My mom: my 12 year old daughter wont eat meat but rest of the family does.?

Question

my daughter refuses to eat meat because its from animals, the rest of the family eats meat. how do i cook for her without having to cook 2 different meals? she doesnt like tofu though. she wont even eat jello anymore becuz it has gelatin. im hopeless i dont no what to do with her.( destinys mom)

Answer 1

Just be sure you have side dishes with your meals that she CAN eat.  She can always have a grilled soy-cheese sandwich with the other sides; or just heat up a vegan burger for her.  I certainly wouldn't make an entire separate meal for her, but it's easy enough for you to make salads, fruit & veggies for the rest of the family that she can eat too

Answer 2

veggie burgers are great, also, she'll love falafels, trush me, their like an alternative to a meatball made out of chickpeas and spices and stuff, and you can just buy them frozen and all you have to do is microwave them! i usually put them in a wrap.  you can also get a lot of frozen vegetarian things, a good brand is 'mornings star'  it has all sorts of things like veggie nuggets, veggie corn dogs, these little veggie rice cake things. its all delicious, and healthy!  and the best part is most of these things you only have to either microwave or pop in the oven for a few minutes :)  also try vegetarian lasagnes, and pasta and stuff

Answer 3

If she's 12, chances are that one of her school friends who probably has vegan parents talked her into that. Try to talk to her about why she is so opposed to it. Explain to her about the food chain and the circle of life. If she is still adamant about it, at least make sure she gets enough protein by providing her with peanut butter, etc, and make her take a multi-vitamin so she doesn't miss anything important in her diet.

Answer 4

I'm 13 and became a vegetarian about 9 months ago.At first my mum was made as I am the only vegetarian in the family but reluctantly she let me and I eat the same meals I used to-lasange burgers ect. but using soya instead.Which tastes much nicer than tofu.There's a brand called 'Quorn' (heard of it?) and they made a variety of dishes.For example cooking burgers and chips for the family.Just replace her meat with a Quorn or Veggie burger.

I don't eat jelly either but if you look there is some vegetarian jelly which uses pectin instead of gelatine so you could try that.

How about asking her to help cook or come shopping and chose some stuff she likes?

Answer 5

wow! thats great, make sure to encourage her and support her. try boca chikn nuggets. thier great!!! you just pop them in the oven for a couple of minutes and thier really tasty. all of the morning star, boca, and lightlife products are. Lightlife (which is not in the frozen section, its up by the veggies) offers fake turkey,ham, and bolgna slices that require no prep, and would also be great for her to take in her lunch.

Amys also makes a bunch of precooked meals, kinda like stouffers but all vegetarian.  

Answer 6

http://www.seeveggiesdifferently.com/pro...

These soy products are amazing! )Especially with some ketchup or sauce)!! They have anything you could possibly need to substitute meat in any meal! They are in the frozen foods section! Even non vegetarians like these products, but they are 100% vegetarian!

Answer 7

VISIT PETA.ORG AND YOU MAY NOT EAT MEAT ANYMORE

BLESS YOUR BABY WITH A HEART!!

Answer 8

If you have the inclination, it's really pretty easy to make the meat separately and serve it only to those who eat meat. It does take a bit more attention and effort, though, so I'd understand if you didn't. Grab a copy of The Flexitarian Table. It has a ton of menus and recipes for families that include vegetarians and non-vegetarians. Basically, everyone can eat pretty much the same meal, just with different protein sources/extras.

It might also be time to teach your daughter how to cook. You could use it as mother-daughter bonding time. If you cook up a big pot of beans at the beginning of the week, she can eat them all week, on salads, in soups, mashed in sandwiches, etc. Mmm. Tasty. You could also spring for some frozen dinners or just-add-water couscous cups. They're easy and taste good... it'll also help you on those "I'm too tired" days and when she comes home from school and is cranky and hungry.  

Answer 9

If she's going to choose a different eating habit than the rest of the family, she needs to learn what her body needs and how to get it.

She still requires dietary protein. Simply eating more of the foods she does eat may not provide enough.

Does she eat animal products which do not harm the animal? Cheese, milk, and eggs are all good protein sources. She could have a cube or slice of cheese, or a couple eggs, instead of meat. Twelve is old enough to cook her own eggs, too. She can also consider nuts and beans.

She owes it to herself to get a library book on healthy vegetarian eating.

Answer 10

There are a lot of things you can do.

First, here are a couple of Vegetarian Starter Kit/Guides to get you started on understanding nutrition and how easy it is to get as a plant eater (there are meal ideas there too):

http://www.pcrm.org/health/veginfo/vsk/

http://www.hsus.org/farm/resources/pubs/...

Then you can get in a schedule of sorts and make a batch of beans and rice or noodles every week to split up into serving sizes to eat and freeze for later.

Get a good brown Basmati rice as it's tasty, healthy and goes well with so much. Noodles of choice from elbows and shells to curly and corkscrews.

Beans are really easy and inexpensive. You can make Kidney, Pinto, Black, Anasazi, and other beans, chickpeas and black-eyed peas. Contrary to myths they don't even need soaking. Just inspect them for rocks, dirt clods, stems, etc then rinse well, put in a pot with a couple cups of water and a half teaspoon of salt for each cup of beans, bring to a boil, then simmer covered till tender (time depends on beans with black-eyed pea being done in as little as half an hour and chickpeas taking 90 minutes to 2.5 hours), add hot water if needed to keep beans just covered.

http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?show...

The beans not only don't need to be soaked but the broth can be used for other recipes (black bean broth is really yummy) including soup. The gas factor is not an issue and in fact, vegetarians/vegans (veg*ns) have less problems once they've adjusted and odor is much less.

http://www.culinate.com/articles/feature...

Divide the staples into serving sizes with beans in their own broth (you can drain later) and freeze leaving one or two servings out for the week. These will mix with other servings pulled out from the freezer for the week.

The beans (especially pinto/black) and rice can be used for burritos, breakfast, lunch and dinner even adding veggies such as onions, toms, peppers, lettuce, salsa, guacamole/avocado, even cooked potatoes as wanted. Or make bean dips, or nachos, or refried beans. Black beans are also good for bean cakes by adding some masa harina and chopped onions and frying up. Kidney beans can be put on salads, made into a beans and rice or Indian Rajma dish, or be part of a bean based salad (I love one where rice is cooked with coconut milk, beans -- black-eyed are good here too -- spinich, diced tomatoes and onions, a pinch of cayenne, good hot or cold, my daughter loves it too). Beans can also be added to soups, and noodles. So much more.

The noodles can have just some olive oil with garlic added or a quarter jar of tomato pasta sauce or a bit of basil and nut pesto. Can also add beans, and veggies such as diced toms and onions cooked up. To refresh noodles put them in a colander and pour boiling water over them. Or use for a pasta salad.

Rice can also be added to soups, or re-heated and "buttered" (Earth Balance is a great butter sub). I know there's more to do with rice but at the moment my mind isn't there.

Find some other great grains to try too such as quinoa (keen-wa) which is a high-protein seed that acts as a grain. It makes for a lovely side dish and also a yummy cold salad with a bit of olive or flax oil, chopped green onions, cukes, bell pepper, etc.

Chickpeas are a wonder bean. Good just to snack on they also make quick hummus and yummy falafel to eat as is or in a sandwich with toms, lettuce, cukes, onions and tahini. Can also be great to make patties instead of burgers and of course all kinds of soups and salads.

For breakfast make up a bunch of waffles and freeze the extra. Take one or two out, toast and slather with peanut butter and sliced fruits such as apricots or kiwi. Top with another waffle or fold over. Healthy, quick and portable.

http://waffleparty.com/

Always have clean, sliced up fruits & veggies ready to use such as onions, peppers, carrots, garlic, tomatoes, apples, peaches, grapes (whatever is local, fresh and seasonal) as well as olives, artichoke hearts, and pickles.

For meat alternatives I suggest those that use more whole food ingredients (rather than soy protein isolates) such as Tofurkey (actually very good), Field Roast, Amy's, Dr. Praeger's, Sunshine, etc. These are all pre-approved by my own daughter and her non-veg friends and not all of them use soy or even in all their versions.

Doing Taco Bar or Baked Potato Bar nights also allow the family to eat all the same but choose what they want on their food.

Some of these ideas you might just start doing for the entire family:

http://www.meatlessmonday.com/

http://www.pbjcampaign.org/

You can also teach your daughter how to do all these since she'll need to know sooner or later anyway and this will help her to be more responsible for herself and possibly help out at home to give you a break. Do an internet search to see if there are vegetarian cooking classes near you too from cooking schools, kitchen ware stores, community centers or colleges or others including the the Cancer Project. Well worth the money and often something you can do together to bond a bit. YouTube has some good cooking videos too.

http://www.cancerproject.org/resources/c...

http://www.youtube.com/user/everydaydish

http://www.youtube.com/user/VegTV

http://www.youtube.com/user/veginity

Answer 11

Since your daughter is 12, it's still your responsibility to see that she gets the nutrition she needs to grow optimally. And that means adequate amounts of high-quality protein (read meat and/or eggs) and iron and calcium and B vitamins.

Try making her chocolate milk with a raw egg beaten into it. Or maybe a tasty spaghetti Bolognese sauce where the finely ground meat is not obvious. Or beef soup, cooked long enough so the beef falls apart. (My mother made a great one with beef, onions, carrots, and beets.)  Or chicken soup.

Another possibility if she's stubborn. Weigh her weekly and measure her height monthly. If she is not growing (which she still should be at 12) it's a self-evident indication that her nutrition is not adequate.

Good luck!  

Answer 12

Many families do this.  You can prepare food together and separate it before the meat.  For example, cook pasta in one big pot and add sauce.  Split it in 2 and add chicken to one and beans and broccoli to the other.  Or if you are  making a lasagna, put the meat fillings on one half of the tray.

Answer 13

wait wait wait,

most of those answers are kinda stupid

- it isnt the age that matters,

if she's vegetarian, no matter what you do she's still not gonna eat meat or anything to do with animals, i know.

there's plenty of meals, ready meals.. side dishes everything

the world does not revolve around meat, people just think that because lots of things have meat there's no alternative but theyre wrong.

as for meals she could have

simple -

* macaroni & cheese

* pasta

* jacket potatoe's

* Quorn dishes

* spaghetti

* omlettes [if she eats eggs]

* pizza's

those are just afew of the things you could put on while your making your regular meals

Answer 14

Ugh, WHEN will people learn that vegans and vegetarians get ENOUGH protein???  The average American consumes four times the amount of protein they are supposed to.  If you're getting enough calories, you're getting enough protein.  Don't worry about your daughter's protein, but you should respect her decision because it's helping the world and the animals in it.  I would say to have a few substitutions available.  In place of meat, whip her up a veggieburger and substitute that.  Or a side of steamed vegetables or a starch, like rice or a potato.  Good luck.

Answer 15

I would recommend you and your daughter check out "The Vegetarian Family Cookbook" by Nava Atlas.  As an adult-sometimes-vegetarian this book has been very helpful in finding easy, realistic weeknight meals that appeal to most tastes.  She even supplies ways to make recipes more palatable to picky eaters. I've also found the Passionate Vegetarian to be a good resource, but I don't know how valuable it would be to your situation.  She explains a lot of foods that meat eaters aren't familiar with, and it is a good resource in that sense, but the recipes seem geared towards an entertaining purpose.  I suggest buying the cookbooks and letting your daughter pick out the recipes she finds interesting.  I'd help her with the cooking to start, and once a passion for cooking takes over you'll have an extra hand in the kitchen.

    Other than that consider these easy fixes in the interim: Use black beans instead of beef in enchilada filling, or make a black bean/beef enchilada, but add the meat to only a portion of the filling.  Morning Star and Boca have some really tasty soy products, like soy corndogs(really good, but no guilty conscience), the "chickn" patties and nuggets are really, really good, and have the exact same texture as the "real" stuff.  I think if you didn't tell people they wouldn't know the difference, so you could easily serve them to the whole family.  Be sure she is getting enough protein, which she can do easily through drinking milk and eating cheese and something high in protein like beans or lentils for dinner.  Remember that vegetarian meals are not something to be afraid of, they're usually healthier, and often inexpensive.

Answer 16

Well here are some websites that may help you. Also you should go to a book store with your daughter and both check out the vegan/vegetarian recipes that they have, if you want of course. Good luck!

Answer 17

Fruits, nuts, and veggies are your new friends. And consider making a meal or two each week without meat that everyone would enjoy.  

Answer 18

Prepare your meals as usual and add extra veggies to her plate, just don't give her any meat.

Don't let yourself be dictated to by a 12 year old.

Answer 19

SUPPORT YOUR DAUGHTER! you should consider changing too. i used to be a huge meat eater. it not good for you! its so unhealthy! GO VEGAN! seriously though. you should resarch it. its great. ive been veg for 2 years now=] i love it=]  

Answer 20

You're the grown up, she's the 12-year old. Who's in charge? Tell her to butch up and that you won't be making her any special meals. She can either eat what you give her or start cooking for herself.

Explain to your daughter that eating meat is necessary to good health and nutrition. Humans evolved as omnivorous hunters and thrived for over 2 million years as hunters until agriculture. Those stone tools were not made to julienne carrots.

Explain to her that a veg*n diet is both unnatural and all too often unhealthy and that animal products are essential for good health. If cruelty is her issue, try buying meat grown and butchered locally or make an arrangement with a hunter if you know any.

Also be on the lookout for an eating disorder. From what I've read, people with eating disorders claim they are veg*s to hide it.

Be thankful she doesn't like tofu. That stuff is practically poison.

Answer 21

Sounds like she's old enough to make her own food. I'd teach her how so that it doesn't make more work for you and everybody can be happy. Or if you make a meat entree, just make plenty of side dishes like salad and vegetables to go along with it, so she can get a filling meal without meat and the rest of the family can have their choice.