Lunches for the beach - no deli meat

I always make sort of salad whether it be chicken salad, ham salad, tuna salad, potato salad, pasta salad, fruit salad. Also really really like tomato/mozzarella salad - I once put balls of mozzarella and grape tomatoes with basil leaves on a skewer for a picnic - would work well for the beach I would think. Pack some balsamic dressing for drizzle or dunking.
 
I cant eat things like cheese at the beachinthe hot summer.

I would probably do a black bean and corn salsa with those scoops chips
Pasta salad with fresh veggies and italian dressing, no mayo!
Chick pea salad with cilantro and red peppers, tortilla roll ups with refried beans, corn and black olives.
 

Sargento Balanced Breaks (dried fruit, nuts and cheese), apples/bananas, single serving bags of chips/cookies. Everything is packaged for single servings and is easy to serve.
 
Here's some of the things that we take out on the boat, to the beach, water parks, and pool side. I don't bring all of this every time, just listing things that I rotate out.

Cold rotisserie chicken, I pick one up from Publix the night before let cool completely, de-bone, pull off the skin so that all I have is meat, put in a container so its ready to go in the morning. If DD and SIL and DGS are going with us I get 2 rotisserie chickens. If you want, you can use some BBQ, Ranch, Blue Cheese dressing for dipping.

Cooked, deveined, shelled shrimp - you can go with or without tails. You can buy a bag at Sam's or the Grocery store. If its all of us, I take the whole bag, If only the 2 of us just enough for the 2 of us. Cocktail sauce dumped into a plastic container.

Prosciutto and Mozzarella Roll, like you get in the deli section. Lots of interesting items here in these cases.

Olives, Pickles, Marinated Veggies in a jar.

Individual wrap cheese, baby bells, laughing cow, sticks, or small chunks - I find the warehouse stores have really good selections.

Summer Pasta and veggie salad - tri colored pasta then add in all the veggies you like, then I normally go with some kind of zesty Italian dressing. Keeping the tomato separate until ready to serve they get to mushy. All Recipes and Food Network have some good recipes for a variety of salad with out mayo

Raw veggies and Fruit, dips to go with.

Crackers, Chips, Pretzels, dips, spreads, salsa

Individual - peanut butter, apple sauce, raisins, peanuts, or trail mix

Water, soda, Gatorade, juice boxes.

I am the queen of plastic containers, and ziploc. Most of the I double bag and then into a container to keep the water from then melting ice out and if the Ziploc leaks keeping whatever in the container. I always bring a trash bag and extra Ziploc's for leftover items.
 
We just did the beach in April.

Dh and I dis have a sandwich a few days but not all the time. I made tacos one not so we had leftover meat and had taco salads a few days from it. I just plopped everything on top and before I ate it I gave it a good shake.

One day we did buy burgers from the beach just because.

we have also done chicken salad.

How about egg salad or tuna?
 
PB and J is my go to beach food if I am packing my lunches. In the summer I am at the beach a lot and will usually grab a tuna sub from Subway (always attracts seagulls and those little buggers are aggressive...worse than my cats) but if I am packing my snacks, PB and J is cheap and easy. I will do veggies and hummus, cheeze-its, fruit, chips, beef jerky. All stuff that is light since I am usually carrying it with my bag and beach chair and a lot of water. I tend to get the munchies at the beach and just want to eat the whole time (great when you are sitting in a bathing suit) so best to be prepared
 
PB and J is my go to beach food if I am packing my lunches. In the summer I am at the beach a lot and will usually grab a tuna sub from Subway (always attracts seagulls and those little buggers are aggressive...worse than my cats) but if I am packing my snacks, PB and J is cheap and easy. I will do veggies and hummus, cheeze-its, fruit, chips, beef jerky. All stuff that is light since I am usually carrying it with my bag and beach chair and a lot of water. I tend to get the munchies at the beach and just want to eat the whole time (great when you are sitting in a bathing suit) so best to be prepared

Thanks so much! We head down this weekend and I have to get a good list for grocery shopping tomorrow.
 
I agree about the sand. I'm not a fan of eating on the beach because sand really does get in every bite no matter what I do. However, for picnic style eating we go with a baguette, cheese, olives, hummus, fruit, cookies.
 
We live at the beach. Our favorite beach lunch is to pick up boneless chicken tenders from the deli at Publix and a bag of chips. We eat the chicken cold and the chips out of the bag. Actually just did this yesterday afternoon. So yummy.
 
For another chicken sandwich idea, cold sliced chicken, pesto, mozzerella and arugula or mixed greens, on any kind of roll.
 
We spend pretty much every weekend of the summer at the beach. We live to pick on healthy snacks all day rather than eatin a big meal. Cheese, nuts, dip made with yogurt instead of sour cream, fruit, veggies, dried fruit and pretzels are our favorites. I find it's especially satisfying to have salty snacks, such as nuts.
 
[QUOTE="TwoMisfits,

Sand gets in EVERYTHING,

If it were me, I'd bring mini-babybels or cheese sticks (you can freeze these before you pack them), dried jerky and/or individual nut bags (whichever your group likes more), grapes in a baggie or individual apple slice bags, individual baby carrot bags, and individual chip bags and/or cookie packs. All things where people can grab one item as they are hungry and eat. I'd bring boatloads of small sodas and bottled waters (the 8oz kinds), so people stay hydrated and happy. It's a touch more expensive this way (although to make it cheaper, just buy 100 ziplocs and parcel out before yourself), but it's worlds better to eat and eat all day:)...[/QUOTE]
 
Update: We finished our trip and the food helped immensely because the on site "beach bar" was quite expensive and not very good. We did eat there one day when we didn't feel like the food we had packed and it was almost $40 for the 3 of us...

My husband also says he has "Disney fever" again after the beach vacation! He said he much preferred the cruise we took last year, because it was just enough time on the beach with plenty of other things to do. Unfortunately Zika has made cruising quite difficult this year!
 












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