My daughters decided that they were vegetarian about 5 months ago, although they do eat fish. I thought I would humour them at first but they seem quite determined and it is a real pain! Husband and I like meat, can't beat a good steak! It all came about because the eldest one watched a video at school about animals being raised and slaughtered. Whilst I admire their commitment, I'm fed up with being the short order chef.
My main worry is they are not getting enough protein as they don't like nuts or beans, since my husband is allergic to nuts who ate my Cadbury's Whole Nut then?
Please help.

How old are they?

Google is your friend on this as protein imbalance is a major worry for many vegetarians. Finding the proper source of it and other nutrients is something you should look into to ensure they are getting the proper nutrition. 'Fad' vegetarians who just thing 'I'll eat salad everyday' often run into some problems later on if they don't properly adjust their diets.

If she is serious you should get her some rather odd vegetarian dishes, like a tofu burger or some other things. They might help give her a different balance of nutrition, or they might scare her away back to the carnivore way of thinking.

As for me, hey, 'the West wasn't won on salad' so I don't have much personal advice to offer.

17 and 14. Part of me wants to get them to shop, prepare, cook and clean up but then the "Mum" thing kicks in and I do it.

I'd rather admire their determination and committment when it's on their dime and they have to cook for themselves.

Get them to do the research into getting a balanced diet. There's a level of responsibility to yourself in becoming a vegetarian. Once they can give you menus for dinners they will eat that provide them with everything they need to keep healthy then they can stop eating meat. Teach them it's not a decision to be made lightly.

For the record, I could never be a vegetarian.

Well I feel the same way having to think of meat meals for the carnivores I live with!

There is no reason why your kids cannot be perfectly healthy and lots of food has protein, you can still replace the meat in your regular meals with veggies sausages, burgers, tvp etc.

Most meals can have a veggie alternative, tacos, lasagne, curries, chilli, and if they eat fish I cant see why you would need to be making lots of different meals. Why not encourage them to come up with ideas or cook in the kitchen with you?

My stepson is a very picky eater but I am getting him to cook things with me when we have time.

Good point.. On the plus side we're eating much less red meat and instead of using frozen or tinned veg, we're buying fresh so there is a health benefit.

Then they are not vegetarians. I am so sick of people thinking a vegetarian meal can contain fish!!

I agree with Neil, if they're young they have to understand that if you restrict your diet though, then you have to do so in a mature fashion. Maybe you should apply this attitude towards them. Try black beans and rice, delicious

I'd rather keel over at 50 and have had the odd T-bone steak than all I had to look forward to was a can of peas.

Is there any particular brand of meat alternatives that you would recommend? We've had a few hits and misses on the ready to cook stuff. I'm just struggling at the moment to make sure that we all are getting the nutrients we need and that meals are tasty

Not disagreeing with you! I'm hoping they grow out of it, time will tell.

So what would you call them? I don't see a problem with it being called vegetarian, surely it's down to their reasons. If it's because of the farming/butchering methods of farm bred animals why couldn't you eat fish? Although you might want to try to make sure where your fish came from.

They can be hit and miss, Morning Star or Boca are pretty good, the fake chicken burgers are good and if you are putting anything like that in a bun with lettuce mayo etc they are fine.

I make a lot of veggie soups -leek and potato, tuscan bean, cheese and broccoli. Mexican food is easy tacos work well cos all yu are doing is having two versions of the 'meat'.

I lived with a vegetarian vegan for a while and cooked for her three teenage kids. I discovered some scrumptious food and I can put it down to one thing: Crescent Dragonwagon.

http://www.amazon.com/Passionate-Veg...6187672&sr=8-1

Heartily recommend this one. Every recipe is a delicious winner. Except mushrooms. They taste like poo. Earthy poo.