Still breathing...

My brain is in resting mode. Thinking mode... Thousands of tiny thoughts colliding with each other which makes it hard to write one cohesive post... or to comment on most blogs... Sorry to neglect you, my bloggy friends. Truly! I wish that I had more hours in each day. But my mind is wandering right now, and I think I need to let it do so.... I'm sure I'll be back to my old Chatty Cathy self soon enough. For now, I may be a bit quiet, but it'll pass, soon enough...

I'm working around the house, remembering to cook for my family (SHOCKER!) and have even made a few Deceptively Delicious recipes lately.


The sweet potato pancakes, again. Evan and Corinne, of course, gobbled them up. But Justin decided that he doesn't like the "sweeter" pancakes anymore... yeah....

I made peanut butter and banana muffins. Moderately good to me. Evan and Corinne, of course, gobbled these up, too. Justin said "kinda peanut buttery..." He really liked them better than his face shows...

Made the chicken nuggets with squash and also started using the Flax Seed (ground up into meal with my coffee bean grinder). I LOVED them, and so did Corinne and Patrick. Justin AND Evan turned their noses up, this time... UGH!!!!

I plan on using the squash in a cheese spread to hide in the grilled cheese tonight. Crossing my fingers, but not counting my chickens.

Ssshhhhh.....

Don't tell my kids, but I sneakily spread carrot puree on the insides of their grilled cheese sandwiches! And I said "Let's have a movie night and turn off the lights while we eat!" so they wouldn't see the brighter orange next to the lighter orange of the American cheese! Me so sneaky.

Quoth Justin: "WOW! These are really good, Mommy!"

evil grinning, snickering Mommy....

Boring blog entry #46758

New hidden veggie recipe for us for today: crepes with sweet potato puree. They gobbled them up! And I used brown sugar and wheat flour instead of the white. Other than being a bit browner, the difference wasn't noticeable to the kids. I didn't use the cookbook's recipe, as I wanted the pancakes to taste like "Daddy's crepes." And I came pretty close. So, just use your own recipe for pancakes, start with the sweet potato first and add the milk, eggs etc. till you get the consistency you're used to. Easy and good. In fact, I'm nibbling on cold ones with some powdered sugar right now. :)

Today is Patrick's 36th birthday. I hope that he'll be home in time to actually spend some of it with us. I might try and make some pasta or something... we'll see.

Gotta clean up for Corinne's 2nd birthday party this Saturday! My big girl! I swear, more exciting posts to come soon, withOUT talking about vegetables in food. I swear.

It is WINDY out today!! I am so happy!! I LOVE AUTUMN!!!!!

Fish! Knights! Exciting post! Whoot...

Oh yeah. New recipe to hide veggies in:

Fish with cauliflower. Sounds tasty, nu?

Actually, it was really good. Took 1/2 Cup of pureed cauliflower, an egg, some salt, and a little milk mixed together. Dipped the fish in the goo first, then in the basic seasoned bread crumbs, straight from the container. Cooked in the skillet with olive oil for a few minutes, and YUM!

Justin ate 3 pieces! I am so thankful for this knowledge of pureeing vegetables. SO THANKFUL. It truly IS life-changing, as Oprah said!

I know I've been talking incessantly about the new cookbook, Deceptively Delicious,(and I don't even have it yet!) but I am gung-ho for ANYthing that gets veggies into my kids! Especially with picky eaters. Good LORD do I have picky eaters!!

I currently have 6 or 7 baggies of pureed veggies awaiting meals in my fridge. They remind me that my family DOES need more nutrition, and I have been cooking more. Of course, my house is a total STY now, but it's not much worse than normal!!

Oh! I FINISHED THE KNIGHT COSTUMES!!! Totally done. Cut Evan a shield and sword from cardboard, spray painted them silver (just happened to find a can in my laundry room! Who knew!?!) and they look great! I also sewed the Medieval crosses on their tunics, so they are all set. Of course, after I sewed them on, I had a minor panic attack as I worried that there might be a similarity to white power crosses, but I think I'm ok. Gad, could you imagine that at school on Halloween?

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...
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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.