falafel wraps

3 falafel balls

cucumber and red capsicum finely sliced (i like to use the V-slicer so they are super thin and easy for zac to eat)

1 leaf of lettuce with any harder bits removed

couple of spoonfuls of tabouleh (see recipe on previous post)

hummus

rye mountain bread

i usually spread the hummus over the whole piece of bread so it sticks together when rolled. squash the falafel balls in a line close to one edge of the bread. i like to make falafel from scratch but you can find some ok packet mixes and don't forget to add golden kelp to the falafel mix before shaping into balls and cooking. top with sliced vegies, tabouleh and lettuce. roll up wrap as tightly as you can. cut into 2 or 3 smaller wraps that are easy for your baby to hold. things might go everywhere but it's amazing how much will get into their stomach!

not vegemite spreads

i like to think up different nutritious options for spreading on toast. here are some i have as staples for zac that are easy to wiz up for different meal times:

• avocado and pumpkin seeds blended
• banana and tahini mashed together
• macadamia butter and fig paste (blended dried figs)
  
• hummus (you can find heaps of home made hummus recipes on the net and there are some brands you can buy with all natural ingredients)
• red lentil pate (see recipe on earlier post)

spread on your toast, crackers, rice cakes, sandwiches.

mexican wraps

mexi bean mix:
1/4 cup red quinoa
1/4 cup soaked (sprouted if possible) adzuki beans
pinch of crushed garlic
pinch of paprika
pinch of cumin
pinch of oregano
1/2 tsp golden kelp

add all ingredients to a small pot with 1 cup water and simmer covered for 15mins. water should absorb and beans should be soft. mash or blend.

corn and vegie mix:
1/4 cob corn
1 thick slice pumkin
a few leaves of bok choy or kale
1 stick of carrot
1 T sunflower seeds, soaked

steam vegies then blend together with seeds.

spoon some of each mixture onto wrap bread/tortilla. shape into easy to hold rolls. just spoon feed bean and vegies mixes for younger babies.

apple & raspberry porridge

handful of raspberries (frozen or fresh)
1/2 apple finely grated
1/4 cup rolled oats, soaked
1 T desiccated coconut
30 grams pecans, soaked
1 T chia seeds

blend pecans and chia seeds with a bit of water. cook oats, apples and raspberries, stirring frequently. mix all ingredients in the bowl and serve.

buckwheat noodles, lentils and vegies

25 grams buckwheat noodles, cooked
1/3 cup cooked green lentils
1/3 cup of steamed sliced vegies (broccoli, carrot, zucchini, red capsicum)
1/2 tsp tamarind paste
1/2 tsp golden kelp powder
small bit of crushed garlic
finely chopped thai basil and coriander to taste
tahini and lemon juice to taste

stir ingredients together and cut to bite size pieces or blend for younger babies.
optional add small pieces of tempeh.

helpful books

disease-proof your child - Dr Joel Furhman
feeding your vegan infant - Sandra Hood
super baby foods - Ruth Yaron

disease proof your child i think was great but i still like to include less soy than his recipes do. but it is a wonderful source of information and a must read.

feeding your vegan infant is short and brief but covers the main points to think about - still a bit soy focused in the recipes.

super baby foods has a lot of good info and helpful hints and recipes but it also has a lot of stuff i didn't necessarily go for... don't get put off by that though because in amongst it all you can find some worthwhile tips and ways to think about getting the most in each meal.

breakfast biscuits/breakfast toast

zac has loved my biscuits and toast that has been made from his left over breakfast even though they mostly look like green dough! he eats them for snacks at different times of the day. i also serve him a piece once he's finished eating his porridge in the morning as he likes something to chew on.
use any of your breakfast porridges (eg green smoothie breakfast and fig and quinoa breakfast from previous posts). add enough quinoa flour, a bit of self raising flour (wholemeal wheat or gluten free), extra seed and nut meals to make a sticky dough. you don't need much and the amount depends on how much breakfast is left over. spoon onto a baking tray into biscuit clumps or flatten into toast shape squares. cook in the oven at 180deg for 10 mins or until slightly brown. i normally store toast shapes in freezer and put them in the toaster for reheating and serving. i normally keep the biscuits in the fridge and they last for up to a week.

cherry coconut cookies

1/2 cup cherries pipped and chopped
1/2 cup medjool dates* pipped and chopped
1/2 cup desiccated coconut
1/2 cup rolled oats
1 banana, mashed
1 cup quinoa flour
1/2 cup SR flour (i used gluten free)
1/2 cup almond meal
1/4 cup ground chia seeds
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

mix all ingredients and add enough water to make a sticky but not runny mixture. you may need to add more flour if the fruit and oil has wetted the mixture more than expected. You may want to blend all the fruits and rolled oats if you don't want a chunky biscuit.
add more desiccated coconut if you wish and/or some nut butter.
spoon clumps of mixture onto tray greased with a little coconut oil. biscuits won't rise much so no need to spread them out too much.
bake in a moderate oven until slightly browned on the surface (between 10 and 20 mins depending on how big you make the biscuits). allow to cool. store in fridge for a up to a week.

* i only purchase medjool dates. i find other kinds of dates (like the common ones found in major supermarket chains) are not as juicy. your local organic food coop should have them for sale.

quick lunch

one slice of essene bread, toasted, then lathered with hommus, then a piece of steamed pumpkin stuck on top.
i like essene bread for zac because it is made from sprouted grains. so is probably more nutrient dense than normal loaves of bread and it is surprisingly filling. you can find it in your local food coop or health food stores.
i always have some left over steamed vegies from the night before in case i need to make a quick lunch like today!
we also gave zac some salad vegies to pick at and a couple of pieces of tempeh. tempeh is also my fall back protein quick finger food if i have nothing else prepared... recipes for a variety of vegie patties and croquets (which i normally have on hand) to come!

stir fried noodles

A lot of the time i give zac just some of what i have cooked up for myself. however i might change the proportions of things for his dish to favour proteins and and grains. tonight we gave zac a stir fried vegies, lentils and gluten free noodle dish. i had made it for myself and put some aside in his bowl with a higher proportion of noodles than i would have in my bowl, plus i stirred through some nut meals and added more lentils. my measurements for the following ingredients are estimates for the baby only meal.

30g gluten free spaghetti (i like San Remo brand as it doesn't just use rice flour like most gluten free pastas) cooked
a couple of broccoli florets, a few slices of carrot, a handful of peas, a few small chunks of pumpkin, leaf of bok choy finely chopped.
1/2 cup cooked green lentils
1/2 tsp golden kelp powder
tiny dash of soy sauce
dash of mirin
1/4 clove of garlic crushed
coconut oil and water for cooking
30g ground cashews and walnuts

melt a tiny amount of coconut oil in the pan and add all ingredients except spaghetti and nuts.
stir then cover so water steams vegies a bit. cook to be soft enough to eat but that the vegies haven't lost their bright colours. mix cooked spaghetti, vegies and nuts on a plate and cut with knife and fork into little pieces. you could blend all this for younger babies.

Lentil and Quinoa Tabouli

1/8 cup quinoa

1/8 cup sprouted puy lentils

1/16 cup split red lentils

1/8 tsp dried oregano and thyme

handful of fresh parsely, very finely chopped

½ a tomato, finely diced

¼ tsp golden kelp powder

squeeze of lemon

crushed garlic to taste

cook quinoa, lentils and dried herbs in a cup of water until water has been absorbed but mixture is still a bit runny. Mix with remaining ingredients. Can be blended for younger babies.

Fig and Nut Balls

Equal portions of dried fig and date paste*, raw unsalted almond meal, raw unsalted macadamia butter** plus ½ that sized portion of desiccated coconut.

Mix and knead together and roll into balls.

* I like to make a container of my own fig paste which is a fig and date blend. Simply get dried black mission figs and dried ordinary figs with a few seeded medjool dates and blend into a paste.

**some macadamia butters are runnier than others, I like to just grind fresh macadamias myself and the butter is less runny but still very sticky and oily.

red lentil pate

1/2 cup red split lentils
tiny bit of garlic
1/8 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp golden kelp
1/8 tsp tumeric
1T ground chia seeds

cook in 1 cup of boiling water for 10 mins. stir with a fork once cooked. stir until it becomes pasty, blending is optional for a smoother pate. Add chia seeds.

spread on rice cakes, finger food vegies, or just feed from a spoon.

Peace Love and Mungbeans

1/8 Cup Mungbeans
1/8 Cup Millet
1/2 tsp golden kelp
couple of leaves of kale or spinach finely chopped
pinch of oregano

blend mungbeans and millet until super fine powder. add all ingredients to 1 cup of boiling water. simmer while stirring frequently.
i like to stir through a nut or seed blend if i have it handy.

Zucchini Noodles

Zac thinks these are great. a lot of the time i just have the plain noodles without pesto for him and he enjoys it as finger food. i normally would serve give him a little pile on his high chair tray as an accompaniment to his main meal.

half zucchini sliced in the v-slicer lengthways

pesto: basil, parsley, golden kelp powder, loads of pumpkin seeds, lemon juice, garlic, macadamia oil. See previous post for pesto recipe.

small amount of finely diced tomato


stir as much or as little pesto as you like through zucchini noodles and top with tomato.

Pumpkin Seed Pesto

big bunch of fresh basil
handful of fresh parsley
tsp of golden kelp powder
150g of raw unsalted pumpkin seeds (more or less depending on how thick you want it)
juice of 1 lemon
1 clove of garlic
1 T of macadamia oil (more or less depending on how oily you want it)

Blend until smooth.

I normally make a big batch, pile it all into a tall jar, and add some extra oil on top to stop it going brown. It should store well in the fridge for a few days.

Sprouts

sprouts are a great finger food addition to meal times. zac seems to love fenugreek sprouts but we also offer him alfalfa sprouts. i realised he enjoyed eating sprouts when he knocked over our fenugreek sprouting tray into his toy bucket and started shoving them in his mouth! he stood there and ate for ages!
i also try and use sprouted legumes in his food. sprouting greatly increases the accessible nutrients of legumes. i was really surprised to see that sprouting lentils almosts quadruples the amount of protein.
my husband oli makes all our own sprouts.

Directions: soak 1 cup of legumes or seeds (eg mungbeans, puy lentils, alfalfa, fenugeek, chickpeas) for 24hrs. drain and leave to sprout. We use jars with small squares of fly screen fastened to the opening of the jar with an elastic band. This allows you to drain off the soak water by pouring the water out through the fly screen and keeping the seeds in the jar to sprout. The fly screen lets the sprouts air and keeps any bugs out. With alfalfa and fenugreek once they have started to sprout we lay them out on a long flat container so they grow upwards like a patch of grass.

steamed vegie finger foods

another one of the first foods we gave zac was steamed vegies. i find broccoli, carrot, capsicum were good soft textures but firm enough to grab. i would remove the skin of the red capsicum for him by dunking it in cold water after steaming to loosen the skin. pumpkin sometimes got a bit soft but he liked it when i had got the texture just right and it wouldn't break up when he pressed it up to his mouth. now that his teeth are getting better he is really liking steamed green beans and corn on the cob. we like to drizzle tahini or spread hummus or nut butters on the vegies too.

Quinoa and Fig Breakfast Porridge

1/8 cup quinoa

1/8 cup split red lentils

heaped tsp of fig paste*

30g almond meal (I grind up unsalted raw almonds myself)

1T ground chia seeds or linseeds

fruit finely diced (eg apricots, bananas, berries)

cook quinoa, lentils and fig paste in 1 Cup of water. Stirring frequently.

Mix through fruit and nuts and seeds. Can be blended for younger babies.

Optional: mix in some coconut milk

* I like to make a container of my own fig paste which is a fig and date blend. Simply get dried mission figs and dried ordinary figs with a few seeded medjool dates and blend into a paste.

super everyday meal

1/8 cup red split lentils
1/8 cup quinoa
1/8 cup grated or finely chopped vegies (eg carrots, sweet potato, broccoli, kale)
1/2 tsp golden kelp powder
pinch of oregano or other herbs and spices you choose
1 Cup water
30 grams ground raw nuts and seeds (eg almonds, chia seeds, pumpkin seeds, walnuts)

cook everything except for nuts, stirring frequently. add more water if needed. have it runny enough not to become too dry when you add the nuts. remove from heat and stir through nuts and seeds. Can be blended for younger babies.
optional: Stir through Tahini

Green Breakfast Smoothie

zac loves this and it is a great way to get iron, essential fatty acids, vitamin C and protein in him. it was one of the first foods we gave him.

30g raw unsalted nuts (eg almonds, pecans, brazil or walnuts), soaked overnight

1 T chia seeds or linseeds (if you don't have a good blender, you may need to grind separately)

tsp green food powder (eg spirulina or green algae powder)

tsp raw brown rice protein powder

half an average sized banana

handful of blueberries

lettuce or spinach leaves

1/8 C rolled oats soaked and cooked

Blend everything except for the oats with enough water to get the consistency you want. Stir oats through. (include oats in the blend for younger babies).