Baby and Toddler Meals - Month of April

We gad a great month for awesome planet based eats and trying new recipes! A lot of days we have repeats meals or leftovers so I of course don’t get to document all of our meals but hopefully this can inspire some mommas out there who are trying to eat more plant based. Not all of these meals and snacks are vegan because we are not fully vegan bu i’d say for the most part it was an overall successful month of sticking to a plant based diet!

The meal I struggle with not making plant based the most is breakfast because we still love our eggs. I really want to get into making tofu scrambles but I have not attempted yet although I do have the soft tofu in my fridge waiting. In the next couple weeks we will have try a tofu scramble and definitely document it and then it will be added to next months meals.

This meal below was one of my favourites. Cheesy scrambled eggs, turkey bacon, blackberries and leftover Cinnabons from the States which my mother in law gave to us. Definitely not vegan! But still so good and a nice treat.

Apple bento box style plate - Munchkin from Amazon
Dino spoon - Skip Hop from West Coast Kids
Toddler spoon and fork - Munchkin from Amazon

Our go to breakfast on most days is plain steel cut oats, chia seeds, hemp hearts with frozen blueberries and maple syrup for some added sweetness. We have this most days in the morning and it’s always good because it is filling and super yummy and easy to make different variations to switch it up so it doesn’t feel so boring. Pictured below is more turkey bacon, blackberries, oatmeal and for Asher half a Babybel.

Pumpkin plate - Home Sense
Ceramic bowl - made by my mom

Below pictured are the steel cut oats I use. They are plain with no added sugar/carbs. I add everything else to them that I possibly can. In this variation of oatmeal I added peanut butter as well and somehow it tasted so decadent. If you were to add banana slices I feel like that would be just as good as any dessert. The steel cut oats cook really quickly which is why they are a basic staple in this house.

Pictured below is a fully plant based, vegan breakfast. Lots of yummy fruit, some coconut, dark chocolate granola made from a local company. The best part of this breakfast was rolling the banana in the granola and having that sweet, savoury, crunchy deliciousness.

Below pictured are some of Jaxson and mine favourite snacks. Boom Chicka Pop and Veggie Straws from Costco. Both come in jumbo bags and are vegan and very healthy. Whenever we need a salty fix this is our go to. Don’t judge me for how I opened these bags, I promise I am not a psychopath.

These little guys I picked up for Asher. He loves them. They are very similar to the baby cheetos that we normally use but they have better and more wholesome ingredients. I wish they came in bigger bags because these are about the size of a bag of chips and we go through them fast, which obviously creates lots of waste. I bought 2 different flavours, cheese and herb and fresh tomato. Asher absolutely loves them and Jaxson even asked for them a few times.

One of our regular go to snacks, or “lunches” when there has been two breakfast is basic, pickles, cheese and veggies. Jaxson loves this for lunch and will often request veggies over an actual meal. We use Babybel for the boys cheese snacks but aside from that they get vegan cheese. Pictured below is a plate for both Ash and Jaxson, depicting different sizes for baby and toddler and the other plate was just for Jaxson. Jaxson is a very good and confident eater, he never struggles with choking otherwise I would cut up most of his food for him as well. Every child is different of course and I thoroughly recommend cutting the food into big sized pieces for all child ages.

Lunch meals below! On the right we have cauliflower tots, grape tomatoes, blackberries and a couple potato chips we had leftover. Then to the right we have a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with some cucumbers, carrots, blackberries and Teddy Grahams. I cut the crusts off with a pumpkin cookie cutter (although it really didn’t turn out that way) for the sandwich because he requested no crusts but this was the first time so I normally do not cut the crusts for him.

This lunch pictured below is from leftover vegan pizza (that I will talk about further below), the veg and fruit we had in the fridge and some Easter treats. Blackberries and tomatoes are clearly my boys favourites which makes me happy because they are amazing, healthy staples in any persons diet. I cut things long wise vs in half because this is actually to help with choking. Wider things are easier to choke on which is why I cut then lengthwise. Another baby led weaning trick.

I made this Tofurky “Italian sausage” for lunch one day and although the boys ate it I must say I do not recommend this product. It was dry and mealy and did not have any yummy or juiciness that a sausage would. Again both boys ate it but it was not theirs or my favourite. I will not buy this product again. Made with curly McCain fries and tomatoes and blackberries. Once again, cut lengthwise not in half.

All plant based dinners here this way this month. Vegan pizza, spaghetti, Mexican fried rice. Any decadent and delicious meal you can think of can become vegan. Pictured below is the vegan pizza I made. Pepperoni and cheese as per request of my toddler. I used Daiya and Earth Island cheddar and mozzarella shreds. In the future I would likely not add so much because it is not really necessary for a vegan pizza. The pepperoni slices are by Yves and they were good. Tasted like the real deal. In the future if I were to reenact this pizza I wouldn't add as much vegan cheese and I would add mushrooms and peppers.

Dalya cheddar style shreds - Safeway South Osborne
Earth Island mozzarella style shreds - Walmart Taylor avenue
Yves veggie pepperoni - Safeway South Osborne

Vegan skillet Mexican rice. Sooooo damn good and filling. For this recipe I cooked brown rice in my rice cooker with mushroom stock and water and then used homemade tomato sauce, Mexican seasoning from Costco, garlic, spinach, black beans rinsed and drained, canned corn rinsed. I did not have onions or peppers handy but if I did I would have added them. After the rice was cooked I added all the other ingredients to the skillet and then cooked for 20 minutes a 375˚ in the oven. It also made plenty of leftovers so we were able to eat this over the next few days.

Mexican fried rice with home-made cauliflower wings. Both my boys loved and gobbled this dinner up. So much so that they ate it a few days in a row. Rice on its own, rice for lunch, rice in a quesadilla. It made a good meal for many days and satisfied us in healthy and happy tummy ways. The picture to the right is chicken pot pie from Costco. Oh my goodness is it good. It is one of my guilty pleasures (not vegan :( ) and my whole family loves it. For the value with how long it lasts us I can’t help but to buy one every time we go. I am still currently looking for a plant based pot pie recipe because I made it once and it did not turn out good.

Gnocchi and “chicken” for supper this night pictured below. Basic and easy I used mainly leftovers for this dinner. Yes the gnocchi is store bought because who has time to make that??? Maybe someone without 2 kids. But it was still very tasty and both my boys loved it. These were with garlic vegan butter but you could use any sauce to go with them.

Below is pictured some of the ingredients and the turn out of our red lentil bolognese. Spaghetti essentially. The roasted garlic whipped VEGAN butter is from Black Market Provisions which is a local shop up the street from us, I have used it in multiple components of our cooking. The nutritional yeast is a basic staple in vegan cooking. It gives meals that “cheesy” taste. I use it in pasta and Italian vegan dishes to give it that rich, cheesy taste. For this recipe I soaked red lentils for 3.5 hours. Then when it was time to cook supper I put some roasted garlic whipped vegan butter in a pan and then added my lentils, spinach and our homemade tomato sauce. In the future I would add mushrooms to this recipe to make it slightly more flavourful and hearty/meaty.

Roasted garlic whipped butter - Black Market Provisions

Nutritional Yeast - Safeway Osborne Village

This last photo is a treat that we shared after a long walk over the BDI bridge. But the BDI has vegan ice cream!!!! And not only do they have vegan ice cream but they have a whole vegan menu! You can take your pick. This one we ordered was off of their new collaboration menu with Jenna Rae Cakes. Vegan cookie dough flurry. Omg it was so good and creamy. I believe the ice cream is coconut cream based but it did not taste like coconut. There really is no excuse for not having a vegan option when great options like this exist. Of course allergies are a thing but if you don’t have a coconut allergy you NEED to try this! Thank you BDI for being with the times and giving the people what they want. I love to support local so it’s nice that so many local places have vegan options, it makes it so much easier.

Stay tuned for more plant based meals next month. I will likely be adding a tofu scramble into our lives and trying some new pasta recipes. I would really like to do kale chips this month too, we will see how my boys feel about those. The goal is more plant based and less meat and dairy. I would also like to add that Beyond Meat is hitting stores this week, for sure Sobeys , Safeway and Save on Foods so get out there and try some vegan Beyond Meat Burgers, they are sooooo good and you won’t even be able to tell the difference. I can’t wait to get the Beyond Meat frankfurters. Any day that is plant based is a win in my books. I hope I can inspire any of y’all to make even one vegan meal switch. I promise eating vegan is not boring.