Healthy Food Recipe

Archive for the ‘Vegetarian’ Category

You have possibly considered putting your child on a vegetarian diet, if you are vegetarian parent. Whatever the situation is, you may have doubt whether or not a vegetarian diet is sustainable, healthy choice for your child, putting your child on a vegetarian diet could potentially stunt their growth.

These concerns most likely prevented you from putting your child on a vegetarian diet up to this point.

If you aren’t well-prepared to put your child on a vegetarian diet, you definitely shouldn’t. Thought, if you have done your nutritional research and you are familiar with the nutrients vegetarians commonly lack, then you know that these problems can easily be overcome with some meal planning.

You also know that putting your child on a healthful vegetarian diet can greatly improve her health in both the short and long term. If you haven’t researched vegetarian diets thoroughly, but you are anxious to start your child on one now, you should start by ensuring that you plan meals to boost amounts of the following nutrients (that most vegetarians lack) :

If, for dietary or ethical reasons, you have decided that you want to put your infant on a vegetarian diet, you should be very careful in choosing formulas and solid food for your child.

If you plan to breastfeed the infant and you are also a vegetarian, you may need to supplement breastmilk with additional sources of nutrition, depending on your dietary restrictions. If you are a vegan, or an ovo-vegetarian, you should add sources of vitamin B-12 to your child’s diet.

If you plan to use formula rather than breastmilk, you should stick to commercial formulas, which contain the proper amounts and ratios of nutrients. If you opt for a homemade formula or soymilk over a commercial product, your child could experience developmental problems from a lack of proper nutrition.

If you want to keep your infant on a vegan diet, you can select a soy commercial formula, as long as it is nutritionally-adequate.

Nutritionists suggest that you keep your infant on a full-fat, high protein diet after age one, which includes vegetarian-friendly foods, such as mashed and pureed avocados, soy milk, nutrient-fortified tofu, and yogurt.

When you are ready to switch your infant to solid vegetarian foods, you can introduce solid tofu, pieces of vegetarian burgers, eggs, and cheese.

If you supplement what a nonvegetarian diet lacks, maintain a full-fat diet, and increase your infant’s sources of protein, you should have no problem maintaining a healthful vegetarian diet during your child’s crucial developmental stages.

1. Protein. Make sure your child is consuming enough protein by adding additional sources, such as wheat,soybeans, isolated soy protein, and nuts.

2. Calcium. Make sure your child is consuming enough calcium by adding calcium-fortified processed foods and leafy green vegetables to his diet.

3. Iron. Add more iron to your child’s diet by increasing servings of soybeans, pinto beans, tofu, and cereals.

4. Zinc. Enhance your child’s zinc intake by increasing his servings of almonds, peanut butter, and mushrooms.

If you concentrate on compensating for all of these common nutritional deficiencies, you absolutely can put your child on a vegetarian diet without any negative health consequences.

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If anything could be considered the heart of great vegetarian cooking it would be the soup.  Because soup gives the cook so much freedom to combine various vegetables and herbs, the variety of tastes and consistencies is virtually endless.  And because soups capture almost all of the nutrients of the cooking process in the soups stock, it is a dish that meets the highest of nutritional standards will being delicious, hearty and satisfying at the same time.

Another great thing about basing your vegetarian diet plan on soups and stews is that it fits so well with a busy modern lifestyle. Just because you are a vegetarian, you still are busy with work, family and social responsibilities.  But with a big crock pot, you can put together a soup for the family that is just as good as if you had labored over it for hours.  And when everyone has had their fill of soup, there is no waste because every drop of the excess can be refrigerated for another meal later or frozen be on hand down the road. All of these aspects of soups fill perfectly with the vegetarian way of life.

Creativity should become the guiding principle of your soup planning particularly if you are going to make soups every week for your vegetarian family.  Naturally you will have your favorite recopies that everybody will clamor for each week.  But every so often, start with a basic soup stock and then get creative from there.

You can use as a foundation for y our soup the basics of onions, garlic and the base vegetables such as carrots or celery.  But many vegetables will serve well as “surprise guests” in your soup of the week that will not show up every week. Such vegetables as potatoes, cabbage, peppers, cucumbers, watermelon, tomatoes and many more can add tremendous variety to your soup tastes and keep the soup concept constantly new and fresh as a staple of your vegetarian family meal planning.

One cooking skill you should invest some time in to become a top notch vegetarian soup cook is to know your spices.  A soup can get pretty bland even with the best of ingredients but the wise and clever use of spices can make a soup come alive with flavor.  Each soup ingredient interacts with spices differently.  And you can change the very nature of a soup with nothing more than the addition of a few spices.

With the addition of cumin and chili powder, a routine tomato soup becomes vegetarian chili.  With the addition of Mexican spices, a run of the mill bean soup becomes vegetarian taco soup that can be as  spicy as you want it to be.  So learn to experiment with spices and get to know what kind of personality different spices like oregano, thyme, rosemary, lemon extract, cilantro and parsley can add to your soup.

Soups are also a wonderful way to blend in lots of different ingredients that your family might not otherwise eat.  And since a big priority in vegetarian meal planning is to assure that your family gets the proper nutrition from each meal, you can add beans, rice, tofu and other staples from the vegetarian pantry to expand the nutritional value of your soup so it not only is delicious, it is filling and very healthy as well.

It is possible that at times your family may grow tired of soup after soup.  So you might want to experiment with thickening the soup so that by the end of the preparation process, you have a stew that is just as good as soup but has much less liquid broth to present to your hungry vegetarians.

Many cooks use cornstarch or flour to turn the broth into more of a paste before serving.  Another clever device is to use instant potatoes that are sold in packages of flakes.  By sprinkling a package into your soup, the flakes will soak up the soup and add that rich potato flavor to your stew.

Have fun with your soup creations and always be on the lookout for new and interesting soup recipes.  The vegetarian web sites and blogs are a constant source of new innovations on the standard soup idea.  But by being creative and vigilant in keeping your soups always new and fun, you can use the basic concept as the cornerstone of your vegetarian cooking for many years.

Having a baby is a very exciting time in the lives of most people and trying to stay healthy is something that is at the forefront of most people’s minds.  Trying to carry a successful pregnancy while following a vegan lifestyle might seem extremely difficult, but for the average woman who is healthy during pregnancy it is completely possible to do.  However, there are a few considerations that you should take into account in order to obtain the best results possible.

The average woman going through a normal pregnancy has very few complications.  Yet at the same time, this seems eerily like a wonderful dream that may not actually describe your situation.  Most women have at least some mild problems during their pregnancy, which makes it a bit difficult to have the perfect smooth pregnancy that they have dreamed of.  You are certainly not alone if you have experienced some complications, but if you are Vegan, it is very important to ensure that you are giving yourself, as well as your baby the nutrients that are needed.

It is vitally important that you tell your doctor that you are vegan when you first start seeking prenatal care.  This will help your doctor to discuss your specific nutritional needs and also closely monitor you and your baby to be positive that you are getting the results that are needed.  Many women are able to gain the proper amount of weight with no problems, however many others need assistance monitoring their weight to ensure that they gain enough weight while others need help to ensure they do not gain too much.  There are plenty of ways that your doctor can help you, but without knowing your typical eating habits, it is virtually impossible to determine.

Talking the time necessary to write down all of the foods that you consume is extremely helpful as well.  This will allow your doctor to quickly and easily see if there is anything that you should be eating that you are not presently eating.  Additionally, taking a multi-vitamin is very important.  This will help you to ensure that any deficiencies that you might have are actually resolved, rather than just ignored.  Taking steps to ensure you stay in good health is much better than waiting until a problem develops to seek help as well, especially since your goal is ensuring that your baby stays healthy.

Unlike what you might think, it is not impossible to carry a baby to full term while consuming a vegan diet.  You might need to devote a bit of additional effort to planning meals, but every year there are hundreds of successful vegan pregnancies.  You too can join the women who begin and finish their pregnancies as a vegan and you are sure to be proud that you completed it as well.  Trying to raise your baby as a vegan right from pregnancy is a great start for their life and can also provide some great benefits as well.

Taking the time to really discuss your dietary needs with your doctor is vital though to ensure that you remain healthy.  Also, make sure that you are consuming enough calories to cover your needs as well as the needs of your baby.  This will help you to ensure that your baby develops properly and you are not weak or lightheaded at times.  This is not a problem that is exclusive to veganism though, rather it is a complication that can happen to women regardless of typical dietary habits.

Healthy babies are possible regardless of which diet you choose to follow.  Talking to your doctor and ensuring that you are eating properly are all the basic steps that you need to follow which will be extremely effective in helping you achieve your goal of a happy and most importantly healthy baby.  Skimping over vital nutrients is obviously not recommended regardless of which dietary method you are planning to follow and should be avoided at any costs possible.