Cookbook review of "Deceptively Delicious" by Jessica Seinfeld

Socialmoms.com recently asked its members for blogging topics and they chose mine! To see the other blogger responses in response to this question, go here.

"What is your favorite recipe, cookbook, or celebrity chef of the moment?

For Christmas, a great friend of mine, Jen of Skipper Photography and fellow mom blogger, gave me Jessica Seinfeld's cookbook Deceptively Delicious. Its stated purpose is "simple secrets to get your kids eating good food." Basically, it tells you how to hide vegetable purees in everyday food that kids (and adults) already like. She also offers tips from a dietitian and strategies to get your kids to voluntarily eat vegetables.
I have cooked my way through some of the recipes and thought I'd share. They are in order of "best" to "least best".

1 - French toast with 2 tablespoons carrot puree and flaxseed meal (optional)
It's basically your regular french toast recipe with the added carrot puree. I didn't use the flaxseed meal. I loved it! It made the french toast sweeter without being sugary.

2 - Mozzarella Sticks withe 1/2 cup cauliflower puree
I really wanted this recipe to work. J loves cheese and mozzarella sticks (who doesn't?). But, I had some technical errors on my side. First, you roll the cheese and cauliflower puree in breadcrumbs to coat. You can't use the store-bought bread crumbs, because they are too fine. Next time, I'll use bread slices and zap 'em in the food processor. The key is to fully encase your cheese so that it doesn't ooze out in the cooking process ending up with what I had - mozzarella globs. They were good, but they were globs. Confession: I didn't have any cauliflower puree so I used 1/2 cup of cream of chicken. Sounds kind of gross and not really supporting the "more vegetables" goal. But, you couldn't taste the chicken at all.

3 - Macaroni and Cheese 1 - This is the featured recipe on Jessica Seinfeld's cookbook website right now if you want to try it. This features basic mac and cheese with 1/2 cup squash (I used carrot puree). My baby and I really liked this, but I would not recommend eating it after it's been refrigerated. It's best right out of the pan.

4 - Coffee cake with 1 cup squash (I used carrot and only 1/4 cup). I LOVE coffee cake. It's my absolute favorite thing to order at Starbucks. So, I was disappointed that this recipe doesn't come close to being the best coffee cake I've ever had. But, it's okay. I still managed to eat half the pan. The main flaw of this dish is the visual of the layer of vegetable in the middle of your pastry. I can't imagine that squash could hide that much better than carrot, but it's kind of gross seeing this layer of nuclear orange stuff in your pastry. Kudos to professional food photographers who made this look fabulous in the book.

Note: Do not make this for a starving husband who has a pre-existing hatred for healthy food and anything "weird". It will end badly and you will have to make him conciliatory chocolate cupcakes.

5 - Chocolate peanut butter dip with 1/4 cup carrot puree- I really wanted to like this, but I sabotaged this recipe too. It calls for chocolate syrup but I used baker's chocolate instead. That either did it in or the cheap cream cheese I used. It did not have a dip consistency, but rather a very, very hard mousse. Most of it got tossed.

Other:

Jen made the Brownies with 1/2 cup spinach puree. These turned out great! I could not taste the spinach at all. The key is to not add the water, because the spinach has enough and to let them cool completely before eating.

I also threw in some carrot puree into my beef taco seasoning and couldn't taste it.

Overall, this book opened my eyes to the many ways we can get our daily dose of vegetables without overhauling our go-to meals. Added bonuses include finally being able to use a two pound bag of carrots (I hate waste!) and getting to use another Christmas present - my hand blender. It was requested after multiple liquid explosions in my kitchen trying to make butternut squash soup.

Let me know if anyone wants to borrow the book!

Love at First Bite

My baby and I took a big step this month.  Let me clarify, we took a big bite.  His was rice cereal; mine was little tears over the loss of my little bitty, teeny weeny newborn baby.  As I write these words, my bottom lip sticks out and I feel sad.  Cry with me.  I am sad because with Food my baby is telling me "I'm growing up Mom, I'm going to be walking soon, I'll have teeth soon!"  I'm sad because I am saying goodbye to a very sweet chapter in my son's life.  I look at his Michelin Man body now and try to remember when he was only seven pounds.  As they say, "they grow up so quickly." 

As you can tell from the picture above, JT was not quite as sad to reach his new milestone.  He LOVED rice cereal.  You can tell it rocked his world.  He would reach out for every spoonful like a baby bird reaching to his mama for his morning grub, neck extended, lips up in the air waiting for the next bite.  We decided to keep feeding him food (our pediatrician would be happy), and last night fed him green beans.  He swallowed approvingly.  I'm scared of his next poopy diaper.  Will it be Incredible Hulk - like?

What was your baby's first food and did you weep like me?