Fall is here and root veggies are in season in the USA. Debra Daniels-Zeller offers a variety of recipes featuring root vegetables in her previous Vegetarian Journal article titled Vegan Roots. Enjoy these recipes: Rosemary Roasted Roots; Orange-Marinated Beets; Carrot-Rutabaga Coleslaw; Tomatoes and Lentils with Carrots, Turnips, and Kale; Mashed Celeriac-Potatoes with Roasted Garlic; Jerusalem Artichokes with Caramelized Onions; Curried Parsnip Soup; and Sweet Potato Dip. Find the article here: Vegan Roots

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By Reed Mangels, PhD, RD

A Vegetarian Resource Group member contacted us asking for ideas for snacks that their vegan child can bring to school for snack time. Snacks cannot be chips/popcorn, cannot have peanuts or tree nuts, and must be low-sugar. 

We’re happy to help with some ideas. If you have other suggestions, please add them in the comments section. All snacks listed appear to be nut-free, peanut-free, vegan, and have 5 grams of added sugar or less per serving. Be sure to check product labels since ingredients can change over time.

My preference is for snacks with minimal packaging or packaging that can be reused. I’ve included some packaged snacks that some may want to use for convenience or to support the child who wants snacks that look like what other kids are bringing.

When brand names are listed below, they’ve been included to provide some examples of products. This is not an all-inclusive list of products.

• Fruit can be a refreshing snack. Make sure it’s easy to eat – cut seedless grapes into small bunches, slice oranges, make a fruit cup with melon chunks or berries. Choose seasonal fruits – apple slices sprinkled with lemon juice to keep them from browning in fall, clementine sections in winter, strawberries in late spring. Even canned or jarred unsweetened fruit can work – try juice-packed pineapple chunks or unsweetened applesauce with a sprinkle of cinnamon.
• One of my kids’ favorite snacks were home-grown grape tomatoes which are even smaller than cherry tomatoes. Grape or cherry tomatoes can be sent with a dip like hummus for a savory snack. Other vegetables also make good hummus dippers – carrot and celery sticks, jicama sticks, cucumber slices, red pepper strips. Since hummus comes in many flavors, this snack can be different each week.
• Mini bagels thinly spread with vegan cream cheese. Check the vegan cream cheese ingredient list since many have nuts as a base. Tofutti  and Violife both make nut-free products that have 0 grams of added sugar.
• Roast chickpeas or other cooked or canned dried beans by mixing rinsed and well-drained beans with a little olive oil, nutritional yeast, and a dash of salt; spreading them on a parchment-lined baking sheet in a single layer and baking at 400 degrees about 30 minutes or until crisp. You can add different spices. These can be eaten by the handful.
• If you’d prefer a commercial product, Seapoint Farms makes dry roasted edamame.
• Dry roasted pumpkin seeds are another snack that can be eaten by the handful as long as your child is old enough that these aren’t a choking hazard. Eden Foods has various size bags of pumpkin seeds including a 1-ounce single-serve bag.
• Make a cereal mix, choosing low-sugar cold breakfast cereals and adding raisins or other unsweetened dried fruits. Have your kids help – maybe they’ll even want to name their recipe.
• Homemade muffins – banana, corn, blueberry, oatmeal, carrot – for example. Avoid nuts, nut butters, or nut milks or very sugary recipes. Mini-muffin pans are nice for snack-size muffins. Make a batch and freeze them so they’re always handy when you need to pack a snack.
• Store-bought or homemade bread sticks with a refried bean dip. Amy’s Kitchen has lower sodium refried beans.
• Seedy crackers or rice cakes thinly spread with tahini or sunflower butter and made into a sandwich. Rice cakes can also be eaten plain. I’ve found Lundberg Family Farms Tamari with Seaweed Rice Cakes and Real Foods Multigrain Corn Thins to be especially tasty. Lundberg Farms also has mini-rice cakes and thin stackers – just watch for lots of added sugar in the sweet varieties.
• Baked tofu strips either homemade or commercial
• Vegan jerky (check label for nut ingredients or excess sugar). Savory Wild Jerky is made with mushrooms; there are many varieties of vegan jerky.
• Commercial low sugar fruit leather, fruit bars, or fruit wraps – here are a couple of products that meet our criteria (vegan, nut/peanut-free, <5 grams of added sugar/serving):
  • Stretch Island Fruit Leather
  • Bear Fruit Rolls
  • That’s It Fruit Bar
  • Trader Joe’s Fruit Bar
  • Trader Joe’s Fruit Wrap
• Commercial snack bars – here are a few brands we found that have vegan, nut-free, low-sugar versions (check the label since not all of these companies’ products are nut-free and low-sugar):
  • Blake’s Raspberry Snack Bar or Strawberry Rice Crispy Treat Bar
  • The Healthy Energy Bar – Lemon Poppyseed
  • Go Raw Sprouted Bar

If you’re looking for more ideas and are interested in making your own snacks, this website has a lot of low-sugar, kid-friendly ideas. Look for recipes without nuts or nut butters like the Lea Bars, Unbaked Granola Bars (make with suggested substitution for nut butter), and Magic Green Muffins.

It’s the spookiest night of the year… and you want to give out vegan candy to all the little ghouls and goblins that knock on your door. But what to do? Are there vegan Halloween candy options? YES! We’ve got you covered.

Go to this video: https://youtu.be/n0GjGR852pc

After watching the video, check out this blog for more information/ideas:

Are you looking for places to purchase vegan candy and other treats for Halloween? Here’s some online sources that sell vegan goodies with a Halloween theme, as well as items sold in stores:

Amy’s Three types of chocolate candy bars.

Enjoy Life Chocolate Minis

Lake Champlain Chocolates  Dark chocolate Halloween Squares

Natural Candy Store Variety of chocolate, lollipops, and more.

No Whey Chocolate Wide variety of vegan chocolates that are allergy-friendly as well.

Yum Earth Organic lollipops, as well as hard candies.

Casey Brown, RD states, “The new meat-like, plant-based burgers are now widely available at supermarkets and quick-service chains like Burger King. Anecdotally, many omnivores like them equally to meat burgers. We often hear they are good alternatives environmentally, as well as for animal welfare and flavor reasons. But how do they stack up nutritionally?”

Read the entire article here:https://www.vrg.org/journal/vj2020issue3/2020_issue3_newer_meat.php

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Please book mark and use this link. Eligible shopping will support our vegan education and activism. http://smile.amazon.com/ch/52-1279034

About Amazon Smile: https://smile.amazon.com/gp/chpf/about/ref=smi_se_rspo_laas_aas

Beyond Meat will be giving out samples at the football games listed below. If you are there, let us know if you see students sampling at The Tailgate Tour produced by Florida based NFuse 360 Entertainment.

●      Oklahoma State vs. Texas on October 16

●      Houston vs. East Carolina on October 23

●      Georgia vs. Florida on October 30

●      North Carolina State vs. Florida State on November 6

●      Texas A&M vs. Mississippi on November 13

●      Michigan State vs. Ohio State on November 20

●      Vanderbilt vs. Tennessee on November 27

●      ACC Football Championship Game in Charlotte, North Carolina on December 4

Are you looking for a soothing bowl of soup that incorporates lots of veggies? Look no further! Chef Nancy Berkoff provides recipes for a wide variety of vegetable chowders in her previous Vegetarian Journal article: Vegetable Chowders

Enjoy these recipes (most are inexpensive to prepare): Southwestern Green Bean and Red Pepper Chowder, Carrot, Pear, and White Bean Chowder, Brunswick Stew à la Vegan, Anusim Chowder, Potato and Kale Chowder, and Lentil Chowder

To subscribe to Vegetarian Journal in the USA, see: https://www.vrg.org/member/2013sv.php

Recent topics brought up include:

– Vegan books for children on sale from Animal Justice Project  

– Vegan baby and toddler shoes sold online

– YouTube Cooking Videos from The Vegetarian Resource Group

https://www.facebook.com/groups/VRGparentsandkids is intended to be a group that offers support for families raising children on vegan diets and for vegan kids around the world. We envision it as a place to get advice about a wide-variety of topics: pregnancy, birthday parties, school lunches, Halloween, non-leather apparel, cruelty-free products, summer camps, and more. Please use it as a place to share your wisdom, seek advice, or just find a sympathetic ear. The goal is to offer support.

Consequently, any profane, defamatory, offensive, or violent language will be removed. Feel free to disagree, but do so respectfully. Hateful or discriminatory comments regarding race, ethnicity, religion, gender, disability, sexual orientation, or political beliefs will not be tolerated. We expect that posts should relate to vegan diets and lifestyles. The Vegetarian Resource Group reserves the right to monitor all content and ban any user who posts in violation of the above rules, any law or regulation, SPAM, or anything otherwise off topic.

Please share this information with any veggie families that you know! Thanks.

Be sure to follow The Vegetarian Resource Group on Instagram: @vegetarianresourcegroup