Make A Healthy “Snack Dinner” When You Don’t Want To Cook

When you just don’t feel like cooking, the Snack Dinner comes to rescue with a healthy meal that’s easy to pull together and fun for everyone to eat.

Thank you to J.K. Adams for the boards shown in this post!

You know those nights when you just don’t want to cook?

(For some of you, that may be most nights. So think of those nights when you really REALLY don’t want to cook.)

Those are the perfect nights for a Snack Dinner.

You may be thinking that the Snack Dinner looks an awful like the Snack Platter, and you would be right. They’re both an appealing arrangement of healthy foods. They both involve pulling odds and ends from the fridge and pantry to feed your family (and fight food waste).

The Snack Dinner is simply MORE food–and more filling food. But it’s just as simple and just as fuss-free.

You might also like: 3 Snack Platters For Kids

A word about fanciness: You’ll see some snack boards on Pinterest that are studded with edible flowers and exotic fruit artfully cut into shapes. That’s all well and good, but the whole point of a Snack Dinner is to be LOW-EFFORT. So you won’t see edible flowers on my Snack Dinner boards, just an assortment of foods I know my family will reliably eat. Your family may eat more food than this. Your family may eat different foods than these. You do your Snack Dinner thing, I’ll do mine, neither of us will turn on the oven or light a stove burner, and we’ll all be happy.

Snack Dinners are also fun for kids. They can be eaten at the kitchen island, off the coffee table while everyone gathers for a game or show on TV (yes, it’s okay to eat in front of the tube every once in a while!), outside on the patio, or on the floor for a living room picnic. There are no pots and pans, no stack of dishes to wash, and no greasy take-out containers to toss.

Hallelujah.

The beautiful serving boards shown in these photos are from J.K. Adams, a family-owned company that makes boards by hand in Vermont using North American hardwoods. J.K. Adams makes beautiful cutting boards, serving boards and trays, wine and pot racks, rolling pins, and kitchen accessories.