vegetarian stuff

[jwithin]

OK dd has decided she's a veggie. She's 12, nearly 13 and has also decided she's not using animal tested products. So that's all her make up out the window then and no, I'm not buying her new stuff she can buy her own. Oh, she can't because she needs her pocket money and she can't have that because she hasn't tidied her room! Anyway, I need nice veggie recipes for her, just her as me and Dh eat seperately usually too late but the kids do loads of stuff and Dh doesn't arrive home until around 6.30-7pm.... DS1 comes in about 6.30ish, life is getting difficult. Hopw do I feed Ds1 (18), ds2 (15) dd(VEGGIE) dS3(9) together without it getting cold, congealed etc...? The kids are starving at 3.30/4pm when they get in and usually have a bowl of cereals/fruit/whatever they can find whilst I'm cooking, usually for around 6ishpm.

Ideas please for veggie stuff/ or can you make dh be home for 6pm when he's supposed to and we can keep stuff warm form ds1?!!

if the kids are hungry at half 3/4 and have a snack then, why not put dinner back til 6.30? then you have more chance of being able to feed everyone at the same time?

When I was this age I decided I wanted to be vegetarian and my Mum said 'Fine, but I'm not cooking different meals for you.' (Not quite so rudely though!) Have you considered this?

I did go veggie eventually from age 16 - 29 and now I don't eat meat and fish.

It would help if you could say what you usually cook as you may be able to adapt them.
Eg when I make bolognese sauce for pasta, I make another sauce with lentils in

Oops, I mean I don't eat meat, only fish.

Eating less meat is healthier for the whole family - so could you maybe do a certain numder of veggy meals every week for everyone, and then insist she helps prepare her veggy option/adaptation?

If its a meat/fish and veg meal anyway, she can have a veggy substitute (ie sausages, burgers/pie).

If its something like stew/bolognese, she could help to adapt a serving for herself with pulses/veggy mince/quorn in place of the meat.

Well, let me think now.
Does she really wear make-up? Hmmm, seems quite young!!
Have you tried lentil soup?
Minestrone soup?
Leek and potato soup?
That's for when she comes in for school

Yes, tell us the kinds of things you'd normally cook and we'll help you to adapt them. In the first instance, if you cook a lot of meat and two vege" kind of stuff, you could just give veggie sausages etc alongside, just to ease you into it a bit more simply.

Our family = 2 veggies and 2 carnivores. A lot of the time the carnivores will cope with veggie meals but if they have meat cravings I do things like:

• baked potatoes and salad with chicken legs for the carnivores and houmus or falafel or something for the veggies
• noodles and stir fry with tofu for the veggies and salmon or chicken for the carnivores
• homemade pizzas with toppings of choice
• wraps with quorn and veggies or chicken (or beef) and veggies
• lentil casserole / beef stew served with dauphinoisse or other potatoes
• cous cous with chickpea stew (with lamb for carnivores)

Etc etc

Are all the meals you cook meat based? If so why not cut back on meat as a family and have 3 or 4 meals a week that are vege so you can all eat the same thing, and then you only have to do seperate meals on the other days, and your dd, at 12, can start learning to cook for herself too!

Vegetable-based pasta sauces are good, they can be made in advance and heated up when you need them, or made in bulk and frozen in individual portions so it's easy for DD to prepare something for herself.

Vegetable and pulse stews are also very tasty and easy to make in bulk and freeze in portions too. Chickpeas, lentils, kidney beans and other pulses can be added to any combination of veg (root veg especially) and cooked in a caserole in the oven with stock, garlic and other flavourings.

Ideas for veggy meals that everyone might eat are things like macaroni cheese, bolognese or chili with veggy mince rather than meat, homemade baked beans with rice and salad, vegetable lasagne.

Things that are easily adapted to serve one vegetarian are stirfry (have nuts/quorn/tofu in one portion), pizzas where everyone puts their own toppings on, sausage casserole type things (with veggy sausages), any meal where the meat is 'seperate' to the rest of the food so can be easily substituted.

Good book for this is A Vegetarian In The Family - Cooking For the Odd One Out

I used to have that book and stupidly gave it to the charity shop. I really miss it now, as dd1 could probably cook a lot of the stuff from there herself - may have to re-purchase!