Pumpkin French Toast

How do you get a picky toddler to eat more vegetables?

A few weeks ago I stumbled across a cookbook about how to hide vegetables inside kids' food so that they will consume more of them without realizing it. I do not agree with this philosophy at all, because I think that children have a right to know what they are eating, and because I don't believe it actually encourages kids to "like" eating vegetables! Parenting has to include building trust between the parent and the child, and I don't ever want my daughter to think that she can't trust me to tell her the truth about what I am giving her.

Instead, I prefer to capitalize on what N. does like and build from there. I continue to serve her a variety of foods each day that she has both liked and disliked in the past, and every once in a while she will decide to like a new food. (Recently: honeydew melon and grapes.) I also regularly serve her favorite nutritious foods so that I can be sure she's getting the vitamins she needs.

The cookbook did have some ideas I found intriguing, though; in particular, inserting vegetable purees into common everyday foods. I decided to try this myself, but WITHOUT HIDING! N. watches, and even helps, as I spread her quesadilla with pureed carrot or her grilled cheese sandwich with butternut squash. And one of her new favorite breakfasts is pumpkin french toast!

1/4 cup canned pureed pumpkin
1 egg
1 slice whole grain bread
a pinch of cinnamon
cooking spray or oil/margarine

1. Mix together the pumpkin, egg, and cinnamon in a bowl.
2. Soak the bread in the mixture, about 30 seconds each side.
3. Heat a pan that has been sprayed and/or dotted with oil or margarine.
4. When the pan is ready, place the bread in it. Pour any excess pumpkin-egg mixture on top of the bread (there will probably be a lot). Lower heat, cover, and cook for about two minutes.
5. Flip the slice of bread and cook the other side for about two minutes, or until it appears that the egg is all cooked. Continue flipping and cooking as needed until you are sure it is thoroughly cooked.
6. Cut, cool, and serve! Can be topped with maple syrup or powdered sugar if desired. Personally, I think it needs a little sweetener, but I try to serve it to her without much extra sugar.

Harvest Meal with Soymilk

Fall is such a great season for vegetarian cooking, with all the squash and other harvest-y foods. A couple of weeks ago I made wild rice casserole (complete with low-sodium cream of mushroom soup), which was a big hit.

She ate it with squash and applesauce. The applesauce, not usually served at dinner, was very popular. (Incidentally, I usually add wheat germ to applesauce to boost its nutrition content.)

Off to the left you can see her straw cup with soymilk. While I cook with cow's milk, I don't serve it for drinking. N. has only ever had soymilk to drink and she assumes it's the norm. When she sees a picture of someone drinking milk, she calls it "so-milk!" It took a while for her to like drinking it, and even now she doesn't drink very much - maybe an ounce or two at best. But since we're still nursing twice a day, my pediatrician says we don't need to worry.

First Mini-Donuts

I really don't let my daughter eat junk food. She's had ice cream a few times, and cake a few times, but that's about it. Since she doesn't eat much to begin with, I don't want her to fill up on nutritionally-empty foods.

That said, we had a family trip to the pumpkin patch last week (our third!) and it was COLD. When I saw that there were mini-donuts and hot cider for sale, I said, "It's time for her first donuts." We bought a bag and sat on a bench, munching away. She was pretty impressed by the whole experience, and ate two! But she wouldn't consent to even a small taste of the cider.

Healthy Vegetarian Toddler

We had the 18-month check-up earlier this week, and N. is officially a healthy toddler. She measured in at 90th percentile for height and 40th for weight, so she is tall and thin like her dad! She easily passed her milestones and enjoyed coloring with crayons on the exam table.

I asked the pediatrician if we should be concerned about iron, given the vegetarian diet, and she expressed her opinion that N.'s healthy pink color and obvious energy level gave her no concerns about iron deficiency. (I do give a half-milligram of iron supplement a couple of times per week, in addition to trying to serve iron-rich foods on a regular basis.)

Although I believe that a vegetarian diet is perfectly healthy, it's still always nice to have it confirmed by an actual M.D.

Tofu Shapes

Every once in a while I have an unusually satisfying success. Yesterday afternoon was one of those times.

I am always hoping to find more foods are both nutritious and easy to eat, especially if they don't involve bread or cheese. I also like recipes that are easy to make and to clean up afterward.

Several years ago, I stumbled across the Vegan Lunch Box, a blog written by a Washington mom with lots of great ideas. (I also have her first cookbook and am hoping to soon purchase her second.) She has a recipe for Tofu Fish Sticks that always interested me, and now I have a child old enough to eat them.

However, I myself hated fish sticks as a child, so I wasn't interested in making anything that tasted remotely fishy. I also have a daughter who doesn't like strong flavors right now, so I needed to make a plainer version than what Jennifer has on her blog. I ended up designing my own recipe, and it worked very well!

1/2 cup cornmeal
1/4 cup nutritional yeast flakes (read here if you don't know what these are)
2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp salt
2 T sesame seeds
1/2 cup plain unsweetened soymilk
1 lb firm tofu

1. Preheat the oven to 400. Prepare a cookie sheet. (I like to use a Silpat.)
2. Mix the dry ingredients together in a cereal bowl or pie pan.
3. Pour the soymilk into a shallow bowl.
4. Cut the tofu into slices about 1/2-inch thick. Then use a cookie cutter or knife to create your desired shapes. You'll probably have leftover scraps -- they can be used, too!
5. One at a time, dip each piece of tofu into the soymilk and then the cornmeal mixture and cover both sides. Place on the cookie sheet.
6. Bake in the oven for 15 minutes on each side.
7. Let cool before serving, depending on the age of your child.

Nora didn't like these when I served them at 2pm, but when I served them again at 3:30, she ate three of the heart shapes! Robert ate about ten of the scraps, and I ate a few myself, dipped in ketchup and mustard.

It is somewhat time-consuming to do all the dipping in the two bowls, but I was able to complete most of it while Nora sat in her booster seat having a snack. Then she napped while they cooked in the oven.

Worth Remembering

Today, my finicky toddler reminded me once again as long as I keep providing her with a variety of nutritious foods, she will choose from among them a well-rounded diet. Not within each day, perhaps, but probably within each week.

I have ascribed to this philosphy since the beginning of her solid food consumption, but on those days when she refuses to eat anything other than bread and cheese I do feel a sense of growing frustration and even worry. How could she possibly getting all the Vitamin A, the iron, the magnesium, etc., that she needs?

Then comes a day like today, when she turns aside her pita bread and pizza in favor of broccoli, and sweet potato, as well as banana and peas. Apparently, her own little self realized she needed an infusion of something other than complex carbohydrates and cheese. I'll have to remember this the next time I despair of her seemingly endless appetite for bread!

Pizza Dippers

It's a nice idea, but ...

Shown in the photo is my "pizza dippers" toddler meal. I microwave a Trader Joe's whole wheat pita with a slice of mozzarella cheese on top for about 45 seconds, then let it cool slightly and cut it into strips. They can be dipped into a bowl of organic spaghetti sauce. Another bowl of fruits and/or vegetables is served on the side (broccoli and squash, in this case).

The meal has been served four times so far, and every time she has happily devoured most or all of the cheese strips, but left the sauce mostly untouched. So much for the "dip"! Since she loves regular pizza, I don't really understand what's going on. Oh well!

Picky Picky

Oh, the days when she would eat anything are long gone!

I have a very, very picky toddler. Of course, I was a picky child myself, and I remember it well, so I should not be too surprised. I ate no vegetables besides carrots, squash, and corn until I was in high school. Really, compared to me, she's got an amazing palate.

But lately it seems like each day my child crosses another previously-enjoyed food off of her list. She will happily eat eggs, cheese, tofu, bread in any form, plain beans, avocado, green peas, applesauce, and bananas. After that it gets sketchy. That's really not a long list of foods I can count on!

I'm learning to separate her foods from ours; for example, tonight I made an amazingly delicious polenta-bean casserole that Robert and I enjoyed. Nora ate plain beans, plain tortillas, broccoli, and avocado. I'm also using my heart- and bear-shaped cookie cutters whenever possible. In the past two weeks we've had "heart falafel," "bear [pan]cakes", and blueberry bear- and heart-biscuits. I think I'll be getting more creative with patty-style foods over the next couple of months. If it can be shaped like a bear or a heart, I will try it!

In the photo, she's carefully navigating a well-rounded falafel meal. She dipped pita in olive oil, dipped falafel in yogurt, and gently chewed (but did not swallow) some cucumber. The tomato and tahini were completely ignored.