children who are vegatarians

[Strangehair]

have any parents got children who are vegetarians, what sort of food do you give them

Are you going to have veggie children strangehair? Or just veggie ones round to tea? A good friend is a vegetarian as are her 2, I generally seem to serve pasta (it seems to go down well) with eg tomato/veg sauce, have also done veg lasagne, but risotto/home made pizza/ veg casserole/any eggs/lentil shepherds pie (Delia recipe) would all be good and easy.

My whole family has been vegetarian for many centuries, as is ds. I have just discovered, after looking at some fancy cookery classes (quite excited booked 2 "gourmet vegetarian" workshops for the autumn) that what we eat at home is "wild fusion" ! but I think that it if you have not grown up in a vegetarian household then it is important to do some research about a balanced child's diet. If you just substitute cheese or beans for meat, that will not generally be a healthy diet for the child. There is advice on www.vegsoc.org. There is a nice book by Carol Timperley with recipes for vegetarian babies and children who are just being weaned up to about 3 years old. I have become a much better cook since ds was born, and I think that it is important to have a very varied diet, trying out different things, and seasonal produce, so that it does not actually matter that each and every meal is perfectly balanced, because you don't eat the same thing daily. I can't imagine cooking two sets of meals, so ds has always had whatever I am cooking for myself or my guests, or a blander version that I have removed earlier the same saucepan.

Dd eats anything we're having (I'm a veggie, dh isn't). Her big faves are:
spaghetti with either pesto, a tomato/veg sauce or a veggie mince bolog (veggie mince from around 18m because it's quite salty)
pasta bakes with broccoli and cheese
Omlettes with loads of cheese, mushrooms & spinach
roast dinners without the meat - she likes stuffing and yorkshires
ditto clary on the risotto and other suggestions

The list is endless... how old is/are the kids? Dd does eat fish as well but also gets her protein from dairy products and pulses.

Mine have all been veggie since birth. They like the supermarket frozen meat substitutes- Quorn sausages & burgers, veggie burgers, vegetable fingers, that sort of thing. They also like pasta, pizza, macaroni cheese, curries- same sort of thing that "normal" children like, but without the meat!