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Subject: 10 year old vegetarian

Earlier this year, my 10 year old started refusing to eat meat.  In a sense that is great, however the rest of the family are meat eaters. I am willing to make the adjustment for her however, I am having a difficult time finding & creating kid friendly vegetarian meals. She still will eat chicken nuggets and sometimes hamburgers or meatloaf.  Please give me some suggestions. 

Marian12

Marian12 : 1y 4w 6d ago

My kids love tofu.  I also like the Boca burgers and "chicken."  I also make bean and cheese burritos and meatless enchiladas.  I think certain ethnic cuisines seem to lend better than others for vegetarian.  Indian or Mexican seem to have some selections that everyone seems to like.  Try Wholefoods.org, they have good vegetarian recipes.  I would make my daughter find some recipes she thought would be good.     

scturner97

scturner97 : 1y 4w 5d ago

The first this I would do would be to sit down with the child and find out what prompted them to stop eating meat. Did they make a decision based on some reasonable information or was this because it was a "cool" thing. While there's no issue with and ethical or health based decision to become a vegetarian there are some concerns with maintaining a complete nutrititional profile. If you're not versed in the nutritional challenges of a vegetarian (or vegan) diet you'll need to do some research so you can present an appropriately balanced diet. Complete proteins are the primary issue as most plant based foods only supply portions of each protein type. By eating the correct combinations of foods vegetarians still get complete proteins but it's not as simple as one might think.
 
If your child will still eat eggs and dairy things are considerably easier as there are plenty of complete proteins and other nutrients available by that route.
 
Try a Google search for "learning to be vegetarian" or "vegetarian children nutrition:" and you should come up with some good information.
 
Of course there are plenty of delicious vegetarian recipes posted here on BigOven so you can try a few while you are learning.
 
My wife and I eat vegetarian meals a couple of times/week for health reasons and often find enjoyable recipes to try out here.

promfh

promfh : 1y 4w 2d ago

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