Caveman (ish) Cafe: Kid's Lunches

As I said, we switched to a caveman diet at the beginning of summer for our older son's health as he's allergic to so many foods (wheat, additives, and dairy being the worst). We quickly found however, that we all felt better on the diet. Summer was easy because we were all home for every meal and I only kept paleo foods in the house. I let the kids help cook and go on trips to the store with me so we all had fun "hunting and gathering".

Summer came to an end though and I really started to worry about the kids school lunches. Not my older son so much, as he will eat anything I give him with no complaint, but my tween daughter is really picky. So, I started having long talks with her about food and what she felt we should do about her lunches and I asked her to make a list of foods that she would eat at school. She's not allergic to anything really, just has huge meltdowns if she eats sugar. Everything on her list was Paleo except for bread, tortilla chips and hummus. So we decided the chips and hummus were fine and that I would find her some spouted grain bread. (Sprouted grains have less anti-nutrients than whole grains) I took her to the store and let her pick out a cool lunchbag and had her pick out a few grocery's for her first week. And told her that each night she can help me pack her lunch and that she has veto power. I also told her that if she will take and eat her healthy lunch everyday, that she is free to eat the horrible foods at the occasional school party and that I won't say a word. (We've always tried to eat healthy so we've never had processed foods in our home, last year was her first year in a public school (we homeschooled before that) and I about had a heart attack when I saw what they had at the school parties! Little Debbies, and Mountain Dew and Cupcakes and Cookies and Doritos and Donuts and Candy....all eaten in one hour!!! My god. I said a lot of words last year. lol ) Anyways, she was really respectful and seemed content with this, so we'll see.

I also had to figure out what to do about my older son for parties. The holidays I can plan ahead for and I can send baked treats and smoothies the day of, but the teacher asked me to leave a bag of snacks with her for when it's a student's birthday and they bring in treats for the whole class out of the blue. (Jarod can't have wheat, dairy, or food additives like dye and preservatives.) I can't leave a bag of my homemade treats because they go bad in a few days but I was able to find some really yummy macaroons that only have egg whites, honey, and coconut as the ingredients! I also included some organic juice boxes and some Organic Trail Mix. He doens't do to well with juice though, so I'm going to try to find some coconut water for him soon.

And I'm not sure yet what I'll be doing for my youngest son, who will be going to headstart two days a week, they serve lunch and two snacks a day. I'll be talking with his teacher this week to see what the other kids will be eating at snack time so I'll have a better idea of what to send. He is allergic to dairy and is even more picky than my daughter so that will be fun. hah He goes through stages where he will only eat one food items for weeks at a time, so it's frustrating. At least it's only two days a week though.

Anyways, tomorrow is the first day of school so tonight the kids helped me pack their lunches!
They both wanted a main item, a fruit, a veggie, and a treat.

So, my son got a nitrate-free, all natural hot dog topped with our homemade chili, pineapple, raw carrots, my caveman banana cake,  and some True Raspberry Lemonade.

And my daughter has the same sides but instead of chili she made a sandwich on her spouted grain bread. She filled it with hummus, guacamole, greens, tomatoes, and cucumber.(I do admit that she loves her veggies!)

As for myself and my husband, he'll be taking his homemade jerky, some organic trail mix, and a hard boiled egg to work for lunch. And I'll probably make myself a green smoothie and chow down on a handful of nuts while I blend it up.

Oh and the kids asked if they could have pancakes for breakfast, so I just mixed up a batch of Fluffy Coconut Flour Pancakes and will fry those up in the morning!

Whew! :-P