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7 Plant-Based Family Dinner Ideas That Include Everyone

June 13, 2022 Plant-Based Juniors Leave a Comment

Plant-based family dinner ideas! In a dinner rut? Try some of these themed family dinner nights and ideas for how to include kids in your dinner prep.

dad making dinner with young daughter hanging onto his neck both smiling

Family meals are one of the most valuable habits you can provide for your kids. Not only does it create an opportunity to catch up with one another, but it actually supports healthy growth and development.

In addition to these benefits, family meals are also a great way to get everyone involved in the actual meal prep. Especially during the summer months with littles home, making dinner together can be another opportunity for fun and connection.

Here are 7 ideas for plant-based family dinners!

1. Taco Night

Grab a mix of soft and hard taco shells, saute up some plant-based grounds or lentils, and lay out all the goodies. Everyone can choose from things like shredded lettuce, diced tomatoes, avocado, salsa, cheese, beans, olives, onions, and anything else you want to pile on! Not feeling tacos? No problem, you could do enchiladas, burritos, taquitos, or the like. Serve with a side of rice and fruit.

2. Personal Pizzas

Who doesn’t love pizza and a movie night?? You can either purchase pre-made pizza dough or make your own. Then, everyone can slather their personal pan pizzas with the sauce they want and go nuts with the toppings. This could include traditional tomato pizza sauce, a mixture of olive oil and garlic, pesto, or a vegan cheese sauce. Some of our favorite toppings are chopped kale or spinach, onions, bell peppers, jalapenos, olives, tomatoes, mushrooms, and even zucchini or beans.

3. Breakfast for Dinner

We’re strong believers that breakfast isn’t just for the morning. There are plenty of nights when we’ll whip up a batch of pancakes or waffles, cook some tempeh bacon or vegan sausages, and make a tofu scramble full of veggies. With kids, make fun pancakes using fruit to color and flavor them. You can even cook them into cute shapes if you have metal cookie cutters.

4. Sandwich Bar

Rarely does everyone in our households like the same things on their sandwiches. In this case, sandwich bars are a fun way to create your own dinner. All you need is bread (or tortillas for wraps), toppings, and condiments. Maybe this looks like leafy greens, sprouts, sliced tomatoes and onions, mashed avocado, grated carrots or radishes, hummus, plant cheese or cream cheese, cooked tofu, or even jackfruit. Serve alongside Mango Chia Pudding and Air Fryer Kale Chips.

woman smiling while young son adds ingredients to a blender to make a smoothie in the kitchen

5. Italian Feast

Pasta is an inexpensive way to make a bulk meal with few ingredients. Have your kids help decide which type of pasta to make. Maybe they like farfalle, cavatappi, rigatoni, or a pot of spaghetti noodles to start. As this cooks, they can help smear butter onto garlic bread to pop in the oven, wash fruit or greens for a salad, and pick out a pasta sauce. Some of our favorite pasta dishes are White Bean Alfredo Pasta and Cheezy Walnut Pasta. For a little more protein, try a legume-based pasta dish like Red Lentil Pasta Primavera.

6. Charcuterie Board Night

This is a fun way to get rid of leftovers and let everyone pick something to contribute. Think of it like a big snack board! This could include a variety of cut-up fruit, berries, veggies with dip, crackers with cheese or hummus, nuts, roasted tofu cubes, oven-baked crunchy chickpeas, pickles, olives, and even tiny sweets.

7. Shish Kabobs

You can make these on the grill outside or roasted in the oven. Give everyone a skewer and let them pile on chunks of red potato, pineapple, bell peppers, onions, zucchini, yellow squash, cherry tomatoes, tofu or seitan, mushrooms, broccoli, and cauliflower. Once these are cooked, serve them over rice or quinoa with a side of a favorite dip, like BBQ sauce or soy sauce.

Plant-based family dinner ideas! In a dinner rut? Try some of these themed family dinner nights and ideas for how to include kids in your dinner prep.

Chime In: What are your favorite family-made dinners? Share below!

If you found this post helpful, we think you should read these too:

  • Should You Hide Vegetables in Your Child’s Meals?
  • How to Prevent a Hangry Toddler
  • Fresh, Frozen, or Canned Produce: What’s Best?
  • Plant-Based Shopping List at Costco

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  • Meet the moms behind the blog.

    Plant-Based Juniors (PBJs), is a community for parents and educators interested in properly implementing plant-based diets for children. Created by Alexandra Caspero MA, RDN and Whitney English MS, RDN – both moms and registered dietitian nutritionists – PBJs is dedicated to filling the gap in credible pediatric nutrition information for plant-based infants and children.

    PBJs promotes an all-inclusive “predominantly plant-based” approach, supporting all families from vegan to vegetarian to flexitarian. Basically, if parents want to get more plants on the plate, PBJs wants to help!

     

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    • About
    • Books
      • The Plant-Based Baby and Toddler Book
      • PBJ’s Nut-Free Plant-Based Lunch Box Book
      • Batch Cook Ebook
      • Plant-Based Juniors: Pregnancy Guide
      • First Bites
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