Kids Love Making Prawn Crackers

Kids Love Making these Prawn Crackers, they look like slivers of plastic, but in hot oil they puff up into tasty prawn cracker snacks just like those at restaurants with any Asian foods- Indonesian, Thai, VietNamese- I have seen these at all sorts of restaurants and always wondered how they made them.

The oil has to be quite hot for these to work well, so make sure an adult is around to make sure it is not a danger to the kids because of splattering, etc. Luckily our 8 year old is deft with the chopsticks :)

*Although these snacks are not made with meat or meat extracts, they are made with prawn extract and would be considered a transitional food, not a vegetarian food by some. We find it difficult to avoid fish and fish stock to be completely vegetarian in our lifestyles- of course every family should choose what works best for their situation.

Vegetarian Spring Rolls

Even a 4 year old can help make these delicious spring rolls made without meat. Growing up in Hawaii, there was always great Fillipino food around and my favorite was Lumpia, Filipina style spring rolls.
Usually these are made with pork. This version puts grilled tofu in place of pork in the recipe and no one is the wiser that it is meat-free, everyone simply loves these. Wrap around a fresh leaf of lettuce and dip in a spicy sauce before eating to get a great combination of hot, spicy, cool and fresh all in one bite.

Recipe: cut up as fine as possible: 1 red bell pepper, 1 green pepper, 1 clove of ginger, 2 cloves of garlic, 1 red onion, a package of bean sprouts, 1 package of firm tofu. Fry it all up in a pan with 2 cups of soy sauce, 2 tablespoons of vinegar, 1 tablespoon of sugar and cook until it has reduced and all the veggies are soft. Then wrap in spring roll wrappers, cook in vegetable oil until golden brown and then serve with pieces of lettuce.

Fun Veggie Foods in (Oahu) Hawaii

Kids love a day at the beach and adore being in Hawaii. Although the food in Hawaii is heavily influenced from Polynesian, Asian and Western choices rich in meats, there are a lot of great dishes for kids to enjoy when in Da Aina.

The main city on Oahu (Honolulu) has a variety of options to choose from, many of which are listed in the Happy Cow, VegGuide among other online city guides. The Well Bento on Beretania st (Honolulu)

Well Bento Vegan Plate Lunch

offers rare treats of meat-free traditional plate lunches using tempeh, tofu and other non-meat ingredients instead.

If you find yourself in Pearl Ridge (not far from Pearl Harbor) for the Sunday swap meet at the Stadium or the Kam drive-in, you can pop in for a tasty & healthy lunch at the Down to Earth cafe & grocers. There are also branches of Down to Earth in other parts of the island.

The most popular spots with the locals are the plate-lunch eateries: Graces, Diners, L&L, Zippy's and other local style plate lunch places around the island offer 2 scoops of rice, macaroni salad (green salad or coleslaw choice too) with a main dish. Most offer fish options alongside the usual meat fare and Zippy's also offers tasty vegetarian chili & rice, veggie tofu burger and meat-free saimin noodles.

Banzai Sushi Bar- Vegan sushi

If out surfing and enjoying other active fun- the North Shore of Oahu in summer is relatively flat and a great time to enjoy the most famous white sand beaches. If you are driving out to the North shore, stop in and run around the Dole maze, enjoy some tasty chilled pineapple (shipped from the Phillippines unfortunately) and then head on toward the North shore. Choose to divert through the small town of Haleiwa and stop in at the local vegetarian and organic grocer and cafe just past McDonalds, Celestial Health Food Store and Beet Box Cafe. The veggie burgers, tex-mex, Asian foods, shakes and sandwiches are unbelievably delicious.
The Banzai Sushi bar also in Haleiwa also gets a thumbs up for its many options without meat or fish. Don't miss the melt-in-your-moth shaved-ice (try azuki bean and vanilla ice cream in the bottom) from Aoki's or Matsumoto's before leaving Haleiwa.

If you head to the fine, white sand beaches of Kailua where the wind always blows- great for sailboarding, kite surfing and kayaking with the turtles- find great veggie options at Down to Earth, the Pali Gardens, Lanikai Juice, or the middle eastern foods at Pita Pocket Cafe are also great.