veggieTOT - Page 9 of 10 - Vegetarian Recipes For Kids + Adults

Pesto Zucchini Grilled Cheese with Sun-Dried Tomatoes

09.14.2016 by veggieTOT // Leave a Comment

Before having Little Pea, my husband and I always vowed that we’d never order her food off the kids menu for her. But the reality is, sometimes the kids menu is nice—we don’t want to order an entire adult portion for her, but sometimes we want to order things at restaurants that we can’t share (oh, red wine reductions, how I miss you!).

Here’s the other reality about kids menus: there’s really not much for vegetarian kids and most of it involves lots of cheese, no veggies. Cheese pizza, mac & cheese, cheese quesadillas, grilled cheese sandwiches. These are often served with fries on the side, nothing green (or any other color, for that matter) in sight. It bums me out that this is what restaurants think kids should be served and I think this kind of turns into a self-fulfilling prophecy—we feed our kids this stuff, then that’s what they get used to eating and what they ask for, then we believe they’ll only eat cheesy cheese with more cheese and don’t bother ordering or making anything else.
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The Best Silicone Plates & Bowls For Toddlers

09.13.2016 by veggieTOT // Leave a Comment

I’m kind of embarrassed to admit the amount of hours (YES HOURS) I spent agonizing over what kind of dishes to register for when I was pregnant. I was totally that person and I knew I didn’t want plastic, but how could I be sure silicone was safe? What if there’s a study in 10 years showing that it’s not safe? WHAT IF??? Cue: paralyzing indecision.

We bought some stainless steel, but I ended up mostly buying food-grade silicone plates and bowls. It’s BPA-free and, barring any future studies, it’s generally recognized as a safe alternative to plastic.

That said, I do still take some precautions. First, I only buy brands I trust. There are a lot of fly-by-night Chinese brands, especially online, that make knock-off versions of this stuff, particularly the ezpz mats. Avoid these! I never microwave our silicone dishware and I don’t put blazing hot food into them, which is probably more my own neuroses at work than anything based on scientific fact.

These are some of my favorite silicone plates and bowls for babies and toddlers.

1. ezpz Happy Bowl

If you have a bowl tosser, you need to invest in one of these. There are a lot of suction bowls and plates out there, but this one really works.

Learn more + buy it here.
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Coconut Creamed Corn for Babies, Toddlers + Everyone Else

09.12.2016 by veggieTOT // Leave a Comment

I loved making baby food purees for Little Pea. Even before she was born, I was hoarding baby cookbooks and all kinds of baby food gadgets and doodads (doodads! I sound like a grandma!). I used purees as a way to introduce not only fruits and vegetables, but herbs, spices, and other flavors too.

This Coconut Creamed Corn is one of my favorite baby food recipes because it works for every stage—it can be pureed for babies without teeth, it can be made into a chunky mash (pictured here) for older babies, and it can be made without pureeing at all for everyone else. There’s a minimal amount of ingredients in this recipe, but there’s still a lot of depth to it because the corn is caramelized in the skillet before simmering in the coconut milk—this makes the resulting dish a little darker than traditional, pale creamed corn you get out of the can, but the flavor is much more satisfying.
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