Packed Lunch for a toddler

i used to have to pack lunches for Zac on the days he went to childcare. i always found it hard not to include nuts as his diet  is normally very high in nuts as a good protein source. i also found it hard because we didn't normally have a lot of sandwiches but i wanted to make him feel like he had similar food to the other kids eating with him. i figured tahini sandwiches were great even though it took a lot of explaining to the carers that ist wasn't peanut butter! i also could pack him off with some homemade baked beans and he  often enjoyed eating leftovers from last night's dinner if it was easy enough for him to manage on a fork himself eg pasta or noodles. Nori rolls, sandwiches, salad vegies and dried fruits were the easiest finger foods to pack. here is an example of his lunch box:  this one is homemade brown rice and avocado nori rolls, tahini sandwich, vegie noodles, cucumber, tomato and lettuce, and a date.

he now is in a childcare centre that provides all meals. this has been easier than expected and the staff have really embraced experimenting with vegan meals. they have worked out how to substitute ingredients in their normal meals so zac's meal does not differ too much form the other kids. they also made one of the days in the week all kids get a vegan meal! this was usually mexican beans, rice and guacamole or a vegie pasta. they also tried some "chickpea bites" which i assume were small round patties but no-one, including zac, ate them so they came off the menu!

snow balls and snow penguins

this is a great one for your toddler to help cook! but be prepared for a lot of mess!

blend dried fruit  - i used medjool dates, figs, and apricots.
you may need a bit of water to assist the blending - i used some young coconut juice.
mix through quinoa puffs - or any puffs eg rice or buckwheat.
mix through almond meal or any nut butter/meal.
add as much quinoa puffs and nut meal to get your preferred consistency to roll balls of the mixture easily.
roll balls over desiccated coconut.
shape into snow men/animals or just eat the balls!