October 8-19, 2007

Childhood obesity rates are increasing every year. Between busy work schedules and the inconvenient fact that kids simply refuse to eat vegetables, how can average parents ensure their kids get the proper nutrition?

As a mother of three, Jessica Seinfeld can speak for all parents who deal nightly with dinnertime fiascos. Deceptively Delicious is filled with traditional recipes that kids love, except they’re stealthily packed with veggies so kids don’t even know! With the help of a nutritionist and a professional chef, Seinfeld has developed a month’s worth of meals for kids of all ages that includes, for example, pureed cauliflower in mac and cheese, and kale in spaghetti and meatballs. She also provides tear–out shopping guides and tips on how to deal with the kid that “must have” the latest sugar bomb cereal. Deceptively Delicious is practical, easy-to-read, and a godsend for any parent that wants their kids to be healthy for a long time to come.

Where to find more Delicious goodness:

Official Deceptively Delicious Web site Publisher’s Web site for the book Jessica Seinfeld’s tips & recipes on Oprah.com

Here’s what MotherTalkers are saying about Deceptively Delicious:

Baggage made the Chicken Salad recipe, and says “Man, I love this book. I love the design of it (it’s pink and I dig that), the spiral bound pages which lay flat, the nutritional information, the beautiful photographs, and the fact that I served up an entire head of cauliflower and no one knew. Now that is awesome.”

Wonder Mom’s son loved the Buttered Noodles. She says “I love these foods too, and I feel good knowing when I’m scarfing down a couple chocolate chip cookies that I’m not going to feel like crap afterwards, because there was actually some protein and fiber in the things.”

After making the Quesadillas with Guacamole Dip, Crazy MomCat says “I am now most adamantly ‘pro-puree.’ I can say that proudly without fear of retaliation from anti-puree extremists. Because, honestly, these recipes are GREAT!”

Moving Mama tried the recipe for Pumpkin and French Toast, and says “Who would have thought? The kiddies seem to be okay with my first try at this…and who knows - maybe I can keep it going?!?”

Life & Times says “It’s genius, and I get a twisted satisfaction in tricking my finicky toddler … By the way, Pink Pancakes are G, Double-O, D…. GOOD!”

Redhead Princess says “The donuts (with sweet potato and pumpkin) will change your life.”

Gotcha Baby says “The recipe I will use the most? The recipe for homemade ketchup. Crazy, but remember I feed a two year old on a daily basis. Now instead of dipping her hot dog in high-fructose corn syrup with tomatoes, she is dipping her hot dog in tomatoes and carrots. And she loves it!”

Feed Your Loves says “Once you get the jist of making and sneaking the purees, you’ll be able to add them to almost any dish; Deceptively Delicious, it seems, is interested in teaching you to cook in your own skin, at your own table, just better!”

Mama Need Coffee says “I decided to give it a go and use the recipe for chicken nuggets. Then something miraculous happened. They ate it. No, really! They ate all of it. And liked it.”

Did You See That? tried quite a few recipes, and says “My husband, and I (who also need to eat more vegetables) love these recipes. The vegetables are cleverly hidden and indistinguishable from the rest of the ingredients.”

Wit’s End tried the Banana Bread recipe, and says “Not only are these recipes deceptive, they incorporate other great ingredients: whole wheat flour, healthy oils, egg whites.”

My Little Patch of Sunshine enlisted her kids, who wanted to try the Chicken Alphabet Soup. She says “The recipe is very simple (broth, chicken, pasta and the purees) but it tasted good. Both boys liked it, and I never thought of adding puree into chicken soup before — usually I just add chopped carrots.”

No Lemon Juice tried the Pumpkin Oatmeal. Her verdict? “Really freaking good. This was a win on several fronts. One, vegetable for breakfast. Two, I always, always, always have leftover oatmeal from the holiday baking season. Three, it was so easy to make, maybe 5-7 minutes from the time I started to the time the spoon hit my mouth. Plus with the regular oats and not the instant kind, there is more fiber and better carb-wise.”

Suburban Turmoil couldn’t work up the courage to make spinach-laced brownies, she was amazed by the applesauce muffins. “I was quite excited about trying the applesauce muffins on my three-year-old and I’m happy to say that she loved them! And since they were packed with oats, skim milk and applesauce, I loved them, too!”

Life in the Hundred-Acre Wood eschewed her normal Morningstar Nuggets for Seinfeld’s tofu nuggets with great success. She also tried a dipping sauce. “I also tried the Ranch Dressing. Both of my kids love to dunk veggies in dip, and what I liked about this recipe, again, is that it’s made of natural ingredients, with beans mixed in for an extra protein punch. I’ll definitely be packing both the Tofu Nuggets and the Ranch Dressing in hundreds of future school lunches.”

Esperanza laments the picky-eating that she may have passed on to her children, but comments that the book is just as helpful to feeding the whole family in addition to her children. “And to be absolutely truthful, I need the veggie-camouflage just as much as she does. Not because I don’t care about my health, but because I’ve had sensitive taste buds my whole life, and I know my girl does too. My eating habits have definitely gotten much better since I had the girls, but there’s still some strong flavors (like spinach and broccoli) that I’ll just never be able to swallow, unless they come disguised in brownies and muffins.”

Parenting Children was a little wary about adding chickpeas to chocolate chip cookies but marveled at the results. “This book also has great ways to hide vegetables in desserts, where I can say I had never thought of hiding them. My kids and I made chocolate chip cookies complete with oats and whole chickpeas. I thought there was no way these could be good, I mean it had whole chickpeas in it! They were very good and my kids devoured them.”

Life With Heathens was surprised by her family’s willingness to try the recipes, and had great success with the riceball recipe. “It got my five year old to look through the book and actually ask me to make him many of the recipes just because the pictures looked “yummy.” After I informed him that you put butternut squash, cauliflower, and even carrots in some of the recipes he believe it or not still wanted me to make them! When I told my two teenagers about the recipes they informed me that as long as it didn’t taste or look funny they didn’t care. So with all that in mind I decided it was time for me to try to do some “deliciously deceptive” cooking!”

The Opinionated Parent marveled at the tastiness and ease of the recipes. “I tried a couple of the recipes and plan to try many more. My faves so far are the French toast (with pumpkin puree in the eggs), scrambled eggs (with pureed cauliflower that you totally can’t taste) and pita pizzas (which we make all the time but now will be spreading spinach puree on) and macaroni and cheese (with butternut squash). The four recipes I had time to try all took just a few minutes and hardly any work. And yes - they were delicious!”

Stirrup Queens has had success with alternative pancake recipes in the past so she started with Seinfeld’s pancakes (with added sweet potato). “He was a little suspicious at first–the colour is a bit off from normal pancakes–and watched me bustle about the kitchen in an attempt to hide my guilty face. But then he started eating them absentmindedly, chatting on about cell phones and iPods while he emptied his plate.”

This entry was posted on Monday, October 8th, 2007 at 1:51 am and is filed under Books. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.