20 Easy Kid Friendly Meatless Recipes for Families (2024)

You are here: Home / recipe / 20+ Kid Friendly Meatless Meals for Families

By Jen

Whether you are vegetarian, vegan or just looking for a little meatless Monday inspiration. This collection of kid-friendly meatless recipes will help make meal planning easy. Be sure to check out all of our other meatless meals for kids recipes too…we’ve got quite a few awesome kid-friendly vegetarian recipes.

20 Easy Kid Friendly Meatless Recipes for Families (1)

for your convenience, this post contains affiliate links

Like many of you, we have been overwhelmed by the information about eating less meat. Recently, the Canadian government released the updated Canadian Health Guide, in which they recommend eating less meat and more protein alternatives. But…they used to say that meat was healthy? What are we supposed to do?

Well, as confusing as the mix of information might be we are moving ahead with what I have always believed – eating a balanced diet. What this means to us is adding more vegetable and protein alternative meals into our recipe repertoire.

Eating less meat is a healthy break for our bodies and an opportunity to discover new dishes. Let’s face it, the first thought I had when I was thinking of taking on this change was “how am I going to convince my kids to eat more veggies?” Yes, our kids are great eaters, they don’t shy away from very many meals, but adding more vegetable-based dishes might be too much for me to handle.

So, what do you do when you have a challenge ahead? We plan the heck out of that challenge. I’ve been super busy preparing for our new meat-less lifestyle. I’ve done a lot of research and have gathered together a collection of delicious, kid-friendly meatless meals.

We don’t want to just “get by”…we want to enjoy each and every meatless meal we eat.

20 Kid-Friendly Meatless Recipes

20+ Kid Friendly Meatless Recipes

A collection of over 20 delicious kid-friendly vegetarian recipes that are easy to make and delicious.

20 Easy Kid Friendly Meatless Recipes for Families (2)

Photo Credit:www.budgetbytes.com

Spinach and Mushroom Crustless Quiche

Budget Bytes shares a simple breakfast, lunch or dinner option spinach, mushroom & feta quiche.

20 Easy Kid Friendly Meatless Recipes for Families (3)

Photo Credit:www.kitchencounterchronicle.com

Vegetarian Lentil Sloppy Joe Sandwich Recipe

One of our favourite kid-friendly vegetarian dinner dishes. A hearty and healthy lentil sloppy joe recipe.

20 Easy Kid Friendly Meatless Recipes for Families (4)

Photo Credit:damndelicious.net

Easy Lo Mein

Damn Delicious shares a super simple and kid friendly lo mein recipe.

20 Easy Kid Friendly Meatless Recipes for Families (5)

Photo Credit:www.kitchencounterchronicle.com

Kale Salad with Pesto Dressing and Crispy Chick Peas

Our power packed kale salad has crispy chickpeas, toasted pumpkin seeds, and a kid-friendly pesto dressing.

A mild curry that kids will love - chickpeas and rice curry for the win.

20 Easy Kid Friendly Meatless Recipes for Families (7)

Photo Credit:www.kitchencounterchronicle.com

Spring Vegetable Pasta Primavera with Goat Cheese

Kids will gobble up this creamy spring vegetable pasta primavera.

20 Easy Kid Friendly Meatless Recipes for Families (8)

Photo Credit:choosingchia.com

Black Bean Veggie Burritos

Choosing Chia shares how to bring together this amazing black bean vegetarian burrito - the perfect alternative to a typical taco Tuesday.

20 Easy Kid Friendly Meatless Recipes for Families (9)

Photo Credit:momstestkitchen.com

Easy Vegetable Pot Pie

Did someone say pie?! Get the kids to eat veggies with Mom's Test Kitchen's easy vegetable pot pie.

20 Easy Kid Friendly Meatless Recipes for Families (10)

Photo Credit:www.thepioneerwoman.com

Cauliflower Soup

The Pioneer Woman shares a flavour packed smooth cauliflower soup...perfect hot lunch idea.

20 Easy Kid Friendly Meatless Recipes for Families (11)

Photo Credit:www.eatsamazing.co.uk

Easy Couscous Salad Recipe

Fruit can be savoury too. Pack in the fruit with Eats Amazing's fruity couscous salad.

20 Easy Kid Friendly Meatless Recipes for Families (12)

Photo Credit:www.cookingclassy.com

Vegetarian Quinoa Chili Recipe

Who said chilli has to be full of beef? Swap out the meat with Cooking Classy's quinoa chilli.

20 Easy Kid Friendly Meatless Recipes for Families (13)

Photo Credit:www.kitchencounterchronicle.com

Three Cheese Baked Pasta Recipe

Can't forget the kids' favourite three cheese pasta. Yep, gooey and cheesy and perfect for lunch or dinner (my kids would say it's perfect for breakfast too).

20 Easy Kid Friendly Meatless Recipes for Families (14)

Photo Credit:parentingchaos.com

Rainbow Fruit Pizza

How delightful is this? Kids will love eating Parenting Chaos' colourful rainbow fruit pizza.

20 Easy Kid Friendly Meatless Recipes for Families (15)

Photo Credit:intheplayroom.co.uk

Sweet Potato and Chickpea Curry with Lemongrass

Curry is another favourite with our kids. A delicious oaty sweet potato and chickpea curry with lemongrass from In the Playroom.

20 Easy Kid Friendly Meatless Recipes for Families (16)

Photo Credit:www.kitchencounterchronicle.com

Quick and Easy Vegetarian Meatloaf

Where did the meat go in our vegetarian meatloaf? You seriously won't even miss the meat.

20 Easy Kid Friendly Meatless Recipes for Families (17)

Photo Credit:food-4tots.com

Cauliflower Tots

Food 4 Tots shares a recipe for irresistible cauliflower tots. Cauliflower is such a versatile vegetable.

20 Easy Kid Friendly Meatless Recipes for Families (18)

Photo Credit:www.marthastewart.com

Baked Spaghetti and Mozzarella Recipe

Deliciously simple baked spaghetti with mozzarella from Martha Stewart. Classic and crowd pleasing.

20 Easy Kid Friendly Meatless Recipes for Families (19)

Photo Credit:betsylife.com

Buffalo Quinoa Bites

Kids will go crazy for BetsyLife's Buffalo quinoa bites and dipping sauce.

20 Easy Kid Friendly Meatless Recipes for Families (20)

Photo Credit:www.kitchencounterchronicle.com

Kid Friendly, Easy Vegetarian Chili Recipe

Kids love our vegetarian chili - hearty and rich flavour. Perfect on a cool day and in the thermos too!

20 Easy Kid Friendly Meatless Recipes for Families (21)

Photo Credit:www.superhealthykids.com

Veggie Nuggets Recipe

Super Healthy Kids shares a crunchy kid favourite veggie nugget recipe.

20 Easy Kid Friendly Meatless Recipes for Families (22)

Photo Credit:www.shelikesfood.com

BBQ Shepherds Pie with Chickpeas and Lentils

Shepherd's pie without the meat? Yep, She Likes Food shares a kid-friendly vegetarian BBQ shepherd's pie.

20 Easy Kid Friendly Meatless Recipes for Families (23)

Photo Credit:www.kitchencounterchronicle.com

Easy Cheesy Meatless Lasagna Rolls

Our vegetarian lasagna rolls are fun to make, fun to eat and make delicious leftovers for the lunchbox.

A Few Common Questions About Being Vegetarian

What does “vegetarian” mean?

A vegetarian is a person who does not eat meat and meat products. While vegetarians do not eat meat, they often eat eggs and dairy products. People may be vegetarian for moral, religious, social or health related reasons.

What does “vegan” mean?

Vegan is a word that people are less familiar with – but that has become much more popular in the last decade. A vegan is a person who does not eat meat and meat products – including any dairy products or eggs. Vegans eat nothing that is an animal by product – even honey.

What does “pescatarian” mean?

A pescatarian is another branch of vegetarianism. A pescatarian does not eat meat, but they do eat fish and seafood. While their diet is largely plant-based, they do eat seafood.

20 Easy Kid Friendly Meatless Recipes for Families (24)20 Easy Kid Friendly Meatless Recipes for Families (25)

Using a spiralizer or slicing the vegetables thinly can help your vegetarian dishes be more fun and more palatable for kids. This spiralizer is very well-rated and is affordable.

Check out our collection of family friendly vegan recipes too!

Make sure you are following along…

FOLLOW KITCHEN COUNTER CHRONICLES ON

SUBSCRIBE TO KITCHEN COUNTER CHRONICLES TO HAVE OUR DELICIOUS RECIPES, FUN CRAFTS & ACTIVITIES DELIVERED DIRECTLY TO YOUR INBOX.

FACEBOOK:: PINTEREST:: TWITTER::INSTAGRAM

About Jen

Jen Farr is a mother living in Toronto, Canada. She has been sharing her DIY crafts, recipes, activities and parenting advice for over 15 years on her blog Kitchen Counter Chronicle. Jen is the mom of 2 lovely daughters. She believes in the power of taking small steps that can make big impacts on the world.

Previous Post: « Cute Reindeer Cup Craft

Next Post: How to Make a DIY Cookie Cutter Bird Feeder »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Jennifer Fischer says

    I repinned this and clicked through because I love adding meatless meals to our meal plans and then saw my recipe shared! Thanks so much. This is a great post. I loved it before I saw my recipe and now I love it even more.

20 Easy Kid Friendly Meatless Recipes for Families (2024)
Top Articles
Latest Posts
Article information

Author: Wyatt Volkman LLD

Last Updated:

Views: 6072

Rating: 4.6 / 5 (46 voted)

Reviews: 93% of readers found this page helpful

Author information

Name: Wyatt Volkman LLD

Birthday: 1992-02-16

Address: Suite 851 78549 Lubowitz Well, Wardside, TX 98080-8615

Phone: +67618977178100

Job: Manufacturing Director

Hobby: Running, Mountaineering, Inline skating, Writing, Baton twirling, Computer programming, Stone skipping

Introduction: My name is Wyatt Volkman LLD, I am a handsome, rich, comfortable, lively, zealous, graceful, gifted person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.