DD has come out and has struggled with her conscience

[marriedinwhite]

She told me very earnestly and quietly and said that as a member of this family it had been a very difficult decision and she was worried about her father's reaction especially. Her brother has already told her she is mad and unreasonable.

I have accepted the inevitable but how does one cope with a vegetarian who thinks it also right to eschew fish.

Tonight she has had rice with pesto, green beans and a fried egg. We had Chicken curry.

Will it be a phase that she will grow out of or do you think we must embrace her choice. What help for easy family meals where we can eat meat and she can have veg.

What about protein?

Hopefully it will just be a phase, loads of my friends went through it and it didn't last with many of them.

Do you have the HFW veg book? Loads of good recipes in there with beans and so forth for protein - and you can add a steak or sausages or fish to loads of them very easily and make a delicious meal.

How old is she?

I went through a very earnest and serious vegetarian phase in my teens. It lasted 3 years or so I think ...

It may a phase, she may be a life long vegetarian. She knows her own mind best.

Vegetarians can easily eat just as much protein, sometimes more, than meat eaters. End of the day it's just food, as long as her diet is balanced and she is healthy it has nothing to do with your DS or her Father.

Mine lasted 8 years. It was KFC wot done for me.

I announced one day I wished to be a vegetarian. My dad came home 5 minutes after with a pack of bacon. Needless to say I didn't last long!

It could well be a phase, has a friend recently switched too?

Support her and maybe add some Quorn products to the shopping list.

Vegetarians never eat fish. Just wait until she finds out about dairy and decides to turn vegan.

Oh you'll be fine.
Veggie sausages good substitute if you are having meat. omelette and chips. Chickpea curry very quick and easy if you are having meat curry. Pasta obviously. Baked beans, baked potato and cheese, pizza.

any stew/mince thing canbe cooked with the meat cooked and added separately later.

whole grain rice/pasta i think is recomended I think...

I became vegetarian at 9, I'm still vegetarian now at 31 with no lapses.

Support her in her new life path

I was a three year veggie in my teens too - who didn't like vegetables that much. Hmm.... I remember a lot of cheese!

The thing is to get her to embrace the cooking of her meals. This will teach her many valuable life lessons and about nutritional balance which is v important for veggies otherwise you end up eating a lot of cheese. I used to have to do dinner three times a week. To be honest by about year 2 I was gagging for some roast chicken but way to proud to do anything about it.

I then ate meat for about 2 years, then went veggie again for another four years and only stopped when it got to difficult when travelling in odd places. Now, we eat a fair amount of veggie anyway as good meat is expensive and the veggie years gave me a taste for pulses.

That, and cheese.

Veggie since I was 16, so half of my life now! Definitely not a phase for me. The thought of eating meat is enough to make me gag.

My Dd had a veggie phase aged 9. But after lots of quorn she soon changed her mind...

I went veggie at 13. Still veggie at 35. Eggs, cheese, pulses, Quorn = protein. I cooked alot for myself as a teenager (mainly crap), but vegetarian food was more difficult in those days , especially for a vegetable avoider. I eat lovely and healthy pizza now though

All vegetarians eschew fish.

How old is she? I was 8 when I became veggie, now 36 and still veggie. It might be a phase, it might not.

Encourage her to help with food planning and cooking. It will do the family no harm at all to have a couple of meat free meals in the week, then there are various things that can be adapted.

And on the protein, that's a bit of a red (tofu) herring. Most people in the West eat far more protein than is needed. There is protein in most foods, mushrooms are very rich in protein. As long as she eats a reasonably balanced diet, she'll be fine.

Is this a spoof?

She's told you she's decided not to eat meat or fish, not confessed to feeling a strange attraction to George Osborne.

Half the people in the world are vegetarian - it really shouldn't be a big deal!

Why do so many people leave their kid's ages out of their OP's?

No it's not a spoof albeit it is a bit tongue in cheek. If she wants to be veggie she can be and we will deal with it as best we can for a triple rib loving family.

She's 14.5 and up to last week loved nothing better than a bacon sarnie.

Am I the only one who thought she announced she was homosexual?

I'd be devastated if my child had a strange attraction to George osbourne or, possibly worse, Michael gove. The shame!

I was having 'just a phase' when I stopped eating meat at 15. 20 years on, and I still don't eat meat. (I do eat fish - why I don't say I'm a veggie!)
My dad used to try and hide meat in stuff as he thought I wasn't being properly nourished!

I was vegetarian from 13-25. However, at 32 I still haven't told my mother that I now eat meat because then I'd have to eat her cooking. Whenever we visit, DH eyes my plate of shop bough filled pasta with envy as he tries to politely choke down what my mum has produced. One of the main benefits of being vegetarian was that I got to cook for myself.

Easy-cook a large dish of veggie curry & brown some chicken breast fillets, divide the veggie curry into half or thirds & add chicken to one part, add an extra naan bread or rice .

I would look at quorn and soya products as a back up for convenience. A lot of the time it doesn't take too much thought to adapt. e.g. serve lentil dahl or mutter paneer with your chicken curry and your DD can eat that instead and the carnivores get to eat both.

I went through this phase when I was 15 and I still don't eat meat 28 years later although I did start eating fish about 5 years ago.