Need vegetarian, dairy-free quick food ideas

[TwinMom]

I'm doing dairy elimination to see if it helps my baby's constant crankiness and night wakings. It's been 3 weeks now and I had seen improvement until I had a couple things with cooked milk in them and now he's cranky again. Sigh. I'm vegetarian and am running out of ideas for quick foods. With 3 kids now I have to be able to eat on the run. What do you guys have for snacks or fast meals?

[Erin Pavlina]

Snacks:
energy bars
popcorn
fruit
nuts, raisins, trail mix

Fast foods:
Chick-Free nuggets with barbecue sauce (2 minutes)
Black beans with barbecue sauce (6 minutes)
oatmeal with soymilk (2 minutes)
peanut butter and jelly (2 minutes)
vegan frozen waffle with pure maple syrup (3 minutes)
rice pilaf with corn and garbanzo beans (25 minutes but only cuz it's simmering that long)
veggie meatballs in marinara sauce (10 minutes)

That's all I can think of off hand. Hope it helps. There are a lot of vegan frozen foods now (not that that's the healthiest thing, but in a pinch).

[TreeLove]

Tofu, Kale and cous cous-can be made in about 10-15 minutes. Saute 1 onion in a little oil, add 1 pkg exta firm tofu, add tamari or Bragg, or soysauce. Add kale, cover and stir occasionally. Cook cous cous. Serve!

[Kimchi]

quick dairy-free snacks

Been down this road in our family a lot, as we have 2 young girls, one with a (cow's milk) dairy sensitivity/allergy. So if you want quick _portable_ snack ideas, I would also suggest:

dry cereal (in a container)
baby carrots, with or without dip/nut butter
crackers and (soy) 'cheese'
single servings of soy pudding (I get this at the health food store)
fruit leather
soy 'nuts' or other kinds of nuts
homemade granola bars (hee hee - in all your free time (!) you
could make some...)

[sagewinna]

I just cook in large quantities. We often have left over pasta, grains, beans, oatmeal/polenta, and cooked veggies in the fridge that we can doctor up on a moments notice! I also have used my crockpot, cooking things overnight to have on hand for lunch or snacks.

Nut butter on celery is a hit around here, as is nut butter on apple slices.

Refried beans, with a can of diced tomatoes in it, heat up in minutes. You can make burritos or use to dip tortilla chips in.

If you have more time in the morning, make that a fancier meal and eat breakfast foods for lunch. Cereal and fruit, (soy) yogurt and fruit, etc.

[naturalmama]

In recipes that call for milk, I always replace it with Westbrae westsoy PLUS. It works just as well as milk.

[TwinMom]

Thank you!

All of these ideas are great. I'm getting hungry just reading them . After we get through NY Day I'm going to make more of an effort to have these sorts of things on hand and to have food precooked and ready to heat up. Thanks again!

[bebe luna]

rice milk or soy milk
rice cheese or soy cheese
steamed vegis and tahini sauce
miso w/ tofu and seaweed
vegi sushi rolls w/ plum or peanut sauce
rice cakes w/ almond butter or apple butter
granola
dried fruit
nuts
apple slices w/ almond butter
vegi burgers (cut up) w/ ketchup
cooked beans w/ tamari
homemade sweet potato chips ( cut up sweet potatos into 1/4 inch slices, shake in a closed tupperware w/ 2 egg whites, salt, spread on oiled cookie sheet, bake at 375 for 40 minutes or until browned and crisp... let cool, serve w/ sauce of choice)
baked apples
tofu pudding (blend- 1 package silken, firm tofu w/ 3 tbsp. soymilk, 2 tbsp. honey, 1 tsp. vanilla extract, 2 tbsp. carob or cocoa powder, refridgerate 20-30 min, serve)
rice cheese quesidallas w/ black beans and cilantro
corn chips or carrot sticks and guacamole
homemade popcornballs
whole wheat fig bars

[CatherineS]

TwinMom, hi again! You should definitely come to the Veggiemoms meetings. It's listed on the dfw thread.

We are vegetarain and dairy-free. I'm veg by choice, dairy-free by Hannah's. She is very sensitive to dairy, she nurses, so no dairy for me.

At first, it was very hard. I craved dairy much. It has gotten easier with time though. It's all a matter of what I'm used to. I had to change that! I still do not like to read labels, but do anyway.

We snack on trail mixes (tamari roasted pumpkin seeds from whole foods with raisins and dairy-free carob chips is my favorite!), olives, and fruit. Crackers with fresh almond butter from Whole Foods is a yummy too.

Look forward to meeting you sometime soon. Cheers.

[TwinMom]

Are there a lot of moms at the veggiemoms meetings? What about babies? It's something I'd like to do, but might have to wait until Alec is a little older. We still can't go out to eat with him unless someone is willing to walk around with him while the others eat. Are you going to be at the meeting at Stonebriar next week? I'd love to meet you!

[CatherineS]

TwinMom,
There are some very cool moms at the veggiemoms meetings. Yes, babies and kiddos are definitely welcome! I bring Jonathan (28mo) and Hannah (6mo).

Have you noticed more of a difference, now that it's been about a week or so? A friend told me that it takes 2 weeks or so before dairy is fully out of the system. I noticed a difference after about a week, and even more so after about 3 weeks.

It's getting easier. Christmas was the hardest, with all the cookies and desserts containing butter. Wasn't worth being up with a cranky Hannah half the night, but extremely tempting. Whole Foods has Soy Dream ice cream, and my new favorite dessert is dairy-free brownies (I bought a box mix from Whole Foods, and used organic canola oil instead of butter) with the Soy Dream Butter Pecan ice cream. Yummmmmmmmmmmmy!

Also, if you do like the flavor of butter (on bread or in cooking), Earth's Balance is a "butter" spread that is 100% vegan and Non-GMO. Organic canola oil works well in cooking as a butter sub.

[TwinMom]

I've actually been off dairy for, ummm, at least 3 weeks and I've noticed a big difference. I think . He's less fussy, cries less, and spits up less. I think I've also noticed that chocolate makes him throw up, so less of that as well.

Yes, Christmas was hard! I actually had a small piece of cheesecake 'cause I couldn't resist--I regretted that for several days.

Thanks for the suggestions . Is there a website for veggiemoms? In a couple months it's something I'd like to do.

[Erin Pavlina]

My website, VegFamily, is specifically for vegan moms. (www.vegfamily.com)

Also, there is a magazine, Vegetarian Baby and Child Magazine (www.veggiebaby.com)

Check em out.

Also, there's a fantastic vegan cheesecake company. I don't have their url offhand, but I have the url to the review I did.

http://www.vegfamily.com/productrevi...us-choices.htm

[CatherineS]

TwinMom,
That's awesome! I'm so glad it's helping

The website for the local group is:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/veggiemomsinplano
The group meets every month. It's great to connect with other veg moms in the area!

Erin, your website is awesome. And thank you, thank you, thank you for the vegan cheesecake company. Yummmmy. I miss cheesecake so much!

Tonight I went in search of vegan cream cheese (without cassein or casseinate) and dairy-free fudge mint cookies. No luck. *sigh*

Cheers!

[TwinMom]

Mint cookies--yummm!

If you find dairy-free mint cookies. tell us where to get them. You know what sucks? My girls are in Brownies so pretty soon we'll be ordering Girl Scout cookies and I won't be able to have any! We usually get about 4 cases (48 boxes) of them 'cause my dh is a cookie monster. You'd think that would last a year, but it only lasts about a month. And yet he never seems to gain weight--how do men do that?

[Erin Pavlina]

People...people...people...if you want to know where all the good vegan stuff is you've got to ask me! I'm the Queen of vegan junkfood (unfortunately), so if you have a cravign and need a vegan equivalent, let me know!

As for mint cookies...best on the planet is from Allison's Gourmet. She makes a mint chocolate chip cookie that is totally organic and absolutely delicious! Of all her flavors, the mint is my favorite.

Check it out at www.allisonsgourmet.com. Once you try them, though, you'll be hooked, so be ready.

Cream cheese....get Tofutti's cream cheese. They've got regular and they also have a garlic and onion that is fabulous on crackers and bagels.

Avoid Soymage's vegan cream cheese... plech!

[TwinMom]

Uh oh...vegan cookies? I think I'm gonna have to spend mucho dinero on these. WHY did you have to tell us? And now I'm gonna have to go get vegan cream cheese, too? Dammit, woman, I'm trying to *lose* weight!

Hey, since we're on the subject, what brand of whole-wheat bread do you guys recommend? I can't find a non-dairy whole wheat bread to save my life. Actually, there's the Whole Foods Basic Wheat Bread, but I hate that. It always tastes stale even when it's fresh out of the bag. I've been needing a pb&j sammich.

[bebe luna]

Hey Twin Mom-
A great brand of breads that I reccomend to everyone is French Meadow Bakery. All their breads are yeast free, organic, vegan, kosher, and extremly tasty. They have a bunch of different breads, rolls, buns, bagels, pizza crust... many of which are wheat free and many that are made w/ whole wheat. I love their "womens bread"- it's high in soy isoflavones, flax, sprouted grains, and cranberries. They also have a really yummy sprouted hemp bread w/ pumpkin and flax seeds. Anyways, I know they ship their breads because my aunt orders them to her home in Los Angelas. The website is www.frenchmeadow.com.

[TwinMom]

Where are the cookies?

I tried the cookies website and it's a website for design services. Any idea of what the real URL could be? I'm jonesing for some sweet treats!

Thanks for the bread site; I'll check that out later.

[Erin Pavlina]

Not sure what's wrong with the link to Allison's...

Try this: http://www.allisonsgourmet.com

Maybe I spelled it wrong before.

Sorry to be the bearer of "good" news...I get to try all the vegan stuff out there, it's part of my job. It's dangerous but someone has to do it.