Inspiration for packing yummy and healthy lunches

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August 23, 2019

It’s that time of year - back to school! And, for me, that means thinking about being prepared.

One of the most important things you can prepare for yourself and your family is lunch.

Food is what gives you energy. It raises your blood sugar and helps you feel refreshed. Lunch allows you to focus through the rest of the day.

Lunch is ⅓ of your nutritional intake. Make it count. Make it nourishing and nutrient-dense.

I try to pack a well balanced lunch. For me, that means incorporating protein, dairy, grains, fruits, veggies... and a small special treat.

Lunch can be one composed dish, a few simple dishes, or a bunch of precut ingredients.

Try packing a bunch of small simple dishes and ingredients. Keeping variety in lunch makes sure even the pickiest eater can enjoy something and gain energy for the rest of their busy day.

Here are some great packed lunch ideas:

Leftovers: Make enough dinner for lunch the next day, too.

Eggs: Hard boiled - shell on, peeled quartered, or sliced. With a sprinkle of salt on top.

Beef stix: Sweet, mild, or hot. I chop them in quarters to make 2-bite pieces.

Cheese: So many options here, but I’ve found my kids like the milder cheeses like farmers or colby. Cubed, sliced, or cut into sticks.

Granola bars: The farmer sells a couple kinds. You could also make your own.

Popcorn: Pop enough chemical free popcorn kernels for a few days. Top with the classic butter and salt, some ghee and nutritional yeast, or a generous amount of ready made popcorn seasoning.

Vanilla maple pudding: Need I say more.

Pickles: Fermented, of course. Try a sour dill pickle or a sweet bread and butter pickle.

Muffins: Miller’s has gluten-free muffins or make homemade muffins with einkorn flour.

Philly Cheesesteak: The meat sautes in a couple minutes. Put on bread or not. While hot, top with cheese.

Sandwiches: With einkorn bread, homemade mayonnaise, bologna, and cheese.

Fruits and Veggies: All kinds, whole or chopped. You may even want to give a side of peanut butter or yogurt for dipping. In season now or soon are blueberries, raspberries, apples, carrots, celery, potatoes, brussel sprouts, beets, green beans, and winter squash.

Kefir or drinkable yogurt: Pour into smaller single-serve containers. Buy flavored, or buy plain and mix in your own syrups.

Oatmeal: Soothing and filling. Make with milk and butter. Top with butter or cream, maple syrup, cinnamon, and a pinch of salt.

Nuts and Seeds: Soaked almonds, sunflower seeds, cashews, or pumpkin seeds.

To make packing lunch a bit easier and a lot more exciting, the farmer is introducing a Packed Lunch Sampler Bundle.

Save 10% by buying in bulk. At the same time, your family gets to try out some healthy lunch options. I’m sure you’ll find a few items that you’ll love and will become family staples.

To make this so much easier, we made a special collection of ready-to-eat or easy-to-make favorites for packed lunches.

View the Packed Lunch Collection

Now, let’s talk containers. How should you package all these yummy foods?

I’ve tried many, many different containers. No one paid the farm to say any of this. These are recommendations based on use over and over and over again.

The hands down best lunchbox is the Planetbox Rover. The stainless steel container flips open to reveal five compartments. You can pack almost anything, and it will look appetizing. It’s dishwasher safe. Yes, compared to other options it’s a bit heavy, but it’s unbreakable (believe me, my boys abuse it). It comes with two small waterproof containers, and you can buy a perfectly sized insulated bag and stainless water bottle with it, too.

And, for those that prefer a more freeform lunch, there’s always individual containers.

I love stainless containers with silicone leak proof lids. There’s no need to worry about leaching chemicals. You may want to try these nesting containers or this rectangular container.

I also like silicone bags, even though they can be a bit tricky to clean and dry. You may want to check out these bags.

For soup or heated leftovers, I use a Thermos insulated food jar. It comes with a foldable spoon!

And then there’s drinks. Water is a must. I really like the Pura stainless sports bottle. You can also get straw, sippy, or bottle caps for them. And, for packing drinkable yogurt, kefir, or other flavored drinks, I like these reusable 8 oz BPA-free plastic containers.

Enjoy the food!

Cooking

Raw milk or fermented dairy and lactose intolerance. Why might it help?

I was misinformed. At some point, I read that raw milk contains lactase. As it turns out, this is not true! It is true that raw milk contains many live enzymes that are inactivated during pasteurization. But, what about lactase? I’ve heard many anecdotal stories from people who are lactose intolerant... but can handle raw milk or fermented dairy. If raw milk, yogurt, kefir, or cheese doesn’t contain lactase, then why is that?

Our bone broth tested negative-ish for heavy metals 🥳 NATURAL AND CLEAN

Over the past few months a bunch of people asked us if we tested our bone broth for toxic heavy metals. When we get the same question a lot, we of course look into it. My first question was --- Is there an issue with toxic metals in bone broth? As it turns out, yes, there "can" be an issue! Heavy metals are naturally present in our environment. We need the "good" heavy metals to thrive: iron, zinc, magnesium, copper, etc. But, we can 100% do without the toxic heavy metals: arsenic, cadmium, lead, mercury, etc. Too many toxic heavy metals can lead to a host of pretty awful issues: nervous system damage, cardiovascular issues, cancer, endocrine disruption, kidney damage, and so on. Our body is designed to excrete heavy metals through urine (and a little bit through sweat, hair, and breastmilk too)... but only so much. There's a limit. If you're overloaded, your body will store those heavy metals in your bones, blood, tissues, and organs. Similarly, if an animal is exposed to heavy metals via food, water, air, dust, or soil, those heavy metals accumulate in the bones. Maybe the farm's soil or air is contaminated from a nearby factory. Maybe the pipes for the water has lead solder connecting them. Maybe the feed a farm is buying was grown on contaminated soil or processed on contaminated equipment. And, of course, a main purpose of bone broth is drawing out as much as possible from the bones. If there are heavy metals in bones, they will make their way into the broth. This is especially true when you pre-soak with apple cider vinegar and simmer for 48 hours to make it thick and gelatinous (like our broth). And that led me to my second question --- Should I be concerned about every bone broth? Where is the fear coming from? Well... it seems it might be a little political. There was a study done in the UK in 2013 that scared a lot of people. It's titled "The Risk of Lead Contamination in Bone Broth Diets". This study found high levels of lead in organic chicken bone broth, which is quite concerning. And, in fact, this one study is still cited in articles written today! Let's dig a little deeper. Let's go farther than the short abstract. Here are the broths tested in the study and their test results for lead: (9.5 parts per billion): Broth made from tap water plus skin and cartilage(7.01 parts per billion): Broth made from tap water plus bones(2.3 parts per billion): Broth made from tap water plus meat(0.89 parts per billion): Tap water alone cooked for the same amount of time as a control. But, they only used organic chicken from one farm. And, there's zero information about that farm, their practices, the feed, and the broth recipe. Did they use vinegar or wine in the broth? Was the chicken's water contaminated with lead? What was the quality of the feed and the soil? Were the chickens raised indoors or outdoors? So many unanswered questions! All we get is that it was one "organic chicken" that created a lead issue with broth. Another curious thing is that the broth with skin and cartilage contained more lead than the broth made with just bones. Bones are where lead is stored, so why wouldn't the broth made with bones only contain more lead? It's an odd result. Moreover, the abstract of the study specifically called out "bone broth diets" like GAPS and paleo. They even go so far as to write, "In view of the dangers of lead consumption to the human body, we recommend that doctors and nutritionists take the risk of lead contamination into consideration when advising patients about bone broth diets." That's quite curious. Why are they worried about these diets? Are the researchers anti healing through food? Who funded the research? Is it political? My opinion? This study is not comprehensive. It does not speak to all bone broths. But it does cover a potential issue if the water or animals are overloaded with heavy metals. What I glean from this study is that we need more research. We don't need fear to spread and people to stop drinking broth from this one study. Regardless of whether the fear was fabricated or legit, we tested our bone broth anyway. After all, it's always nice to validate that your food choices are as clean as you think. For Miller's, here were my concerns before testing: What if there's mercury in the fishmeal in our chicken feed?What if the soil that our animals live on is contaminated?What is the well water that the broth is made with is contaminated?What if the Celtic sea salt has lots of heavy metals? We got the test results back. I was super excited. But, I was also confused. At face value, it appeared that our bone broth tested NEGATIVE for arsenic, cadmium, lead, and mercury. You can find the test results right here! You'll notice that, for every sample, the results are "<0.01 mg/kg" and "<0.02 mg/kg". I asked the lab what the "<" means. They said that it indicates their limit of quantitation (LOQ), the lowest concentration that can be accurately tested using the test procedure in that sample type. So the results simply report that none of the metals tested were found in the sample above the specific reporting LOQs. Whether or not they were present below this LOQ is information that is not provided by the test. When talking to the lab, I told them what we needed and assumed that this test would go below a 1 ppb. So, when the results came in, I assumed that a "mg/kg" was the same as a part per billion (ppb). Ummm... that math wasn't write! A "mg/kg" is actually a part per million (ppm). That means that the test we ran had results saying that the broth had less than 0.02 ppm (or 20 ppb) of arsenic and lead. And, it had less than 0.01 ppm (or 10 ppb) of cadmium and mercury. For some reference, the EPA says that less than 15 ppb of lead is safe in drinking water. Not saying that I agree, but it's a good reference point. These results are good. It means the broth definitely isn't overloaded with toxic heavy metals. But, it's not good enough!!! We need to test again! We really need to a lower LOQ. We need to know the results with an accuracy of as low as 1 ppb. It looks like the lab we sent the original samples to doesn't have an LOQ that low. So here I am on the hunt for a lab to do it again. As soon as I can, I'll send samples in again and paying for more expensive testing to get the info you deserve. Stay tuned! I hope to have the new results in by the end of April 2025. Do you worry about toxic metals (or other junk) in your food? Where have your fears stemmed from? I'd love to hear from you. You can comment below (no account required) or contact us 😊 ----- Sources The risk of lead contamination in bone broth dietsBone Broth and Lead Toxicity: Should You Be Concerned?Bone Broth and Lead Contamination: A Very Flawed Study in Medical HypothesesBone Broth, Collagen, and Toxic Metals: A Research Review

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Inspiration for packing yummy and healthy lunches

View the Packed Lunch Collection

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