Deception in the Kitchen

I am on a new kick (that happens to me quite a bit) and it's regarding a cookbook called, Deceptively Delicious. I saw Jessica Seinfield on Oprah over the holidays (ahhh the guilty pleasures of maternity leave) and was totally inspired. After a few years of meal time frustration with her little ones, she created a cookbook called Deceptively Delicious designed to get them to "eat their veggies" without them even knowing it. Like I've said before, sometimes good parenting is all about deception! She does this by incorporating all kinds of veggie purees into kid-friendly recipes. I was intrigued. After all, even mom and dad need some help eating their veggies. The new year was upon up so I couldn't think of a better time to jumpstart our nutrition goals for the year. Luckily, someone gave me both her cookbooks, Doubly Delicious and Deceptively Delicious (thanks JD, Alissa, and Henry!) so we decided to put some of these recipes to the test.

The recipes are relatively simple and can easily be made in 30 minutes if your veggie purees are already prepared and you are pretty efficient in the kitchen. I started off the week by picking out the meals I was going to cook and figuring out which veggies I needed to purchase and puree. I did all the veggie prep Sunday night and bagged them in 1/2 cup portions since that's what most of the recipes calls for. I got two plastic bins from Freds for the freezer to store and organize them for $1.25. I cooked and pureed sweet potatoes, cauliflower, yellow squash, and carrots. I also made some homemade ketchup. All of this took exactly an hour, however Tim did do about half of the clean up. If you are willing to put this time in at the beginning of the week, I think this way of cooking for your family is definitely doable. Of course I'm still on maternity leave now, so I'll re-evaluate in another few months. Here is what we had this past week:

For Meals:

• Meatball Soup (made with carrot and sweet potato puree)
• Italian Turkey Meatloaf and Cream Potatoes (with carrot and cauliflower puree)
• Chicken Nuggets and Carrot Sticks (with sweet potato puree)
• Apple Pork Chops made in the crock pot (this was the only recipe NOT from the cookbook)

For Desserts, etc

• Chocolate Chip Cupcakes (with pumpkin and sweet potato puree)
• Lemon Blueberry Muffins (with squash puree)
• Chocolate Chip Cookies (with Chickpeas...what??!)

The verdict: I've never seen Savannah eat so much! She's always been a pretty good eater, but I've sometimes been concerned that she doesn't eat enough. Not this week! Also, Tim loved the food too. He said he was expecting ok, somewhat bland food, but was pleasantly surprised. I love it too. I think my favorite was the Meatball Soup and the Chicken Nuggets (couldn't get enough of those). The chocolate chip cupcakes were divine, and it was so nice to eat a dessert I could actually feel good about. S01 begged for a cupcake just about every night this week, and I didn't feel bad about giving her one. I actually made the chocolate chip cookies last for us to eat on next week, but of course I had to try one! I'll have to admit, I was most leery about these, but they were shockingly delicious! With no butter or refined sugar and with chickpeas of all things, this was a much better option for a treat. I think I'm going to take them to my parents house this weekend to trick my dad into trying a better dessert option. We'll see if I'm successful. The lemon blueberry muffins were pretty good, but nothing to rave over. Definitely pretty tasty and a much better alternative to most breakfast treats. In fact, I took them to a breakfast play date this week. Mommies: I bet you didn't know their was squash in those muffins! Of course no one really raved over them either so maybe you did :-)

All in all, we were pumped that everyone enjoyed some great food while getting their veggies. We'll be continuing to cook this way, and I will keep you posted. I'm sure I'll have some challenges when I go back to work! Let me know if you have any questions and happy eating!

Some examples of what I've been working on: Some purees, the Chocolate Chip Cupcake, and just some stock ingredients.