Plan Your Lunches

This morning, I was sitting in a meeting. When the business part of what we had to do was over, we started making small chit-chat about family life. Someone brought up the task of making lunches for kids...and all of the parents in the room groaned in unison as though it was on cue. It was hysterical. Lunch packing doesn't take all that much time or effort in my house....but it is one of my most-dreaded tasks. My husband and I jump for joy when we realize on a day that the kids don't have school the next morning that we don't have to pack them at all.

My kids lunches are fairly easy to make...and we still don't like to do them. Let's face it...eating against the grain, as we do with keto, means work.  It means putting in a lot of effort and time. So...how do you survive the work week and still manage to eat keto? I have many different lunch plans that I follow...but one that works particularly well is to eat a salmon salad. I prepare everything on Sunday night and I am set for the week.

I fast on Mondays and Fridays, which only makes 3 lunches that I have to worry about. This also tends to be a built-in reward for fasting for me. While I don't love fasting, I do love not having to worry about preparing two lunches a week.  And I, of course, love how it makes me feel.

On Sunday nights, I prep enough chopped salads for three days and package them separately. I use romaine, banana peppers cucumbers, carrots, beets, broccoli,  avocado...and any other vegetables that I may have in my fridge. I chop up as many vegetables in as many colors as I can. (My functional medicine doctor tells me that Americans are most deficient in the deep blues and purples.  I eat them in the morning in my smoothie.)

Next a put three eggs in to boil.  When they are done, I will peel and slice them and add them to my salads. While they are boiling, I prepare my salmon. I buy salmon at Aldi because they have wild-caught salmon, and it is reasonably priced. Wild-caught means it hasn't been messed with by man...which is how I prefer to eat.  There isn't really a recipe for this. I mix a bunch of Cajun spices...red pepper, paprika, salt, pepper, chili powder, garlic powder, and onion powder. I rub this onto the thawed salmon. Lastly, I fry it in a frying pan in coconut oil.

For salad dressing, I like to make this creamy garlic dressing that I found at KetoDiet Blog on Pinterest.  You can also find them at ketodietapp.com:

Ingredients:

• ¼ cup mayonnaise
• 1 tbsp mustard
• ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil 
• 2 tbsp melted coconut oil
• 5 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 lemon, freshly squeezed
• salt and pepper to taste (I like pink Himalayan salt)

Directions:

Put all ingredients into a mason jar or salad dressing jar.  Shake and enjoy over a fresh salad!

The investment in time to make these salads on Sunday night is well worth the savings in time and frustration the rest of the week. I hope that you find these tips helpful so that you aren't dreading making your lunch for work every night...just like all of the parents sitting at my meeting this morning do. And this is a lunch that you can look forward to: