Vegetarian parents, what do you serve your kids?!
Answers: I am trying to adopt a mostly vegetarian lifestyle but have a 7 year old and a 2 year old. What recipes do you find they like best?
Well, we are good cooks, so they love everything we make. They've never turned up their nose at anything. Except grapefruit, my eldest daughter doesn't like it -- personally, I think it's disgusting.
What specifically do we give them? Well, it would be easier to say what we don't give them. No candies, junk food, no preservatives, chemicals, colours, additives, etc..... basically no crap. All quality food -- mostly organic, whole foods, etc.
I have found that giving them something made with white flour will have the exact same reaction as I see other kids have to white sugar... later in the day, they'll just go nuts, crazy... Had the problem and found it to be the organic white flour crackers they were eating. So, no white flour either. Switched to whole grain crackers, no probs.
When I visit other peoples homes where they have trouble feeding their kids (not that you do), i.e. their kids are really picky, will only eat junk food etc.... well, it's because the food tastes gross -- the parents do not know how to cook. So, there should be no prob with feeding them healthy foods (#1 mistake, overcooking everything).
It's not about specific recipes. You should just be able to throw a meal together from whatever you have on hand. And if you keep quality ingredients on hand, whatever you make (depending on your skills) will be taste good. Our friends came for dinner and their son just will not eat anything, very picky. He ate more than he had ever eaten before at this dinner. They normally just give him junk food because he won't eat the food they cook -- they are bad cooks. Simple. At our home, he was shovelling the food in... all healthy stuff... vegetables, noodles, mushrooms, eggplant... stuff he normally would never touch.
Usually for flavour we use miso or soysauce, also nutritional yeast, seaweeds (they love to snack on nori), dried mushrooms, herbs, spices, .... cupboards full of all sorts of ingredients from many different countries. Get into the food of different cultures: Japanese, Korean, Taiwanese, Chinese, Middle Eastern, Russian, Indian... lots of vegetarian stuff at such stores.
Everything we make is lightly flavoured... different kinds of noodles and rice dishes are quick and easy. They love rice noodles, soba noodles... basically any noodles, rice too. Baked yams and sweet potatoes... love those too... well, I can't think of anything that they don't love to eat. They help themselves to seaweed, apples, other fruits, popcorn (air popper), dried fruits... They are surrounded with food and always eating. I whip up cookies in 10min and bake for 30... usually no or very little cane sugar, and just nuts or seeds -- they love them too.
There's a good book by Michio Kushi called Family Favorites. It can give you some good ideas.
Okay, that turned out to be looong...
Well, if you want them to be vegetarian, then serve them what you would eat. If you want them to eat meat, give them things like ham sandwiches and such, so you're not handling the meat as you were if you were cooking a roast for instance. Or, you could trick them into eating mock-meat. It really isn't that much different, and they probably won't even miss the meat.
Actually i use a lot of Amy's Organic stuff.. they just came out with a kids meal that ROCKS!
Try making a rissotto or veggie lasagna.
Also - just ignore the ignorant people on this board who think you need meat to live. Remember that millions of people are vegetarians from birth for religious reasons, and lots of cultures have been for centuries.
I'm not a parent, but I have 2 godchildren, 2 and 3, and I baby sit them and cook for them quite a bit. They eat meat with their mom and grandparents, so they're not too used to veggie food.
Usually I stick with homemade macaroni and cheese, with whole-wheat macaroni noodles. The younger one hates veg, so I chop up tiny bits of cauliflower into the sauce.
Sauce -
1 cup milk
1/2 cup broth
1 tsp pureed garlic
Black pepper
1 1/2 tbsp cornstarch
1 loose cup grated old cheddar
- Heat milk and spices together. Once just starting to bubble, mix the cornstarch with a couple tablespoons cold water and add it slowly to the milk. Stir until thickened. Remove from heat. Slowly stir in the grated cheddar until it's melted in. Mix with one cup boiled, small-chopped cauliflower and 2 cups boiled macaroni.
Tofu hot dogs - they taste the same as the real thing, but WAY better for you. Even my dad, a meat eater, will eat these.
English muffin pizzas - fake ham (if I have it), bits of various veggies, lots of cheese and sauce.
Breaded tofu - bread cut up firm tofu with shake and bake and serve with barbecue sauce. Baked fries, sweet potato, or rice/quinoa on the side.
Chili & Nachos - A bowl of veggie chili with some cheese baked on top, a bowl of baked tortilla chips, and they're set.
For some reason, the kiddies I look after really like my quinoa breakfast cereal, too. I guess because it's sweet? It has 14 grams protein per cup, so it's a great breakfast food.
1 cup quinoa
1 apple, diced
1/2 cup raisins, rinsed, or dried cranberries
2 tbsp maple syrup
- Rinse and boil the quinoa as it says on the side of the packet. In the last minute of boiling, add the apples and raisins so they cook. Drain it all thoroughly. Stir in maple syrup and let sit for a minute. Eat.
- I make variations of this with coconut milk/extract and canned pineapple, too... still tasty...
Try tofurky sandwiches, applesauce, tofutti ice cream, soy cheese pizza, organic cookies, sesame rice sticks, soy yogurt, mashed potatos, veggie lasagna, veggies soups, fruit salad, etc...
Look through this website too:
http://vegweb.com/
What kid doesn't love mac and cheese.
How about veggie dogs (my bet is they won't be able to tell the difference) Spaghetti, PB and J, Soups, Sandwiches, rice, if you have more adventurous eaters you can make awesome salads with mandarins, nuts, cheese. Or how about a tofu stir fry smothered in a tasty sauce!
There are really no limits to what you can make. Just take your favorite recipes and substitute a veggie friendly alternative. You can find fake meat in almost every grocery store. Sure there is a slight difference in taste, but it does the trick when you are just starting out.
Please ignore those who state it is unhealthy, as long as you are substituting enough proteins it doesn't matter if they come from a cow or a legume. You can have very healthy vegetarian children. I have two five year old boys who have never touched meat. They are strong, active healthy kids. They are right on target developementally and with regards to height and weight.
Tofu and soya sauce the way it is.
Pumpkin purée with vegetable boullion.
Guacamole without the peppers and no tomatoes.
Cheddar cheese fondue with Swiss cheese.
I am not a vegetarian parent but...
Here are some links to kids recipes/foods:
http://vegweb.com/index.php?board=148.0
http://www.recipezaar.com/recipes.php?q=...
http://vegetarian.about.com/od/kidfriend...
http://www.keepkidshealthy.com/WELCOME/t...
http://www.vegforlife.org/kids_snacks.ht...
http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/2005/12/es-...
More: http://veganpeace.blogspot.com/2007/08/v...
And some links to kids health:
http://www.pcrm.org/health/veginfo/veg_d...
http://www.pcrm.org/health/veginfo/veget...
Fruits, veggies, whole grains, pasta, rice, some meat substitutes, soup
anything but animals
I serve them regular meals WITH meat. They are not old enough to make that choice yet and parents have no right to enforce those vegetarian choices on their kids. As a matter of fact, you can get in trouble by the law for malnourishment to your kids.... So I would stick to a healthy diet for them that introduces them to healthy meats such as chicken (not fried), lean red meat, and fish. Hope this helps
Please do not think I am being mean or anything but first go to a mirror and open your mouth real wide and have a look around. You may just notice that you have two kinds of teeth. This is because you are supposed to eat meats, fruits, vegetables, grains, and dairy. I consider it child abuse to deprive a child of meat because you choose not to eat any. Please think about what god intended and cut back on meat as a full serving of meat is the size of a deck of cards and not a T-Bone. But - were we humans meant to be vegetarians, then we would have one kind of teeth like the animals that only eat plants. Likewise animals that only eat meat have only one kind of teeth. It is extremely hard to eat a well balanced diet as a vegetarian and it can be health damaging for children and that is why I think it is a form of abuse. I hope that this makes you think some more about what is and is not a proper diet.