Help with 13 year old vegetarian

[Strugglingmum73]

My dd13 has always been skinny but in the last year has put on quite a bit of weight and is becoming a bit chubby. She’s eating too much sugar and huge portion sizes.

She is vegetarian and fussy. Doesn’t like rice or grains. Or nuts. Won’t eat sauces.

She’s pretty good with fruit and veg and I know I need to up these but want to make some changes to her diet without making a big deal of it. I’ve always had a pretty messed up relationship with food Nd really don’t want to pass this to her.

I’d love some help and ideas

Oh gosh. Nightmare! I have no suggestions except to say that I have found my local Vegetarian and Vegan Facebook group to be very helpful. But hopefully there will be people on here soon with some suggestions. Veggie sausages and burgers tend to be full of crap. Does she like cheese & yogurt? Maybe go into a health food shop and see what they've got? I found something called Nutritional Yeast which I absolutely love. Good luck!

Loves cheese and yogurt. Won’t eat veggie burgers or sausage but will eat quorn mince and quorn chicken nuggets

Does she like sweet potatoes? I'm a fan of quorn nuggets and sweet potato fries or chilli with quorn mince and kidney beans. What carbs is she eating if she doesn't like rice? Does she do any active stuff?

What is she actually eating right now? What type of meals do you make?

What does she eat in a typical day? I have a 'vegetarian' friend who eats cereal and toast for breakfast, a cheese sandwich for lunch, and a pizza or pasta for tea. Daily amount of veg is about 1 portion!
When my teen dd became vegetarian I encouraged her to eat 7 portions of fruit and veg (and the majority veg, so not too much sugar). e.g. Mushrooms, tomato, egg on toast for breakfast; apple and peanut butter for snack; hummus, falafel and salad for lunch; celery and cheese for snack; veggie burger with broccoli and green beans for dinner. (Delia has a great recipe for mashed Black Eye bean cakes with ginger onion marmalade)

Would she be into cooking it might be nice to do together and both enjoy the food / get whole family involved and is also good for good attitudes to food?

The shops are stuffed with veggie and vegan cook books at mo as vegan is so fashionable.

Reason I know is DD just gone veggie :)

Might widen her food horizons a bit as well!?

Also, is she about to have a growth spurt? If she's always been skinny and suddenly eating like a horse, may be good reason for it.

No harm in trying other stuff and loads of sugar not ideal but if she's eating big portions of usual food not necessarily reason to restrict her food iyswim

Homemade, baked butternut squash falafels are delicious and really healthy if you serve in wholemeal pita with salad.
Jack Monroe does some fab carrot and kidney bean burgers, just google the recipe.
Fritata
Stir fry with rice noodles and omelette strips
Are all grains out?
Stuffed mushrooms
Vegetable chilli with plenty of beans on sweet potato wedges
Fajitas with quorn strips

I am an overweight veggie. When i was vegan initially i lost a stone but quickly piled on the weight as i was eating far far far too much bread. And plenty of vegan junk food (oreos, skittles, vegan beer, bread, bread oh and more bread)

I personally dont subscribe to the "all carbs are bad" train of thought but i was eating significantly more than a healthy sensible portion each meal and each day. When im sensible with portion sizes i lose weight. When im not i pile it on despite eating loads of veg and salad.

When I began cutting out meat my meals got more carb heavy and less fat rich. I found that upping good fats and proteins really helped to curb my sugar cravings and crashes and stabilised my weight. My protein was still at a good level, but I was eating legumes which are quite carby protein sources.

Make sure you're buying full-fat yoghurt, mayo, cheese etc. Think about adding fat-heavy things like eggs, avocados/guacamole, hummus, baba ganoush.

Target key snack times by pre-making some low sugar, high fat/protein snacks for the family. e.g. veg sticks and hummus, apple slices and see if there's a nut/seed butter she will eat, roasted carrots and soured cream, 30g cheese and apple slices, mini egg and vegetable tortilla cups, boiled egg dipped in a spice blend.

Buy smaller dinner plates to reduce portion size very subconsciously.

p.s. I'm not against carbs and be careful not to demonise them. But I do think we need a balance of carbs, fats and protein and when that goes out of whack it does weird things to your appetite.

Thank you. All really useful.

She typically eats toast or fruit and yogurt for breakfast.

Often tomato pasta at school for lunch. At home will eat fried eggs, tomato soup and garlic bread, cheese wrap, tomatoes and cucumber.

Dinner she will eat pasta with tomato and veg sauce, wrap pizza, normal pizza, seeet potato mash, nuggets and veg, tacos or burritos with quorn mince filling. She will eat chickpeas but no other beans. Most veg as a side.

She will sometimes want supper and usually wants toast.