Alan & Brenda Leonard

> She skipped a step and decided last week that she would no longer eat animals.
> Of course, we chuckled, but she is sticking to her guns. So I remembered a
> mom on this list whose son also chose to become vegetarian. Questions to her:
> where are you finding recipes? How are you explaining nutritional needs? And
> is the rest of your family omnivorous? If so, how are you handling meals?

Cathy,

My son is still cheerfully a vegetarian, and I'm proud of him for having the
guts to decide something and stick to it. His father and I do eat meat; my
husband likes meat more than I do, so the deal is that he eats meat at lunch
while he's at work. I cook mainly vegetarian entrees, although we do
occasionally add meat to our portions. For the most part, it hasn't been a
big deal.

I already had a fair number of vegetarian recipes; we've given up meat for
Lent before, which is 40 days. I also like the variety of meat and meatless
meals. Probably your daughter already likes some easy veggie meals:
spaghetti, cheese pizza, mac and cheese, bean and rice burritos, cheese
quesadillas, PB & J, etc. With some creativity, you can make your usual
casserole/stirfry/soup/salad type entrees meatless and add meat later if you
want it. If we're doing meat as the entree (bbq type meal), I bought veggie
burgers and chix nuggets for my son. Check the freezer section at your
grocery. All the brands taste different; my son only likes Morningstar
brand because it's the least spicy (no pepper for him!). If you go with
those kind of substitutes, hunt around and see what works for your daughter.
Be prepared to explain carefully, because they look a lot like the meat
burgers and real chicken nuggets and got a very suspicious attitude from my
son until he caught on! (He's 6).

As far as new recipes, I've been checking out cookbooks from the library,
plus reading mine with an eye toward veggie meals. Even our pitiful little
library here had 6 or 8 good vegetarian cookbooks. (641.5 on the nonfiction
shelves). Eating out has been the hardest, since there aren't vegetarian
kids meals, at least in the land of Schnitzel!

I think my son has learned a great deal about nutrition; protein, carbs,
etc. I know that there is a great deal of debate about the combining
proteins to make complete proteins idea, but we have found that if we don't
get Tim protein from several sources at each meal, he's hungry in an hour or
two. So he's learned about beans, tofu, whole grains, eggs, dairy proteins,
peanuts and nuts, etc., and how having food from different food parts of the
food pyramid makes him healthy, even without meat.

If you want more specific ideas, Cathy, feel free to email me off list. I
have some good recipes that might help you get going. We've been at this a
month or so, and my son is happy with his decision and satisfied with what
he's eating. In fact, I see his concern for animals spilling over into
other parts of his life. He's going to grow from this, whether it lasts a
month or a lifetime. (And Mom's losing weight, too! Woohoo!)

brenda