I want to try becoming a vegetarian again.?!
Answers: I tried becoming vegetarian about 6 yrs ago and I was a vegetarian for about 1 yr. It was kinda easy because I had a 6 month old baby. I want to do it for health and weight. Now I have a 3 year old and a 7 year old and I find it difficult to have a vegetarian diet because I don't want to make my kids vegetarians. I know that there is nothing wrong with having vegetarian kids but I would like for that to be their decision. Could somebody give me ideas on how to do this without taking meat away from the kids. I also have other people that live in the house that are meat eaters, and I'm kinda on a budget. Any ideas or suggestions would be helpful.
I think it is really interesting how you are asking for help with a budgetary problem and giving your truly mature reasons for raising your children responsibly and all these self-centered answers are focused on making the kids veggies or criticisms of you as to how you raise your children, or even about your own commitment to vegetarianism. This is the "problem" with fanatics.
To answer your question as best I can: If you are doing the cooking, make dishes that you can ADD meat to and take out your part before you add meat. Also, some veggie dishes are pretty acceptable to meat-eaters. One favorite is eggplant parmigiana. How about spaghetti sauce .... take some out and add meat to the rest? Would you be willing to compromise and eat fish and/or poultry? Tuna casserole, or other fish dishes would work.
You might want to Google "Flexitarian Diets" or "flexitarian".
I can understand the budgetary constraints, and I congratulate you on modeling good parenting for your children ... not putting YOUR diet ahead of their own well-being. Doing the best you can under the circumstances and with the decisions you made thus far put you far ahead in terms of good values and good sense then the tools who ignored your question thus far.
Don't you think it should also be your kids' decision on whether they want to eat meat or not? Who is to say that meat is 'default'? Personally, I would rather be deprived of something for 18 years and then make a choice to eat it, than eat something for 18 years and not be able to undo it.
If you can't be a vegetarian with meat in your home, then you can't truly be a vegetarian. I don't see a problem in feeding your family meat while you eat a salad. I always thought vegetarians had cheaper grocery bills!? If you have a problem someone preparing two different meals all the time, it might not be a good idea to go vegetarian. It's ultimately your chose to make.
I believe it is a very healthy and loving way to raise your children with the best diet possible and the truth about how meat is processed and the way food animals are handled is enough to convince any child in most cases. Would you take your kids to a slaughter house and feel comfortable ? How about an farm where or garden full of vegetables and fruit orchards. Children model themselves after their parents, if you smoke and drink and eat junk foods, well they'll do it ,too. It is much less expensive to be vegetarian and the storing of food is better, nutrition is easier. As a parent, it is your decision how they eat, not theirs because you ultimately are responsible for their welfare.
I don't really get what you are saying but i think that you should try raising your children on a vegetarain lifestyle it will be much healthier fot them too.
I hope you do well on your return to a healthy veggie diet. It's also the most healthy diet for children so don't hesitate to switch your children to it as well. If they decide they want to eat meat when they're older, then they can make that choice for themselves. But they'll have had a better, healthier foundation to start. My parents forced me to eat meat as a child and I had many health problems because of it that didn't go away until I switched my diet much later in life.
But if you still just want to do it for yourself, then set yourself up for success by making it as easy as possible. With two young children, you're probably very busy so you don't want to bother with the time and expense of preparing separate meals for yourself and the others in your family. The best thing to do is to come up with meals that you can make for everyone with things on the side that can be added. Find vegetarian recipes and have non-veggie items on the side. That way you're not having to come up with completely different things for each meal.
Here are just a few examples of main entres:
1. Pasta with a tomato marinara sauce. On the side you can have meatballs and parmesean cheese. For yourself and anyone else who wants to eat healthier, you can have soy meatballs and soy parmesean cheese.
2. Make a vegetable stew or cassarole with veggies and rice or potatoes. Have meat on the side for those who want to add it.
3. Soup and Salad - make a vegetarian soup and salad and have things like meat, cheese, etc on the side. This is great for a summer or lighter meal.
4. Burritos is a great meal that even kids enjoy. You can have flour and corn tortillas, a batch of beans, salsa, reg. and soy taco meat, reg. and soy shredded cheese, rice, diced tomatoes, etc. Everybody assembles their own burrito. (Try this: Don't tell anyone which is the soy or regular taco meat...many times, people can't tell the difference!)
5. Chinese stir-fry with veggies and rice. You can serve it with tofu for yourself and meat for others.
To any of the above you can serve with regular vegetable side dishes, salad, bread, etc.
6. Breakfast is pretty easy- oatmeal w/ fruit (reg or soy milk), hash brown potatoes (reg or soy sausage on the side).
Also here are a couple of my favorite websites to help you on your way:
For recipes--
www.fatfreekitchen.com/vegetarian-reci...
www.fatfreevegan.com
www.vegweb.com (click on the "Recipes" tab)
www.ivu.org/recipes/
For health info, recipes and the best discussion/message boards for support:
www.drmcdougall.com
One last suggestion for you is to make sure you have some source of substantial calories in your meals so you don't get hungry. Veggies are very calorie dilute so it's good idea to get enough calories by adding beans, rice, potatoes, or corn into your meals. That way your appetite is satisfied and you're more likely to stick to your healthier way of life.
Hope some of these ideas are helpful to you. Best of luck!