Vegetarian Journal Excerpts May/June 1997 Volume XVI, Number 3

Avoiding the Baby Food Trap

By JoAnn Farb

I don't include much processed food in my own diet, and so I certainly didn't want to feed it to my toddler.

With our lives moving at a fast pace, I knew that I needed to come up with some simple, healthy, toddler-tempting foods if I were to continue raising our daughter Sarina on a vegan diet and still have time for all the other activities that are important to me. Of course, now that shes' nearly two and a half, she eats just about whatever I've prepared for the family, but often she's hungry at other times, or I need something quick and easy to send along with her for a visit to the grandparents. It's funny to think about this now that our eating habits are so well established, but I never considered buying a jar of baby food, although I knew that there were some pure vegetarian choices available. To actually bring a jar into my house and serve it to my baby would have been almost as unlikely as serving her Spam.

Before I share with you how we do feed our two-year-old, let me preface by saying that there is one thing that has made this whole baby-feeding process infinitely easier. After we introduced solid foods to our baby, I continued (and still am) breastfeeding her. Breast milk is the ultimate convenience food. It has given me the peace of mind that regardless of how picky she might be on a particular day, or how little actually gets swallowed, breast milk is filling in the gaps. And while many vegan foods are high-fiber and lowfat and can fill up a toddler's tummy before she has consumed enough calories to meet her needs, breast milk is calorie dense and contains the important fatty acids crucial for brain development. Also, since I make sure that my diet includes reliable sources of vitamin B-12, like nutritional yeast and fortified foods, I am assured that Sarina gets B-12 from nursing.

When introducing new foods to Sarina, who is now struggling to be more independent, I get better results if I don't offer them directly to her. I simply prepare the food for myself, and act totally absorbed in eating it_ignoring her. She almost always comes a-begging. In fact, she once ate about 15 bites of plain, steamed Swiss chard from my bowl, though it was obvious she did not like it (you should have seen her face). Yet she continued to mooch from me because I was so absorbed in eating.

To make food prep easy, I always keep the following staples on hand:

Pantry

• Edensoy Extra (contains B-12)
  
• Canned garbanzo beans
  
• Barbara's O's cereal
  
• Barbara's potato flakes
  
• Mori-Nu tofu
  
• Canned black olives
  
• Nutritional yeast flakes
  
• Soy sauce
  
• Amaranth graham crackers
  
• Brown rice
  
• Olive oil
  
• Baked corn chips
  
• Balsamic vinegar
  
• Dijon mustard
  

Freezer or Fridge

• Frozen blueberries
  
• Frozen chapatis
  
• Whole grain bread
  
• Whole grain bagels
  
• Avocado
  
• Cooked brown rice
  
• Broccoli
  
• Kale
  
• Maple syrup
  
• Waterpack tofu
  
• Peas in the pod
  
• Bananas
  
• Apples
  
• Pears
  
• Carrots
  
• Tahini or almond butter
  

Now that you have the staples on hand, what can you serve that is quick, easy, and healthy? Try some of the following:

• Instant eats:
  
  • Fresh apple, pear, banana, avocado,
    
  • frozen blueberries
    
  • Cold brown rice (precooked and sitting in fridge)
    
  • Barbara's O's (dry or in soymilk)
    
  • Black olives from the can
    
  • Amaranth graham crackers (made by Health Valley;. don't get the fat-free
  • version, it contains dairy.)
    
  • Fresh peas in the pod
    
  • Avocado smeared on bread
    
  • Chunks of plain, water-packed tofu
    
  • Corn chips with mashed avoca-do for dipping
    
  
  
• 5 minutes or less to prepare:
  
  • Green potatoes
    
  • Chapati roll-ups
    
  • Quick-browned tofu
    
  • Steamed broccoli over rice
    
  • Bagel with tofu spread
    
  • Smoothies
    
  • Nut butters on rice cakes or
    
  • crackers
    
  
  

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  Recipes

  Green Potatoes

  (Serves 2)
  
  I was looking for a way to make kale palatable to my toddler, who loves potatoes, when I stumbled upon this.
  
  1/2 cup chopped kale or broccoli
  1/2 cup water
  Dash of salt
  1 teaspoon olive oil
  1/2 cup Edensoy Extra (soymilk)
  Barbara's mashed potato flakes
  
  In small saucepan combine kale, water, and salt and boil briefly until kale turns bright green. Quickly pour entire contents of saucepan into blender, put on lid and blend on high until you have green liquid with no large fragments of kale.
  Return entire contents of blender to saucepan, add soymilk, oil, and potato flakes and stir until consistency of mashed potatoes.
  
  Total calories per serving: 68
  Fat: 3 grams
  

  ---

  
  

  Quick-Browned Tofu

  (Serves 2)
  
  A quick way to make tofu versatile and delicious for your toddler.
  
  4 slices of firm tofu (2"x 4"x 1/2")
  1 teaspoon olive oil
  2 Tablespoons water
  1 Tablespoon soy sauce
  
  Heat oil in a non-stick skillet on medium-high heat. Quickly add and turn each piece of tofu to lightly coat both sides with oil. Cook tofu, turning frequently, until barely brown on both sides.
  Mix soy sauce and water in a cup and then add all at once to skillet. Continue turning tofu until liquid is absorbed. Remove from heat. Let cool.
  Cut tofu into little cubes and serve as finger food, or serve on sandwiches with mustard and lettuce.
  
  Total calories per serving: 68
  Fat: 5 grams
  
  

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  Chapati Roll-Ups

  (Makes 6 snack-sized servings)
  
  A great finger food.
  
  1 package chapatis (Indian flat bread)
  1 Tablespoon nutritional yeast
  1 Tablespoon balsamic vinegar
  One 101/4-ounce package firm Mori-Nu tofu
  One 15-ounce can garbanzo beans, drained
  1 Tablespoon Dijon mustard
  6 medium carrots, grated
  Chopped green onions (optional)
  
  Place all ingredients except carrots, onions, and chapatis in blender and blend on high until smooth. Lay one chapati out flat, and cover thinly (like spreading jam) with tofu mixture.
  Sprinkle about 2 tablespoons of the carrots on the left half and about 2 teaspoons of the onions (if using) on top of carrots. Roll up from left to right to form a long cylinder and slice into about 8 pieces. Repeat until all chapatis are used.
  
  Total calories per serving: 240
  Fat: 5 grams
  
  

  ---

  
  

  Tofu bagel spread

  (Serves 4)
  
  Nice mild, slightly sweet spread for toddlers.
  
  1/4 cup firm tofu that has been pressed in a towel for a moment, and then squashed into a 1/4 cup
  1/2 teaspoon maple syrup
  1/4 teaspoon soy sauce
  1/4 teaspoon olive oil
  
  Mash all ingredients with a fork until smooth; smear on bagel.
  
  Total calories per serving: 14
  Fat: 1 gram
  
  Feeding a toddler a minimally processed, vegan diet is easy once you know some quick and easy things to prepare. The trick to having them love this food is to set the example yourself, and just as important, have no other food choices available. Limit the choices that you offer at each meal or snack (too many choices can overwhelm them, and they may actually become pickier), but over the course of the day offer a good variety. Make meals fun, and full of love, and you will be giving your child a terrific start in life.
  

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  The Vegetarian Journal published here is not the complete issue, but these are excerpts from the published magazine. Anyone wanting to see everything should subscribe to the magazine.

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