Guide to Making Your Own Snackle Box

the BEST summer trip/roadtrip companion

Good morn, sweet peas!!

My fiancee Michaela and I been home in Brooklyn the past few weekends after a busy first half of summer. It’s been lovely. The cadence is as follows: Saturday morning wake up slowly, hit the farmer’s market, make a lunch with our haul, spend a few hours on wedding prep and baking, and then go out with friends or some other evening activity. Sundays have been a wildcard - maybe go out to see family on Long Island, hit up a bakery, or play tennis.

I know the second half of this year will speed by with wedding, honeymoon and the holidays, so I’m soaking in the quiet now and building my reserves for a helluva H2.

Last weekend we had the treat of going to a baking friend Paige’s pop-up. It was at Danielle Simone’s first gallery, titled FEAST, filled with beautiful dinner party and food art (see her gallery schedule on her Instagram).

sweet treats from Paige, aka freme craiche

Paige’s desserts were refreshing on a hawt hawt day: a cherry jam-filled princess choux almost too pretty to eat, and a breakfast tart with coconut yogurt cream, tropical fruit, and coconut sesame granola. We ate while watching a volleyball tournament in LES as the fire hydrants were set loose for anyone looking to cool down. It was a perfect city summer day.

Speaking of perfect summer days, this week’s newsletter is dedicated to one of my favorite ways to make summer trips/road trips extra special: a snackle box.

What is a snackle box?

A snackle box is a fishing bait and tackle box that’s been repurposed for SNACKS. It’s fisherman-core, it’s fun and nostalgic, and it fulfills the VERY important need of having delicious and varied snacks on road trips. I truly cannot emphasize how fun whipping out a snackle box on your travels is.

I’ve shared my summer snackle boxes with you all on my Instagram stories the past few summers and they’re always some of my most-viewed stories. Y’all love ‘em. SO I thought it’d be a great time to show you my snackle box formula and hopefully inspire you to bring a snackle on your next trip.

They’re most convenient for a road trip, where space isn’t an issue and you don’t have to shove the box on top of other things in your backpack. But they work for train or flight trips, too. I brought one on a flight trip to Charleston in summer 2023!

Guide to making your own snackle box

Step 1: Secure the box

• You want a plastic, or steel with plastic inserts, fishing tackle box. I’m pretty sure this is the $5 box I got on Amazon years ago. If you want steel, this one looks great.

• Once you get the box, clean and dry it so it’s ready for your GOODS.

Step 2: Secure the snacks

This is the most crucial part, of course. The snacks make the box!!

This is my check list for snacks. You can do more or less of any category depending on your preferences:

• Salty crunchy

  • Anything that satisfies that classic road trip desire to constantly snack on something salty n crunchy

  • Ideas: Cheez-Its, cheese puffs, Pirate’s Booty, Chex Mix, Wasabi Peas, caramel popcorn (salty and sweet), pretzels, potato sticks (will take up less space than potato chips), corn nuts, Goldfish, mini rice crackers, parmesan crisps, plantain chips

• Gummy

  • Fun to eat, satisfying for the person in the car who prefers candy to chocolate

  • Ideas: gummy worms or bears, Scandinavian Swimmers from Trader Joe’s, Sour Patch Kids, Nerds Clusters, gummy cola bottles, Twizzlers

• Cookie

  • Sometimes you need a TRUE dessert, so don’t leave the cookies out

  • Ideas: Homemade cookies or blondies, mini or regular sized Oreos, soft-baked chocolate chip cookies, Teddy Grahams, Animal Crackers

• Almond Moms (aka Nuts)

  • For when you need something a little more filling. I call it the almond moms section, bc that’s how I feel when I pack it and eat it. IK it might sound boring, but I’m always happy to have these in my box.

  • Ideas: rosemary roasted almonds (can make at home or buy), chili lime peanuts, little snack bags of nuts and dried fruit

• Bars that’ll actually fill you up

  • Again, sometimes you’re too far from your lunch spot and you need something to get ya there!! If you don’t want these taking up space in your box, you can always just stash these in a backpack, too.

  • Ideas: David bars, fig bars, Clif bars

Where to shop: Any grocery store works, but I love hitting Trader Joe’s or H Mart. If you’re up to baking, you can also make your own fun-flavored roasted nuts or your own cookies. If you keep a stash of cookie dough balls in the freezer, this is a perfect time to use ‘em.

Step 3: Lay out and assemble

The great thing about tackle boxes is you can move around the dividers to fit your snacks. Lay out what you want where depending on size of the snack and how much you want to eat of it. Have some Twizzlers? Make a long section for those. Really love wasabi peas? Give them a bigger section.

Below is the layout for the snackle box I made last week based on the snacks I got!

Aaand this is how it came to fruition!!

OKAY now you are golden!!! Go forth and have the best trip, snackle box in tow. Let me know if you make a box and what you put in it! We can crowdsource for the best little treats to have :)

much love,

Maddie