7 plant-based lunch ideas for the self-fed baby   

Since we started cutting down on animal products in our everyday life I’ve had to rethink what you feed a baby. In Denmark we eat a lot of meat and dairy – and most people have one or both for every meal. Most recommendations on what to feed a baby is therefore also centered around these two. For iron, meat is usually the go to solution and for calcium, dairy is the answer. But luckily, it turns out that feeding a baby a primarily plant-based diet is not really as difficult as I thought it would be. Lunches however is the biggest challenge for us, since Eva’s breakfast and dinner is pretty much whatever we’re having. This is why I’ve decided to share what she’s had for lunch in one week, in case others are in need of a little inspiration.

Eva doesn’t eat big portions of food for lunch – or any of the other meals for that matter, though lunch is typically her smallest meal of the day. It’s not that she doesn’t like food or sitting down to eat for that matter, but I’m still breastfeeding her about 5 times a day and I think that has a lot to do with it. I only mention this, as her portion sizes might seem a small compared a portion of a baby that is no longer being breastfed. If that’s the case with your baby you could easily just ad more food. By letting your baby feed herself and not spoon feeding her, you can make sure she only eats as much as she can.

A week’s worth of plant-based lunches for a 10 month old baby 

For the most time I try to get some protein, fat, vegetables and fruit in every lunch meal. I’m not fanatical about it though. And even it I was, I  wouldn’t really be able to control what Eva eats from her plate. Some days she’ll only eat the broccoli and the peas and other days that’s what will be left on her plate when she’s done (well, except from the peas. She always eats the peas. But you get the picture). In the examples below you’ll see that some foods are repeated from one day to the next. Usually there’ll be more repetitions if I for example just bought a tray of blueberries, but I made an effort to vary it a bit particular week to show you some more ideas on what to feed your baby.

Okay, so this is what she had:

Day 1:

Pieces of peach, broccoli florets, potato wedges with avocado oil, and leftover mexiburger

 

Day 2:

Salt-free rice crackers with peanut butter, guccamole with garlic and lemon, leftover homemade lentil curry, and cucumber sticks

Day 3:

Avocado in pieces, defrosted peas, ryebread with hummus, and physalis (aka ground cherry) cut in half.

Day 3:

Blueberries cut in half, fried tofu with coriander and cumin, red peber, and homemade buns with dairy-free butter

 

Day 5:

Blueberries cut in half, tomato slices, falafel, and mashed potatoes with broccoli and olive oil

Day 6:

Haricot verts, pasta made from green peas, butter beans, and a mix of mushrooms, carrots and celery root (everything picked out of a dish with several other food items, that Eva couldn’t eat)

Day 7:

Sweet potato wedges with olive oil, portobello mushrooms in squares, cooked carrot pieces, and cantaloupe in little pieces

 

That’s it. One week’s worth of plant-based / vegan lunches for my 10 month old daughter. I think I’ll make another post in the near future about all the different foods we’ve introduced to her so far. Some days I just can’t figure out what to feed her (or me and Ben for that matter) and a list of all the different foods she likes, could be quite useful. She is by no means picky. I’m just not that creative with food around lunch time and for some reason, lunch always comes as a surprise to me.