Quick easy plant-based and kid-friendly: give me your recipes
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Anonymous
| I have two toddlers who will not eat meat and I would like to move to a more plant heavy diet generally. But I don’t have much time to cook in the evening (plenty of time to make stuff a few times a week so big dishes that keep well in the fridge/freezer are good however) and have been falling back on more processed stuff or easy favorites like mac and cheese or chickpea curry. I would love to expand our regular recipe list. What do you like, especially things that are semi-deconstructable (both my kids will eat vegetables but they like different ones so I want to get in the habit of incorporating multiple veggies at meals and just have all of us eat more veggies in general)? |
Anonymous
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Tacos or burritos (black beans, vegetarian refried beans, seasoned sweet potato chunks, corn, lettuce). Make fish tacos if family will eat that.
Couscous with butternut squash, dried cranberries, and feta Pasta with asparagus, wilted baby spinach, and feta Cubed or diced roasted root vegetables, squash, and broccoli are super easy and can be eaten as a side or mixed into a pasta, rice, or other grain dish. Works well as a side to Impossible meat meatballs and pasta. You could sub spaghetti squash for the pasta. |
Anonymous
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Keep serving them meat - they are toddlers, their appetites and tastes are changing a lot. They are experimenting with new things, including trying out rejecting things. That doesn't mean they will never want to eat meat. For the majority of people, a diet with meat is healthier than the alternative.
Also give them egg dishes, scrambled and fried, hard-boiled, quiche, etc. They don't need a lot of protein but they need some. |
Anonymous
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My kids very happily eat anything that they can pick what items they want and make a plate themselves:
Tacos or burrito nights with roasted sweet potatoes, black beans, cheese, avocado, chopped cucumber and tomatoes Grain bowls with any type of whole grain (my kids love farro), any type of beans (try crispy chickpeas!), any vegetables you want -cooked and/or raw - and some type of dressing or dip Scrambled eggs with vegetables on the side |
Anonymous
| Baked ziti with spinach, salad, garlic bread. |
Anonymous
Should have noted! We/they eat plenty of protein (eggs, lentils, beans, chickpeas, shrimp, etc.) and I do keep offering them meat. But I would like to not be eating meat every or most days, especially since the kids don't like most of it, so I was curious for new recipes to try along that vein since I already have plenty of ways to prepare meat. To everyone who offered mix dinners (tacos, grain bowls, etc) I'm curious about what your prep looks like -- do you prep the vegetables all in bulk one day, or are you always doing a lot of chopping (and steaming for the littler one) right before dinner? I'm finding myself gravitating toward meals that can be pulled straight out of the fridge or just quickly microwaved before making it to the table (at least for the leftovers nights, which I want to get at least 2-3 out of). |
Anonymous
What do you do for protein in a meal like this? Does the cheese (assuming cheese in the baked ziti) fill you up enough/long enough? |
Anonymous
| Tofu is great and bonus that it's easy to get the kids involved with meal prep because they can cut it with a butter knife. Mine started chopping tofu for stir fries at age 3 or 4. You can also crumble it for scrambles, which is fun, just wash their hands well beforehand. |
Anonymous
| When my daughter was about 3 I started giving her an “appetizer plate” of whatever raw crunchy veggies I had with some dip (hummus, PB, ranch etc) and she would chow it. Then if she didnt eat as much at dinner I knew she had a large serving of veggies. Raw crunchy veggies have always been overwhelmingly preferred by my kid and she eats nearly everything. |
Anonymous
| Maybe your meat doesn't taste good. Try breading and frying/sautéing thin sliced chicken. Its sold thin sliced at most groceries. every kid likes chicken tenders. Or do ground beef with Mac n cheese. Rotisserie chicken. |
Anonymous
Sure does! There are at least two types of cheese in baked ziti - ricotta and mozzarella. |
Anonymous
We do this right after school and sports, basically whenever the kids are ravenous we do vegetables and bean dips. Even raw broccoli gets eaten when they're really hungry. |
Anonymous
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Minestrone soup with lentil pasta
https://cookieandkate.com/classic-minestrone-soup-recipe/ Rajma with Quinoa (use canned kidney beans) https://www.vegrecipesofindia.com/rajma-masala-recipe-restaurant-style/#wprm-recipe-container-139551 Veggie Lentil Loaf https://tasty.co/recipe/veggie-packed-lentil-loaf |
Anonymous
Thank you so much; these are just the kinds of recipes I was looking for! And the rajma looks like it will be a huge hit around here. Going to make that this weekend. |
Anonymous
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I’m not sure why posters are responding with meat answers.
Anyway, we do Peanut noodles Couscous with roasted veggies and chickpeas Fried rice with egg or peanut Pasta with asparagus and lemon Quiche or frittata People obsess over protein but it’s not as important as people would have you think. My son, raised on the above, is d 6’ tall, so clearly he got enough nutrients to grow somehow. |