Margaret: Absolutely, it is not at all uncommon to be in a group of people today and have several people be vegetarian. Just look in the markets--20 years ago you were hard pressed to find tofu, now you have all manner of soy products, meat substitutes and vegetarian meals--it's really wonderful. There are so many good, healthy, easy-to-cook foods available. It's really nice to be able to pop the occasional vegetable pot pie in the oven or to cook up a nice veggie burger.

I'm the guest chef at a local restaurant in April and the theme is a vegetarian dinner. This is a pretty big step for a rural, farm community where meat and potatoes rule the menu. But it just shows that people are interested in trying vegetarian cooking and eating. My in-laws, who are big meat eaters, are always surprised when they visit us and have vegetarian meals. They've even asked for recipes.

Has your family's attitude changed from when you raised your first son till now?

Oh, it's very funny really. I remember when I first decided to go strictly vegetarian. I'm from a meat-eating, Italian background. We'd go to my grandmother's for Sunday dinner, and she'd say, "Here, have some meatballs." And I'd say, "but I don't eat meat." To which she'd reply, "But it's meat balls." As if meatballs were made from something other than meat. Today my mother and grandmother eat very little meat and fully support our diet. Mom's great about leaving meat out of a recipe if, on the rare occasion (usually the traditionally holiday foods), she uses it. I remember, too, when my Mother snuck my son Eddie into a McDonald's for Chicken McNuggets because, I think, she felt he was being deprived. Now, my family is very used to our diet, it's been so long. I do think my husband's family has a little harder time with it, but to their credit, they, too, try to accommodate us by putting out extra vegetables alongside the turkey at Thanksgiving.

How did you handle incidents like that, when a family member gave your child forbidden foods? How did you communicate your desire to maintain a veg diet for your child to friends and family?

To Mom's credit she only took Eddie to McD's once or twice. I didn't get upset, we just basically talked about it. At that time (20 years ago) it was a difficult communicating my desire for a veg diet because so few people were doing it. My was genuinely concerned about our well-being. Today it is so much more acceptable and understood.

Over the years have you been able to connect with other veg parents?

Not really, certainly I have friends who are vegetarian but none with children, which is why I love the Internet. It has provided such a great forum for people to talk about and learn about vegetarianism and little people.

When you were a veg parent the first time around, was everything trial and error for you, or did you have others who could advise you on issues?

I would say it was all pretty much trial and error at that time. Not only in raising Eddie as a vegetarian, but for myself too really. We didn't have many vegetarian cookbooks or magazines or other resources, so you ate what felt right for you and hoped you were getting all the nutrients you needed. I have to say though, Eddie was a very healthy child; he hardly had colds or other childhood illnesses. So I have to believe that we were doing something right.

Do you find that you are more confident the second time around?

Yes. To some degree though the challenges of getting a toddler to eat a healthy, varied diet still exist. The one thing I am much more confident in is being able to provide my family with healthy vegetarian foods that look & taste good. I love to cook so trying new recipes is always fun, and having so many choices of non-meat ingredients to work with is great.

Are there more resources available to vegetarian parents today than in the past?

There are many more resources, but many more are needed. I look forward to the day when there are just as many vegetarian publications on the shelf as there are non-vegetarian, and I do think that day is coming. I think for parents in particular it's a struggle; you worry about nutrition, you worry about balancing meals. At the same time you want your children to enjoy their food, you want to be creative. I think magazines like Vegetarian Toddler are a real gift to parents who are raising their children without meat.

Then there's a whole market of older children and teens who have decided for various reasons that they don't want to eat meat, and they are children of meat eating parents. These parents really struggle. On the one hand they want to support their children's independence and their decision. On the other hand, they honestly don't know how to cook for them. I know of several situations like this.

Did Eddie ever go through a meat-eating rebellious stage? How does he feel about having been raised vegetarian?

No he didn't and the fact that he, as an adult, has elected to keep a vegetarian diet is very validating to me. I don't suffer guilt over having "deprived" him.

Any favorite cookbooks with recipes your kids have liked?

I have so many different cookbooks but for tofu recipes I often fall back on a very old book I have, Cooking with Tofu by Christina Clarke. The recipes are really tasty and pretty easy to prepare. I also tend to cook a lot of non-vegetarian recipes and just alter them with meat substitutes.