Lunchables are a popular choice for children’s lunches and as a grown up you can still enjoy meal prepping snack packs. It’s like a small charcuterie board on-the-go. For busy people, meal prepping snack packs has to be one of the easiest and quickest meals out there. Adult snack packs have become popular in the past few years and there are a few options for you that are prepackaged in the store, however making your own is so easy and customizable.
Besides the shopping trip, it’s mostly cutting up fruits, veggies, and cheese and stacking them in meal containers. It’s so easy that a child can do it. If you need to prepare meals for yourself and a child, this is a great option. You can both eat the same or similar meal and they can learn about meal prepping while they help you.
One of the best parts of meal prepping snack packs is being able to customize them to your particular dietary needs. It’s much easier to balance nutrition or lean towards high protein foods or low sugar. Since each element of the snack pack is individual, it’s extremely easy to adjust even daily to your needs or taste for the day.
Meal Prepping Snack Pack Ideas
- Chicken salad, snap peas, blueberries, pita
- Hummus, carrots, mandarin orange slices, salami
- Cottage cheese, strawberries, broccoli, beef jerky
- Greek Yogurt, grapes, almonds, cherry tomatoes
- Nut butter, apple slices, hardboiled eggs, baked chicken, cauliflower
- Tuna, hardboiled eggs, cucumbers, crackers
Customizable snack packs provide a ton of variety in your meals. You can simply buy random foods and mix and match them to see how they taste together. It’s much more fun and engaging than a sandwich and often tastes better. It’s easier to be creative and experimental when it’s just amounts of each food. These fun deviations from your normal meal prep routine keeps things fresh and exciting. Preventing diet burnout is very important in meal prepping. Check out bento boxes as well. Japanese lunch boxes that are extremely popular with a huge variety of foods that can be included and even the complexity of flavors. Bento can act as a great inspiration for you meal prepping even if you’re not prepared to invest the same amount of time.
You can also use fresh ingredients for your homemade snack packs. Fresh fruit, veggies, cheeses and crackers all taste better than the prepackaged store snack packs. Plus, meal prepping snack packs at home is much more affordable. You can buy in bulk and break down each ingredient into snack size portions. You’ll also be surprised how much you can buy for the same price as store bought snack packs which are priced up for convenience.
Another way that meal prepping snack packs can save you money is by using those random leftovers. Sometimes you end up with small amounts of left overs that don’t work well into a different meal but can easily become part of a snack pack. Cooked veggies, fruits like grapes or strawberries, even proteins like shredded chicken and ground beef can be worked into a snack pack. Being able to use these small parts of other meals to make an entire lunch minimizes food waste and saves you money.
Having the right meal prep containers helps out a lot. Each food should be stored separate to avoid soggy crackers and cheese. Classic lunch containers with 3 or 4 compartments are perfect for this. Even small single compartment containers are great for specific snack foods.
Meal prepping snack packs at home also means you can portion control. Snack packs tend to be small anyways however the nutrients tend to be heavy on cheese and crackers. Balancing your snack pack is easy if you know the basics. These simple foods will taste great together and will balance well.
These are popular meal prepping snack pack foods. Mixing and matching them can create a variety of flavor combinations as well as keeping lunch at work fun. The trick is to balance nutrients. Try to always include a veggie, a fruit, a small amount of cheese and protein. Include dips to make veggies more fun if you’re not a veggie fan.
- Cheese cubes or string cheese
- Cherry tomatoes
- Hard-boiled eggs
- Deli meat
- Leftover chicken
- Chicken salad
- Cucumbers
- Sugar snap peas
- Hummus
- Mixed nuts
- Grapes
- Yogurt
- Beef or turkey jerky
- Chickpeas (garbanzo beans)
- Peanuts or Almonds
- Tuna
- Baked tofu
- Cottage cheese
- Apple slices
- Egg bites
- Broccoli
- Crackers
