• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

Eat Ethnic

Some of the most affordable vegan meals are traditional ethnic dishes that are meat-free, kid-friendly, and full of flavor and protein—and made with just a few, affordable ingredients. Learn how to prepare foods from India, the Caribbean, Mexico, the Middle East, and Africa to save money on your grocery bill and expand your child’s culinary palate.

In our survey, parents listed these affordable meals most often as their kids’ favorites: vegan pizza, rice and lentils, veg soups and chili, hummus and pitas, rice and beans, bean burritos, veg tacos, scrambled tofu, and vegan macaroni and cheese. These meals fill the tummy without breaking the bank!

Shopping with Kids: Sanity Savers

When you choose—or have no choice but—to bring the kids along, you can increase your chances of everyone coming out of the grocery store still speaking to each other with a few creative guidelines.

Grocery shopping can be a fun learning experience when the entire family goes together. Kids learn natural lessons about budgeting, price comparison, checking for animal products in foods, and the art of carrying out an organized list.

The Insta-Treat

Don’t wait to give your child a treat for good behavior at the end of the trip. Offer one up front, and you set the expectation that you know they will cooperate. (If they don’t, the treat can always be put back at the checkout aisle or saved for later.)

The insta-treat provides the added bonus for vegan kids of choosing treats from the first section of the store, usually the produce section, rather than waiting for the checkout aisle treats such as candy bars, gum, and chips. It encourages kids to choose healthy treats like cut fruit in bowls, a bag of grapes, or one of the many delicious bottled smoothies often stocked in produce sections. And it shows them you aren’t waiting to see if they’re going to be cooperative. It’s simply expected.

That’s So Vegan

Parents, put in a call, letter, or comment card to your favorite grocery store’s managers encouraging them to stock fruits, veggies, smoothies, and other healthy treats instead of candy, gum, soda, and tabloids in checkout lines. Many stores now have “family lane” checkout aisles that drop the bad stuff. But few have replaced it with the good. Push them to take the next step.

Think Comfort

Grocery stores can be difficult, overstimulating places for many kids, so make it as physically comfortable as possible. Babies and toddlers may need a cart cover to soften the seat. Kids of all ages may need a jacket or sweater, especially because veg families spend a lot of time shopping in the colder sections of stores where the fresh produce and frozen foods are located.

If your child has sensory integration issues, grocery stores may be a difficult place for them. You may need to limit trips to smaller health food store runs.

Here’s a good place to mention the preshopping bathroom run again! If your child isn’t feeling well, do everything possible to keep them home during grocery trips. The sights and smells can quickly overwhelm them.

Enlist Help

Matching appropriate jobs to his age but starting as young as 3, your child can help take nonbreakable items from shelves and place them into the cart, check prices, and even push a younger sibling in a stroller. When he can read well, he becomes a big help by reading items on your shopping list to you and checking them off.

At the checkout counter, keep everyone busy emptying the cart.

Keep It Fun

Get excited when something you like is finally in season and ripe. Comment on colors, flavors, and textures of fruits and veggies, and other healthful food qualities throughout the store. Teach your child how to smell if a mango’s ripe or how to thump a melon. Avoid walking through the meat section.

Dance to the bad Muzak. Let your kids know how grateful you are for the bountiful supply of healthful, vegan food to which your family has access, whether your budget currently allows for the bare essentials,