21 Paleo Lunch Ideas
I've had a few emails in the last couple of weeks asking for Paleo lunch ideas, so I thought I’d make some suggestions in this blog post. I've also written the “Paleo Lunch Recipe Book“, so take a look if you'd like lots of lunch recipes to brighten up your lunchtimes!
Here are 21 suggestions that you can mix and match to come up with an unlimited variety of Paleo lunches:
1. Make kebabs with your choice of meat and vegetables on sticks. Easy finger food and delicious cold.
2. Take in cold meat and veggies – and pour over a hot bone broth from a thermos just before serving.
3. A big salad with your favourite meat, avocado, eggs, leaves, vegetables, nuts and seeds. Keep the dressing and “crunchy” ingredients separate and mix them together just before you eat. Try extra virgin olive oil, balsamic vinegar, lemon juice or mashed up avocado for the dressing.
4. Olives
5. Lettuce wraps – instead of bread, use lettuce to wrap your sandwich filling
6. Invest in a good thermos/ flask and bring in a hot, ready to eat soup, chilli or stew
7. Bag up last nights leftovers
8. Make up a crustless quiche or fritella
9. Blanch some veggies
10. Make up nori wraps with your favourite meats and vegetables
11. Raw veggies with a almond butter or guacamole dip
12. Breadless sandwiches using cold meat or flat capsicum (bell pepper) for the “bread”
13. Hard boiled eggs
14. An avocado and a spoon
15. Beef – or even kangaroo jerky (make your own to make sure it’s Paleo)
16. Cold cuts of roast meat
17. Mashed sweet potato, pumpkin or parsnip
18. Make a batch of egg muffins with your favourite ingredients
19. Make a trail mix with nuts, shredded coconut and jerky
20. Take in frozen prawns/ shrimps, which should be nicely chilled by the time lunch comes round
21. Or you could take it as an opportunity to Intermittently Fast…
Try buying a bento box with lots of small compartments to encourage lots of variety in your lunch.
Reheat?
If you've got access to a fridge and microwave as a minimum, your options are numerous. You can make batches of stews, soups, Paleo chilli or casseroles, freeze them and simply reheat at lunchtimes. A microwave enables you to reheat last nights leftovers – or even cook a sweet potato.
Buying Lunch
Food courts, café's and restaurants all provide Paleo options, especially where you’re able to make a few substitutions. All day breakfasts are a good choice (think bacon, eggs, avocados or omelettes), roast dinners, salad bars; at a pinch I've even ordered a sandwich – without the bread (but with a few confused looks). The problem with buying lunch is the price – and you can’t always be entirely sure about all of the ingredients.
Emergency Paleo Food Stash
Despite your best intentions, there’s always that day you forget to bring in lunch – or worse still your money – so it makes sense to have an emergency Paleo stash at work. This way when there are no good options around, you can always put together a Paleo snack. Things like tinned mackerel, sardines, salmon and tuna, jars of olives, nuts, seeds, dried fruit and jerky will store for a long time and could be good options.
Brown-Bag Lunches
For a lot of people kitchen facilities aren't available and eating out isn't an option at lunchtime. Which leads to the question, what can you put in a Paleo Packed Lunch? Just because you can’t heat food, definitely doesn't meant you can’t keep it Paleo.
What’s your favourite Paleo lunch? I’d love to hear any tips and Paleo Lunch Ideas that you have – particularly for quick and easy Paleo lunches!