Book Review: Deceptively Delicious

I was walking through the library a few weeks ago to pick up some books we had on hold and Deceptively Delicious was on a display along with some other cookbooks. I remembered seeing Jessica Seinfeld on one of those morning talk shows (that I despise...) peddling her book a few years back when it first came out. I remembered thinking it sounded kind of interesting so I grabbed it.

The design is cute and retro- I like it. It explains how to do everything from the pureeing of the vegetables and fruits to the actually recipes themselves. She explains alot and even has input from a real dietitian.

I found some recipes that looked good. I bought up my veggies and pureed them one day. The pureeing was the most time intensive part. I tried the brownies first; the brownies with carrots and spinach. They were not bad. My critics said they tasted a little weird, but still satisfied the sweet tooth. I tried sweet potatoes in my pancakes- that was good! We did cauliflower and butternut squash in our grilled cheeses- I liked that, too. The apple sauce muffins with carrot in them was a big hit! I tried several other recipes from the book; some were okay, some were good, but over all they were healthy! I knew that I was getting an extra dose of something healthy where I usually wouldn't be. It's like a buy one, get one... sort of. 

This is not a new criticism of the book, but I don't see how it really teaches your kids to eat their veggies. They're not learning to like the taste and texture of them. IF they help you prepare the food, they might learn the importance of eating them (if it's important to you, it might become important to them). But they're not really learning to enjoy the fruits and veggies. 

I like the book. I think it's a pretty good idea, but I don't expect my kids to be all about spinach and cauliflower now. I like the book because it reminds me to eat healthy and if I can sneak in an extra vegetable somewhere I should (eggs are a great place to start)! My kiddos are pretty good eaters, but you're not going to find them begging for broccoli or olives or slices of cucumber. More than likely you wont see them slamming a V8, but you wont see us putting away a Dominoes pizza at 9 pm either, I'm just sayin'. 

As far as really getting my kids to eat well, we start them early with introducing lots of different foods. I try to lead by example and I try to make sure they get a variety. Of course, threats and promises of after meal treats are tools of the trade as well.

Jessica Seinfeld has a couple of suggestions too, like eating together, staying on a daily meal schedule and talking about anything else but food at the table. 

You could check out the book or you could have a V8...