Other Sources of Protein?

I also have a son with peanut/tree nut allergies. Have you tried the peanut butter alternatives? There is one made with sunflower seeds (Sun Butter)and one made with soy (Soynut Butter). Sometimes you have to look for them in the Health Food sections of the grocery stores.

We are meat eaters, so I don't have any ideas for recipes, but will your son eat oatmeal? Oatmeal is high in protien and a good warm breakfast. If you add cottage cheese it really ups the protien count.

What about cereals now days many have added protien, or drinks. My daughter just got braces and was unable to eat for three days, and because she is so little, I didn't want her to loose weight, so I bought high protien ensure--she loved it!

GL:)

My son isn't thrilled with meat either. He will eat chicken nuggets or meatballs, but that is it. I use tofu as a substitute. An easy way that someone told me was to just cut the tofu into small pieces, add a little butter to a small frying pan. Sautee the tofu for a minute than add a sauce for flavor. My son loves teriyaki sauce. There are different flavors of tofu too. I had to go through 5 different kinds before I found one my son liked. I also love to visit the Wholesome Baby or Toddler food website for great recipes. This is the site page especially for tofu: http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/tofu.htm
I also use Smart Dogs (Veggie Protein Links). You can treat them like a hot dog or slice them up and add them to vegetable mixes. My son's favorite dish is what I call crisps and chips. I add a little butter to a pan add slices of whole wheat taco shells, spinach, tomatoes, onions, and slices of smart dogs. Sautee it all until the taco shell slices are crispy.
Another option is lentils and beans. I use chick peas and black beans together. My son will eat them plain or mushed together like mashed potatoes. Refried beans are also great. My husband is from India and they use lentils in a lot of recipes. My son's favorite lentil is a dish called Daal. It is like a thick soup. My favorite website for daal recipes is: http://www.indianfoodforever.com/ Another Indian option I use for protein is paneer. It is like a cottage cheese that looks like tofu. I sometimes mix paneer and tofu together with some simple spices.
Hope this gives you some options. Good luck.

I don't have any recipe suggestions for you, and the protein sources I would recommend have already been mentioned, but I wanted to add one thing...

Our son was this way with meat also. Fortunately we were able to use eggs & pb for him, but when I talked to the doctor about it, she told us to not give up on the meats while were substituting other things. She said that toddlers have extremely sensitive taste buds, and that the minerals in meats tend to give them a metallic taste to little ones. She said to keep trying them on occaision and eventually it will take. Unfortunately for us, it's been a long process, and of course the "junk" meats are what he took to first - chicken nuggets, hot dogs, bologna, etc. He has now started to accept the better meats and will eat pork tenderloin, some steak, burgers, etc, though sometimes he'll love it one day and hate it the next (more of a control issue at this point). We're now introducing seafood and so far fish sticks, tenders, & fillets are a hit. And boy will that kid eat shrimp and crab, LOL! No allergies, thank goodness!

Anyway, just wanted to toss that in... Good luck to you!

A lot of the Gerber foods are a good source of protein and other nutrients. My son is a picky eater too. I normally give him what everyone else is eating, and if he doesnt seem to like it I finish up with a Gerber Cereal Bar, a handful of Corn or Rice Chex (I am amazed at the amount of nutrients in these cereals and never feel bad about giving him dry cereal for a snack!). It seems that one day he will love something I give him and the next day he looks at me like I am trying to poison him when I give him the same thing! I havent given him tofu yet but am definitely going to try it after reading what the other moms say about how easy it is to cook!
Good luck and keep up the good work; it seems to me that you are doing a wonderful job with your sons nutrition! The fact that he eats all those veggies is awesome!
God Bless,

Shane

I know you already have some great suggestions and responses but as a mom of a child with food allergies I thought you might like to find the Whole Foods Allergy Cookbook by Cybele Pascal.

I just got it and am impressed with the yummy foods that elimiante all the major food allergine ingrediates. I know how frustraiting it is to not be able to give your kid all the normal foods everyone else can. Good Luck!

I wouldn't worry about getting him to eat meat.

Beans are an excellent source of protien, my little guy used to eat half a can of black beans all by himself at that age haha.

We use tofu too, it does have a learning curve on how to prepare it. I would say get something like "tofu for dummies" not sure if there is a book by that title but I wouldn't doubt it either :-)

Put canned beans in a blender and use instead of eggs in almost anything. You can even make a cake this way! And you can't even tell there are beans in them. My daughter is 18 months and she was the same way. I think it's the texture. I put a piece of chicken on her plate of fortified noodles, and when I went to clean up the chicken was gone! So don't give up. She ate a lot of those little baby meat sticks, but that was all I could get her to eat until recently.

Hi J.! Food allergies are tough we suffer from dairy and wheat allergies. Tofu is great and easy to work with. My daughter (2 1/2) loves it straight out of the box cut up in chunks...talk about disgusting!!! Mori-Nu has a great website that I printed off a bunch of info. from. I use the baking blend all the time to replace dairy and my stuff turns out amazing. My husband has baked it, which was very good as well. The eggless egg salad is also shockingly good. Here is the website...check it out! www.morinu.com I hope it helps you as much as it has us and good luck with the food allergies...almost forget Ener-G makes a really good egg replacer that can be found at some Meijers and in healthfood stores. Good Luck K.

P.S. My daughter was the same way with meat. She now will eat it especially if it is sauced up. Your son may just need some time.

Try Edmame (I think its a soy bean)it has lots of protein. My kids love to eat it.

Tofu is easy...just cut it up and throw it in w/whatever you are cooking to sautee until warmed through. It will pick up the flavor of what you are cooking so it will taste like whatever sauce you are using.

I had food discomfort for a while and then I discovered spirulina to help with the protein problem.

http://www.spirulina.com/SPBSpirulina.html

It's like tofu in that it is pretty tasteless and the flavour can be hidden by adding it to things. It contains all the amino acids of meat, unlike nuts and legumes where a key variety is needed to cover all the bases.

Good luck with your picky eater.

C.

Have you ever tried cashew butter or almond butter? It is delicious and not as allergenic as peanuts. Also hummus is a great protein and can be eaten on bread, veggies or crackers. It comes in several flavors or you can make it yourself.
Although many will disagree, tofu is not that good for you. Legumes are much healthier and you can make them in a hundred different ways! I have a great cookbook called Country Life that my parents used when they were vegetarians. My whole family eats meat now but we still like to do meatless once in awhile- even my hubby:)
Also, falafel is really yummy. It is made with chickpeas. There are often kits for things like hummus and falafel in the grocery store. They do save on time.
More great cook books are "Country Kitchen Collection" and "the Guilt-free Gourmet". Best of luck!

Lentils! Very high protein, easy to substitute in spaghetti or chili, lasagna, etc for the ground beef and it is yummy! (for adults too)

Hello J.,
Looks like you have gotten a lot of wise advice. Let me come from the other end of life at this point. My daughter was like this as a young one too. But now she is 22 and the healthiest person I know! She has had a cold only twice in her life, never had the flu. She does eat meat now, but still isn't that fond of it. She does it rice and beans, legumes things like that. At the time when she was the age of your little one I was concerned about her health, now seeing how healthy she is without the meat focus. I disagree with the post about not giving veggies and juicing it instead. But I respect her opinion on the matter. Ultimately you will have to weigh all this advice and do what you feel is best for your little one. Blessings on your days!

Have you tried offering him plain cooked (canned is fine if you rinse the salt off) beans? They are finger food for little kids that are old enough to not inhale and choke.

Tofu is cooked as part of the manufacturing process, so no further cooking is necessary. My 15-mo-old granddaughter loves tofu cubes just plain, no seasoning added. I just offer her some cubes on her plate along with an assortment of veggies, and she gobbles it all up. If you want to season tofu, you can add most any seasoning you want, as it has almost no flavor of its own.

I use soft tofu to "stretch" scrambled eggs, and have served it to people who never suspected they weren't eating scrambled eggs. I'm certain you could make a tasty "scrambled egg" dish with only soft tofu. Here's what I'd use: One box soft tofu
Chicken broth seasoning - I use McKay's Chicken Seasoning which is vegetarian and has no MSG.
Turmeric as needed
Frying pan with oil of choice for frying

Mash the tofu in a bowl until it is the consistency of cooked stirred scrambled eggs, kind of chunky. Season to taste with chicken broth seasoning being careful not to make it too salty. Sprinkle lightly with turmeric if you want to make a little more yellow.

Heat frying pan gently; add "eggs", stir until water evaporates and "eggs" are heated through. Serve plain, with toast, with cheese, catsup, salsa, or whatever you'd put on regular scrambled eggs.

There is a plethera of recipes for tofu on the internet. You could start by searching vegetarian and vegan recipe sites, and tofu sites. It is really a very versitile food.

Tofu is really easy to cook, actually, and the nice thing about it is it takes on the flavors of whatever you're cooking it with! There is a website, www.allrecipes.com, that has tons of recipes and articles about how to cook ANYTHING!! Check it out. Also, add more beans into his diet. Those are a great source of protein, energy, and easy to digest for him. Good luck!

The freezer section of the grocery has some decent vegetarian foods. I like the veggie burgers that don't pretent to be meat, I heard that the Boca ones are a lot like meat so I haven't tried them. There are fake scrambled eggs there too. Bean and cheese combinations of a number of foods are good and readily available as well.

There are a number of vegetarian cook books, not aimed at kids perhaps but you could get ideas from those. Good luck, you may even find that you and your husband will be healthier becasue of your son's preference.

I cook with tofu and tvp quite often. Tofu will pretty much take on the flavor of whatever you're cooking it with. I like to cut some Mori-nu firm silken tofu into cubes and I sautee it with some onions, italian seasonings, and italian dressing for a few minutes until the onions are a little brown, then I add some pasta sauce and serve with rotini or wagon wheel pasta. If you sautee it with soy sauce and add veggies, you've got a quick stir fry. Another recipe that I love: sautee the tofu with soy sauce until it's a little brown, stir it in with some easy to pick up pasta, some chopped basil and shredded parmesan cheese (I use pesto but it has pine nuts in it, so this is basically pesto w/o the nuts). TVP is Textured Vegetable Protein. It's dry and can be bought in bulk at the Food Co-op, or they have it at Festival in the organic aisle. i buy Bob's Red Mill. You reconstitute it with water and add it to any dish where you would normally use ground meat. The consistency is the same. If you don't already have it, get a copy of "The Super Baby Food Book" by Ruth Yaron. It has so much information. Even though your son is beyond his first foods (It gives a month by month rundown of what to try and when from 4 months old to 1 year), it would still be beneficial. It has a lot of recipes and the majority of the book is written from a vegetarian pov. Hope this helps!

I have a daughter, now 14, that doesn't like to eat meat either. There are lots of alternate nut butters out there. One of our favs is almond butter. They do cost a little bit more but its nice to have the option. Our local co-op does them in bulk so you can get a small container that will stay fresh until your son gets through it. Of course there is the all time great source of alternate protein, beans. We eat alot of them and there are many cookbooks out there for vegan baking also. Good luck jls

Have you tried giving him bacon? My sisters 20 month old would not eat any meat but peanut butter and bacon.

My son didnt like meat at all either till like a year ago and he is now 4. I gave him soymilk cause it seemed to have alot of protein and alot of other stuff that is very heathly for them. My son just out grew it but i always offered it to him and one day he just started eating it.

Try adding soy milk to the things you cook. That has a lot of protein in it. I make smoothies for my kids all the time with soy milk. I use a cup of vanilla soy milk, 1 banana, and some frozen fruit. Then blend it all up. It's very good. Otherwise, you can use plain soy milk in place of regular milk in pretty much any recipe. Use it in mac & cheese or add it to his oatmeal or something. My daughter isn't huge into meat either. She'll eat a little bit of chicken, but that's all. Hope that helps!

Tofu doesn't need to be cooked, so you can just cut it up into little cubes and serve with pasta and veggies in pasta sauce. Just make sure you buy the extra firm kind. I also make tofu sticks for my boys where I cut the tofu into strips, dip in egg (although I think you might be able to just use a light oil instead), coat in breadcrumbs and then bake at 350 for 15 minutes. There are tons of tofu recipes on the net too.

BEANS!!!! Canned, dried, refried (veg. kind don't have lard), hummus....all great!

Beans and Legumes. These contain plenty of protein and it's actually a healthier source too. Don't get me wrong I love my meat but beans and legumes are what vegetarins are told to eat to get the daily protein needed.

We are not herbivores! We have canines for ripping and molars for mashing. We only have 1 stomach while herbivores have 2 to 4! Finally, we lack 6,000 (I'm fuzzy on the number so I'm going low!) enzymes to digest the cellulose in vegetables.
Skip eating the veggies. Juices them instead. Your intestines don't have to work so hard and you get the benefits on bio-bound water, the only type of water that really hydrates. Se more on www.we want 2 live. com [without the spaces.]
As for the meat, he is a smart kid. Learn about what really feeds our bodies.

lots of legumes....lentils, black beans, kidney beans. My daughter loves refried beans. nuts are great, i know hes allergic to peanut butter but try walnuts and almonds and all other kinds of nuts. but i would say your best bet are beans and lentils.

I found these ideas online... hopefully they help.
Also have you tried looking up recipes for tofu at google.com or ask.com.. they could probably give you some good ideas.

eating a variety of plant foods such as whole grains (brown rice, whole wheat, barley, rye, buckwheat, millet etc.), legumes (dried beans and peas), nuts, seeds and vegetables, you will be combining foods with different amino acids and getting ample, complete protein. Tofu, texturized vegetable protein, and tempeh are soy bean products that contain a concentrated amount of protein. They provide a good complement to other plant-based food, but are not essential to a vegetarian diet. Fish and seafood.
Grab a meal replacement drink, cereal bar or energy bar. Check the label to be sure the product contains at least 6 grams of protein, and is low in sugar and fat.

refried beans. Talk to your peditrition, he/she can give you some good ideas. Or pick up an "atkins" book you know, the protien diet book/program. It should have lots of foods for him to eat.
Does he like chicken nuggets?

I am not too experiences with tofu but will he eat beans? Legumes are loaded with protein! And they can be disguised in other foods.

My ped says that toddlers are usually vegetarian by choice for at this age. Mine won't eat it, either, except he also artfully dodges veggies. He spits out eggs and doesn't eat much peanut butter unless it's in chocolate :) Needless to say, that's not a good source of protein.
He will eat bean and cheese burritos with rice. Bonus that it's a really easy meal to make! Beans and rice together offer a complete protein, so I'm glad he at least eats that! You could also try lentils and rice. Lentils have even more protein than beans.
My niece and nephew were milk and corn intolerant. Now they eat soy butter and soy milk only out of habit. It's hard to get them off of it, and it's more expensive, but wow, isn't it great that they have those products now? My sister says that she used to have to search for soy butter in health food stores, but now WalMart carries it.

High protein items are eggs,some yogurt,soy products....Could buy soy milk and mix with ice cream for shake in the blender. keep trying the meat tho...sometimes their tastes change. this is an age where sometimes they like the same thing over and over...that is...give him scrambled eggs everday for now...he'll change as he ages.