Faithful Paleo Family : Lunch boxes!

Many of us are on Spring break right now. We get a break from making lunches, and the part I dread everyday, emptying their lunch box after school! But hopefully you will get some good information from me to get you motivated to finish the year with some good healthy lunches for your kiddos. I know it can be hard to try to come up with lunch ideas for our kids every single day. I can be a daunting task but if you do a little pre thinking, it can make things a little easier, a little more interesting, and definitely more nutritious for your kids. Our lunches are not cute with shapes or design to appeal to the kids. It's just good basic food. It doesn't have to be fancy, just well balanced with Whole Foods.

When deciding what to give my kids I always make sure they have a protein, fat, and some kind of carbohydrate. I don't count nut butters as protein, I count it as a fat. I am going to give you some general things we do for protein, carbohydrates, and fats to start off with. I could talk hours about this so I definitely will be touching on this subject again soon!

Protein

Chicken breast, legs, thighs. They have leftovers from dinner or I throw something on the grill in the morning while making breakfast and preparing lunches.

Deli turkey, roast beef with simple mills brand crackers, and vegan cheese or wrapped in lettuce with a slice of avocado and tomato

Ground beef with Mexican spices. I give them lettuce, salsa, avocado, and Siete brand tortilla chips from Whole Foods.

Tuna or chicken salad with celery, pecans, apples, mayonnaise, avocado, or apple cider vinegar. Rhett's favorite lunch!

Applegate hotdogs

Boiled eggs. Plain or mashed up to make a salad with avocado or mayonnaise

Lettuce wrap burger. Leftovers from dinner or throw a few on the grill in the morning, or while you are cooking dinner the night before!

Meatballs

Protein shake. Find a protein made from natural ingredients without whey. Our protein is made from grass fed beef and eggs from Paleo Pro.

Smoked sausage

Fats

Nut butters (look for nut butters without added stuff, just nuts, oil, and maybe salt)

Mayonnaise

Nuts

Avocado (Holy guacamole single servings)

Lara bars

Macaroons-There are lots of brands out there. Cocoroons is one brand we like.

Non dairy yogurt

Almond milk pudding

Salami or pepperoni

Dark chocolate (make sure it is at least 55% cocoa, the higher the better)

Coconut butter

Coconut shredded or chips

Carbohydrates

Salad, lots of salad!

Raw veggies and ranch. We like Primal Kitchen for our dressing.

Spinach

Lettuce wraps

Fruit with nut butter, coconut butter, or shredded coconut

Dried fruit without added sugar

Simple mills crackers (Sprouts, Whole Foods)

Siete chips and tortillas(Whole Foods)

Terra chips They have all kinds!

Almond flour or coconut flour muffins

Legit bread company bread for sandwiches occasionally

Paleo cookies

Salsa

When making dinner, make extras for lunch the next day. Adults are not the only ones that can enjoy leftovers. After a while they will start asking for leftover dinner for lunch. I just get the food really hot and double wrap it in foil or put it in a thermos and no one has ever complained about it being cold.

Mini "corn" dog muffins are a great thing to have on hand when you don't know what to pack. Double the recipe to make 24 mini muffins.

Mini Corn dog muffins

1 cup almond flour

3 tablespoons coconut flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

4 eggs

1/2 cup palm shortening

3 tablespoons Raw honey

3 tablespoons Applesauce

1 teaspoon Apple cider vinegar

Applegate hotdogs

Preheat oven to 350 degrees