Supplements My children take most or all of the above supplements on a daily basis. They pretty much mirror what my mother fed my sisters and I growing up. This supplement thing is a good habit I maintained from my youth.

I give my children vitamins not because I feel that they [...]]]>

Supplements
My children take most or all of the above supplements on a daily basis. They pretty much mirror what my mother fed my sisters and I growing up. This supplement thing is a good habit I maintained from my youth.

I give my children vitamins not because I feel that they will become ill without them, but because I think a daily supplement in addition to their healthy diet is a good idea.

B12 deficiency in vegans/vegetarians has been debated back and forth for years. My mother did nothing to shore up our B12 reserves when we were vegetarian children and as a vegan mother of four I am certainly not deficient nor have I ever been. The same goes for my children. The B12 myth/debate is explained in great detail on this website.

However, I will add that as children Nutritional Yeast (nooch) was used as a daily seasoning, so I guess my mother did something although not deliberately. Lol!

UPDATE: The B12 issue is still up for debate. However one of my wonderful readers gave me a link to a vegan nutritionist rethinking her stance on the issue. http://www.theveganrd.com/2010/07/vitamin-b12-supplements-how-much-is-enough.html

She recommends visiting this website veganhealth.org for vegan nutritional info and supplemental dosage information. Here is the link for B12 dosages for vegans. http://www.veganhealth.org/b12/rec

The best thing about being vegan is the wealth of information that is available to us all and there are so many of us willing to help each other on this journey!

These Lovites are the same brand and taste from my childhood. My children love to take these every day. These vitamins taste like candy. Vitamin C, check.

Animal Parade, a vegetarian multivitamin. The older children take two of these every day and the toddlers 1 each. The Lovites and the Animal Parade are made by Nature’s Plus.

I put Brewer’s Yeast on top of our salads, sprinkled on the toddlers food (they don’t notice), in peanut butter banana smoothie’s (a favorite around these parts) and I also make a mean gravy with it.

Brewer’s yeast contains all of the essential amino acids, 14 minerals, and 17 vitamins

Read more: http://www.brighthub.com/health/diet-nutrition/articles/28790.aspx#ixzz10Jkza2mg

Nutritional yeast aka “nooch” is another inactive yeast. This yeast is very popular with many vegans because of the cheesy flavor it adds to recipes. We use it in the production of our vegan cheese and in so many of the dishes we create on a daily basis.

Read more: http://www.suite101.com/content/benefits-and-uses-of-nutritional-yeast-a71903

Kelp is sprinkled on our salads as a topping as well. Kelp is high in iron, calcium and potassium.

Vanilla Spirutein is used in my daily milk production. I make sesame seed milk every day for my daughter and Vanilla Spirutein protein powder is an essential ingredient.

EmergenC is a treat for the kids. It’s a fizzy drink mix they mix with water. They consume EmergenC about once a day when I have it on hand. There is no threat of scurvy at my house, lol.

OK, so that was the essential list of supplements. Feel free to ask questions.

As the mother of four healthy vegan children I get asked a lot of questions. The questions are often specific to what my children eat. If you are a vegan and want your children to be too, its actually quite simple. I will let you in on a little secret. Make good food. [...]]]>

As the mother of four healthy vegan children I get asked a lot of questions. The questions are often specific to what my children eat. If you are a vegan and want your children to be too, its actually quite simple. I will let you in on a little secret. Make good food. I have an 11 and 9 year old who will eat almost anything I make. The reason for this is a)they have no choice b)they have been eating this way since infancy.

In my pantry post, I highlighted what I generally have in my pantry on a regular basis. The list is long and varied. The staples are tofu (only buy Organic soy products), Basmati rice, lentils, soy and nut milk (organic), oatmeal, grits (polenta), brown rice (for waffles), coconut and soy yogurt, rice cakes, and agave. Keep a rotating stock of in season fruits and vegetables and you’re good to go.

Infants
As a rule, I breastfeed. My children get introduced to food at about six months. I start with liquids. See the sesame seed milk post. I introduce a small bottle with water and a couple tablespoons of molasses. I make fenugreek cereal. It’s a mush that my 4 year old loved as a baby and my daughter refused to have any part of it. Babies know what they like, even at that age. I would also grind up whole oats (organic, bought in bulk from whole foods) and then make a slurry with the oats and liquid (the liquid can be your breast milk, water, apple juice or the sesame seed milk). I also begin to incorporate fruit, mashed bananas mixed with cereal or alone, apple sauce, stewed prunes, rice with coconut milk (my daughter loved it), also so delicious coconut milk yogurt. It’s not necessary to buy baby food. It is so easy to make baby food. Get a coffee grinder. This cheap one has lasted me about 8 years or so. I use the coffee grinder for grinding up oatmeal, fenugreek, and even rice for baby cereal. When their teeth come in or they are screaming with angst every time you lift a fork to your mouth. Expand their repertoire. Cut up fruit into bite size pieces, apples, grapes, strawberries, bananas, peaches, melons, it’s all good for the baby. Don’t forget about grits. All of my children love grits (polenta).

Toddlers

My daughter will be two in February. She is probably the pickiest of all my children. However, my daughter still eats a large variety of food. I make sesame seed milk for her, every other day. She loves coconut milk yogurt, she will eat rice and lentils,whole grain waffles, strawberries (fresh and dried), sliced apples, pineapple, bananas, mango, raisins and cereal.

My 4 year old would live off of our macaroni and cheese if it was possible to do so. However, he too loves grits, rice and beans, yogurt, all fruit (especially blueberries), soup, cornbread, waffles (without the syrup), nuts, pasta and oatmeal.

This is just a sample of what the toddlers eat.

The Big Kids

My older children are 11 and 9 year old boys. They have never been picky and eat what my husband and I eat. I don’t get requests for fast foods because we rarely if ever go to fast food places. We may have an Asian inspired meal one night and then pizza the next night. We may do soup and cornbread and then do raw the next night. They like to eat and almost every meal they eat is homemade. My 11 year old likes to help out in the kitchen too. Some of his favorites are spaghetti, pizza, rice and beans, lasagna, greens simmered in coconut milk. He absolutely loves tomatoes and raw vegetables. My 9 year old loves pretty much the same foods, he just doesn’t share his brother’s same fondness for vegetables.

Do you guys have any specific questions you want to ask me? I will be talking about supplements and recipes next.

Feeding a family of six on an entirely vegan diet is not as difficult as it sounds as long as you keep the pantry stocked with these must have ingredients.

This has been an up,  down and all out interesting week so far.  My mother had heart valve replacement surgery yesterday.  The surgery went well as determined by the doctors.  It is hard to say something went well after having your chest ripped open, heart stopped and new parts put [...]]]>

Mom & Me

This has been an up,  down and all out interesting week so far.  My mother had heart valve replacement surgery yesterday.  The surgery went well as determined by the doctors.  It is hard to say something went well after having your chest ripped open, heart stopped and new parts put in.  The thought of my mother going through that freaks me out.  Unfortunately, abusing your body through years of  bad diet and smoking takes it toll.  During my youth, my grandfather on my mom’s side had bypass surgery fairly young.  He never said anything directly to me about it, but eavesdropping on family conversations, he said it was the worst pain of his life.  He never changed his dietary or life style habits and developed additional heart issues later on.  Because of the experience, he chose not to have further surgeries.  He chose to live his life as he wanted and left us earlier than he should have.

Grandpa Lissy...Stylish!

Looking back, I believe that had a stronger effect on me than I ever realized until recently.  I changed my diet to veganism over 15 years ago.  I wanted to live healthier and I wanted to live longer than my relatives.  They say heart disease is hereditary.  What is hereditary is part DNA and part what you learn socially from your family.  If you follow the same dietary patterns as the previous generation, you can expect the same results.  I am determined to break the history and heredity.

I love my mother and am pained she has to go through this.  We have been somewhat estranged over the past years; not to the point where we don’t have communication.  But the relationship has been less loving and more matter-of-fact over the past years.  How this happened?  Choices I made, most likely.  I never said F-you family or get out of my life, but I do have some skeletons that hurt my family.  When you make choices in your life, you have to accept the consequences, good or bad.  And you certainly can’t control the emotions of others.  My mother has chose her path and I accept that.

In no way has it diminished my love for her.  I am the baby of my family and every time I see my mother, it is through the eyes of an affectionate 10 year old.  I never see myself older when I am with her.  I just want to sit next to her, tell her I love her and snuggle.  On the surface, my mother is eccentric and loves to be catered to.  Underneath, she is fiercely strong, a go-getter and will go Terminator on anybody she feels is threatening her family.  I have seen Terminator Mom and trust me, Arnold has nothing on her.

Birthday Boys in 2007

This week in June marks two of my son’s birthdays.  The Little Prince turned 3 and the next day Little Z turned 10.  So we had a two day family extravaganza of food, toys and movies.  I generally make a meal per request of the birthday honoree.  For the Little Prince we had grits, scrambled tofu, broccoli and biscuits.  Little Z got a special treat, Laviyah took him out for a special lunch between the 2 of them.  10 years ago, Laviyah became a first time mother & she was feeling extra nostalgic for this birthday.  For dinner I made Sun-dried Tomato Mac & Cheese – Little Z is a tomato nut!  He can’t get enough of that Lycopene.  Well boys, happy B-day’s…now time to get back to the grind…school work through the weekend.

Last week, I came across Food Network on Twitter.  They tweeted about a contest with Bobby Flay called the ‘Flayvors of Washington’.  You basically submit a recipe and 2-minute video showcasing a dish that includes a Washington State ingredient.  Also you have to get inspiration from a Columbia Crest wine (they are the sponsor of the contest).

So I thought – I’m a cook, I drink wine…perfect.  Let’s do this!

I decided to make a Wild Mushroom Linguine with a side dish of Sauteed Asparagus and Swiss Chard.  I used Chanterelles and Morels which are Washington native wild mushrooms.  These mushrooms taste great, but Damn! they are expensive…$20 for an ounce.  They better had tasted great paying that much.  I would say, they are worth the investment.  With the mushrooms I used a Cab reduction to make a light sauce for the linguine and it turned out super delicious.  Asparagus is also a Washington ingredient, so I sauteed them with some garlic, leeks and Swiss Chard.  You gotta try this veggie combination, it is outstanding.  I will be posting the recipe soon.

The recipe part…easy.  Now the catch, the video thing.  I hate being videotaped.  Why?  Because I feel like a complete dork on video.  It’s only for 2 minutes, how hard can it be.  For me it was like pulling teeth.  I had to do about 300 “takes” just to explain my dish.  My wife was my camera woman, producer , editor and peanut gallery.  She rolled her eyes and laughed enough for all of y’all.  Thanks for the confidence love.  For some reason I felt like a nervous school boy about to ask a girl out.  At least, in school I could pass a note and get the results without any verbal exchange.  That’s how I like it…the more I can reduce any emotional exchange the better.  Why?  Hell if I know, it’s just the way I am.

Anyway, I got through that fiasco, barely.  I still haven’t watched the two minute video that took me two days to make.  I’m completely ridiculous…I know.  I have issues…Yes!  You can check out my recipe video debut at the Flayvors of Washington link on foodnetwork.com.  The videos are randomized, so you may have to search through the 6 files to find me.  The caption to my video is Wild Mushroom Linguine & look for the goofy guy in a brown shirt and white apron.  Food Network will choose 20 recipes they like and the public can vote on their favorite of the 20 starting June 18th.  Well, if I make the top 20, I’ll be counting on everyone to vote for me.  Let’s get a Vegan on Food Network!  Even if it is only for one recipe.  Check me out and have a chuckle on me.  Don’t worry about my feelings, my wife already desensitized me with two days of heckling.

One question I get asked a lot after I tell people that I am the vegan mother of four children is:

Are your children vegan?

I always think it  is an odd question. I can’t imagine being a vegan and raising meat eating children.  The idea of cooking separate meals within [...]]]>

The Princess

One question I get asked a lot after I tell people that I am the vegan mother of four children is:

Are your children vegan?

I always think it  is an odd question. I can’t imagine being a vegan and raising meat eating children.  The idea of cooking separate meals within a family environment is just plain silly.  To answer the question, yes my children are vegan and they will eat vegan as long as I purchase and prepare their meals.

With increasing rates of obesity and type-2 diabetes among American children, raising my children as vegans is the best choice for our family.  I know that I am blessed, having given birth to four healthy children without any complications, however I do feel that excellent health is much more about maintenance rather than luck.

The constant in our household is lots of fresh fruits and vegetables.  Most meals (we indulge from time to time) are cooked from scratch and more often than not, nothing goes to waste because my children clean their plates  and ask for more at almost every meal.  We don’t buy a lot of juice.  If we are thirsty we mainly drink water.  We go through a lot of broccoli, fresh garlic, onions, parsely, cilantro, green onions, apples, bananas, pears, carrots, and peppers of all types.  We eat basmati rice, cous cous, we buy dry beans (pinto, black, navy, garbanzo) and soak them before cooking, we also eat a lot of other grains (barley, quinoa, bulgar, millet).  We cook brown and orange lentils.  We us olive oil, sesame oil, vegetable oil and vegan margarine.  With such an interesting variety to choose from we manage to keep the menu exciting.

Cooking with fresh wholesome ingredients plays a big part in whether or not your children will eat healthy for a life-time rather than part-time.  My eldest will eat an entire container of cherry tomatoes.  My middle son will beg for a banana smoothie to start his day.  My youngest son will eat just about anything you place in front of him.  All of my children have been or are currently breast-fed.  I believe that breastfeeding is absolutely the single most important thing that you can do for your baby.  Breastfeeding helps children develop healthy appetites as well as a healthy immune system.

Vegan children are not as picky eaters and tend to be just as adventurous as their parents.  I love this.  I don’t get strange looks when I use curry spices or when making a sofrito for my spanish yellow rice, or when I use seaweed or any other not so average spice or flavor combination.

I would love to hear from other vegans out there who are raising vegan children and vegans who are not raising vegan children.  What are the choices of the different households?  What is grocery shopping like?  Are you a meat eating parent with a child who refused to eat the Standard American Diet?  Are your children vegan?