Healthy Picnic Finger Foods For Kids And Adults

As I mentioned in my picnic checklist for kids, many of our family picnics don’t need a lot of planning. We simply grab whatever food we can find in the kitchen, grab a few toys (balls, bocce, frisbee) and we just go, go, go…

Sometimes though we plan our picnics a week beforehand and during this time, I make sure we have some special picnic finger foods with us.

I’m saying finger food because as much as possible, I don’t really want to take a lot of things during a picnic and picnic food is usually the best way to do this. I put each food in ziplock bag and so I don’t have to carry any heavy containers.

Photo Credit: Kenn W. Kiser @ morguefile.com

Here are some of our favorite picnic finger food for kids and adults

Nuts

you can’t go wrong with nuts. Everybody in our family loves them. Obviously don’t take one if someone’s allergic to it. I usually mix several different kinds of nuts with some raisins and dried fruit.

Dried Fruit

If you’re not mixing it with the nuts, then take some dried fruit as well – apricots, raisins, prunes are great

Fruit

Apples as always are easy to eat. So are bananas, orange, and pear. If you’ve got a knife and chopping board, watermelon is great. Leave the watermelon in the fridge overnight and take it out just before you go. Put it straight to your cooler.. Yummy, cold watermelon picnic. Fruit kebabs are also a good idea. If you’re going with little kids, use straws instead of skewers.

Easy to Eat vegetables

Right now, the only vegetables our youngest eat are carrots and cucumbers, so we stuff him with those every chance we get.

Cereal Bars

No preparation needed at all. My kinda picnic

Cheese

Cut them into long strips at home and eat as is. Or you can buy fresh French bread along the way and eat your cheese with it.

Pizza

Pre-made are fine but one you made yourself is even better. Make it as healthy as possible by topping with vegetables like zucchini, spinach, and mushrooms. And don’t add to much cheese.

Sandwiches

This needs some preparation but always good to have. My husband, for one, will not survive a picnic without a sandwich. Make it British-style with cream cheese and sliced cucumber or live a little with a beef sandwich.

Muffins

Here’s one that needs to be prepared beforehand. What I usually do is make a huge batch with the kids the day before. It gets them involved with the preparation process and they look forward to the picnic even more. We love this Bran Flax muffins.

Eggs

You probably didn’t expect this. But my children love eggs. They’re very easy to prepare too, eh? I just boil some eggs and voila. They eat it with salt sometimes.

Olives, pickles

Fried Chicken Wings

Yum.. yum.. yumm.. Whenever we’re going for a picnic that will also be our lunch, we’re bound to have some fried chicken wings with us. If you want to keep it warm an insulated bag for keeping food warm are very handy

Wraps

You can make them beforehand. What I do is grill some vegetables (like eggplants, carrots, zuchinni and onion) at put them in a container. When I have time, I also make beef tacos and put that in another container. Then I shred some cheese.

At the picnic, each person can make his/her own wrap with the vegetables, tacos, and cheese as filling. Always goes down well, this one. Just a shame it takes a lot of preparation. Don’t forget to bring spoons for this – you’ll need it for the tacos

Hummus

Buy premade ones or make one yourself. Eat with pita bread or dip vegetables in.