GAPS Lunch Box Lunches
Well it is that time of year again. School is right around the corner. Even if you homeschool you will most likely find yourself on lots of outings that require meals away from home. Or perhaps it is you who needs a meal away from home and you just don’t know what to do.
First lets talk about the “tools” you will need.
A good sized insulated lunch bag (lead free if you please). Isn’t this one cute!
small insulated containers for keeping hot foods hot and cold foods cold, we have a few like this one.
small ice packs, something like these
a water bottle, my 8 year old uses one like this.
,
perhaps a bento box to make lunch fun. I love how pretty this one is but they do come in a wide variety of designs and materials. Some are even stainless steel!
We also love our cloth non-disposable sandwich and snack bags. They come in a wide variety of styles and colors and are made by lots of different companies. Check Etsy for a way to support some WAHM’s!
Ok so you’ve got your tools and now what will you put into the lunch? There are a few different factors that will effect this. Are you on intro? What sorts of food sensitivities do your kids still have? How old are they? Are they capable of manipulating the foods you want to send? And of course will they actually eat what you send or will they go without or “trade” with their friends?
While sending a lunch that doesn’t include a typical pb&J sandwich and bag of chips may seem intimidating at first you will quickly find a a new pattern that works for you. I haven’t had any problems getting my children to eat GAPS foods away from home but because of various allergies my children haven’t ever been able to eat what their peers were eating. They also have very independent personalities. I know that for some children eating anything that isn’t just like their peers is very difficult and I have great sympathy for what you mom’s go through trying to convince your children to eat these foods away from home. For you I would say to focus on the foods that your children eat the most readily at home. Some children will do best if you make them bread and nut butter sandwiches every day and send other foods that look “normal” like apples and carrot sticks. While for others doing something fancy and fun will work better. Fancy cut out vegetables, cubes of cheese with fancy tooth picks, and special containers may make a difference for some children.
One guiding principle that I will give you for lunches is include lots of fat. So many grab and go foods are low fat and high starch. When you cut out the starch it is really hard to fill up on low carb, low fat foods. Plus our brains are made up mostly of fat! We need it to think and function well. It has so many benefits so be sure to include a big portion of fat in some way in the meal. When I say fat by the way I’m not talking full fat cheese, yogurt, or nut butter. Those do have some fat but they are not high fat foods. I’m talking about butter, mayonaise, yogurt made from heavy cream, and bacon. Foods like that.
So a GAPS meal should include a portion of protein, a portion of vegetable and a portion of fermented food at the very minimum.
Protein
- Left over meats cut into slices or cubes served alone or on bread
- Cheese
- Chicken leg
- Meat balls either hot or cold with various sauces
- Burgers hot or cold you can even send them in an oopsie roll
- Hard Boiled Eggs as is or as egg salad or deviled eggs. This Plastic Egg Mold can make it more fun.
- Jerky (we make our own or get it from US Wellness Meats)
- Salmon Salad (canned or previously cooked salmon mashed and mixed with mayonaise and some salt)
- Pemican (we get this from US Wellness Meats)
- Nut butter sandwiches (on oopsie buns or Coconut Butter sandwich bread)
- Organic Prairie Ham (GAPS legal, sold by Costco.com and other places) US Wellness Meats now has a GAPS legal ham as well.
- Meat Sticks Grass-Fed Beef Snack Sticks also available from Green Polkadot Box or these Bison Snack Sticks from Tropical Traditions,
Vegetables
- Raw veggies, carrots, peppers, cucumbers, celery, cherry tomatoes, broccoli etc Be sure to include a high fat dip. These can make them more fun Small Stainless Vegetable Cutters
- Squash puree warmed up and stored in an insulated container. Easy to load that up with butter and broth. Don’t forget a spoon!
- Left over veggies from the night before warmed up and stored in an insulated container
- Gezpacho!
- Ratatuille (warm or cold)
- Sauerkraut, gingered carrots, pickles etc
- Yogurt
- Small jar of dairy kefir, water kefir, beet kvass for a drink
- Dips made from yogurt or kefir
- Smoothie made with fruit, yogurt and honey
- Fresh fruit
- Dehydrated fruit. These are two of our favorites Organic Crunch Dried Snacks, Newman’s Own Organics California Prunes
- Nuts
- Nut butter or coconut flour baked goods like my Hot Crossed Buns
- Squash, peas, beets or other similar veggies heated and put into an insulated container.
- Yogurt or kefir plain or blended with fruit and/or honey
- Butter or ghee. Add this to vegetables, spread on bread or muffins,
- Sour cream this is my secret weapon and if all else fails I send a small container of sour cream or mix it half and half with an insulated container of yogurt.
- Mayonaise- I use this as a dip, spread on meat sandwiches, and mixed into salmon salad or egg salad.
- Ranch Dressing/dip mix equal parts mayonaise and sour cream and mix in some fresh herbs and salt.
- Pemican is half fat. (US Wellness sells it)
- Avocado either alone or as guacamole and used as a dip.
A lunch meal on early intro might be
Boiled meat balls with a sauce made from reduced broth and cauliflower pureed in one insulated container, boiled mixed vegetables with lots of lard in another container and some butternut squash puree mixed with lots of butter and broth in a third insulated container, include a side of sauerkraut juice.
Or
A big thermos of chicken soup with all the good stuff mixed in. I liked my intro soup pureed but my daughter preferred it chunky.
Or
A container with some cold boiled chicken, another container with warm boiled veggies, a third container with a small serving of sauerkraut (when ready for it).
On full GAPS a typical lunch box meal might be
Nut butter sandwich on Coconut Butter Sandwich bread, Carrot and pepper sticks with ranch dip, an apple and a pickle
Or
Cubes of cheese and roasted chicken with toothpicks, cherry tomatoes, and yogurt with blueberries mixed in.
Or
Thinly sliced turkey and lettuce rolled up together and sliced into pinwheels, squash in a thermos mixed with pumpkin pie spices and lots of butter add a hint of honey if you need to, some sauerkraut and dried apples.
Or
Cold coconut flour fried chicken leg, slice of Ginger bread with lots of butter, gingered carrots, and broccoli boiled in broth and smothered with butter and stored in an insulated container.
My older daughter goes to school one day a week and she needs to bring a snack along with her lunch.
Jerky, Pemican, yogurt, Apple with nut butter, “ants on a log” (celery with nut butter and raisins), trail mix (nuts and dried fruit), muffins and similar.
Do you have children on GAPS? How do you handle times when they must eat meals away from home?
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Great post! We are just starting out in Gaps, I think i’m going to find lots of help on your page
its tough to eat in the real world for Gaps and Paleo people…it just shows how quickly our generation’s nutrition has declined when ‘normal’ food is so toxic and addictive! As i cooked my first bone broth yesterday it reminded me of the smell of my grandparents house (Irish famers), they drank raw milk and ate bone broth stews every day, grew their own produce, never use washing up liquid (‘leaves a funny taste on the delph!’), and called sugar the ‘white death’…its seemed so quaint and old fashioned to me when i was younger, but now all i see is amazing wisdom…we’re going back to that in my house, and i hope it helps us all!