Starting Over

[xrjmom]

Hi

I am a SAH Canadian M living in Spain with my husband and three boys ages 2 1/2, 5 and 6 1/2. It's been some time now that I've been considering adopting a vegetarian lifestyle mostly because the kids don't seem to be doing too well with the current eating habits. I personally love vegetarian cooking but I am at a complete loss as to how to start my kids on it.

They are excrutiatingly fussy eaters - won't even touch legumes or green vegetables.

Have many of you out there been like me - trying to start over with a vegetarian lifestyle? If so, do you have any advice on how to get the kids to accept the change?

I see there is a great listing of recipes here, are there any that seem to have universal kid approval? I especially am interested in good breakfast and snack ideas.

Do any of your kids have wheat intolerance? How do you deal with that?

Lots of questions, eh?

Thanks very much for any advice you can give.

Ann

[Erin Pavlina]

Congratulations on wanting to adopt a vegetarian lifestyle.

I would get a few cookbooks to help out. Two of my favorites are:

Lean and Luscious and Meatless by Bobbie Hinman and Millie Snyder (great stew recipes any kid would love)

and

The American Vegetarian Cookbook from the Fit For Life Kitchen by Marilyn Diamond. (The book that helped me go vegan in the first place)

Of course there are other great veggie cookbooks, but those are two great ones.

As for the fussy eating... how are you serving the green veggies and legumes? The trick when trying to get kids to try something new, in my humble opinion, is to start out by making them extremely palatable and working towards healthier versions later.

For example, broccoli with a nice vegan ranch dipping sauce. Or zucchini sticks breaded and baked and dipped in ranch dressing.

For legumes, try stews or hummus.

You'll also get some tips for transitioning your children in my book Raising Vegan Children in a Non-Vegan World. I have a whole chapter on transitions.

Good luck to you!