Mom going veg- cook meat for kids?

I am slowly cutting meat out of my diet. I hardly ever ate red meat anyway, chicken was a daily thing though. We usually use ground turkey for spaghetti and stuff like that.
I am becoming more and more icked out by meat, and now I dont want to even handle it/ cook it for the family. I dont want to force the whole house to go veg if it is not their wish to. dd-10 probably will on her own. ds-12 will eat meat at school. ds-8 had some disabilities and eats a very narrow diet of chicken tenders, yogurt, cheese, ham, and most processed foods. For him especially, because he is so small for his age and his other problems, I cant imagine not letting him eat what he will eat. dh- will not go veg.

Any moms or dads here who have traveled this road?
Did you go veg yourself and still cook meat for the rest of the family?

 

Maybe you can plan your meals to be veg, and keep around some frozen or otherwise easy convenience food. For the most part this way, dh and the kids can fix such additions to their meal themselves. Plus, if you want to do something nice and do it yourself it will be of minimal yuckiness to yourself. Honestly, if you're fixing healthy balanced good food, I can't even imagine wanting to eat a frozen burger or something instead... but hey, to each his own!
Personally, I don't prepare food that I don't eat. I feel justified in putting my foot down on that one - if I'm unwilling to put something in my own body, why would I spend my time and contaminate my cookware with it? Then again, I don't have any kids, and my boyfriend and I have the same dietary habits...

 

We went veg for a while our kids were 3&7, easy then, tough with your kids ages.

Any Who, they calmed down (no sugar) (AT All) the older got better grades, all those possitive things. just wanted to say veg is much better if one can talk 'm into it.

 

That's a good idea hummbleblee. I can throw them some packaged pre-cooked stuff a few times a week. I feel bad about doing it though, because for the most part they are crappy nutritionally.
I wish I had made this change when they were younger!

 

I'm veg with a non-veg family I guess for us, it's all about how few meals I can get away with cooking for any given day.

My daughter only eats the very occasional meat so she's easy to deal with, but the guys are meatosauruses. (son's favorite word) I cook a lot of meals where it's easy to make a veggie version by just setting a portion of the dish aside before adding cheese or meat. Mondays & Fridays are meatless days at our house. Even my guys don't need to eat meat EVERY day And wednesday nights are a church night here, so we usually do something quick like leftovers or salads & sandwiches.

Tuesdays are special here - it's pizza & movie night, and my husband is in charge of dinner. Sometimes he'll get a take & bake pizza for them and Chipotle for me, sometimes it's frozen pizzas & a TV dinner for me, and sometimes we make our own pizzas. But everyone is happy, and gets exactly what they want.
love,
mom

 

If you want them to be veg, don't serve meat.
I do all the cooking in our house, because I LOVE cooking, veg and non.
I do the same thing, homeschoolmama. I make dinner, and then add meat for the family.

 

What about getting a kid-friendly vegetarian book?

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/06...f=pd_bbs_2/002-3342910-3494463?_encoding=UTF8
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/09...f=pd_bbs_4/002-3342910-3494463?_encoding=UTF8
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/15...2910-3494463?_encoding=UTF8&v=glance&n=283155
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/15...2910-3494463?_encoding=UTF8&v=glance&n=283155

The vegan kids that I know LIKE being vegan and eat their food. My friend feeds her child low amounts of processed food, no extra sugar, etc. Even though he is not fully vegetarian, he eats a good amount of healthy foods. He also behaves better than his pop-tart eating fellow kids. I would suggest laying off the processed foods if possible.

Moms are busy by nature, you may not have time to cook a lot. What about cooking large portions of vegetarian meals (spaghetti with veggie crumbles, etc) and freezing it for quick meals?

I personally would not touch meat but my circumstances are different. We do not have kids and you haven't raised your kids veg.
What about having them cook the meat themselves? A 10 or 12 year old can certainly cook a little bit.

 

lots of great ideas here.

dh had a class last night so he ate fast food on the way. I made a veg. dish and the older 2 kids ate it. I was pleasantly surprised. But it didnt look like "just vegetables" so that's prob. why.
I was pleasantly surprised at the selection in our local grocery. The whole foods store is a good distance from home so I cant get there that often.

The 8 yr old is a whole 'nother story. He is from dh's first marriage, but lives with us. He is autistic and has sensory defensiveness, i.e. wont eat things that are not a texture he likes. Or color, or smell, etc. Like he will eat burger king chicken tenders and fries every day, but will not eat at all if presented with another fast food tenders. I am sorry to say I have given in to it all, but only after 3+ years of trying numerous things, like gluten free casein free diet, which is supposed to do wonders for autistic children, and numerous supplements, enzymes, etc. I have tried "hiding" veggies in stuff he will eat.
I have just learned to accept that he will starve himself til he gets what he wants. I dont mean just one or 2 meals either. As I said, he is very short and thin for his age already. I dont fix him separate meals, but I do try to have something that I know he will eat, which is usually low in nutritional value.

Off to check out the recipes!

 

sensory defensiveness...
Our youngest has textural issues. Only child I ever met that will NOT eat mashed potatoes-the texture is just all wrong. No tomatoes unless they're cherry and whole, just the mouthfeel is wrecked.
She likes salad, and fortunately a lot of raw veggies.

 

I don't think you will succeed forcing your family to eat vegetarian, that will make no one happy really. They should eat healthy though, even if they're still eating meat, not fast food because that is horrible stuff. But you should cook a vegetarian meal just like one night and they might like it, and that way they won't be completely bias against it.. I made this taco mix for my parents and you couldn't even tell it wasn't meat, it was great.. So yeah something like that just so they're open minded.

 

I made a veggie stir fry with tofu last night. My daughter ate the veggies, tried the tofu, but did not like the texture. Older son did not try it. Dh and youngest ate fast food on the way home, a regular thing.


My daughter really wants to go veggie with dairy products and eggs. I told her we will really have to watch her diet to make sure she keeps it balanced.

 

Our son prefers softer foods so he might like tofu if he would give it a try. He doesnt eat any raw veggies or any fruit with the exception of banana. It does make it challenging.

 

I hate mashed potatoes, too. Except the instant flakes, I do like those. But otherwise, the texture and lumps in homemade potatoes just triggers my gag reflex. Certain food textures freak me out for some weird reason, like onions.

But anyway, I don't suggest trying to force your entire family into vegetarianism, but at the same time, is your older son old enough to cook for himself? And surely your husband is, too. Maybe you should show them how to prepare meat one time and tell them if they expect to be eating meat, they can make it themselves. If they can't eat what you prepare, they can learn to cook for themselves. That's not unreasonable at all. When I was vegetarian for 3 years, if my family's meal consisted of meat that I couldn't eat around (I never was too picky about eating around the meat), I was expected to cook for myself. Or I'd make a bunch of vegetables while my dad cooked meat and we got what we wanted from it. Maybe you guys could start something like that? That way everyone gets what they want, and you don't have to handle the meat.

 

Ha Ha!
I certainly wouldn't suggest telling your spouse and child to cook his/her own food. That's disrespectful, as a spouse/parent to tell them that you are only cooking for you now. You chose to marry a meat-eater, and as a spouse, well, I mean, if you don't want to get along, that's between you two, I suppose.
However, you are cooking a meal because you love your family, and if you can't handle cooking what your family eats...I don't know what to tell you. You've ceased cooking a meal out of love or duty, and have merely become a food facist.
Cook them some dinner, man. You don't have to have a bloody cow's head on the table; make a pot of beans-millions of families across the nation are having beans and rice tonight.
Isolating yourself from your family is a big deal. If your husband or kids don't care, then this isn't an issue, obviously, but if not, I hope that some others can give you the answer you want.
It has just been my personal thing that as a non-ethical veg, I have no problems making meaty meals(as healthy as I can) for my non-veg family.
I would have a hard time staying with a spouse that told me to cook my own meals, just on principle. Marraiges go way beyond 50/50, and sometimes we have to stretch to make them work.

 

I've been cooking some for the family with meat, some veg. meals, and once told hubby what I was preparing and if he wanted, he could cook some chicken. He normally helps with cooking anyway.


However, it seems like since I am still giving the meat industry money that it lessens my stand on not consuming animals. Know what I mean?

Ironically, as I left the grocery store 2 days ago, I noticed a stack of christian vegetarian booklets on my way out. There were some pics of chickens in little cages, stacked 5 or 6 high, some dead and hanging out of the cage. Pics of the chickens beaks being cut off so that they cant peck each other, and one of a calf in a little cage with a chain around its neck, and some of pigs in stalls so narrow they cant move. I can say, I do not miss meat at all!

 

Whoa whoa whoa, lemme get this right, are you going as far as to say it's her duty to make sure her family is fed? I completely disagree. If your marriage is so weak that you'd leave them over something as small as who cooks the meal, then you really shouldn't be married in the first place. I'm only 19, so I'm not trying to be Ms. Marriage Counsellor, but really, that's a little dramatic.

I merely suggested they turn meal time into family time, including the preparation and all. She's not comfortable fixing meat for her family, nor is she comfortable forcing them all to make a drastic diet change, so why can't the family pitch in too? It's not a woman's duty to cook for her family and if meat grosses her out, why should she have to ruin her own appetite just to make sure they get what they want? I was raised under the rule of, "You don't like what's being served, you make your own, or go hungry" and I certainly don't think it's been anything to tear apart our family. Sometimes you've got to give a little in a relationship and sometimes you have to take some. I'm sure yarrow's given plenty to her family, so I don't see whereas sharing cooking duties is anywhere in the area of disrespectful.

 

Yes, I am absolutely saying that it is the parent's "duty to make sure that his/her family is fed".
It's not an issue of whether or not he/she cooks the meal, It's not a gender issue. This is an issue of feeding your kids.

"I merely suggested they turn meal time into family time, including the preparation and all." No one in their right mind would have an issue with that. My problem is the isolationist and "nyah nyah nyah boo boo" attitude of saying to one's child "if you want meat, you cook it, cause I don't do that anymore". If you don't want to feed them meat, don't, but don't be all disgusted and apalled and annoying anout the fact that they do eat meat. If I, an omni, marry an omni and raise omni kids, then one could see where there might be an issue when I decide that omni nutritional choices are revolting, and that the mere sight of animal products makes me vomit.
It's gonna cause a *little* strife, I'm sure you can see that.

"Sometimes you've got to give a little in a relationship and sometimes you have to take some. " That would be the very thing that my last sentance reads.

"I'm sure yarrow's given plenty to her family,"
I'm not saying that Yarrow hasn't contributed anything to her family. That's irresponsible to say that I implied that in any way.

My point is that cooking a family meal is an integral part of the family relationship. Going from omni to veggie, as a parent and trying to work that out with omni family is a sticky issue and I, on further reflection, think is an ultra-personal one.

BTW, Like a lot of other forum topics, I don't have the right answer for everyone, but as for me, what works just fine, as I've stated before, is to cook the meal w/o meat, and add the meat/dairy in for the rest of the family without making a big deal about how grossed out I am.