Deceptively Delicious

So in our effort to get healthy in 2009, we decided that we would try to incorporate more veggies into our diet. Let me say that I am not a vegetable lover. The vegetables I will eat consist of spinach (love it - whether fresh or canned), peas and corn. I can stand brocolli and cauliflower is low doses but it doesn't get bought often. I cannot stand green beans and carrots. Well, in an effort to help my kids also get more veggies into their daily intake, I bought the book by Jessica Seinfeld, Deceptively Delicious.

This book shows you how to sneak some veggies into recipes unnoticed. I am not into "deceiving" the kids because I want them to know how to eat healthy but I do like the concept of putting pureed veggies into recipes to get MORE of them. So I picked the recipes I thought the kids would like...blueberry lemon muffins, cheesesticks, chicken salad, mac and cheese. Bought all the ingredients and had a great time steaming and pureeing the veggies. Jimmy cut up all the veggies...I put them in the steamer my Mom and Dad gave me for my birthday last year (which I had yet to use! See, not much of a veggie lover!) and once the veggie were steamed, put them in the food processor to puree. Easy Peasy! We pureed cauliflower, zucchini, carrots, yellow squash and butternut squash. I had never tried butternut squash before and after I pureed it, I gave it a taste...it was yummy!

After all the veggies were steamed and pureed, I only had time to make the muffins. The secret ingredient in the muffins was yellow squash. They turned out good. Alex liked them, I liked them, Jimmy liked them and my blueberry freak Olivia -- HATED it. OK, I was not going to give up just yet. The next night, I made the chicken salad for Jimmy and I -- it wasn't bad -- I did think it was too liquidy so I will reduce the amount of mayo and yogurt in that one but overall, it was good -- that recipe's secret ingredient was cauliflower. Since Olivia loves cheese -- I thought I would try the cheesesticks -- the secret ingredient in that is also cauliflower. The recipe calls for you to freeze the prepared cheesesticks in the freezer for 20 minutes. I highly recommend doing that because I didn't and it did not hold in cheesestick form -- it was basically splatted-looking cheese on a plate. I put a few on a plate for my daughter who took one look at it and declared quite loudly that "these are not cheesesticks". I begged and pleaded for her to please just try it. They were really good -- they just didn't look good. I got her to take a tiny bite which she promptly became grossed out by the taste and spit out. OK, what is up with this...my daughter who loves fruit and veggies and rarely eats meat is not loving my Deceptively Delicious recipes! The cheesesticks were a hit with Jimmy and Alex though. I am so excited that Alex is taking a liking to these recipes. He's usually my picky eater but he has embraced this new trial period.

Mac n cheese -- thought for sure this would be a good one -- secret ingredient is butternut squash. Again, in my effort to cook healthy for my family, we have stopped using the "white" pastas and use the whole wheat pasta. I didn't have macaroni noodles but I had rotini noodles -- the spiral ones -- made up the recipes and again, Olivia took one look at it loudly proclaimed she was not eating that! She did eat the noodles without the "cheese" sauce though. Alex thought it was just OK. I think the cheese mixture was a little too thick and plus, we didn't have the correct noodles. I will try this one again.

I will continue my quest for recipes that allows us to incorporate more fruits and veggies into our diet and will let you know how it goes. I have pictures of my purees but the usb cable on my camera isn't working but I will post as soon as I get a new one. I felt so accomplished after completing this process! 1 point for Mom (but don't tell Olivia!).