Hellobee

This is a guest post from Kristin of Paleo Plus One!

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Now that I’ve explained why my child and I are on a the paleo diet, I thought you might want to see some of my 22 month old’s typical lunches. Admittedly, they would not win a beauty pageant against Bee’s beautiful bento lunches, but the important part is that Sisi happily eats them, and they give her plenty of long-lasting energy.

Day 1: Sweet potatoes, pork tenderloin with a dollop of creme fraiche, and cucumbers with balsamic vinegar and olive oil. The pork and potatoes were leftovers from dinner, and the cucumbers are a phase she’s going through. She loves them!

Day 2: Almond-crusted cod with veggies and grassfed New Zealand cheddar. She loves white fish, especially with an almond or macadamia nut crust. I use the pressure cooker to quickly steam veggies while not cooking the heck out of them, to preserve the nutrients.

Day 3: Italian sausage and ground beef soup with a touch of creme fraiche. She adores soups, especially when I let her go at it herself with a spoon. My husband makes nutritious beef bone broth in the crock pot. I pressure cook it with some veggies, sausage and meat for just a few minutes. The pressure cooker is by far the most used tool in my kitchen!

Day 4: Sweet potato fries, bacon and egg omelette. For the fries, I simply coat the julienned sweet potatoes in coconut oil and sprinkle with seasoning salt and pepper, then bake at 400 until lightly crispy.

Day 5:“Paleo beef stroganoff”. I pop spaghetti squash (a very stringy squash that we pretend is pasta) in the pressure cooker for 7 minutes, then saute it with grassfed ground beef, butter, coconut milk, and a touch of white cheddar for a creamy “pasta” dish.

Day 6: Sardines, bacon bits, and spinach with parmesan. Sardines are “health food in a can”- packed with Omega-3s and very low in mercury. You won’t find a more convenient source of protein! Sometimes I do use cheese to jazz up veggies.

Day 7: Miso soup with veggies and salmon, scrambled eggs, and baked sweet potato. More leftovers from dinner and breakfast. The paleo diet excludes soy, except fermented versions like miso and nato.

Day 8: Cucumbers with balsamic and olive oil, pork tenderloin, spinach with butter and creme fraiche. Can you tell we love pork tenderloin in this family? It’s a foolproof meal. Just marinade the tenderloin in salt, pepper, balsamic vinegar, a spoonful of mustard, and olive oil, then bake in the oven on 375 for 25-30 minutes. Moist, tender, tangy perfection.

Dessert: To finish off each lunch, I serve a small “dessert” of berries, fruit slices, or a “paleo popsicle” made of coconut milk blended with cocoa powder or fruit.

Notes:

• Her lunches are pretty small. She eats a big breakfast (“morning mush”- 2 raw egg yolks mixed with goat kefir, cottage cheese, apple sauce, and fruit) and isn’t usually famished by lunch time. I see lunch as a tie-over meal before our ginormous 5:30 pm dinner. My husband and I don’t even eat lunch at all because our breakfasts and dinners are so filling.
• Some paleos are anti-dairy, but I’m not exactly. I do go easy on the dairy, but I’m not opposed to a dollop of cream (I was on a creme fraiche kick that week!), some butter, or some quality cheese. Quality matters a great deal – we don’t do typical string cheese or Kraft singles (or heaven forbid, Velveeta like my mom served me!). We aim for raw or pastured dairy products. And we actually prefer goat milk and goat yogurts for Sisi. Did you know that goat milk is more similar to breast milk than dairy milk, making it more easily digestible and less allergenic?
• Absolutely no grains, but plenty of carbs via sweet potatoes and vegetables. Carbs are super important, but not all carbs are created equal in my book. We try to choose the most nutrient-dense “smart” carbs we can get.
• We tend to go easy on the fruit. Fruit is healthy and all, but there’s no way she’ll eat her sea bass and veggies if there is fruit on the same plate. Instead, we think of fruit as a treat and serve it as dessert or at snack time.
• Once I got used to putting away a little bit of dinner for the next day’s lunch, my life got a lot easier. After dinner, I pack the leftovers into mini glass containers so I can just throw them into her lunch sack the next day if we’re in a rush to get out the door.