Meat free meals

[desiretochange]

My 19 year old daughter recently watched a programme on meat and has declared that she no longer wants to eat meat (chicken is still ok with her thankfully).
Am not very imaginative in the kitchen and money is not exactly in great supply so can anyone suggest some dinners that I could prepare for her and advise if she should be taking some supplements or vitamins to replace the protein she is not getting now that she has sworn off meat.
All suggestions greatly appreciated.

She's old enough and wise enough to cook for herself and research what, if any, vitamins she should be taking

I wouldn't be indulging this myself at that age, especially if she is still willing to eat chicken..

Risottos are easy & tasty, you can make them with all sorts of vegetables. Not too expensive to make either. Veg lasagne, veg enchiladas and spinach & chikpea curry are all meals I have made for my vegetarian SIL & niece. Im not a veggie myself though, so these might be really boring ideas, sorry! I loved them all though.

At 19 she surely should be doing these things herself :)

Can I just say before I end up getting lynched for cooking for her, she travels 90 miles round trip 5 days a week to go to college so after travelling that distance am sure that the least I can do for her is having something ready for her to eat when she gets home at 8.30 at night after leaving for college at 7.00am.

I made no judgement, I just gave some ideas :)

There are loads of good vegetarian recipes on the BBC Good Food website here.
Or the Vegetarian Society has a recipe database.

Or can I recommend Sam Stern's Eat Vegetarian, currently £3.50 on Amazon - lots of basic, teen-friendly veggie recipes.

She shouldn't need to take any extra vitamins, just make sure that she replaces the meat she's not eating with cheese, eggs, beans, lentils, quorn, tofu, soya protein etc. It's much easier turning veggie these days than when I did at the age of 16.

Thanks Howto, you were the only one :)
Exex thanks for links and book recommendation, much appreciated!

There's a book in the BBC Good Food series - 101 Veggie Recipes - which I would recommend. I don't know whether the recipes are on the website, but the book is usually available under 5 quid.

You can substitute Quorn mince in recipes usually made with beef or lamb, for example shepherd's pie, spag bol or chilli con carne. Baked potatoes are also a great vegetarian comfort food - serve with cottage or grated cheese, baked beans or tuna mayonnaise if your daughter eats fish.

I would be delighted to be served any of the dishes Howto mentioned, especially as I am too lazy to cook them myself .

Nutritionally a vegetarian diet is very healthy and your daughter is unlikely to lack protein. Red meat is, however, a good source of iron and a limited vegetarian diet can lack this. Eggs, chickpeas, lentils, dried apricots and dark green vegetables are vegetarian sources. Breakfast cereals are usually fortified with iron and you can also get iron-enriched fruit juices.

Well if she's still eating cheese, eggs and CHICKEN (! ! !) she'll be getting plenty of protein, so you needn't worry about that!

Do you want family meals that can be adapted to be meatless, or meatless recipes for the whole family, or ideas for cooking for just the one?

we're massive meat eaters in our family but we make a vegetarian lasagne with peppers, courgettes and aubergines instead of bolognese sauce and I can honestly say we don't miss the meat in that.

Lots of interesting meals and ideas on this recent thread here.