Wednesday, July 13, 2011

What We Are Eating- Lunch

I was reading on Lil' Runner that she was looking for vegetarian lunch ideas for the kids, other than peanut butter.  My 4 year old doesn't like peanut butter *gasp* so I felt inspired to post what I give my kids for lunch.  I have been a vegetarian for 19 years. I generally give them a serving of dairy or protein,fruit and/or veggie for lunch depending on what I have on hand.  I try to sneak in some healthy (monounsaturated) fats too.  Those are found in olive oil, avocados,nuts.
My kids are good eaters so I can give them just about anything.   My 4 year old loves yogurt in any form. She will ask for it several times a day so I have to limit her to 2-3 servings a day.  I usually buy plain greek yogurt and she picks from the fruit we have on hand, fresh or frozen, to add to it.  Sometimes we add granola, chopped nuts, she has even added sunflower and pumpkin seeds, not my idea.  Other times we make smoothies to have either as a snack or to freeze into pops.  Today she picked an apple and baby carrots to go into the smoothie.  I just peeled the apple and chopped everything up a little, tossed it in the blender to puree then added some plain yogurt.   I am used to cooking fruits and veggies before pureeing them.  We made our own baby food.  But it really didn't turn out bad.    If she goes to the store with me she like the little cups so I will let her get a couple that don't have high fructose corn syrup.  The 17 month old is liking the yogurt now too so I go through a lot of yogurt each week.

I take random pics of our lunches.
Another staple is chickpeas or hummus.  They love dipping veggies, pita,chips, whatever into hummus.  The baby will just bypass the dipping and eat the hummus plain, like with her hands, really gross to clean up.  They also eat chickpeas just tossed in salads, or in couscous.  I used to make couscous a lot more but the baby hasn't quite perfected the spoon thing and she makes a huge mess with it.  Couscous all over the floor is a pain to clean up.  Today I had some chickpeas leftover from my lunch so the baby ate them as a snack, plain.

  Last week I had goat cheese and they enjoyed putting that on their strawberries, grapes, and blueberries. The 4 year old likes salads too.  I usually use spinach as the "lettuce"  My 4 year old actually calls spinach, lettuce.  I let her pick what she wants to put on it.  She likes veggies raw.  If they are cooked, she is likely to turn up her nose.  She doesn't like them "mushy."
There are also the old standbys of cheese quesadillas, grilled cheese, chickenless nuggets, or leftovers from last night's dinner.
Now this is what I give them.  Of course when they go to grandma's or great-grandma's they get things like cinnamon rolls, yes for lunch.  My grandma gave them american cheese for lunch on Tuesday and they didn't like it.  She was shocked and asked me about it, I don't like it, so I don't buy it.  I usually give them cheddar or string cheese.

So that's what we are eating here.  And know you know we are a vegetarian, make our own baby food,cloth diapering family:)

3 comments:

  1. This was great to read! thanks for the ideas! Love the hummus one, I feel like I did that with Nick but just forgot about it with #2. We're doing hummus today! love that your 4-year old eats salads like that and the goat cheese looks great, love that idea with the crackers and fruit. Thank you so much for posting!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I wish! We started this way, pureed baby food, whole foods, yogurt galore and smoothies etc. Then we tried peanut butter and that's where we're stuck. I have tried cashew and almond too, but they love peanut butter. We do processed food too, but my kids always have the 4 food groups, 5 sometimes if you count fruits and veges separate. I must throw in beans as an option. My kids love them. Pinto, black, red...most beans they just love! You can blend them for a dip, make soups or throw them on salad. They are also avocado addicts and since they are so expensive we go broke on those green monsters.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Great post. Some good ideas. Can I ask, how old was your wee one when started eating raw carrot. Do you use tinned chick peas? I gave Murray pinto beans in a few meals and then he got sick so I got worried I did something wrong. What kind of goat's cheese? I always have goat's cheese in the house as I don't eat cow's dairy. I've tried M on the hard cheese but not sure what else is OK (He's 12.5 months). I def need to increase his variety of foods for lunches. If you want to follow my blog you are very welcome.http://adventuresofkaz.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete