Easy vegan lunches for a toddler? Help!
July 29, 2019 11:44 AM Subscribe
The kid is starting a new daycare next week and we need to pack their food for them since the center's meal plan does not have a vegan option (vegetarian, but too much reliance on dairy to substitute one item a day, so we have to opt out). It's a nut free center. I would like to expand the kid's lunch and snack options, so help!
We have packed the kid's lunch/snacks at the current home-based daycare since they started eating solid foods. The kid is used to eating the food packed for them and doesn't really try to take food from other kids'.
Their lunch has mostly been leftovers - rice and stuff or pasta of some kind - and fruit and veggies. The morning snack has defaulted to peanut butter sandwiches or a toasted waffle. Afternoon snack is often pretzels or crackers and fruit. They also have a supply of fruit and veg pouches to supplement and fill gaps.
I'm hoping to mix up their lunches to expand textures, make it easier to pack (and be less reliant on left overs) but still conform to nutritional needs and the nut-free restriction. For instance, I would love to send my kid to daycare with yogurt, but they will only tolerate one kind of almond-milk yogurt and refuse to eat the soy or coconut based yogurt.
I'm familiar with some of the vegan kid bento blogs, but they are a lot of work. Other than all the hummus and sun butter, how should we feed the kid year round?
We have packed the kid's lunch/snacks at the current home-based daycare since they started eating solid foods. The kid is used to eating the food packed for them and doesn't really try to take food from other kids'.
Their lunch has mostly been leftovers - rice and stuff or pasta of some kind - and fruit and veggies. The morning snack has defaulted to peanut butter sandwiches or a toasted waffle. Afternoon snack is often pretzels or crackers and fruit. They also have a supply of fruit and veg pouches to supplement and fill gaps.
I'm hoping to mix up their lunches to expand textures, make it easier to pack (and be less reliant on left overs) but still conform to nutritional needs and the nut-free restriction. For instance, I would love to send my kid to daycare with yogurt, but they will only tolerate one kind of almond-milk yogurt and refuse to eat the soy or coconut based yogurt.
I'm familiar with some of the vegan kid bento blogs, but they are a lot of work. Other than all the hummus and sun butter, how should we feed the kid year round?
My kids ate cubed raw tofu for years, plain. Yours probably has more sophisticated tastes so you could marinate, bake, and/or provide dipping sauces.
Beans with salad dressings of various kinds remains a staple.
Burritos, or bean quesadillas.
I also made them whole grain cookies with ground sunflower seeds and molasses, providing all sorts of hippie nutrition in a palatable way.
posted by metasarah at 12:00 PM on July 29, 2019
Beans with salad dressings of various kinds remains a staple.
Burritos, or bean quesadillas.
I also made them whole grain cookies with ground sunflower seeds and molasses, providing all sorts of hippie nutrition in a palatable way.
posted by metasarah at 12:00 PM on July 29, 2019
Unless it's a choking hazard, edamame.
Are you familiar with Tofurkey slices? They make a wonderful sandwich with lettuce and tomato. There are other kinds of veg deli slices (check the ingredients on the Tofurkey ones too - not sure whether they have eggs, but they probably don't).
posted by amtho at 12:03 PM on July 29, 2019
Are you familiar with Tofurkey slices? They make a wonderful sandwich with lettuce and tomato. There are other kinds of veg deli slices (check the ingredients on the Tofurkey ones too - not sure whether they have eggs, but they probably don't).
posted by amtho at 12:03 PM on July 29, 2019
This is a pouch too, but the Ella's Vegetable and Lentil Bake is pretty substantial and has 4g of protein. The Veggie Bean Feast is another one. These would be good over rice too.
You could vary meals by introducing different grains like farro or quinoa. I find it helpful to make my own chart of ingredients so it's easy to mix and match, kind of like this or this (minus the meat).
posted by beyond_pink at 12:11 PM on July 29, 2019
You could vary meals by introducing different grains like farro or quinoa. I find it helpful to make my own chart of ingredients so it's easy to mix and match, kind of like this or this (minus the meat).
posted by beyond_pink at 12:11 PM on July 29, 2019
The yogurt, you might try blending some of the yogurt with a non-nut-based milk and fruit to make a smoothie.
My kid is weirdly resistant to normal sandwiches, but would happily eat a rolled up tortilla with some combo of hummus, avocado, beans, veggie lunch meat, and salad veggies (cukes/carrots/tomatoes).
For some texture/flavor variation, roasted seaweed and/or roasted chickpeas? Tofu baked or fried to be quite firm is good too. If your kid likes soup, you can make a hot Thermos of soup, although that never quite worked with our morning routine.
We mostly did leftovers, doing things like setting aside a serving if we were adding peanut sauce. That plus a cup with cut fresh veg or fruit was a good combination of low-work and healthy enough. When we didn’t have enough leftovers we’d make a hummus rollup or sun butter and jelly sandwich (I’m veggie but we had plenty of vegan lunches at that age, and actually still do at elementary school age.)
posted by tchemgrrl at 12:12 PM on July 29, 2019 [1 favorite]
My kid is weirdly resistant to normal sandwiches, but would happily eat a rolled up tortilla with some combo of hummus, avocado, beans, veggie lunch meat, and salad veggies (cukes/carrots/tomatoes).
For some texture/flavor variation, roasted seaweed and/or roasted chickpeas? Tofu baked or fried to be quite firm is good too. If your kid likes soup, you can make a hot Thermos of soup, although that never quite worked with our morning routine.
We mostly did leftovers, doing things like setting aside a serving if we were adding peanut sauce. That plus a cup with cut fresh veg or fruit was a good combination of low-work and healthy enough. When we didn’t have enough leftovers we’d make a hummus rollup or sun butter and jelly sandwich (I’m veggie but we had plenty of vegan lunches at that age, and actually still do at elementary school age.)
posted by tchemgrrl at 12:12 PM on July 29, 2019 [1 favorite]
I actually often cook up something like mujadarah or other beans and rice dishes and then reheat in the morning, pop in thermoses. So I am pro-leftover-type lunch. Some other things that have worked well with my kids at various ages:
- roll ups with tortillas - can be mashed beans with grated vegetables in the middle, hummus and roast veggies, butternut squash spread and grated carrots or cucumber spears...basically, take a favourite dip/spread, pair with something for crunch, roll up
- we do a kind of calzone/pie by rolling out pizza dough, filling with sauce and toppings, and then baking. I can even freeze these and pull them out. Sometimes I use leftovers in them, so, for example, vegan chili or a chickpea curry as the filling. On a similar note, I use my breadmaker on the dough setting to make a bread dough and then shape into rolls of various kinds; if you do faux meat you can make 'ham' rolls etc.
- roasted chickpeas are a pretty awesome snack, we do all kind of flavours
- savoury or sweet pancakes are pretty good too; I make them into 'soldiers' (cut into strips) and provide a dipping sauce/jam on the side
posted by warriorqueen at 12:20 PM on July 29, 2019
- roll ups with tortillas - can be mashed beans with grated vegetables in the middle, hummus and roast veggies, butternut squash spread and grated carrots or cucumber spears...basically, take a favourite dip/spread, pair with something for crunch, roll up
- we do a kind of calzone/pie by rolling out pizza dough, filling with sauce and toppings, and then baking. I can even freeze these and pull them out. Sometimes I use leftovers in them, so, for example, vegan chili or a chickpea curry as the filling. On a similar note, I use my breadmaker on the dough setting to make a bread dough and then shape into rolls of various kinds; if you do faux meat you can make 'ham' rolls etc.
- roasted chickpeas are a pretty awesome snack, we do all kind of flavours
- savoury or sweet pancakes are pretty good too; I make them into 'soldiers' (cut into strips) and provide a dipping sauce/jam on the side
posted by warriorqueen at 12:20 PM on July 29, 2019
my kid loves Chickpeas & Corn which is (wait for it) one can of drained chickpeas + 1 can of drained corn. For a little one that'll probably be a week's worth of mix. Keeps ok in the fridge a few days so that's fine. No work; easy finger food (or eat with spoon, whatever), complete protein, shelf-stable pantry staples. Also takes well to fresh additions like diced tomato, celery, pickle, jicama, etc. Can sub or add black beans.
posted by fingersandtoes at 12:38 PM on July 29, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by fingersandtoes at 12:38 PM on July 29, 2019 [2 favorites]
My kids preferred (almost) the same lunch every day all year round, for several years. Just to say, you might not have to work too hard with the variation. I'm sure you get a lovely varied dinner, and leftovers from that sounds great.
I don't really remember what my eldest liked at that age, but my youngest just loved pasta salads and complained if I gave her anything else to eat, though she ate everything. For snacks she had fruits and veg. One thing she loved for snacks were if we had baked homemade pizza together, and she could have one or two of her "own" pizzas.
I think that a big thing for her about pasta-salads rather than sandwiches was texture. Pasta-salad-sogginess was nice (to her), while sandwiches were either soggy in a bad way or dry.
posted by mumimor at 2:43 PM on July 29, 2019
I don't really remember what my eldest liked at that age, but my youngest just loved pasta salads and complained if I gave her anything else to eat, though she ate everything. For snacks she had fruits and veg. One thing she loved for snacks were if we had baked homemade pizza together, and she could have one or two of her "own" pizzas.
I think that a big thing for her about pasta-salads rather than sandwiches was texture. Pasta-salad-sogginess was nice (to her), while sandwiches were either soggy in a bad way or dry.
posted by mumimor at 2:43 PM on July 29, 2019
If you have a reasonable-sized freezer, batch cook and freeze.
We’re vegetarian but my son seems to eat a mixture of the following at daycare: bean chilli with rice, tofu in korma sauce and rice, daal and rice, pasta with tomato and veg sauce (looks extremely similar to bean chilli to me), lentil soup and bread (looks a lot like daal). You would only have to make a couple of batches of sauce and you could re-purpose it in lots of different ways to make it more interesting.
For snack he mostly eats fruit or those little boxes of Sunmaid raisins (all toddler love eating out of a mini box), with some pita fingers and hummus or carrot or banana mini muffins (made without sugar). Again, batch and freeze.
Finally, our lazy “you’re hungry and I haven’t made anything” meal is mashed up jacket potato (5mins in a microwave) and Heinz baked beans (and cheese in our case but obvs leave that out unless you have a decent substitute). Takes 6mins from start to finish, zero prep except pricking the potato and opening the tin, and it is toddler heaven. He’d happily eat it every day if we let him. Plus it’s a complete protein, and surprisingly high in iron and vit C.
posted by tinkletown at 7:02 PM on July 29, 2019
We’re vegetarian but my son seems to eat a mixture of the following at daycare: bean chilli with rice, tofu in korma sauce and rice, daal and rice, pasta with tomato and veg sauce (looks extremely similar to bean chilli to me), lentil soup and bread (looks a lot like daal). You would only have to make a couple of batches of sauce and you could re-purpose it in lots of different ways to make it more interesting.
For snack he mostly eats fruit or those little boxes of Sunmaid raisins (all toddler love eating out of a mini box), with some pita fingers and hummus or carrot or banana mini muffins (made without sugar). Again, batch and freeze.
Finally, our lazy “you’re hungry and I haven’t made anything” meal is mashed up jacket potato (5mins in a microwave) and Heinz baked beans (and cheese in our case but obvs leave that out unless you have a decent substitute). Takes 6mins from start to finish, zero prep except pricking the potato and opening the tin, and it is toddler heaven. He’d happily eat it every day if we let him. Plus it’s a complete protein, and surprisingly high in iron and vit C.
posted by tinkletown at 7:02 PM on July 29, 2019
Oh, and risotto! Butternut squash risotto is lovely and creamy without any dairy added. Lemon and asparagus or primavera (peas, mangetout, courgette, whatever else you fancy) also don’t need cheese adding.
Or tofu and veg fried rice is also good as leftovers.
posted by tinkletown at 7:06 PM on July 29, 2019
Or tofu and veg fried rice is also good as leftovers.
posted by tinkletown at 7:06 PM on July 29, 2019
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posted by julie_of_the_jungle at 11:53 AM on July 29, 2019