I’ve been packing my daughter’s lunch for school, and snapped some pictures of what she’s been taking to give you ideas. We’re not on GAPS any more, but most of these are GAPS friendly. I have a few lunch containers, so when we have leftovers I’ll often fill up one of the parts with the same thing 2-3 days in a row, and then round out the lunch with different sides to keep it from being repetitive.
For more help packing GAPS lunches, or packing lunches for children with sensory processing difficulties, see Packing Simple Lunches for the GAPS Diet.
Please note these are not perfectly balanced every time. I’m not perfect, and to feed your child you do not need to strive for perfection. A lunch that doesn’t contain much protein, or contains more carbs than usual, can be compensated for with a nutrient dense breakfast and/or dinner.
Prior to school, our main meal of the day was lunch, we’ve had to switch the main meal to dinner. The lunchroom is very chaotic and my daughter doesn’t eat nearly as much at lunch as she does at home with us.
Recipes/where to buy linked below.
Lunch 1:
Banana (info about bananas on SCD/GAPS)
Snow peas
Gouda Cheese (contains K2, which is so good for development!)
A Lara Bar (GMO Free- this is in her lunch when I am running behind, I keep a box of them hidden in the cupboard above the stove)
Lunch 2:
Sliced apples
Snow peas
Ranch (this does migrate to the other parts of the lunch, so I don’t pack anything sweet in the divided container)
Sauerkraut (She LOVES this in her lunch and always eats the whole thing, it cracks me up)
Lunch 3
Homemade yogurt in the smoothie container– I do buy these as a treat (they are not GAPS friendly), and then we rinse out the container and re-use a few times.
Apples
Peanutbutter brownie (use sunbutter if your school is nut free)
Clementine
Snow Peas
Real Food Lunch 4
Clementine
Snow Peas
Chicken Apple Sausage (Trader Joe’s)
Bubbies Pickle
Real Food Lunch 5
Hard boiled Egg
Clementine
Snow Peas (I buy a bag of these and then divide them out for the week after we get home from shopping)
Real Food Lunch 6
Baby Carrots
Clementine
Monteray Jack Cheese
Leftover Tamale from dinner
Real Food Lunch 7
Cut up Cucumbers
Raspberries and Granny Smith Apples
Mustard
Real Food Lunch 8
Bubbies Pickles
Plain Yogurt in a re-used container
Baby Carrots
Liverworst Sandwich on Sprouted Sourdough
Real Food Lunch 9 (short day, no snacks)
Gala Apple
Green Peas
Real Food Lunch 10
Snow Peas
Coconut Flour Crepe with Almondbutter and Jam
Clementine, raspberries
Lunch Packing Equipment:
I use these BPA free plastic containers, if they don’t make it back home, it isn’t the end of the world, and I have 5 of them so I can make lunches ahead of time.
This water bottle is a favorite, and is easy to open for an elementary school student, but more re-useable and easier to clean than regular water bottles.
Metal utensils aren’t allowed at our school, so I use these biodegradable alternatives to plastic.
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How does your daughter like these foods? My parents did a pretty good job of not packing junk foods in my school lunches (not Paleo but by most people’s standards, pretty health). I used to get jealous of the kids bringing out their fruit rollups and fruit candy that their parents gave them but what my parents did definitely set up healthy eating practices for the future and I’m glad they did it.
She likes them a lot. It helps (sadly) that the school that she goes to has like 90% of the kids on school lunch, and school lunch is g-r-o-s-s there. Picture some sort of bread with a sprinkle of low fat cheese microwaved in a cellophane wrapper.
We had an issue in preschool in another district when one family sent in pudding cups every day for snack. The teacher told me that she ‘didn’t like what I sent’, yeah, if you’re sitting her next to someone eating pudding cups, that would make sense! But I just said I’d feed her when she got home, since she was only in school for a couple hours.
When I was a kid in school, I remember being a bit jealous of the other kids fruit roll-ups and such, but they were jealous of my lunches too. I remember getting comments like: “Wow! She has fruit! I wish I could have fruit.”. It always seemed rather bizarre to me that fruit (which we always had on hand) was such a novelty to the other kids.
My kids have fruit all the time, but they still prefer it to fruit roll ups :) My daughter gladly takes any of the fruit that the ‘school lunch’ kids don’t want.
Thank you so much for posting this! My girls are 2.5, and I really struggle with feeding them real food. One is a pretty good eater, but right now only eats what is familiar (bacon, potatoes, and snacks) and the other will hardly eat anything at all (loves bacon, some fruit and treats). I know that toddlers go through ‘food phases’, but it’s always nice to see real food examples that I can at least try out to see if they will taste it, plus keep for later :) Thanks so much!
Christina, this article might help you :) https://healthhomeandhappiness.com/my-child-needs-gaps-but-wont-even-touch-that-kind-of-food-how-to-get-kids-with-sensory-issues-on-the-gaps-diet.html
Hi,
These are great ideas, Just fyi you can get the exact same dates at Costco for 1/2 the price. Not sure if you already do or not.
That’s where I get them, I just wanted a link to give people :)
What time of sprouted bread do you but? I’ve seen the Alvarado St. bread and it looks pretty good, but not all of the flour is sprouted. Can you offer any insights into sprouted breads and whether or not there are companies that make 100% sprouted products?
That’s what I use :)