31 Amazing Picnic Food for Kids
With the arrival of spring and summer, we’ll all be headed outdoors to take in some sunshine. The warm weather is the perfect time to take your meals outside to a park, a lake, the beach, or your own backyard to enjoy a picnic with the family. And we’ve found the perfect picnic food for kids that even the pickiest eaters will love.
Picnic Food for Kids
Check out the list below for lots of yummy sandwiches, pinwheels, and wraps for your main dishes. You’ll also find healthy fruit and veggie sides and some sweet treats that are made with wholesome ingredients.
You will find the perfect picnic meal for your family here. Enjoy!
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Picnic Foods Kids Will Love
To kick things off, here are some of our favorite picnic foods from right here at Natural Beach Living. They’re fun, mostly healthy, and even the pickiest eaters will enjoy them.
Nothing will get kids more excited for summer than these fun cucumber boat snacks! Scoop out the cucumber seeds, add ranch dressing (always a hit with kids), and make a sail out of carrot sticks, cheese, and a thin slice of cucumber. We added a lifesaver as well, but that’s totally optional.
If you want to stick to veggies and avoid candy, you could use a sliced olive as the life preserver instead.
These good-for-you fruit wraps are the ultimate summer snack and picnic food. They’re fruity, refreshing, and super portable. We make ours with a spread of cream cheese and powdered sugar topped with favorite fruits like blueberries, kiwi, strawberries, and mango. You’ll love every bite!
Kids will have a blast putting these butterfly snacks together using snack bags, clothespins, pipe cleaners, and googly eyes. The fun thing is that you can add healthy snacks or dessert-type items—whatever you’re in the mood for! Some of our favorites are goldfish, mini Ritz peanut butter crackers, and grapes.
Funfetti Cookie Bars
Funfetti box cake mix and rainbow sprinkles create deliciousness when mixed with a couple of eggs, melted butter, and white chocolate chips. That’s all you need for these delicious cookie bars.
More Yummy Picnic Food for Kids
Looking for even more tasty ideas to take on a picnic with your kids? We’ve rounded up some of our favorite ideas from bloggers across the web. Just look at all this yummy goodness!
Sandwiches & Main Dishes for Picnics
Cranberry Turkey Sliders from easyfamilyrecipeideas.com: You don’t have to wait for Thanksgiving to enjoy these cranberry turkey sliders. They’re the perfect picnic food, and they’re totally no-fuss. There’s no worrying about homemade cranberry sauce here. The jellied kind in a can works beautifully.
Pinwheel Sandwiches from amandascookin.com: Make club-style pinwheel sandwiches to take along on your picnic. These awesome finger foods are made with your choice of deli meats, cheese, tomatoes, lettuce, and a cream-cheese mayo mixture in your favorite tortillas. Just add the filling, roll up the tortillas, and slice into tiny pinwheels.
Pizza Biscuits from beyondthechickencoop.com: Pizza in any form is amazing, but these pizza biscuits are portable and perfect for picnics! You don’t have to worry about rolling out dough for this recipe—just scoop them on the baking sheet and pop them in the oven. Flaky biscuits filled with pepperoni, mozzarella, and Parmesan cheeses—what’s not to love?
Homemade Uncrustables from strengthandsunshine.com: Picky eaters will go straight for these super simple homemade Uncrustables. Make them as you see here with sunflower seed butter, grape jelly, and gluten-free bread to make them allergy-free, or use your family’s favorite nut butter and jelly flavor to come up with your own version.
Picnic Food Ideas
Ham and Cheese Roll-Ups from 9onadime.com: A perfect kid-friendly appetizer or snack, you can’t go wrong with these crispy ham and cheese roll-ups. They’ll be devoured immediately! They’re made with egg roll wrappers, so it’s easy to get that crispy outer layer. And you can swap out the ham for another deli meat, like turkey, if that’s what your kiddos prefer.
Provolone Grilled Cheese with Honey from sunglowkitchen.com: Ditch ordinary grilled cheese sandwiches and go with this gourmet version that only takes 10 minutes to make. These stretchy, sweet, cheese-filled sandwiches will become a picnic staple for you and your family.
Tacos in a Bag from foodmeanderings.com: We’ve heard them called walking tacos, too, but no matter what you call them, these tacos in a bag are always a hit. It’s a no-mess way to enjoy your favorite Mexican food on the go. The concept is simple enough—just add your taco meat and your favorite taco fillings to a bag of crushed Doritos, grab a fork, and dig in!
Grilled Cheesy Sausage Pineapple Skewers from boulderlocavore.com: Pair cheesy Italian sausage with pineapple and red onions for a tasty and portable main dish. Serve with individual cups of barbecue sauce to kick the flavor up a notch.
Pizza Pinwheels from rufflesandrainboots.com: These pinwheels are a fun take on pizza and are easy to pack in your picnic basket or cooler. They’re also totally kid-approved. You’ll need cream cheese, mozzarella cheese, pizza sauce, mini pepperonis, and flour tortillas to wrap up these flavor-filled pinwheels.
Waffle Tacos from makingfrugalfun.com: Enjoy breakfast for lunch (or dinner) by taking these waffle tacos along for your picnic. Fill Eggo waffles with yummy peanut butter, sliced strawberries, and blueberries. Provide honey, yogurt, or syrup for dipping. We also like the idea pictured of taking along some hard-boiled eggs and sausage links to serve on the side. Yummy!
Mini BLT Bagel Sandwich from kimschob.com: Mini bagels are perfectly sized for making picnic sandwiches for kids. Plus, BLTs are always winners. You can never have too much bacon! The bagels hold up better than bread for food on the go, too.
Pesto Chicken Salad Wrap from apaigeofpositivity.com: Shake things up with your chicken salad by making this pesto version. It’s made with pesto seasoning mix, dried cranberries, red onions, slivered almonds, celery, and chicken with dashes and splashes of hot sauce and lemon juice. The texture and flavors are incredible.
Puff Pastry Cheese Straws from smartpartyplanning.com: Cheese straws are quick and easy to make, and the kids can help! Top puff pastry with cheddar cheese, twist them up, and coat in an egg wash for crispy, golden brown cheese straws kids will gobble up.
Kid Picnic Ideas
Club Sandwiches from spendwithpennies.com: You can’t go wrong with a classic club sandwich. It’s a picnic staple. Toasted bread piled high with layers of ham, bacon, turkey, lettuce, tomato, and cheddar cheese is absolute perfection. Keep the layers thin to make the sandwiches easier for the kiddos to eat.
Peanut Butter Banana Quesadillas from budgetbytes.com: Nothing beats the classic combo of peanut butter and bananas. But instead of a soggy sandwich, make crispy quesadillas instead. The peanut butter and chocolate chips get warm and gooey, binding all the ingredients together in a delicious, portable meal.
Chick-Fil-A Copycat Chicken Salad from momfoodie.com: This copycat chicken salad recipe is made with chopped chicken breasts, mayo, relish, celery, and hard-boiled eggs. It’s a classic picnic food and is best served on wheat bread with plenty of lettuce to add some healthy green veggies to the mix.
Turkey Rainbow Pinwheels from madeinapinch.com: Taste the rainbow! No, not with Skittles, but with a rainbow of healthy ingredients wrapped up into these fun turkey pinwheels. Add cream cheese mixed with ranch to spinach wraps, and then top with bell pepper strips, shredded cheese, spinach, purple cabbage, and oven-roasted deli-sliced turkey.
The result is a crunchy and filling pinwheel sandwich kids and adults alike will love.
Picnic Food Ideas for Family
Picnic Side Dishes
Mexican Fruit Cups from inmamamaggieskitchen.com: Bring fresh fruit along for your picnic with these yummy individual Mexican fruit cups. Fresh melon is drizzled with lime juice and sprinkled with Tajin (chili powder) for a sweet, tart snack with a little kick of heat.
Italian Pasta Salad from jamjarkitchen.com: Is it even a picnic if you don’t have some sort of pasta salad? We don’t think so! This version is packed full of healthy veggies like bell peppers, olives, baby tomatoes, and artichoke hearts. Of course, it has plenty of mozzarella and Parmesan cheese, too. It’s all tossed with a homemade Italian dressing that’s way better than the bottled kind.
Fruit Kabobs from dinneratthezoo.com: Surprise the kids with these beautiful and sweet fruit kabobs with Funfetti fruit dip. Use your favorite fruity combinations, like raspberries, mandarins, pineapple, kiwi, and grapes. They’re as pretty as they are delicious, and we love that the kiwi was cut into fun flower shapes.
The dip is simply vanilla yogurt topped with rainbow sprinkles to make it look like Funfetti. Kids will love this fruit and yogurt combo.
Picnic food ideas for kids
Snacks for Picnics
Healthy Energy Balls from easyfamilyrecipeideas.com: Take along some healthy no-bake energy bites to give you energy and keep you full. These bite-sized treats are a perfect alternative to desserts because they’re made with more wholesome ingredients like oats, peanut butter, honey, coconut, flaxseed, and, of course, some chocolate chips.
Strawberry Energy Balls from easyfamilyrecipeideas.com: Enjoy some strawberry no-bake energy bites during your picnic. They’re naturally sweet thanks to the peanut butter, honey, and dehydrated strawberries. Kids will love these sweet little bites.
Homemade Goldfish from strengthandsunshine.com: For kids with food allergies, these homemade goldfish are a wonderful alternative to the packaged variety. They are allergy-free, grain-free, and sugar-free, but still super tasty and healthy. They’re the perfect salty snack for a picnic!
Jarcuterie from madeinapinch.com: Forget the charcuterie board. With kids, you want individual, portable servings. So put your charcuterie in a jar to make jarcuterie! Meats, cheeses, fruits, pretzel sticks, crackers, and nuts are all fair game.
Desserts for Picnics
Healthy Carrot Cake Cupcakes from sunglowkitchen.com: You need a little something sweet for your picnic, of course, but that doesn’t mean that you have to go all out on the sugar. These healthy carrot cupcakes are the perfect balance of sweet and wholesome, with no sugar at all. They’re light, fluffy, and perfect for dessert or breakfast.
Chocolate Chip Cookie Sticks from onmykidsplate.com: Make perfectly dippable and dunkable chocolate chip cookie sticks. They’re thick, chewy, and chock full of chocolate chips. Dunk them in milk or coffee while enjoying a picnic with the family.
Blueberry Bread from onmykidsplate.com: Moist blueberry muffin bread is just the sweet treat you need for a spring or summer picnic. It tastes just like a blueberry muffin but is baked in a loaf pan and sliced up for a yummy breakfast, snack, or dessert. Serve with a dollop of whipped cream or a drizzle of syrup to add to the sweetness.
Healthy Chocolate Muffins from ifoodreal.com: You won’t feel guilty for feeding your kids chocolate when it’s this healthy! These chocolate muffins are made with Greek yogurt, applesauce, and maple syrup for a fudgy treat that’ll satisfy any sweet tooth.
There you have it: 31 delicious kid-friendly picnic foods the whole family will enjoy. If you liked this post, please pin it so you’ll have it handy when you’re ready to go on your next picnic.
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