Lunches for Monday and Weekly Menu

We had "tacos" for dinner tonight, and so before I even put away the leftovers, I threw together lunches for the girls and Erik using the taco fixings.

Kera's lunch (above) featured (from top to bottom): taco salad (lettuce+tomatoes+black olives+beef/bison+shredded cheese), babybel cheese, applesauce, homemade cranberry/chocolate bar, water. 

Lindsay's Lunch: (clockwise) beef jerky, corn chips, taco salad (same as Kera plus salsa verde), powerballs, babybel, peach, applesauce and juice. 

Erik's lunch was a bigger size of the same ingredients taco salad as the girls, but I forgot to take a picture.

The beauty of my "job" is that I'll be home tomorrow around lunchtime, so I will just rummage around in the frig to find my protein/fat/veggie of choice to gobble.

Obviously, the girls eat a bit more fruit and corn than I do. My main goal with them is to keep them gluten free and limit their processed food/sugar intake. They do eat dairy, although I try to keep it as close to raw/full fat as possible, and some corn. We'll have air popped popcorn with butter on the weekends with a movie and I do usually keep corn chips on hand. My hubby loves to snack on them and salsa. I humor him because it's a healthier option than a lot of other things he used to love. (peanut butter and graham crackers or butter on saltines). I figure they are eating much more veggies and healthy fats than before and not all the bread products, so I'm content with were they fall on the paleo/primal spectrum.

I also thought it might be helpful to share with you the menu I come up with for the week. I usually spend some time on Sunday's figuring out what we'll eat for the upcoming week and picking some new recipes to try. Then, once I have a menu, I list anything we need at the store and presto! I have a grocery list, too. So, here's what we'll be eating this next week:

Miscellaneous: 

(this is the prep/extra stuff that isn't a meal but that we'll eat throughout the week)

chocolate power balls (new recipe) these are awesome!!

fruit and nut bars (new recipe) these are good too, sorry forgot to take a picture

caveman crunch bars (new recipe)

baked sweet potatoes

Breakfasts: 

Instead of planning exactly what we'll have, I give the girls options, this week they include: fauxmeal, scrambled eggs, sausage links, chicken/apple sausages, turkey meat (sometimes Kera doesn't want eggs and will eat turkey deli meat instead)

Lunches:

The girls get one day of hot lunch, this week Lindsay chose Tues and Kera chose Friday.  The rest of the week they'll eat cold lunch which will consist of leftovers, deli meats, cheese, assorted veggies and fruit. I've decided to have them help me make their lunches each night for the next day, that way they have what they want to eat. As long as it's in my allowed list, they can have it. Erik and I will eat leftovers, sometimes I make a fresh recipe for my lunch.

Dinner:

Monday: Thai Beef Wraps

Tuesday: Grilled chicken breasts into Chicken Salad  (new recipe)
Wednesday: Leftovers

Thursday: Shrimp Tacos

Friday: Breakfast for Dinner or Leftovers
Saturday: Pork Spare Ribs in the crock pot

Sunday: Beef Fajitas