HEALTHY VEGAN SNACKS YOUR KIDS WILL LOVE

by Haley Addis | August 18, 2018

Leisurely Sunday afternoons baking and spending the evenings making a three-course meal just don’t happen anymore since becoming a mum. I often need quick, easy to make meals or someone else on hand to give me the time to make something from scratch. One thing that has helped a great deal in preparing meal components the night before. This proves to be tricky sometimes, too, because I am owned by a toddler who just won’t sleep solidly for more than four hours and even less when teething. However, when I do have the time I grab it with both hands and hang on tight.

When the opportunity strikes, I often make chia pudding, overnight oats, or yogurt bark to have ready for the morning but I like to change it up now and again.  One thing I have had fun making recently is chickpea cookies. Now I know what you’re thinking but these are not savory and don’t taste anything like hummus. They are in fact sweet, healthy cookies mixed with peanut butter and dates that I serve for breakfast, but they can also be used as a snack, especially when on the go. Thankfully, they don’t take much prep. They are a bit crumbly, so they need to be handled with care, but they’re soft in the middle and taste more like peanut butter than chickpeas, in my opinion.

Poppy, my little one, seemed to really enjoy them, as did I. I served them with some good old nice-cream to make it a proper treat for breakfast while still technically being healthy. That’s the real beauty of these cookies: thanks to the chickpeas and peanut butter, they are absolutely jam packed with plant-based protein. You just can’t beat it! For the non-dairy milk I used hemp because it’s less flavorful. Hemp milk is my go-to for pretty much everything, but any other plant-based milk would work in its place.

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Chickpea & peanut butter cookies:

Ingredients:

1 can of chickpeas, drained

1/2 cup of peanut butter

1/4 cup of non-dairy milk

2 tsp agave or maple syrup or vanilla

s4ze2d 1 tsp baking powder

Handful of dates

Sprinkle of cinnamon

Method:

1. Drain and rinse the chickpeas. Dry them off as much as you can with a kitchen towel or put in the fridge
2. Blend all the ingredients apart from the dates until a batter forms. Add a splash more milk if needed
3. Mix in the chopped dates once out of the blender and drop spoonfuls of the dough onto a baking tray. Cook for around 20 minutes on 200°c/400°F

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This next recipe is not as ‘out there’ as sweet chickpea cookies, but it’s another easy-to-make favorite that doesn’t take much time and is healthier than most store-bought versions. I’m talking spaghetti bolognese sauce but with lots of lovely hidden veggies. r

Toddlers are fussy little things. One minute they can’t get enough of a certain food and the next minute you’re shovelling it off the floor. So hidden vegetable sauces and smoothies are a couple things I frequently use to make sure Poppy is getting some goodness in, especially on those super fussy and/or teething days.

This recipe is incredibly adaptable – you can use pretty much any vegetable that you have to hand. I’ve made a couple of hidden vegetable sauces by now but, to be honest, this one has been the best so far and it really hit the spot. My boyfriend actually thought it was shop bought, which is a testament itself, considering there is no added salt or sugar. I made this sauce one evening and it didn’t take me too long, it was just a case of letting the veggies boil before blending it all together. I mixed the sauce with spaghetti, of course, adzuki beans, and some meat-free meatballs. We also had a side of veggies and garlic bread to boot. Easy to do and delicious, what more could you want! It’s definitely something I will be making l again soon.

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Hidden Vegetables Spaghetti Bolognese Sauce

Ingredients:

4 heads of cauliflower, roughly chopped

8 oz Mushrooms, sliced

1 red pepper, diced

1 onion, diced

Coconut oil for sautéeing

500g passata

Garlic paste

Smoked paprika

Oregano

Turmeric

Black pepper

1 can adzuki beans

Method:

1) Boil the cauliflower. I used 4 large heads

2) Fry off the onions, red pepper,and mushrooms in a bit of coconut oil for a few minutes until the veg starts to brown

3) Add in the passata, garlic, spices and seasonings to taste and leave to simmer

4) Combine the mixture and the cauliflower in a blender and blend until smooth

5) Move the mixture to a bowl and stir in the in the adzuki beans

6) Serve with spaghetti and vegan “meatballs”

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I hope these simple recipes help on those days when time is of the essence, which, as a busy parent, can happen on a regular basis. I often worry about being able to eat healthy when I have no time or energy, but using minimal effort and having healthy meals is so satisfying and doesn’t have to be a huge production. Since weaning Poppy, I have been so much more experimental in the kitchen and now feel I’ve missed out on doing and trying so many healthy recipes for things that I would’ve otherwise bought from the supermarket. So what are you waiting for? Give these quick and easy recipes a try!

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