Very demoralised veggie mum - tether end close

[AnnieSG]

Just wondered if any of the veggies out there (AND fish eaters) can help.
Have just had yet another meal where I've chopped and grated and thought really hard about making something that won't be rejected on the first mouthful...only to end up with whingeing.
It was really yummy too - DH adored it: rice and chickpeas and tuna all garlicky and with soy sauce, fried up with onions and a few carrots and peas. We eat quorn too, which I'm sick to the bloody back teeth of, and I work so hard at trying to make food that my two boys (six and two) won't reject. They love some really healthy things (couple of pasta dishes) but I'm starting to feel the options are so very limited when they're reluctant vegetable eaters. They'll eat lentils and chickpeas, tuna, carrots, eggs, cheese, peas and sweetcorn, which sounds like a fair amount, but when you end up with the same basic veggie format in pasta, topped with potato, with noodles etc etc etc etc...blah blah.
They'll eat things like olives, but never ever courgettes, mushrooms, aubergines. Recently I baked sweet potatoes and they just went: 'Uggh, yuk, that's horrible.'
Sorry for the big rant, but I'm so demoralised about cooking at the moment. I really understand why some people just give up and feed them crap but I'm trying so hard not to give in.
Can anyone help? I've got Annabel Karmel, Rose Elliott and Delia's veggie book.
Please help, someone!!!

PS If it wasn't for my DH's huge objection, I'd almost consider becoming a meat eater if it helped. But I'm buggered if I'm having two different meals going on.

i don't think it's just veggie mums tbh... there are plenty of people on here whose non-veggie kids refuse what they're made as well!

i think it's a case of offering it. if they refuse then they get nothing else... especially if they don't even try it!

Well why not try them on meat or chicken ??

I think children being fussy eaters is just one of the many trials of parenting! I really can't see it being resolved by offering them meat.

Ladysherlock,
I haven't eaten it for 20 years and neither has DH. The eldest has ham, but I don't cook with meat. Have absolutely no idea how to and would probably poison them. Also, it's hard to explain to meat-eaters, but it would be a really really big deal to make that radical change. My DH is really against it too and OK, I could say, 'too bad, buster' and do it anyway (I don;t want to either - am just a bit desperate) and he would accept it, but it would make an already hectic mealtime even more so to have two different meals.
Starlover, it helps to hear that. I suppose it just seems like there are more options to present the little bs with!!!

Beansprout - thanks for that bit of perspective on it! Are you by any chance veggie? Do you have any brilliant fail-safe dishes??

Well possibly, but equally they make like the taste, and lets face it young veggie children have not made an informed decision they have just inherited some one elsed beliefs.

I agree with beansprout. Cant see how meat would make a difference.

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agree with starlover 100%; being veggie has little to do withit. We're not veggie but we only have meat/fish at about 1/3 of our meals, and then not a lot of it. It's very important to me that the "junk" element of my kid's diet is a very small %.

My kids get a pudding (often healthiest version I can muster) if they eat most of their tea, or virtually all of theveggies plus some other tea. This motivates them to eat healthily. They also can't have just bread & butter & cereal all day; sometimesall what's on offer for lunch/snacks is only fruit, fruit juice, raw carrots, etc. Otherwise, they might get one smallsort of junk thing in the day (2 biscuits, one chocolate, etc.)

Seems to me like you're too stressed from over-planning; actually most people on MN seem committed to cooking complicated dishes. Will your kids eat boiled or mashed potatoes? Cheap & simple to prepare. Add steamed veggies & that's 90% of our meals... Why do people think that they have to cook something that could pass for a supermarket readymeal?

I shall tootle off and leave you to it, was just making a relatively valid point re having someone elses beliefs.......

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We had fish in bread crumbs tonight with homemade oven chips, peas and sweetcorn. Dead easy and simple and loved by 9 year old and 2 year old.

THey sound like they have a really healthy diet. Meat isnt the be all and end all.

Why impose eating meat on children who are too small to understand the moral/health drawbacks of eating animals? There's no reason why veggis should feel obliged to offer meat to their kids.

Am Speaking as a non-vegetarian, too.

Being veggie is based on a bit more than a "belief" though. I don't "believe" in fairies but I know that animals die, that there is nothing in meat that is any good that can't be found elsewhere and that the volume of meat in the western diet does a lot of harm. Every bit of food we give them is based on some sort of choice and this is just another one. I think the decision to bring a child up with a certain set of religious beliefs is far more profound.

Annie, my dh and all 5 of my kids are veggie. I cook loads of different stuff including:

shepherds pie using quorn mince
spaghetti bolognese using quorn mince
mild curry using quorn pieces and/or veg
jacket potatoes with beans and cheese (or if you like and eat tuna, use that)

Look in the freezer section of the supermarket - you will find veggie fast food such as:

vegetable fingers (mine love these)
quorn chicken style dippers
quorn or Linda McCartney sausgaes with mash and beans
quorn roast (a bit like a bernard matthews roll to roast) with all the trimmings

Blimey there are loads - all my kids devour whatever is put in front of them. wrt veggie fast food stuff above, I don't feel guilty about cooking these a couple fo times a week as they are better than your usual junk food.

If I think of more, I will let you know

Sounds like my kids when they were little. Could guarantee that the longer something took to prepare, the more likely they'd reject it! I think you've done well to get the variety they will eat.

I didn't suggest for one minute that meat was the be all and end all, but if they had a broader range then it may not be as stressful.

But I have the feeling that I am seriously outnumbered by veggies so I shall retire.

I had the argument about imposing beliefs on young children who are too young to understand and be able to make an informed decision.

As a meat eater, I would want to give my kids meat and fish. dh has been a strict veggie since he was 8 years old and realised animals died for him to eat them. He regrets ever having to have eaten meat because his parents had the belief that meat was good for you. He wants ours to have the informed choice when they are old enough but he will not "contaminate" them with animal products before that time.

I've just bought a book called Finger Food by Jenny Maizels (from Amazon). It's aimed at toddlers so I'm not sure if it would suit you, but she's veggie and has loads of yummy recipies for things like burgers (with tofu), lentil croquettes, polenta, burrito wraps, savoury pancakes , mini pizzas etc. She uses a lot of quorn.

It's all finger food, and I've just bought it for my 7.5 month dd because we're doing baby-led weaning and I think it looks great, particularly for veggies (I didn't think Annabel Karmal was that good for veggies if you're trying to maintain a balanced diet).

As I say, it may be too young for your kids, but I could alwaya CAt you a couple of recipies if you're interested?

have you seen 'baby & Child vegetarian recipes' by carol timperley. Some really good very simple stuff. I really like most of the stuff for us - cook it for fussy dd (2) she also turns nose up at everything apart from cheese sandwiches and beans at the moment. Hope that one day she might enjoy one thing but at least the dog has a nice shiney coat!

The chocolate tiffin is fantastic - shame I'm on a diet

The book looks like Annabel Kammel - same sorts of food too

Annie my kids eat fish but not meat. They are also fussy about some veg but getting better if I persevere - they will both eat mushrooms now which have been rejected for the last two years...they are 5 and 3.

They will eat almost any veg if it's disguised so we do lots of soups, some with beans/ pasta/ lentils in. Have you tried them on eg butter beans and cannellini beans? If your kids will eat lentils what about a lentil moussaka - if you chop up the aubs v small they may not notice? Delia's shepherds pie also goes down well. They love quorn mince for eg spag bol. I don't tend to buy too much else made from processed quorn .

TBH I think your kids are eating a good balanced diet - lots of parents would love their kids to eat pulses and beans - just keep trying them with things and the range will braoden I am sure.

I'm not a veggie.