Thursday, January 17, 2008

Deceptively Delicious Cooking

I'm sure most of you have heard about Jessica Seinfeld's book by now, Deceptively Delicious. It's been on Oprah and all of the morning news shows. It seems to be sitting on shelves near the front door of every bookstore I've been to in the past two months. Sarah just posted about the muffins she made, both of us and many other Moms out there are quite intrigued by the idea of sneaking veggies into our children's meals.

Over the weekend I made the vegetable purees the book calls for. Squash, sweet potatoes and broccoli we cleaned, steamed, pureed, portioned and labeled. Most went into the freezer, but a few I left in the fridge for this week's meals.

















My first try at a recipe was a batch of Apple Sauce Muffins, made with sweet potato puree!














They were delicious, but...alas, Noah took a teeny tiny bite and spit it out. Bummer. (I won't go into it here, but we are still having big problems getting him to eat.)

On Monday I whipped up some creamy hot cocoa made with more sweet potato puree. The sweet potato made it thick and creamy.






















The only problem was, Noah spilled it immediately, all over his train table..... I have to make it again soon. Bummer.

Next I made homemade whole wheat Mac and Cheese with squash puree. The squash is the same color as the cheese and you couldn't tell it was in there at all.















At dinner that night, Noah refused to try it, I was so frustrated. 99.5% of the time when I make dinner, Noah eats 0-1 bites and Jon can be a very light eater, sometimes I wonder why I even try. Bummer.

The next day at lunch we had Joshua and Sarah over and Sarah was able somehow, to get Noah to eat about half a small bowl! This was a AMAZING, I have NEVER seen anything like it at my table, in my life . Thanks Sarah! Yeah!

Next up was the Aloha Chicken that Jon and I made tonight. Organic skewered chicken strips with a sweet potato and pineapple puree, rolled in crispy coconut. It also had healthy ingredients like flaxseed meal and whole wheat flour.






















The problem was, about two minutes after it was put on the table, I started freaking out because I realized that we bought the chicken on Sunday. Today is Thursday and I thought 4+ days in the fridge might be really bad, bacteria wise. So we chucked the chicken. It was ok though, Noah didn't even want to try it. Bummer.

There was one thing from the book, that Noah actually liked this week.......Avocado Spread.....






















With chips of course! Yeah!

5 comments:

Kendra Lynn said...

My MIL bought me that book. I haven't had much time to try anything new...and I'm worried that my girls will do the same thing as Noah did...not try it at all. LOL.
Merry did recently discover that she really likes steamed broccoli. Go figure.

Kendra

Laura said...

I checked this book out from the library a little while ago with the full intention of trying some of the recipes since Caitlin eats almost no veggies. I just haven't had the time lately to make the purees. I think we might stick with vitamins for awhile. Though those muffins look really good.

daedra said...

I've come to the realization that my son will eat anything that he can dip into something else. Hummous is his alltime favorite. He'll dip a whole salad one pc at a time into the hummous and eat it!
Maybe try that one with Noah? If he like the avocado spread try giving him something good to dip into it other than chips. Just and idea.

Lauren said...

Hi Kendra! How are you?!
Well, I'll tell you, if you make it and the girls don't eat, at least you and Scott wll have a healthy dinner. So far, I haven't been able to taste the veggies, so far so good! xoxoxo :)

Laura!!! Hi! The muffins were SO good! Maybe I can figure out a way to ship you some. :) The purees took about an hour to make and there is a little clean up. So, it's one of those things that just has to be done when you have a quiet hour to your self. Ha! Is that joke to say to a mother of two!? Good luck if you make some stuff down the road. xoxoxox :)

Hi Daedra!!! How are you? I just LOVED Adam's videos, the ones you posted yesterday. He is one cute kid! GREAT idea. It makes so much sense because dipping is the most fun thing to a three-year-old! :) You know, I tried having Noah dip baby carrots and plum tomatoes and I've tried similar with chicken and tofu and various other fruits/veggies and dips like hummous, ect... I don't know what is going on with Noah, nothing really works. His doctors say it might be a slight sensory issue OR a case of an exceptionally head strong kid. Either way, 95% of the things I try don't work. Jon had these chips out for the avocado spread and Noah started eating them. Not nutritious at all, I know. I won't give up though! I'm going to get this kid to eat a meal one day!!!
Thanks a whole bunch, I'll take your advice and look for some more "dips"!
xoxox :)

Anonymous said...

Hey have you tryed a kids cook book? becasese if you want I can look at my local book storrs and right down the names of them and tell you over a bolg post?