Let's face it.
Kids love dip! And while they often have added salt, fats, and/or sugars, they're a great way to motivate kids to try new foods and eat more of their healthier options.
Check out my
PBJ Dippers post on the MOMables blog for a fun dip recipe that's great for fruits, veggies, and even sandwiches! You can easily sub a nut-free butter and/or agave syrup for those ingredients, and I used a dairy-free "yogurt" in ours.
The dip was a medium hit. This kid is really resisting the dairy-free substitutes, even when I don't tell her. It's like she has a "moo-dar" telling her when I'm subbing "fake" milk products! But Baby liked it, and Mama loved it. Z ate all her apples and carrots though, so I'm still the winner here! Not that I'm keeping score...
*I'm totally keeping score!
Tools of the Trade
looks delicious!!
ReplyDeleteWhere do you find dairy-free yogurt?!!!
ReplyDeleteare you guys having to go dairy-free as well now?
I don't blame your girl. I'm still resisting dairy-free even though we've been doing it almost a year now.
Yeah, it's harder for those of us old enough to have "established tastes." Plus the subs tend to be so processed, so I generally avoid them.
DeleteI found soy yogurt and coconut yogurt (So Delicious brand makes coconut. I think the soy was Soy Dream) and I found them at a local natural market. Whole foods carries them. They're okay mixed in with stuff, like to make dips. But the soy is terrible just as yogurt. The flavored coconut ones (Trader Joe's has blueberry and vanilla) are tasty though!
Yogurt doesn't have lactose, I believe, so that's not an issue. But I've been reading lots of info about how animal products in general are bad for our health, so I'm trying to reduce them as much as possible and sticking to a primarily plant-based diet.
Plus it turns out that when dairy was added to the Food Pyramid, it was under an administration with strong financial interests in dairy. Studies funded by dairy interests somehow come out with results four times more favorable than independent studies, and they're finding that all the supposed health benefits from dairy are either wrong (ie calcium doesn't actually affect osteoperosis) or else are actively harmful. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-mark-hyman/dairy-free-dairy-6-reason_b_558876.html
And finally, 70% of the population is intolerant to milk in one way or another (including allergies.) Babies are designed to eat human milk until around age 2. Cow milk is perfectly designed for baby cows, but not for humans. If we were meant to have dairy our whole lives, females would lactate constantly, to provide that food source for adults as well.