Looking for Good Recipes

Hey, I am a mom of 2 girls, 5 and 2 and we are vegetarian. (We do eat eggs/dairy.) I have a lot of recipes for kid friendly vegetarian foods but I have to say that my good old standbys are mac n cheese, red beans and rice, quesadillas, and pasta. My kids will always eat any of those things and it is easy to make a balanced meal.

I am vegetarian, for the past 11 years, since I was healed of skin cancer malignant melanoma. I thought I'd try to do the best I could to stay healthy and cooperate since God had been so gracious to heal me completely! It was a miracle.

What I do is make things just without meat. Sometimes I add some ground bean flour for protein, but I don't really worry about protein. We make our own bread which contains protein.
(From the wheat)
The Bread Beckers teach how to make bread that is healthy from fresh ground flour, as well as about healthy eating for children. Their free classes in Woodstock are just a treasure trove of knowledge. Sue BEcker was just healed of cancer herself and is going more in the vegetarian direction now.

The La Leche League cookbook has a lot of good recipes. Basically, drop out the cheese and meat and make lasagna without it, possibly add in spinach or sliced mushrooms, pureed vegetables if kids are picky eaters. We don't cook or eat meat at home unless my hb. brings some ham home for his pizza.

My children eat what I eat until they are old enough to drive away and pay for it themselves!
S.
grateful to be able to raise my children and home school them: Parker, 11; Dale 18 and Jesse 23 (both graduated homeschool)

I'm not very familiar with all that is veggan but I do have a recipe for muffins with fruit that my kids love!!

ABC muffins-contain apples, bananas and chocolate chips. It does contain egg though so I don't know if you eat that or if you can sub it for something else.

Here is a Vegan version I found.
http://www.chooseveg.com/display_recipe.asp?recipe=22

Here is my version.
http://www.recipezaar.com/Abc-Muffins-177727

Good luck!

S.

Two of our favorites are shepherd's pie and tacos. Both my one year old and four year old love them.

For shepherd's pie I sautee sliced fresh mushrooms, diced red bell pepper and zucchini. I'll stir in a can of cream of mushroom soup, a package of meatless crumbles and enough frozen veggies to make the mix thick and cassaroley (sorry, I never measure this one). I also add in some sage, rosemary and garlic. Once everything is hot spoon into a casserole dish and top with either sliced or mashed potatoes and shredded cheddar. Bake uncovered on 350 until the cheese is melted and bubbly. The variations on this recipe are endless depending on what veggies you have on hand and the seasonings you decide to use. I also replace the crumbles with black beans.

We also make tacos using taco seasoning and crumbles instead of ground beef. Serve with a can of black beans (I cook the beans diced red bell, diced onion, frozen corn, cumin, garlic and a bit of lime juice), shredded lettuce, sour cream, brown rice, diced tomatoes and shredded cheese.

There are several vegetarian cookbooks geared to families with kids. I've been told that the one by Nava Atlas is really good. Deceptively Delicious is mostly a meat-eater's cookbook, but if you have a friend with a copy check out the tofu nuggets and the mac & cheese. Both go over well with my little ones. Good luck and happy eating!!

I found a wonderful website called www.recipezaar.com. There are literally thousands of recipes on it and almost all of the ones I've tried have been delicious. Of course, they can't all be gems, but many of them are now family staples. What I like about it is that you can read reviews from people who have made the recipes and see what they did to "make it their own" (adding or changing ingredients, etc.) It's a wonderful resource that I refer to almost daily based on what I have in my fridge. As you find recipes you like, you can add them to an on line cookbook to refer to for future meals, too. Great resource!

K. in GA

My son and I love lentils, beans (I make all sorts of bean soups using various dry beans) and pea soup. If you add in lots of diced onion (which will disappear in the soup) and canned tomatoes, carrots, celery etc. it will be healthy and rich and my guys don't notice there's no meat.

My favorite place for recipes is recipezaar.com. You can search for what you are looking for. I have searched chicken, ground beef, and low calorie so I am sure you could search vegetarian!! I have tried many meals off of this site and have only once been disappointed!

Go to familyfun.go.com they have good recipes.

contact PETA or PETA2 on their website. They have all kinds of recipies and freebies. I think it's PETA2 that is the most kid friendly

Vegetarian is good, but you have to remember that at ages 4 and 1 their bodies are still growing and need protein (meat)- check with a doctor. Personally I think that they are too young to be on only a vegetarian diet because of their grown, and even when they get into school it's difficult diet to cope with because of the school system's menus. The children won't get enough vegetables. What has been good for you isn"t going to be good for them>