Daughter wants to become a vegetarian.

belfastgirl23

I think you probably can't stop her becoming veggie at age 11 and that it's probably going to be a huge battle if you try.

I also think you've got a very good negotiating position now with her. If she wants to do it that's fine but she needs to think about how her veggie eating would fit around the rest of the household. EG would she have meat substitutes if you're having roast with veg and potatos? Come up with an agreed number of times a week that she can have pasta as well.

Good luck! and don't forget omlette, beans on toast, macaroni cheese, baked potato etc can all easily be veggie meals.

Oh and do clarify the fish issue with her, I'm mainly veggie but do eat fish from time to time...that might make things easier.

RadoJo

I agree with those who say that you should at least consider her request, but ask her to demonstrate that she's willing to help out. Cost shouldn't be a problem - I made about 3lb of veggie bolognese last week for about £2.50 which made lasagne for 8 with enough left over several more meals. A good money saver is the dehydrated soya mince which costs much less than Quorn but is basically the same thing once you've rehydrated it.

I also think that a low carb diet could easily accommodate a veggie one - thick vegetable soup with or without bread, veggie chilli with or without rice, ratatouille with or without cous cous etc and you can even make super low carb veggie lasagne using aubergine instead of lasagne sheets. It would be a great chance to get her interested in cooking, and batch cooking could give you loads of simple options which would be easily microwaved in minutes to go with whatever else you were cooking.

If you think she's really committed to it (which it sounds like she is) then it would be a really nice way of giving her a little responsibility for being her own person so she can appreciate that decisions like this can mean a little sacrifice but also an opportunity to learn and try new experiences.

RadoJo

P.S You may not want to tell your daughter, but I survived my teenage years living pretty much solely on pasta with various sauces and cheese - it's not exactly an unhealthy choice, assuming it includes plenty of vegetables, and with the addition of cheese on top it will provide most of her nutritional needs.

Emmzi

my mother prevented me from becoming veggie at 13 and I have always resented her for it. (We get on, but grr @ her being closed minded)
Soon as I had my own cash I went veggie.

For replacements, lentils for mince, tofu for chicken. Wide array of pulses and beans. Lots of soups. I find it's cheaper than a meat based diet. I can comfortabkley feed myself on a tenner a week.

thatgirlsam

belfastgirl23 wrote: »

I think you probably can't stop her becoming veggie at age 11 and that it's probably going to be a huge battle if you try.

I also think you've got a very good negotiating position now with her. If she wants to do it that's fine but she needs to think about how her veggie eating would fit around the rest of the household. EG would she have meat substitutes if you're having roast with veg and potatos? Come up with an agreed number of times a week that she can have pasta as well.

Good luck! and don't forget omlette, beans on toast, macaroni cheese, baked potato etc can all easily be veggie meals.

Oh and do clarify the fish issue with her, I'm mainly veggie but do eat fish from time to time...that might make things easier.

you are a pescetarian.. like me

i never really liked meat and don't eat any now

we eat a lot of fish and rice, loads of veg and loads of fruit and salad etc

lots of veg curries and veg stews in the winter

we are having mushroom curry tonight, can't wait!

i wouldn't fight her on this if she is determined, a veggie diet can be extremely healthy

Karate

The takeaway issue shouldn't be a problem- always a 'veggie' option. (Unless its KFC). From the chinese almost everything is available as 'vegetable' instead of chicken, beef etc, veggie spring rolls, or just fried rice, chips and gravy. Pizzas from the indian, chips and fritters from the chippy, mcdonalds do a veggie deli, and often do cheese dippers, burger king have a veggie bean burger (although technically cooked in with other meats). Subway do a veggie patty.

Farmfoods is also great for vegetarian food, with a whole freezer of quorn meat substitutes eg bacon, chicken pieces, mince, beef pieces, 'popcorn' style chicken bites, linda mccartney sausages and burgers, and a whole variety of other vegetable fingers, crispbakes, sausages etc. Also a few veggie pizzas (cheese or mushroom) and macaroni
cheese, cauliflower cheese, macaroni pie ready meals, as well as occasional meat free lasagnes etc.

I would try and work with her here, as she has probably been thinking about this for some time and has now cemented her idea by telling you.
If you don't work with her she will just eat around any meat you plate up for her- and in this way certainly won't be getting nutritionally balanced meals.

Tell her you would like to see a commitment from her though, a 'transition' stage, where she has to show you she can choose sensible vegetarian options (eg, not mac n cheese every night) and then you will take her seriously and work with her on it. On takeaway nights let her see the menu and she can choose a meat free option, get her to meal plan, and give her a small 'budget' (say £3 every food shop) to choose some meat alternatives (eg quorn chicken pieces) to try (and she must cater these into her meal plan- eg if she wants to try quorn mince that week, how would this tie in with your plans to make mince and potatoes etc). During the transition stage of a few weeks she has real meat half of the time along with your normal meals, and her own option other times, or whatever works best, but emphasis that you won't cut meat out altogether straight away.

Once she has been able to experiment with a few of the foods she might decide its not for her, or she might still be up for it, and you will have a better idea yourself how her meat alternatives can work in with meals for the rest of the family, without a total culture shock from one day to the next.

frames1_uk

My daughter turned veggie earlier this year, age 17, I buy the quorn products, sausages, mince, fillet things, burgers etc... she doesn't eat cheese so a lot of stuff is out, she also gets sick of the quorn shepherds pie, that's about the only readymeal I can find. She is also very skinny and pale but has always been really. I do wish supermarkets would have more choice... just a very small section of the freezer bit.
Tesco do a lovely cheese and leek sausage in the chilled department though, yummy!

redruby

my dd became veggie about 2 years ago, she is 15 now, she had been asking for a while if she could become a veggie, I put her off for as long as poss for mainly the same reasons as you, health and cooking different meals.

When I agreed it was on the condition that she ate what ever I put in front of her ( the only thing she will still not eat is carrots, she hates them) for instance she did not like jacket spuds, but will now eat them, she is also eating a lot more veg.

I find that by keeping a variety of things on the freezer, veggie burgers/ sausages, quorn etc really helps, I cook our dinner every day, and she will have the spuds, veg etc, and choose herself something from the freezer, most things now you can get a veggie alternative to.

I have found its a bit more expensive mind you, and I thought it would be cheaper.

hth

aliasojo

Hi guys, I need more thoughts please?

Since I first posted this back in October, daughter has been eating a veggy diet. We've tried hard to support her since then (the lot of us often have veggy meals rather than always having a 'her' and 'us' situation) and on the whole, it's not been as bad finding things to feed her as I thought it was going to be.

However, the issue now is that I think she's becoming 'less healthy' because of what she eats (or rather doesn't!)

The agreement was that if she became vegetarian, she would try a wider range of things than she was previously willing to. After the initial burst of new meals which she kinda paid lip service to trying, she now reckons she doesn't like Quorn in any form (tried it in curries, stew type meals and also just as steaks), wont eat vegetarian sausages of any make, now wont eat salad (whereas she used to) and numerous other things.

We've tried to make plain things as well as more interesting things - mushroom wellington was a good one I thought but she pretty much only eats fish (at a push) pizza, macaroni cheese and pasta. Everything else that's given to her just gets picked at and left.

Best of it is, I believe her when she says she's not trying to be fussy, she genuinely thinks she'll eat 'whatever' then finds out she doesn't like it once it's given to her. She doesn't like upsetting us at the moment because she conscious of some family stuff we have going on and she's scared of rocking the boat even more, so I'm not classing this as her being a fussy madam, I honestly don't believe that's the case here. (This also isn't the cause of her not eating much, her not eating much started before our issues did btw.)

So, imo she's now looking peaky and generally not as healthy as she was. I can only assume this is down to her not so varied diet. I'm a bit stumped on where to go from here though, I can understand her veggy stance and still want to support her in this if I can, BUT as her Mum, I can see a wider picture than just her beliefs and I can't see how she can continue in this way if her eating is so narrow.

Any ideas?

pebbles88

I must admit I hate quorn, in any shape Or format.
It's like chewing an eraser to me :-(

Can she do a list if foods she does like ?
See if u can work out a few more options from that?

It will be worth getting her sorted with a good multi
Vitamin n mineral too as she will be missing out on a lot if she is
Only eating the same foods. Hth xxx