What My Vegan Kids Eat for Breakfast, Day 10

This month I started a series called, What My Vegan Kids Eat for Breakfast. People often ask me what I feed my vegan family, so I hope these daily blogs help anyone starting out or gives you ideas for your own families. Please feel free to share what you feed your vegan family as well!

For more information on our vegan breakfasts, take a look at Day 1

Good Morning!
Pineapple chunks, 1/2 a Banana, Go Raw Sprouted Watermelon Seeds and Pomegranate seeds. We've been eating pom seeds a few times a day, everyday!
They're great as a snack and full of antioxidants!

What did your family eat today!

Moist and Delicious Vegan Banana Bread!

Use super ripe bananas for this one and you'll be in for a treat!

2 large ripe bananas mashed
1c oat flour
1/2c whole wheat flour
1/2c coconut oil
1/2c coconut sugar
1tsp pure vanilla extract
1/2tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4tsp sea salt
chopped walnuts, optional

My official banana masher

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and oil bread pan or line it with parchment paper.
Mix all dry ingredients together and set aside.
Mix bananas, oil, sugar and vanilla together until creamy.
Add your dry ingredients to your wet and mix until just combined.
Pour batter into pan and bake 30 minutes or until a toothpick in the middle comes out clean.

Slice and devour!

Happy Elephant Vegan Restaurant Review

Today, my family and I decided to go for a stroll in downtown Long Beach and then stop in and try the new vegan place on Broadway called, Happy Elephant.

We always make a point to try any new vegan places that open, because we really appreciate a place where we have more than a couple of choices on the menu and we also like to support any business doing the right thing for our environment and health.

We did more strolling than we had anticipated and was running low on time, so we decided to order some pot stickers and sushi rolls to eat there and order other items to take home.

I looked over the menu and yelp reviews online beforehand, so I had my eye on the dumplings and sushi rolls. K loves dumplings and pot stickers and we only know of 1 other place that makes a great vegan dumpling in Long Beach. Actually, now we know of zero, because that place discontinued them a couple of weeks ago. Booo!

We ordered the dumplings, simple roll, happy elephant roll, amazing tempeh, pad thai, fried rice and pumpkin curry with brown rice.

While we waited, the owner brought out complimentary spiced kale chips, Thai iced tea and Thai iced coffee. The kids jumped right on the kale chips and thoroughly enjoyed them. They prepare the tea and coffee with a choice of coconut or soy milk. They sweeten it with brown sugar, so I asked for just a smidge of it. It would be really awesome if they used coconut sugar. I stopped drinking Thai tea from restaraunts years ago because of the artificial non-dairy creamer that's used and over abundant amount of white sugar, so it's nice to be able to enjoy some while dining out again.

The dumplings arrived first and they looked delicious, but I was dissapointed that they came with plastic plates, plastic dipping containers and soy sauce in to-go packets. I assumed that was because they have only been open for 2 weeks and maybe they are still waiting on tableware and certain condiments and ingredients. I should have asked to be certain, but I'm hoping this will change as they are open longer.

Up next, were the sushi rolls that were made to order at the cute sushi bar inside the restaraunt. K and S loved the simple roll and the seaweed that came on top. I enjoyed it as well, but would have loved it more with some tamari or shoyu! Mr. Crafty enjoyed the happy elephant roll the most, especially the vegan caviar topping.

 

 

 

 

I don't have photos of the other items, but they were good as well. I'm picky with pad thai and I really enjoyed this one. It was very flavorful! The fried rice was also very good and I liked the addition of the dried fruit in the jasmine rice. The pumpkin curry was amazing! It had a wonderful lemon grass aroma and was just spicy enough with the slow burn I love from curries. The tempeh was okay, but I don't think we'll order that one again.

 

We really enjoyed our lunch at the Happy Elephant and will be back again soon! Service was great and the owner Susan is incredibly friendly. She made us feel like we were at home and the littles loved her. K asked if we could come back for more yummy food again!

 

Definitely check them out, when you're in the area!

1532 E Broadway
Long Beach, CA 90802

What My Vegan Kids Eat for Breakfast, Day 9

This month I started a series called, What My Vegan Kids Eat for Breakfast. People often ask me what I feed my vegan family, so I hope these daily blogs help anyone starting out or gives you ideas for your own families. Please feel free to share what you feed your vegan family as well!

For more information on our vegan breakfasts, take a look at Day 1

Good Morning!
Strawberry, Pear and Apple chunks and a glass of supplements. Then we were out the door headed to K's dance class. In the car the kids had a banana and Mamma Chia Green Magic Squeeze.

What did your family eat today?

What My Vegan Kids Eat for Breakfast, Day 8

 

This month I started a series called, What My Vegan Kids Eat for Breakfast. People often ask me what I feed my vegan family, so I hope these daily blogs help anyone starting out or gives you ideas for your own families. Please feel free to share what you feed your vegan family as well!

For more information on our vegan breakfasts, take a look at Day 1
Good Morning!
Grapes, banana, strawberries
Sprouted grain cinnamon toast
Blend cinnamon, vanilla extract and coconut sugar with Earth Balance Coconut Spread and spread on Ezekial Sprouted Grain Bread. Toast in the oven until brown. Enjoy!

What My Vegan Kids Eat for Breakfast, Day 7

This month I started a series called, What My Vegan Kids Eat for Breakfast. People often ask me what I feed my vegan family, so I hope these daily blogs help anyone starting out or gives you ideas for your own families. Please feel free to share what you feed your vegan family as well!

For more information on our vegan breakfasts, take a look at Day 1

Good Morning!
Raspberries and Steel Cut Oats with strawberries and banana.
S has a runny nose, so the kids each had a small glass of supplements.
Whenever one of us starts to get a bug, we take "shots" of vitamins, herbs and sometimes probiotics throughout the day.
This was echinacea tincture, elderberry tincture, vit c powder and vit d drops in a juice of tumeric and orange

What did your family eat today?

What My Vegan Kids Eat for Breakfast, Day 6

This month I started a series called, What My Vegan Kids Eat for Breakfast. People often ask me what I feed my vegan family, so I hope these daily blogs help anyone starting out or gives you ideas for your own families. Please feel free to share what you feed your vegan family as well!

For more information on our vegan breakfasts, take a look at Day 1

Good Morning!
Mr. Crafty made a fruit plate of raspberries, strawberries and clementines
and banana pancakes with pure maple syrup. We use Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free Mix.

What did your family eat today?

Mothering My Babies When They are Sick

The hardest part of mothering for me has always been having my kids be really ill and not knowing exactly why or knowing why, but not being able to remedy it right away. It's especially tough before they can speak and tell you what ails them. My heart breaks for my littles when they're in any kind of pain.

I am grateful that both S and K haven't had much illness in their young lives. When they do come down with something, it's very mild and gone soon.

Last night S awoke and immediately started crying. We co-sleep, so I scooted him over to me and tried to nurse him. He usually latches on and then falls right back to sleep. This time he didn't want to latch at all, so I knew something was up. I checked his diaper an then tried walking him around to soothe him, but he was still crying a low whiney kind of cry. He kept his eyes shut and I could tell he was in pain.

I took him downstairs, because K also sleeps with us and I didn't want her to wake. Before we got downstairs I was thinking a stomache ache or sore throat. As we walked around, he kept pulling his legs up into me and clenching his eyes tight. That made me lean more toward stomach ache. His cries got louder as he got more frustrated. His nose was running because of all the crying and he still wouldn't open his eyes. Mr. Crafty gave him a dose of Colic Calm. In the past, the Colic Calm has made a huge difference by minute 10 or 15. 20 minutes had gone by and he seemed better, but I didn't know if he was just tired out from all the struggling and crying. At this point, we undressed him and checked all over his body for bug bites or rash or anything that looked off. He looked like his usual beautiful self.

He started crying and struggling pretty hard again. We gave him another dose of Colic Calm. In the next 20 minutes, he opened his eyes and started talking a bit. 10 minutes after that, he was happily screeching and babbling as usual. He released a little bit of a gas and soon wanted to nurse. He nursed to sleep and was fine the rest of the night.

I'm so grateful it was just really gnarly tummy issues, but it reminded me of how helpless you can feel as a parent sometimes.
It also reminded me of how grateful I am to have a partner there in the trenches with the kids. Sometimes things are tough with the 2 of us. I imagine it would be that much harder dealing with it all on my own.

What My Vegan Kids Eat for Breakfast, Day 5

This month I started a series called, What my Vegan Kids Eat for Breakfast. People often ask me what I feed my vegan family, so I hope these daily blogs help anyone starting out or gives you ideas for your own families. Please feel free to share what you feed your vegan family as well!

For more information on our vegan breakfasts, take a look at Day 1

Good Morning!
Parfaits with Raw Vegan Cashew Cream, Nature's Path Organic Peanut Butter Granola, chopped pineapple, sliced banana and fresh pomegranate seeds. I've used berries and banana for this before, but these are the fruits I had on hand. The pom seeds added a really great juicy pop and crunch. I definitely recommend trying those in your parfait. Layer all together and enjoy!

Look how silky the cream is!



Lovely layers! S is like, hurry up already!

He's annoyed I was still taking pictures and not feeding him fast enough!

Click Here for the Cashew Cream Recipe

What did you feed your vegan family today?

Raw Vegan Cashew Cream

This silky cashew cream can be used in many dishes, deserts or as a topping!
Depending on what type of flavorings you use, this cream can be sweet or savory and also can be kept raw vegan.

The batch I made below was for Breakfast Parfaits, so I sweetened it up and kept it kind of thick.

1c raw cashews soaked overnight and drained
juice of 1/2 lemon
2tsp pure vanilla extract
1/8c pure maple syrup or other sweetner of choice
1/2 to 1c water, depending on thickness desired

Put everything into a high speed blender and blend until creamy. Add a little bit of the water at a time until it becomes as loose or thick as you want it. I begin blending on medium until incorporated and then slowly up to the highest setting to whip and incorporate some air into the cream. It makes it light and fluffy!

It's amazing how raw soaked cashews turn into such a decadent cream.
Mr. Crafty asked me how I did it and I told him it's magic! Really though, the soaking and high speed blender are key. I use a vita mix.

From this

 

 

To this

 

Click Here for the Breakfast Parfait Recipe

What My Vegan Kids Eat for Breakfast, Day 4

This month I started a series called, What my Vegan Kids Eat for Breakfast. People often ask me what I feed my vegan family, so I hope these daily blogs help anyone starting out or gives you ideas for your own families. Please feel free to share what you feed your vegan family as well!

For more information on our vegan breakfasts, take a look at Day 1

 

Good Morning!
Fresh juiced orange, carrot, celery, ginger and tumeric
Nature's Path Organic Peanut Butter Granola and Cascadian Farm's Purely O's with almond milk.
The Purely O's are the only O's type cereal I have found that's organic with no added sugars. We use these for breakfast and snacks.

What did your vegan family eat for breakfast today?

What My Vegan Kids Eat for Breakfast, Day 3

This month I started a series called, What my Vegan Kids Eat for Breakfast. People often ask me what I feed my vegan family, so I hope these daily blogs help anyone starting out or gives you ideas for your own families. Please feel free to share what you feed your vegan family as well!

For more information on our vegan breakfasts, take a look at Day 1

Good Morning!
Fresh pomegranate seeds from 1 pomegranate and orange slices.
K promptly reminded me she doesn't like oranges and passed those on to S. They both ate all the seeds and then asked for more, so I took the seeds out of about 1/4 of another one. They were incredibly delicious!

I just love watching my kids eat! It's so cute to me and I love seeing them enjoy their food.
Do you watch your kids eat?
What everyday things do you like watching your kids do?

What my Vegan Kids Eat for Breakfast, Day 2

This month I started a series called, What my Vegan Kids Eat for Breakfast. People often ask me what I feed my vegan family, so I hope these daily blogs help anyone starting out or gives you ideas for your own families. Please feel free to share what you feed your vegan family as well!

For more information on our vegan breakfasts, take a look at Day 1

Good Morning!
They each started with
1 clementine, handful of raspberries, 1/4 apple and 1/2 banana

A little later
Rolled oats with goji berries, almond milk, sea salt, vanilla and maple syrup

 

Please share what your vegan family ate today!

What my Vegan Kids Eat for Breakfast.

This month I am starting a series called, What my Vegan Kids Eat for Breakfast. People often ask me what I feed my vegan family, so I hope these daily blogs help anyone starting out or gives you ideas for your own families. Please feel free to share what you feed your vegan family as well!

We graze a lot, as many vegans do, so our meals are kind of muddled together. Some of the posts will be broken up into breakfast 1 and breakfast 2.

Every morning we start with fruit and water with lemon. My husband or I go down and get it prepared and bring it back up to the room. The kids sometimes eat it all at once or graze as we get ready for the day. We eat so many types of fruit, so it's never boring. My husband's good at making different shapes and presentations I usually just cut it up and throw it on a plate or bowl! Sometimes the fruit is substituted by fresh juice or a green smoothie. Sometimes all of the above.

Our 2nd breakfast happens when we're dressed and ready and have made our way downstairs. It usually includes some grains like, sprouted grain toast or tortillas, oats or some type of cereal with unsweetened almond milk. On the weekends, my husband does a bigger 2nd breakfast with gluten free pancakes and hashbrowns or french toast with tofu omelletes or something.

Good Morning!
1/2 apple in chunks, 1 clementine, 1/2 banana. 1/2 of an Ezekial Sprouted Grain Tortilla with Earth Balance Coconut Spread and cashew butter. I brought up extra clementines, in case they wanted them. My son is currently in love with them will eat a few per day.

Share below what you feed your vegan family!

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