Mmm...mmm...Hidden veggies

Okay, I have to admit I have somewhat of a cookbook addiction. I don't know when it started. Years ago I guess, which is odd since it wasn't until the past couple of years that I've started cooking. I can sit in bed and read a cookbook cover to cover. I love it. But my very limited space for books and my wallet are not to in love with this habit so I've started checking them out from the library to see if I really really want the cookbook or if I can get away with making a few copies.

This week we tried Deceptively Delicious, by Jessica Seinfeld (wife of Jerry Seinfeld)
I heard about this book when it was published because she was being sued for plagiarism of another cookbook. The whole idea of the cookbook is to hide fruits and veggies in foods your kids like. I remember thinking "ummm...how is that plagiarism? Isn't that in the Mom Job Description List?!" But now that I have the book I see it is more than just chopping up something very small or drenching veggies in ranch dressing. Her method is to puree a bunch of fruits and veggies and freeze them. You only do this a couple times a month and then go to her quick and easy recipes that incorporate the purees. We tried quite a few of her recipes last week:

• Scrambled eggs hidden ingredient: 1/2 cup of cauliflower--you get 1/2 of your vitamin C requirement in this recipe and you can't even taste the cauliflower!
• Tuna fish hidden ingredient: 1/2 cup of cauliflower--also very good. I'm looking forward to having this for lunch this week
• Pumpkin french toast--this one is extremely easy because all you need is canned pumpkin. This is the closest my french toast has ever gotten to restaurant french toast. Usually it is more like an egg fried on a piece of bread.
• Pumpkin oatmeal--also really easy because of the canned pumpkin. Penelope LOVED this.
• Chicken nuggets--Hidden ingredient: 1 cup spinach Penelope loved these as well. She has only had restaurant chicken nuggets 3 or 4 times so I can't say all kids will like these, but they were a hit here. We made sweet potato fries and it was a great fast food-like dinner.
• Green eggs--Hidden ingredient: spinach puree This one was also a hit. Penelope and I devoured these
• Oatmeal blueberry bars--Hidden ingredient: spinach puree. Seinfeld warns that you have to let the baked goods cool or else the veggie test will be strong. She was right! But the moment they cooled down I couldn't taste the spinach at all. Penelope didn't like this but she didn't like my blueberry apple crumble and it is very similar.

Besides the plagiarism thing, this book has had some criticism about hiding all the fruits and veggies and not getting your kids' palate used to them. I think this is unfounded. She has great tips to get kids to eat veggies, and she recommends serving them as they are as well as hiding them. I for one am happy to get Penelope to eat something green besides a cup of peas. Plus, bonus for us to get more veggies! The purees aren't too annoying to make, especially if you've made baby food. Same thing. I'm not sure if I'll buy the cookbook. There's a large number of pasta recipes. Tomato sauce hides the other veggie tastes really well and she says "what kid doesn't like tomato sauce or ketchup?" Ummm...mine! She won't touch the stuff and has started to cry if a french fry has ketchup on it. Overall I'd say it is a good cookbook. I felt like Super Mom feeding her all those veggies!