A Week of Toddler Lunches

A Week of Toddler Lunches

(and why I don't think I'll ever have to say, "you can't leave the table until you eat all your veggies!")

Lunchtime is one of my favorite times of the day. Not only because I get to eat food....but because my son really loves playing in the kitchen with pots, pans and real food (as opposed to plastic food in his play kitchen). Ever since he started eating solid foods, we've been making lunches together. He's either on my hip looking down over the cooking process or he's standing on his stool chopping or pouring or concocting right along side me. 

This time together has, i'm sure, had a big impact on his relationship with food and his little toddler palate. We are a whole-foods, plant-based home, so the word "veggies" is pretty much the same as the word "food." If we're sitting down to a meal, you can pretty much bet that veggies are playing a starring role. That's what we eat, so that's what my son knows. 

Much different than the way I grew up: meat, starch and a veggie on the plate. And the veggie was never the star but rather an afterthought that is only there because we have to eat our veggies ...know what I mean?? 

Nutrition is so important to all bodies, but especially growing bodies that are being exposed to different germs for the first time. Each meal is an opportunity to pack their little tummies full of good vitamins and minerals, proteins, fats and carbohydrates that will help them to feel their best and fight off germs.

I took a picture of our lunches last week: Monday through Friday. 

 Monday

Veg curry (recipe found here) with added peas

 Tuesday

brown rice, french green lentils, butternut squash and spinach with a homemade sweet miso sauce found here. (mine was over lettuce)

 Wednesday

This was a to-go lunch packed into a tupperware: chickpea salad in tortilla with orange slices

Thursday

steamed sweet potato, french green lentils, steamed carrots, steamed beets, roasted zucchini with peanut sauce found here. cashew cheese on toast.

 Friday

roasted brussels sprouts, green beans and potato over quinoa with sweet miso sauce (recipe found here), sunflower and pepita seeds

These lunches come together pretty quickly with a little prepping done once a week during nap time. Here's an example of a prepping hour and what the fridge looks like. All yummy foods at your finger tips!

cooking: brown rice, french green lentils, veggie stock. already roasted butternut squash and zucchini. up next: steam the beets and wash the beet greens.

the fridge: everything easy to see in clear containers with labels.

Vegan Spaghetti with Meat Sauce

 Even vegans like a little meat sauce on their spaghetti.

Toddler edition/Mommy edition (only difference: I cut up his noodles)

I started something new a couple weeks ago. Instead of just planning the menu each week based on what sounds good/looks good at the grocery store, I broke down the days into themes. Check it out:

Monday = Taco night

Tuesday = Indian night

Wednesday = Italian night

Thursday = Grain bowl night

Friday = American night

The weekends are when Chuck and I cook together, so those are a little more creative and spur-of-the-moment. It's been pretty fun having these themes! Taco night can mean anything from lettuce wraps to enchiladas; Indian night could be a lentil loaf or a quick and easy curry...etc. Each night gives me the flexibility to either do a super quick meal (spaghetti) or a more time-consuming meal (stuffed shells or lasagna).

Spaghetti is a go-to quick and easy meal for a lot of us right? And it can be pretty boring...but adding just one ingredient will change a simple tomato sauce into a nutritious and delicious meat sauce! Walnut meat! It gives a really nice meaty bite with each fork full and provides protein and omega-3s.  Check out how easy this is:

recipe:

Your favorite spaghetti sauce (or make your own with this recipe)

3/4 cup to 1 cup chopped walnuts

2 big handfuls spinach (optional)

heat up sauce in sauce pan. Add chopped walnuts and spinach. stir until spinach wilts a bit. Add favorite spaghetti noodle. Enjoy. 

BROWNIE BITES and WHY I went vegan

It's my 6-months-vegan anniversary (yay!) and I thought I'd celebrate by sharing two things:  

1.) The most delicious, nutritious, feel good Carob Beet Brownie Bites that you and your kiddos have ever tasted. and 2.) The story behind why I started eating vegan

First things first! Let's see the Brownies!!

 mmmmm. soooo goooood. I got hooked on beet brownies after Kate Barry posted a picture of them years and years ago on instagram and then forwarded me a recipe. I will use any excuse to insert vegetables into....anything, but in the case of beet brownies, the beets actually make them richer and more moist....so there's a reason for this vegetable-in-my-brownies madness!! They are a great little snack nibble for kiddos-a quick bite of energy!

 

Recipe

    -3/4 cup whole wheat flour

    -1/4 cup carob powder

    -2 large beets (about 1cup)

    -3/4 cup pitted dates  *see note below

    -1/4 cup maple syrup

    -2 Tablespoon flaxseed ground into flax meal

    -1/4 cup coconut oil, melted

    -1 teaspoon baking powder

    -1 teaspoon vanilla

    -1/4 teaspoon salt

    -1/4 cup carob chips 

-*If your dates are leathery and dry instead of gooey, soak them in hot water while beets are steaming (20min). Drain dates before putting them in the food processor/blender.

-Peel beets and cut into 1 inch chunks (tip: if you peel under running water, you won’t dye your hands red). Place beets in steamer and steam for about 20 min. You want them very fork tender (another tip: buy beets with the greens still on and save those greens! blend them up in a smoothie or saute with some veggies. So many nutrients in there).

-Place steamed beets and dates into a food processor or blender. Blend them up into a paste.

the beet/date paste

-Preheat oven to 350 and spray a 8x8 pan with nonstick cooking spray.

-In a small bowl add ground flax and 6T hot water. Set aside.

- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder carob powder and salt. Set aside.

-Take your flax bowl and whisk together flax and water until gelatinous (About 30 seconds).

-In a medium bowl, mix the beet/date mixture, maple syrup, coconut oil, flax and vanilla until combined.  Add the dry ingredients and mix until combined.  Mix in the carob chips.  Transfer batter into pan and spread out. Cook at 350 for 25 minutes. Let cool before slicing up into little cubes. ENJOY! Keep these chewy little delicious nuggets of goodness in an airtight container in the fridge.

Why are they "nutritious, feel good" brownie bites?? 

There is no refined sugar to be found in these brownies. Dates and maple syrup are the sweetener with all of their wonderful natural minerals. 1 cup of Beets! Beets are a good source of vitamin C and are rich in antioxidants. Carob powder instead of cocoa powder or chocolate which means no caffeine. Also, carob contains a higher concentration of essential nutrients, including thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, vitamin B6 and folate than chocolate.

Ok, now for the next item on the agenda...WHY I WENT VEGAN:

I have always been a big lover of fruits and veggies and I used to think that I ate very healthy. I mostly ate white meat with the occasional red meat thrown in there if it was sourced well. I ate the meat protein as the main part of the meal with lots of veggies on the side...maybe a starch on the side as well....the way most of us grew up eating. I always kept a healthy weight while eating this way. The big change came after the birth of my son. I started looking at what was healthy and natural for our bodies in a different light. Breastfeeding started the change and horrible postpartum insomnia completed the change to a vegan diet.

Breastfeeding brought out a greater understanding and respect for what it means to produce milk for our babies. I was and still am able to provide milk for my son, milk that my body is making especially for him. Why would I cut off the milk supply that I am making especially for him, and start to give him milk from a cow that was meant for her calf?! I know some women have really great reasons for choosing/needing not to breastfeed, and for that reason have respect for the science behind using animal milk to nourish our human babies. If cows milk was being produced for humans in a more humane way rather than through factory farming, and perhaps only being produced for babies age 0-2 that need the supplemental milk, I think the big picture would look a lot different. The way it is now...It's a really ugly, scary picture. I started to look into milk production a little more. I read, watched documentaries, even visited a milk farm here in Virginia. Without getting into it too much...it's just not something I can play a part in anymore. That means no milk, no cheese, no yogurt, no icecream, no butter for this girl anymore.

 So, at the same time that my feelings for milk were changing, I was experiencing horrible postpartum insomnia. Don't be surprised if you've never heard of this...I hadn't either!! My month old son was sleeping like a champ, practically through the night from day 2, and I was going weeks without even a minute of sleep. It was torture. I was fortunate not so suffer from any postpartum depression. Perhaps the exact opposite: postpartum euphoria. I was full of joy with this new baby...I just couldn't sleep a wink to save my life! My heart would start beating really fast as it got closer to bedtime and I would get anxious and sometimes hysterical, for no reason at all. Anxiety. Awful. Perhaps there was a pill that could have had me sleeping like a baby in no time at all, but a breastfeeding mother cannot take that kind of medication.  I'm not one to take medication anyway...I had a childhood with a daily Rx to Ritalin. Those are pretty heavy Rx drugs out there these days and I think they mask the problem and change who you are....but that's another story.

The same documentaries I was watching and articles I was reading about the dairy industry lead me to other articles and studies about animal protein. How it may not be healthy for human bodies in this day and age (The China Study; Forks Over Knives) and how it may not be healthy for our planet. I read about how dairy can possibly exacerbate anxiety. How consuming animal proteins can throw your hormones off, affecting your mental health. I decided to try eliminating all animal products from my diet in an effort to combat this anxiety driven insomnia. I told my husband I was going to eat vegan for one month and see if anything changed. That was six months ago...I've never looked back. I would say about 90% of my anxiety disappeared within the first two weeks. I never felt so good in my life. Hair, skin, body, mind, everything. Never felt better.

Sprouting Lentils

Sprouted Lentils

This doesn't really have to do with kids...Only on a rare occasion will Owen snack on these, but do you know about sprouted lentils??! I sure didn't...until recently. This is one of those things where I feel like, "Gah! Why didn't someone tell me about this sooner?!"

You may have guessed this by now, but i'm a huge advocate for the nutritional power of lentils. They are cheap, easy, high in protein and iron, and can taste really delicious. But did you know that if you sprout your lentils, you change the nutritional profile? It's true. Sprouting lentils starts the germination process which increases the amount of vitamins and minerals in the lentils and produces vitamin C, which is not present in dried lentils. You can eat sprouted lentils raw (they taste kind of like alfalfa sprouts) or you can use them to cook as you would dried lentils. Try putting raw sprouted lentils on salads or sandwiches. Try using sprouted lentils in a curry (use less water and cook for less time).

sprouted lentils over chickpea salad on spinach

 To sprout lentils:
Soak any amount of lentils (i usually do 1/2 cup at a time) in water over night. Drain and rinse and place in a mason jar. Cover with a cloth or paper towel and a rubber band or the ring part of the mason jar top. Lay jar on its side. You're going to leave it like this for a few days, but about once a day, rinse the lentils and drain and return to jar. Once the sprouts get to about 1/4 inch, they're ready to eat!

Kids Veg'n Nuggets

 Veg'n Nuggets

This is a recipe that will be there for you when you're busy/running behind/have a child pulling at your pant leg screaming...and you need to get a healthy lunch in their bellies in a HURRY!

It is a delicious recipe for nuggets that are packed with nutrition and fun to eat! They are crunchy and sturdy and perfect for dipping. They freeze well, so they can be ready in a flash for a quick, healthy meal. This recipe makes about 30 nuggets so that's more than 7 meals that will be ready and waiting in the freezer! It takes a little prep work, but this can be done in stages (see recipe below) or all at once. The trick is to just steam the veggies until fork tender and then cool them quickly in an ice bath. You don't want them to get mushy. The nuggets are tasty and simple on their own, or can be dipped in all kinds of dipping sauces: peanut, tomato, avocado, orange-miso....go nuts!

Ingredients:

 1 small head broccoli separated into little trees

4 large carrots peeled and cut lengthwise and in half

4 small fingerling potatoes cut into quarters NOT peeled (about 1 cup)

1 can garbanzo beans drained and rinsed

1/2 cup raw walnuts chopped up

2 T flax seed, ground into flax meal
1 cup breadcrumbs

1 plus 1/2 T nutritional yeast 

1 plus 1/2 t garlic powder

1/2 t onion powder

1/4 t salt

Phase 1 Prep (15 min):

-Spread walnuts out on a baking sheet and bake at 325* for about 5-6 minutes

-Fill large bowl full of ice water and set aside

-Get a large steaming pot ready, place potatoes and carrots on the bottom, each on their own side, and the broccoli on top. Steam for about 5 minutes for the broccoli, or until just fork tender and about 7 minutes for the potato and carrots, or until just fork tender (you don't want them to get too soft).

-Transfer steamed veggies to ice water bowl and submerge. Drain and transfer to another bowl.  

**If this is all the time you have right now, place walnuts in airtight container once they cool and set aside. Cover slightly steamed veggies and place in fridge until you can complete next two phases.

Phase 2 Prep (5 min):

 -Place garbanzo beans in food processor and pulse a few times until most are chopped up a bit, some beans will still be whole, and that's ok. Transfer beans into a large bowl. (This phase can be done with a potato masher if you don't have a food processor (or don't want to get your food processor dirty) see picture below).

-place slightly steamed veggies in food processor and pulse a few times until chopped up a bit. You don't want to over process, you want small chunks of veg. Transfer veg to bowl with beans. 

-Add walnuts, nutritional yeast, garlic powder, onion powder and salt. Mix.

**This is also a good stopping place if you can't finish the final phase right now. Just cover bowl and place in fridge until you can finish the nuggets.

For phase 2, you can replace food processor with potato masher. Follow same steps: first garbanzo beans, then veg. Only smash up. Leave small chunks.

Phase 3 Prep (10 min to make nuggets plus 30 min bake time):

-In small bowl add 6T hot water to the 2T ground flaxseed. Whisk together.

-Spread breadcrumbs out on a plate.

-Generously spray a cookie sheet with cooking spray.

-Set up your nugget-forming area by lining up nugget mixture bowl, flax bowl, breadcrumbs plate and cookie sheet.

-Start forming nuggets by taking a little over 1T of nugget mixture and forming into rectangles. Dip rectangle into flaxseed bowl and shake off excess flax mixture. Dip into breadcrumbs on both sides, then line up on cookie sheet.

Clockwise from top right: nugget mixture, cookie sheet, bread crumbs, flaxseed bowl.

-Bake at 375* for 30 minutes, flipping the nuggets after 15 minutes

 To Freeze:

Cool completely. Put nuggets in freezer-zip bag and then place bag in air tight container. They will last for months.

To eat from freezer:

350* for 12 minutes

NUTRITION:

Broccoli is a super food. So many vitamins and minerals...if our kids are eating broccoli each day, we are definitely doing something right! Fingerling potatoes have their nutrients concentrated in the peel, that's why we keep it on. Vitamin C and potassium as well as carbs to keep our kids fueled. The garbanzo beans and the walnuts are our protein source in these super-healthy nuggets. Garbanzo beans also contain vitamins and minerals and significantly boost your intake of manganese and folate. Walnuts also have those awesome Omega-3s.

Almond Milk and Almond Meal

 Almond Milk

Ahhhhhh Almond milk. So easy to make and so delicious. 

If you are the kind of person that uses a lot of nuts in your daily cooking (like me) and you buy your nuts in bulk, this is definitely the way to get your milk fix. One cup of almonds makes over 4 cups of milk so again, if you're buying nuts in bulk, that comes out to be cheaper than buying the watery tasting almond milk you see on the grocery store shelves. PLUS there's the convenience factor. There's a lot to be said for the peace of mind you feel when you've run out of milk and need a splash in your coffee or a 1/2 cup for the soup you're making right now! ...you just grab your soaking nuts and blend them up and PRESTO! milk!

That brings me to another motto we have in our kitchen: Always be Soaking. 

Our kitchen counter constantly looks like we're conducting multiple middle school science projects at once. Between the cashews that are soaking for a quick velvety sauce, the sprouting lentils, the soaking beans and the almonds....there is a constant rotation of questionable looking mason jars on the counter.

RECIPE:

Sweetened Almond Milk:

1 cup almonds

2 plump dates (if your pitted dates are leathery, soak in hot water for an hour to re-plump)
1/4 t vanilla (more if you really like vanilla milk. I only like a hint of vanilla)
Small pinch cinnamon (a little goes a long way in this recipe)
Pinch of salt

you'll also need something to strain with: nut milk bag like this one or cheese cloth work best.

Unsweetened Almond Milk:

1 cup almonds

pinch of salt

Soak almonds in a bowl of water overnight. If you don't have that much time, I've made almond milk after soaking 4 hours and it still tasted great. After soak, drain almonds and add to blender with 4.5 cups water and the rest of the ingredients. (If you don't have a high powered blender like a Vitamix, use 3.5-4 cups water. A lower powered blender doesn't quite pulverize the nuts like a high powered.) 

Blend it on high for a couple minutes. You'll see the change from water to milk pretty quickly and it'll foam up a bit. Pour milk through strainer into large container and squeeze out all the liquid. Keep in refrigerator for a week to a week and a half in an airtight container. 

I usually do a batch of both sweet and unsweetened every couple weeks because I like them for different reasons....I like sweet in my coffee and oatmeal, unsweetened in recipes....and my 1 year old son likes them both equally for a special "milk juice" snack! The almond flavor when your make your own just doesn't compare to the store bought milks.

BUT WHAT DO I DO WITH ALL THIS ALMOND MEAL??

haha. 

You jump for joy because you are saving even more money!!

I use almond meal in pancakes, crumbles, cookies....I substitute about 25-50% almond meal in place of regular flour in these items.  I also bake it into our weekly loaves of sandwich bread by using the almond meal in place of the quinoa or oat flour in this recipe. The bread comes out dense and nutty. delicious!

RECIPE:

Almond Meal

spread out the almond meal you have leftover in your nut milk strainer onto a cookie sheet. bake in the oven at 200* for two hours. this will dry it out into the larger clumps you see in the picture above. then whiz it through a food processor to create the fine flour texture. store in an airtight container in pantry or in fridge.

NUTRITIONAL INFO:

Almonds do contain a good amount of Calcium, like you would expect to have in a glass of milk. The milks you buy in stores are fortified to contain vitamin D and added Calcium among other things....so obviously the milk you're making at home does not have those additives. The fact is, human beings do not need milk on a daily basis in order to maintain proper levels of Calcium and vitamin D. We eat Calcium in all types of food throughout the day (collard greens, broccoli, sesame seeds...) and do not need to rely on milk for our main calcium source. There are certain ages in your life during different developmental stages that your body requires more calcium and vitamin D (like children under age 2, teens ages 14-18) so it's important to do a check every now and again to make sure needs are being met. Plant sources of Calcium are more easily absorbed into the body than animal sources.

Granola and "yogurt"

Homemade Granola and "yogurt"

After switching to a completely vegan diet, there are definitely some old standards that I miss...usually around breakfast time. Eggs and yogurt were my regular go-to's in the morning. They were yummy, healthy (in a non-vegan mind) and so easy. Now my breakfast is usually a big green drink and either oatmeal or waffles or a couple of bananas and a handful of nuts (if I'm short on time or feeling lazy). However, recently my husband dropped most dairy from his diet as well, and he is going through the no egg, no yogurt blues....so with the help of some vegan friends, we have a new morning standard in our house! Both the "yogurt" and Granola are so easy it's kind of funny how little effort they take! Make each at the beginning of the week, and have breakfast ready to go each morning!

Owen's yogurt and granola breakfast with stawberries

RECIPES:
the "yogurt" is actually Oh She Glows Pudding recipe found in her book. It's simply chia seeds and homemade almond milk (or whatever non-dairy milk you prefer) mixed with a little sweetener. You just mix up all ingredients and put in fridge over night. YUM. She has an equally yummy chia recipe on her blog found here.
If you have not heard of Oh She Glows yet, pause now and google. Her cookbook is totally worth the $$.

Yogurt:

2 cups almond milk

6 T chia seeds

2 T maple syrup

1t vanilla

whisk together all ingredients in a bowl vigorously for about 1 minute. let sit for 2 minutes. whisk vigorously again for 1 minute. Pour mix into one large mason jar or a few smaller mason jars, screw on lids and place in refrigerator. Check on the jars after 5-10 minutes and if you see the chia seeds have settled to the bottom half of the jar, shake up the jar. this will evenly distribute the chia again for the perfect consistency. Let jars sit in fridge overnight. This batch is about 4-5 servings.

The Granola recipe is from some vegan friends here in Charlottesville that run a blog called VeganScratch.com. There are many great granola recipes out there, but this one is so simple and easy and DELICIOUS!

Granola:

3 cups Oats

1.5 cups chopped nuts (I use walnuts, almonds, pecans and sunflowerseeds)

1/2 cup shredded coconut

1/4 cup maple syrup

1/4 cup canola oil

1/2 t salt

mix all ingredients together in large bowl and spread out on baking sheet. cook in 300* oven for 30min, then turn oven off and let sit in over for another 15min.

NUTRITION INFO:
Chia seeds are one of the best plant sources of Omega 3s plus they contain fiber, antioxidants, and they can be easily digested without being ground up or chewed up!

Granola tastes so great and contains one of my favorite ingredients to start the day: OATS! All that fiber and those great carbs to energize you the right way. Oats are low on the glycemic index, which is a ranking of how carbs affect your blood sugar levels. This means your body digests oats slowly, keeping you filled up with a nice and healthy, mellow energy.