Any Good Vegetarian Recipes That Preschool Age Children Also Enjoy???

Try this kid friendly site! There are many many pages of recipes, go to the very bottom of the page, to see page numbers!!

http://weelicious.com/category/vegetarian/

fresh fruit which can be drizzled with chocolate (dark chocolate is healthier than milk) or honey or sugar for a treat

hummus and chiapatti or pita bread

grilled veggie and rice tacos and wraps-- kids love finger food

pbj

crepes (my fav. and my toddler's fav. is fruit stuffed crepes-- fresh fruit inside of a crepe and you can pour honey, chocolate sauce, maple syrup, or blueberry/raspberry syrup over them just a little bit... if you wanna be fancy you can add a small dollup of whipped cream but they're healthier without and almost as tasty- my son also likes nutella on his)

anything "gimmicky" like hollowing out a raw green pepper and filling it with mini carrots

anything the kids can help prepare themselves. get them a little veggie chopper and help them to cut the veggies themselves. yes, preschoolers can do it with help; happens in montessori schools all the time...

trailmix

cereal, oatmeal, creme of wheat, which you can pimp out with raisins, apricots, cinnamon sugar, etc.

veggie sandwiches with brie or meunster cheese or something exciting like that-- cut into small triangles these are cute.

olives with toothpicks

cheesybroccoli squares

taco dip without the meat

veggie pot pie

pasta primavera, pesto pasta, or pasta marina or alli oli (sp? the garlic/olive oil pasta), and you can use healthy pastas like the enriched wheat flour, rice pasta, or spinach pasta or whatever you like

anything you can shape, so like if you give cooked beats, cut them into cool shapes like micky mouse or something

I cook vegetarian 75% of the time. My toddler loves:

quesidillas (I sneak, beans in so its not so much cheese)!

sandwiches (love the tofurky slices at TJ's and the Morning star veggie patties, i add avocado)

vegetable/ cheese enchiladas (can do a tofu filling too)

Home made fruit pop cycles (i use whole fruit blended, not juice and somtimes add yogurt)

vegetable pure' soups (she'll eat squash this way!)

African peanut soup (love this one, but just don't add the chicken) http://community.cookinglight.com/archive/index.php/t-155...

Sauteed or stir-fried diced tofu with veggies (use firm tofu), with a tiny touch of soy sauce. Yum!

have you ever made spaghetti squash? I make it like a casserole with veggies & pasta sauce and cheese. It is super yummy.

This book: "Super Baby Food" is what you're looking for. In addition to the baby-food recipes, it has lots of toddler/preschool age recipes too. All vegetarian. Good luck!

I have a 3 year old that refuses to eat meat. I've been looking for vegetarian cook books that are child friendly. My favorite right now is:

http://www.amazon.com/Better-Than-Peanut-Butter-Jelly/dp/...

Lots of yummy snacks and mains/sides that we all enjoy. Simply recipes. LOVE IT! Good luck. My little one is picky and a vegetarian so we struggle like you do!

I make taco-like soups and "glops" with canned beans, canned tomatoes (diced), fresh spinach, some rice, taco seasoning, diced peppers, cook whatever is handy (frozen corn, any other taco-like foods) and eat as a soup or make it with less liquid and eat it as a kind of casserole. I sprinkle shredded chedder over it for the kids.

We also like spinach quiche or eggs scrambled with spinach in them. I also like a casserole with elbow mac, a can of diced tomatoes (including the liquid), about a cup of sour cream, 1-2 cups shredded cheese (we like cheese), some minced or powdered garlic, onion, and Worcestershire sauce. Mix and bake until hot and melted. I grew up eating a version of that with burger, elbow mac, tomato soup, sour cream, and cheddar, and leftover veggies, but I like it without meat and I like the chunks from the tomatoes. You can vary that any way you like and it becomes a new casserole. This makes me smile because my kids were asking for rice and beans for dinner tonight. Quite literally, canned black beans, rinsed, with leftover white rice. They love it. :D

What about veggie lasagna and veggie pizza? Hummus is also a favorite, you can spread it on crackers or dip pita and veggies in it. I bet there are a ton of casseroles that you could do meatless, as well as veggie tacos and quesadillas. Some good friends of mine raise all their kiddos vegetarian and I think their biggest issue is the same as everyone else...getting their kids to eat anything! ;)

Hopefully this list with pictures will give you some good ideas!
http://weelicious.com/category/vegetarian/
-www.weelicious.com

I like taking a block of firm GMO-free tofu, slicing it up to make maybe 8 or so sticks, covering it with crushed seasoned tortilla chips or corn flakes, placing it on a cookie sheet and bake it for 20 minutes or so. Serve with dipping sauce of choice.

I just put the ingredients for this on this week's shopping list--this is one of my 3-yr-old's 2 fave dinners (the other being teriaki tofu). Soak 1 lb dry black beans overnight. In the morning, put in your crockpot: the drained beans, 2 cloves garlic, one chopped onion, one diced bell pepper, one can diced tomatoes, one can rotel tomatoes, and enough veggie broth just to cover. If you can get away with it, it's great to add some cajun seasoning, as well (be careful about making it too spicy for kids!). Turn on low for 8 hours; when you get home in the evening, serve with a slotted spoon for black bean tacos. Grown-ups can add tomatoes, cabbage, etc; DD just likes beans and cheese. She has been known to eat 4 at a sitting, however. Friday we went out for Mexican, and DD insisted she wanted her tacos like I make them, not with meat. BTW, DD will not eat onions or peppers or garlic if she recognizes them, but here it all gets hidden by the beans, and she doesn't complain.

We are vegetarian family and struggle to get my daughter to eat much of anything, but her current favorites are yogurt with granola (a lot of yogurt is NOT vegetarian)... don't get yogurt that has Gelatin in it (look up what Gelatin is made from if you don't know... it should be enough to make your stomach turn! lol). We like the Soy yogurt and the Coconut yogurt, but even some dairy yogurt won't have Gelatin in in. Also, a fun light lunch or healthy snack is to warm up some peanut butter and cover up a banana in it (when peanut butter is warm, it will go on a banana better)... the banana should be a more firm one, not a squishy one. Then crush up gram crackers and roll the peanut butter covered bananas in that until covered. Then refrigerate (it's a messy process until they come out of the fridge). Then you can cut it up in slices and use Jam or some type of fruit spread to dip it in to. Always a hit with the kids! Celery and peanut butter is also a popular one :-)

I LOVE the recipes at www.CleanEatingMag.com.

Some of my kids FAVS!
- Veggie lasagna
- Eggs: Omelets stuffed with veggies and cheese
- Whole grain rice with veggies (my kids LOVE a mixture of tomatoes, green onions, olive oil and Italian seasoning warmed in the over and sprinkled over rice)
- Pasta – get creative – ANYTHING goes on pasta
- French toast sticks
- Whole wheat pancakes with fresh fruit
- Stirfry
- Soups – minestrone, cream of broccoli, tortilla, pumpkin the choices are endless!
- Oh so sea shells: Buy large sea shell pasta and have her help you stuff them with her fav foods, carrots, broccoli mushrooms, cheese, asparagus, etc
- Tortellini
- Pasta salad
- fajitas
- quesadillas
- enchiladas
- wraps – my kids put EVERYTHING in a tortilla wrap – even cold spaghetti!
- grilled cheese with veggie IN or on the side

B.
Family Success Coach

I make this with turkey meatballs but they are not what makes the dish good and I always see the meatless meatballs right next to those turkey ones at Trader Joe's.
From TJ's: 1 bag of frozen veggies (Harvest Hodge Podge is what I use)
2 bags meatballs (Meatless in your case)
From supermarket: 1 or 2 bags Wacky Mac pasta (tri-color spiral)
1 jar classic alfredo sauce
1 jar basic spaghetti sauce (I've found that getting fancy does not improve this dish)

Boil pasta in one pot and put everything else on med-low in another big pot. When the pasta's done and all the frozen stuff in the sauce is hot, it's ready! Only takes about 20 minutes, total. The pink sauce is sooooo good! And Wacky Mac is stand-alone good!