If you are vegetarian or vegan - what do you eat ?

[Pisssssedofff]

DD 1 has gone veggie and gone up a dress size, basically because she's having pasta at every meal, cereal for breakfast and nothing for lunch, far too much fruit juice and scoffing 6 apples a day too.
She won't eat eggs - any suggestions it's driving me insane, I don't think she really likes vegetables if we are honest.

It's genuinely hilarious to me that so many people think that cooking without meat or fish is practically a military operation.

Yes, but I find it's usually people who aren't very imaginative about what to cook anyway / have quite limited diets themselves. As my grandmother said "so what do I do if she can't have meat or gravy then, do I just serve the boiled potatoes and carrots?"!

Gosh OP you don't seem to want what you asked for in your OP at all!
All genuine mealtime suggestions are being shot down or ignored.
You just seem 100% against your daughter making the decision to be veggie. It doesn't seem to matter what anyone here says, you aren't able to respect her choice or take it seriously.
There are so obviously thousands of veggie meals you can make that your kids will generally eat. I've not been a mum as long as you but I've already picked up the general idea that kids are fussy and food gets wasted, sadly.
But what you really seem to want is actually just a moan about your daughter, so do crack on with that.
In my pp I suggested things generally were not easy for you, and perhaps that is the real issue here. In which case you have my sympathy... But it might be better to accept that rather than just getting angry with us all.

That's true, Nobody

^ they are for the 4/5 of us that aren't vegetarians
How about a compromise of some sort? The whole family has a vegetarian dinner (I promise, it can be tasty and healthy as a lot of the recipes in this thread have proved) two or three times a week. The rest of the week she fends for herself and you all have a meat/fish dinner?

Yeah check out some of the meat-free monday websites. The recipes are often suitable for people who are a bit unsure about meat-free cooking/eating.

www.meatfreemondays.com/

they are for the 4/5 of us that aren't vegetarians
So just decide to only cook for the 4/5 of you who aren't vegetarians. If your dd is as stubborn as you are, you're not going to be able to convince her not to be vegetarian. If it's too hard to accommodate her diet, don't bother. Leave her to figure it out herself. I'm sure she'll survive, even if she eats pasta with cheese every night for the next 2 years.

I'm vegan, and have been for nearly 2 years. There's nothing wrong with soy, my doctor told me this and I have also done lots of research.i used nutrition facts.org which is a website run by Dr Michael Greger who has reversed type 2 diabetes in many of his patients by using a healthy plant based diet. My diet is healthier than when I ate meat: even though I ate a balanced diet I was still low on iron, now I recently had a full blood test and no problems showed up. Just to give you an idea of what have eaten today: 1 cup oats made into porridge with soya milk, I added cinnamon and had that with banana and frozen raspberries and walnuts with a little flaxseed. For lunch I had a tofu and spinach wrap with avocado and tomato. I had 2 of those. For dinner I'm going to have black beans in cooked cherry tomatoes to make a tomato sauce with garlic, herbs and spices with sweet potato mash and a big salad: lettuce, avocado and cherry toms. For dessert I'll probably have some frozen fruit like pineapple and raspberries as well a couple of mangos which i bought from our local market last week. I'm 18, just finished my alevels and my health has improved so much, I have unlimited energy and I'll be working nearly full time aswell before I go to uni in September. Any questions let me know :-)

OP why don't you try swapping some of your usual meat based meals for a vegetarian alternative, even if it's just a few days a week. You could try instead of using minced beef, to use lentils and more veg instead. Not only is it healthier than meat, it'll provide a change for you as well :-)

That has already been suggested yeddar. The op does not have the time or the inclination and if she does it for 2/3 nights it will lead to £40 of food going in the bin.

I'm still waiting for the OP to clarify whether ready meals are something they all eat often (page 2) or if they are disgusting processed crap she could never dream of feeding to her daughter (page7/8) because her daughter deserves only the finest quality unprocessed pasta and cheese for a month

I have genuinely thanked practically every poster here that's given advice and recipes even the ones that have missed the she doesn't eat eggs/rice/many vegetables ones. So again I'll say thank you, ask you if you could simply offer recipes and your experience on varieties of food that would be very much appreciated.

There are loads of vegan recipe groups on Fb. Or Pinterest.
I have not rtft, but I recommend a blender/food pro. a) smoothies (banana plus green leafy veg) b) blend veg into sauces for pasta/curry. I disguise many a veg for my 5yo this way.

OP:

Erm...FOOD.

Super helpful Ali, thank you.

A PP suggested rissotto with vegetables - this has zero protein, the same with pasta and tomato sauce and veg. Very important that there is protein in every meal at that age. Use Quorn or other meat replacements. Also nuts, seeds, pulses, tofu etc.

Vegan quiche recipe-
Jus roll shortcrust pastry, roll, place in flan tin and blind bake 10 mins.
Filling- 1 carton silken tofu and 2 tbsp hummus whizzed up in food processor.
Any toppings to suit. I use cherry tomatoes, broccoli, spring onion, mushrooms etc.
Plus a sprinkling of vegan cheese. My favourite is violife, it's make of coconut oil and can be purchased from Waitrose.
Bake for a further 10-15 minutes.

You say your daughter doesn't like veg, is this all veg without exceptions? Even things like peppers and onions?

FYI, I spend £40 per week on our food shopping. It's much cheaper than eating meat.

Also wanted to add...
Good luck to your daughter, I hope you give her your full support. The animals would thank her if they could :-)
Do you understand her reasons for cutting out meat? If not maybe look up Gary Yourofsky's speech on you tube.

Well I don't know how you do that Jude because we spend £50 a week on fruit and veg without even considering the veggie recipes, from a guy at the garden centre. I've considered pretending to be a restaurant before and ordering wholesale that's how much they eat, but it is berries, asparagus, ridiculous amounts of apples and pears, a tree wouldn't be unjustified.

The quiche sounds good though and presumably freezable ? Thank you for that

I said before Jude, I do get it, I really do.

If she won't eat eggs, why are you going to give her quiche?

Get her to join Vegan UK on FB, it's a group with nearly 20000 members, she'll find lots of support, recipes and general advice on there if she doesn't really know what to do :-) I posted before what I'll generally eat in a day to give you some tips. Definitely give Gary Yourofsky a watch like someone else suggested :-)

There are many good vegan/veggie groups on fb. From your choices;

Chicken curry-make a separate portion, omit the chicken from her portion and replace with chickpeas, firm tofu, quorn chicken pieces...

spag Bol, same, use veggie mince in hers or in everyone's.

cottage pie, same, use veggie mince in hers or everyone's.

roast dinner, as long as you're using a non-animal fat, give her same as everyone else bar the meat and use a meat alternative, linda mccartney sausages or a veggie burger. If It's a special occasion Holland and Barrett do a vegan roast meat alternative.

pizza and salad-if she isn't vegan just make/get her a veggie pizza? If she IS vegan, buy a base and use vegan cheese and just don't use meat as a topping or if you're feeling fancy chuck some quorn pieces on it.

Ready meals, I am not sure but I figure if you cook up some veggie meals and freeze them then just chuck them in the oven/microwave then that's an alternative.

Yes, vegan ready meals and processed food are more healthy than your home made cottage pie actually. Processed meat (including mince) has been repeatedly and conclusively linked with cancer. Home made doesn't necessarily mean healthier, most people should be reducing their meat consumption, we're designed for a predominately plant based diet.

There's nothing much wrong with pasta either, our brains run on glucose, carbs are the best food for humans. If you're eating enough calories you'll get enough protein, there's protein in pasta and bread. Protein really isn't a problem, what people should be thinking about is are they getting enough fibre. The problem with pasta is people tend to cover it in oil and cheese, that's what's fattening not the past itself. Don't fear the carbs people!

Also to answer the original question, I'm vegan and I eat everything you eat plus more, just minus the animal products.

Bolognese, roast dinner, curry, lasagne, chilli, fry ups, jacket potatoes, soup, salads, cake, sandwiches etc. It's really quite easy.

OP, my mother was like you. When I turned veggie she first insisted on serving me meat at the dinner table, tricked me into eating food that made me very ill and refused to make any allowances for my diet in the weekly shop. As a result I have moderate to severe issues with food, I hoard food out of nerves, I will finish everything on my plate even when it makes me ill and I eat in a very ritualized fashion.

Being a vegetarian means that your daughter will, over time, learn to like vegetables she didn't like before and her diet will become more balanced. Making a huge deal out of it and refusing to compromise will give her the kind of disordered eating habits I grew up with, and trust me you really don't want that.

As someone who was veggie for 20 years, she must be a crap one if she couldn't tell there was meat in her bolognaise
I had elderly relatives doing this all the time - it wasn't a big deal, they just didn't understand pandering to children at meal times. I just left it and moved on.
Some great meal suggestions on this thread