They Might Be Vegans

My kids are in this vegan journey with us, and on top of that they are gluten-free (in an effort to lessen their autistic symptoms). I know this might sound like some new form of torture, but they’ve been doing really well and feeling great. The hard part? My oldest hates vegetables and almost every fruit. How do you go vegan and hate vegetables and fruit and not eat wheat or oats? It’s a science, really. I want to list some of the foods he’s been surviving on, and also find out what all you other parents of pickies do to survive. Here goes:

• gluten-free pretzels–We’d all shrivel up and die without these. The problem? They cost $7.50 a bag. Yes, that’s dollars. It hurts me just to type it.

• vegan cream cheese–Let me start by saying that I am not a fan, but hey–I won’t shorten my already short list of things my son will eat. He puts Toffuti “Better Than Cream Cheese” on gluten free bread and english muffins, and also dips the aforementioned pretzels and tortilla chips in it.

• peanut butter–We get all natural organic kind and make it with jelly on a gluten free tortilla and do roll ups. He also dips “sour apples” (apples dipped in lemon juice) in the pb.

• kids gluten-free cereals–We have these with almond milk, the best is EnviroKidz, they like several, Gorilla Munch is their fav.

• corn pasta–We found some gluten-free pasta but the corn elbows seem to be the biggest hit.

• vegan cheese–Again, really not a fan and won’t ever be. I’ve always been a lover of cheese, so this sad substitute is at best rude and at worst a crime against humanity. That said, my kids love the white cheese by Vegan Gourmet. We shred it on top of tortilla chips and over their pasta.

• fruit leather–We buy these in bulk from Costco, and they are addicting. **This just in…he no longer eats these…

• fruit/veggie juice–If not for our beloved V8 Fusion juice (no added sugar, 100%) we’d never get any nutrients into my son. He actually likes this juice, and we add to it the Arbonne kids multi-vitamin powder and he’s happy. Shhh–don’t tell him there are veggies in this juice.

Aaaand, that’s it. I’m not just making a list, I’m listing everything. And notice one item should already be taken down, but since I have a huge amount of it in the garage it’s staying up there. My son’s list of foods were just as limited when not eating vegan and gluten-free, so it’s not all that much harder when I really think about it. Just more expensive. Living vegan is way affordable in my opinion, it’s just the gluten-free stuff that I can’t/don’t/can’t be bothered to make that cost the moola.

What do you feed your picky vegans?