The Snacky Lunch is just that – a lunch of snacks. Assemble a variety of proteins, vegetables, fruits, and breads for a DIY meal to please the masses. It’s one of our favorite Quick Things to Make for Dinner!
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You need a quick and easy meal to feed your family. You don’t want fast food, but neither do you want a messy kitchen when you’re done.
Where can you find a healthy, convenient meal that will please the whole family? And can you get that to-go, too?
Luckily for us all, the Snacky Lunch is the answered prayer of busy parents everywhere.
Snacky Lunch? Yes. Before there was a girl dinner, adult lunchable, snackle box, or charcuterie board, there was the Snacky Lunch. A quick and easy compilation of bits and bobs that taste delicious, come together quickly, and don’t cost a fortune.
In fact, the Snacky Lunch has been one of my go-to meals for the last 25 years or more. It’s fast. It’s easy. It’s highly portable. And the kids love it.
Bonus: so do my husband and I!
When the kids were little, they were enamored by the commercial “lunchable”. Sure, I bought a few whenever they were on sale and I had coupons, but the kids weren’t overly impressed. Especially since they’d already had the snacky lunch, a homemade lunchable easy enough to make everyday.
The homemade Snacky Lunch serves the purpose and is just as fun. Throw in a few treats/fun food, and everyone will be totally satisfied.
Why Serve a Snacky Lunch?
It’s easy! This isn’t a fancy bento box. There are no sandwiches cut into works of art. It’s just simple, fun, yummy food that everyone enjoys. The Snacky Lunch is so easy that I often serve it for Sunday lunch or dinner since it’s so easy and quick to prep.
You can dress it up. Snacky Lunch a standard for holidays like Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years because it’s easy to make extra special without spending a ton. One of the many beauties of the Snacky Lunch is that you can dress it up or dress it down. Give it a fancy name like a Ploughman’s Lunch or Charcuterie Board and you can serve it to adults with wine, beer, and cocktails.
You can pack it to go. This is such a simple packable lunch idea. Pack it away in divided boxes and you’ve got a picnic for the kids to brag to their friends about.
It makes a great grocery store picnic. A snacky lunch is easy to assemble in one quick trip to the grocery store, if you haven’t already packed a picnic or lunch.
You can make it anytime. It’s pretty simple to keep the ingredients of a Snacky Lunch on hand all the time. You don’t need a lot of any one thing. In fact, small dishes of a variety of fruits, vegetables, crackers, cheeses, meats, pickles, and nuts are so versatile and mix and match, this makes for a great clean-out-the-fridge meal. Shop the kitchen and save some money!
Snacky Lunch Ideas
A Snacky Lunch can contain a mix and match of snacks. Consider adding any of the following:
- crackers, whole grain or soudough bread, rolls, croissant, pretzels, or sliced baguette
- chips, such as potato, tortilla, or pita
- a variety of cheese, either in blocks, wheels, slices or sticks – slices and sticks work best for kids
- sliced deli turkey, deli meat roast beef, ham, or salami – either rolled or cut into cracker-sized pieces
- protein salads, like tuna salad, chicken salad, or egg salad
- side salads like potato salad, pasta, macaroni, or coleslaw
- hard boiled eggs or deviled eggs
- veggies like baby carrots, celery sticks, bell pepper strips, cucumber slices, grape tomatoes, sliced avocado
- salsa and/or dips, such as guacamole, hummus, ranch, or sour cream onion dip
- seasonal fruit or fruit salad
- various spreads like butter, herbed mayonnaise, mustard, or preserves; English pickle is so yummy!
- Greek yogurt cup or cottage cheese
- pickles, olives, nuts
- fun drinks, such as lemonade, juice, or homemade sodas
- “lunch desserts” including cookies, brownies, candies, or cupcakes
How to Make a Snacky Lunch
Instructions
- Lay out plates or bowls of each ingredient. You can make a charcuterie board or just leave things individually. Doing the latter helps avoid food waste.
- Allow dinners to assemble their own snack plates.
Easy Snack Recipes
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The Snacky Lunch
Ingredients
- 12 crackers, bread, rolls, croissant, or sliced baguette
- 8 oz a variety of cheese either in blocks, wheels, slices or sticks – slices and sticks work best for kids
- 8 oz sliced deli meats such as turkey, roast beef, ham, salami either rolled or cut into cracker-sized pieces
- 4 cup veggie dippers
- 1 cup Ranch dressing
- 4 piece seasonal fruit
- yellow mustard and other spreads like butter, mayo, or English pickle
- extra treats for a snacky lunch , such as: pickles, olives, chips, juice, and a "lunch dessert"
Instructions
- Lay out plates or bowls of each ingredient.12 crackers, bread, rolls, croissant, or sliced baguette, 8 oz a variety of cheese, 8 oz sliced deli meats, 4 cup veggie dippers, 1 cup Ranch dressing, 4 piece seasonal fruit, yellow mustard, extra treats for a snacky lunch
- Allow dinners to assemble their own snack plates.
Notes
Nutrition
???????This post was originally published on June 10, 2009. It has been updated for content and clarity.
Jennifer Knox
My mom made these for us when we were kids, and we thought it was the best thing ever. Now my kids love it. My youngest is a super picky eater, but even he can find something to like this way. We are staring down the barrel of school lunches again next month and I’m already collecting ideas. I like this kind of lunch for road trips. Everybody gets a container packed, then we can stop at a rest stop and sit at a picnic table to eat. Wander, play in the grass, stretch our legs a bit.
Jessica Fisher
These are great for road trips!
Melissa
We love snacks meals! It’s a great way to change up a packed lunch at homeschool co op or when you go somewhere you can’t take pb&j.
Jessica Fisher
Yep! Great point!
karen b
we have done versions of this for 20+ years……….it makes a great sunday evening snack especially if you have had a huge sunday dinner……..add popcorn also
annie
Before I heard the term snacky lunch we made “Kirsten’s Lunch”, after the famous historical doll. Pickles were included with the cheese, meat and crackers. Today I too would add hummus.
Melissa
I do this when we bring lunch to our homeschool group on Fridays. I usually add hard boiled eggs or hummus and crackers.
Jessica Fisher
Great additions!
Cassidy Bartasi
I have 21 month old twins and am trying to become more organized with meal planning and everything! lol..
Amy Dunham
I do this all the time with my daughter, Maddie (age 4). She loves it and calls it her extra-special homemade lunchable. So cute! Sometimes we use some small cookie cutters to make shapes in the lunchmeat and cheese. Great ideas on your blog! Thanks!
Kara @SimpleKids
hopped over here from the non-supper supper post @Simple Bites … ahhh, the faux lunchable kit, love this!
Macomb Money Savers
We do these, too. My son calls it a "snack lunch" and would eat it every day if I'd let him! We purchase turkey ham at ALDI and cut it into cubes, then freeze. For a snack lunch, we chisel off a chunk with a butter knife, pop it in the microwave for 1 minute and serve!
Pepperoni also works well, with or without mini-pitas for making individual pizzas.
Mindy
I do this sometimes, too. I used to have some of the plastic lunchables containers that I re-used to put the crackers, cheese, etc. in there. My son always thought it was pretty cool to eat it out of the lunchable container & I felt good that I was re-using it a couple times before recycling it.
Jenn @ Beautiful Calling
It's crazy how some spend so much money buying something that can so easily be made at home!
(I love this kind of lunch at times too – to eat I mean!)
Jessica :)
Great idea. I love lunches like that!
Also, I know you really don't have any idea who I am, but I wanted to tell you that I loved your blog so much that I passed along an award to you! Enjoy! http://harwoodharbor.blogspot.com/2009/06/i-won-award.html
Tracey
My kind of lunch! Thankfully my girls love fruit which keeps it plenty healthy!
CK Nethercott aka Mom
All my kids do anyway is snack all day long, so I say go with it! Make it easy, healthy, and quick!
Shari
I totally got this idea from you (I think last summer)–and now we eat this once a week too. It's a great idea and the kids totally love it!
Lynn
Love those snacky lunches! Have you seen those pictures where moms put each item into a cup of a muffin tin? I think that's pretty brilliant, too (assuming you can scrounge up enough muffin tins for each child!)
Margery
With all the Kraft/Nabisco printable coupons floating around last month, we have a huge stockpile of free or almost-free Ritz and Wheat Thins. Our favorite, however, is Peanut Butter crackers with apple slices or raisins. It's like a staple in our house, and saves money on bread, too. Son likes to dip his in hummus. I don't think he knows it's a vegetable product! LOL.
Hannah
We do this sort of thing for lunch often. Frequently with the addition of almond butter or peanut butter to dip the apples or carrots in. Gotta love keeping it quick and simple!
Alamodey
Thank you for this idea, we used it today.
That is, we will be, after my son wakes from the nap that he's required to take when he throws a tantrum so big that he screams and hits mommy in public.
Suz
Great way to easy lunch it… if only my little guy would eat more of it. Maybe one of these days 🙂