Vegetarian recipes for young kids?

[peilover010202]

My dh recently made the transition to vegetarian, while the rest of our family has not. So I'm desperately searching out recipes that our whole family can enjoy. Because we have young kiddos, I want to make sure they will eat the meal too (so that I am not making entrees for each meal time.)

So what do your kids like?

[Mama2Bug]

I have a five year old DD who has been vegetarian since birth. She also happens to have some sensory issues with food, which can make her challenging to feed. She eats more processed/soy-based food than I would prefer, but we have time to transition out of that as time goes on (just as you will be able to do with your children). For now, some favorites of DD's are:

baked Quorn cutlets, marinated with various seasonings, just as you would chicken (These are a favorite for the whole family.)
fake chicken nuggets (Trader Joe's has the best ones, imo)
breakfast for dinner (scrambled eggs with veggie bacon and whole wheat toast or pancakes with fresh fruit and real maple syrup)

Many veggie kids and adults enjoy:

pasta dishes with veggie "meatballs"
Asian stir-fry with marinated tofu chunks
grilled cheese and hearty soups
bean burritos with grilled veggies
veggie dogs with chili and home-baked fries
loaded baked potatoes

[caiesmommy]

How old are your dc? My ds is 3 and these are his/family faves. Though we're vegan so everything here is veganized for us

-Pasta
-Lasagna
-tacos either with refried beans w fixings
-quasadillas
-hummus/raw veggies dip
-tortilla casserole-layers of tortillas with refried beans/tomato sauce/corn/onions ect
-Make your own wrap night-hummus and fixings
-Veggie burgers/grilled portabellos/eggplant/zukes on the bbq(this is an occasional b/c I dont like giving dc much "fake meat"
-Lentil loaf w mashed potatoes and mushroom gravy
-Homemade alphabet soup with beans and letter pasta-I can get ds to pick a letter then we find a vegetable that matchs the letter
-noodle stirfry w peanut butter sauce

The whole making two meals does suck, even though we're all vegetarians the odd time I find myself making 2 meals...It's getting better though, for awhile I was CONSTANTLY making 2 meals..ds went through a stubborn phase

[catnip]

My (vegan) 5 year-old has a ton of fun with the Mollie Katzen cookbooks for preschoolers. Her favorite meal is Polka Dot Rice (in Salad People, I think, might be Pretend Soup. Both cookbooks are entirely veg, and most recipes are easily veganized). She also loves creamy tomato soup (I make this with canned diced tomatoes, cashews, nutritional yeast, lemon juice, agave, and salt thrown in a blender) and cheese toast (which we now make with Daiya cheese). Um ... spaghetti with white beans in it, white beans with lemon, olive oil, salt and polenta, baked potatoes with white-bean spread or hummus and nutritional yeast sauce. These Tofu fish sticks are a big hit in our house. I sometimes make "chicken strips" by omitting the kelp and dill from the breading and adding a teaspoon each of sage, thyme and parsley. Sweet potatoes, carrots, peas, edamame and chard are the favorite veggies around here.

[eepster]

Familiarity and simplicity tend to be what young children are looking for. So anything they already know and that isn't too spicy tends to be eaten.

The trouble with switching to a new diet, isn't finding items in said diet that are child friendly. There are child friendly dishes in almost any diet. The problem is that switching to a new diet style always entails introducing unfamiliar foods. It's the unfamiliarness of the food that tends to be the real issue, not what the foods actually are.

If you look closely at your current diet, I bet you'll find many dishes which are already veg*n or can easily b/c veg*n with little effort. It's a great place to start since those foods will be familiar. Some foods that are part of most american diets and are basically vegetarian already are:
pizza
pasta with tomato sauce
pancakes/waffles
chili
grilled cheese
falafel
peanut butter and jelly

[peilover010202]

eepster, you are right entirely. I have a list of foods that we have converted to veg that our boys will eat. But, I, personally am getting tired of black beans and sweet potatoes, so looking for more ideas.

Thanks everyone!