vegatarian niece coming for tea...HELP................

[angelsmummy]

My niece is coming for tea and has asked me if she can have a vegatable crumble??? I don't want to offend my sister in law by taking her off a healthy eating plan, so if anyone can give me a low fat version if poss I'd be really grateful. Thanks

Or use wholemeal breadcrumbs in place of the pastry - just stick a couple of slices in a food processor for a few seconds and put a thickish layer on top of the veggies and cook until golden.

Thanks for these recipes but she has informed me she likes cheese sauce Is it possible to do a low fat cheese sauce?

Low fat cheese, I guess, is possibly the only way. Unless you can make some form of sauce with something like cottage cheese.

low fat cheese & skimmed milk, use marge instead of butter for the roux bit of the sauce. or use creme fraiche instead of milk. or half milk and half veg stock. can't do links or would do one to a good recipe site - i always google the recipe i want .

Trying to keep to low fat as she is 13 and just gone to live with my brother and sister in law, because she was a "vegatarian" her mum let her eat chips, pizza, cheese + onion pasties ,etc, every day. This has made her very overweight, struggling to fit in a size 16 and I would have liked to try my hand at a low fat cheese version as a little treat as she is having a pretty rough time at the moment.

haha the title made me think of the classic Royal family epi where the gf of lurkio was a veggie and the nanna asked if she could have wafer thin ham.
pmsl now thinking about it

Could you go for a white sauce in whatever you make, and sprinkle a small amount of cheese on top.

i've never dealt with veggies before and I was pretty surprised to see the amount of things you could buy, I bought those quorn fillets the 1st week she came for tea, I made the mistake of wapping them in my baby george lol, they looked like something you would repair your shoe soles with!

This week I had the sense to cook them in veggie gravy very slowly.

Tips for making it healthier/reducing calories: use sunflower or olive oil instead of the marge/butter, use skimmed milk and/or replace some of it with stock/water (no problems thickening, in my experience), use wholemeal (pastry) flour or half and half instead of white. Use a strong cheddar so you don't need very much, and add a little Marmite to enable you to reduce the quantity of cheese even further but for it to taste just as good. Agree about breadcrumbs for the topping, and if you're feeling adventurous you could throw in a few toasted sesame seeds.

You sound like a lovely auntie, by the way

Really loving having contact with my niece again, typical of so many families I'm afraid when her mum and my brother split up our family suffered and weren't allowed contact.

Its not under the best circumstances for my niece sadly, but we've recently had contact as her mum sent her to live with my brother 6 weeks ago.

My 4 year old is loving having a "new" older cousin, and I am loving getting to know her I have her round for tea every Wednesday and I'm actually enjoying cooking for someone who appreciates it! Unlike my 4 year old lol.

sobernow, sounds yummy! do you need to pre cook the lentils? have you got any other nice veggy 'slam in the oven ' dishes?

Vegatable fajitas are nice and healthy and quite fun and good for teanagers

thanks, sounds yummy!

A BIG thankyou for the great ideas I got from this thread, I made the low fat version and it was greatly appreciated, I scored full points from my niece!!

I gambled and made a couple for the freezer as my recipe was too much for one, and its good to know they won't go to waste

The wholemeal bread topping went down very well, thanks again to mumsnetters!