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or coconut yogurt, and fill a water bottle with some juice. That’s a healthier, yummier breakfast than any drive-thru could ever dream to have.

Fruit Soup

The flavors in this light and easy but nutritious breakfast soup are reminiscent of fresh summer berries and cream desserts.

1 peach, nectarine, pear, banana (peeled),

or other soft fruit, sliced

½ cup fresh berries

1 cup soy milk, rice milk, or almond milk

1 tsp. brown sugar

Yield: 1 serving

Prep time: 5 minutes

Serving size: 2 or 3 cups

1. Place sliced fruit and berries in a cereal bowl, and cover with milk.

2. Sprinkle with brown sugar, and serve.

Parent Trap

Especially when using unpeeled fruits, be sure they’re organic. Check out Chapter 10 for a list of must-buy organic fruits and veggies.

Berry Breakfast Smoothie

This smoothie is rich, thick, and sweet. The sweetness of the berries and soy (or nut) milk will make your child forget all about the healthful stuff in there like flax and protein powder!

1 cup almond or vanilla soy milk

3 to 5 medium ice cubes

2 TB. vegan protein powder (preferably

soy-free)

1 TB. flaxseed powder

¼ cup frozen blueberries

Yield: 1 smoothie

Prep time: 3 minutes

Serving size: 1½ cups

1. In a blender, add almond milk and ice cubes. Add protein powder, flaxseed powder, and frozen blueberries.

2. Blend on high speed (or auto ice crusher mode, if you have one on your blender), for 2 minutes or until smooth.

3. Pour into a to-go cup, stick in a wide straw, and go!

That’s So Vegan

This smoothie contains protein powder to keep kids’ bellies filled for the long morning at school. Substitute any of your child’s favorite blendable fruit for the frozen blueberries, and use organic whenever possible. Some kids notice the flaxseed powder more than others. If your child really doesn’t like it, you can easily omit it.

Chapter 13

Lunches to Love

In This Chapter

◆ Super school lunches

◆ Perfect play date lunches, whether you host or not

◆ Easy lunches on the run

For school-age kids, lunchtime often means eating away from home. Whether your child is at school, at a friends’ house, on the road, or just outside enjoying the noonday sun, her vegan lunches need to be portable, quick to eat, and nonperishable. Younger kids still at home have more lunchtime options. For these little ones, the goal is to serve food at lunch you can adapt for your own midday meal and that’s low in sugar and filling so naptime comes easily. If your solid-food eating child is in daycare, you’ll likely want to pack a vegan lunch for her, as most child-care providers probably won’t fully accommodate vegan lunches unless you provide them (see Chapter 3 for child care-specific advice).

In this chapter, we help you “do lunch” for your little ones, thanks to our easy and do-able lunch ideas and recipes.

The Envy of the Lunchroom

More than likely, your vegan child will need to bring lunch to school, at least when no veg option is offered (or when she’s tired of the daily salad bar). These days, there’s no reason school lunches need to be cold or bagged. With an amazing array of fun lunchboxes and thermoses (check out www.laptoplunches.com for some of our favorites), you can pack warm lunches you can rest assured will stay warm until your little one’s ready to eat.

At the beginning of the school year, we brainstorm ideas for what they would like to try in their lunchboxes. Along with our own ideas, we print out the list at www.vegcooking.com/backtoschool.asp, and the kids check off the choices that sound appealing. Some ideas are hits; others don’t get a passing grade after our kids try them. But we have come up with a core group of about 10 healthful, packable lunches that can be easily rotated throughout the year with an occasional hot lunch.

Vegan Voices

Keep it simple. I don’t send my son off to school with a lunchbox of falafel or chana masala if he doesn’t want it. Pizza! Fruit! Chips! Carrots! Fun!

—Michael, Virginia

Here are some of our kids’ favorite