In celebration of my recent birthday (the big 3-0… more about that later), my sister gave me a new cookbook, promoted by a certain talk-show host, that seemed rather promising. The idea is to puree various veggies and sneak them into your kids’ favorite dishes, thus getting them to consume the good stuff unaware. We don’t really have that much of a problem getting our kids to eat what we set in front of them (well, except for Parker who we can’t even get to eat sweets), but I didn’t see the harm in trying to up the nutritional content of the food I serve to the whole family. So on Tuesday I tried the chicken nuggets. Aside from being entirely too much work, they weren’t all that bad. Dan preferred the un-doctored variety, but my mother-in-law swore she liked the broccoli/spinach version even better. I was undecided, but after last night’s fiasco, I am decidedly anti-deception! I thought I’d try the spaghetti pie. Pretty hard to ruin, right? Wrong. For the first time in 8 years of marriage we had to run out for Chinese after dinner came out of the oven. It tasted only a little better than it looked, and trust me, it looked not even half as good as the photo in the cookbook. It was more than a little obvious that the meatballs were full of broccoli, and the carrot and cottage cheese combo was far more than could be overcome by the pasta and tomato sauce. I’m sure a good portion of the blame can be placed on this chef, but I think from now on our veggies will be served steamed, on the side, disguised with only perhaps a little cheese. Now I’m off to find another Christmas present for my sister because apparently great minds think alike – there’s a second copy of this disaster sitting in my closet, wrapped up with her name on it!
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Hi! I'm not sure if I've introduced myself or not, so i'm going to just in case! I'm Dania. We've been reading your blog learning about your Vietnam adoption. We're in the appl II part. About the cookbook, I heard on the news that it's really not that great of a way to introduce veggies, b/c it doesn't teach your kids to know to like them! I had thought about getting it too, but decided against it! I'm glad to hear a for real mom that's tried and says it's not good!
Ha! I'm not laughing at your cooking, but rather at the fact that you were going to give the book to your sister! Onto the cooking, I've had several failed attempts over the years. The last was when I tried to make a layered Cambodian banana cake for Thanksgiving. Oh my...it did not turn out well. It tasted worse than it looked. Oh well, live and learn...and then eat take out. ;)
Thanks for the review. I saw the presentation of the book on the talkshow. Of course, I IMMEDIATELY thought it was too much work and find it hard to believe it is realistic for "joe public."
You could give the book to my sister though. (just kidding!)
How is it possible that after reading your review based on trial and error, I still want the book!? Is Oprah really that powerful?!
My kids love this, and they know it is all veggies, but we call it green ice cream:
1 Avocado
1/2 English Cucumber
2 c. fresh baby spinach
1 lime
1 small tomato or tomatillo
Whir it up with 6 ice cubes and voila...a tasty treat to fool most any child who is motivated by eating healthy. If you don't have a VitaMix, you'll want to add the juice of the lime instead of the whole lime. You'll also want to peel your cucumber. Anyway, my kids fill up on this for breakfast and I don't worry another minute if they don't eat veggies the rest of the day.
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