Vegetarian Cooking for Kids

Hello, my husband and me are vegetarians. We have two children 5 years and 15 years, been a vegatarian since my 5 years old was born. The way we cook at home you would think the entire family was vegetarian. The kids can not tell the difference. Morning Star really has some nice no meat products that you can prepare as you would with meat. I make no meat beef stroganoff, various pasta dishes; last week I found no meat shrimp and added that to a nice garden salad; kids had no clue. Found these products at my local grocery market, even Walmart too.

We eat mostly all vegetarian food at my house. It is truly easy with little kids because you're helping them develop their taste buds and the earlier you start, the more they'll love foods other than just meat. Vegetarianism doesn't mean eating nothing but veggies. In fact, one of my daughters hates most veggies but still gets a wide variety of healthy foods (and some junk too!).

Beans are a fantastic finger food. Kidney beans, chickpeas, etc.... little fingers can pick them up and eat them. It's easy to throw cooked lentils in spaghetti sauce to make a pasta dinner a complete meal (and you can skip the meatballs). Quesadillas spread with both cheddar cheese and refried beans are easy for little kids, and delicious for adults too. Omlettes are a wonderful dinner for everyone, you can put more exciting ingredients into the adult ones and more basic into the kid ones if needed. Lentils and rice is one of my kids favorite meals... fun to eat with a spoon and really tasty too when you cook the lentils with a little onions, garlic and chopped carrots.

The best thing you can do is start thinking differently about the meals you cook. Instead of first basing a meal around the meat that you're serving, start thinking about the meal as a whole and substitute the word 'meat' for 'protein' in your mind. That means you can build lunch or dinner around peanut butter, lentils, eggs, refried beans, etc. My kids have meat maybe twice a week and on the other days, they get tons of protein from whole wheat bread and pasta, beans, nuts, and grains. It is truly easy to offer vegetarian options to little kids.

I'm a vegetarian with vegetarian kids and I just feed the modified versions of what I eat.

You can omit and add to any entree based on particular taste and it takes mere seconds.

I posted this on a post last week, but there are a bunch of ways to eat vegetarian. The simplest is to take whatever you normally make and extract the meat. For example, I make the Old El Paso taco kit, but since our family is vegetarian, instead of meat, I stir-fry rice, peppers, onions, corn, and tomato, then add the sauce and all the usual toppings.

Another way to go vegetarian is to buy meat substitutes, such as Morning Star, Boca, or Quorn. My husband and I did this a lot when we were first married, and I will still make Morning Star sausages with my eggs, or BLTs with fake bacon.

Then there is the from-scratch meals. These can be the most daunting for those who aren't used to vegetarian cooking (even I find it daunting sometimes, honestly). Some easy ways to start might be vegetarian lasagna, stir-fries, or vegetarian soups. If those go over well, you can move on to some trickier recipes, like those found in The Vegetarian Times. Good luck!

Frozen veggie corn dogs.

13 month old loves them! They're in the frozen section, and heat in 30 seconds.

try that alternative to meat for vegetarians its at the tip of my tung and i can't think of the word i want to say fondue but know thats not it its made of soy and something else but if you cook that with veggies that will help fill them plus you have to keep in mind kids eat all the time and constantly hungry. So just veggies won't fill them they need a little more.

We are vegetarian and our kids are too. I'll suggest some meals that are not just a plate full of vegetables that our kids really like.

Haystalks (Taco salad): This is a layered taco salad that each person makes for themselves. Layer: Fritos, refried beans, Cheese, lettuce, tomato, black olives, onions, avocado, salsa, ranch dressing/sour cream. These are the toppings I like, but you can add/delete whatever. If your kids miss the taco meat, Morningstar Farms (freezer section) has soy burger crumbles that you can season with a taco seasoning mix. They are very tasty.

Lasagna. You can layer with veggies or just cheese, serve with garlic bread, salad and steamed broccoli or other green vegetable.

Curry. Buy a mild curry paste so you don't scare the kids off. You can make a lentil or chickpea curry, or one with vegetables and potatoes (with coconut milk), that you serve over brown rice or quinoa. Make some samosas to go along.

Vegetable lo mein or stir fry - serve with some cabbage and carrot filled egg rolls. You can also marinate and fry some tofu for the side.

Also, as I mentioned before, Morningstar Farms makes some great soy based "meat" substitutes. Chicken nuggets, burgers, hot dogs, sausages, etc... These would be easy to heat and serve with your meal if you feel the kids are kind of missing out on something they're used to. They are not the healthiest foods, but better then the meat ones. :)

I keep a vegetarian blog with recipes if you're interested. Everything on there I feed my whole family. martasrecipes.blogspot.com