Feeding Your Vegetarian Grandchild

It's turkey day, and your grandchild doesn't eat meat. No sweat: Swap out a vegetarian for a traditional recipe.

It took years of practice to gauge just how long it takes to marinate the bird in those savory juices. With bare hands, you rubbed on the secret blend of seasonings you've been perfecting through the years — the one that consistently earns your turkey accolades from around the table. The meat looks pleasingly moist as it falls from the bone. Ah, perfection. Grace is said. It's time to gorge on this year's Thanksgiving feast. Just as the platter piled high with slivers of meat reaches your grandchild, she breezily announces, "I can't eat that — I'm a vegetarian!"

If you've been a meat-and-potatoes eater all your life, you may just choke on your turkey as images of a waiflike child wasting away crowd your mind. Then the panic strikes: What do you serve your grandchild while the rest of the family shovels in the turkey? One hint: If you're charged with making this year's holiday meal, ask if anyone on the guest list is a vegetarian. If yes, consider swapping out a more traditional menu item with one of the vegetarian recipes mentioned below.

Once considered a hippie fad, vegetarianism has now joined the ranks of the full-fledged mainstream, pulling more, younger herbivores into the fold — NPR reported in July 2007 that 2 million school-age children in America eat a vegetarian diet.

First, there are the health benefits to consider. According to the American Heart Association, multiple studies have shown that vegetarians are at lower risk for obesity, coronary heart disease (which leads to heart attack), high blood pressure, diabetes mellitus and even some forms of cancer. And, reports the AHA, if carefully planned to include essential nutrients, vegetarian diets can be nutritionally sound.

Nowadays, vegetarians can consult a bevy of easily accessible vegetarian Web sites and cookbooks to ensure they're following a healthy diet. Many vital nutrients can be obtained from meat-free sources: iron from eggs, lentils and nuts, and calcium from broccoli, kale and spinach.

Ethos & Environment

Your grandchild may choose to abstain from eating meat because of his or her personal ethical beliefs. Some people simply believe it is wrong to kill another living creature for food or to raise animals in cramped conditions (think: chickens crammed together in tiny wire cages).

Or an environmentally conscious grandchild may cite the amount of energy and resources used in raising a pound of beef compared with plant alternatives, or forest being cleared for cattle-rearing. A report published earlier this year by the U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization cited livestock production as one of the major causes of the world's most pressing environmental problems, including global warming, land degradation, air and water pollution and loss of biodiversity.

Naomi Stein, a grandmother of three from Bradley Beach, N.J., says her granddaughter Abbe falls into the animal-lover camp. Abbe couldn't bear the thought of animals being killed to feed her and decided to become a vegetarian in her mid-teens. Instead of questioning her grandchild's decision or dreading the thought of cooking vegetarian, Naomi took the announcement in stride. "It was not difficult," says Naomi, "and I was happy to do it for my granddaughter if that's what would please her."

Adapting family meals to include a vegetarian option for Abbe was easy, says Naomi. "We always have fruit first, a piece of melon or apple sauce with the meal, then vegetables and a starch. She ate those with us," explains Naomi. As her son was used to Abbe's favorites, he was able to steer Naomi to protein sources that were new to her. "My son showed me things I could buy — veggie burgers and chicken substitutes — and put those in the freezer for me. I love to cook, so for me it wasn't a big deal to make something extra," says Naomi.

Learn New Tricks

"Now I cook tofu, stir-fried in cubes with herbs, onions, mushrooms and zucchini," adds Naomi. And Abbe's vegetarian lifestyle has introduced Grandma to another delicious treat she had never tried before. "My son grew soy beans in our garden this year," says Naomi. "We boiled them and sprayed them with butter. They were absolutely delicious!"

Looking for new recipes to try out with your young vegetarian this Thanksgiving? Try these favorites from MeatlessMonday.com, a Web site that provides healthful, sumptuous options for people who choose not to eat meat.

Red-Zone Chili: An easy one-pot dinner bursting with nutrition

Portobello "Pizza": Savory mushroom "pies" with a chewy, earthy mushroom base

Black Bean & Corn Salad: Tasty on its own, served in a pita, or with crunchy greens