Arlo Eats - Toddler edition 1.0

It's been a while since I shared a detailed post about what Arlo eats. In fact, my last post was when he was around nine months, and eating mostly puffs and purées! Things have changed a lot since then.  As mentioned in his 15 month update, shortly after his one year birthday, we switched him to a fully plant based diet.  I did a lot of research on toddler nutrition before we made this change, especially in the non-dairy milk department.  It is also worth mentioning for any new readers that I have been vegan for eight years now, and have formal training both as a nurse and a cooking and nutrition instructor for The Cancer Project, a non-profit organization that focuses on educating the public about a plant-based diet.  So this wasn't something that I just made up as went along, and not something that I take lightly either. That being said - if you are thinking of starting your child on a plant based diet I highly encourage you to do a lot of research on your child's nutritional needs, as well as consult with your pediatrician. Ok, disclaimer out of the way - onto the good stuff!

Our mornings usually begin around 6:45am when Arlo wakes up, and by 7:00am or so we are downstairs in the kitchen to get breakfast started.  This is the one meal that doesn't tend to vary too much, and he usually eats the same thing every morning without complaint.  He always gets fruit - usually 1/2 banana, mixed organic berries (whatever looks good that week at the store), and 1/2 a kiwi or clementine.  In addition to that, I make a special dish of oatmeal just for him, which consists of quick oats (from the bulk bin at Whole Foods), cinnamon, nut butter (usually sunflower or almond), flax oil (about a teaspoon), and just a touch of maple syrup to give it a little sweetness.  Sometimes I also add in raisins or blueberries.  Up until recently, I was spoon and fork feeding him everything, although he has been practicing with utensils at school since he started there.  Recently, he got a hold of the fork I was using to feed him his dinner, and started using it all on his own!  I didn't think he was ready quite yet, and suspected we would end up with quite the mess, but he actually does a decent job at stabbing his food with the fork and bringing it to his mouth.  The spoon is a little more challenging but he is starting to get the hang of it.

Arlo's oats - I just put everything in a small glass bowl, add some hot water from the kettle, mix and let sit for 3-4 minutes, and it's ready to eat!  If it is too hot, I add in a few frozen blueberries which makes it the perfect temp.

I have tried offering Arlo milk with his meals, but he actually much prefers water.  So he gets a bottle or sippy cup of milk mid-morning between breakfast and lunch, a smoothie with his mid-afternoon snack, and a bottle before bed.  Overall he typically takes in 16-18 ounces of milk per day.

Depending on the day and how hungry he is, Arlo will sometimes get a mid-morning snack around the time of his milk.  Today I gave him Organic O's (Whole Foods version of Cheerios) in his snack catcher while we were out for our morning walk.  I should also mention that 95% of what Arlo eats is organic.  The pesticides in our food supply are not good for any of us, but are especially important to avoid in growing children.  We always choose organic whenever possible, and depending on the food will sometimes not even buy unless an organic version is available.


We usually eat lunch between 11:30am and noon, and Arlo goes down for his nap shortly after.  This is the schedule they follow at school, and it works great for us at home as well.  Arlo's lunches, as are mine, are typically leftovers from the previous nights dinner.  Today Arlo had green peas and baked tofu, raw carrot sticks, and seed crackers with hummus.  He will usually also get fruit or raisins for dessert.  I always wait until he is done with his main meal before giving him dessert, otherwise he will fill up on fruit and leave the other stuff on his plate.  He is a fruit monster, it is definitely his favorite food right now.

After his nap, sometime between 2 and 3pm, it's snack time.  When it is not a school day and we are at home, I always make him a smoothie.  I make it a little differently each day, but the basics are usually his milk mixture, banana, frozen berries, hemp or flax oil, and nuts or a nut butter.  Today I used banana, milk, blueberries, hemp oil, and walnuts.  I also gave him a few graham crackers.  Other afternoon snacks might include cereal, raisins, carrot sticks, non-dairy yogurt, fig bars, pretzels, or fresh fruit like orange wedges, apple slices, or quartered grapes.

Oh, and a word on his non-dairy milk mixture.  Arlo drinks a blend of hemp, oat, soy, and flax milks, combined in equal portions.  Together, they provide good amounts of fat, calcium, protein, and calories.  Every few days I mix up a big glass pitcher of his milks so it's ready to go when I need to make a smoothie or bottle and I don't have to get out all four milk cartons.

all of his milks are "unsweetened" as Arlo gets plenty of natural sugars from all the fruits he eats.  the oat milk is naturally very sweet without any added sugar which adds a slight sweetness to the milk mixture.

Evenings are when things tend to get a little challenging in our house from a food perspective.  Arlo usually gets hungry around 5pm, which to feed him at that time would require me to start dinner around 4pm if he was going to eat what I was cooking for Erik and I.  The problem is, Erik doesn't get home until 6pm or after, so I usually end up serving dinner twice.  Today, as I often have been recently, I opted to make Arlo his own dish, and fed him his meal around 5:15.  Erik and I ate together when he got home from work, and I gave Arlo a few bites of my food while we were eating, even though he had already finished his and been cleaned up long before we sat down to eat.  Today, Arlo had mashed avocado on whole grain flax bread, corn, berries, and a bowl of leftover lentils I made the previous day.  I often make a super simple pot of red lentils, spinach, and some Earth Balance or olive oil for healthy fats.  I also add a tiny pinch of salt for flavor.  Arlo loves this dish and it will keep in the fridge for several days.  I am hoping that after we move closer to Erik's new job we can return to eating together as a family, but for now this is my temporary solution to keep everyone fed and happy.

lentil dish.  this one also had quinoa, millet, and butternut squash.

And just in case you were curious as to what Erik and I had...

Cuban black beans with onion, bell peppers, corn and tomato.  side of brown rice with avocado, cilantro, radish, and lime.  yum!

And to answer a question that I am prepared to do many times in the coming years when people learn that Arlo is being raised on a plant-based diet:

"Your kid is a vegan?!  But where does he get his..."

Protein:  nut butters, beans, lentils, quinoa, tofu and tempeh (eaten a few times per month), soy milk, non-dairy yogurts, flax milk which is fortified with pea protein, and the oat milk and hemp milk that he drinks have small amounts as well (4g and 2g respectively per serving.)

iron:  leafy greens, beans, tofu, lentils, and quinoa.

calcium: calcium-fortified non-dairy milks, broccoli and leafy greens, beans, and tahini.

fat: avocado, hemp oil, flax oil, nut butters, flax seed, tahini, tofu, and tempeh.

vitamin B12:  nutritional yeast and fortified non-dairy milks.

* please note that lots and lots of foods have small amounts of protein, fat, and iron.  Take broccoli and sunflower seeds for example.  You might not think of them necessarily as a good source of iron or protein, but broccoli has 4 grams of protein and 1.1 mg of iron per cup!  Sunflower seeds have 3.3 grams of protein and 1.2 mg of iron per 1/4 cup.  These foods might not get you to your recommended daily allowance on their own, but those little bits here and there add up throughout the day.

And lastly, some of our favorite food-related products, many are seen in the photos above:

Pura Kiki stainless steel cups: In my quest to eliminate all plastic from Arlo's life, I bought these sippy cups a few months ago.  These were the only 100% plastic-free cups I could find, as the vessel is stainless steel and the spout is pure silicone.  Overall, I do like these cups.  They come with regular bottle nipples for a younger baby, and you can also purchase a silicone straw top instead of the sippy spouts.  Arlo took to these right away, and we often use them in place of his bottles.  The downsides - they are not the easiest to clean, they are insanely expensive (the three bottles, silicone sleeves, and sippy spouts and shipping cost somewhere between $60-70.  ouch.)  As well if they sustain a fall from a high chair or table, they dent pretty easily.  Probably not something I would buy more of, but we do get a lot of use out of the few that we have.  I eventually realized that a completely plastic-free existence is not only expensive but stressful as well, so I relaxed my no-plastic rules and bought these:

Re-Play Plates: Another mom blogger I follow recommended these, and my local evil big box store carries them (for less than $5 a pack) so I decided to give them a try.  We love them.  Easy to clean, super durable, and fun colors too.  I like that the food can sit in divided compartments, and I think Arlo likes that too.

OXO roll-up bib:  Love, love, love this bib.  We have another pocket-style bib that we used for many months before I discovered these.  The problem with it is that the whole thing is rigid rubber, which seems uncomfortable for Arlo and has even pinched his neck a couple of times.  These OXO bibs are awesome - soft up top but have a sturdy pocket to catch dropped food.  Easy to clean, waterproof, and they roll up compactly for travel.  I bought two and haven't used another bib since.

snack catcher:  nothing too fancy here, just a little non-spill snack container that Arlo can use to feed himself his Organic O's, raisins, pretzels, and other small snacky foods.  We started using this when he was around 10 months old, but it took him a while to realize it wasn't some game I was providing him with, and that the goal wasn't to pull out giant fistfuls of food to then feed to the dog.

silicone placement:  I don't know the brand, but I recently found an inexpensive 100% silicone placemat at Target for around $4.  It is perfect for eating out at restaurants, folds up small, and is easy to clean.  I love that it keeps his food off the restaurant table, as well as makes cleaning up the mess easier for us.


So there you have it, everything our little foodie baby is up to at 16 months old!  And a couple more of my favorite meal time photos...

cheese-ball face

the face of a little guy who just drank his smoothie out of a regular cup.

Sweet Potato & Kale Soup

If I seem a little sweet potato obsessed lately, it's not just your imagination.  I enjoy eating sweet potatoes year round, but something about the cooler weather, leaves changing color, and smell of autumn in the air makes me crave them in a big way this time of the year.  In fact, I have a bit batch of sweet potatoes roasting in the oven as I type up this post.
This soup gets it's creaminess from not one but three ingredients - blended sweet potatoes, coconut milk, and avocado.  Fresh kale adds a lovely green color, chewy texture, and balances out the sweetness of the potatoes - not to mention the health benefits that it brings to the table.  The night I made this soup, I had already fed Arlo his dinner by the time ours was ready, but I decided to let him taste a bite or two.  He absolutely loved it, and gobbled up everything I offered him, including the cubed avocado.  So without further ado, here is my Arlo-approved, rich and creamy, sweet potato and kale soup!

Sweet Potato & Kale Soup

Ingredients:

• 3 medium sweet potatoes, cut into bite sized cubes
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 2-3 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 cans coconut milk (not the drinking kind)
• 1 cup vegetable broth
• 2-3 tbsp olive oil
• 1 bunch kale, washed and torn into bite-sized pieces
• 2 avocados, diced
• salt & pepper to taste

Directions:

1.  in a large pot over medium heat, saute onion for 6-8 minutes in olive oil.  add in garlic and cook an additional 5 minutes.
2. add in cubed sweet potatoes, coconut milk (full fat for best flavor), vegetable broth, and salt and pepper.  turn down heat to a simmer and cook until sweet potatoes pierce easily with fork.
3. using an immersion blender, blend soup until most of it is thick and creamy.  I do this by holding the immersion blender to one side of the pot, and not moving it around.  this leaves some pieces of sweet potato whole and adds a nice texture to the soup.  if you don't have an immersion blender, dump about 3/4 of the soup into a regular blender and blend until smooth.  return blended soup to pot.
4. add kale to pot, and cook until kale is wilted, about 5 minutes.
5. ladle the soup into bowls and top with diced avocado.  enjoy!

Black Bean, Sweet Potato, and Quinoa Salad

With Halloween just three days away, and four potlucks to attend within the span of eight days, I had been looking for a quick and easy recipe that would be easy enough to feed to a crowd, and at the same time offer up some kind of Halloween theme.  Sweet potatoes and black beans immediately came to mind as my orange and black ingredients, and are the main players in this dish.  Sweet potato pairs well with so many flavors, but there is something about combining it with a hint of lime that really allows the taste to shine through.  Brown rice syrup adds just a touch of sweetness and the hearty black beans give this salad the protein power to stick with you through all the pumpkin carving, hay rides, and corn maze exploring that this time of the year brings.  This recipe can be doubled to feed a crowd, and is easy to transport to a gathering with friends.  Can be served warm or is equally good cold the next day.  See the bottom of the recipe for optional add-in ideas!

Black Bean, Sweet Potato, and Quinoa Salad

Ingredients:

• 1 cup uncooked quinoa
• 2 small (or 1 large) sweet potatoes
• 1 1/2 cups cooked black beans (or one can)
• juice (+ zest) of one lime
• 1/3 cup olive oil (plus a little more for roasting potatoes)
• 1 TBSP brown rice syrup (or other sweetener of choice)
• 1-2 TBSP chopped cilantro (can also use frozen cilantro cubes as a time saver)
• salt & pepper to taste

 Directions:

1.  preheat oven to 400 degrees.  peel and dice sweet potatoes into small 1/2" cubes.  place on baking sheet, drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with a pinch of salt, and roast for 20 minutes or until easily pierced with fork.  I always broil mine at the end for 2-3 minutes for a nice golden color.
2. while potatoes are roasting, cook quinoa according to package instructions.  tip: since quinoa should be rinsed before cooking and will go into the pot "wet," use slightly less water than indicated on instructions.  this will help your quinoa cook up nice and fluffy!
3. mix up dressing.  combine lime juice and zest, olive oil, brown rice syrup, cilantro, and salt & pepper.
4. allow quinoa to sit and cool for a bit before mixing everything up.  when ready, in large bowl, combine fork fluffed quinoa, sweet potato pieces, and black beans.  pour dressing over top and mix gently.  taste and add additional salt and pepper as desired.  

optional add-ins:  avocado, chopped red onion, green onions, bell peppers, or tomatoes.

  Recipe by Kendra B.  October 2014

dairy in vegan-ville

As many of you know, Erik and I have been following a plant-based diet for some time now.  I have been vegan for over seven years, and Erik around five.  There are many reasons to adopt a plant-based lifestyle - for us they are primarily ethical and a very close second being health.  As a former cooking and nutrition instructor for the Cancer Project and Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, I consider myself rather educated on a plant-based diet.  We have always planned to raise our children as vegans and believe wholeheartedly that growing up eating as such will give them a great nutritional start to life.  If, later on, they decide to take their own dietary path, we will support their rights to do so - but while mama is doing the cooking, it's going to be plant-based meals all around!

So, when Arlo had to start on formula at four months old, we wanted him on not only the very best option out there, but in staying true to our commitment to a plant-based lifestyle, also wanted to avoid animal products as much as possible.  Since there are pretty much two main categories of formula out there - dairy or soy based, we opted for the soy.  I read extensively about the different brands and settled on Baby's Only.  It is entirely organic and the company really seems to care about the ingredients they use.  It's a sad fact that most of the formulas sold in the US are poorly made - using GMO corn syrup as the primary ingredient.  Not only that, but non-organic formulas contain pesticides and chemicals that no human should ever ingest - let alone the immature and developing systems of tiny babies.

Arlo has been doing great with the formula since we started it three months ago, but for months five and six he had been receiving half formula and half breastmilk in his bottles.  About a month ago, when my milk supply sharply dropped to just 2 oz per day, and I made the difficult decision to stop pumping, he rather abruptly started drinking bottles that consisted entirely of formula.  I suddenly had the realization that having him on a soy-based formula meant that he was getting a lot of soy in his diet.  Now, soy has been portrayed in the media in recent years as a food that is either going to give you cancer or cause you to suddenly grow breasts if you are a male.  I can assure you that neither are true, and countries that have a high consumption of whole forms of soy (tofu, soybeans, soymilk, tempeh, miso) have much lower rates of cancer than those in the United States.  Eating soy in it's whole state is key - and most people in this country eat a heck of a lot more soy than they realize, primarily in it's overly processed (and potentially harmful) form.  So, anyway, while I do feel that a moderate amount of whole soy in anyones diet is fine, the fact that Arlo was consuming a lot of it at every single meal was starting to bother me.

I then started thinking about the reason why we avoid dairy.  Primarily, it is for ethical reasons - and to be honest that is a whole 'nother post that I never plan to write.  You can do that research on your own if you are interested.  However, what you might be interested to know is why as adults you might want to consider eliminating dairy for health reasons.  First, let's think about what cows milk is intended for in nature.  Simply put - it helps a young calf grow into a large, adult cow.  Cows milk (and all dairy) contain hormones.  Yup, even the "hormone-free" milk does.  Cows milk contains a growth hormone, Insulin Growth Factor 1 (IGF-1), that is proven to make cells, especially cancer cells, grow like crazy.  It is this very hormone that is responsible for growing that tiny calf into a large cow that weighs several hundred pounds.  When we are young - we want this hormone in our bodies.  It also helps tiny babies grow into adult humans.  But, as adults, we want very little, if any, of this hormone in our bodies.  Unfortunately the Standard American Diet (SAD) contains so many foods high in IGF-1.  "Milk - it does a body good!" so says the ad.  No, the sad truth is that milk really fills your body with unnecessary growth hormones which are partly responsible for the nations deplorable cancer rates.

I came across the video below while writing this post, which does a fantastic job of further explaining IGF-1.  I promise you will not regret spending the next 2 minutes and 55 seconds of your life watching it.




Video source here.  Dr. Greger also has another great video here, about IGF-1 and plant based diets.


When faced with the need to make any tough decision in life, I always ask myself (when appropriate), how would this be done in nature?  What is the most natural outcome possible?  And, while I would have loved to have a wet-nurse or donor mama on standby to keep Arlo on breastmilk for at least the first year, that just isn't a reality for us.  What seems like the next best option, is the milk from another mammal.  So, after much research and discussion with our pediatrician, we decided about a month ago to switch Arlo to a dairy-based formula for at least the next five or six months.  I am not concerned with the growth hormones at this stage of his life - he would be getting those from breast milk anyway and actually needs them right now.  When he is a year old we will reevaluate.  There is an organic rice-based nutrition drink on the market made for toddlers 12 months and up that we may introduce when the time is right.  I don't see us ever buying cows milk for Arlo and still plan to raise him as a vegan when he is no longer on formula.  For now, I am happy and grateful that formula exists (both soy and dairy) as it has kept Arlo fed and nourished when I was unable to.

When we decided last month to make the switch from soy to dairy formula, again I had to scour the internets for the best option.  What I concluded, is that the best option is actually sold in Europe, where food companies have to conform to even stricter organic rules and regulations than set by here in the United States.  There are two brands, Hipp and Holle that get glowing reviews.  In fact, parents who use these formulas claim that they are so much like human breast milk that they turned their babies stools into that of a baby who is eating exclusively breast milk.  And if you are a parent who has a child that has consumed both breast milk and formula - you know exactly what I am talking about!

 
Arlo has now been on his new formula, Hipp, for about a month now, and I am happy to report that he is doing great with it.  I will say though, our hungry little man has never said no to anything we have offered - be it breast, bottle, donor milk, pumped milk from mama, soy formula, or dairy formula.  This little guy is a trooper and just wants to eat!  And as for those parents who wrote the reviews about their babies poo changing for the better being on this formula, well, I can now attest to their truthfulness!

Had someone told me a year ago that our baby would not only be on formula at seven months old, but a dairy-based one at that, I would have looked at them like they were completely off their rocker.  But, if this whole parenting thing has taught me anything, it's that parenting a child is a constantly evolving process and most of the time we should enter into new territory without any expectations. I have realized that setting my expectations low prevents me from being disappointed when things don't go the way I would normally want them to, and pleasantly surprised when they turn out better than I thought they would.  This is probably something I should have realized much earlier in life.  Thank you my sweet baby Arlo, for helping your mama learn a valuable lesson.