to be frustrated with veggie DS who won't eat veggie food?

[SileneOliveira]

DS (almost 11) has decide he is going to be veggie. Well, veggie for April at least, and then he'll see how it goes after that. We have been doing Meat Free Monday as a family for a couple of years and he wanted to push things a bit further.

However. He won't eat vegetarian food. He's quite fond of quorn "chicken" nuggets but eating those every dinner isn't an option. The other night we had cheesey spinach puff pasty tart thingies, the non-veggies wolfed then down, DS pushed it about his plate, nibbled the pastry and wouldn't eat the filling. Won't eat cheesy pasta. Very fussy about other sauces with his pasta. Basically, he thinks being a veggie means nuggets and meat-substitute burgers each night. Which obviously it doesn't.

So WIBU to tell him to knock the vegetarianism until he's prepared to try a wider range of foods?

I'd get a couple of veggie cookbooks from the library and look through them with him, see what he fancies trying and encourage him to write a shopping list and have a go at cooking together.

Yes or he is old enough to buy and cook his own food. I am vegetarian , have been for a long time , and it's very rare I eat meat substitutes.

Sympathies op, my 10 year old dd has been veggie for 18 months. She is the biggest salad dodger and avoids vegetables at all costs. I console myself with the fact she would be the same as a meat eater so at least she’s not eating processed meat atm.

So what does he eat on a typical day?

Would omelettes be an option? Or baked potatoes with beans and/or cheese?

Please keep trying. I am a fussy vegan, but there is still plenty I do like.

I did this when I was a teenager. I basically lived on cheese and tomato pizza and jacket potato's. What sort of things did he enjoy when he ate meat?

What about getting some vegetarian cook books from the library and get him to look through and page mark things he would be prepared to eat?

DH is 60 this year and has been veggie since he was 4years old. He survived his teens on a diet of tinned tomatoes on toast! I wouldn't worry too much, he will get sick of eating the same stuff soon enough.

Toad in the hole (veg sausages) with mashed swede/sweet potato and roast veg (or just peas for DS1 who hates all other veg) and veg gravy.

Fish(less) finger pie - veg fish fingers baked in a dish with beans and then mash on the top.

Veg moussaka

Build your own fajita night with all the bits and wraps with quorn strips cooked in spices/peppers instead of chicken

Stir fry? Curry?

What were his fav meals before the vegetarianism?

What did he eat before being veggie?

DBro lived on M&S mac and cheese for most of his teens (and monster munch sandwiches throughout most of primary, his teacher called DM in at one point to check if our finances were ok since his lunches were so shit ).

I wouldn't be too concerned about the nutritional content (does he eat a reasonable breakfast/snack on plenty of fruit, etc? If so he can probably survive a few years of quorn). I wouldn't be cooking multiple meals though, or be prepared to live off quorn myself for five years (I'm veggie myself, quorn has it's place, but not as a staple). So he either cooks for himself, picks something out of a recipe book that he does like, or he eats what you are all eating.

Out of interest what kind of meaty foods do you usually eat? Are the quorn burgers and sausages a direct substitution for the foods you are eating anyway? Because if you are having sausage and mash I'm not sure it's any hardship to cook an extra quorn sausage for him. Or to batch cook some quorn mince if the rest of you are having chilli con carne (honestly non-veggie DH eats quorn mince instead of normal in chilli, once you've added the tomato and spices you can barely tell the difference). I wouldn't make quorn burger and chips just for him if everyone else is eating pasta though.

I'd say kudos to him for trying it.
There's a whole freezer cabinet for vegetarian substitutes in most Asda/Sainsburys (at least where I live) if that's the only sort of thing he'll touch. They're pretty cheap too.
There are some burgers/sausages that are actually made from vegetables (carrots corn potato etc) which might be better than quorn or at least adds variety.
Maybe you could shop together to find a wider variety?

As PP said he will eventually get bored of the same thing and it's not like he'd be eating salads all the time with his meat diet.

Don't put him off! Vegetarian ism really is better for you own health and for the planet.

Yes, my dd is similar, she is just eating way more cheese.

I would go for more standard things, baked beans, macaroni cheese, pasta bake. If he likes curries, lentil dahl, otherwise lentil bake or bolognaise. Cashew nut stir fry. Houmous.

And I would say no legumes/nuts, then he needs meat

Yanbu, seems to be just a play to eat nuggets and chips. When dd decided she was going veggie, I said fine but every meal she had to eat a substitute - I only offered eggs or nuts. And no haribo anymore!

Is he fussy when eating meat too?

I feel your pain.

I have a vegetarian dd who won't eat fruit or veg who also has coealiac disease so is gluten free. She was lactose intolerant for six months as well but thankfully her gut has healed enough that she can have dairy.

I buy loads of vitamin tablets, etc and she never bothers with them either. She's 18yo so my hands are tied.

She lives on slices of quorn ham, mozzarella and almond milk. I can't find any high st clothes which fit her. She's smaller than a size 4.

Sorry, smaller than a size 6,

I’d put a restriction on the no of quorn meals per week. Maybe 2 then work with him to find other dishes he would like.

Yes he's fussy in general. Doesn't like any pizza except the stuff which comes from Dominos or Pizza Hut Just generally picky and likes to get his own way. And as the youngest of three, he's probably been allowed to get away with fussiness I wouldn't tolerate in the others as I just don't have the energy to fight any more.

He is quite adamant that he is only being veggie until the end of April then he's starting eating meat again. He is a stubborn little git and is doing it to prove that he can, rather than out of any deep seated desire to be veggie.

Just cook him ordinary ‘kids’ food minus the meat, burgers with quorn burger, hotdogs with quorn sausage, wraps with quorn chipotle strips, stir fry and noodles, quorn Swedish meatballs, pasta with quorn mince, pizza . Sainsbury’s have a great vegan and vegetarian ready meal selection let him pick a few, not all vegetarian food needs to be spinach slush.

I decided to be veggie when I was that age, but wouldn't eat the special stuff she bought me so after a few days she refused to make me anything different than what she was cooking anyway just without the meat! I lasted a couple of days then reverted!!!

My two DS's 10 and 13 have both gone pescetarian would that be an option for him, as can add fish fingers and tuna perhaps? can add to the range they will eat.

They eat stuff like quorn mince bolognese, spinach and ricotta filled pasta, macaroni cheese, pizza, lots of beans with toast / potatoes...at the mo.

The things you've said he won't eat seem to be cheese based - is that why he won't eat them?

Lots of people would disagree but personally I would continue to cook whatever dinners I was planning, making sure that there are some parts of the meal he can eat as a veggie, and tell him if wants an alternative he can make it himself. Provide some veggie ingredients to facilitate this (including a limited amount of substitute stuff), job done. Don't have conversations about what he will/won't eat and generally don't give the subject of his food much attention. He will either get bored or find a way to deal with it.