Lacto-Ovo Vegetarian kid that won't eat veggies....?

Question

My 11 yo daughter use to be a big meat eater, but in February we became vegetarians. She was all for not eating animals anymore, but I'm having such a hard time coming up with good healthy nutritious meals for her to eat!

I don't want to feed her pasta 5 days a week and end up with an overweight kid. She only likes broccoli, green beans and brussel sprouts (sometimes). She's not big on salads. Loves eggs and cheese.

I've tried the "fake" crumbled hamburger for tacos and crumbled tofu in spaghetti sauce. Threw it away both times. Blah! She does like the "fake" chicken strips made like a B.B.Q. chicken sandwich, but even the "fake" stuff isn't good all the time.

I've threatened to start feeding her meat again if she doesn't eat veggies because she doesn't eat much at all now. Any suggestions?

And for the smart @sses out there, I do NOT want to start feeding her meat again. Just because you're happy with it, doesn't mean everyone else is.

Oh, I've tried some veggie recipe websites & they just don't seem to have what I'm looking for.

Answer 1

look at these two cookbooks on Amazon or wherever and see if these might be a solution to you problem./ the Sneaky Chef and Deceptively Delicious. it's about adding vegi purees to foods and they aren't even notice. plus too is that fat and sugar content of alot of recipes will be decreased

Answer 2

what's wrong with her eating the few veggies she actually likes?

I see nothing wrong with the soy nuggets/strips... with enough barbecue sauce or honey, they're delicious. Cut up a potato or two and bake some oven fries to go with them, and make a can of green beans or steam some broccoli or brussels sprouts. There are also vegetable nuggets... broccoli nuggets and spinach and cheese nuggets. Try a variation there.

Try something that is a little exotic every once in awhile. Trader Joe's makes an excellent biryani (Indian rice dish, made with raisins and apples, among other vegetables). See if she'll eat vegetarian sushi. Try making the tacos with black beans, rather than the crumbles, so she will have her protein source. Make a vegetarian chili with kidney beans and chickpeas- throw a little cheese on top of it, if you want. And stuffed peppers are GREAT with red beans and rice as the protein source... the combo of the tomato soup mix, and the spices from the red beans and rice, is wonderful. And companies like Amy's make great pizzas, as well as a variation of frozen dinners, such as enchiladas or vegetable lasagna. And there's a great company called Michael Angelo's, who makes a to-die-for eggplant parmesan.

If she likes peanut butter, she can make a PB&J for dinner, if she doesn't like what you're making. When I was a kid, I was a very picky eater and I was told by my mom I could have cereal if I didn't like what she was serving.

Take your daughter grocery shopping sometime and see what she chooses, that she likes to eat.

Whatever she's eating, even if it's different from what you're having, is not important, as long as she is eating. What matters is that you're sitting down together to eat.

Answer 3

How does your daughter feel about fruit? I ask because even though I know that its hard to beat dark leafy greens in the nutrition department, fruit can be a great way to get her through this phase. Some examples are sweet and sour tempeh with pineapple or grilled watermelon for desert. Another suggestion is hiding veggies in baked goods and casseroles. I have heard of many parents of fussy eaters do the same thing and their kids (apparently) could not tell that there was a single veggie in there. One example here is zucchini bread.

It may also be a good idea to give her a good quality children's multi-vitamin. One last thing, my rule of thumb is to try and stay away from as many of the process foods as possible. Lentils and other legumes and nuts are a great source of protein without being processed or too expensive.

Perhaps trips to the farmer's market might be a good idea. Your daughter might become curious about the smells and colors of all the produce that is there. Maybe she'll even pick something out that she would like to try at home? It might be worth a shot.

Anyhow, these are just ideas off the top of my head. I really hope that something works out for you and your daughter and I wish you both the best of luck.

Answer 4

There are some really great answers here (and one or two I don't entirely think are on the mark), but just as an added idea, maybe go through a cookbook or something with your child, and see if you can both agree on something and prepare it together. It always seemed to me as a child that if I was (at least partially) involved in cooking/preparing something, it would taste better, because, hey, I made it. Even if it's something I wouldn't really be interested in eating if it was just presented to me. I know this is a bit time consuming to do for every meal, but perhaps it might help?

Answer 5

Hmm, you might want to check out the Vegan Lunchbox blog and cookbook and go through it with your daughter to see if anything looks appealing. Sometimes it's a matter of how the food is prepared and presented. Also, "How it All Vegan" by Sarah Kramer and Tanya Barnard has a section geared towards kids' food.

Will she eat an omelet or tofu scramble with vegetables mixed in? Or a vegetable soup or stew? Will she eat carrots and celery? She could dip carrots into hummus or salsa and celery with peanut butter and raisins (ants on a log).

Answer 6

Well the fact that she likes broccoli is good, because from what I know most kids don't and it's a nutritional powerhouse...I used to go so far as to hide it under my chair when my parents tried to make me eat it as a kid.

One thing that might work is not serving "mixed" dishes: when my brothers and I were younger all but one of us hated any dish with more than one or two obvious ingredients. All foods had to be separate, so pasta sauce was on the side, no mixing peas and carrots together, and so on, and absolutely no casseroles. Obviously we all outgrew it but it's something worth trying.

Answer 7

Depending on what she will eat, have you tried disguising her veg, it is possible. I used to babysit a six year old who wouldn't eat veg and still managed to get three portions of veg into his dinner without him realising.

Slime pie is fun for kids, as you can give them something different and it has a slightly themed character to it.

To make slime pie, make the pastry as you would for a normal savoury pie and cover the bottom of the pie dish. Then fry a chopped onion in a little oil and pour it into the pie dish. Then take a portion of boiled sweet potatoe, corgette and Carrots and put them through a blender until they are of a thick stodgy consistancy. pour this over the onion, and sprinkle the top with a thick layer of grated cheese. Cover all of this with the pastry and bake it for as long as it takes to cook the pastry.

When you cut into the pie, you get a mixture of veg and cheese and the taste is incredible.

Also you could try making spagetti and meatballs but use Quorn Meatballs, and with the sauce, while your making it, grate up some Corgettes, red and green bell peppers, mushrooms and cook them in the suace as you cook it. They are in such small pieces that they never notice and go really well in a bolognese sauce oddly. In England, Dolmio do a veg chunk sauce which is designed for getting kids to eat more veg.

I'm not a vegetarian, but I find that a diet based solely on meat is bad for me and do often enjoy a vegetarian meal three or four times a week. I also eat more quorn meat than real meat because it is 95% less fat than normal meat or chicken and tastes really nice when mixed with a sauce.

Other suggestions I could make for you, is if you have space, start to grow your own veg as children who put a lot of effort into growing their own fruit and veg are more willing to eat it at the end of the season after they have nurtured it from seed to plant to veg themselves.

Also the problem with store bought veg is no matter how fresh it really is, its never as fresh as what it would be on the plant. All vegetables store a massive amount of natural sugars in their cells. When they are picked and cut off from the mother plant, they start to convert all this sugar into carbohydrates which are based on starch. Within four hours of being picked, 80% of the sugar is gone. This makes them taste very bland and it puts people off buying them or eating them as readily as fresh picked.

Try boiling things like peas and beans in sugared water instead of salted, and for things like cabbages and cauliflower add a tasty sauce like cheese grated over it. Taste has a big impact on children and can affect what they will eat.

Answer 8

In the absolute worst case scenario, rejoice in the fact that this too will pass. When they grow up, kids often end up liking or even loving the vegetables they formerly hated.

Answer 9

Well, my guess is that she wanted to make you happy at the beginning but she knows what she wants and it's not fair to keep imposing something on her that she doesn't want to do.
You are a vegetarian and it's your choice to be so, but kids should be able to make their own choices too.
Perhaps ask her what she really wants or compromise on the issue, perhaps she may be happy without meat, but would like eggs, cheese, fish, etc.
Your daughter is not happy, and what's more important, that she lives her life by your wishes, or her happiness?

Answer 10

It is determined by the fruit or veggie associated with a comparison. If perhaps you compare a farrenheit to a carrot, the carrot is the better of the two nutritional. But since you compare an avocado to the carrot, then your avocado is better. The two the apple and avocado, are fruits.