vegetarian/vegan recipes for kids?

[♥ms.pacman♥]

DH & I started eating vegan a couple months ago. Cooking for us alone is a breeze - we get Purple Carrot delivery every other week which we use to make dinners, and we've found other recipes, so we are learning more and more how to cook stuff. We eat lots and lots of fresh veggies, and almost no processed/frozen food at all, and rarely eat out anymore. DH especially is really feeling the difference and feeling less tired, bloated, run down etc.

Problem is, our kiddos WILL.NOT. EAT 99% of vegan dishes we make. We used to always give them what we made....even with Hello Fresh and things that weren't nuggets or mac n cheese, they were somewhat kid-friendly or at least kid-workable (e.g. we would give kids meat and plain rice before adding in sauces, etc).

Now though, we are always at a loss for what to make for our kids. We make something and they refuse to even try one bite. Honestly, i don't think my kids are pickier than most..i'm pretty sure most of other American kids would turn their noses up at a lot of stuff.

Please help. Any vegetarian or vegan recipes that are great for picky kids, that would be good for whole family too? we still keep cheese in the house to give to the kids, and we sometimes make things with eggs. We still keep cold cuts and frozen meatballs and the like for the kids , but i feel bad giving them that most of the time bc it's processed food. DS will eat hummus with things like Veggie Straws but DD wont' touch hummus.

the challenge is getting them to eat non-meat based protein, especially DD. We have been giving them lots of smoothies with spinach, etc snuck in with fruit but they don't like smoothies with milk or protein in them (which is fine, at least they're drinking fruits/veggies). They dont like beans. Grilled cheese + avocado sandwich is favorite of DS's, but DD doesn't like avocado. DD will not eat nuts or seeds. DD for sure is the tough one here...she is a total meat-eater - she loves chicken, sausage, brisket, anythign with meat.. i have no issue with them eating meat, i just don't want to have to deal with making a whole separate dish , with meat, just for them.

if anyone has ideas, or links, would love to see. I see recipes on youtube for Kid-friendly veggie meals stuff and i have to LAUGH..my DD wouldn't touch most of those things with a TEN FOOT POLE. If it even LOOKS like a vegetable she will not eat it. Also, my kids only eat "discrete" items - a casserole or rice bowl would be a nightmare, even it wasn't veggie. A bunch of foods mixed together - my kids will.not.touch.it. A salad - you must be joking. So, nothing like that. Something that a kid wouldn't realize has veggies in it. DOes that exist? lol.

Congrats if you read this far.

[Philly Mom]

Honestly, I think if your kids want meat, I would give them meat. I would especially be wary of making young kids vegan. It is very easy to be vitamin deficient. My brother was a vegan for awhile. He is a vegetarian. For his kid, lots of egg, yogurt, avocado, pasta, lentils, cheese, tofu, but he will also offer meat to her.


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[SnuggleBuggles]

Honestly, I think if your kids want meat, I would give them meat. I would especially be wary of making young kids vegan. It is very easy to be vitamin deficient. My brother was a vegan for awhile. He is a vegetarian. For his kid, lots of egg, yogurt, avocado, pasta, lentils, cheese, tofu, but he will also offer meat to her.


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ITA. In absence of a medical condition, I wouldn’t force this diet on them. You have mentioned eliminating things from your diet based on personal thoughts on food’s impact on you but I think a diverse diet is good for kids. I don’t mean to be judgy, I really don’t. I just don’t see a strong upside to it at this age.


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[JBaxter]

Homemade Mac & cheese. Grass fed ground beef for hamburgers and meatballs. Organic chicken cut it into chunks dip it in egg and bread it. Pizza doesn't have to be highly processed either again make your own.

[marymoo86]

ITA. In absence of a medical condition, I wouldn’t force this diet on them. You have mentioned eliminating things from your diet based on personal thoughts on food’s impact on you but I think a diverse diet is good for kids. I don’t mean to be judgy, I really don’t. I just don’t see a strong upside to it at this age.


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Agreed. You can only get certain vitamins/minerals/nutrients from meat. The best actually is beef liver. Only 1/2 of the population can convert beta carotene into retinol and another concern would be B12 deficiency.

I know vegan diets are helpful for PCOS but also have read WAPF/keto does as well.

[BDKmom]

I get that you are trying to make things easier by only cooking one meal, but I just don't know if it's possible at the age of your DC. I would just cook some meat at the beginning of the week to have on hand for the kids. Chicken and sausage keep pretty well, just grill or cook in a pan with a little olive oil and reheat when needed. My kids are about the age of yours and there is no way I could get enough protein in them without meat. My DS likes nuts and cheese and yogurt, but not enough to have those he his sole source of protein. And I have a hard time getting enough protein in my DD even with meat. If the processed meatballs are all she will eat, I feed them to her, even though I know they aren't great for the long term. I just keep also exposing my kids to healthier stuff, hoping that one day they will start to like it.

Maybe some vegetarian family will have some good suggestions for you, but I think since your kids have started out eating meat, it will take a while to transition them to a diet without it while still getting enough protein. Hopefully you can at least get a couple of good suggestions to get to where you don't have to make something separate for every night.

ETA: Feeding everyone is one of the most stressful things for me as a mom. I want to make healthy things for me and DH, but the kids will flat out refuse that stuff. And they are both low on the growth curve as it is, so I feel pressure to make something they will eat. But I worry that I am setting them up to have issues down the road, where they think it's ok to only eat chicken nuggets and hamburgers and pizza. Ugh, it's so tough.

[georgiegirl]

DS2 is pretty much vegan by choice (except for ice cream and baked goods [emoji23]). He likes lentils and beans. And soup...so I make soups with beans, kale, tomatoes, and a few other veggies he will eat. I’m sure his diet is deficient in several things, but I can’t force him to eat meat and cheese.


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[DualvansMommy]

It sounds like out of your 2 kids, DD may be more challenging to feed. Does she like beans and grains like lentils and quinoa? If she doesn’t, then that just makes it really challenging. I wouldn’t stop offering her meat since she doesn’t like nuts. Without plant based foods and nuts, it is very hard to get other form of proteins in your DD. Would she like tofu?

I eat pretty much paleo/whole 30 those days and go without meat 2-3 nights easily for myself. So I totally get your desire to feed whole family from one same menu, i don’t even do it in my household due to the varied allergens and needs from my family.

Chicken, sausage and certain other cuts of meat keep very well in fridge for 2-3 days once cooked. That would be your best bet for rest of week cooking. You & DH prep and eat off your delivery menu while you just reheat the proteins for your kiddos.


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[California]

Are kids pickier? I feel like all our kids are more picky than we were. I remember that my mom made a meal and that's what we ate. There was no way to say no or we kids would get in trouble. I think the only meal I made a stand over was tuna melt, and even than I ended up having to eat. Same expectations at my friends' homes. Now my own youngest is really picky.

Here's what has worked for me:
Are your kids old enough to bring in on the front end of decision making- contributing to meal planning, shopping (at least making a shopping list), and cooking? With my own kids I've found it helpful to give them a cookbook, let them pick out something they think they can make/would like, have them list out the ingredients, and have them help make it. This makes them invested in the meal. It's time consuming so we just do this now and then to find new recipes that they will eat. It's made my older two much more adventurous eaters. And they know how to cook! I'm still working with my youngest. She would eat cheese and carbs at every meal if she could get away with it (but she can't, it makes her colds never ending.)

Another thing that has helped is going to farmer's markets. I give each kid cash to buy their own fruits and veggies. They have to the sellers (the sellers are always very nice). This has gotten them to taste fruits and veggies that taste extremely fresh, in season, and thus are harder to resist.

[trcy]

I feel your pain OP! I have been a vegetarian since high school. I am working on going vegan. I’m not 100% there yet, but getting closer.
Your DD sounds a lot like my DD. She is as picky as they come. For the most part, she only likes crap. Whenever I try to give her a vegan version of anything, she decides she doesn’t like it before she even tries it. Vegan hotdogs, nope. Vegan meatballs, yuck.
We had black bean tacos a few nights ago and she was furious there was no meat.
DS is a little better.
Have you tried tofu? It’s better if you freeze it, then press it before cooking. I use a cast iron skillet to press it. I like it baked with a dressing on it, I just use whatever oil based dressing we happen to have. I bake it for a lot longer then most recipes say to get a good texture. Maybe 20 minutes per side. DS likes that. But again, DD no. What about peanut butter? Also soups, DD likes Amy’s lentil soup. I am not crazy about the sodium content, but she doesn’t like any lentil soup I have made so far. She also likes the vegan chicken patties. I am trying to move away from the fake meats, too processed. But in a pinch, they work. I am going to try lentil tacos. Hopefully they are better received than the black bean ones. I really try not force it with DD. The more I push, the more push back I’ll get.
TBH, the more I learn, the more I realize that following a plant based diet makes the most sense. I really wouldn’t worry too much about protein. So many foods have protein. Protein deficiencies are not common.
Sorry this is so disjointed. I am writing stuff as I think of it. Good luck! I’ll be following to get ideas as well.


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[specialp]

Could rice bowls work? Your DD could make her own and leave the items separate while the rest of you mix together. Start off with stuff that looks familiar to her like white rice, black beans, corn. Basically a taco bowl. Have a little shredded chicken or ground beef and cheese for kids. It would be easy enough for her to leave off avocado while the rest of you add.
Then change up the rice (or "rice", quinoa, cauliflower), the beans, different vegetables, etc., but only one thing at a time.

Crockpot shredded chicken freezes very well and would be easy for you to add to dishes (assuming you can find some they will eat).

Look up loaded greek nachos from Epcot's Food and Wine Festival. I'm a full meat eater, but those were amazing and I've since made them at home.

ETA: link to pic (https://www.instagram.com/p/BYt9OJ8AmSd/), although you'd really have to simplify to start off with for picky kids.

[DualvansMommy]

Here's what has worked for me:
Are your kids old enough to bring in on the front end of decision making- contributing to meal planning, shopping (at least making a shopping list), and cooking? With my own kids I've found it helpful to give them a cookbook, let them pick out something they think they can make/would like, have them list out the ingredients, and have them help make it. This makes them invested in the meal.

Another thing that has helped is going to farmer's markets. I give each kid cash to buy their own fruits and veggies. They have to the sellers (the sellers are always very nice). This has gotten them to taste fruits and veggies that taste extremely fresh, in season, and thus are harder to resist.

DS1 loves being involved with my meal planning like you described. He loves math and really expanded on his math skills by way of reading out how much to take, measure and weigh from our recipes. I do it with him 2-3x a month over weekends, as like you said it is time consuming. He is my easiest kid to feed though. No allergens to food and just about eat anything.

I definitely want to involve DS2 with menu planning and cooking as he is my toughest person to feed out all of us! Between his numerous allergens and texture issues, his diet/food is very limited as it is.

But I love your farmers market idea though! I think DS2 would love that as he enjoys going grocery shopping with me. Likes meeting with people too! Will incorporate that this spring with both boys! [emoji106] we’re also very fortunate to live near so many different farmer markets. There’s an organic farmer market opening up their new place half a mile from me next month.



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[ArizonaGirl]

My DD in particular is so picky that we have done a year, yes, a year of feeding therapy. We have somewhat of the opposite problem in that she doesn't eat meat and very many carbs at all. She mostly eats fruit and veggies, which I get is fine, but you need protein. She likes the RX bars (kids version). She will also eat this lentil and brown rice dish, it is vegan... Except for the cheese on top.
https://www.platingsandpairings.com/instant-pot-cheesy-southwestern-lentils-brown-rice/
My kids put sour cream on top and they think it is great.
It is a good source of protein for my kid who doesn't eat any meat.

Now if I could just figure what to pack in her lunch...

[magnoliaparadise]

I don't have much advice, but am following with great interest. My kids have declared themselves vegetarians. They basically stopped eating meat at home except for turkey meatballs and chicken fingers, some strange exception to their new vegetarian philosophy argh! Interestingly, they apparently eat meat at school lunch!

One kid loves eggs (the other does not); one kid loves avocados (the other does not). Both love hummus, beans and cheese, but it's limited and I am always trying to figure out what on earth to do. And the problem is that they are hungry a lot so I have to make sure not to feed them too much pasta - my ped once said that her vegetarian kid patients are often chunkier than others and I can totally see how that would happen. So yes, it's hard to feel kids who are vegetarian. I agree with other posters that if you are open to letting them eat meat even though you are vegan, that would be best because it's so much easier to get protein into them.

My kids love salad - I don't know how that happened - they don't love many other veggies (besides string beans), so I feel very lucky with the salad. That's not a protein, obviously, but I try to get in some nutrients that way.

But... a work in progress and I really need to focus on this if they are sticking to their vegetarian beliefs. I would LOVE to hear other posters who are veggie or have veggie kids. Thank you for posting, OP.

A word of caution to those who do *not* want your kid to be vegetarian: My oldest happily ate meat of all kinds until her BFF in first grade ate vegetarian at the beginning of the school year. I joked to the mother at that time that I hoped her kid didn't convert mine because eating was hard as it was anyway and she said with a flourish, 'No! My kid would never ever influence another kid's decision. We have gone over that many times.' So I kept sending meats in of all kinds for lunch..... mistake!!! It was only in January of first grade that I realized my kid was not eating what I packed for lunch because her then BFF was repeatedly making very vivid animal comments "ooooh, gross, what you are eating had eyes and ears and you could pet him." I'm not kidding you - for awhile she wouldn't even eat jello or gummy bears because of this BFF's comments about animal products in them. I don't really care about her not eating those, but that's just to show you the effect on her eating in everything.

It really riles me now because it has put us into a whirl of difficulty eating that we did not have before and it's been a couple years now. If your kid has a friend who is a vegetarian, make sure that that kid isn't going to try to covert or put down your kid eating meat. And if you think they might and you pack your kid's lunch, just suck it up and go vegetarian during lunch for the year that they are sitting together - I wish I had. Had I packed my kid's lunch bag veggie for the year, even though she wasn't, her BFF would never had commented and my kid would have continued eating meat at home. We moved and that past BFF is no longer in our lives for the most part, but I am still affected by the vegetarian conversion, argh!

I should add that I am not against being vegetarian. I go through phases where I don't each much meat, though I don't declare myself that or think about it. But my kids always ate meat and I was happy with that because it's so much easier to give them protein.

[trcy]

Back to add, I just found this article that may help with protein sources
http://www.health.com/health/gallery/0,,20718479,00.html#leafy-greens-1
Also, maybe try this protein powder in their smoothies. We only use a half scoop. We like vanilla https://sunwarrior.com/store/product/classic-protein-natural-500g


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[GirlsforShannon]

The book Plant-Powered Families by Dreena Burton has great whole-food vegan recipes. There is info on picky eaters, packing lunch for school, etc.

[basil]

My kids are similar in how they like things PLAIN and won’t tolerate like a casserole or something. Unfortunately, I don’t think there are a wide variety of vegan protein sources that taste good plain (though plenty of them taste good in curry or sauce of some type).

My go to protein sources for them are eggs and plain Greek yogurt (aka “cream”). They will almost always eat those in lieu of something else we are eating that they don’t like, with some fruit and baby carrots or rice.

But in your situation i would probably buy a rotisserie chicken and serve that for a week, or cook up some shredded chicken in a crock pot or pressure cooker and freeze and keep a couple things like that on hand that you know they will eat.

[ahisma]

Check out the cookbook Plant Powered Families. It's made for exactly this situation.

There's a facebook group too: https://www.facebook.com/groups/plantpoweredfamilies/