My toddler.... mostly won't eat vegetables. Except when he will. Or when someone else gives him veggies. Or those mini sweet peppers. Or those three times he ate, like, a half pound of salad for dinner.* Anyhow. Green stuff? Forget it. Except! This is the ONE THING he will always eat:
Vegan Pea Pesto-Like Object
1 lb frozen peas (or 1/2 lb peas and 10 oz frozen spinach)
6 oz toasted unsalted sunflower seeds
6-10 cloves garlic
1 t salt
1 t rosemary
4 T olive oil
4 T lemon juice
(Optional: fresh basil. We usually don't have any.)
Boil 1.5 lbs pasta. Heat up the peas. Defrost and drain the spinach if you're using it. Food processor the heck out of the sunflower seeds and garlic. Throw in everything else and let your toddler hit the 'pulse' button to his or her heart's content. Taste it and adjust spicing. Drain the pasta, mix all the pesto with all the pasta, and tell your toddler it's Dinosaur Pasta. Watch in amazement as they devour green vegetables. Repeat as needed.
Anyone have more sure-fire vegetable-containing toddler dinners for me? Preferably fast ones. Also: vegan. (Sorry. Yes, we eat meat but I'm allergic to dairy and we usually have chicken once a week, and besides, Bug mostly won't eat meat. Except smoked salmon.)
*Not salad like this (the salad of my spouse's people). Salad like this.
(P.S. I just took a tour back through the blog's Flickr account looking for my salad picture (sadly absent; I appear to have, in a moment of rare restraint, refrained from mocking my in-laws' Jello). I cannot BELIEVE I hand-appliqued that quilt. Or hand-quilted more than one quilt. Or sewed that. Or that which will never fit me again, waaaah. Also, where the heck did I find this? And I have apparently been getting rid of unfortunate gifts from my in-laws for years. YEARS!!)
Awesome :) I shall be making that as soon as humanly possible. Which is to say, next week, after my in-laws go home. Plus, we had pasta last night and my husband gets cranky if I make pasta too often... Weirdo.
ReplyDeleteBugs Bunny pasta is a hit around here (you can Google it; basically roasted carrots pureed with spices and cream into a sauce). You'd have to tweak it to be vegan, but it's delicious!
ReplyDeleteAh! I'll have to try that. We always have soymilk around, which is less tasty than cream, but also less ER-trip-inducing.
DeleteSmoothies. I usually make ours with vanilla whey protein powder, mango and yogurt or banana and milk, a tablespoon of wheatgerm, and a great big bunch of kale or spinach. I like berries, but haven't found a cheap source to make cost-effective. You can substitute your favorite Vegan protein powder and almond or soy milk/yogurt whatever you have on hand, but I swear you CANNOT taste the greens at all.
ReplyDeleteNonvegan but free of dairy - if your toddler likes Green Eggs and Ham, then Green Eggs are a guaranteed hit (try them and you may, I say!) Throw spinach or kale into the blender with the eggs.
Dips for crudite - salad dressings, hummus, etc. - seems to increase appeal tremendously.
Turtles on a log, aka celery sticks with peanut butter and raisins?
Egg recipe continues: scramble or omlet or whatever you prefer. Our toddler has not yet figured out that the green eggs in the book are fried eggs and ours are not.
DeleteAlso, I thought our toddler was the only one with such expensive tastes, but smoked salmon is also his faaavorite.
DeleteI don't think I've ever given him a smoothie! Not least because our blender died quite a while ago and I have yet to replace it. I will definitely have to try that, and the green eggs! We use that book as an inducement ("He tried it and he LIKED it!") all the time.
DeleteHe will eat hummus, but I never buy salad dressing because my spouse won't eat Ranch/whatever and it goes bad before Bug eats it all. Alas. Maybe I can find some in itty bitty tubs.
I've also never given him ants on a log, though I swear the child is made up of 50% peanut butter, because we never have celery! I can't eat it (because of this peculiar condition but I will have to remember next time we have celery in the house. I used to love it as a kid! Thanks for the reminder.
Also, I totally need to go buy a blender.
That must be one of the most interesting allergies I have ever run across. Hopefully you're not too miserable with all the birtch pollen floating around right now. Child #1 does not eat green eggs (though he likes ham). Spinach quiche is requested often, because of the (whole wheat) crust. Also, frozen peas. Frozen. Again, weirdo :)
DeleteI am completely miserable at present. I also can't eat walnuts- regrettably present in most baklava- for the same reason!
DeleteKids are weird.
i got nothing. the bean won't eat pasta. peas are a major food group.
ReplyDeletehe does think pea shoots are HILARIOUS.
does bug eat quinoa? we can get the bean to eat a lot of things if quinoa and applesauce are involved.
Oh, I just remembered something. Colin is super-excited about smoothies. Frozen fruit, juice, soft tofu, my in-laws even add spinach. Good luck!
ReplyDelete