I reordered this book through Amazon the other day. The first one was destroyed in a stomach virus related incident. Let us move on, shall we?
I was eager to get back into the "eating right" thing because we have been hit hard by a barrage of colds, flus, coughs, and ear and throat infections. So the easiest thing to do, after washing our hands until they are raw, is to eat right. Because of so much going on, I admit, I have been slack. We are not big junk food eaters, but we still weren't eating optimally.
I'd been pureeing cauliflower and adding it to their mac n cheese. Two eat it, one does not. The two that eat it are the two I worry the most about. MUAHAAHAAHAAHAA (evil laugh).
But I needed to take it up a notch because they wouldn't eat mac n cheese every day, plus cauliflower is not the only veggie needed. I decided to make the
Choc-ful Donuts/Choc-ful Cupcakes.
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| Purple Puree. Mmmm! |
The ingredients that boost these are spinach, blueberries, wheat germ, and whole wheat
flour.
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| Donuts in front, cupcakes in back. Chocolaty! |
Nico loves donuts, Lucas loves cupcakes, and Nina loves chocolate. Got all the bases covered!
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| Berry icing - made with berry juice, powdered milk and sugar. |
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The verdict? The kids loved them. All is good in the Land of Insanity.
What I like about this book is that it is fairly easy to use and fairly honest about what our expectations should be regarding children and their tastes. Lapine suggests making purees of the veggies used in her recipes and freezing them. This will help a lot down the line as you want to make something quickly or try something new, and it's easier to hide it from the kids!
The recipes are old favorites. I've tried the mac n cheese, the pizza, the cupcakes, and the quesadillas. Not bad. Personally, I don't like some of the flavors, but my kids didn't seem to notice anything different, and that's the main thing, right?
I prefer this book to
Deceptively Delicious, which is very similar in ideas. As I mentioned, Lapine is more realistic with regard to children. I felt like I was being lectured by Jessica Seinfeld and felt a bit of "holier than thou" attitude in her book. Also some of Seinfeld's recipes seemed a bit complicated for my busy schedule and my kids' tastes. I made the chicken nuggets and they didn't go over well. (I will be trying them again - sometimes kids just decide to be finicky).
I am a big believer in picking your battles. Fighting over veggies and having your kids force themselves to gag is not my idea of a fun evening together (Nico even made himself vomit when he had to eat a quarter of an inch of a green bean. Good times.)
Anyway, this book is a great peacemaker in our family. And keeps my level of guilt down.
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