So glad to hear that your vego journey is making you feel happy and content. In regards to your questions about raising your child vego, here are my thoughts:
Young children are dependent on us to make decisions for them until they are old enough to do so. Parents pass on their values and ideals to their children, so it is acceptable for you to raise your child with your vego ideals. Of course, it will be her choice one day. She wil reach an age where she will decide, but for now it is your decision. Don't feel guilty about that. My DD is 5, and I feel that I can be honest with her about why her dad and I are vegans. She knows that meat is a dead animal. She loves animals, and would never want to hurt them. I haven't told her about factory farms yet, but I have told her that the animals just want to live and be happy and that they don't want to be eaten. She also knows that her dad and I ate meat when we were her age. I told her that adults lied to me (and they did) about where meat came from. My godmother used to tell me that the cow just died of old age! I feel that I can't lie to my kids about that. So, yes, it should be their choice eventually, but it should be an informed choice.
On to food - my kids love pasta. I tend to make it with tinned tomatos these days, and I add eggplant, mushrooms, zucchini, capsicum, lots of garlic. I cook the egplant, caps, zucchini in my cafe style sandwich maker (or you could use a griller), then add it to the tomatoes. We use wholemeal penne usually.
They also like tofu. I used to buy packaged marinated tofu squares but they have gotten to be so expensive, so I buy plain firm tofu and marinate it. One marinade I make is - sweet chilli sauce, low salt tamari (or soy sauce or bragg liquid aminos), garlic, olive oil, fresh ginger. I marinade the tofu for a couple of hours in the fridge, then I cook it in a fry pan or the sandwich press. We have it with rice or cous cous. My kids also like potato salad with soy mayonnaise. I add sunflower seeds, red onion, and parsley. I also marinate portobello mushrooms in olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt, pepper and agave nectar (or maple syrup) then dehydrate them for 3 hours YUM . But you could grill them if you don't have a dehydrator (much quicker!).
They also like coleslaw. I use cabbage, purple cabbage, carrot, apple, celery, soy mayonnaise, caraway seeds. The soy mayo makes the cabbage palatable to kids. My kids also like curries and dhal. My DH makes a great dhal with brown lentils, green split peas, yellow spilt peas, red lentils, cumin, tumeric, salt, coriander seeds, tomato paste, fresh ginger, garlic. We have it with brown rice and pappadums. You could make dhal in the slow cooker too.
Pumpkin soup is also popular with my kids. I add sweet potato, carrot, red lentils and a bit of coconut cream, and I often throw in any leftover vegies like zucchini, broccoli, cauliflower.
Anyway, I will stop now before I bore you to tears!
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