Mission: Vegan » Recipes Kids Will Enjoy

Gluten Free & Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies (and they’re SUPER easy to make)

maida — Sat, 23 Jul 2011 03:40:30 +0000

A stupid stomach bug got in the way of my blogging this week. We all got it within a day of each other, so at least we weren’t all sick at the same time. Still, it was no fun and we haven’t really eaten much but my appetite is slowly returning and today Emma and I made these cookies. They are vegan, gluten free, and really, really simple to make. The best part is that they only require 2 flours!

So this recipe actually comes from the back of the Let’s Do… Organic! brand of coconut flour. Since I had to change it up to make it vegan, I don’t think they’ll mind my sharing the recipe with you. First, I’ll take a minute to tell you that this is the only brand of coconut flour that I use. Not only is it organic, but it’s also the least expensive coconut flour on the shelf at Whole Foods. If you’ve ever made gluten free goodies, you know how spendy all those flours are and how quickly that tab adds up when you need to buy more than one. I like this brand a lot.

Gluten Free, Vegan, and Very Easy Chocolate Chip Cookies
(That You Won’t Even Know Are Gluten Free)

1/2 cup Earth Balance
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 TB flax mixed with 3 TB water (or Ener-G to replace 1 egg)
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup + 2 TB brown rice flour
1/4 cup Let’s Do… Organic brand coconut flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt (my addition; the original recipe does not call for this, but you need it)
1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

In the bowl of an electric or stand mixer, cream together the Earth Balance and both sugars. Add the flax egg and vanilla. Beat well. In a separate bowl, combine the dry ingredients. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix for a minute to incorporate. Stir in the chocolate chips. Drop by the teaspoonful onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 8-12 minutes until the sides and top are golden brown. Remove from oven and cool on a cooling rack. Dive in!

Baked Oatmeal

maida — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 17:22:06 +0000

For breakfast yesterday, I made some oatmeal. Amanda insists on feeding herself, so I gave her a bowl and let her go to town. She managed to get quite a bit in her mouth… and in her hair… and all over the place. So today I got smart and baked it! I’ve made these once before, but was too lazy to blog about it. I love this recipe so much that I feel bad not sharing.

If you’ve never had baked oatmeal, it’s really quite good. It turns out fluffy and dense, sort of like an oatmeal muffin, and you can flavor it with whatever you want. Check out Chocolate Covered Katie for the recipe. I did change up her recipe a bit just to make it work with what I had. Here’s what I did:

Quadrupled the recipe (and used certified GF oats).
Used 1 large ripe banana and 1 small sweet potato (both mashed up) in place of the pumpkin/applesauce.
Omitted the vanilla. Not for any good reason, except that I just didn’t feel like putting any in.
Used maple syrup as the sweetener. Didn’t measure, just poured some in.
Used rice milk.
Added a generous amount of coconut oil.
Mix-ins: raisins and shredded coconut.
Spice: added pumpkin pie spice, about a teaspoon.

I only have 1/2 cup ramekins and used 5 to bake the quadrupled recipe. I plan to freeze some of the leftovers to have on hand just in case I get caught with no baby-friendly foods around.

Whacky Pancakes

maida — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 16:24:02 +0000

Stumped for what to make for breakfast, I realize that I haven’t made pancakes in a really long time. Amanda would probably love them, Emma will probably not touch them, but I figured I’d go for it anyway.

I had an opened package of Bob’s Red Mill (BRM from now on) Gluten Free Pancake Mix, but not enough to make a full recipe of pancakes. The recipe on the BRM package says:

1 1/2 cups BRM GF pancake mix
1 egg/egg substitute
3/4 cup milk
1 TB oil

After having made pancakes before following this recipe, I only had a cup of mix left. Why do they do that? They should make the package an even 3 cups so that you can make 2 batches, instead of making it 2 1/2. Typically when I make these pancakes, I use banana or applesauce as the egg substitute because the pancake batter itself is really quite bland. Seriously, these are no wheaty, fluffy, butter”milk” pancakes.

So I find myself with 1 cup of pancake mix, 1 1/2 really old bananas, and some leftover apple cobbler. Really, I’m SHOCKED that these actually turned out and they were really good.

Whacky Batter

To make these, mash 1 1/2 super ripe bananas, mix in 1/2 cup of coconut milk (or whatever milk you like), 1 TB of oil, 1 cup of BRM GF pancake mix, and 1/2 cup of leftover apple cobbler. If batter is too thin, add a little sorghum flour to thicken (maybe 1-2 TB). Pour onto hot griddle… blah, blah, blah… you know how to make pancakes, I’m sure.

Pile O' Pancakes

My Plate of Whacky Pancakes

Emma's Plate of Even Whackier Pancakes

And just as I suspected, Emma ate the fruit off hers but left the pancakes untouched, while Amanda ate the entire thing.

Amanda’s Favorite Foods

maida — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 18:41:55 +0000

Amanda is now 9 1/2 months (I can’t believe it!) and is eating like a toddler. She eats anything and everything and her favorite foods so far are broccoli and blueberries. It doesn’t matter what else is on her tray… if there are broccoli and blueberries on there, she will always eat those first.

I should probably explain first that we are a mixed household. While Matt eats a mostly vegan diet, he is vegetarian and will eat dairy or the occasional baked good made with eggs (he doesn’t like eggs by themselves). Emma is also mostly vegan, but is allowed to eat dairy and sometimes has eggs for breakfast. Now that she’s old enough to sort of understand that food doesn’t originate at the grocery store, she is starting to make the connection that chicken comes from chickens that had to be killed for someone to eat it. She’s making the same connection with cheese and eggs and may one day choose a totally vegan diet for herself.

It was my intention to raise Amanda in a similar way– dairy and eggs are okay, but we will eat mostly vegan at home. I am gluten-free 100% of the time and vegan 100% of the time at home. When we eat out, I try my best to stay vegan, but do give myself certain allowances to be sure that whatever meal I order is 100% gluten free. For example: the pizza place that we frequent offers Daiya cheese and a gluten free crust. The gluten free crust does contain egg, but I will order that when I’m there because it is the best option available to me. The gluten free pizzas are prepared in a designated gluten free area on designated gluten free equipment and with toppings kept separate from the gluten pizzas. This isn’t true for the salads, which is my only option for something that would be (potentially) GF and vegan. Sometimes, I have to go with the best available option even if it means straying a bit.

Anyway, in trying to keep Amanda’s diet in line with what her sister eats, she has had eggs and dairy. Dairy gave her eczema and eggs gave her diarrhea (and I think wheat gave her a rash), so it looks like she’ll be eating more like her momma than her sister. That’s fine with me! In this post, I thought I would highlight some of her favorite foods in case others out there are dealing with food allergies and are stumped at what to feed their growing toddlers. I should also note that Amanda has zero patience for baby food or for anything food that she can’t feed to herself. She wants to do it all herself!

Pasta

This girl loves pasta! I buy brown rice pasta for her and choose a shape that is easy for her to eat (penne usually). For this sauce– which was actually really, really good– I took a jar of organic marinara sauce and blended it with 1 cup of cooked green lentils and some baby spinach. A typical serving for her for lunch or dinner is about 1/2 cup and is always accompanied by a side vegetable and fruit. She loves to eat!

Beans
She loves all kinds of beans. Her favorites include kidney, black and pinto. The only thing I haven’t tried giving her are chickpeas. They are in the same family as green peas, which make her eczema worse.

Fruit
I haven’t found a fruit yet that she doesn’t like. As I said above, her favorite is blueberries. Here she is sharing a bowl of blueberries with her sis– after she had already eaten the bowl that I had given her.

The first thing she does when I let her out in the backyard is crawl over to the blueberry bush and help herself to any ripe ones (and a handful of dirt sometimes too).

Other favorite fruits of hers are bananas, cherries, any other kind of berry, mango, avocado, cantaloupe, watermelon… pretty much anything other than citrus, which I’m avoiding until at least 12 months.

Vegetables
Surprisingly, she loves vegetables just as much as she loves fruit. She really likes broccoli a lot and doesn’t mind the taste of spinach when it’s blended into other foods (such as the pasta sauce above). Other favorites are steamed carrots, sweet potatoes, peas (but we avoid these because they make her eczema worse), steamed zucchini, and squash.

Rice
Rice is tricky for tiny fingers, particularly when she won’t let me feed it to her on a spoon. This recipe below is one that both kids LOVED!

Green Rice Balls

1 cup sushi rice
1 cup packed fresh baby spinach, or leafy green vegetable of your choice
1 tsp kelp granules

Cook rice according to package instructions (usually for sushi rice, it’s 1 1/4 cups water to 1 cup rice. Cook for 15 minutes.). While rice is cooking, chop spinach finely– I use my mini food processor/chopper for this. When rice has finished cooking, allow to cool a bit then stir in chopped spinach and kelp granules. When the rice is cool enough to handle, wet your hands and form into small, tightly packed balls.

I was surprised that Emma enjoyed this recipe with it being so green and all, but she told me it was the best rice she’s ever had. Seeing her sister eat everything in sight has made Emma a more adventurous eater. She no longer complains when I sneak baby spinach into her romaine lettuce salad. I use white rice here so as not to overload their systems with fiber.

Sandwiches

Occasionally I will make her a sandwich on gluten free bread. She seems to like them alright, but she doesn’t eat them with as much enthusiasm as she does other foods. Still, I like that they offer her a different protein and fat source. I toast one slice of gluten free bread and spread it with raw, extra virgin coconut oil while still warm. Spread sunflower seed butter on and top with a little jam or applesauce. Cut off the crusts and that’s all there is to it!

Snacks

This is one area where I’m frequently stumped. It’s hard to think of snacks that she can manage by herself with only 4 teeth. Her current favorites are gluten free puffs, baby mum mums, veggie booty, and muffins. I’ve also tried rice cakes, but they were too salty for her. The next time I’m at the store, I’m going to spend a little time looking for cereals or crackery things that might work.

*********

If after reading this you’re still concerned about what to feed your vegan kids, here are two books that I have that I have found to be really helpful.

Becoming Vegan, as the title suggests, is all about making the transition to a vegan diet. There are chapters about carbs, vitamins, proteins, etc… and also chapters dedicated to nutritional requirements during a vegan pregnancy and raising vegan kids. It’s a great book and I recommend it even if you aren’t vegan or thinking of becoming vegan. There are also food guides and weekly meal plans for kids and adults.

This book is an easy read and talks about the different nutritional requirements for kids by age. It gives a more simplified explanation of things than Becoming Vegan and even includes a few recipes.

So, what kinds of foods do your kids like to eat?

Gluten-Free Pumpkin Coconut Muffins

maida — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 17:42:34 +0000

My little Amanda is an eating machine… an eating machine who I suspect has a few food allergies. Our doctor will be doing a blood panel to test for antibodies to suspected allergens and then possibly refer us to an allergist. She’s a very sensitive little body…

In an effort to find snacky/breakfast foods that she would like and that wouldn’t make her break out in a rash, I whipped up these muffins yesterday. She ate an entire muffin… for a snack, after eating a huge lunch and right before eating a big dinner. Like I said, she’s an eating machine. Now, this is not an original recipe. I messed around with the wet ingredients from this recipe to use what I had on hand. The result was great– they have a great flavor and texture. I think these could even be served to someone who wasn’t accustomed to eating gluten free baked goods and even get two thumbs up!

(My plan for today is to make these again substituting xylitol for the sugar. The nice folks at Emerald Forest sent me a sample of their product and while I’ve enjoyed adding it to my oatmeal in the morning, I have yet to use it in a baking recipe. Stay tuned for those results.)

Gluten-Free Pumpkin Coconut Muffins

Makes 18 muffins.

Wet Ingredients:

Egg replacer for 2 eggs, mixed (I used Ener-G)
1/4 cup coconut oil, melted
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup non-dairy milk of your choice (I used rice)
1 TB molasses (omit if using brown sugar, see dry ingredients below)

Dry Ingredients:

1 1/4 cups tapioca starch
1/2 cup coconut flour
1/2 cup sorghum flour
1/2 cup quinoa flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp xanthan gum
1 cup sugar (or 1 cup brown sugar– if using brown sugar, omit molasses)
1 TB pumpkin pie spice

Add-Ins:

1/2 cup shredded unsweetened coconut
1/2 cup raisins

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line muffin tin with papers or spray with oil. Set aside.

2. In a microwave safe bowl, combine all wet ingredients. If your coconut oil hardens when you add the cold milk (it will look like curdled milk), pop the mixing bowl into the microwave for a few seconds to melt again. Set aside.

3. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together all dry ingredients. Add wet to dry and mix thoroughly. If the batter is too thick, as it probably will be once the coconut flour starts to absorb the moisture, add more rice milk a tablespoon at a time until it is the consistency of thick cake batter. I probably used an additional 1/4 to 1/3 cup of rice milk to get the right consistency.

4. When everything is combined, throw in the add-ins. For something a little different, try chocolate chips instead of raisins, or use any dried fruit that you like. Or throw in some nuts too. Since Amanda only has 4 teeth and is having food troubles already, I didn’t add any here.

5. Spoon into prepared muffin tin. The easiest way to do this, I’ve found, is the two spoon trick: using two tablespoons (like the kind for eating with, not the kind for measuring), scoop up a spoonful in one of the spoons. Use the other spoon to scrape the batter off the first spoon into the muffin tin. When all of the tins have been filled, wet the back of one spoon to smooth the top of each muffin. Re-wet as necessary to keep the batter from sticking to the spoon until all muffins have been smoothed over.

6. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of one muffin comes out clean. Cool before eating, if you can wait that long.

Emma’s Birthday Party

maida — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 17:22:51 +0000

A little over a month ago, Emma turned 5! I can’t believe she’s ready for kindergarten already. The theme was Tinker Bell and we had a Tinker Bell jumpy house, as well as a few Tinker Bell themed craft projects.

We had some tiny birdhouses (“fairy houses”) that the kids could paint and take home with them.

I bought some teeny tiny glass bottles with cork lids that the kids filled with different colored sand (that I had mixed with the same color of glitter). Both projects were big hits!

Here are some food highlights from her (mostly vegan) birthday party:

Drinks: bottled water, lemonade, iced tea, Sangria and beer. I used this Sangria recipe and should have doubled the recipe. It went fast (and was SO delicious!!). To keep it cold without watering it down, I froze some of it and also added some frozen apples and oranges that I cut in half before freezing. It did the trick!

Food: falafal (some wrapped in whole wheat lavash, some in GF brown rice tortillas), bagels and cream cheese, fruit, veggies with hummus, corn and black bean salsa, guacamole, edamame. Also, all of the cups, plates, napkins and utensils were compostable! We had very little trash from this party.

And the pièce de résistance… the cake! The top tier is GF vanilla, middle is vegan vanilla, bottom is vegan chocolate. There were only a few pieces of the GF left. All the rest got gobbled up!

Banana Bread Pancakes

maida — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 21:13:21 +0000

In my last post, I commented how the GF pancakes I made with the GF Bisquick baking mix tasted pretty much like nothing. My friend, Jen recommended throwing some mashed banana in there, so I tried it and it was awesome!! Mashed banana is actually a good egg replacer, so I didn’t need to use anything else to serve that purpose and while I was at it with the banana, I put in all the stuff I enjoy in banana bread. These tasted exactly like my favorite banana bread recipe. The recipe for pancakes is on the back of the box, but since I made some changes, I’ll post it here with my changes.

Gluten-Free and Vegan Banana Bread Pancakes

1 cup Gluten-Free Bisquick Baking Mix
1 cup milk (I used half unsweetened So Delicious coconut milk, half unsweetened rice milk)
1 ripe banana, mashed well
2 TB oil
1/2 heaping tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp allspice
pinch salt
Raw pecan halves or pieces

Combine wet ingredients. Add dry ingredients and stir well to combine. Pour 1/4 cup of batter onto hot griddle. Press pecans into batter. When edges are dry, flip over and cook the other side. Pour on some maple syrup and enjoy!

Childrens Books on Vegetarianism

maida — Sat, 20 Nov 2010 23:18:00 +0000

Now that Emma is a bit older (4 1/2), we’ve been doing lots of reading. This post will be all about the books we’ve read, a brief description of it, how she’s liked them (and to what extent she was able to understand them), and my commentary. When I have more to add books to this list, I’ll create a new blog post and link back to this one. If you know of some books for kids that teach about vegetarianism, please let me know (either email me or leave a comment here). Okay, here we go…

Herb the Vegetarian Dragon: Herb is a vegetarian dragon in a land of carnivorous ones and is accused of eating people and imprisoned. He is sentenced to death until a little girl proves his innocence. In the end, Herb works with the carnivorous dragons to promote peace.

Emma loves this book and wants to read it all the time. She’s also able to understand the entire plot and often references this book when we talk about what we eat vs. what our family and friends eat. It’s been helpful in explaining our diet to her and in teaching her to be respectful of other peoples’ diets, but doesn’t go into any detail about why we choose to eat the way we do. It also introduces the terms “herbivore” and “carnivore” and explains each. This book is probably appropriate for kids ages 3 and up. 3-year-olds will likely find the story entertaining, but won’t really understand the concepts very well. Still, it’s a good book to have in your home library and one of our favorites. There are companion books to Herb (Benji Bean Sprout Doesn’t Eat Meat, The Organic Adventures of Tucker the Tomato), but we haven’t been able to find them at our library. I may try to get them as stocking stuffers for Emma’s stocking.

Twas the Night Before Thanksgiving: Written all in rhyme, this story is about 8 children who go on a field trip to a turkey farm. When they learn of the turkeys fate come Thanksgiving, they get really sad and hide the turkeys in their clothes to take them home with them. They have the turkeys as guests for their Thanksgiving meals instead of as their main course.

We liked this book and it was age appropriate for Emma. I think the story would have been more clear to her if it were not in rhyme (she was entertained by it, but didn’t follow the story line). Once I explained it to her at the end, it made sense to her. While I won’t be adding this title to my home library, it was a fun one to read before Thanksgiving.

That’s Why We Don’t Eat Animals: This is one of my favorite books for kids about with vegetarianism, but it is most appropriate for kids probably 5 or 6 and up. It explains in pretty good detail all of the reasons not to eat animals, including how they’re raised on factory farms, the environmental impact of factory farming and fishing, and the toll that eating animals has on one’s health. It also explains the difference between vegetarian and vegan.

I love this book and will definitely purchase it to have at home. Emma likes the story and the pictures and does understand some of the concepts, but the book is pretty long and she most of it goes in one ear and out the other. This will be a great book to read to her when she is older when she’ll have more questions about vegetarianism and want to know more about why we eat the way we do (right now, she only understands that this is just the way it is and that we eat differently than everyone else).

Hubert the Pudge: Pudge’s are pretend animals (modeled after pigs) that live on a pudge factory farm. The story explains their life on the farm (how they never get to go outside and are slaughtered before they are fully grown) and how they are processed into food products. One of the pudges, Hubert, escapes and grows to his full size. He is sad when he thinks that all his pudge friends will be slaughtered so he goes back to the farm to rescue them. The pudge farmer then starts eating healthier and exercising and he marries his trainer from the gym. Together they start a successful tofu hot dog company.

A cute story most appropriate for kids 4 and up. Emma likes the story, but I can tell it doesn’t all make sense yet. This is another one that I’d like to add to our home library. This book touches on the benefits of eating healthy foods and take care of your body, but I wish it didn’t focus so much on appearances. For example, before the farmer starts exercising and eating better, he is fat and ugly. After going to the gym, he’s thin, handsome and successful, which sends the message that you have to be thin and good looking to be successful or to find a wife. I’m sure this message is way over Emma’s head, but you never know for sure what they pick up on.

Banana Cookies… But First A Gripe

maida — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 23:00:42 +0000

A while back, I blogged about how my copy of The Joy of Vegan Baking fell apart. I was a little annoyed that it just came apart like that, so I contacted the publisher and sent them pictures of it all torn to bits. They were so generous in sending me a replacement copy… THAT HAS ALSO FALLEN APART!!!!

What the heck? When will cookbook publishers get smart and start using spiral binding? Cookbooks are not the type of book that you sit in bed and leisurely read while sipping a cup of tea. No, they get battered and bruised and things spill on them and they get put in those cookbook holders so that they stay open… I’ve never had a book fall apart the way this one has and I have half a mind to contact the publishers again to complain. I don’t want to be a nag, but I would hope a cookbook could stand up to normal use. Anyone else have problems with this book? I swear, I’m no more rough with this cookbook than I am with any of my others and yet my two copies have both fallen apart.

So anyway, I had 4 bananas that needed using. They were past the point of spotted and nearly black and had only hours of life left in them. I had already made banana muffins a couple of weeks ago and still have a stash of those in my freezer, so I wanted to do something different. I had the idea of making cookies with them and googled a few recipes, but had the good fortune of this recipe finding me. Jennifer just blogged about it on Monday… what excellent timing! In her post, she mentioned two slight changes that she made to the recipe: halving the amount of sugar and oil. I decided to give it a try with her modifications.

Of course, I made a few modifications of my own. Since I had 4 bananas, I doubled the recipe but still halved the amounts of sugar and oil. I also used brown sugar instead of white, omitted the coconut (I love coconut, but the dried stuff in baked goods is an unpleasant texture for me) and instead added a generous handful of chocolate chips. Hey, chocolate makes everything better!

These baked up fluffy and moist and almost have the texture of a muffin top. The best part is that Emma likes ‘em too.

Spicy Carrot Zucchini Muffins

maida — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 20:41:12 +0000

So I missed a day, but I did actually start this post yesterday. I was just too busy to finish it. I do have some good news to share: Amanda is feeling better and it turns out she just has a cold. Her lab work came back negative for any of the major viruses that cause the flu. The best part is that she slept well last night, which means I actually got some sleep. It was nice!

In my last post, I said I was going to make muffins and I actually got it done! I ended up making LOTS of mini muffins because I like to save some to stash away in the freezer for Emma’s lunches or for snacking on when we’re low on snacks. Besides that, when you’re making muffins, it’s not that much more work to make a double recipe– it’s certainly less work than making a single recipe on two separate days, right? I like to think so. My doubled recipe made about 5 dozen mini muffins.

I’ve been making lots of variations of this muffin recipe lately and it’s served me well. I can change it up a bunch of different ways and it has always turned out great. Use fruit in place of the veggies, add some dried fruit, change the up the spices– the possibilities here are endless. The only fruit I wouldn’t try in this recipe are bananas. While I’ve never tried bananas here and can’t say for sure how it would turn out, I can say that I’ve never had luck making banana bread or muffins when the recipe uses vegetable or canola oil as the oil. The best banana bread I’ve made uses vegan margarine.

Spicy Carrot Zucchini Muffins

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/16 tsp mace

1/4 tsp cloves

1/4 tsp allspice

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup non-dairy milk

1/3 cup oil (or half oil, half applesauce)

1 TB vinegar

1 cup carrots, grated

1 cup zucchini, grated

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray muffin tin with nonstick cooking spray or line with paper liners.

2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, sugar and spices.

3. In a large bowl, combine all the wet ingredients and the carrots and zucchini. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and stir well.

4. Fill muffin tins 2/3 full and bake. Mini muffins take about 10 minutes. Regular size muffins take about 15.

Friday is our turn to bring snacks to Emma’s preschool and she wants to take muffins. I’ll be making an apple cinnamon batch of these tomorrow and will post that recipe variation. Enjoy!