How To Eat Paleo On the Go + Easy Snack Ideas

By Camille Macres in How To Articles

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Eating a clean, delicious Paleo diet that works for your life can be a bit of a challenge when you lead a busy life. The food options outside your own kitchen are often bleak. A little bit of planning and this here guide and you can be happily eating paleo wherever you go!

This is a sneak peak inside Paleo Cooking School, which includes over 70 step-by-step videos that will teach you the fundamentals of paleo cooking, in-depth lessons (like this one) that will help you overcome the hurdles to maintaining your paleo lifestyle and some of my favorite recipes from over a decade as a professional chef. If you’d like all of the recipes and videos that accompany this post, join us inside!

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1. Here are some great ideas for simple, portable Paleo-friendly snacks and meals. 

  • Nuts with fresh or dried fruit. If you opt for fresh, make sure you pack soft fruit in hard-cased containers so it doesn’t get mashed up. The dried fruit, nut and jerky packs from Epic Bars are yummy. The strawberries and other dried fruit from Steve’s Paleo Goods are to die for (here’s a discounted 5 variety pack)!
  • Ants on a log (celery, almond butter, and raisins)
  • Organic nitrate-free jerky. The New Primal and Epic Bars both have many tasty selections.
  • Hard boiled eggs
  • Organic lunch meat (make sure its nitrate and antibiotic-free)
  • Seaweed snacks. These are so yummy.
  • Kale chips. OMG I love these.
  • Veggie sticks with cauliflower hummus, guacamole, or baba ghanoush (eggplant dip)
  • Omelet Muffins (video below)
  • Energy Balls (video below) or a backup assortment from Paleo Treats (these are heaven in your mouth, let me tell you). 
  • Collard Wraps (video below)
  • Paleo Muffins. 

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2. Make sure to get a variety of things to transport your food that will keep it cold and un-smashed up. Here’s a couple I like:

3. A little bit of planning goes a long way.

Anytime I know I’m going to have a busy week away from home or going to be traveling, I plan and prep snacks in advance. This usually includes making a batch of muffins, another of omelet muffins or some hard-boiled eggs and cutting up veggies like carrots, celery cucumbers, bell peppers and portioning them in small bags. Then you can grab and go in the morning when you’re assembling lunches for the week. 

4. Here’s a couple things to avoid that seem healthy snack ideas, but aren’t so much:

  • Store-bought “healthy” energy bars: Not all are terrible, but you really need to inspect the ingredients. You know the first ingredient of a Tiger’s Milk Bar?!?! HIGH-FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP!!! And they sell those in health food stores! Its CRAZY!! Only buy bars made of real ingredients like nuts and dried fruit. Be especially careful for soy (Cliff Bars and Luna Bars have soy as their main protein).TRY INSTEAD: Cashew Ginger Bites in the video below in a big batch and freezing them. Or try Paleo Treats. These are so sinfully good and made purely with superfood ingredients.
  • Prepared Smoothies and Juices: Naked Juice, Bolthouse Farms and the like. These are LOADED with sugar and pasteurized, so the enzymes that would have been available had you have made this from scratch are lost.TRY INSTEAD: Suja brand juices are pretty good (just go for the lower sugar ones). Kombucha is even better as it has probiotics for a healthy belly. You can make kombucha at home for pennies compared to the store, too. Here’s a book to teach you.
  • Trail Mix: These are not all necessarily terrible, but avoid the ones with chocolate, peanuts and sugar-coated fruit (you would be surprised how many are…check ingredients). Its also very easy (as I’m sure you know) to eat an entire bag on auto-pilot! TRY INSTEAD: Paleo Treats or my hand-curated snack box from Barefoot Provisions.
  • Beef Jerky: Anything you find at a gas station or conventional supermarket is most likely not your friend. Read the ingredients. Unless it has salt, meat and spices as the ingredients, avoid like the plague. TRY INSTEAD:The New Primal and Epic Bars yummy options.

 

5. If you must eat fast food, here’s some better options:

  • Mexican: Burrito bowl with grilled veggies, meat, salsa and extra guacamole. I’m sure much of Chipotle’s marketing is a gimmick, but still a better option than many places.
  • Burger: Lettuce wrapped with bacon, avocado, dijon mustard and all the veggies. Hold the mayo, cheese and creamy sauces. I usually need 2 to fill me up. If you can find a place (there are several in SoCal now) that serves grass-fed beef, GO THERE!! Obviously fries are a no-go as they’re fried in nasty oil. Make your fried food at home with coconut oil, ghee, duck fat or bacon fat.
  • Indian & Thai: Veggie and Meat Curries without the rice. Also check to make sure there is just coconut milk in the creamy curries. Some places use dairy cream.

Other typical lunch spots: 

  • Salad with protein, avocado, dried fruit, nuts and an olive-oil based dressing (don’t assume a vinaigrette is olive oil, ask).
  • Grilled meat with veggies and a pesto, salsa, or guacamole on the side.
  • Clear soups without beans, noodles or rice.EVEN BETTER: Stock up on some portable paleo meals made by Pete’s Paleo. These can be pulled out of the freezer and used to keep other food cold in your cooler and then easily reheated for a super healthy meal. All of their ingredients are harvested the day before its made and sent to you and the meat is ethically raised. It really doesn’t get much better than that.

6. When in a foreign land, find thy health food store.

I’ve gotten really good and navigating the lay of the land when I’m going somewhere new. I’ve even been known to choose a hotel with a kitchenette in close proximity to a Whole Foods so I can make sure to find foods that will keep me going strong.

7. Here’s an episode of Camille’s Paleo Kitchen, “Paleo on the Go” to inspire you with recipes for Omelet Muffins, Easy Paleo Wraps and Cashew Ginger Bites.

 

I hope you’re inspired by this article that even if you are away from home a lot, you can still eat healthy paleo meals. If you’d like all of the recipes and videos included in this lesson, join Paleo Cooking School.