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Pictured Recipe:Sweet Potato & Black Bean Chili
For someone with a picky-eater kid whose favorite foods are bacon, steak, A.1. sauce and chicken (in that order), you have to wonder what sort of thinking got into my head when I decided to cut meat from our family dinner rotation for a month.
It sort of started as a whim, but lately I’ve been feeling like our family is just eating way too much meat. It’s expensive. Eating more plant-based meals is ahealthy choice, better for the planetand couldsave us moneytoo. So one day, when my husband and I sat down to tackle the weekly shopping list, I said, “What do you think about me cooking only vegan dinners this week?”
He blinked once and replied, “Sure? But what kind of food would we eat?”
“Lots of stuff!” I claimed defiantly and set to task pulling together a month’s worth of vegan dinner ideas for families, including delicious things likefalafel with tahini sauceandvegetable lo mein.
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. 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. Every. Dang. Day.) In fact, they loved it. Score! I proclaimed proudly, “See? And it’s totally vegan!”
“Oops,” Hubs said as he pointed to two glasses of milk he’d just poured for the kids and the Cheddar cheese he had just dumped in everyone’s bowls of chili.
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. This time around my daughter was so into it, she asked that I heat up leftovers in the morning to pack in a thermos for her lunch.
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. Everyone’s happy.
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.
Pictured Recipe:Chickpea Curry
Day 8:This meatless dinner thing was only meant to be for a week, but I was rediscovering a new inspiration in our meals. I was enjoying looking for new recipe ideas—and eating things besides chicken and potatoes. The kids were doing … OK.
So, as my husband and I sat down to plan our weekly grocery list, I said, “I want to try this vegetarian thing all month. Can we do it?” I knew I was asking a lot. But he agreed. Love that man.
Day 15:The third Sunday, the Hubs came home from the grocery store with a pound of bacon. It appeared my stalwart in this no-meat challenge was wavering.
Day 16:Taco night withbeefless beef. A hit!
Day 17:Cheese lasagna(cue tears). It was the plainest, cheesiest lasagna I could possibly make. And he cried. 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.
Day 22:We went out to eat at a restaurant for Sunday lunch and everyone in the family ordered steak, except for me.
Days 23-30:The last week of our meatless dinner month, we pulled together all of the recipes from the weeks before that everyone had loved and had them again. Because, why make it any harder than it needs to be?
And yes, we did eventually eat the bacon, sprinkled on top of a cheesy soup, but I made the Hubs cook that night.
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!
01of 11Sweet Potato & Black Bean ChiliView RecipePhotographer/Antonis Achilleos, Prop Stylist/Kay Clarke, Food Stylist/Emily Nabors Hall02of 11Squash & Red Lentil CurryView Recipe03of 11Black Bean TacosView Recipe04of 11Spicy Vegetable Lo MeinView Recipe05of 11FalafelView Recipe06of 11Chhole (Chickpea Curry)View Recipe07of 11Beefless Ground BeefView Recipe08of 11Szechuan Tofu & Green Bean Stir-FryView Recipe09of 11Coconut-Crusted Tofu with Peach-Lemongrass SalsaView Recipe10of 11BBQ Carrot DogsView Recipe11of 11Noodle Bowl with Rainbow Veggies & Peanut SauceView Recipe
01of 11Sweet Potato & Black Bean ChiliView RecipePhotographer/Antonis Achilleos, Prop Stylist/Kay Clarke, Food Stylist/Emily Nabors Hall
01of 11
Sweet Potato & Black Bean Chili
View Recipe
Photographer/Antonis Achilleos, Prop Stylist/Kay Clarke, Food Stylist/Emily Nabors Hall
02of 11Squash & Red Lentil CurryView Recipe
02of 11
Squash & Red Lentil Curry
03of 11Black Bean TacosView Recipe
03of 11
Black Bean Tacos
04of 11Spicy Vegetable Lo MeinView Recipe
04of 11
Spicy Vegetable Lo Mein
05of 11FalafelView Recipe
05of 11
Falafel
06of 11Chhole (Chickpea Curry)View Recipe
06of 11
Chhole (Chickpea Curry)
07of 11Beefless Ground BeefView Recipe
07of 11
Beefless Ground Beef
08of 11Szechuan Tofu & Green Bean Stir-FryView Recipe
08of 11
Szechuan Tofu & Green Bean Stir-Fry
09of 11Coconut-Crusted Tofu with Peach-Lemongrass SalsaView Recipe
09of 11
Coconut-Crusted Tofu with Peach-Lemongrass Salsa
10of 11BBQ Carrot DogsView Recipe
10of 11
BBQ Carrot Dogs
11of 11Noodle Bowl with Rainbow Veggies & Peanut SauceView Recipe
11of 11
Noodle Bowl with Rainbow Veggies & Peanut Sauce
What I LearnedSo how did we do? We made it through the month. Everyone did great. The kids were exposed to the new flavors, we saved some money on meat, and I was able to find new dinner inspiration. These were some of the tricks that helped us get through:1. Planning is key:Planning out our meals at the beginning of each week helped us get excited for what was to come. Both of us looked around in magazines and on the web for recipe ideas that we wanted to try. I created a shared doc on my phone that both my husband and I could access that included each day of the week listed out with exactly what we were having for dinner that night (including sides) with all of the recipe links in one place, so that we didn’t have to go hunting for them during the weeknight rush. Planning your meals also means you can prep ingredients ahead of time if that’s your MO.2. Keep it simple:Trying new recipes can be fun and inspiring, but if you’re planning meals for weeknights, just make sure they’re achievable. Keep the ingredient lists short, and read the recipe ahead of time before you commit.3. Be flexible:Trying to get your kids to eat (and enjoy) a healthy meal is hard enough as it is. In our family, we’ve got food allergies to deal with too, which limits our options. I wanted to challenge our family to get out of our comfort zone, branch out and try a new way of eating. But I also wanted us to enjoy our meals—and not feel restricted. Because, ultimately, I’d love if our family eats more vegetarian dinners forever. Not just for a month.4. Get the kids to help:This is a big one. Really, the biggest reason for the tears is that the kids just want to be involved in the decision-making process. They want to have some control over what they’re eating. Having them help choose the recipes, and even prepare the meals, made them more likely to want to eat them.5. Compile a recipe hit list and keep them in the rotation:You don’t need to reinvent the wheel every week. If there are recipes your family loves, keep eating them! Our family has black bean tacos almost every week.Kid-Friendly Vegetarian Dinner Recipes
What I Learned
So how did we do? We made it through the month. Everyone did great. The kids were exposed to the new flavors, we saved some money on meat, and I was able to find new dinner inspiration. These were some of the tricks that helped us get through:
Planning is key:Planning out our meals at the beginning of each week helped us get excited for what was to come. Both of us looked around in magazines and on the web for recipe ideas that we wanted to try. I created a shared doc on my phone that both my husband and I could access that included each day of the week listed out with exactly what we were having for dinner that night (including sides) with all of the recipe links in one place, so that we didn’t have to go hunting for them during the weeknight rush. Planning your meals also means you can prep ingredients ahead of time if that’s your MO.
Keep it simple:Trying new recipes can be fun and inspiring, but if you’re planning meals for weeknights, just make sure they’re achievable. Keep the ingredient lists short, and read the recipe ahead of time before you commit.
Be flexible:Trying to get your kids to eat (and enjoy) a healthy meal is hard enough as it is. In our family, we’ve got food allergies to deal with too, which limits our options. I wanted to challenge our family to get out of our comfort zone, branch out and try a new way of eating. But I also wanted us to enjoy our meals—and 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. Really, the biggest reason for the tears is that the kids just want to be involved in the decision-making process. They want to have some control over what they’re eating. Having them help choose the recipes, and even prepare the meals, made them more likely to want to eat them.
Compile a recipe hit list and keep them in the rotation:You don’t need to reinvent the wheel every week. If there are recipes your family loves, keep eating them! Our family has black bean tacos almost every week.
Kid-Friendly Vegetarian Dinner Recipes
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