Protein Vegetarian meals

[sarah.payne]

Can anyone help me think of vegetarian meals with protein in?

[mrsnoah]

Anything containing soya?

[tutu]

egg cheese any pulse tofu quorn etc etc

[Ruthierhyme]

Hi, for vegetarian and vegan diets it's more to do with the variety of plant and where appropriate, dairy based foods that are provided across a day, a week and for long tem planning two/3 or 4 weeks, in opposition to identifying one-off or single high content meals. This is where menu planning is great as it gives you the opportunity to evaluate nutritional values ie. what a day's worth of calories, protein, fibre, vitamins, calcium & other minerals are.

It can also help to look at what protein actually is and how much ** individuals are recommended to have as their daily intake



Adult women: 45g
Adult men: 55g
http://www.food.gov.uk/multimedia/pd...nstitution.pdf

Protein is a label word for amino acids, of the *21 amino acids found in humans *9 are essential ie. they can not be synthesized in the body - the other 11 are as the body makes them itself/internally/synthesized


Children and babies however have 12 essential amino acids as their bodies are developing the processes necessary for internal synthesis.

• 12 Essential amino acids for babies and children are:

o Arginine
o Cysteine
o Histidine soya, tofu, beans, buckwheat, corn, cauliflower, mushrooms, potatoes, bamboo shoots, bananas, cantaloupe, citrus fruits
o Isoleucine
o Leucine
o Lysine - and on vegsoc.org.uk
o Methionine - as above on vegsoc.org.uk
o Phenylalanine - banana
o Threonine
o Tryptophan
o Tyrosine
o Valine - lentils

The links may help you to see which foods they're found in and how those foods are almost certainly alreay seen in your menus, use the actual foods and weight of a food to measure protein xx

Just like bead threading! Amino acids are used by the body to make many many different proteins, each of these look like a string or a chain of amino acid molecules, placed in different orders depending on what they are to be used for;

• - - - - cell structures
• - - - - hormones
• - - - - antibodies
• - - - - enzymes

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebit...esisrev1.shtml

There is some controversy over what a meal should look like - war time meat and 3 veg, the question over why vegtarians/vegans eat meat-free foods that are shaped to resemble meat, and the myth that vegetarians are unable to acquire the correct amount of protein in their meals if meat is missing. All this makes it very useful to understand what protein actually is and how it's amino acids that help ensure a healthy food cupboard

Meat is a complete protein, as it's animal/fish/bug/mollusc owner has already consumed & synthesized the necessasry amino acids needed for it to live, have a functioning body with active organs & muscle. This contrasts with plant & dairy amino acids where no single food or potential food contains all the amino acids, so a mix & match approach to meals is needed

Websites:
For nutritional information

• http://www.food.gov.uk/multimedia/pdfs/nutrientinstitution.pdf
• The veg cards on http://www.veggietrumps.com/
• http://www.naturalhydrationcouncil.org.uk
• http://www.fabflour.co.uk/content/1/...and-bread.html
• Recommended amounts of physical activity - DoH
• Time to eat, explore foods and digest - quiet, rest and sleep from PennState Sweet dreams part 1 and Sweet dreams part 2

For recipe and menu ideas

• http://www.vegetarianforlife.org.uk/vfl.aspx?page=560
• http://www.draytonhouse.co.uk/vegetarian-menu.html
• http://www.vegkitchen.com/kid-friendly-recipes/
• http://www.cookveg.co.uk/
• http://www.egglesscooking.com

Tips for working with foods

• Get to know product labels
Devise a way to record a day of meals and each indivual ingredient's nutritional content: eg. Each slice of bread provided ad a sandwich, a quanitity of cheese, each separate salad veg
• Visit product websites to see what information is published
• Experiment with mixing foods together eg. putting beans with/on toast

o Spaghetti with soya mince and a no-salt tomato sauce, served with carrot & cucumber sticks
o Veggie lasagne
o Strawberries and apple crumble with custard
o Milk over fortified cereals
o Cottage pie and salad veg
o Low sugar flapjack with vanilla ice cream
o Vegan sausage in batter, with beans, peas, new potatoes and maybe no-salt gravy
o Veggie stew and dumplings
o Pumpkin soup and grilled croutons
o Rice - savoury, salad, curry, sweet & sour with soy chunks
o Tofu quiche and salad veg
o Thin crust, deep filled pizza breads - making your own minimises the level of salt.
o Sandwiches, toasties
o Carrots, apples, cucumber, tomato, halved grapes, banana, plums, nectarines, peaches, oranges, pears, halved cherries - rounds, chunks, sticks, cooked and raw
o Stewed apples, pancakes/waffles icecream or custard
o Baked potato, grated cheese, beans, sauce, salad veg
o Milk shakes, smoothies, fruit juice - good for absorbing iron from foods eaten at the same time, water

• See what foods repeatedly appear on the setting's shopping list
• Find out about flours and doughs; white, wholemeal, semolina, rice flours, oats, maize .. pasta, bread, tortilla, scones, biscuits ..
• Become familiar with what quantities of foods look like

o 100g flour
o 100g carrot sticks
o What a 'standard apple weighs
o How many orange segments make 50g and what this links to in terms of nutritional content and RDA

• Compare foods against age requirements of protein
----------- 100g of peanuts is almost enough daily protein for a 7-10 year old
----------- 4 slices of wholemeal bread is just over what a 1-3 year old would require in a day.
• Find out if your local GP surgery has a nutritional expert that you can work in partnership with and maybe check through the meal menus your setting creates.
• Know the nutritional needs of children, colleagues eating and drinking in the setting
• What meals are you providing - breakfast, snacks, midday, evening?
• Get to know what parents, carers, family feel about diets and what meals they provide through daily routines at home.

------------------------------------
* Contestable
Information source;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proteinogenic_amino_acid
Histidine http://www.jci.org/articles/view/108016
http://www.cryst.bbk.ac.uk/education/AminoAcid/the_twenty.html
22nd amino acid - pyrrolysine
** Individual circumstances may impact on RDA - age, physical activity, specifc conditions


I hope this helps xx