Toddler vegetarian meals please?

[rattling]

I am vegetarian, and despite not planning to raise my twin boys (14 months) as vegetarian I expected them to go along with the arrangement my DH has accepted - mostly veggie, but with a bit of meat when eating out, or at grandparents or when I am not eating with them. Instead since their first taste of meat (cottage pie), I am struggling to get them to eat a decent portion of vegetarian food. The only winner is butternut squash risotto, pasta is particularly uninteresting for them (even in a cheese sauce which I hoped would work). So any ideas to try?

To confuse things more one boy likes strong flavours and simple textures, the other prefers bland food but is happy to chew

I'm veggie, DH isn't. Veggie hits with DS (21 months) include

Omlette
Beans on Toast
Fallafel
Hummous, breadsticks, carrot sticks etc
Pasta and tom sauce (I throw in lots of veg then thicken it up by blending in a tin of butter beans for extra protein)
Cauli cheese - occassionally
Various rissotos - mushroom/veg/squash
Quorn shepherd's pie
Lentil bake - layers lentil, cheese, tom sauce, spuds
Roast veg skewers (heavily supervised!)
Boiled egg and soldiers
Peanut butter sandwhiches

me and my 2 ds eat mostly a veggie diet as cheaper then meat, we have-
veg chilli made with peppers, onion, garlic, mushrooms, kidney beans, tin toms and a few herbs and spices, maybe you could do a blander one for one of your twins.
veg curry, made with all kinds of veg like carrot, green beans, baby corn.
calzones/pizza, i normally put mushrooms, peppers, sweetcorn.
veg stir fry
bean burgers, made with pine nuts, kidney beans, breadcrumbs, egg and few other bits in a ciabatta or roll with wedges and salad.
leek and pot soup is a fav in our house.

Pasta is ultimately very seductive to most children and I will be surprised if yours don't fall for it's charms some time soon.

Pasta with a creamy mushroom sauce (lots of meaty proteins in that mushroom) with parmesan cheese. How about pesto? Spaghetti bolognese is adored by most kids I know. A quorn mince version can be made a bit more "meaty" with a dollop of butter, for that animal-fat gloss and grease.

Assuming the pasta is really a non-starter, how about quiche or other similar eggy pies? Omelette? Salad with mozzarella, avocado and tomato? Fresh corn on the cob will be with us soon and is a fun food, although not terribly nutritious. How about lasagne? Everyone likes lasagne...

Please don't make the error of trying to please them at every meal. The first two years are where a young human gains their taste, as in, a sweet tooth, a penchant for the savoury, etc. So it is very important that under the age of two, they don't get a taste of processed white bread, sweets or really salty food, otherwise they may have cravings for these unhealthy items for life.

This book is full of vegetarian recipes that are baby/toddler suitable. She is vegetarian herself so a lot of the recipes are adaptable either way.

I can't recommend this book enough
[http://www.amazon.co.uk/Vegetarian-Baby-Child-Petra-Jackson/dp/0747277842/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF 8&s=books&qid=1278159762&sr=1-2]

My ds (now 11) still loves the 'lentil pie' as we call it, which is the lentil dilly dally recipe in there (minus the corrianda & cumin as he prefer bland). I blended it less and less as he got older.

Loads of other great recipes too that you can adjust to your dc preference.

Have you tried making pizza with them, knead the dough, stretch it out, add pasta sauce (make your own if you preder), add cheese and then whatever else they want to put on.

Thanks for all the suggestions. I came back on quickly last week to see what you suggested before I went shopping but didn't have time to post.

The last week has been a little more successful - or at least a little more relaxed. I'd tried most of the things you came up with (with the exception of falafel which went down okay, and with a bit of tweaking to my recipe could be a hit), but some not for a while so I've given them another go. Eggy dishes were previously no-go (although egg sandwiches fine?) but I tried tortilla with the egg/potato ratio veering well towards the potato and it went down a storm.

I managed a tofu based version of a chicken korma and have chili bubbling away at the moment for tomorrow. A heavy hand with the cheese and a slightly easier to grasp shape meant we've had a breakthrough with pasta.

They still don't quite plough through it like the meaty dishes they get elsewhere, but the weight is going on, energy levels seem boundless. I think they are fine.

And I've ordered the finger foods book so we can be out and about during the summer without relying entirely on sandwiches.

Many thanks.

If you are interested i used to make some sweetcorn pattie/cake things when weaning mine, i think the recipe was on Aitchs blog

It was basically blended sweetcorn with flour/egg/seasoning which you then fried in little pancakes. My kids loved them cold at picnics.