Need vegetarian dinner ideas

[ruthla]

My 13yo daughter is a vegetarian, and I'm on Protein Power with multiple food sensitivities- I can't have gluten, dairy, or legumes, and for my safety I don't want any gluten in the house at all (but my other food sensitivities aren't as severe and I don't mind if my kids eat them while I'm eating something else.)

My daughter isn't on Protein Power, but she is a little bit concerned about her weight, and as the school cafeteria provides high-carb meals, she wants a high-protein, low carb dinner. In theory, this should mean that I make a high protein, low carb dinner for everybody and we all eat the same thing.

Unfortunately, since she won't eat meat or fish, and I can't eat dairy or legumes, I'm running out of ideas here! How many nights can we all eat omelettes?

I guess what I really need are ways to make two meals side by side that still work together, or at least easy meals she can fix for herself when she gets home from school. She's been gravitating towards the carby stuff (cereal, pasta, rice cakes, etc) and gaining weight.

[Mitra]

Are you both vegetarian, or just your daughter?

[ruthla]

Just my daughter. I don't think I'd be able to get enough protein on a vegetarian diet since I'm intolerant to so many vegetarian sources of protien.

[Mitra]

OK, I've got to go out now, I'll mull it over and let you know if I get any bright ideas.

[Gaelen]

And Ruth...if I remember...kosher as well, correct? I can think of a couple of things; I'll try to post them when I get back from work.

[Mitra]

I'm struggling to come up with combinations. The best I can think of, short of cooking two separate meals, is to do a veg & sauce that you could have with meat or fish and she could add tofu/beans/cheese/egg/quorn...

[ruthla]

Yup, Kosher, but that shouldn't really affect vegetarian options because the main thing with keeping kosher is not mixing milk and meat, and not eating pork or shellfish. I can serve fish and dairy at the same meal. All plant products, as well as eggs, are "pareve" or neutral. So I can serve fish when my daughter is eating cheese, and meat or fish if she's eating beans/eggs/etc.

What exactly is quorn?

[deirdra]

From http://www.blurtit.com/q564055.html

"Quorn is a meat substitute that is formed from material derived from fungus. It contains no animal products at all and is marketed as a healthy option to meat, as it is naturally low in fat and cholesterol but has the look, texture and taste of meat.

It is controversial for two main reasons. First of all, its origins. It is made from the filaments of a fungus that is mass produced by fermenting cultures of the fungus in vats, then processing the mass of protein-rich material produced. To some people, possibly most people, this doesn’t exactly appeal, and some are put off even trying the product. The company that makes Quorn has tried to get over this by describing the product as ‘mushroom in origin’, which is stretching the truth quite a bit and they have been taken to court over it in the USA.

The second area of controversy comes from people who have reported being very ill after eating Quorn – with an allergic type response and upset stomach. It is not clear whether they are reacting to the Quorn or some other ingredient in the product, but some people do seem to react badly."

It gave me appendicitis-like pain for hours (but my appendix was removed 36 yrs ago) the first time I tried it so I haven't touched it since. I prefer real food.

[Mitra]

Quorn (http://www.quorn.com) is a meat-substitute made from something called "mycoprotein" which is fungus-based. It's very neutral in flavour (pretty tasteless really), and soaks up sauces or marinades very easily. It's sold in plain chunks or mince, or in flavoured versions like imitation sausage, bacon, chicken, as well as ready-cooked dishes. I used it occasionally in my veggie days - generally the plain chunks. I think it's more common in the UK than US, but I believe it is sold over there too. I'm not a great fan of "substitute" foods of any kind, but veggie protein choices with low carbs are quite limited, so any extra options can make life a bit easier.

I see Deirdra found a more complete description while I was posting. For some reason it seems to be much more controversial in the US than over here - unlike say GM crops, which are the other way round. I didn't have any of the allergy issues, but I think I overdosed on quorn when I started out doing PP as a veggie, and then couldn't face it for ages. Since I've been happily eating meat for a while now, I haven't seen any point in trying it recently.

[ruthla]

It looks like all the quorn products contain wheat, so they're not an option either. She doesn't like "fake meats" anyway.

I think I'm going to start keeping canned beans in the house so she can put together quick meals for herself (rather than dry beans that I'd need to prepare ahead of time), plus a variety of cheeses, and always have hard boiled eggs ready to go, in addition to raw ones.

[Mitra]

I wondered if some of the "bread," muffin or pancake recipes would be any use? There are some that use wheat/gluten, and some that use dairy, but not all. I don't use protein powders, so that rules out quite a lot of the recipes for me, but if you read down the list, there will probably be some that are OK for your/her requirements.

[Gaelen]

Ruth, I had some of the same ideas as Mitra.
For instance, my almond muffins and almond pancakes use nut flour, eggs and kefir...but you could substitute in soy yogurt.

Another thought I had...if you make your own yogurt from soy or almond milk, then you will not only have soy yogurt or nut milk yogurt, but you can strain it to create something thick enough to use like cream cheese, and you can cook it to create a non-dairy paneer or non-dairy ricotta-type cheese. That will give you a lot of other options...things like saag paneer (an Indian spinach, spices and homemade cheese dish.) Typically, a vegan would make it with tofu, but you could also use homemade non-dairy cheese, and paneer or ricotta are both very simple to make at home, as easy as yogurt.

If you make soy or nut yogurt and cheeses at home, they will also be a LOT less expensive than store-bought, and you'll be able to control exactly what goes in them. Also...cooking beans from dry is always cheaper. One thing I do is cook a whole pound up on the weekend or overnight in the crockpot and then freeze them in small portions in ziploc bags--they thaw in minutes, no added sodium and I get all savings of using dried beans.

Another thought...Cindy Norwitz has a couple of excellent edamame (soybean) recipes, including a hummus and a salad that can be served either hot or cold, along with a black soybean chili. All of them can be made in advance, so that your daughter could supplement whatever you've prepared for dinner with a serving of those things which were made earlier in the week.

I know that you mention that you are sensitive to legumes and only used small amounts of fermented soy...are you sensitive to soybeans and peanuts as well? Can you eat tempeh? If so, the whole family could enjoy a tempeh and vegetables stir fry.

Also, there are some other ways to cook eggs besides omelettes. I've got a blintz recipe that is basically an egg pancake (again, you'd need to use soy yogurt because mine uses kefir.) You could make 'fill your own blintzes' where you'd fill with meat or fish and your daughter could fill with sauteed veggies and beans. And you could make custards or baked eggs for a change.

I think I've also posted my Eggs Muttachar recipe here, which is eggs poached in an Indian spiced tomato sauce. Search in the recipe forums on my username with vegetarian and/or muttachar as one of the key words.

If your daughter can eat legumes (Indian lentil crackers), pappadums can become mini-pizzas, dippers, or sandwiches spread with nut butters or egg salad, while the rest of the family enjoys them with a curry.

Hope these help.

[Parisienne]

Hello Ruth!
I am a less than avarage cook myself, so I'm afraid, I can't give you any of great dinner ideas (and whatsmore I do eat a lot of fish). However, I thought that you - or maybe even your daughter - would like to have a look at The Schwarzbein Principle Vegetarian Cookbook by D. Schwarzbein, N. Deville and E. Jacob. Some recipes are rather high in total carbs (unfortunately, there is no count of fiber given) but most of them are really tasty and very easy to prepare, perhaps a good place for your daughter to start cooking some of her vegetarian meals (I wish I had learnt cooking when I went vegetarian at 15)?
Good luck.

[ruthla]

Soy is a legume. I can't eat it. I see no point in making/buying soy yogurts and the like, because my kids can have dairy and the dairy stuff is cheaper- plus I prefer they have that since it's far less processed. We do use almond milk, although I can't find any without soy lecithin so I use it sparingly. It's something I keep in the house but not something I'm going to base meals on. I have yet to sucessfully make a nut milk yogurt or cheese.

Last night, for the first time in weeks, we actually all sat down and ate a meal together! I made beef burgers, french fries, fried onions, gluten free buns (which were a total flop- I'll have to try that again with a different recipe!) and assorted fresh veggies that I'd intended to go on the buns with the burgers but nobody ended up eating the buns (which will be used to make personal pizzas later in the week.)

My 13yo daughter ate the veggies and some canned chickpeas, my son ate the fries, a burger, and some chick peas, my 11yo ate fries and a burger, and I had a burger and veggies.

Tonight I plan to serve the leftover fries with salmon burgers, cooked spinach or broccoli, fresh veggies and more canned beans.

The reason I'm going with canned beans instead of dried is that it's too much of a hassle to cook beans from scratch when I'm not making them the base of a meal. I used to cook a whole package at a time and freeze in smaller portions, then thaw what I needed for a recipe. But when a can is going to last several days, rather than using 2 cans per meal, it's not that much more expensive (as we're eating fewer beans) and it's easier and more likely to get eaten. Plus, homemade beans don't always come out perfect and aren't always good in salads (though they're fine for burgers, tomato sauce, chili, etc.)

I want to make some bean burgers for my daughter, so I can easily heat up one when I'm making meat or fish burgers for the rest of the family. Hmm. Maybe I'll make them tonight before I make the salmon burgers.

[Cinnamon Blue]

Ruth, as a (former) heavy carbage consumer and a vegetarian, I would say to be careful of giving too many carbs to your daughter. A typical vegetarian diet is very heavy on the carbs and too light on the protein - we 'veggies' tend to fool ourselves into thinking that we don't need that much protein. :o

Your daughter, if she wants to keep it low carb, will need alternative (higher) sources of protein than beans. Check out some of the low-carb vegetarian books. The latest one I have is by Rose Elliot, a British vegetarian cookery writer. She bases her book on Atkins but there are yummy recipes suitable for PP, e.g. tofu burgers, nut loaf with lemon sauce, pizza, etc. Sorry, copyright laws don't allow me to post them on here. I've also flicked Low-carb Vegetarian by Margo DeMello through at the local library. I know there are a few others.

Also I would suggest you get her doing her own cooking, she's plenty old enough and, as I have been a vegetarian for over 25 years, I know it's important to cook tasty meals from scratch because so much food 'out there' is not suitable or, worse, down right rubbish. I might have cooked since I was six but I'm cooking from scratch more regularly now on PP because there's nothing readymade that's low carb with adequate protein on the market for vegetarians. If we want to succeed--and be healthy--we have to make it ourselves. This also saves you the problem of cooking two meals and prepares her for a healthy vegetarian life!

[ruthla]

It's not practical for her to prepare all of her own meals as she gets home from school around 5:30 PM and still has homework to do. Plus, whenever she cooks she inevitably makes a mess for me to clean up (even when she thinks she's cleaned up after herself.) It's less work and stress for me to cook meals for her when I'm cooking for the whole family, and clean up after dinner, than it is to have to deal with cleaning up HER post-dinner messes when I'm ready to go to bed.

Last night, after a dinner of bean burgers and veggies, she had a bedtime snack of cubed cheese. I made the bean burgers with cooked lentils, cornmeal, eggs, and spices. I wonder if I should pick up some bean flour before making burgers for her again- mix cooked beans with bean flour and eggs for a higher total protein burger, since she gets MORE than enough grains at school. I've also packed her some trail mix to snack on at school, to minimize her need to buy junk at school. She may also pack lunches some days, but it's a very long day for her and it's really not practical to do this for all meals every single day.

She does plenty of cooking for herself and her siblings on the weekends and school vacations- I'm not at all worried about her being unprepared for life.

[Ammy]

May I ask...why is your daughter a vegetarian??

It always amazes me when a younger person makes this stand and sticks to it! It's fantastic!
I don't know that I ever felt like I had a choice (not that I would have taken that one, I LOVE meat). I grew up in Iowa, surrounded by pork and corn! I just think it's so GREAT that children are making choices! but am curious as to her reasoning?

[Gaelen]

Ruth, I have a couple of lentil and/or bean burger recipes that work pretty well--they use flax seed, walnuts, eggs, cheese or finely minced zucchini as the 'binder' instead of corn meal. All of them can be made ahead, frozen and then grilled, microwaved or sauteed in a fry pan. A couple are even good cold. I'll try to post them this weekend.

I agree with Cinnamon...it would be good for your daughter to start exploring some of the higher protein sources of protein than beans and lentils, and the collected knowlege about how to be a protein-powered vegetarian. It doesn't have to cost anything--many sourcebooks are available in the library. A lot of them happen to be cookbooks, but especially the ones from the early 70s focused as much on the process of being vegetarian as they did on the recipes. And not so incidentally, they are still the recipes I use most often to this day.

I got my first vegetarian cookbook when I was 16 and my first vegetarian source book a year or so later. I wasn't cooking vegetarian for my family (I cooked regular meals for them because my mom worked), but I was cooking for friends and for myself, and my mom's recipe box wasn't really adequate preparation. Those books helped me be able to make food for the whole family that I could eat, too.

My uncle gave me a copy of 'The Vegetarian Epicure' by Anna Thomas for my 16th birthday, and I followed that up with 'The Moosewood Cookbook' by Mollie Katzen and 'The Quick and Easy Vegetarian' by Ruthanne Manners. All of those books are guides about how to be a vegetarian, in the context of being cookbooks. I read them then, as I do today, kind of like a cross between a novel and an encyclopedia. They don't have to be introduced with the goal of your daughter preparing all of her own meals...more important, they show her options available in protein-focused vegetarian nutrition.

I realize that you don't want gluten in the house because of your own sensitivities, but the full range of protein sources available to your daughter as a lacto-ovo vegetarian include tofu, tempeh, nuts and seeds, soybeans/edamame, and protein powders, nut and bean butters and flours, along with the eggs, dairy and canned, dried or frozen beans. You don't need to bring wheat gluten into the house or teach her to make seitan (gluten), but all of those other things are cheap, kosher protein sources that she could use to supplement the main meals you make, where she might only be eating the veggies or the salad.

Another good sourcebook for her would be a self-published book called 'The Protein Powered Vegetarian' by a guy named Bo Sebastian (a body-builder.) No fake meats, not a lot of processed foods--a whole foods approach to vegetarian eating that concentrates on getting even more protein than Protein Power recommends. Some of the things these books can help her with are in making healthier choices, even off a school menu.

I'll look up those nut and bean burger recipes tonight.

[Ammy]

Hey Gaelen...sounds like you were a vegetarian at an early age as well...
why did you make the choice you did??

My GF doesn't eat mammels, but eats poultry and fish. She made this move at 30.
I think the reason she eats poultry and fish is because she wasn't very creative with her cooking and was really struggling with protein options. She also tasted turkey one day and realized how much she LOVES it.
Anyway, she doesn't want to overdo the carbs and appreciates all the cooking I do for her, cause otherwise she has what she calls "white dinner"...
rice, cauliflower, cottage cheese layered in a bowl. :suspicious:

[Gaelen]

Hey Gaelen...sounds like you were a vegetarian at an early age as well...why did you make the choice you did??

'cause I was a radical early 70s kid...who was performing in a band with older kids from about 1968. Yeah, I'm *that* old. :p

Seriously, in my house, it started when I was really young with (catholic) meatless Fridays (and Wednesdays during Lent). I loved fish in any form. And eggplant. And mac 'n cheese. And I made a killer tuna lasagne. And the 60s were all about doing cool things with vegetables en casserole (but not your GF's 'white dinner'....eww...) And I loved weird ethnic cuisines, even as a kid, and a lot of them had big veggie components.

Then I got into high school and with the band made the hour or so trip to Moosewood a couple times. I didn't suddenly decide to be vegetarian. I just amassed a lot of recipes that I liked to eat and to prepare that were meatless, and then when it became financially tough to eat meat (in college), joining a food co-op and being the best meatless cook I could be was just the next logical step.

And then the different cuisines just kept being more and more of a fascination, and now...here I am. ;)

BTW, Ruth--there is a wonderful vegetarian cookbook called something like 'The Sephardic Vegetarian Table' (not sure exactly, I will have to look it up at home because it's been on my wish list for about two years.) It might serve the dual purpose of history and vegetarian options for your daughter.

[ruthla]

I'm not really sure why she's a vegetarian, and neither is she. It started when her vegetarian ex-stepdad lived here, but he's been out of our lives for nearly 5 years now and she hasn't given it up. I think she's a vegetarian more out of habit than anything else at this point. She will eat poultry on Shabbat (the Jewish Sabbath) and on Jewish holidays, but she still prefers vegetarian meals and will not eat any meat during the week at all.

I used to be a vegetarian when I was in college; then I started eating meat on Shabbat and Jewish holidays only, and then it was more of a habit to cook vegetarian meals during the week and only have meat or poultry for Shabbat and special occasions (BBQ with my parents on summer Sundays, etc.) It's only fairly recently that I started eating low-carb and realizing that I feel better with more meat products in my diet, so I started serving meat or fish every night with dinner.

So, she's used to the carb-rich vegetarian meals that I used to make during the week, and I'm getting used to a new way of cooking, and the result is that we're not always able to eat meals together anymore.

[Gaelen]

Ruth, I did a little searching in the recipe archives before I uploaded, and came up with these recipes which could help you make some protein rich foods for your daughter's vegetarian diet while working around your own sensititivities (gluten-legume-dairy free):

Zucchini risotto-style (http://www.proteinpower.com/forum/showpost.php?p=6823&postcount=1) -- 12g protein, 6g ECC
Use a homemade extra virgin olive oil based pesto sauce without any added parmesan, and only stir in the parmesan cheese to the kids portions.

Pumpkin soup (dairy free kosher version) (http://www.proteinpower.com/forum/showpost.php?p=244&postcount=2) -- 16g protein, 7g ECC.
I have made this without cooking the smoked beef or chicken sausages with the soup. Just hold them out and fry them separately. If you do this, you can all eat the soup. Your daughter can toss in some cubes of fried tofu, or have a walnut-lentil burger or almond muffin to increase her protein, while you and your sons toss in the smoked fried sausages of your choice.

Homemade egg noodles (http://www.proteinpower.com/forum/showpost.php?p=5485&postcount=4) -- 5g protein, 1g carb per serving.
Scroll down in this post from cmcole to find the recipe for homemade egg pasta. This is easy, easy, easy to make, and gluten and dairy free so you can all eat them (but they won't seem like you're having eggs again.) The noodles are a good start on a protein base, and the sauce you add to them can make them into a full meal. Nut burgers or beans for your daughter, regular meatballs for you and the boys.
Another thing to think about--many grocery stores and all asian markets offer packages of tofu noodles--either lasagne noodle wide, or cut into spaghetti like strips. The basic recipe for tofu noodles is very similar to the one in cmcole's post for egg noodles, except that they use tofu (which is soymilk and some form of acid to 'gel' the milk.) They are cheap, with a protein/ECC count similar to extra firm tofu, and you can keep packs of them in the freezer. One package makes four servings, and is generally about a dollar. I don't eat them often, but they are an easy, high protein quick choice.

Zucchini Tomato Hot Dish (http://www.proteinpower.com/forum/showpost.php?p=5485&postcount=4) -- 12g protein, 5g ECC
You could make this as a 'side dish' for the boys, along with a salad and your protein of choice. It's got dairy, so you wouldn't be able to eat it, but the kids would. Your daughter could add some pine nuts, an almond muffin or some tofu to her portion and have a higher protein, low carb dinner with minimal effort.

Spinach Bread (http://www.proteinpower.com/forum/showpost.php?p=59224&postcount=13) -- 10g protein, 2g ECC
The parmesan cheese in this bread is optional; eliminating it so that you could eat it too reduces the protein per slice to 8g protein (still not bad). Spread with a nut butter, or cream cheese, or baked as an individual pizza, your daughter could easily make a meal off of this. You and the boys could use it on your burgers as a bun, as a base for sloppy joe type things, or as individual pizzas (no cheese on yours!)

If you search on the keyword 'vegetarian' and my user name, you might find more recipes that you could adapt easily.

I'm working on getting the nutrient info for my various nut-lentil burger recipes into Mastercook, and I'll upload as soon as I can. Hope this helps.

[Gaelen]

Ruth, some additional recipes:
vegan pimento cheese (http://immuneweb.org/lowcarb/recipes/vcheese.html)
This is Cyndi Norwitz's old home page. Below is the link to her new blog...
check out the archives for her 'nut loaf' recipe. Cyndi has multiple chemical sensitivities, and while she can eat legumes, she avoids many foods, keeps kosher, and generally cooks dairy and gluten free low carb. She also tags all of her recipes (vegan, dairy-free, etc.)

Here's her new blog (check the archives for more recipes):
Norwitz Notions blog (http://norwitz.net/blog/category/food/recipes/main-dishes/)

[Gaelen]

And finally, a recipe for Vegetarian Chili-Bean Patties (http://www.proteinpower.com/forum/showpost.php?p=59268&postcount=11).

You can use any kind of beans (canned black soybeans will be highest protein and lowest ECC). This recipe uses tomato sauce and chili powder, but you can switch out the chili powder and use Italian seasoning, ground cumin, or any fresh herbs you have on hand, and switch out the tomato sauce for soy sauce, or chopped mushroom duxelles for a milder flavored patty (good with a mushroom-wine-cheese sauce)

[Mitra]

They sound good. Or with chick peas they'd be a kind of falafel variation. I think I'll have to get back into the habit of doing a veggie dinner a couple of times each week to keep my husband happy.

[ruthla]

Wow! Thanks Gaelen!

[Mitra]

We're having a veggie dinner tonight: cut a pepper per person in half, scoop out the seeds & put thin slices of garlic in the bottom. Peel & halve a couple of tomatoes & put them in the pepper halves (two tomato halves in each pepper half). Pour olive oil over and bake for 1 - 1 1/2 hours. Top with some slices of mozzarella and return to the oven for a few minutes. (The original recipe has anchovies on top of the tomatoes).

[Cinnamon Blue]

Ruth, here's a quick recipe for low-carb tofu burgers. Not too messy to make but, if you'd rather do it yourself, it's still a good idea to get her to do the final seasoning, so they are to her taste.

These freeze great and can be cooked from frozen. If she likes them then it's easy to make a larger batch. This recipe makes two burger.

Take 115g (that's about 4oz I think) of firm tofu (drained), add the same amount of frozen TVP mince (e.g. Quorn mince) and one tablespoon of soy sauce. Mix together in a food processor. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Split the mixture into two and form the burgers. Then lightly brush with a little olive oil and cook on a griddle pan, grill or barbeque. That's it!

I think it's about 26g protein and 9g carbs for the whole recipe, if using Quorn mince.

CB

[morg2625]

Is it healthy being a vegetarian that young? how does her body get enough protein for growth and development? I think you should shove a steak down her throat.
But other than that. I would try frozen chinese vegetables variety packs, tofu and TONS of spinach. Good luck.

[Gaelen]

Is it healthy being a vegetarian that young? how does her body get enough protein for growth and development? I think you should shove a steak down her throat.


Hi, morg2625. I can only assume you are trying to be humorous...at least, I hope that was the intent.

Yes, it's perfectly healthy for kids to be vegetarian 'that young.' Infants who are nursed on mother's milk or given formula are vegetarian, after all, for the first few months of life, and even pureed meats aren't usually introduced right off the bat. ;)

It's a process to teach anyone, young or old, how to eat a healthy vegetarian diet--lots of perfectly intelligent adults think that a cheese pizza and fries or a bowl of spaghetti with tomato sauce and veggies will give them everything they need. I used to teach grownups how to get enough protein into their vegetarian diets, and believe me, for most people it's a big leap--an even bigger leap for those who aren't inventive with food or don't want to cook.

I think Ruth is doing a pretty good job trying to balance her own food sensitivities and preferences, along with keeping kosher and keeping to a budget, with teaching her daughter how to eat vegetarian in the healthiest possible way.

As an aside, with kids of any age but especially with teens, 'shoving a steak down (their) throats' is probably guaranteed to close the door on meat consumption for them permanently. That's an age where a human being will do exactly the opposite of what is recommended, just because s/he can, if forced to follow the recommended behavior. In my experience, kids and teens have to get to knowlege with guidance and on their own two feet...not via compulsion. YMMV.