Sick of the traditional picnic = sandwich? Below is a list of five healthy picnic meal ideas that we love and use regularly. Not just for picnics either! They’re great for eating on the go, adventures, camping, road trips and easy meals.
Now don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with eating sandwiches at your picnic!! We do. We also switch it up with wraps sometimes. But more often than not, the recipes below are what you’ll find us munching on when we’re on the go.
In addition to the five healthy picnic meal ideas that I have listed, we also always have snacks on hand, such as:
- fruit: cut up melon, grapes, apples, oranges, bananas
- vegetables: carrots, cucumber, celery, peppers
- muffins: usually our favourite muffin tops
- granola bars: “made good” bars are a kid (and mom) fav
- hardboiled eggs
- crackers + cheese
You can make a meal out of your snacks too! Sometimes it’s nice to just keep it reeeal simple.
Food storage idea
When packing up food for a picnic (or otherwise), I pre portion out the meals into our glass containers. That way, everyone’s “plates” are ready. No extra bowls to bring along, no single use plates. I put cutlery and napkins into one of our reusable snack bags. Everyone has either their water bottle or camelbak.

five healthy picnic meal ideas:
tuna (or not) quinoa salad
We use variations of this quinoa salad regularly. You can switch up the veg, use tuna, chickpeas, or make it into a chicken salad if you’ve got some leftover rotisserie chicken.
thai quinoa salad
I’ve used this thai quinoa salad a few times and it’s super yummy.
taco salad
We. love. tacos. This taco in a bowl (or in this case, container) is our favourite taco salad. We top it with the following catalina dressing – just toss the ingredients into your blender!
- 1 C olive oil
- 1/2 C red wine vinegar
- 1/2 C organic ketchup
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 1 tsp paprika
- 1/2 tsp worcestershire
- 1/3 C honey
- 1 tsp salt
buddha bowls
AKA, random bowls of food! These burger bowls and BBQ chicken bowls are loved.
leftovers
This one is hopefully obvious. Lots of food in the fridge? Pack it up and make a meal out of it!


I Hope you’re feeling inspired to get out of your picnic sandwich comfort zone!
Happy adventuring!

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