Serving up kid-friendly meatless meals for a month can be a delicious undertaking.
Plus, it’s healthier for you and the environmentand could save you money too.
Eating more plant-based meals is ahealthy choice, better for the planetand could save us money too.
Photographer/Antonis Achilleos, Prop Stylist/Kay Clarke, Food Stylist/Emily Nabors Hall
He blinked once and replied, “Sure?
But what kind of food would we eat?”
“Lots of stuff!”
Photographer/Antonis Achilleos, Prop Stylist/Kay Clarke, Food Stylist/Emily Nabors Hall
I showed the recipes to my husband and he got excited.
He agreed: this kind of vegan eating looked really delicious.
We planned out our meals for the whole week, choosing recipes that we were both excited to try.
Photographer/Antonis Achilleos, Prop Stylist/Kay Clarke, Food Stylist/Emily Nabors Hall
The Hubs even offered to make thesweet potato chilifor dinner that night.
Day 1:Later, as we sat down to our meal, the kids did not cry.
(Crying/not crying is my family’s version of thumbs-up/thumbs-down when it comes to family meals.
We’re working on that.
In fact, they loved it.
I proclaimed proudly, “See?
And it’s totally vegan!”
“OK, let’s take baby steps,” I said.
And we agreed that maybe we’d just focus on vegetarian for now.
Vegan or no, thisSweet Potato & Black Bean Chilirecipe is a perennial favorite in our house.
We make big batches so that we have leftovers to freeze.
Day 3:Black Bean Tacosfor taco night.
I love to pile these babies high with condiments, veggies and avocado.
The kids eat them plain with corn on the side.
Day 6:Spicy Vegetable Lo Mein.
This recipe made me want to own a wok, but I made do with a large skillet.
We served it with chopsticks to get the kids excited.
They were curious about the shiitakes and even tried them, but ultimately picked them all out.
I was enjoying looking for new recipe ideasand eating things besides chicken and potatoes.
The kids were doing … OK. Can we do it?"
I knew I was asking a lot.
It appeared my stalwart in this no-meat challenge was wavering.
Day 16:Taco night withbeefless beef.
Day 17:Cheese lasagna(cue tears).
It was the plainest, cheesiest lasagna I could possibly make.
Child, imploring, “Daddy, when can we have steak again?”
“Mom’s doing a vegetarian thing right now.”
“What do you like, Buddy?
Because we know what you don’t like, but is there anything you actually like?
“Um, I like steak.”
“And pizza.”
“And chicken.”
Is this going well?
Too early to tell?
At least we know what’s for dinner tomorrow night.
Day 18:Pizza-cheese only.
Because, why make it any harder than it needs to be?
What did the kids actually eat?
I won’t bore you with the list of foods that inspired tears from my children.
That’s not really helpful anyways.
But here are the recipes that they actually LIKED!
We made it through the month.
These were some of the tricks that helped us get through:
1.
Both of us looked around in magazines and on the web for recipe ideas that we wanted to try.
Keep the ingredient lists short, and read the recipe ahead of time before you commit.
In our family, we’ve got food allergies to deal with too, which limits our options.
But I also wanted us to enjoy our mealsand not feel restricted.
Because, ultimately, I’d love if our family eats more vegetarian dinners forever.
Not just for a month.
Get the kids to help:This is a big one.
They want to have some control over what they’re eating.
If there are recipes your family loves, keep eating them!
Our family has black bean tacos almost every week.
