Chaos Theory Reviews

Courtesy of Parent Bloggers Network, I received a free copy of the great book Deceptively Delicious.

Before I get into the book itself, can I just say that this book is beautiful? Seriously. It’s bound so nicely, the pages are thick, the illustrations are gorgeous, and I love the pin-up style drawings. Before I even read the book itself, I just kept flipping pages, awed by it.

The book in and of itself is a valuable tool if you are a parent of picky eaters. I’m going to confess up front that I don’t really need it at this point in my life because I’m lucky - although Hayley is indeed mildly picky, she will eat her weight in fruits and vegetables, and Breanna will pretty much eat anything she sees US eating and also loves fruits and veggies. However, back when Hayley was about a year old, I could have used this book and dammit my timing always sucks like that.

Deceptively Delicious provides you with all the basics you’ll need for making sure your children are eating a balanced and nutritional diet. Author Jessica Seinfeld explains the benefits of a variety of foods, stating for example, that one cup of carrots is only 52 calories and will help your child’s eyes and skin with its beta carotene. Along with the quick and easy nutrition lesson, Jessica also provides recipes for a bunch of different purees - some are single fruits or vegetables, like cauliflower or canteloupe, and others are combos like zucchini and summer squash. Once you’ve got your prep work done and your purees are made and perhaps frozen for later use, you’re ready for the recipes.

Does your child love french toast for breakfast (or lunch)? Go ahead and make it - but you’ll never guess that it also contains sweet potato, or butternut squash puree. Neither will your kids but while they’re chowing down on fluffy toast with syrup, they’re also getting a nice serving of vegetables. Maybe you have a child who will eat an entire plate of chicken nuggets but the closest they’ll get to fruits and vegetables is the ketchup they dip their nuggets in. That’s okay, with Jessica’s delicious nugget recipe, you can stash broccoli or spinach or beet puree in it and they’ll be getting their nutrients anyway.

I know a lot of people have problems with the idea of “tricking” kids. I don’t. Not if it’s good for them. I don’t love pulling the wool over their eyes in theory, but I also don’t love having to fight with them over what they will and won’t eat. When Hayley had her anti-vegetable phase that I hinted at above, I did something similar to this - she would eat spaghetti with no hesitation so I put the heated tomato sauce in a blender with some cooked mixed vegetables and puree it until you couldn’t see even a speck of green or orange and she therefore ate serving after serving of vegetables without one bit of a fuss. Trust me, that’s got to be better than trying to cram a spoonful of veggies down her throat. Meanwhile, I kept putting actual vegetables on the plate and eventually she got past her phase and just ate them.

If I had had this book sooner, I definitely would have tried a whole bunch of these. On the other hand, I can still use it. My kids do indeed eat a ton of fruits, and I can’t think of a single one that they haven’t liked, BUT although they also like vegetables, Breanna will stick mainly to peas, corn, and carrots, and Hayley will eat the same vegetables all the time too if we don’t push her a bit. It could still work for us to try some of these recipes just to add some extra punch.

And regardless of whether I need to hide vegetables in the food or not, the recipes are all delicious-sounding and the pictures sure look tasty. If you’ve had any trouble convincing your kids to eat something that isn’t coated in batter and condiments, it might be worth the time to try some of these recipes out. I can’t post any actual recipes due to copyright concerns, but Jessica was featured by Oprah and Oprah’s site has several recipes including the aforementioned chicken nuggets. Check them out and if you’re intrigued, do pick up the book! (Don’t miss the brownies and chocolate cake recipes!)

This entry was posted on Monday, October 22nd, 2007 at 9:08 pm and is filed under Cooking, Book Reviews, Parent Bloggers Network. 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.