Children vegetarians

[millerjamiej]

Every year my children cycle though a vegetarian phase. They usually last for approximately 2 to 3 months, then go back to eating meat. During these phases I usually resort to spaghetti ( or something closely related). Can anyone recommend a book or website that has easy recipes? Preferable ones without tofu, I tried it before and that is the only thing my kids will not eat.

[Amy SF]

Hi, I'm moving your thread to the Raising Vegetarian Children forum. I suggest you take a look at that forum, especially this thread: http://www.veggieboards.com/boards/showthread.php?t=16935

for ideas.

[isowish]

here (http://www.cok.net/lit/recipes/) has a few. Some of them involve tofu, but some of them don't, and they are all very simple. All those recipes are vegan, but I imagine you can use cow milk in place of soymilk, etc, if your kids are lacto-ovo and you don't want to buy more specialist stuff in.
lunchbox ideas (http://veganlunchbox.blogspot.com) many of which could be used for eating at home too. This site doesn't update (often) anymore, but there are plenty of ideas from lunches past.
Plus of course there are meals that everyone eats that are veg friendly, such as macaroni & cheese, vegetable soups, salads (although I know many kids would refuse this, and they can leave you hungry unless you bulk them up with nuts and other proteins), etc.
Buying in veggie burgers & veggie sausages are an easy way to replace meat. Serve them in buns, or just with vegetables.

[codemonkey]

The Vegetarian Family Cookbook by Nava Atlas is very good. She gives a lot of tips on feeding vegetarian children. There's a section with tofu recipes (which I think are worth trying at least once.)

[evilvegan]

"Everybody's Vegan Cookbook" is a kitchen necessity for my family when they cook for me, it's really good.

[rincaro]

I also recommend reading the "What Did You Feed Your Kids Today?" thread. There are awesome ideas in there.

If you want to, you can feed them regular dinners with appropriate substitutes, the only thing is the subs can get pricey. Any well stocked grocery store or healthfood store will have veggie burgers, veggie chik'n patties, ground beef subs, etc.

[Bonoluvr]

I have Vegan Family Favorites and the Vegetarian Family Cookbook, my kids like mostly everything i have tried from those books.
my kids love mac and cheese, spaghetti with marinara sauce and parm cheese, rice with spinach and a little parm cheese, trader joes chickenless nuggets ( esp dipped in ketchup), pizza, most stir frys if i dont put any crazy veggies in.
also another good book is mollie katzens Salad People, my 6 yo loved making the recipes in there, they are very kid friendly for eating and cooking.