The KInd Life Community Forum

i am 16 years old and my mom cooks our dinners. but she cooks dinners that have meat in it. so i end up eating these premade microwavable dinners. but i dont like them because i see them as unhealthy and i prefere homecooked meals. i dont know what to do about my meals so that they are healthy and vegeterian. please help me.

I agree (as a mom) if you don't want the food she works hard to prepare, then you will have to fix your own. Get a good basic vegan cookbook that doesn't require crazy ingredients that are hard to find. Make a small list for the store each week and if your parents won't buy it for you, buy it yourself and fix it. After a while, when you are proving to them that you are healthier and happier eating this way, your mom may be willing to fix you some things some times too.

kirene has some good advice, especially about staples. I would also suggest perhaps trying to find simple, recognizable dishes that your family might also enjoy (such as googling vegan pasta recipes - everyone likes pasta and you can find some pretty yummy recipes that they might be willing to try and they'll find out that your 'vegan' dishes are good and they enjoy them, too). If you have The Kind Diet, there are some good pasta recipes in there, but like I said you can google and find all sorts of stuff. Also, if you have the book, maybe ask her to read it - that you would like her to understand why it's important to you and that it will really be good for your health - son't all moma want their kids to be healthy?

My 13 year old tried vegetarian 2 summers ago, while the rest of us continued to be meat eaters. She ate a lot of frozen vegie burgers. She only lasted 3 weeks and she gave in to a real burger. This past summer she decided to try again and she and I both did some reading. I decided to go vegetarian too and spent the summer learning to cook lots of different dishes. We eat a lot of brown rice and beans and fresh stir fries. Fresh food tastes the best and my daughter is still a vegetarian after 7 months. I cook meat for her sister and dad, but we have actually found it easy to incorporate a lot of vegetarian options. Microwaved yams are great. She can easilty put together a stir fry now, and likes to stuff pitas with vegies. She eats a lot of hummus. Don't give up. If you leave some informative books around, your family just might join you! Just make sure you get healthy proteins... beans, nuts, whole grains. Don't rely too heavily on the prepared tofu foods. Too much soy actually is not good for you. Good luck!

I feel your pain. I am 19 and I commute to college. My entire family loves meat and dairy and getting them to cut back seems close to impossible. However, they are very supportive of me. This didn't used to be the case as they often teased me and begged for me to "switch back" to make their lives easier. I sat down with them though and told them how important this lifestyle is to me and that their comments hurt me. This changed everything and now they are so understanding. I definitely recommend making your own food. It's what I have to do at every meal. It's really not so bad. The fact that you'll be learning how to cook your own meals at 16 will help you learn the basics and become more experienced than people twice your age. When you're on your own, you'll already know how to take of yourself. Also, because you are the only one eating the meals most of the time, you'll have leftovers that will last days! That means less cooking throughout the week. For example, I like to do an oatmeal or some sort of grain porridge in my slow cooker on a sunday night and when I wake up monday morning it's all ready and I have leftover oatmeal for the rest of the week. The same can be done with vegetable soups and chilis. I highly recommend buying a slow cooker and finding some good recipes. I also found that when I make my vegan meals, my family will try them out and they usually love them! I make vegan brownies and other desserts all the time and they love my pumpkin pancakes. You may find that your mother will make some of the vegan dishes on her own after seeing how delicious they are! I know how hard it is to be a teenager and be the only vegan you know, so I'm always here if you need support :). Good luck with everything!