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Milk-Free Cooking for Kids
by Damin Chu
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Overview
Kids are constantly active, and it's hard to keep up with them. For children that are lactose-intolerant or need to moderate their intake of milk, there are a number of food options that will give them the energy they need. The following are some milk-free cooking ideas that will provide kids with the nutritional balance they need to keep growing and stay on-the-go.
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Common Milk Substitutes
Most popular kid recipes use milk and other dairy products, like cheese. Now there are a large number of products that can be used to substitute the milk and dairy portions of recipes. This means that you can make most kid-friendly recipes without milk by substituting ingredients. For instance, you can make your grandma's favorite waffle recipe for the kids, but use calcium-fortified soy milk or almond milk as a substitute for the milk. Soy milk has a distinct taste, so you should test it out with your children before using often. It's best for cereal, baking recipes, pancakes and waffles, or smoothies. Almond milk is a drink that comes from ground almonds and has the same general texture of milk, but it does not contain lactose or cholesterol. Rice milk is another common substitute that is sweeter than milk, but is also one of the lightest and most refreshing alternatives to milk. It is best used in dessert recipes, and since it's lighter can also be used in sauces and soups. It is generally not a good substitute in savory dishes because it's so sweet. Oat milk is another milk substitute that is light in taste and texture. It's a good substitute for fat-free or low-fat milk because of its watery nature. It can be used effectively in both savory and sweet dishes. A wealth of products can be used to substitute other dairy products as well. Instead of butter, use soy margarine. For extra thick waffle and pancake recipes, you can incorporate some unsweetened plain soy yogurt into the batter. For baked potatoes and potato latkes, a dollop of Tofutti soy sour cream will make a kid feel like he's not missing anything on a dairy-free diet. There are also cheddar-style non-dairy cheeses available.
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Cooking With Your Kid
It helps to make some common snacks and meals with your kid so that they know the ingredients that will give them energy. Then, they can make snacks themselves if they're away at a friend's house with a mom who isn't used to milk-free cooking. They can even just help you prepare the ingredients if they're not old enough to use the stove, so that they know what you're using as a milk substitution. You can make a simple macaroni and cheese recipe with them that uses a non-dairy cheese and non-dairy margarine. Melt the margarine and cheese together to form a sauce and then pour it over boiled macaroni. Salt it to taste, or bake it in a casserole dish at 400 degrees for 20 minutes to get the top crispy and golden. Besides showing your child how you're making milk-free foods that he or she can eat, you can make simple snacks together, like "ants on a log." These are just pieces of celery with peanut butter (substitute with almond butter for a higher intake of calcium) and raisins on top. They're delicious, fast, fun, healthy, and milk-free snacks that a child can make on his or her own, as long as they're allowed to and able to spread the peanut butter.
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Calcium Intake
Kids need calcium to fortify their growing bones and give them the energy they need each day. In order to make sure your kids are getting enough calcium, include the following foods into your cooking. Depending on your kid's taste, try to add some baked beans or black-eyed peas as a side dish. You can also include black-eyed peas into soups, burritos and pasta sauces. Instead of giving your kid sandwiches with peanut butter, try almond butter, which provides better nutrients for your child, including more calcium. Oftentimes people will substitute water for milk in order to make the recipe milk-free. Instead, make sure that you're using calcium-fortified non-dairy milk, such as soy milk, rice milk, or almond milk as a substitute. If your child has a sweet tooth, he or she will love it if you incorporate blackstrap molasses into dishes like oatmeal or into cookie batter. This kind of molasses is a great source of calcium and a sweet treat. Tofu is also a source of calcium, and can be cooked in a variety of kid-friendly dishes. Instead of cooking chicken fajitas, you can make fajitas with tofu strips one night. Make baked tofu nuggets, by cutting firm tofu into chicken nugget-sized slices of ¾ inch slices. Then mix the nuggets with 2 tablespoons of corn meal, 1 teaspoon salt, and 3 tablespoons of wheat germ. Lay out the nuggets on a baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes at 400 degrees.
