Forums: January 2010 Kickstart Forum Archive: eating vegan with kids
Created on: 01/03/10 01:30 AM Views: 2092 Replies: 9
pickeb21 Joined: 01/03/10 Posts: 5	eating vegan with kids Posted Sunday, January 3, 2010 at 1:30 AM I've been transitioning to vegan for a while, but my biggest obstacle is feeding my kids! They are not vegan, although lately they are eating a lot more vegan meals. My husband is vegetarian and doesn't complain about my vegan cooking, so he's not much of an obstacle. My 3 yr. old is a little picky, and my 16 mo. old is extremely picky. I'm finding it hard to produce healthy vegan meals that everybody will eat that don't contain much soy and aren't overly processed. Anyone else going through this?
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serenevannoy Joined: 12/28/09 Location: Oakland, CA Posts: 294	RE: eating vegan with kids Posted Sunday, January 3, 2010 at 1:37 AM I went through this when my kids were little. My strategy went like this: I bought divided plates (3 divisions). I put three healthy things on the plate, one in each division (my boy didn't like for his food to touch; the girl would eat anything. They're still that way 18 years later.) For example, roasted potatoes in one, applesauce or broccoli in the next, pieces of veggie burger in the third. (This is just an example; if we were having fried rice for dinner, maybe it would be fried rice + pea pods + a banana; whatever.) The rule was they could eat whichever thing they wanted, and have more of whatever they wanted more of, and I gave them NO DRAMA over not eating the stuff they didn't want. It worked like a charm. By doing this, we found out my boy liked green peppers and raw carrots and that's IT in the way of veggies, so I tried to include one of those in every meal. Serene Vannoy, Oakland, CA -- My daily Kickstart blog: http://serenecooking.livejournal.com/tag/kickstart
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elsa1028 Joined: 01/03/10 Posts: 3	RE: eating vegan with kids Posted Sunday, January 3, 2010 at 7:04 AM Hi! I'm going through the same thing with my kids. Serene's advice sounds like a great strategy. Right now I'm just trying out lots of recipes that I think my kids will eat, as I've only been vegan for 6 months myself. There are a couple of cookbooks, "Vegan Lunch Box" and "Vegan Lunch Box Around the World" that have some good kid-friendly recipes, and there is a great mac and "cheese" recipe on the Vegan Yum Yum blog: http://veganyumyum.com/2007/10/mac-and-cheese-cheeze-yeast/ The cookbook under the same name is great, too! I'll be interested to see what others post. It's an age old problem, no matter what foods you put in front of your kids! Good luck!
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elsa1028 Joined: 01/03/10 Posts: 3	RE: eating vegan with kids Posted Sunday, January 3, 2010 at 7:26 AM Hi, again. javascript:addSmiley(''); Now that I'm thinking about stuff my kids have eaten, I have a couple of other recipes that sometimes work for me. The cookbook "Veganomicon" has been an excellent resource and contains a bunch of recipes that my whole family has liked. One of the things that might work is to find vegan recipes that are similar to current family favorites - for example, if your kids really like the veggie chicken nuggets and you want to avoid processed foods/too much soy, you could try the chickpea cutlets, which you can make into flat patties or cut them into nugget shapes, or even cut with cookie cutters. We've also liked the "cheater baked beans" which are pretty easy. Also, my kids like to dip stuff, so you could try giving them veggies or pita bread and have them try hummus, guacamole, or other types of dips. I also got a great tip from a nutritionist who said that you could use veggie baby food as a dipping sauce for things - not much quicker or easier than that! Anyway, I'm done rambling now. If you don't have access to Veganomicon - check out the author's website: http://www.theppk.com/ which may have some of the recipes or others you might enjoy. Also, the forums on the PPK are a very friendly place to get new ideas and information.
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mommyof2nc Joined: 12/31/09 Location: North Carolina Posts: 172	RE: eating vegan with kids Posted Sunday, January 3, 2010 at 7:38 AM My husband and son (4) eat meat but my daughter (3) doesn't eat meat but is also super picky, so it's a challenge to find things she'll eat sometimes. Lately, she's even been on a "no-fruit" kick which is really frustrating. She really likes only a handful of things right now so I try to sneak fruits and veggies into her diet - for example, I make pumpkin or banana bread (vegan) for the kids to snack on, add pureed veggies to pretty much anything, etc. I think we got spoiled with my son because he'll eat almost anything. LOL
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citykitty Joined: 01/03/10 Posts: 26	RE: eating vegan with kids Posted Sunday, January 3, 2010 at 5:22 PM make the foods fun and always give them a choice between two things. that's what works for me and my kids (ages 4 and 5). they love celery stix with peanutbutter...baby carrots with fruit dip...and banana boats (cut a banana in half and let them choose the toppings, like pb, raisins, cinnamon, etc.) also if you present a new food and they balk at it, re-introduce it in a week or so. that usually works for me. best of luck!
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pickeb21 Joined: 01/03/10 Posts: 5	RE: eating vegan with kids Posted Sunday, January 3, 2010 at 6:14 PM Serene, that is a good strategy! I think I will try that. Elsa, I love Veganomicon and Vegan Lunchbox! I'm still finding my favorites among them. If you get a chance, could you let me know what your favorite recipes are out of the cookbooks? Sometimes it's overwhelming trying to figure out what would be good to try. We have not tried the chickpea cutlets but I will definitely give them a try knowing that you like them.
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elsa1028 Joined: 01/03/10 Posts: 3	RE: eating vegan with kids Posted Monday, January 4, 2010 at 6:50 AM citykitty - I love the banana boat idea! pickeb21 - out of Vegan Lunchbox (haven't made too much from this yet, but): *veggie dogs rolled up in the dough with wheat germ - I know this is probably a little more processed than you want, but whole family really liked it *granola recipe (Greg's granola?) - homemade granola = awesome *sunflower sandwich - half english muffin with veg. cream cheese, dried pineapple, raisins and sunflower seeds - cute and yummy! Veganomicon: *chickpea cutlets *corn and edamame sesame salad - super easy and everyone loves it! *snobby joes *cheater baked beans *southwestern corn pudding - kids loved this! *lower fat banana bread ...this is just the stuff my kids liked - the whole book is really great!
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mommyof2nc Joined: 12/31/09 Location: North Carolina Posts: 172	RE: eating vegan with kids Posted Tuesday, January 5, 2010 at 7:43 AM I forgot to say that my kids both also love hummus (homemade) and peanut butter granola that I make with just oats, brown rice syrup, peanut butter and a little bit of vegan margarine. They love it and it's hard to keep in the house because even my meat eating husband loves it.
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scvegan Joined: 01/05/10 Posts: 6	RE: eating vegan with kids Posted Tuesday, January 5, 2010 at 11:02 AM Lots of great tips here--thanks! Kids just went back to school today, so am back to trying to find things to pack in lunches. The granola sounds like a great snack item to send, and the recipes in Veganomicon sound great. I am trying to stay away from processed foods (like Chik'n nuggets) as much as possible. I'll have to look at Vegan Lunchbox again; my impression the first time I checked it out was that much of it was labor-intensive. Has anyone else had the experience of getting resistance from their pediatrician about going vegan? Our doc, whom I really like, was not happy about the no-dairy thing. She is concerned about calcium intake and B deficiency. I assured her that the kids drink calcium-fortified oj (and some almond milk--they don't really like it, or soy milk, or rice milk...)and take a multivitamin with B6 & 12 every day. If anyone has ideas about resources I could refer her to, I'd appreciate it.
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