My kids love vegetarian and vegan food. They were born bean and lentil lovers…wait no, I suppose it may have to do with the amount of beans and lentils I feed them. They also love fermented foods, fruit and vegetables, mild curries, tofu, olives, tempeh, asian food, sushi, sourdough bread and anything with oats in it.
Most kids just learn to love the food you cook them and let’s face it, if they are hungry enough they will eat with gusto anything you wish to feed them. I am a great believer in my kids not eating anything for at least two hours before dinner. And if I want my girls to eat well it is imperitive that they stay away from sweet treats and junkfood. Unfortunately there are days that they don’t eat so well, but I feel that as long as they eat healthy most days it’s all good. I have also discovered that involving them in the preperation of a meal get’s them excited for it and makes them feel really good about themselves.
Here are some of my little folk’s favourites.
- Bean ‘chilli’ with rice not burny, just flavourful.
- Homemade pesto with pasta
- Lentil dahl
- Homemade pizza with, spinach, red onion and gorgonzola (we use eureka mills flour)
- Homemade summer veggie rolls with kimchi and peanut sauce
- Bean burgers
- Falafels and hummus
- Roast vegetables with quinoa and pesto
- “Red” homemade roasted tomato sauce with spaggetti
- Marmite and butter spaggetti with grated white cheddar ( you mean you have’nt tried it…quite delicious when lazy)
- French toast with good bread (a sunday night favourite)
- Asian flavoured vegetable stirfry with rice and tofu.
- Eggs in all it’s manifistations (scrambled, boiled or fried with either tomato sauce, bovril, cheese or butter complimenting them)
- Fruit salad that they help make (their job’s are ussually to chop the banana & squeeze over a halved orange at the end)
- Greek yogurt with homemade granola
- Anything else that involves chickpeas & beans (one of my little one’s first words was ‘bean!’)
- Baked potatoes + white cheddar cheese and/ or coleslaw
- Potato & vegetable pakoras
- For snacking & treats: nuts, hummus + carrots, roasted chickpeas, sliced bananas with nut butters, greek yogurt + raw honey, smoothies, good corn chips with guaqemole, avo chocolate mouse, rice cakes with butter, honey or marmite.
These are my food rules for children.
– Kid’s food should be easy to eat (chop or shred vegetables finely), as well as fun to eat (the messier the better).
– Kid’s should be hungry at meal times
– They should help prepare meals and sometimes get to choose what will be for dinner (just give them a choice between two options)
– They don’t have to finish everything on their plate, but they also can’t have anything other than what was on offer at dinner….if they feel hungry later they have to eat some more of what was for dinner/lunch (credit to my sister in law for this one).
– Don’t underestimate their palatte’s tolerance for strong flavour’s, and introduce your favourite food’s early, the last thing I feel like doing is cooking two different meals every night.
– If they dont like vegetables chop and shred them finely and hide them in the sauce.
– Kids love assembling their own food; stuffed pitta, veggie burger, salad, veggies + quinoa etc, food that requires a couple of healthy dips.
Lastly some more sand in your eye; I am sharing some of my girl’s best snacks…just in case you havent tried any of these, sliced banana with peanut butter, rice cakes with a nut butter or tahini, hummus + raw carrots, olives, fruit smoothies and nuts.
Happy cooking with your mini’s, with ♡, the yoga kitchen
