I am an adult leader at my church for the youth group and lately we have been having a hard time finding families to host dinner for the teens on sunday evenings.
So, I told the youth minister that I would do the cooking for the group on the days that needed to be filled.
We have 5 or so non-meat eaters.
The night I made burgers and fries was easy because I just got them bocco burgers and made potato salad and picnic fixings.
But, there are going to be other nights where I’m going to fix stuff that isn’t going to work for them. I don’t want them always stuck with salads or bocco burgers, and I don’t want the other kids to feel that if I make the whole dinner meatless that I am catering to the needs of a few.
I would like to do two main dishes but I am not a vegetable person myself so I am clueless.
I thought about the lemon spaghetti mentioned in another thread and would like some more quick and easy ideas.
Veggie lasagna.
Assuming vegetarian, not vegan:
Spaghetti with marinara sauce
Veggy pizza
Grilled Cheese
Make-your-own chef’s salads. Provide a variety of toppings like ham, turkey, bacon, hard boiled eggs, beans, different cheeses, chickpeas, etc. etc. People can pick and choose according to their dietary needs.
Macaroni and cheese
Quiches or other egg dishes with cheese and vegetables
Bean and/or potato burritos
If you’ve got vegans in the crowd, I’d say take them aside and tell them that they can’t always count on a vegan meal. In my experience, it’s pretty hard to come up with a set of varied vegan meals that non-vegans will also enjoy (one or two meals are easy - coming up with something every Sunday will get hard) Most vegans are reasonable and understand that not everyone wants to eat a restricted diet and will bring their own or eat prior to coming to the group.
Make a good hearty non-meat soup. Separate half of it and add meat.
Good soups:
Vegetable (add any meat)
Cream of vegetable. (Add chicken)
Bean Barley (add beef)
Split pea (add ham)
Lentil (add any meat)
Take a look at the cookbooks listed on the Parenting, Kids, and Special Diets page or on the Vegan Cookbooks page on the same site.
Check out the selection of Morningstar Farms products at your local grocery store. Their stuff is much better and more interesting than the Boca crap. Since you’re accustomed to cooking with meat, it should be easy for you to find Morningstar Farms alternatives for all kinds of things.
Taco bar.
Taco meat, beans, rice, cheese, lettuce, tomato, avocado, etc. Tortillas, tortilla chips, taco shells.
Let everyone build their own to suit.
This one’s pretty easy to do vegan, also. Get 'em some of that weird cheese and make sure that some of your chips/tortillas are lard-free. Oh, and the beans too.
Most vegetarians/vegans I know are pretty happy with bean & rice tacos, but you can also get fake ground beef if you want to make some veg-friendly taco filling. (There used to be a mexican-flavored, but I don’t see it on the website. I’ve not tried making taco filling out of anything but chopped beef, so you’re on your own there.)
Yeah, tacos, burritos and enchiladas are all easy to make vegetarian.
Another favorite vegetarian meat stand-in I enjoy just as much as meat is Portabella Mushrooms. They’re delicious and pretty darn versatile.
Yes, not vegan just non-meat.
I like the idea of veggie lasagna, so that it has something in it not just meatless.
It was almost like the minute I realised I would have to cook for the veggie kids my mind went blank.
Grilled cheese sounds like a great idea! Didn’t dawn on me until it was mentioned and then I had a duh moment.
Thanks for the great ideas and links. More ideas are welcomed!
Veggie chili
Innumerable veggie pastas