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Monday, October 08, 2007

They're Deceptively...Delicious!

I'm a real housewife now: I watched Oprah today.

I was sorting baby clothes while I did so though, so it isn't as if I'd been eating bonbons. I have a lot of baby clothes. Kelli gives me an abundance of hand-me-downs, which is great...but I only have one baby. It seems like Rachel has twice as many clothes than any other baby on the block. And she probably does; she has duplicates of quite a few things since her next oldest cousins are the twins. We haven't had to spend a penny to keep up with her growth spurts.

As I was sorting the clothes and Rachel was napping, I began to get a little bored so I decided to watch TV while I sorted. It was either soap operas or Oprah and I voted for the latter.

Jessica Sienfeld was on talking about her new book, "Deceptively Delicious." Basically they are just recipes where you use vegetable and fruit purees in pretty much everything in order to get your children to eat healthfully. I'm intrigued, but not because I'm worried that Rachel isn't getting her vegetables--I'm more concerned about that on Andrew's part. I think I'm going to start sneaking vegetables into a lot more things.

After all, it really isn't that hard to pull a fast one on Andrew.

I made borscht on Friday night using cubed beets. Beets have this magical way of disappearing when boiled for 24 hours. Andrew hates beets and said he would never eat borscht.

He came home and asked me what kind of soup I was making.

"A yummy soup," I replied.

"What does it have in it?" he asked.

"Yummy things, of course," I said.

He smelled it, "It smells good."

He tasted it, "It tastes good."

He liked it so I decided to reveal my secret, "What if I told you this was borscht?"

"You would have told me a lie," he said, "You said this was a yummy soup. Did you really put beets in here?"

I did--but it was still good soup. I like beets, so naturally I like borscht (and had a fairly easy time eating beets virtually everyday in Russia). Andrew doesn't like beets, but he likes borscht (so maybe he's more fond of beets than he initially thought).

That's not the only place I hide vegetables. My pumpkin-carrot cookies were a hit the year I made them for Christmas (accidentally). They also raisins in them, and applesauce instead of butter. Actually, my family has been cutting butter and sugar levels in our sweets for years by adding applesauce. We're that tricky.

I put carrots in my spaghetti sauce and have gotten very good at slicing vegetables (like onions) so fine that they are impossible to pick out, let alone notice. I even have a handy dandy little vegetable chopper to help me puree things.

Unfortunately for me, Jessica (we're on a first name basis, she and I) already wrote the book on disguising foods as other foods, but I have another idea up my sleeve. One day I might have collected recipes to make a book of my own.

11 comments:

  1. I haven't tried this yet, but I hear that you can put cauliflower in mashed potatoes and no one will notice. I've always wanted to try it. But I always feel that it is kind of sad that we have to hide vegetables. Why can't we just enjoy them for what they are, for the way they taste?

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  2. Actually, I've always found that cauliflower in my mashed potatoes isn't so much a hide the vegetable thing as it is enhance the flavor and fluffiness. Mmm...so good!

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  3. It's okay to watch Oprah. I did it yesterday too... Thankfully no one here has problems with veggies right now, but I'm keeping this in mind for the future. Also, isn't it nice to get clothes given to you? We hardly have to buy any clothes for Karen, but it can be fun to shop for little girl clothes.

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  4. I'm with you, Marquita. I enjoy my vegetables...but not everyone does. And, according to Dr. Oz, children don't like vegetables for scientific reasons. Children have like 1/3 the amount of taste buds as adults do.

    They crave sweets and "whites" because those things are "safe" foods. Vegetables are colorful and usually not very sweet.

    So...the problem is that we let children continue to eat only "safe" foods until they die and they become super obese because they don't develop their other 2/3 of their taste buds.

    That's why children are (supposed) to be pickier than adults are.

    At least, that's what Dr. Oz says.

    I'm definitely going to be trying to put more vegetables in Andrew's food though... :)

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  5. I like vegetables, however I am a real texture person, I don't like cooked cauliflower, but I like it raw, same with cabbage, I like cooked broccoli, but only the stem part not the flower, I don't like raw broccoli at all! It's not that I don't like them, I don't like the way the feel when I'm eating them. So that could also contribute to kids not liking things!
    I just tell my kids "you like that! We've had it before, and you loved it!" Then they're like "Oh! I must like this!" and they eat it!
    The hardest one was lettuce oddly enough! Both Deklan and Kai didn't like it very much, but I just keep reinforcing that they DO like it. And they usually end up eating it!
    (I even do this with green beans, and they haven't noticed that I don't eat them!)

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  6. yeah, kids are picky, that's for sure. I have been really lucky with Maya (and Daniel for that matter). I guess the important thing is to present a variety of foods (veggies, fruits, grains...etc.) when they are little, so that they get used to it. And also, to lead by example.

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  7. I've heard of applesauce instead of butter/shortning, but instead of sugar? I'm very intrigued by this concept--but don't tell matt, he thinks brown sugar needs to go in everything :)

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  8. And when you have enough recipes, please send me a copy of your book. I heart vegetables, but really have a hard time getting enough fruit. Also, I really like reading your blog :)

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  9. Aw, thanks, Tamsin!

    I'll definitely be sending you a copy of my book :)

    ...so in like 50 years you can be expecting a package from me (just kidding...hopefully less than 50).

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  10. I miss borsch! :( Yum! Robby hates it so I never make it....

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