Tag: vegan

Edible Constellations

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Travis and I put together this super smart snack on the heels of fun starry night exploration. Your kids get a sweet treat plus an astrology lesson – a win-win!

Using Dandies mini marshmallows and pretzel sticks, we mapped out what the Big Dipper would look like. Attach 1 marshmallow to the end of a pretzel stick for each star.

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Repeat three times to make a square.

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Stick a fourth “star” into the marshmallow at the upper right corner to begin the Dipper’s tail.

Break a pretzel stick in half, and add two smaller pieces of pretzel + marshamllow to complete the constellation.

Travis watched as I tested out a couple of others, too, including Cassiopeia (the Queen)…

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… and Cepheus (the King). These didn’t last long before they were gobbled up!

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I noticed he wasn’t eating the Big Dipper, and asked if he wanted more of his snack. He said he didn’t want to ruin our constellation!

If your kids want to get even more creative, test out Cygnus (the Swan) or Canis Major, too.

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Travis wanted to know if we could make Orion (which he calls Bow Hunter), next, and I was so proud he remembered that constellation without any prompting.

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Happy snacking!

Host a Cookie Swap

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Travis doesn’t know it yet, but he’s about to receive a subscription to Raddish Kids as a gift this holiday season. Having gotten a sneak peak, I’m already impressed with the company. A suggested further activity from his upcoming December package was a holiday cookie swap. I instantly knew I wanted to make this happen, but it had to be quickly, even before he opens up his first box on Christmas morning. Could we pull off a cookie swap in just a few days? Yes!

First, we decided on a date for the party, then downloaded the invitation template and sent off to a few buddies. Come to Travis’s cookie party!

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The day of the party, we set our computer to play holiday tunes…

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…and added festive decorations around a cookie table, including garlands, pinecones, and various crafts we’ve made this holiday season.

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We offered 4 kinds of cookies to our guests:

Classic Thumbprints

Peppermint Chocolate Brownie Cookies

Caramel Cracker Bark

and Snowball Cookies

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Now it was time for guests to arrive, each bearing their own plate of cookies!

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I recommend keeping things manageable – 3 to 8 friends, depending on your child’s age and the size of your home. Older kids may want to do an organized tasting, sitting down and rating each cookie. Little kids just loved running around and occasionally stopping to chomp a cookie! Meanwhile grown ups got to sit around, enjoy sweet treats, and chat.

As a couple of extras, we also added gingerbread men ice cubes to fruit punch for the kids, and I provided gift bags for everyone to take home the cookies they wanted.

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This was an absolutely perfect afternoon – I’m so thankful to Raddish for a suggestion I’d never have come up with otherwise, and can’t wait to see what Travis receives in his official first December kit. You can be sure there will be a blog post about it!

 

Classic Thumbprints

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This classic Christmas cookie is the perfect recipe to make with little kids: an easy dough that comes together with few ingredients, plus the magic of shaping the cookies with the best instrument of all – your child’s thumb!

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Note: to make Ener-G egg yolks, use 1 tablespoon powder in 2 tablespoons water. For other vegan egg substitutes, aim for a similar volume.

Ingredients:

  • 2/3 cup Earth Balance butter, softened
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 2 Ener-G egg yolks
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 and 1/2 cups flour
  1. Beat the butter in a stand mixer until creamed. Add the sugar and beat until combined.
  2. Add the Ener-G and vanilla; beat until combined.
  3. Gradually beat in the flour. Shape the dough into a ball and wrap in plastic wrap. Chill for 1 hour.
  4. To bake the cookies, roll into 1-inch balls and place on cookie sheets. Press your thumb into the middle of each cookie.
  5. Bake at 375 degrees F for 11 minutes. If the thumbprint starts to puff up during baking, press back down with the back of a teaspoon.
  6. Let cool on wire racks before filling as desired. For

For a uber-classic version, use strawberry jam. We updated ours with a carrot cake jam filling!

 

Bright Bean Salad

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This main dish salad from the December issue of High Five magazine is just gorgeous – bright indeed! The dominant colors of red and green would make it right at home in a Christmas holiday spread… or just make it any night with your kids!

Travis loved that the recipe involved kids every step of the way, including actions he’d never done before like washing the vegetables, chopping (!), and draining cans of beans. This was definitely a “next level” recipe in his cooking skills. I did a bit of the tough chopping (the green onions, cilantro, and spinach) ahead of time; judge accordingly for your kids.

Ingredients:

  • 1 (15-ounce) can black beans
  • 1 (15-ounce) can pinto beans
  • 1 (15-ounce) can corn
  • 2 large red potatoes
  • 1 red bell pepper
  • 1/2 cup chopped green onions
  • 1 bunch chopped cilantro
  • 2 and 1/2 cups chopped baby spinach
  • 1 (16-ounce) jar mild salsa
  1. Adults: Ahead of time, cook the potatoes in boiling water until tender; let cool.
  2. Drain and rinse the cans of beans. This was Travis’s first time using a can opener – he loved learning how the mechanism works! Use half of the beans for this recipe (about 1 and 1/2 cups) and reserve the remaining beans for another use.Bright Bean Salad (1)
  3. Drain the corn.
  4. Wash the bell pepper, then cut the bell pepper and the cooked potato into pieces. I let him help me with the knife the whole time, so couldn’t snap a picture, but he was so proud.Bright Bean Salad (3)
  5. In a large bowl, combine the beans, corn, potatoes, bell pepper, green onions, cilantro, and spinach.Bright Bean Salad (4)
  6. Stir in the salsa until well combined.Bright Bean Salad (5)

We served this over tortilla chips the first night for easy “nachos.”

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It would also be great wrapped up in soft tacos…

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…or served over scrambled tofu!

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Fruit Boats

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Origami boats might be fun to play with, but fruit boats are even bettert\ to eat! After a busy school day, Travis helped me create these adorable boats for snacktime.

First, cut a whole cantaloupe into wedges. Travis asked at first if it was mango – it’s amazing how we forget that kids can be disconnected from food, when it’s served to them already cut up. He loved discovering that the big fruit in front of us was his favorite melon.

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Put a toothpick in each wedge, and add watermelon pieces as the sails.

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For the pirate, cut a circular piece of banana as the head. Cut the banana lengthwise into pieces for the torso and arms. Use toothpicks to stick your pirate man together, and then another toothpick to affix him to the boat. We made a boat and pirate for Daddy, too!

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Travis loved it, and delighted in pulling apart the pirate ship piece by piece. There goes your hull, matey!

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A super cute and fun snack for pirate lovers.

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Farro Salad with Roasted Vegetables

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This filling salad is a great addition to a vegan holiday table, and was my contribution to this year’s celebration. We love it paired with Gardein’s stuffed holiday roast!

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup farro
  • 2 cups vegetable broth
  • 1 teaspoon ground cumin
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
  • 1/2 teaspoon black pepper, divided
  • 3 cups cauliflower florets
  • 2 cups sliced rainbow carrots
  • 8 ounces chopped cremini mushrooms
  • 5 tablespoons olive oil, divided
  • 1 and 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice
  • 1/2 teaspoon mustard
  • 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley (optional)
  1. In a saucepan, combine the farro, broth, cumin, ginger, and 1/4 teaspoon black pepper. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer, covered, for about 25 minutes, until the liquid is absorbed. Set aside.
  2. Meanwhile, combine the cauliflower, carrots, and mushrooms in a roasting pan. Drizzle with 2 tablespoons olive oil and sprinkle with 1/4 teaspoon black pepper. Roast at 400 degrees F for 25 minutes.
  3. In a large bowl, whisk together the remaining 3 tablespoons olive oil, the lemon juice, and the mustard. Add the farro mixture and roasted veggies. Sprinkle with chopped parsley just before serving if desired.

The salad is good warm or at room temperature, making it ideal for a busy holiday feast!

 

Turkey Tacos

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This adorable dinner recipe from Ranger Rick Jr. is great to make with kids in the run-up to Thanksgiving. Travis was absolutely delighted with his feathered friend. Adults will have to do some chopping ahead of time, and then kids can take it from there to assemble.

To start, pick your favorite taco filling, and add to hard shell tacos.

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Add cut bell pepper pieces in a fan shape around the taco shell for the feathers.

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Place a slice of turkey-head-shaped vegan American cheese (such as Tofutti) on top of the taco shell. Add 1 triangle of orange bell pepper for the beak and 1 strip of red bell pepper for the wattle.

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Two black olive dots completed the face!

 

 

Turkey Napkin Holder

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We put together this cute craft from High Five magazine just in time for Thanksgiving. In our vegan household, we love adorning our table with turkey-themed crafts, not a real turkey to eat.

But as we sat down to make these napkin holders, Travis and I discovered that we had every color construction paper except… the brown that we needed! Some quick thinking and we decided to color white paper in with brown crayon. Travis declared this so fun, and seemed so proud of our improvisation.

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Next we needed to cut the brown paper into kite shapes. This was a bit tricky for Travis, so I trimmed things up into neat diamonds while he had fun with safety scissors and extra paper.

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Armed with our kite shapes and a few recycled toilet paper tubes, we glued the tubes to the center of each piece, and folded up over the tube.

Next we glued on facial features, a good chance to talk about shapes – circle eyes, triangle beaks, and a semicircle for the wattle.

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Travis favorite part was the feathers at the end. Add dots of glue to the paper behind the head.

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Crumple bits of fall-colored tissue paper (we used reds and yellows and pinks) and attach each to a dot of glue.

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Slip in a Thanksgiving napkin, and enjoy the feast!

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Printable Placemat

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With Thanksgiving just a week away, we’re thinking about all the yummy foods we plan to eat at the feast!

Each year, I make sure to emphasize the foods we can eat as a vegan family rather than those we can’t, so Travis (and soon Veronika!) don’t feel left out of the traditions. This placemat template from Parents magazine was a fun way to think about how we’ll fill our plates, giving us a a beautiful representation of abundance rather than lack.

Of course in the center goes the Tofurky roast or other main dish (we’re partial to Gardein’s stuffed turkey breasts, a special holiday treat each year!).

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I asked Travis what else he wanted. Soon we had pink cranberry sauce and little patches of green beans, and some yellow mashed potatoes.

He made sure to color in all the utensils and napkins as well.

And added a cup of hot cocoa!

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We can’t wait to celebrate with family, and you can be sure we’ll have our traditional adopted turkey certificate up on the table.

Pumpkin Mac and Cheese

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It’s not fall until you’ve made a pumpkin-flavored something, and this spin on mac ‘n’ cheese from High Five magazine is a great way to sneak veggies into your kids’ dinner!

Grown-ups: To start, cook 8 ounces macaroni pasta according to package directions; drain and set aside.

Meanwhile melt 2 tablespoons Earth Balance butter in a saucepan. Whisk in 2 tablespoons flour and 1 cup non-dairy milk. Remove from heat and let cool slightly.

Now the kids can join in! Whisk in 1 cup shredded Daiya cheddar…

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… along with 1 cup canned pumpkin, 1/2 teaspoon mustard, and 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg. Travis loved smelling and taste-testing the mustard and nutmeg!

Pour the pumpkin sauce over the macaroni in a 9×13-inch baking dish, stirring to combine.

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Bake at 375 degrees F for 25 minutes. Little sister’s onesie even matched!

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