Vegan and peanut free lunch ideas..who's got some good ones?
Posted by eli_lei on Feb 08, 2010 · Member since Oct 2008 · 16 posts
hey guys my little girl has finally started daycare and they provide snacks for the kids but no lunch, and I have to admit that I'm drawing a blank on what to send with her!
everything has to be peanut/nut free to boot!
any tried and true toddler friendly packable lunch ideas out there?
HELP!
does she like chickpeas or black beans etc?(not sure her age and choking hazard status with those) Those work as a good finger food and okay cold. Hummus or vegan cheese sandwich cut into small squares. cut up fruit.
chickpeas she loves, but mostly in chana masala.. (her fav food), black beans are iffy, maybe if I marinated them in some dressing... Thanks so much!
hmmmm thinking of things I would send for my two-year old....
cut up fruits,
Seitan NUGGETS : cut into pieces, or seitan sausage....cut up a package or equiv. of homemade seitan, place in a baking dish with 1 cup veggie broth and 2 tablespoons of oil (optionally some tamari, garlic, and crushed fennel seeds are good in there too,) bake at 350 for 15 min on one side and then 15 minutes on the other side. These are good served cold too. Or bread and fry them by cutting up seitan with a bowl of nondairy milk and 1 bowl of flour and spices mix, (paprika, garlic onion powder, etc) dip nuggets in milk than in breading then back in milk the back in breading and fry in canola oil for several minutes on both sides.
+ Containers of vegan yogurt, (we love the So Delicious Coconut milk vanilla yogurts)
+ roll ups with tortillas, using things like avocados, hummus,marinated tofu, sunflower seed butter, (if thats allowed,) vegan cheese, try and throw some veggies in there
+ boxes of rasins
+ pasta and potato salad....you can make creamy dressings with tofu or white beans and very small pieces of veggies like black olives, broccoli, peppers, celery, etc.
If she likes chickpeas you could send her with falafel or some variation of a bean-ball. The nugget-shape is kid-friendly. :) Tofu salad sandwiches or chickpea salad sandwiches if she's not so into tofu. If she does like tofu, though, cubed baked tofu might be a good idea! You could even send her in with some cheeseless pizza, or pasties - a piecrust-ish half-moon shape filled with veggies etc. - they're great and hand-held and portable.
All the suggestions are great. Here are some more:
veggie dogs w/ a little ketchup to dip(my daughter prefers them cold)
fake meat and cheeze or cream cheeze sandwiches or tortilla roll-ups
I fill crescent rolls w/ stuff-hotdogs, ham and cheeze, cream cheeze/spinach/mushrooms
guac and chips or crackers
hummus and veggies
pasta salad
black bean and corn salad
Fruit/veggies with dip
Smoothies in a thermos
Chickpea spread sandwhiches
fresh spring rolls
even leftovers in a thermos
Cold Pizza
Wraps
cereal with single-serving soymilks (or your own container and ice pack)
I'd try to avoid things that look like nonvegan food to avoid confusion, but that's just me. Kids that age don't seem to be into fitting in, so that really isn't an issue until later. My daughter loved anything she could dip during the toddler stage. You are blessed to have a daycare that lets you bring in food. They don't here unless its a home daycare. No vegetarian options here, let alone vegan.
Wow you guys inspired me! I'm off to the co-op now to do some serious damage to my bank account, and I'm sure she is going to love all of these great ideas!
lbarte, trust me I couldn't be happier about the lunch option either, but when i spoke to the director about how my daughter didn't eat meat and almost always organic I received some pretty strange looks.. It drives me crazy when I hear them say "children need meat, they need animal protein!" its an uphill battle even in my mostly liberal neck of the woods!
Thanks again to everyone!
We use sunflower seed butter instead of peanut butter for school lunches to get around the allergy issues.
Also my boys like the wee tubs of soy yogurt or dessert tofu.
K
I got the vegan lunchbox book from the library, that book is AWESOME!
Monday my son had tofu pups wrapped in blankets, with ketchup, sweet potato fries, and peas and corn. I sent yogurt and fruit, and a waffle with EB and powdered sugar for breakfast.
Yesterday I was in a rush so I sent left overs, butternut squash and tofu stuffed shells, with some chocholate chip cookies, and for the first time, he ate EVERYTHING I sent with him to daycare. All the stuffed shells, all the cookies, all the yogurt, all the blueberries, and all the cinnain toast. He was a hungry boy!
Today I sent spaghetti sauce and pasta with lentil-rice "meat" balls (recipe from the vegan lunch box book - awesome by the way, I think I am going to eat the extras for lunch!). I also sent another thing of yogurt and more blueberries, and for breakfast is a sunflower butter and jelly sandwich. When I left he had already gobbled up the whole sandwich and was working on a banana the daycare gave him and his cup of soymilk. I still am shocked at how good those lentil rice "meat" balls are, yummmm, I want some right now...
This maybe totally lame, but I just :)>>> the vegan lunchbox site and book. It gives me great ideas for my own lunch and I like that her son rates them.