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Lunchables … for Adults?

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If you pine for the days when your lunch came in little plastic pockets, much like pills in a blister pack, rejoice: Oscar Meyer has recently announced that it will release “Portable Protein Packs” containing 170 calories worth of cheese, meat, and legumes. Aimed at adults who need a little something to tide them over on the trail or in the office, P3s resemble nothing so much as miniature Lunchables for adults. There’s just one tiny problem.

 brown bag

(Photo Credit: Jeffery Beall/Flickr)

Does anyone else remember the food of their tweenage years — the sugary fruit leather, the neon orange chips, and yes, the miniature snack packs — as being kind of, well, gross? At best, snacks like the old-style Lunchables resembled plastic models of real food, instead of the actual food itself.

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As Charles Lam points out at OC Weekly, there’s another issue with Portable Protein Packs:

“Oscar Meyer has got its wires crossed a little bit. The little protein packs are obviously for the health conscious. All four varieties come with at least 13 grams of protein and fit in under 200 calories, but the marketing? Super Internet bro-y. Like Old Spice but less funny and unoriginal.”

Epic awesomeness — or at least, epic bro-y-ness, presented for your enjoyment, below:

Fast Company highlights that that this rebrand of the Lunchables concept (which is very carefully never referred to as “Lunchables” anywhere in the marketing) addresses two concerns with the previous incarnation: “stigma and health.”

The old skool version had more than twice as many calories and up to half the recommended daily allowance of sodium — for an adult. These lean and mean versions won’t please your fiber-conscious family physician, but at least they’re smaller and therefore, less caloric.

Still, for a suggested price of $1.79, you could probably scrounge 170 calories out of your office vending machine and come out with about as much protein as these things. (Provided you skip the candy and go for nuts.) Better yet, bring something better from home.

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What do you have for a snack at work? We want to hear from you! Leave a comment or join the discussion on Twitter.

Jen Hubley Luckwaldt
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