Paleo Picnic: Have your cake & eat it too!

Today our family decided to go to a local state park for some fun, relaxing time outside together. Part of the plan included lunch. Normally we would have just planned to grab lunch out after our excursion and I can tell you that it likely would NOT have been remotely healthy (although we MAY have chosen the “healthiest” item on the menu, you might know that usually that item is still FAR from healthy or good for you).

Instead of doing this, I decided to put in some extra effort and pack a healthy and nutrient dense (but VERY YUMMY) picnic lunch for everyone.

It was a hit!

Although spending that extra hour or so in the kitchen while everyone else watched TV and socialized over pie last night wasn’t the most fun I have ever had, and I gladly would have taken a seat on the couch and kicked my feet up after my workout, hosting family in town, two kids and a labor-intensive dinner, I was glad that I put in the work and time to pack this Paleo picnic.

It proved both to me and my family that healthy is both delicious, worth the time and energy it takes to provide it and capable of doing the same things the non-healthy food does (like packing up and bringing along for a picnic or satisfying us).

Here is what I packed for our Paleo Picnic lunch today:

Mixed Fruit (raspberries, blackberries & red grapes), Celery & Carrot sticks, Curry Chicken Salad with celery, pecans and grapes and plain chicken salad with celery and pecans, and deviled eggs. 

If I had to guess, the most missed thing by the others at the picnic was potato chips (I did not miss them actually, and that is saying a LOT – I used to be able to put away a whole bag of Lay’s by myself – although I shared if I had to). Today though, I didn’t miss them, I just knew that the others probably did. And I was right. BUT… that fruit salad was good and they/we ate it ALL. Had potato chips been there… it wouldn’t have ALL been eaten – if it would have been eaten at all!

I, for one THOROUGHLY enjoyed my wonderful curry chicken salad – oh my goodness it was so yum!

So, you see, it can be done. And well.

I am looking forward to another picnic outing – because not only was this food delish, it made me feel good to provide a wholesome and healthy meal alongside our fun – we didn’t have to give up one for the other – we were able to have both. We had our cake and ate it to (in the most figurative sense you can imagine) but you get my point.