The end of May is fast approaching, which means Memorial Day weekend is almost here. From May 25 to 27, many Americans will be traveling, hosting BBQs, or just hanging out at home by the pool. Whatever your plans, here are some tasty snacks to help you celebrate the long weekend!

Snack Baskets

The springtime gift basket is overflowing with 6 pounds of goodies that will bring a smile to anyone’s face. This basket includes: pastel chocolate berry mix, cashews, macadamia nuts, mixed nuts, strawberries, apricots, bridge mix, white chocolate cashews, pistachios, and veggie chips.

The extravagant BBQ gift basket is sure to get you ready for all your Memorial Day festivities! Inside you’ll find approximately 5 pounds of all our BBQ favorites, such as Kansas City BBQ almonds, BBQ cashews, BBQ corn nuts, dragon mix, hickory beef jerky, hickory soy beans, chili cheese corn twists, and our BBQ dry rub seasoning that is perfect for cooking.

Snack Packs

Snack packs contain the same product that you can buy by the pound, but they come in smaller sizes in packs of 12. For example, you can get a snack pack box of organic trail mix, which is a box of 12 individually packaged 3.2 ounce bags. These on-the-go packs are great for road trips during the Memorial Day weekend and throughout the rest of the summer. We offer snack packs for over 500 of our products, including our milk chocolate nuts, mixed fruit, and gummi bears.

Samplers

Not sure what exactly you want? Try a bunch of different types of tasty snacks with our samplers!

Our salty sampler has individual sample sized bags of many of your favorite salty snacks. It includes jumbo cashews, super Virginia peanuts, supreme mixed nuts, toasted corn, salted pistachios, homestyle pumpkin seeds, sesame sticks, edamame, salted sunflower seeds, and fried green peas.

You can also try our snacky sampler, which includes our power mix, vanilla granola, antioxidant mix, organic cacao goji energy squares, royal mix, extreme trail mix, GORP (good old raisins and peanuts), whole wheat raspberry bars, oriental mix, sesame sticks, and raw almonds.

What are your favorite on-the-go snacks?

World Baking Day is May 19 – the perfect occasion to whip out your apron, dust off your measuring cups and try a new recipe for tasty baked goods.

Browse the World Baking Day website, choose from one of 100 different cake recipes, and stock up on all the right baking supplies at Nuts.com. Or if you’d like to ease into your career as an expert baker, start with one of our easy and delicious baking mixes.

Cake Mixes

Funnel Cake Mix

Bring the festival to your house with our classic funnel cake mix. Just add water to the mix, blend into a batter and fry cakes on the stovetop. Finish with your favorite toppings – powdered sugar, ice cream, honey, cinnamon or sprinkles.

Gluten-Free Brownie Mix

Our gluten-free brownie mix will make any chocolate lover happy. Add butter, vanilla, water and one egg and get homemade flavor in a snap.

Cookie Mixes

Coconut Macaroon Mix

Whip up a batch of gourmet coconut macaroons in just 20 minutes with this easy mix. Just add water, and you will create cookies that taste bakery fresh.

Gluten-Free Chocolate Chip Cookie Mix

Indulge in gluten-free chocolate chip cookies that taste just as good as Mom’s. Add butter, water and an egg to the mix and bake, and you’ll end up with soft, chewy, chocolatey cookies.

What’s your favorite kind of cake or cookie?

Today we’re celebrating Chocolate Chip Cookie Day! Just thinking about the smell of chocolate chip cookies takes us back to our grandmother’s house. Reminisce with us as you bake up a batch of your own, from one of these five chocolate chip cookie recipes!

1. Classic Chocolate Chip Cookie

This classic chocolate chip recipe from Martha Stewart calls for all of the traditional ingredients, including semi-sweet chocolate chips. The recipe also adds dark brown sugar into the mix, which gives the cookie a richer aroma and a unique depth of flavor.

2. Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookie

This Food Network recipe for gluten-free chocolate chip cookies uses tapioca flour and brown rice flour instead of regular flour. The recipe also includes xanthan gum, which adds thickness and volume to gluten-free baked goods.

3. Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie

Taste of Home magazine’s oatmeal chocolate chip cookie recipe includes quick-cooking oats and your choice of chopped nuts. Nuts.com offers a variety of chopped nuts, such as peanuts, walnuts, and almonds.

4. White Chocolate Cranberry Cookie

This recipe comes from Trisha Yearwood’s own cookbook! It combines white chocolate chips, dried cranberries, and chopped macadamia nuts to make a rich and tangy cookie.

5. Butterscotch Pretzel Chocolate Chip Cookie

This blogger’s recipe is a twist on the classic chocolate chip cookie. It adds chopped pretzels and butterscotch chips to give this cookie a little extra sweet and salty kick!

What’s your favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe? Tell us in the comments!

Not only is this Sunday (May 12) Mother’s Day, it is also National Nutty Fudge Day. Talk about two great reasons to celebrate! Stock up on a few of our delicious nutty fudges that are good at any time of year.

6 Favorite Nutty Fudges

1. Chocolate Walnut Fudge

You can’t beat this classic – our soft chocolate fudge is sprinkled with hearty walnut chunks.

2. Rocky Road Fudge

Marshmallows, chocolate and walnuts – what’s not to love? Our rocky road fudge is a favorite with kids and grown ups.

3. Caramel Pecan Fudge

Caramel fanatics will love this sweet, creamy caramel-flavored fudge packed with pecan pieces.

4. Peanut Butter Explosion Fudge

Our peanut butter fudge is decadence at its finest. Your taste buds will love the blend of flavors: peanut butter, marshmallows, chocolate chips and walnuts.

5. Salted Caramel Nut Fudge

If you go crazy for sweet and salty flavors together, you will love our salted caramel nut fudge. We swirl caramel through our rich vanilla fudge and top it with salted peanuts.

6. Maple Walnut Fudge

Combine maple flavored fudge with big pieces of walnuts, and you have a winner.

What do you want to eat on National Nutty Fudge Day? Share your favorite in the comments!

There are so many things that you can make with ingredients from Nuts.com. Bake cookies, cakes, and breads. Create a candy buffet for your upcoming wedding reception or party. For a healthy boost, create your own delicious trail mix and smoothies!

When you create something with our products, we encourage you to take a photo and post it on our Facebook wall. We’ll add it to our Cool Customer Creations album! To get inspired, take a look at these five customer photos of their yummy treats.

“My son Isaac helps to make blenderized food to go into his g tube – with moringa, almonds and quinoa from Nuts.com!” – Kimberly Gould Crawley

Koren Lynch shared this photo of Nuts.com pink candy for her daughter’s princess pony party.

“Dried pears with melted chocolate and topped with walnuts. Pears and walnuts from nuts.com.” – Lisa Schae

“I love your pistachio flour! Here’s another creation that I made with it. Gluten free pistachio-lime sugar cookies!” – Amy Shaffer

“Cranberry white chocolate chip muffins!” - Serenity Palmer

For more ideas, see our previous post, 5 Customer Creations with Nuts.com Products!

We’re proud when our products are featured in print and on the web. They’ve been highlighted in wedding magazines like Martha Stewart Weddings, health publications like Prevention, and even a feature film (see below). We encourage you to try these star products for yourself!

1. Organic Peanut Butter Stock
Featured in: Prevention

This year, we received one of Prevention’s Cleanest Packaged Food Awards for our organic peanut butter stock, which is perfect for making organic peanut butter! According to Prevention, “The products we chose met some pretty strict standards: they’re all GMO-free, have no more than 10 g of added sugar, contain no more than 200 mg of sodium (400 for a meal)…finally, they had to be absolutely delicious.”

2. Hibiscus Flowers and Almond Paste
Featured in: Love & Olive Oil

The husband and wife team behind this blog about culinary adventures at home used our hibiscus flowers in their recipes for Hibiscus Mango Sorbet and Hibiscus Flower Enchiladas. Hibiscus flowers also make a great hot or cold tea. Love & Olive Oil also featured our almond paste in their recipe for Chocolate-Glazed Almond Horns, which looks mouth-wateringly delicious!

3) Salted Roasted Cashews
Featured in: Some Girl(s) film

Our salted roasted cashews showed off their thespian chops in the opening scene of Some Girl(s), which premiered this spring at SXSW. Watch a clip from the film. Roasted cashews are great for snacking or using in salads!

4) Sixlets and Gumballs
Featured in: Hostess with the Mostess

Hostess with the Mostess, a blog on modern entertaining, featured our sixlets and gumballs in a post about a sprinkles themed birthday party for a 10-year-old girl. The party included a tasty-looking yogurt bar. Sixlets are also a popular candy to feature in wedding candy buffets because they come in many gorgeous colors!

5) Wasabi Peanuts
Featured in: Health magazine, May 2013 issue

Health magazine’s May print issue features our wasabi peanuts in a piece called “8 Nutty Snacks Under 80 Calories.” Not only are they low in calories, but they’re also high in flavor! The spice of the wasabi will make your mouth tingle. These snacks are great for parties, because people can’t get enough of them!

For more featured products, see our previous post, 6 Featured Products You’ll Love.

Mother’s Day is coming up on May 12, and you’ve come to the right place to find the perfect present for your mom. We have something she’ll love, whether she is a chocoholic, a health nut or a versatile foodie. Secure your place as Mom’s favorite this year!

Hand-Picked Mother’s Day Gifts

1.  Movie Tin Assortment

Bring the movie theater home by giving your mom her favorite flick and this movie tin assortment with all the classic favorites – Milk Duds, chocolate-covered raisins, chocolate-covered peanuts, chocolate non pareils, Twizzler bites, Swedish Fish and Sour Patch Kids.

2. All-Natural Gift Basket

Show your mom a little TLC with this gift basket full of delectable all-natural treats, including antioxidant mix, heart healthy mix, raw cashews, mesquite pod walnuts, honey vanilla energy squares and organic peanut butter.

3. Sugar-Free Tin

Even if your mom is watching her sugar intake, she can still indulge in some decadent Mother’s Day gifts. Our sugar-free tin contains 3 lbs. of sugar-free treats: dark chocolate almonds and espresso beans, milk chocolate peanuts and yogurt raisins.

4. Box of Love

This big box of love is sure to be an ideal Mother’s Day gift. It includes favorites such as mixed nuts, dried apricots, pastel chocolate blueberries, honey cashews and jumbo buttercrunch.

5. Custom Tray

Make a custom tray that caters just to your mom’s tastes. Choose from 150 different nuts, sweets and dried fruits to create the perfect blend.

Browse our wide selection of Mother’s Day gifts. 

What are you getting your mom this year for Mother’s Day?

The color authority Pantone has spoken, and the color of the year is (drum roll, please)… emerald green!

Each year, Pantone chooses a shade to represent trends in fashion, design, home decor and beauty, and 2013’s color is PANTONE 17-5641 Emerald:

Emerald, a vivid verdant green, enhances our sense of well-being further by inspiring insight as well as promoting balance and harmony.

Most often associated with brilliant, precious gemstones, the perception of Emerald is sophisticated and luxurious. Since antiquity, this luminous, magnificent hue has been the color of beauty and new life in many cultures and religions. Also the color of growth, renewal and prosperity, no other color conveys regeneration more than green.

If you are planning a wedding this year, emerald is a beautiful, rich color to use in your style and decor. You can incorporate emerald accents in your flower arrangements, centerpieces, invitations and, most importantly, your wedding candy buffet.

Nuts.com has a wide selection of green candy that you can mix and match to create your perfect emerald wedding candy buffet.

Check out some of these gems:

• Dark green sixlets
• Dark green Jordan almonds
• Watermelon Jelly Bellys
• Green candy color sampler

Looking for another hue? Browse our candy selection by color. 

Spring wedding season is in full swing, and couples are planning the details for their big day. Consider this stylish feature of your reception that’s a hit with guests of all ages: a wedding candy buffet. Who doesn’t love sampling different kinds of colorful candy?

Candy buffet tables photograph beautifully, especially in vibrant spring colors. Shop for candy by color to coordinate the sweet treats with your wedding palette. We also encourage you to explore our Candy Buffet Gallery, which provides many examples of candy buffets in different colors. You’ll see which candies look best in each display. The Spring Candy Buffet and Cherry Blossom Candy Buffet are just two examples of displays that are lovely at this time of year.

Here are a few ideas to consider for decorating your tasty table:

• Small tree branches with blossoms
• Spring flower arrangements or flower petals
• Items that match the theme of your wedding (birds, travel)
• Crafty items (pinwheels, paper flowers)

Pastel colors like purple and light pink are popular for spring weddings, and so are pastel green and peach. If you choose to feature different colors of candy in your buffet, you’ll likely offer your guests different flavors, as well!

How much candy do you need? How many kinds? We’ve answered a lot of common questions in a previous post, “Candy Buffet Fun.” Jordan almonds and Sixlets are two popular candies that come in a variety of colors, but there are plenty of other attractive options, such as rock candy and lollipops.

If you’d like our help brainstorming candy buffet ideas, don’t hesitate to ask our Candy Concierge! Contact us at care@nuts.com or 800-558-6887 for advice.

What are your tips for designing a beautiful wedding candy buffets?

Earth Day is coming up on April 22, and we’ve got going green on the brain. Since meat and dairy products require more resources and generate more greenhouse gasses than plant-based foods, cutting back on your consumption these products – even just adopting Meatless Mondays – helps in the effort to show Mother Nature a little love.

This Earth Day, explore delicious new ways to go meatless by cooking up one of these creative vegan recipes. They’re good for your body and the planet!

1. Peanut Butter Smoothie

This smoothie is rich, creamy and filling – great for a protein-packed breakfast or a sweet after-dinner treat. Blend ice cubes, almond milk, organic peanut butter, vanilla extract and agave nectar and enjoy.

2. Spirulina Guacamole

Homemade guacamole is already full of omega-3 fatty acids, but adding spirulina to your favorite recipe gives it an extra nutritional punch. Spirulina is a kind of blue-green algae found in lakes and ponds; it is rich in iron and amino acids and may have antiviral and anticancer effects. Blend fresh avocados, onions, garlic, tomatoes, salt, lime juice, cumin and spirulina, and serve with tortilla chips.

3. Four-Grain Salad With Garlic, Lemon & Herbs

Chef Jamie Oliver is an expert at combining fresh and wholesome ingredients in new and inventive ways, and his four-grain salad is a treat for the taste buds. Mix four types of cooked grains – wild rice, red rice, oats and farro or barley – and season with fennel seeds, cumin seeds, sea salt, pepper, mint and parsley.

What are your favorite vegan recipes?