How to Organize a Successful Tailgate, here.
   4. 1:00 pm – 4:00 pm is usually the length of the game. This is in scorching hot South Florida heat mind you…I’m sure you can visualize all the sweat and nastiness that we endure. Again, surprisingly all worth it! I have some great tips for surviving Game Day, here.
   5. 4:30 pm Make the 3 ½hour (give or take) drive back home.
   6. We usually make it home around 8 pm.

See what I mean, our Sunday home game experiences make for a really long day!

Yesterday, however, was even worse! The Dolphins played the Tennessee Titans in the longest game of NFL history. I seriously kid you not. There were two severe weather delays during the game. A game that started at 1 pm in the afternoon, didn’t end until 8 in the evening! Seriously, I think our team is cursed…

Unfortunately for us, we didn’t get to stay until the end of the game. With a 3 ½ hour drive to make, our Luckie Girl home all alone, and Zach needing to be up at 6 am for school today, there was just no way we could stay.

We listened to game on the way home and were THRILLED to pull out a victory after all that hoopla. Wish us luck if this is any indication of what this season will be like for us!

Besides the craziness that took place because of the severe weather, we had an awesome tailgating day with some friends. We ate way too much food and enjoyed meeting new Dolphins’ fans in the parking lot.

Whenever we tailgate, I always like to bring along a little something to snack on while we are grilling and playing games. The treat also plays double-duty since we tend to eat some more of it on the long car ride home.

This week I made this Easy Football Trail Mix after finding these adorable football candy corns while checking out the fall candy aisle at Walgreens. I must say, Brach’s has some pretty awesome varieties of candy corn out in the stores right now.

So what do I need to make this Easy Football Trail Mix?

2 packages of Brach’s Football Candy Corn, M&M’s (any variety), Chex Mix Muddy Buddies (any variety), Craisins, Rice Chex, Bugles, Goldfish, Mini pretzel twists

*Any of these ingredients can be switched to your liking. The idea is to have a mixture of sweet and salty snack foods. Additional examples: Cheerios, marshmallows, popcorn, mini chocolate chips, and nuts

The hardest part of this recipe is finding a big enough bowl to mix all the ingredients together. I have a 12-quart pot that I used for this. I liked using the pot because it had a lid and I could really shake up the ingredients to combine them all together.

Literally, pour all your ingredients into your bowl or pot. Let’s take a minute to check out these adorable football candy corns!

Place the lid on the pot and shake all the ingredients together. If you don’t have a pot and are using a bowl, take a long serving spoon and stir everything together.

Once everything is combined, pour your Football Trail Mix into airtight containers. I was able to fill two large containers with the trail mix.

These can be left in the containers for up to a week on your counter.

Note: If you plan on adding chocolate or anything that will melt to your Football Trail Mix, make sure to place any leftover trail mix in a cooler before heading into the football game. You’ll have a huge mess on your hands if you don’t!

This Easy Football Trail Mix recipe is the perfect snack for your next football party or tailgate. I can see myself making this with all different salty and sweet combinations throughout the football season. I better stock up on these Football Candy Corns now before they leave the shelves. Oh, and of course, Go Miami Dolphins…Fins Up!

Want to remember this? Post this Easy Football Trail Mix recipe to your favorite Pinterest board!