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Vegetarian child

50 replies

craftinglife · 21/11/2018 20:05

DD has decided she wants to be vegetarian. We are a meat eating family so this has been completely her own decision and something she has talked about for about a year before committing to it. She's 8! So I guess I'll be making two separate dinners each night. Can anyone give any advice? Such as best websites for veggie kids meals? Feel like I'm going into the unknown as I literally cook with meat 6 out of 7 nights a week and I want to make sure she's not missing out on any important nutrients etc

OP posts:
LordProfFekkoThePenguinPhD · 21/11/2018 21:06

Just watch out for quorn mince - it gives some people horrible tummy ache/the runs. The sausages and chunks are ok through.

Waitrose do loads of veggie and vegan foods these days - good for inspiration!

Funkyferret · 21/11/2018 21:07

I could write you an essay, but as a veggie scratch cooking household example, our dinners this week are panning out as : Mon - tomato, basil and rice soup with bread and an apple crumble, Tue - Shepherd's pie and spring greens (made with Tesco veggie mince and red lentils), Wed - pittas with falafals and salad, Thurs - sweet and sour (sauce v easy to make from scratch), we're having with Tesco chicken pieces, Fri - vegan steak (Tesco again!) with . . . haven't decided, Sat - homemade pizza, Sun - veggie sausage and mash with a veg (Bisto is vegetarian!). Some weeks are more "specialist", but I think this week is quite "normal", just veggie! Only thing I'd say is, if you try Quorn, and your daughter feels sick or has an upset stomach after then she's one of many (myself included) who just can't digest it. Good luck!

Hoppinggreen · 21/11/2018 21:13

My dd is vegetarian, she would like to be Vegan but I’ve said not while I’m cooking her meals!
She is also allergic to Quorn and won’t eat eggs.
I tend to just adapt what we eat or I cook something veggie for me and her and something else for DH and DS as I don’t eat much meat anyway.
I do tend to keep a veggie ready meal (usually from Sainsbury’s) in the freezer or some fresh filled pasta

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LauraMipsum · 21/11/2018 21:33

I wouldn't do entirely separate meals every day, I'd try to do a meal which could have meat added by the meat eaters at the table.

Meat substitutes are okay as a one off - DD loves the Quorn fishless fingers and I'm very keen on the Linda M chorizo sausages - but not ideal for every day as they can be a bit salty. Nutritionally they're not otherwise bad.

Good veggie recipes that you can "ham up" (sorry) by having meat available to add at the table would be

  • soup with croutons / lardons

  • Thai green veg curry (add either chicken or cashews at the table)

  • Bean chilli and baked potato

  • Roast dinner where your DD gets extra stuffing instead of meat

  • This stew (we call it peanut butter stew in homage to Tom Lehrer) www.vegansociety.com/resources/recipes/main-meals/african-stew

  • Roast butternut squash stuffed with rice, pine nuts and chopped dried apricots

  • Roast cauliflower in tahini sauce, with giant couscous

  • Mushroom risotto

  • Macaroni cheese / pasta pomodoro / pasta with goat cheese and peas

  • Fajitas

For a veggie bolognaise sauce: fry your onion, add 1 cup of red lentils and 1.5 cups of veg stock, herbs etc, simmer for 20 minutes (add more stock if needed) then add frozen veggie mince (Tesco do a good frozen one) and a tin or two of tomatoes. Can stick mushrooms or sweetcorn in too. I've not met a meat eater who didn't like it yet.

hibbledibble · 21/11/2018 21:39

Why not reduce your meat intake as a family? It saves having to do extra cooking, and will make your dd feel more included regarding family meals. There is also significant evidence that a high meat intake diet is detrimental to health.

You can make the transition easy with meat substitutes. These include Quorn, but there are also many other good substitutes, including supermarket own brands, and the excellent Iceland range.

PurpleDaisies · 21/11/2018 21:41

The Iceland Mumbai street food curry 4 for £5 has loads of veggie options if you want a lazy take away option. Their kale bhajis are amazing.

Also their No Bull burgers. Stay away from the No Chick. Texture is wrong.

craftinglife · 21/11/2018 23:06

Thank you for all your lovely replies and suggestions! So many great ideas and advice - I appreciate it so much!

OP posts:
LilQueenie · 21/11/2018 23:15

DD has been vegetarian since birth and no issues with vitamin deficiency (and she does eat a lot of crap). Protein is hard to miss tbh its in practically everything. I'm also veggie and decided to do a vegan shop one day to challenge myself. Turns out it was all stuff I usually bought anyway so the veggie transition shouldn't be too hard.

Meat substitutes are great. Also if you do have issues with Quorn like runny tummy ensure its not vegan Quorn. I can handle veggie quorn but the vegan one is slightly in disagreement with me.

SuperLoudPoppingAction · 21/11/2018 23:25

itdoesnttastelikechicken.com/vegan-seitan-steak/

I cook this most weeks and we have small 'steaks' as burgers one night and the rest chopped up in a stir fry or tacos etc the next night.

Tacos are quite good for everyone being able to select what they fancy whether meat or veggie.

Pad Thai is great - egg and peanut in there.

Sushi.

My food budget for 5 of us is £60 a week but we all like quite 'out there' things.

A quick tea might be quorn chicken nuggets and rice and sweet and sour sauce. They are eerily edible to a meat eater.

Graphista · 22/11/2018 04:00

I've been veggie over 30 years now.

It's much easier now than it used to be. I really like quorn, Linda McCartney and cauldron foods products. Some can't tolerate quorn though so proceed with caution. Some vegetarians don't like the meat like textures, this is personal choice. Talk to dd and see what kind of thing she fancies trying. Quorn and cauldron also do "deli slices" which are veggie versions of sandwich meats.

My dd is a meat eater but will happily eat certain veggie dishes with me. As pp have said you don't necessarily have to be cooking 2 meals as such. You can cook the meat separately to add later.

Honestly eating meat 6/7 times a week is a lot. Aside from the animal welfare issues there's the environmental impact and the health impact of doing so, plus it's bloody expensive!

Taking the examples you've cited:

Paella - meat could be cooked separately even with flavourings if you wish. The rice & veg can be cooked for all at once providing you use veg stock.

chicken curry - this you would probably need to do separately but of course rice and veg can be made for all at once in one pot, again using veg stock. But not massively difficult to have a meat pot and a veggie pot on the go. Veggie meat subs don't need cooking for as long and are really easy to use. Is it a home made sauce? Alternatively you could all eat veggie when you have this either using a chicken sub or having a vegetable curry.

spaghetti bolognese - pasta can be made for all in one pot. Meat mince in a pot, veggie mince in a pot. Again I can answer better if I know what sauce you use. Or again you could go completely veggie for this meal and have pasta & veg with sauce

fish - dead easy to cook the fish separately and make the accompaniments veggie friendly so you make them as you always have. Veggie dd could have a veggie grill/burger/fillet instead or even quorn fishless fingers which are quite nice, or any number of breaded or pastry veggie options.

risotto - again you could add meat after

prawn linguine - again could add prawns at end. Dd could have preferred veggies instead (baby corn, mushrooms, peppers etc)

pizza or something at the weekend. - most takeaway places have veggie options now, if frozen easy enough to pick up a veggie pizza for dd or even let her make her own with ready made base, sauce, cheese & veg.

You do need to be careful to make sure she's getting enough iron, vit c (to help absorb the iron), b vitamins, protein and fats as she is still growing. Check out the vegetarian societies site to start with.

Graphista · 22/11/2018 04:06

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

craftinglife · 22/11/2018 06:57

*I've been veggie over 30 years now.

It's much easier now than it used to be. I really like quorn, Linda McCartney and cauldron foods products. Some can't tolerate quorn though so proceed with caution. Some vegetarians don't like the meat like textures, this is personal choice. Talk to dd and see what kind of thing she fancies trying. Quorn and cauldron also do "deli slices" which are veggie versions of sandwich meats.

My dd is a meat eater but will happily eat certain veggie dishes with me. As pp have said you don't necessarily have to be cooking 2 meals as such. You can cook the meat separately to add later.

Honestly eating meat 6/7 times a week is a lot. Aside from the animal welfare issues there's the environmental impact and the health impact of doing so, plus it's bloody expensive!

Taking the examples you've cited:

Paella - meat could be cooked separately even with flavourings if you wish. The rice & veg can be cooked for all at once providing you use veg stock.

chicken curry - this you would probably need to do separately but of course rice and veg can be made for all at once in one pot, again using veg stock. But not massively difficult to have a meat pot and a veggie pot on the go. Veggie meat subs don't need cooking for as long and are really easy to use. Is it a home made sauce? Alternatively you could all eat veggie when you have this either using a chicken sub or having a vegetable curry.

spaghetti bolognese - pasta can be made for all in one pot. Meat mince in a pot, veggie mince in a pot. Again I can answer better if I know what sauce you use. Or again you could go completely veggie for this meal and have pasta & veg with sauce

fish - dead easy to cook the fish separately and make the accompaniments veggie friendly so you make them as you always have. Veggie dd could have a veggie grill/burger/fillet instead or even quorn fishless fingers which are quite nice, or any number of breaded or pastry veggie options.

risotto - again you could add meat after

prawn linguine - again could add prawns at end. Dd could have preferred veggies instead (baby corn, mushrooms, peppers etc)

pizza or something at the weekend. - most takeaway places have veggie options now, if frozen easy enough to pick up a veggie pizza for dd or even let her make her own with ready made base, sauce, cheese & veg.

You do need to be careful to make sure she's getting enough iron, vit c (to help absorb the iron), b vitamins, protein and fats as she is still growing. Check out the vegetarian societies site to start with.*

Thank you for your reply and advice. The Paella is all seafood which I add at the end anyway so that should be enough! Prawns go in at the end for every linguine or spaghetti dish I make too so that's always easy. I make everything we eat from scratch so the bolognese would prob have to be two separate pots but I usually do a big batch and freeze so I could hopefully do that with whatever i substitute the meat with? Pizza is always margarita anyway so no issues there either Grin

Got lots of great websites etc to check so I'll start a list of new recipes today - again, thank you all for your help!

OP posts:
Cherries101 · 22/11/2018 07:02

I eat meat my DH doesn’t. When we cook we usually make the base of the dish first with veg and then will cook my meat into it seperately. Nobody has time to faff around making seperate meals in my house.

MattMagnolia · 22/11/2018 19:07

Nobody’s diet has to be perfect. My DD was vegan and very fussy too. She grew up tall and healthy on beans on toast.

craftinglife · 25/11/2018 18:39

Just an update to say that so far the vegetarian dinners have been a great success!

I made spaghetti carbonara tonight. Made in two separate pans - one with the normal garlic, egg, Parmesan and pancetta with some added chives and then DS got egg, Parmesan, sun dried tomato and spinach. She loved it!

Also made a lentil ragu yesterday which i got from the bbc food website. It's freezable so did a big batch and have portions in the freezer for the next few weeks. 4/5 of the daily intake of veg in it and DS loved it too.

So far so good! Thanks again to everyone who made suggestions Grin

OP posts:
craftinglife · 25/11/2018 18:41

DD Not DS Smile

OP posts:
CantSleepClownsWillEatMe · 25/11/2018 19:14

Glad to hear it's going well craftingle Smile. Don't forget things like lentil ragu can also be used for eg stuffed peppers or as the base for a veggie chili.

I'd recommend creating a Pinterest board where you can collate recipes from various sites as you come across them. I have hundreds, with sections for pies and tarts, hearty soups, Asian, Mexican and so on. It means you're never stuck for ideas and who knows, you may even find lots of family meals that even the meat eaters will love!

MiddlingMum · 25/11/2018 19:31

Lifelong vegetarian here. Things have come a long way since the 60s, and it's very easy now. There has already been loads of advice on this thread so I won't add any more.

I'd suggest buying her a vegetarian child's cookbook for Christmas. Cooking with Herb is fantastic, and she's still just about young enough for it. You might also like the companion book Herb the Vegetarian Dragon, even though she's at the top of its age range.

Graphista · 25/11/2018 20:35

So glad it's going well. Well done you for cracking on.

Flower777 · 25/11/2018 21:16

I don’t think mice are suitable for vegetarians but there some great other suggestions.

craftinglife · 25/11/2018 23:34

Thanks everyone! Grin

OP posts:
LordProfFekkoThePenguinPhD · 26/11/2018 13:45

A mouse makes a nice wee pet. And they are veggie (I believe).

tabulahrasa · 26/11/2018 13:53

Just so you know, there are a couple of things that you’d not automatically think of as not being vegetarian - Parmesan isn’t for instance. Cheap Italian style hard cheese often is, but never Parmesan and also some other cheeses.

Somebody has already mentioned sweets, but yoghurts sometimes have gelatine in them, marshmallows also... some biscuits and cakes aren’t vegetarian.

Worcester sauce isn’t either btw...

Um, what else? Crisps, but not the flavours you’d expect, again it’s cheese oh and less relevant for an 8 yr old, but, energy drinks.

RiverTam · 26/11/2018 14:02

sainsbury's Basics Italian hard cheese is a veggie Parmesan

Sacla do a veggie pesto or you can easily make your own

you can buy veggie marshmallows fairly easily

agree loads of yoghurts and cheap puddings contain gelatine

and some multivitamins do - Sainsbury's kids vitamins are suitable for veggies.

Boatsnack3 · 26/11/2018 14:20

My 9 year old dd has just recently become pesceterian. That carbonara sounds lovely. I try and only do seperate dinners a couple of days a week usually at the weekend because we don't eat together then.

I found packed lunches a struggle at first but she really likes the cauldron falafels, cheese spread wrap or flavoured cous cous I then add some fruit, cut up veggies, bread sticks etc.

Our typical week

Mon- mixed bean chilli
Tue- lentil lasagne
Wed- salmon broccoli pasta
Thur- baked potatoes, cheese/beans/salad
Fri- cauliflower curry
Sat- Linda McCartney sausages/chips/veg
Sun- pizza or burgers, she likes co op mexican bean burgers

Asda do bags of frozen cous cous and quinoa salad that are really tasty and great with boiled egg/falafels for a quick meal between activities.

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