Sundays are great, aren’t they?

Just more laid back.

Sunshine and sand-volleyball at the park. Cat naps. Less traffic on the roads in Austin!

…And a day to “get life together”, as I like to say.

Car-washes. Bank deposits. Laundry. Cleaning. And…cooking.

I love having a bit more time on the weekends to experiment with a new recipe or food I otherwise have NO time to explore during the week.

This weekend?

Kept it super simple:

Citrus-infused sockeye salmon Saturday night (basically Sockeye Salmon + fresh squeeze orange + sea salt & black pepper pan-fried in coconut oil, served with steamed broccoli and a roasted sweet potato with coconut butter—It’s my favorite like I’ve said 100x before!

And chicken salad wraps for lunch today (Sunday).

I stumbled upon these amazing wraps at Whole Foods today that you have to try: MustBNutty Almond Flour Wraps.

No grains, added sugars or ingredients with names you can’t pronounce; My Primal chicken salad (recipe below) was delicious on these.

Speaking of wraps…can you believe it’s August 16^th? Less than 2 weeks until school starts here in Austin and I can already feel the excitement!

Even though I am not in school anymore, there’s something about this time of year that gets me pumped for a fresh new start!

And along with that fresh new start comes…Meal prep for school lunches!
If you, or your kiddos, are of school age, and looking for some inspiration for your Meal Prep Sunday, here are 5 Easy Steps for Packing a Healthy Lunch (THAT YOU ACTUALLY ENJOY), PLUS a glimpse of some meal ideas to get those wheels in your head turning (variety is the spice of life)

Note: Even if you are not in school…these work perfectly great for work as well! Save money on daily lunch outing runs ($10 here, $15 there), prevent yourself from falling victim to ‘hangriness’ (hunger + anger) and enjoy some variety (packing your lunch doesn’t have to be boring).

5 Easy Steps for Packing a Healthy Lunch:

Lunch Box Style

First things first, you need to invest in a good (and preferably cute) lunch box. A good lunch box is a crucial tool to the lunch prep experience for keeping your food fresh and palatable come lunchtime. In addition, you don’t want just any lunch bag…you want a bag that breeds INSPIRATION. There’s something about toting a cute bag vs. a bulky plastic cooler or brown paper sack that speaks: “I like to bring my own lunch!”

The Igloo brand of lunch bags have never done me wrong, and have plenty of room (plus style) for building your meal.

Here’s my latest tote:

(Don’t forget the ice packs!)

Plan Your Week

Seems like common sense if you are making a weekly trip to the grocery store that you’d think about lunches, but sometimes, we end up going to the store without any real thought as to how we are actually going to use the foods we buy on the daily. I am not saying you necessarily have to ‘script’ out Monday through Fridays lunches (after all, I am BIG on intuitive eating, and choosing foods that sound best to you when meal time or your lunch prep strikes), BUT, by having a general idea of 2-3 different types of lunches you could create from the foods you buy will make the whole grocery shopping and meal prep experience more EFFICIENT and less boring (see meal ideas below for some inspiration).

Plan B

It’s always good to have a ‘plan B’ for those times that you completely botch a new recipe, run out of food or lack inspiration for meal prep. One of my go-tos is my ‘kitchen sink salad’, which consists of: Spinach + leftover protein (often burger patties and/or chicken) + diced sweet potatoes + roasted asparagus and broccoli + coconut butter or avocado on top. Another: Rotisserie chicken + leftover veggies + avocado. Easy and little to no thought or effort required. I just wrap it up in foil or in Tupperware, toss in a fork and knife, and lunch is prepped (even in the morning). Know your go-tos, and keep these basic foods on hand—be it canned tuna, chicken breast, baby carrots, avocados, greens, homemade sweet potato fries or chips (I cook these in bulk), almond flour tortillas, eggs, deli meat, chicken/turkey sausages (nitrate-free), burgers (Applegate Farms and Diesel Farms also make frozen turkey burgers for those times you don’t want to make your own)…you get the picture. Dinner’s leftovers ALWAYS work as well!

Supplies

What’s lunch prep without the supplies to make it happen? Ensure you have the ziplocks, foil, Tupperware, ice packs, napkins and/or cutlery you need to make lunch making seamless. I like to buy these in bulk to save myself the future trips to the store (limiting my Target runs to every few months if you can believe it or not).

Spice It Up

Face it, the reason many people don’t like to pack their own lunch is because they find it BORING. Memories of peanut butter & jelly sandwiches every day for lunch during elementary school, or brown paper bags filled with a hodge podge of foods from the pantry and fridge at home are just not the same as going out to eat at a restaurant and ordering a fresh chopped chicken salad or ordering fresh takeout from Jimmy John’s Serious Sandwiches down the road. But your lunches DON’T have to be boring. Here are a handful of my favorites, inspired by a conglomeration of some of my favorite blogstresses (no boringness here) as well as my own personal lunch bag zest…drum roll…

Mains

Chicken Drumsticks
Chicken “Nuggets”
Turkey Meatball Bites
Applegate Farms Turkey Sandwiches on Homemade Almond Butter Bread (see recipe below)
Bison or Turkey Chili -http://civilizedcavemancooking.com/recipes/soups/bison-chili/
Meatloaf slices
Spaghetti squash with meatsauce
Pulled pork atop salad greens with a coconut flour cornbread muffin
Butternut Squash + Chicken Mash (delicious!!!)
Stuffed sweet potato with pulled chicken + sautéed greens (in coconut oil) + nitrate-free turkey bacon
Chicken sausage link + 1-2 hardboiled eggs + veggies (bell pepper & cucumber slices)
Egg frittata or egg muffin cups (these are amazing-thanks Steph for your creativity!)
Sliced roast beef + romaine lettuce wraps + avocado
Tuna/Salmon salad stuffed tomato or homemade salmon cakes
Chicken & Shrimp + Veggie Skewers

Sides:

Baby carrots + guacamole
Paleo pumpkin muffins
Pickles
Almond butter packet + celery or apple slices
Coconut butter packets
Salad greens
Homemade sweet potato chips or wedges
Diced butternut squash
Roasted beets
Raw nuts/seeds
Natural dried fruit (no extra sugar added)
Jerky
Homemade veggie-based soups
Roasted veggies (Brussels sprouts, broccoli, asparagus spears, zucchini, etc.)
Bone broth
Fresh raw veggie slices with homemade Tzatziki or homemade Hummus

More ideas to come this next week…stay tuned!

Now for the Recipes

Chicken Salad Wraps

Ingredients

Almond Flour Tortillas http://mustbnutty.com

1-2 Handfuls Chopped or pulled chicken breast (I used leftover from a rotisserie chicken)
Primal Mayo, 1 tbsp. http://primalkitchen.com/products/mayo/

Dijon mustard, 1-2 tsp.

2-3 diced baby celery sticks

½ small apple or handful of grapes, diced

Juice spritzed from 1 lemon

Sprinkle of sea salt & pepper

Directions

Mix all ingredients together and serve rolled up in a tortilla or two! Delicious!

My EASY PEASY Homemade Paleo Bread

Option 1: Coconut Flour Based Bread

Ingredients

6 Pastured eggs

2 tbsp raw honey

1/2 cup grassfed ghee or coconut oil

1/2 tsp sea salt

3/4 cup coconut flour

1 tsp baking powder

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium bowl, thoroughly mix eggs, ghee, honey and sea salt. Combine coconut flour and baking powder, and whisk them slowly into the batter until no lumps remain. Spoon batter into a small greased loaf pan (9x5x3 or smaller). Bake for appox. 40 minutes. Remove from pan and cool on rack.

Option 2: Almond Flour Based Bread

Ingredients

3/4 cup raw creamy almond butter
5 eggs
1/4 cup coconut oil, melted
1 tbsp honey
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup ground flaxseed
3 tbsp coconut flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp sea salt

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a loaf pan with parchment paper. In a large bowl, mix almond butter, eggs, coconut oil, honey, and apple cider vinegar with a hand blender. In another bowl, mix the flaxseed meal, coconut flour, baking soda, and salt together. Combine the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Pour the mixture into the baking pan. Bake for 30-35 minutes until browned and completely set. Remove from the oven and allow the loaf to cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then remove from the pan and cool completely on a wire rack. Store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to one week.