cashew yoghurt

jasmine couldn't get enough of this one even though it was made for my husband and me!

• 2 cups of as raw as you can get cashews, soaked and drained
• 1/8tsp probiotics (i used some dairy free kids Inner Health stuff coz it has the least amount of taste and white in colour - the probiotics we normally take is Bioactive VIP and it has a strong flavour and brown in colour we didn't think it would make a nice yoghurt!)

blend cashews with a cup of water (or more if you want it runnier) until really smooth. 

stir through probiotics. 

leave in dehydrater at 40deg over night. 

in the morning it is ready to eat. 

keep in fridge.

we had this plain as oli doesn't sweeten anything but i would recommend flavouring it with vanilla, agave or fruit.

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!

blended food mixes

we started with a green smoothie of

• lettuce, green algae powder (chlorella), soaked almonds, raw brown rice protein powder, chia seeds

then with some other blends based on what we had in the house and what i was cooking for myself and Zac that day

• young coconut flesh, banana, raw cashew
• bok choy, quinoa, beluga lentils, pumpkin, green capsicum
• bok choy, quinoa, red lentils, sweet potato, broccoli
• red lentil, sweet potato, avocado
• avocado, tahini, pumpkin
• zucchini chickpeas, pumpkin, tahini
• homemade baked beans (see earlier post ) and sweet potato

i often have soft steamed vege peieces like broccoli and pumpkin for jazz to have as finger food while spooning her the blends. even raw carrot sticks and celery sticks work a treat to give her something to gnaw on.

it's great to have a frozen stash of soaked and cooked legumes and quinoa so you can pop a chunk of them into the steamer with your vegies for the day's meal rather than having to cook a tiny amount each time.

jasmine's very first foods:

avocado mashed
banana mashed
young coconut flesh blended with some of the milk
sweet potato blended with a bit of filtered water
unhulled tahini

it's been so very very long since i have posted. i have given birth to our 2nd child and things have been too busy to manage my blog as well! please read through the recipes below!

it's been quite busy round here so i haven't been posting as often. we had the kitchen renovated, we did a few trips to sydney, i started work again (just 2 days a week) and Zac started childcare on those days. so we've gotten out of our homely routine!
in amongst this upheaval it hasn't been that difficult to manage healthy vegan meals for zac. there has been a few short cuts taken and variety has been a bit compromised. We were eating regular take away dahl and curry from Rainbow Dream Vegetarian Cafe, lots of bought avocado nori rolls and lot's of plain steamed vegies and tempeh pieces.
it was great to get back home and into the kitchen to do some cooking! i pulled out old favourites, not having the motivation to try something new to post!