Family friendly vegetarian menu for a week

[PlatoAteMySnozcumber]

I have vegetarian family visiting for a week. I don’t want to cook different dinners but want to find dishes that will suit the veggie requirement but also appeal to a few fussy toddlers. Any ideas great MN minds?

Pasta with (vegetarian) pesto and green veg
Veggie sausages and mash (the Sainsbury’s shroomdogs ones are delicious)
A mild Dahl and naan bread
How fussy is fussy because spanakopita is delicious and easy if they would eat it.
Stirfrys
Baked potato with various fillings
Eggs/mushroom/beans on toast
Bruschetta
A couple of asda counter pizzas one night
Making your own bean burgers could be fun

Hard to say without knowing what you/toddlers normally eat but:
Quiche, salad, nice bread or roasted garlic new potatoes
Pasta with a veggie sauce, or veggie lasagne
Jacket potatoes with salad and a selection of toppings
Sausages - the Sainsbury's shroomdogs are lovely - have them in naps with onions, salad and wedges, or with corn on the cob, or with mash or dauphinoise and vege, or with cauliflower cheese
Pizzas
Curry
Chilli
Macaroni cheese
Stuffed peppers
Picky tea of hummus et c

We eat lots of veggie meals now in an attempt to reduce meat

The obvious ones are pasta and pizza - easy to make those veggie.

We also do pesto and feta quiche, puff pastry tart with all sorts of veg scattered on top, halloumi cherry tomato and pepper kebabs, vegetarian lasagne, vegetarian bolognese, vegetarian curry.. basically whatever you would ordinarily eat without the meat.

Crossed posts with Queen 're the shroomdogs!

Sainsbury's also do very delicious spicy bean burgers in their frozen section. And veggie hotdog sausages too.

Heres my effort at a menu

Mon Nigella Sweet potato macaroni cheese www.nigella.com/recipes/sweet-potato-macaroni-cheese
Tues mild vegetarian curry and rice with some spicy dips for the adults and popadoms
Wed mild vegetarian chilli with wedges and guacamole
Thurs Quiche (could buy a nice one)with salad
Fri Pizza
Sat Vegetarian BBQ halloumi kebabs, veggie burgers and sausages with salads
Sunday Nut Roast www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/uncategorised-recipes/best-ever-cranberry-pistachio-nut-roast/ with all the trimmings

What other posters said, veggie chilli and mild curry.
I also do a potato & spinach bake (which is served with fish for non veggie),
Pasta & tomato sauce with goat cheese and read peppers is always a hit with DC.
Homemade Pancakes, sweet with fruit and yoghurt or savoury with mushroom filling or cauliflower cheese filling.

Pasta with pesto, peas and broccoli
Stir fry veg with rice or noodles
home made pizzas with roast veg and mozzarella
grilled halloumi and mediterranean veg kebabs with sweet potato fries
wraps with rice and black turtle beans with spicy tomato sauce
frittata and matchstick chips or crusty bread
peanut and coconut curry with baby conrs, sugar snaps and sticky rice
dahl, potato and pea curry and chappattis or rice
stuffed peppers with rice, nuts and cheese
baked potatoes with cheese , beans and salad
omlette and chips
Greek salad and crusty bread

We're a vegan family with 3 kids and 1 is VERY fussy (ASD), this is our usual week -
Risotto - made plain, add veg and sauce (pesto, peas, mushrooms etc) as wanted
Roast sweet potatoes, houmous and salad
Bean or Quorn chilli with guacamole, cashew sour cream, rice, choice of wraps or nachos
Pasta
Veg curry or Dhal, rice, poppadoms
Wraps made with Oumph or fried tofu, peppers, onions, kale, houmous, sweetcorn etc, everyone adds what they want
Stir fry and noodles

Also how about this easy chocolate tart for a nice dessert www.nigella.com/recipes/salted-chocolate-tart?fbclid=IwAR22FKlqb1FeQBrWxjO_M5lVh9dn9oIYlwAvR6n4OxZXczuZquwq-vWltQg

Our meal plan for this week is:
Tofu stir fry
Veg risotto (fresh peas and broad beans with lemon and parmesan)
Tofu fajitas
Mushroom omelette with salad
Hummous falafel and pitta with salad
Something from cupboard or freezer, poss pizza (Nigella's recipe for base) with artichoke and olives (from jars)

lentil casserole, like goulash, just replace the meat with red lentils.
pasta & sauce - check the cheese is vegetarian as many italian hard cheeses are not
shepherds pie - again lentils or beans as meat substitute
pizza
pita bread and loads of different stuffings.
pasta bake

It probably depends how many of you there will be as well. Easier to make curry and rice for a large group than cooking a load of omelettes to demand, for example.

Not all pesto is vegetarian as some contains Parmesan cheese. Any cheese calling itself Parmesan cannot be vegetarian (it has a set recipe using only milk, salt and calf rennet - anything else and it cannot be called Parmesan in the EU)

I do a coconut rice,mine has salmon on top but leave that off.

Rice
frozen peas and sweet corn
1 can coconut milk

Put everything in a rice cooker, add some water if necessary and leave to cook.

You can also add tinned kidney beans or fresh veg.

It works as a stand alone or as a side dish.

Tomato and aubergine casserole
1 aubergine (this is a recipe for 4 so multiply up for more)
1 tin chopped tomatoes - you can also add passata and/or tomato paste
yoghurt

cheese or breadcrumbs for the top.

slice and fry the aubergine

in a casserole dish start with a layer of aubergine, then a layer of tomato and a few spoons of yoghurt.

Top with cheese or breadcrumbs and oven bake for 20+30 mins.

Fussy toddlers may not eat anything you prepare for adults! I have a fussy child, she doesn't like food mixed together. So while the rest of us have pasta with sauce, we need to serve her pasta without sauce if she's to eat it (with cheese and veg separately on the plate). If we have veggie burgers, she has the same things but separately on her plate- bun, burger, salad veg, cheese all separately.

The toddlers may not be like this but the best thing you can do is ask their parents what they actually eat and go from there IMO.

One of my favourite veggie meals are burritos. You can make a selection of fillings so people can pick and choose what they like: roasted sweet potato chunks, kidney beans cooked in a garlicky tomatoes sauce, rice, guacamole, salsa, sour cream, jalapenos, cheese etc.

I usually use warmed corn wraps. Goes down a treat!

Big mezze style platters of pita bread, roasted Mediterranean veg, tzatsiki/red pepper/houmous dips, couscous & pomegranate seed salad, olives, cheeses & crackers? Young children will pick at What they want, and an avocado tomato mozzarella salad usually gets wolfed down

we have enchiladas - similar to burritos, but once filled bake in the oven with cheese on top. The kids favourite filling is a tin of mixed beans, some spices and tomatoes all sauted together with some onions and peppers.

I'm with summerofresistance. If the fussy toddlers are visiting ones then you need to ask their parents. I can cater veggie and I can cater fussy children, but fussy vegetarian children I need to be told what works. If they don't like eggs, or cheese, or beans, or mixed up food, or wet food you need to know this.

As well as asking I would recommend you have some veggie sausages or falafels in. If they don't like what you are serving for everyone else they can have a bit of the sauce, some plain carb, a veggie sausages and whatever veg or salad is easy.

Jacket potatoes with various fillings
Pizza & salad
Quiche with new potatoes & green beans
Vegetable curry with rice
Toad in the hole (using vegi sausages) & mash
Egg, chips & beans
Pasta with tomato sauce & salad
Lasagne made with quorn/soya mince or roasted vegetables
Roast dinner (nut roast/quorn etc)
Cheesy pasta bake
Lentil stew & dumplings

Chickpea and potato curry.
Veg and lentil lasagne.
Quorn bolognese
Jacket potato/ potato skins with choice of toppings/ fillings.
Veg pizza (kids will eat margerita without a doubt)
Pesto pasta with added roasted tomatoes and peppers.
Mexican bean chilli and rice.
Spinich based canneloni.
Summer soup (cook and blend aload of green veg and potatoes and serve cold)
Macaroni cheese!

Wow, so many great ideas, thanks everyone. Oh and great heads up about the Parmesan, I remember seeing that before but I would have totally forgotten and included it in most things. I can definitely pick 7 meals out of that lot.

Macaroni cheese.
Vegetarian pizzas (you can always add meat for anyone fussy)
Jacket potatoes
Pasta bakes
Stir fry
Vegetarian lasagne

Quorn veggie chicken nuggets are pretty fit and most toddlers can shovel a few down!