Thursday, October 11, 2007

Thank you Jessica!

Ok. I'm taking a quick break from a baking fest. I am trying out 2 of the recipes from Jessica Seinfeld's Deceptively Delicious cookbook, featured on Oprah the other day.

The idea is to hide pureed vegetables in foods that your children wouldn't otherwise even look at, let alone try. Today, I am making oatmeal blueberry bars (with spinach hiding inside) and chicken nuggets (with sweet potato in the batter). I'll let you know how they go over with the kids and if they're worth the effort. I have found that when pureeing spinach in my normal cup with a hand held mixer thingy (the single, slim kind, you know what I'm talking about?) the spinach strings tend to wrap around the blender center. Hmmm. That will definitely be a negative to the experiment. And mixing the green spinach with the blueberries? Urggghhh. It looks SO gross. But I am forging on, and will try one... maybe. The key is that the kids WON'T know it's in there, so they'll give me an honest opinion. Crossing my fingers here.

And the nuggets. Well, the boys aren't as picky about what their nuggets look like anymore, so we'll see. Of course, it's a HELL of a lot more work to make them by scratch than to just pop open a bag, but I am desperate for more nutrition for them.

The dipping in the sweet potato goo was quite messy, but it seems to hold once I dipped them in the dry mixture...

Timer's going off. Don't go anywhere...
------
Ok. I'm back. It's 4:40 pm and the kids are eating the sweet potato nuggets. OH MY GOD. They love them. Well, Justin does. Evan said they were "ok" but he's being difficult. Corinne will eat anything, and I tried them and they're really good! Justin said they taste like restaurant nuggets, which is the highest compliment he can give. I won't tell him that they have a veggie in them.

The blueberry bars are ok...I think I messed up when I used frozen blueberries instead of blueberry preserves so they aren't as sweet as they could be. I did add sugar to the blueberry mixture (with spinach puree. I know. Gross, but you can't taste it!) So, they were a bit bland. But I think I'll make them again, just following the recipe better.

I also made banana nut muffins yesterday. I know! Holy crap on the cooking! This is what happens when it cools off. I get all Betty Crockerish... Of course, the house is a mess because not only did I cook a lot (which I, ah, never do) but I also took Corinne to playgroup this morning. She had fun and only pulled somebody's hair once and even apologized afterwards, so all in all, good time for her.

Well, it's the homework crunch right now, and then Justin has soccer so I'm signing off.

15 comments:

Mike said...

My wife hide vegetables too inside good food. She doesn't hide it from my kids. They love it. She hides it from me.

Hmp.

Have a great weekend.

Mike
http://somethingaboutparenting.typepad.com/

http://www.mikeleonen.com/

Beck said...

The very idea of blueberry spinach bars makes me feel a little sick - but I'll probably try them.
I think I do need a copy of that book. Not that my kids are vegetable adverse, but I just like the idea of sneaking extra vegetables into them.
(I make a chocolate beet cake. It is very good.)

Miss Hope said...

All I gotta say is Thank Goodness my kids love to eat a salad more than they do a happy meal. If I had to go sneaking veggies into their foods, I might go crazy.

Phoenix said...

The nuggets sound like they went over well. The key is to never tell them what's in it. Or they'll start questioning everything you give them.

Hey, I tagged you. :)

Michelle said...

I've heard about her book before she was on Oprah, I think it was in a Parenting magazine, or maybe Family Fun - something like that! The article shared a few tips and I think the nuggets was one of them- glad to hear it turned out so well! I think I'm going to have to look into getting this book.

Life With All Boys said...

My 6 year old was home from school sick on Monday and watched Oprah with me. He said "Mom, you HAVE to get that book". I think the idea of eating veggies without tasting veggies really appealed to him.

Jamie said...

I saw that on Oprah, and it sounded like a great idea... But how do you hide veggies in cottage cheese and raisins? Avery can't even stand to have chicken nuggets or mac'n'cheese on her plate :)

Glad it is working for you guys, it's pretty brilliant.

Ruby said...

I need a copy too. Look at you all Betty Crockerish... So cute!

I wish it would cool off here too. No chance of that. My oven will have to wait:)

Unknown said...

WOO HOO!!!!! Glad to hear it's going over on them. My friend just sent this cookbook to me, so I am really wanting to try the recipes soon. As far as I'm concerned, no recipe passes the test until Jacob gives it a thumbs up ;-)

Sheryl said...

I'm very interested in that book. But I wonder, how much of the veggies are the kids really getting? I mean, for one of my sons, a major reason why we want him to eat his veggies is for the ahem, roughage in the veggies. When steamed and pureed, you take out any roughage. I guess they are still getting the vitamins. Also, it seems like A TON of work. Did you find it to be too much work?

Sheryl said...

Ok, I'm dumb and totally missed the paragraph about the work that goes into them. But I did have an idea, I wonder if like spinach baby food or sweet potato baby food would work just as well. I know it's not exactly the same as you pureeing your own but if it does work it would save you a lot of work.

kate said...

i love finding new ways to sneak veggies in to bb's food.

hiding chopped spinach in pizza sauce is a good one.

tracey.becker1@gmail.com said...

Sheryl, that's a good idea. I considered it, and might give it a try. Especially with the spinach. That was a bit more work than I'd planned. The sweet potato was no big deal, though.

painted maypole said...

I guess I am lucky. MQ loves carrots, cucumbers, green peppers...

Kailani said...

I'm not sure if you already entered but if you didn't, I'm giving away a copy of this book at An Island Review. Stop on by!

Kailani
An Island Review

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