Vegetarian Meals

emilysmommy2010

My DD doesn't like to eat meat often. I want to make sure that she is getting the protein she needs. She loves tofu bites but other than that I am at a loss for what I can give her. Can anyone recommend some easy vegetarian meals? TIA.

cherylnicole

There are sooo many! Your best bet really is to just go to google and enter vegetarian recipes.  I'm not sure if you're looking for tofu veg recipes or just  vegetarian recipes...eggplant parm is a great one (DS loves it), spaghetti marinara, spinach ravioli, roasted squash/tomatoes/yukon potato (LOVE this combo, just slice them into medallions, put in a casserole dish, drizzle with EVOO and bake-YUM),  eggs are another great source of protein (if she likes eggs!)

Like I said though, just google it and you'll find a zillion recipes HTH

JFH2010

If DD likes legumes, they're a great source protein and other good stuff (lentils, black beans, chick peas, black-eyed peas, etc). Quinoa is also good. A few good websites for veg recipes:

Www.vegetariantimes.com

Www.vegweb.com

https://vegetarian.about.com/

daenikoffre

Sorry if this is huge, but you can even combine grains to make whole proteins. 

Mamasaurus

For me, the big issue is finding time to prepare veg foods since most of the recipes I have take an hour plus to make. I'm finding that having a few meals planned around my time budget when I go to the store is making it a lot easier. I mean, how many moms have three hours to work on making a lentil loaf?!?

If your LO doesn't have a nut allergy, there are tons of quick, high-protein options. PB&J on whole wheat bread, nutella and banana sandwich on whole wheat bread, ants on a log, and sliced fruit with cashew butter dipping sauce are all easy meals/snacks most kids really like. You can also cook a lot of veggies with nuts. For example, green beans are great with blanched almonds, and I've seen a few recipes for brussels sprouts slow-roasted with nut crumble. Using brown rice instead of white will also give you a little more protein. Plus, if your LO likes bean dips and bean salads, those are great cold--you don't even have to heat up something like hummus or black bean salsa. Minestrone soup is a good pick, too, and you can make one big pot and have easy reheat meals all week.

If you work full time,  getting a crock pot or similar slow cooker might help, too, since you can have dinner cooking while you're at work. I see them all the time at Goodwill, and there are whole cookbooks devoted to vegetarian crock pot recipes, many featuring beans and rice pretty heavily.

nonoemily

Everything PPs have said is really great advice! I think the easiest way is to combine whole grains with beans or corn, although quinoa is a complete protein all by its self. Also, many nutritionist used to say you needed to combine these ingredients in one meal, but I've read somewhere recently that is no longer believed to be the case. So if you have beans or legumes at lunch and whole grains at dinner you'll still be getting a complete round up of amino acids, and you're good to go.

Also, as someone else mentioned, nuts and seeds are a good way to round things out. Almost everything I eat now, from cereal in the morning to salads and vegetable dishes for dinner has some nuts and seeds mixed in on top. Also, nutritional yeast is delicious. I keep it in a jar on the table and my guy and I put it on everything. It's awesome on popcorn!

sully07

Nutritionists no longer say that you need to combine proteins in one meal. That was really big in the 70s and 80s, but vegetarian diets have moved away from that; everything I've read in the last 10 years or so as said that as long as you track your combinations over the course of the day you will be fine.. A lot of vegetarian food does take a while to prepare, but it freezes really well. My freezer is full of homemade lentil and blackbean burgers, bean and veggies soups and stews at all times. I would just pay attention to the quantity of the protein as much as possible too. So quinoa is a complete program, but I doubt your child is eating a ton at a time. I'd still count it as a grain and add legumes tofu, or seitan (a wheat protein) to that. 

 The latest Vegetarian Times cookbook has sections on fast meals and kid-friendly meals. That would be a great place to start. Plus there is an introductory section on nutrition that could be quite helpful. Be careful with all of the meat substitutes, though. They are very high in salt and I know a lot of people with vegetarian kids like to limit them to only a few times a week.