omni nieces and nephues
I know i can't spell and i am still new to the forums, but i had my niece 3 1/2 and nephue 5 spend a couple of days with me and my daughter 3 1/2, and they come from a house with at least 5-7 kids at all time (at the moment 9) very much meat-atarians. My daughter and i are pescatarians but are trying to cut out fish all together with hopefully going on to a full on vegan diet. I got beautiful baby carrots from my csa, so i put that on the plate with their lunch. my daughter scarfs hers, and the two others are quite offended, i tell them it came from the farm, they got a bit intrigued but not enough to eat them. so i had to bribe them while my daughter is asking for more carrots. i also made tuna sandwiches (soon to be reforming pescatarian ;)b ) and i chopped up some fresh dill that i also got from my csa. I got hell from the 5 year old for "grass" in his sandwich!! lol what do you all feed omni kids? b/c i don't know what i am going to do for them when we do go fully vegan... it is already hard to get them to eat yummy foods...and i love the kids hanging out for a few days or so.
mac and cheese (recipes on this site)
PB&J
fruit
mexican food if they're into that (like enchiladas, burritos, tacos, taco salad)
fake meat sandwiches. you can make your own fake meat w/ seitan.
pancakes
cereal... if you have to pour non-dairy milk into a milk carton to trick them
hummus and veggies/pita
potatoes w/ vegan fixings (you can get/make veggie sour cream, veggie cheese or cheese sauce, bacon bits are often vegan)
peanut sauced things
.....
thank you hespedal, these kiddles are so damn picky!! i am not used to it, i am trying to plug in good things when i can, and my daughter doesn't mind, but holy hell do these kids notice! :D we go through about a quarter gallon of non fat milk before it goes bad, we are cutting things out slowly... i hope i don't get kicked off for the fish thing... :-\
Most kids will eat spaghetti with marinara. Plain noodles with Earth Balance orly will do in a pinch for the pickiest eaters. I have gotten all my friends' kids (processed food junkies) to eat the cashew alfredo sauce from this site. I think the biggest hangup is that most omni kids are used to real fruits and veggies. How sad. They are so deprived.
we don't kick anyone off for what they eat :) all diets are welcome, we just promote veganism and we encourage everyone to go vegan.. because we're evil like that (bwahaha).
well hopefully i can join the evil clan someday! :)
I have a similar issue with my sweet niece, & got some good advice here:
http://vegweb.com/index.php?topic=30236.0
For us the key is for me to take her WITH me to the farmer's market/ produce section/ garden, and let her pick things for us to make/ eat; or let her be in charge of stirring the noodles/ cutting the sandwiches into fun shapes w/ cookie cutters/ putting the (veggie) taco filling into the tacos/ etc... if she participates in the process, she feels some ownership of it, and is much more willing to try unfamiliar foods. She's also a budding naturalist, so sometimes we 'study about' different animals (look up info online, or get kid-friendly mags about the natural world, just for fun... I'm quick to link 'green food' to herbivorous animals that she likes: 'Hey, this could be the eucalyptus leaves, and we can be koalas!'... and then she likes the spinach, lol. Smoothies and frozen desserts are good too, and fun to make together.
When I pick her up, I usually say 'is there anything from your fridge you'd like to bring?' b/c she knows I have different choices in my fridge than she has in hers... Or sometimes, if we're in a hurry and I haven't planned ahead well enough... I just take the gal to Kroger or a restaurant, & say what would you like for dinner?! This is the choice of last resort (and I'm still not cooking any carcass!)... but... sometimes you just gotta do the best you can, and not sweat the small stuff. I feel like I'm laying the groundwork for vegan choices for her, later in life; so if she doesn't eat 100% vegan at my house I don't fret; that's not the point... I'll get her what she asks for, and enjoy my veggie fare alongside her, and share freely as her interests dictate! Although I'm sure if I had my own child of similar age at the same table (as you do), I'd be less willing to bring non-cool foods to mealtime at my house... idk, maybe the rule could be 'pack a lunch, in case you don't like what I make... otherwise, here's a delightful pbj with some peach slices; eat & no whinies please!'
Good luck... and btw, welcome to VW! Glad you're here. It's a pretty cool 'evil clan'.
:)