DD wants to go vegetarian

[TeenagersDontWearCoats]

DS most definitely does not.

I do not want to be cooking (or planning for) multiple meals as I find it hard enough as it is making sure everyone has the right meal at the right time.

DD is 13 and announced at lunch today she wanted to go veggie. Fine (although she's have saved me a bit if she'd said that before I'd bought the bbq for the weekend!). Except for special occasions. And except for lasagne!

So, for now I won't be e.g. separating pans or whatever, just a gradual increasing of veggie main meals.

Any favourite recipes that are easy to cook parallel to meat dishes? Or is the easy option to do vegetarian main meals and throw DS a meat sandwich every now and again?

Honestly, it's the planning rather than the concept that worries me. Although making sure DD gets enough protein is my initial thought.

We're a house of three omnivores and a deviant veggie.
Chilli is always veggie
Pasta and sauce - with added meatballs for those who want
Sausage casserole - add sausages (sliced) to the plate to accommodate preferences
Pasta carbonara - again, serve veggie portion then add bacon
Curry night - choice of daal and/or chicken

I note you don't want to Quorn but there are tofu versions of substitutes which are really good.

Dd2 has been veggie for 10 years. I just cook what we usually have and make a veggie part for her.

So say spag bol, curry and chilli make sauce together. Take her postion and add lentils or substitute meat. Take larger portion and add meat.

Chicken and veg. Make her a crisp bake

Fajitas she has grilled halumi where the rwst of us have meat

Chicken salad
Sweve the salad seperately to the meat

Should add i dont find this difficult nor am I cooking separate meals for dd2 she simply doesnt have the meat part.

PP said 'often' - with links to studies - not 'always'.

I don't even know why you'd think to mention the idea of separating pans (I know you said you aren't doing so) for somebody who happens to eat less meat than the rest of the family.

As PP said, she is a bog-standard omnivore who makes food choices within that wide range.

We tend to have potatoes more often than we have pasta or rice, but that's just a preference, not some kind of bizarre moral objection to eating 'too much' pasta!

Encourage her with the planning & cooking. This happened in my family. I went veggie at same time ( had been previously) and over time it has improved my daughters palate no end. I did lots of big pots of curry or pasta sauces older daughter just added chicken or salmon. Easy.
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You could just order her something like the green chef and tick the vegetarian option. Then you would get 4 meals for 2 people every week so she would have to have the same thing twice. Or you could eat the spare portion. Then you could just shop as normal for the rest of you. I would also get her to follow the recipe and cook for herself a couple of times a week if she was creating the extra work. Good skill to learn.

Sadly I’m on the teens with eating disorders thread and 99% of the teens on that thread started their eating disorder by becoming vegetarian at the preteens /early teens point.

knowing now what I know about anorexia I would strongly discourage any child from becoming vegetarian tbh especially around that age.

If she's eating lasagne and eating meat on special occasions, personally I would put I too much effort OP.
It is nonsense.
Just add a couple more of family veggie meals a week and otherwise serve her whatever you can ok but leave out the meat bit.
If she's that bothered, she can put in some effort herself rather than just issuing you with menu demands which is what is looks like.

I use brown lentils in place of beef mince, add a meat free Oxo cube and dollop of marmite to emulate the beefy flavour. It's great for lasagne, shepherds pie, chilli, etc and even my carnivorous kids prefer it because it's lighter than beef.

We do egg fried rice or noodles often as it's easy to serve up then add chicken to theirs and tofu to mine. Same with curries - I batch cook the sauce, then add either chicken or tofu.

On that note, batch cooking veggie meals will really help here - on nights you cook something meaty which isn't easily substituted, you can just whip out a box of lentil chilli and ping it in the microwave.

I don't really believe in the "all or nothing" thing when it comes to vegetarianism; reducing consumption is great, even if she doesn't manage it 100% of the time.

This I have a vegan daughter and she is very much all in - if she ate dairy or meat occasionally then I would not be on board.

for us I make a vegan base then add cheese or meat accordingly. It is actually fairly easy to do.
either cook the meat separately or serve hers then add further things in

in this situation I would be trying for more veggie meals and seeing how she finds it

In my view it is really dangerous to make food a potential battle ground with teen girls so my response would always be ‘that’s nice, dear’ and not to make a big deal about it.

i went veggie at 13 except for fish and thinly sliced ham. I fairly quickly dropped the ham and dropped fish at 19. Still veggie now.

my 16 year old daughter has chosen to never eat certain meats - beef & venison - and sometimes wants to be veggie, sometimes not. Ain’t no biggie as husband eats meat, though most of our family meals are veggie anyway. I expect she will be fully veggie eventually and this is her route, no way would I put pressure on her either way.

I think this is ridiculous, surely have plant based days as frequent as possible is good for everyone? Also if people are worried about a veggie diet surely her having meat now and then is a healthier option? I admire anyone cutting down on meat it doesn’t need to be all or nothing

She’s either vegetarian or not. Special occasions and lasagne don’t count!!

People being a bit harsh here. 13 is still a kid and she is essentially saying she wants to significantly reduce her meat consumption (no need for snarky comments about being a part time veggie). For a variety of reasons this is an admirable thing to do, animal rights, the environment etc.

Maybe you could embrace it a bit more as a family? Things like veggie chilli, veggie bolognese, curries etc are all super easy to make. BBC website has good recipes, otherwise you can substitute the meat with quorn or things like tofu.

Also a roast is good one, because all you need to do is chuck a shop bought nut roast in for her (aldi do good, cheap ones) but keep everything else the same.

Lots of options!

Large chunks of the world’s population raise healthy children and adults on vegetarian diets. However if its new to you and you want some concrete recipes there are resources to help.

Here are a couple of books by Nicola Graimes aimed at mixed families (although I think the term “flexitarian” is just bollocks). The recipes are designed be made meat free/meaty with a couple of small adjustments late in the prep :

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Part-Time-Vegetarian-Flexible-Recipes-Meat-Free-ebook/dp/B014BQVLBA

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Part-Time-Vegetarians-Year-Friendly-Flexitarian-ebook/dp/B07XXBBPM7

If the whole family does meat free once or twice a week that would give you another two nights with single dish cooking. If you agree to try it out you may find many new meals you enjoy as well to broaden the everyday recipe list for the house. The DC sound old enough to be involved in the prep and build their own cooking skills. Use of pulses and grains adds protein, fibre and keeps costs down.

This site has a veggie section with a lot of budget recipes and also meal prep guides:
https://www.budgetbytes.com/category/recipes/vegetarian/
https://www.budgetbytes.com/category/extra-bytes/budget-friendly-meal-prep/vegetarian-meal-prep/

OhMyVeggies has largely gone to Insta but still has a meal planning section with shopping lists:

https://ohmyveggies.com/meal-plans/

VegWeb:
https://vegweb.com/

BBC Good Food and Allrecipes are also good options - bung in some ingredients and see what the search throws out.

Avoid veggie books by non veggie celeb writers. Most realyl don't "get" vegetarian eating. I'd give River Cottage and Rukmini Iyer an honourable exception - they write useful books based around veg and fruit

Rose Elliot, Anna Jones, Bosh all write from a vegetarian perspective. Otherwise I'd look for good classic food writers who simply include a lot of vegetarian food, particularly those write regional books from the Med, Middle East, South Asia

No way would I cater for "part time" veggie. Our middle son decided he would be veggie it lasted a week until Sunday brunch came around and he realised what he was missing. After watching him quite happily eat a full selection of everything I declared that he was back on same meals as everyone else and went back to making the one meal for all approach. I am definitely not ant-veggie as often cater for guests that are totally veggie but I was not prepared to make my life harder by indulging a fussy teenager!

Why? Lots of people want to reduce their meat consumption and that’s a good thing. I don’t call myself a vegetarian. I would say I mostly eat a vegetarian diet. That’s a valid choice.

I've been a vegetarian for 40 years, I don't eat meat on special occasions or have one meal that I've arbitrarily decided is OK. It's nonsense and just making more work for other people, you can reduce meat consumption without claiming to be a vegetarian.

We are 2 veggie (me and eldest Dd) and 2 non veggie in this house. I often 2 the same meal but 2 versions so chicken curry vs paneer or cauliflower and whatever veg we fancy. I use lentils and veg mixed for our lasagna. Halloumi stroganoff vs chicken or beef etc. We are currently all in our flatbread era apart from DH so it’s whatever we fancy from halloumi to crispy kale to buffalo cauliflower bites (super easy in air fryer) or a quorn nugget or 2 on spinach and baby tomatoes. Dd is a fan of mushroom based meals too so does mean mushroom pasta and also proper carbonara (she’s brave enough to do the egg way I’m not as I’d end up with scrambled egg pasta). We also do lots of gnocchi recipes so I just add meat in or as a side for DH dd2. Spiced coconut fish traybake works well with tenderstem broccoli and asparagus instead of the fish or again halloumi or dd 1 has added a stuffed portabello mushroom on hers.

Dd1 not a pastry fan but dd2 actually prefers the veggie version of most pies as I just pack them with anything we have ready and loads of flavour.

I must admit though we do like a beyond burger and an OMV sausage occasionally for a hotdog or a breakfast bap. I also love a sneaky quorn dinosaur which dd1 makes me order online only as she’s mortified but life’s too short not to have the odd T rex for tea if available, I’m 43 and I have no shame about it!

Veggie haggis is our friend I buy loads and keep them in the freezer they are so versatile and can be cooked then crumbled through many meals from a baked potato to a root veg bake to a pie or made whole into a Christmas wellington. I also love it over Brie or Camembert baked or hasselback potatoes too.

Exactly this.

my DH is veggie and whilst we will sometimes all eat veggie I enjoy meat so just make 2 versions of things or he does. Or eldest does.

im not the only person responsible for feeding people.

I went veggie at age 8 after school trip to a farm where I saw a pig being killed, the trauma made me never want to eat meat again. My mum was very traditional meat and two veg, it was the 1970's where the only vegetarians were hippies and asian cultures, so I got given mash and peas every night for 3 yrs until I collapsed with malnutrition, dr explained if I was to be a veggie, and I did not even know there were others like me who did not eat meat at the time, then I need protein and balanced diet, mum made me cook and buy all my own food, as she would not entertain my fad lifestyle choice. In those days veggie meals were not easily available in every supermarket like now, had to get bus into town to buy grub from Holland & Barrett like sos mix. It was a struggle so please offer as much support as you can, especially as there are now shelf loads of options. Tesco sell a rainbow lasagne by Zizzi!!! She needs guidance to insure she gets the correct nutrients for a growing kid, I didn't, now I have a vitamin B12 deficiency, you can be healthy on a veggie diet but only if you understand about nutritional needs

the “except lasagne” thing is ridiculous! I eat very little meat but that means I’m not vegetarian

my ds turned V at 5 (is now 12) but dh was already so it was easier to go with it than resist. Nowadays dh, ds and I eat broadly the same V food (although I am not V) and I make separate food for (carnivore) ds2 though he is extremely fussy so it would not be much improved if we were all carnivores.

I think instead of making separate meals I’d go towards eating more veg based stuff and less meat based stuff as a family. We’ve gone this way and I’m broadly very happy and healthy feeling, good for our carbon footprint etc. I am not convinced it’s cheaper however

Can’t believe the amount of people who are giving the OP encouragement to pander to this crap.

Kids don’t develop eating disorders because we don’t pander to their fads, they develop eating disorders because we do.

Interesting isn’t it that in developing countries where kids don’t have untold options for dinner and parents who are prepared to cook several meals in case the poor darlings won’t eat there also isn’t this prevalence in eating disorders. Hmmm wonder why that is?

It would be a hard no from me.

We’re meat eaters in this house. She gets what she’s given or she can go without.

It’s a fad and nothing more, and I for one wouldn’t be tolerating it. And I certainly wouldn’t be spending extra money on vegetarian options or expecting the rest of my family to start eating different meals because of one child who has made a unilateral decision probably based around some TikTok craze.

Any more than I would ever have cooked separate meals for every other member of my household.

If she wants separate meals she can bloody cook them herself, after she’s earned the money to pay for them.

We have a number of “accidnetky veggie” dinners

macaroki cheese
egg and chips
jacket with cheese or beans and homemade coleslaw
beanburgers ( tinned chickpeas and butter beans , mixed with onion and spices and a slice of cheese )
mexican beans
hairy bikers tofu stir fry
satay sauce based stir fry
egg fried rice ( the scwehxan pepper makes this)
cheese and onion quiche
hallomi burgers