Vegetarian Families

I wouldn’t say we are a vegetarian household but we are pretty conscience about how much meat and animal products we eat. More and more families are either completely eliminating or decreasing their intake of animal by-products. Things like meatless Monday and vegan Thursday are being practiced in many homes across America. Not only is adapting a vegetarian lifestyle healthier for you, it’s also ecofriendly. Raising and slaughtering animals for food uses up valuable resources and pollutes the air and water increasing our carbon foot print.

E and I eat vegetarian about five out of the seven days a week and we don’t miss the meat. The challenging part to being vegetarian is getting enough protein. Protein is made up of building blocks called amino acids. The amino acids that the body can’t produce are called essential amino acids. Essential amino acids come from the food we eat. Meat, poultry, eggs and soy all contain complete proteins which are made up of all nine essential amino acids. Incomplete proteins such as vegetables and legumes need to be eaten together in order to make them complete. Here are some examples for your family, baby or toddler:

Baby:

• Pureed lentils with barley cereal
• Hummus made with tahini
• Pureed black beans with sunflower seed butter

Parents/Toddler:

• Peanut butter on whole grain toast
• Lentil vegetable soup with barley and kale
• Black Bean and quinoa salad
• Spinach Salad with walnuts and chickpeas
• Hummus with whole wheat pita

Other vitamins that vegetarian families need to make sure they are getting enough of are B12, calcium (if your family is vegan) and iron. Foods rich in these vitamins are calcium fortified soy, almond or rice milk, fortified cereals, dark leafy greens such as kale, collards, mustard and Swiss chard, broccoli, tempeh, edamame, lentils etc.

Remember, just because you or your family is vegetarian or vegan doesn’t necessarily mean you are living a healthy lifestyle. You still need to watch out for saturated fats, bad cholesterol and foods that are calorie dense. 

If you are pregnant or breastfeeding and are vegetarian/vegan make sure you are getting enough nutrients for you and baby and that you continue to take your prenatal vitamins. Make sure you let your obgyn and pediatricians know that you plan to be vegetarian throughout your pregnancy as well as bring up your child vegetarian. That way they can ensure everyone is getting enough of what they need.

Below is one of my favorite vegetarian recipes. It is dairy and gluten free and very nutritious!

Lentil and Kale Soup

Serves 6 for a starter; Serves 4 for dinner

2 tsp. olive oil

1 cup onions, small dice

½ cup carrots, small dice

½ cup celery, small dice

¾ cup tomatoes, small dice

14 oz. green lentils, picked over*

2 quarts homemade or low sodium vegetable broth (look for gluten free versions if necessary)

4 cups of kale, chopped small

Salt and pepper to taste

Heat oil in a large Dutch oven or deep pot and add onions,celery and carrots. Season the vegetables with salt and pepper and let sweat for 10 min stirring pretty constantly. Add tomatoes, lentils and vegetable broth and bring to a boil. Lower the heat to a simmer, cover and cook for 35-45 minutes until lentils are soft and barely falling apart. Add the kale to the soup and let simmer until wilted. Season the soup to taste with salt and pepper and serve.This can also be pureed and given to baby!

To make this soup even heartier you can add diced potatoes when the tomatoes go in or serve with a whole grain baguette.

*Lentils, as well as other dried legumes should be spread out on a tray and picked over before cooking. 9 times out of 10 you’ll find little pebbles in your lentils, it’s no big deal just didn’t get picked out during the drying process.