25 Meal Prep Snack Ideas (Quick & Easy)

Need healthy meal prep snack ideas? Whether you’re looking for protein packed meal prep snacks for work or everyday life, I’ve got you covered!

Hi there!

I’m Chantal. I’m a mom to two little people, NASM certified personal trainer, and a tried-and-true struggle bus survivor.

That is, I have struggled to keep my weight in check since having kids!

I’m sure that if you’re a mom, you can relate! (No worries if you aren’t a mom.)

After all, you’re looking for meal prep snack ideas.

From day one, I have chronicled my postpartum weight loss struggles on this very blog. Even though I am a personal trainer, I haven’t always been healthy, and keeping myself on track has been harder than I’d like to admit.

I am at the point now where I struggle more with nutrition than I do with exercise. I like exercise for the most part, and it’s definitely my stronger suite. Food is my biggest struggle – I know that for a fact – and meal prep is a big part of that.

(Read my 2 years postpartum fitness update to know what I mean about a struggle!)

There was a period of time where I felt like I had meal prep sort of handled.

But lately I feel like I have lost my way a bit (thank you, COVID-19) and I’m putting my foot down.

I already have a few great meal prep recipes to keep me going for meals, like my easy ground turkey meal prep, but the snacking is really where I’m lacking! (See what I did there?)

So, when I decided to refocus on nutrition, I felt that healthy meal prep snack ideas would be important. In true blogger fashion, I started brainstorming (with the help of Pinterest, of course.

Related Reading: 27 Delicious High Protein Meal Prep Ideas

I believe I have come up with some great meal prep snack ideas!

Since I’m a mom, I’m really pretty busy and have plenty of things to do other than meal and snack prep.

I have a two-year old who needs a lot of supervision and attention, and a six-year-old who is very picky. So naturally, I needed my healthy snack ideas to be quick, easy, or be easy to batch-prep.

________________________

Related Reading

_________________________

For the best results for me personally, I needed to weed out unrealistically elaborate snack ideas that would require too much work.

I also wanted to try to find things that could be frozen or put in the pantry for some time. You know, things that would help me save time.

I think I’ve got some pretty solid ideas now!

From protein-packed meal prep snacks to healthy snack ideas for work, I think you’ll find some super-handy ideas here.

As I always say, you have to rock it before you knock it! So go ahead, give these snack meal prep ideas a try. 🙂

Real quick: Your meal prep game is as good as your snack meal prep container game! Here are some great snack meal prep containers, as well as some full-sized meal prep containers.

If your goal is healthy eating on-the-go, they are definitely a worth investment.

Adult Bento or Snack Box Options

1. This adorable pastel green bento box.

This cute, vintage-style lunch box comes with reusable utensils. Good for healthy snacks but perfect for meals, too! It also comes in a few different colors.

2. This stainless steel bento box.

These make great zero-waste snack meal prep containers, and they’re kind of fun, too. This one comes with an insulating bag and cold pack!

3. Freezable Glass Meal Prep Containers

A great option for meal prepping snacks that require freezing, but will work just as well in the fridge or pantry! They can be microwaved, too. (I have some of these and they work great, they’re just heavy.)

4. Affordable BPA-Free Plastic Meal Prep Containers

Perfect for all snack options because they can be frozen and microwaved. They’ll obviously work great for full meal preps, too.

I have some very similar to these as well! In my experience, they work great for many uses then start to crack if you are freezing them. But for the price point and quantity, they are great overall.

A Few Other Great Snack Meal Prep Containers

It’s not always necessary to pack around several snacks at a time. Or, sometimes you don’t want to pack different snacks together in one big container like the ones above.

Investing in a few different types of reusable, eco-friendly snack containers can be useful. You’ll save money and help the environment by investing in a few portion-friendly containers.

Related Reading: What To Eat Before A Dirt Bike Race

Here are a few that I have myself:

1. BPA-Free Reusable Snack Baggies

These are great for kids’ lunches, freezing fresh fruit or vegetables, or just to pack those healthy meal prep snack ideas. In my experience, you just have to avoid putting any raw meat in them.

Also, many of them are hand-wash only, so if you’re not up to that, search for a set that says, “dishwasher safe.” 🙂

2. Mini Food Storage Containers With Lids

I purchased these very snack containers for my daughter’s meal prep snacks and school lunches. But they also work great for snacks that need to be eaten in moderation, like nuts, cheese, and chocolate.

They are also perfect for little hands, and I use these to give my two-year-old little snacks so that if he spills, it’s not a big deal.

3. Easy Snap Snack Containers For Meal Prep

I also have a few of these, and they are perfect for snacking! I also use them for little bits of leftovers.

They are a little deeper for a bit more volume, and their rectangular shape makes them fit into lunch boxes perfectly. My daughter likes these because they snap open and seal shut easily, which makes them perfect for her short school lunches.

As you can see, there are plenty of options for snack containers and meal prepping storage. Once you have a few great meal prep containers for snacks, it’s time to load up on healthy snack ideas!

Keep reading for my favorite meal prep snack ideas.

25 Meal Prep Snack Ideas (Quick & Easy)

There are so many great meal prep snack ideas out there. Because of this, I decided to split up my meal prep snacks by type. Hopefully this helps a little if you’re aiming for specific nutrition and/or have special dietary needs.

Protein Packed Snacks For Meal Prep

The following snacks are single-item snacks that are easy to prep and perfectly packed with protein.

They can even all be bought ready-to-eat (even cooked eggs)! For protein-packed snack recipes that will require cooking or multiple ingredients, see below. 🙂

1. Hard-Boiled Eggs

2. Beef Jerky

3. Nuts

4. Lunchmeat Roll-Ups

5. Turkey Pepperoni Bites

6. Non-Fat Greek Yogurt

7. Skim String Cheese

8. Protein Powder + Water

9. Single-Serving Nut Butter Pouch, like Justin’s Natural Peanut Butter

10. Low-Fat Cottage Cheese

All of these are great options as far as protein packed snacks for meal prep goes. However, keep in mind that most of them are animal products and contain various types of fat.

If you want to learn about the different types of fat and whether or not they are healthy, I’d encourage you to read up on that.

While low-carb diets like the keto diet are useful for many people, they can actually be dangerous if you are loading up on trans and saturated fats.

Meal Prep Snack Recipes

This refers to healthy meal prep snack ideas that either require multiple ingredients or that you’d need to cook. Pinterest has some great ideas out there – below are just a few.

1. Turkey Egg Cups w/ Feta Cheese & Spinach

2. Chocolate Peanut Butter Protein Balls from Salt & Baker

3. Cranberry Almond Energy Bites from The Creative Bite

4. Freezer Smoothie Packs from Don’t Waste The Crumbs

5. Everything But The Bagel Fat Bombs from Green & Keto

There are many more fat bomb recipes, protein ball recipes, and other snack recipes on Pinterest. I simply chose a few that sounded good to me. I encourage you to do some exploring!

Meal Planning Printable Set

Meal Prep Ideas For The Snack Box

Looking for healthy snacks for work? Have you seen those cute little bento box style lunches on Pinterest? This category is for those types of meal prep snack ideas. They are usually perfect for cold lunches. 🙂

1. Celery + peanut butter + raisins (optional). AKA ants on a log.

2. Ham or turkey deli meat with low-fat cream cheese.

3. Peanut butter with vanilla greek yogurt, blended. Dip a crisp apple in it!

4. Grapes, cheese, pretzel thins.

5. Edamame with tasty hummus dip.

6. Baby carrots + summer sausage & Babybel cheese.

7. Kiwi slices, grapes, and cottage cheese.

8. Dry roasted or lightly salted almonds with strawberries and string cheese.

9. Grape tomatoes, baby carrots, raw broccoli with Greek yogurt ranch dip.

10. Hard-boiled egg, grapes or blueberries, bran muffin.

11. Pita chips, baby carrots, sliced cucumber dipped in hummus.

Meal Prep Tips Before You Go

The whole point of meal planning and prepping, in my mind, is to make it easier to eat healthier. Right? So to make your meal prep snacks worthwhile, here are a few tips.

1. Batch-prep to save time and money.

Instead of prepping foods a little bit at a time, opt to wash, cut, and portion foods out in larger quantities.

After a grocery haul or on your designated meal prepping day, you can wash all of your produce together in one colander or sink of water.

Then, dry and cut all of it at once. After that, you can portion things out in baggies or meal prep containers right away and be good for a whole week instead of a few days.

2. Choose foods with a longer shelf life.

If you can choose foods that either refrigerate or freeze well, you can meal prep for weeks at a time. (Even months, sometimes!) There are many recipes and ingredients that freeze super well, making it easier to be prepared. This helps you stay on your meal-prep game longer without breaks.

3. Keep Healthy Pre-Packaged Snacks Handy

There are times when you either forget to prep, or simply don’t have the time and energy to meal prep. In order to avoid takeout or dining out, it is wise to keep some healthy, ready-to-eat snacks around for grab-and-go healthy eating.

I suggest having some healthy, high-protein snack bars, healthy dry nuts, and fresh whole fruit on hand at all times.

If health or weight loss is your priority, this will help you fight back against impulsive eating or binging.

There it is, friends! While I could list many more healthy meal prep snack ideas, altogether I have just over twenty-five here. Helpfully this helps you expand your snack options to add variety and keep things healthy.

Do you have any more tips on protein packed snacks for meal prep? What about healthy snacks for work? I’d love it if you’d share your meal prep snack recipes or healthy snack ideas below!

-Chantal