Partially veggie family?

[Pinkpeanut27]

So I have the normal struggles with feeding my family - one super fussy child , 2 teenagers lots of after school commitments and a husband who comes home late . I am just about hanging in there feeding everyone on budget at the right time and sometimes approaching a good nutritional base !

Now my dh and my dd have announced they are going veggie for lent but ' won't do it at home if it's too hard !' I did say I'd be happy to eat some of their lovely veggie meals but that fell on stony ears!
TBH I couldn't care less what my dh eats as he is full of good ideas until he has to eat out ( i.e. breakfast and lunch ) or cook and then he eats all the easy things he says we shouldn't !
My dd is another matter and I worry about what she eats anyway being a 13 yr old girl so if I don't make veggie food for her she just won't eat the meat - she doesn't eat cheese either .

The boys won't eat veggie .

So I'm sure I'm not the only one with a partially veggie family ?
What are your tips ?

How old are the boys? And why won't they eat veggie?

We're a partially veggie family. Since for you guys it's just for one month I'd try and have meals where it's pretty easy to do a veggie / meat option. I.E, Do sausage and mash and just buy some veggie sausages for DD and DH. Or if you're cooking chops with side dishes for everyone just buy DH and DD some bean burgers to have with everything else instead if the chops. This was you're not cooking two lots of meals all the time. Or try meals where you can add meat in after you've portioned a bit of for DH and DD (I.E, do a big portion of pasta and add chicken etc afterwards once you've portioned off a bit for DH and DD).

If your 13 year old doesn't eat cheese she'll need to make sure she's still getting enough protein. Will she eat milk and yogurts, eggs, nuts, houmus, beans etc? Does she have school dinners or take packed lunches?

Boys are 7 and 13 they won't eat veggie because they do t like it !
7 yr old is super fussy and won't eat most things definately not beans lentils humous or any veg but peas . It's an issue I've no idea how it happened but am trying to work through it but it's deep seated .
Big boy tried veggie last year and made it to lunch time !! He will eat cheese and quorn though .

I can see my dd staying veggie tbh . She eats pretty much everything but cheese !
I'm currently doing meal plan for a month and trying to substitute quorn or bean stuff for the meat .
I think I I might do a big batch cook of veggie stews and curries , I just need to organises myself - and empty the freezer !

When you say the boys won't eat veggie what do you mean? Will they not eat any meal that doesn't contain meat? If so you have no choice but to either prepare two different meals or ones with similar bases but meat added to one and not the other as kit Kat said above. Other suggestions for this would be pasta bakes with bacon in one and mushrooms in the other, a meat chilli and a bean chilli, chicken curry and lentil Dahl but with the same sides, pizzas with different toppings, meat and veggie tarts or quiches, fritatas one with veg on with chorizo, fajhitas, stir frys, one chicken one tofu or cashew.
When you say dd doesn't eat cheese is that in any form I.e will she eat pizza or a pasta bake with cheese and breadcrumb topping? How about ricotta or halumi?

Sorry crossed posts re boys!

Tricky but given little one is quite restricted on what he will have and older one will eat quorn you may get away with a few family veggie meals e.g quorn cottage pie or quorn sausage casserole then just do something quick for little one rather than catering for the veggies separately. Do you usually cook the same for everyone or do different things for different people?
Is dd interested in cooking? Could she do some research and help you cook?

Currently I cook 1 meal for the kids deconstructed for the youngest as he won't have any sauces or things mixed together , then modify the meal for the kids and do it again for us later so sometimes I cook 4 different meals and usually 2-3 .
That's not sustainable I'm aware of that .
Dd wont eat any cheese except cream cheese , she will eat pizza but takes the cheese off sonits no good as a protein source .
I suggested input from dh and dd
He said it's too hard I'll just do it at work then
She said just give me a vege burger .
Big boy can't do repeated meals so curry on a Friday even if I changed the curry would send him into starvation mode and if I cook something once a month after the third time he doesn't want it . Again it's got to stop .
Also no kids will eat anything that looks like it's been cooked in a slow cooker.

Little one won't pasta bake pasta with sauce , chilli , curry , eggs unless scrambled and only at breakfast stir fry andvas for Quiche nobody will eat quiches !!

I'm
Fighting back but it's really small baby steps !!

"Big boy can't do repeated meals" - ever? What if you batch cook and freeze portions? Is it that he won't have the same meal two days running, or that he won't have it if he knows it's reheated?

use soya or quorn products in place of the meat but dont mention to to non veggies. chances are they will eat it.

I would cook one family veggie meal each evening for lent period. I would not live my life round a fussy 7 year old. I'd make him a family meal and if he didn't want it, let him put his own beans and fish fingers in the oven. No way would I be making a second alternative meal

How did they all get so fussy?

Let the 7 year old and big boy cook for themselves

Big boy can't do repeated meals so curry on a Friday even if I changed the curry would send him into starvation mode and if I cook something once a month after the third time he doesn't want it

Sorry to de-rail but just to clarify are you saying your eldest won't even eat something if he's already had the same meal as infrequently as say, 3 weeks ago? That's madness. I'm no master cook so tend to have about a fortnightly rotation of things I cook (with obvious minor changes like a different pasta sauce or accompanying side dishes), and I think that's fairly normal. Is he constantly expecting you to create original meals? Goodness you must have the patience of a saint!

I think in your situation batch cooking and freezing may well be your best bet. These carrot, cumin and kidney bean burgers (Jack Monroe) are yummy, freeze well and the beans in them are a really good source of protein.

It sounds like your situation is already very dfficult so if anyone wanted to throw another variation into the mix, I'd tell them to cook for themselves.

If your DD plans to become vegetarian she really needs to research where she's going to get her iron from as low iron can be a big issue for teenage vegetarian girls. She should avoid using quorn too often as although it's high in protein, it's low in iron compared with soya products.

I think I got here by accidental parenting !
little one started well then got really sick and stopped eating any variety . He literally gags and spits things in the toilet has nightmares etc about food. I'm working on him and making progress buts it's slow .

Older boy will repeat food but isn't keen once he has had it a few times probably my fault as once o find something they all like I tend to cook it every couple of weeks . I can't stand the picking and scowling I get - o know too sensitive .

I had forgotten Jack Monroe Will did put her book .

I think walk all over me and as I'm a sahm I let them .
I could probably open a cafe o feel I run one some days !
I did the one veggie meal last year and it didn't work because it didn't fit well with the limited foods ds2 ate .
I wish ds2 would eat fish fingers or nuggets or beans for that matter !!

Does anyone have any good freezeable portionable veggie meals before I start googling !!

This JO Sweet potato and chickpea curry is lovely and easy to freeze.

I also batch cook this BNS and veg hot pot