“Deceptively Delicious”: Jessica Seinfeld, I lovey-love you

October 6th, 2007 by Wacky Mommy · 16 Comments

My 8-year-old daughter’s review “Deceptively Delicious: Simple Secrets to Get Your Kids Eating Good Food,” the new cookbook by Jessica Seinfeld:

“Uh-huh. I saw that cookbook you just got, the new one by the lady? It is no good, because I read it! It’s all, ‘ooooh, sneak carrots into everything and make your little kids eat them!’” (Storms out of room.)

I love that girl, don’t you? What chutzpah!!! She’s right. “Deceptively Delicious” (Collins Books, $24.95, 204 pages) is sneaky, sneaky, sneaky. Turns out Jerry and Jessica’s kids, Sascha, Julian and Shepherd, don’t like their veggies, either. (Except the “baby,” Shepherd, who will “eat himself sick.”) See? The stars have problems, too. (I’m teasing — I think she’s a great girl, Jessica. Check out Baby Buggy, the non-profit she started.)

Anyway, vegetables = tantrums at her house, too, so Mrs. Seinfeld began to puree vegetables and stir them into food. Not just marinara and carrot cake, either — lots of foods, lots of vegetables — chicken (or tofu) nuggets, meatloaf, even buttered noodles get an extra boost. She worked with a nutritionist, Joy Bauer, to get it all right. Excellent work, women.

Jessica’s four-step plan:

1) Equip your kitchen with tools that make cooking easier.
2) Stock your kitchen with staple ingredients that you will use again and again.
3) Make purees, a few at a time, and then portion and freeze them for use in the recipes.
4) The recipes. The deception begins!

I loved the graphics of the book, because the pictures remind me of my old dear favorite: Betty Crocker’s Cookbook for Boys and Girls. I know they did this on purpose, but I do not care. It comforts me, thinking of my old favorite cookbook, and we know that’s what food and food issues are really all about: comfort.

I am not comforted when my children (macaroni, macaroni and cheese, grilled cheese, cheese pizza) refuse to eat anything that isn’t cheese. Oh, and yogurt. But only vanilla. I will be brave. Bold. I will continue to try new recipes. But I’ll have to shoo the kids out of the kitchen before I sneak the pumpkin or sweet potato puree into the oatmeal, or before they see me spoon yellow squash puree into the blueberry lemon muffins. Ha!

A recipe? Sure.

Baked Egg Puffs
(with Yellow Squash or Butternut Squash)
From “Deceptively Delicious”

Prep time: 5 minutes
Total time: 20 minutes
Serves 4

Ingredients:

Nonstick cooking spray
2 large eggs
4 large egg whites
2 tablespoons shredded reduced-fat Cheddar cheese
1/2 cup yellow squash or butternut squash puree
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions:

2. In a large bowl, whisk the eggs, egg whites, squash puree, cheese, flour, baking powder, and salt until combined. Divide the mixture among the ramekins or cups and bake until the tops are puffed up and the eggs are no longer runny in the center when pierced with the tip of a knife, 13 to 15 minutes. Serve immediately.

Bon appetit!

review and commentary by Wacky Mommy

[tags]kids, children, toddlers, eating, nutrition, vegetables, cookbook, sneaking, Deceptively Delicious, Jessica Seinfeld, review, cooking, whisk, puree, recipes[/tags]
Photo graciously provided by LensENVY, through a Creative Commons license, some rights reserved

Tags: Activities · Beauty, Health & Fitness · Family · Food · Fun · Home · Parenting

16 responses so far ↓

Wacky Mommy // Oct 6, 2007 at 8:41 am

I posted a couple of other book reviews over on my blog, if anyone’s interested. Happy Saturday, everybody!
Slouching Mom // Oct 6, 2007 at 11:06 am

I’m skeptical about how the stealth puree would work on my older son — he tastes anything even the slightest bit different in the preparation of the few foods he eats.

But Jack — I could easily sneak veggie purees into what he eats.

Thanks for the recommendation.
Wacky Mommy // Oct 6, 2007 at 11:45 am

Same here, but I think it might be easier with the little ones.
Betsy // Oct 6, 2007 at 7:43 pm

It can work with the older kids – you just have to be extra deceptive, is all.

The kids who swear they’ll *nev-AH* eat zucchini have no idea that I routinely grate it into big batches of my homemade spaghetti sauce, for example.

Shhh, don’t tell…!
Wacky Mommy // Oct 6, 2007 at 8:23 pm

Your secret is safe with the Internet and me.

(ps — zucchini in chocolate cake is undetectable and delicious. I know.)
Amy Nathan // Oct 7, 2007 at 5:54 am

I’ve been doing this for years. Alas, I’m not Jessica Seinfeld…and I didn’t put it in a book.
Wacky Wally // Oct 14, 2007 at 8:11 am

I noticed no cheese in your ingredient list, yet listed with the ingredients to me mixed in the bowl????

PS.. I am a grandpa, not a kid nor mother
Wacky Mommy // Oct 14, 2007 at 9:46 am

Wacky Wally,
Darn it, I proofed that recipe twice and still left out:

2 tablespoons shredded reduced-fat Cheddar cheese

Thanks for catching that.
Susan Dawson // Oct 16, 2007 at 1:46 pm

I have to tell you, I love this book for myself! I’ve been using it every night since I bought it, and it’s got some fantastic recipes. I know people disagree with the “deceptive” aspect, but I think if kids are involved in the cooking process, they’ll eat what they’ve made. In any case, although I’m single, I learned from the best – my parents are 65 and 69, and my mother has been pureeing vegetables for my dad’s meals for years! He hates vegetables, so a little deception in their kitchen also goes a long way.
Big D // Nov 18, 2007 at 12:24 pm

I saw Jessica on Oprah and I bought her book (luckily, because they were pretty hard to come by). I’ve been trying her recipes, but I am feeling a little unsatisfied, or even tricked.
Sure my kids can now eat muffins or brownies and still get some nutrition. But now they have lost interest in all normal vegetable dishes. I really feel like they now they aren’t really learning how to eat a balanced diet
Wacky Mommy // Nov 18, 2007 at 12:29 pm

Big D,
I’ve been using the recipes on the sly and cooking vegetables as usual, too. It’s going OK. It seems like so many vegetable entrees and sides aren’t a “hit” for many of us until we’re adults, anyway. Cabbage soup, for instance, and asparagus served in any manner.

Vegetables offered, vegetables refused, no dessert if they don’t eat a decent dinner, move along.

Good luck with everything!
Danyel // Jan 8, 2008 at 9:57 am

Please help with any ideas you moms might have. My 6 yr. old daughter is the worlds pickiest eatter, she only eats bagels, doritos, pizza, vanilla yogurt, pepperidge farm fishies, steak, and just recently discovered Bologna. HELP!!!!
Wacky Mommy // Jan 9, 2008 at 12:14 am

Danyel,
I posted something over here:

http://wackymommy.org/blog/archive/2008/01/08/a_post_regarding_church_and_religion_and_the_advice_column_for_wacky_mothers_others_my_kid_wont_eatmy_co-worker_wont_stop_eating/#comment-23701
rtbabe // May 10, 2008 at 11:57 pm

Dear Danyel,
Kids will only eat when they’re hungry. If you offer fried chicken and corn on the cob or something equally healthy and yummy, she’ll eventually get hungry enough to eat it. If you’ve tried that but then always cave and give her her standbys, then she knows she doesn’t have to try anything else. It really doesn’t matter if a kid skips a meal now and then. They tend to get enough calories during the day on other things. If they decide they don’t want to eat dinner, then they don’t get anything else. If you present her with dinner and she refuese but you give her a bagel instead, then she knows she doesn’t really have to eat anything else. She’ll always get what she wants. Kids don’t know that they don’t like things unless they try it. If she gets hungry enough, she’ll eat what you put in front of her.
bee fox // Sep 5, 2008 at 7:50 am

what is the name of the electric food chopper that Jessica Seinfeld loved. She said that husband Jerry ordered it from a TV promotion?

Thx.
anne // Dec 4, 2008 at 1:08 pm

I would like to know also. I bought Jessica Seinfeld’s book and when I got a food processor it was a cheap one – the blade just pushed the veggies to the sides… impossible to get them to a true puree.