Healthy Alternatives for Your Child's Breakfast

My good friend, Bethany, and I enjoyed a delicious vegan lunch yesterday. (Thanks to Beth and her mother, Barbara, for cooking a meal I never could have managed!) Bethany is also a teacher and we constantly talk about ways we can help families live healthy lives. Bethany is a wealth of knowledge and I often call her from the grocery store with a question about my purchases. (This week I asked, What am I supposed to be sweetening my coffee with? Answer: honey or agave)

Here is her blog about children's breakfast, as originally posted on her website www.veganonthefence.com :

For more information, you can email her at veganonthefence@gmail.com

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What kid doesn’t love when their milk magically turns into delicious chocolatey soup? Thanks to the ingredients in cereals like Cocoa Puffs and Cookie Crisps, children all over the world enjoy this delicacy on a regular basis.  Let’s not forget the rest of the “breakfast food” kitchen dwellers like Pop Tarts, Mini Muffins, Bagel-fuls, and Toaster Scrambles. With claims like, “baked with real fruit,” “a great source of vitamins and minerals and best of all “more then a snack, it’s art you can eat,” what parent would say no to such a thing?

What they (Kellogg’s, Kraft, General Mills) don’t mention in their marketing ploys is the amount of vitamins and minerals is a pathetic percentage in comparison to what your child should be consuming, the “art you can eat” is no masterpiece as it is ladened with sugar and modified ingredients, and the “real” fruit is dried and covered with artificial (fruit) flavoring and food coloring.

At this point you may be thinking, “Ok, so what is your point?” Sure this isn’t really big news to everyone and you could be well aware of the ingredients in the foods your children consume. My reasoning then for this you ask?  To share some quick and healthy (vegan too!) alternatives for the most important meal of the day for your little ones.

If your child wants a Pop Tart:

*Pop a slice of whole wheat or whole grain bread, make sure it is dairy/egg free (I likeEzekiel-they even carry a Cinnamon Raisin loaf) in the toaster oven and top with jelly (no sugar added is best), peanut butter and banana slices or “butter” (Earth Balance a soy or olive oil butter alternative) and cinnamon mixed with some Xylitol (a natural sugar) or honey.

*Mix up a batch of whole wheat pancakes or waffles.  You can find tons of (dairy and egg free) recipes online and the best part is you can add or take out ingredients to personalize them to your child’s taste buds and/or food sensitivities/allergies (veganize it with an egg/milk alternatives… like Pacific Natural Foods-Unsweetened Original or Vanilla almond milk and Ener-G egg replacer)  I love to heat up some steel-cut oats orKashi Whole Grain Pilaf and mix it into the batter for extra fiber and texture.  If time is not on your side, frozen ones can be kept on hand too.  Van’s has a variety of (vegan) wheat-free, gluten-free choices, including minis (which kids LOVE), flax, blueberry, apple cinnamon and buckwheat!

If your child craves Cereal:

* Good news there are some healthier choices out there!  My go to box is Kashi GoLean with 13 grams of protein and 10 grams of fiber.

*Most of Barbara’s cereals are kid friendly, healthy, vegan and delicious.  You will find corn flakes, brown rice crisps and my favorite shredded wheat. All of the their cereals are sweetened with natural fruit juices or molasses, both better alternatives to high fructose corn syrup and good old fashion sugar. Check out their Special Dietary Needspage to find out more! They also have cereal bars that are vegan friendly!

If your child wants a Go-Gurt:

*Get some plain soy yogurt, mix it with applesauce and any fruit your child loves.  For some crunchiness throw in some “grape nuts” (Ezekiel Sprouted Grain Cereal-what Babs used for bread crumbs in the Eggplant Rawmesan) or granola (low in sugar), stir up and serve!

Side Rant (Warning):

*(Written pre-veganish adventure… hence why milk is even involved in this blab of mine)

Oh Go-Gurt, how I loathe you. You’re messy and creepily colored.

Yogurt should have very few ingredients… like milk and live bacteria cultures.
I have a serious problem with the crazy things (yes I say “things” because they are not normal) Yoplait has added into this tube of convenience.  With flavors like cotton candy and berry blue blast, you can imagine what “food like” substances are hidden inside.  (Oh, and don’t expect to find the ingredients on the Yoplait website because they aren’t listed, which is quite strange don’t you think?) Even more exciting, they have even also created Go-Gurt Fizzix, a carbonated yogurt… I need to move on before my head explodes…

DON’T GET DISCOURAGED!

It may take some time to transition your child from the old choices to the new ones. Be patient and remind yourself (even during a tantrum) that your decision to make these changes will pay off in the long run.