A Day in the Life

Another noon release day today -- sorry, no lunch box!

Instead, a few of you have been asking what Little shmoo eats when he's not at school, so today I thought I'd pay a bit of attention and give you an example of a full day's food for my growing seven-year-old. Now I'm not saying it's perfect, or ideal, or whatever, so don't nit-pick it to death -- it's just what today was like. Tomorrow will be another day. Okay, here we go (most of the foods were organic, if I could get it)...

• Breakfast: smoothie made from fortified vanilla soymilk with frozen mango, pineapple, brown rice protein powder, and ground flaxseed; whole wheat toast with Earth Balance margarine (he chose toast over cornbread, and margarine over peanut butter or almond butter); a vegan chewable multivitamin.
  
  
• Mid-morning snack at school: the leftover Twinkie Dog (chosen over fruit or a fruit-nut bar).
  
  
• Lunch at home: big bowl of mixed green salad (romaine, spinach, red cabbage, carrot, half an apple, and freshly cracked walnuts) with his favorite salad dressing; a bowl of broccoli Cheeze Please soup (a creamy soup made from potato, carrots, silken tofu, and nutritional yeast and topped with steamed broccoli -- from Jo Stepaniak's Ultimate Uncheese Cookbook); some more walnuts (he likes to sit at the kitchen counter and crack them) and a large handful of unsalted sunflower seeds (so he could pretend he was a squirrel).
  
  
• Snack: two bowls of vanilla soy yogurt mixed with slices of banana, frozen blueberries, and frozen cherries (chosen over a peanut butter sandwich or a kiwi fruit).
  
  
• Dinner: two big bowls of brown rice mixed with black beans & corn, topped with cubed avocado and steamed zucchini (he turned his nose up at our Yumm! sauce, and sprinkled his with Bragg's and Spike instead); a fresh pear; calcium-fortified orange juice.
  
  
• Late-night snack: baked Kettle Chips with ranch-flavored bean dip.

In between bites he went to school, went shopping with me, engaged in mortal combat with his friend H-Bomb, played volleyball at the gym, did homework, read books, whined his way through some chores, and play-wrestled with his dad.

You can see that I usually give him two or three healthy things to choose from, especially at snack time. I think choices are important. Would he choose meat if that was an option? No, he wouldn't -- it happens sometimes he always politely refuses. Ah, but would he choose candy and soda pop if I had listed that as an option? Absolutely -- in a heartbeat! But we don't have those things in the house, so the idea didn't come up. Was he sad and deprived because of this? No, in fact he had a very happy day today, and I think he's generally happier and healthier than he would be on the typical American diet.

And so the sun goes down on another vegan-friendly day in the life of a shmoo...