Ask Chef Ann, Great Paleo Lunch Ideas

At the beginning of every month, we will be asking you for questions for Chef Ann on our social media. Whether you’ve been paleo for 20 years or are simply considering doing a 30 day paleo challenge, we think you’ll be able to benefit from the knowledge of a chef. 

On Facebook, Gayle Murphy-King asked: “I would like some good paleo bread/naan/pita recipes. Or easy lunch ideas that I can pack for work!”

Chef Ann Writes:

Dear Gayle,

Thank you for your question!

I understand how difficult it can be to remain on a healthy diet when you are busy with work and life in general.  A paleo diet is a bit more of a commitment since most convenience foods contain ingredients you are trying to avoid.

If you can embrace cooking larger batches of each food you make for dinner, this will enable you to package leftovers in containers for future lunches, which will make life a lot easier and more convenient when you are trying to get ready for work.  

Say you want to make a beef stew one night for dinner.  Instead of making one pound of beef, make four pounds.  This is virtually the same amount of work for four times the output.  If you yield 6 extra servings, it will provide a beef stew lunch once a week for the next 6 weeks.  

Try getting into the habit of making a little extra and stockpiling individual proportioned containers in your freezer.  For maximum variety, it is ideal to rotate in a repertoire of hearty salads with plenty of healthy protein such as a Cobb salad or a Grilled Steak and Spinach salad.  Use your imagination, and if you keep a few grilled pieces of meat, chicken and fish on hand it will be easy to throw together a salad for lunch.  If you make up a quick batch of Paleo Mayo and keep it on hand, it will be easy to make some tuna, egg, shrimp, chicken or crabmeat salad.

You asked about recipes for wraps and bread. I have included a few recipes below.  You can bake a batch and put them in ziplock bags and freeze them, pulling out only what you need so that they don’t get stale. It is a great way to break up your routine to have an occasional wrap or sandwich.

Here are a few suggestions outside of the sandwich realm:

1. Lettuce wraps with turkey breast, bacon, and tomato
2. Poached Salmon filet over mixed green salad with cherry tomatoes and hard boiled eggs
3. Grilled Chicken Cobb salad with chopped bacon, hard boiled egg, avocado and tomatoes
4. Crabmeat salad stuffed tomatoes
5. Prosciutto wrapped asparagus with poached shrimp over baby greens
6. Cream of broccoli soup
7. Minestrone soup
8. Beef Stew
9. Beef or Chicken Chili
10. Stuffed peppers
11. Avocado half stuffed with chicken or shrimp salad made with paleo mayo.

Here’s my one of my favorite quick lunch recipes, the “Grilled Steak Cobb Salad”. It’s incredibly easy and perfect to take to work.

  

[yumprint-recipe id=’169′][yumprint-recipe id=’170′][yumprint-recipe id=’171′][yumprint-recipe id=’172′] 

I hope this helps!  Good luck!

-Chef Ann