Toddler Meal Ideas

[allnatural]

I want to continue to feed my 2-year-old a vegan diet, but I am sometimes at a loss for new ideas. Many of the foods she enjoys contain (processed) soy. At age one she showed signs of premature breast development, which decreased after I took away some of the soy and gave her "veggie only" dishes. Any suggestions?--and what about products with soy?

[harpy]

Hello - can't claim to be an expert on toddlers but I would have thought you could find plenty of soy-free stuff that she'd like - children usually like stuff like beans don't they (she asks vaguely)? When you need a meat-substitute you could perhaps use seitan (wheat gluten) instead of soya products.

This site has quite a lot of recipes that (I assume) are acceptable to children. Some of them contain soya but not all. It's a UK site so you may have to do some adapting but I expect there are US equivalents.

http://www.veganfamily.co.uk/

Edited to add: this may be a US equivalent :D

http://www.vegfamily.com/vegan-recipes/

[treehugga]

My son hates soy-he's 5 not.
I gave him and still do:
* pureed beans as dips or with a plate of veg etc
* hommous
* flat breads homemade with spelt four (high protein and great with the dips).
* dishes made with coconut milk, such as rice pudding.
* vegan sausage rolls made with ground cashew nuts, breadcrumbs, sage, some vegan stock made moist with some rice milk and 2 Tbsns flour to bind-rolled into sausage shapes and covered with puff pasry and baked.

Hope this is useful.
There is another thread on here related to this topic "what did you feed your child today' or something along those lines, that you might find useful. Can't remember exactly where it is, but have a look around.
cheers
treehugga

[VeganTrish]

Hi there!

My son is 3 and I am always trying to figure out things to feed him that don't involve too much processed soy.
-He loves lentil soup- I add brown rice to it while it's cooking and also lots of chopped celery, onion, and carrots - it's one of his favorite meals.
-TVP patties and roasted potatoes along with some mixed veggies is another hit.
-Shell or elbow macaroni with some nutritional yeast, plain rice milk and a dab of vegan marg. is also popular around here.
-Pancakes made with oat or spelt flour
-If you serve tofu at all-tofu cubes dipped in tamari and then rolled in nutrional yeast and then lightly pan fried, and also tofu scrambles
Seitan chunks - you can throw these in just about anything
-Brown rice with mixed veggies and a little bit of salt free seasoning and tamari
-Don't underestimate the old stand-by- pb&j sandwiches!

Good luck!

Oh, there is a book called Vegan Family Favorites by Erin Pavlina that has some easy, toddler-friendly recipes in it.

[raenbowmama]

a great book to use for vegan kids is disease proof your child by dr. joel furhman. we use the recipes from it all the time, like ice cream and sorbets made from frozen bananas! it's a family favorite :)

[xrodolfox]

My kids love lentils and garbanzo beans.