Movies •Books •Music •Food •Tv Shows •Technology •Politics •Video Games •Parenting •Fashion •Green Living •more >

Lunch » Tags » Books » Reviews » Deceptively Delicious: Simple Secrets to Get Your Kids Eating Good Food » User review

Seinfeld's Deceptively Delicious: Simple Secrets

Deceptively Delicious: Simple Secrets to Get Yo...

A book by Jessica Seinfeld

Edit Topic

< read all 4 reviews

Warning: Hidden Veggies Ahead

Jun 20, 2010

by momoftwingirls
posted in Cafe Libri: Reviewing Books & More

Rating:

Having a notoriously picky set of twins, I bought this book about a year ago hoping to cram some veggies into them the "deceptively delicious" way. To this date, I've attempted a few of the recipes with varying degrees of success.

Jessica Seinfeld's cookbook Deceptively Delicious details ways to sneak pureed fruits and vegetables into various recipes. Right up front, Mrs. Seinfeld gives very detailed descriptions on how to prepare, cook and puree various vegetables and fruits. Before even pureeing the foods, she suggests how you can best equip your kitchen to make the whole vegetable deception game work for you and your family. There is also a very informative, easy to understand guide about children's nutrition, and also a section that details nutritional information about the different veggies featured in puree form throughout the book.

The book has recipes to cover all meals (breakfast, lunch and dinner) and then some (snacks and desserts). Many of the recipes are standard fare already found in America's kitchens: pancakes, muffins, macaroni and cheese, grilled cheese sandwiches, and brownies, just to name a few. The actual preparation of these recipes isn't too far off from their regular, non-veggied counterparts with the biggest difference being, of course, the addition of purees. Also worth a mention are the pages throughout the cookbook that give advice from other parents across the nation on topics concerning nutrition, picky eaters, "marketing" vegetables and the like.

I think it is important to note that while the recipes definitely do sneak produce into every day meals, the amount of that pureed produce may not be enough to astronomically boost one's actually vegetable/ fruit consumption. For example: the recipe for French Toast calls for two tablespoons of puree to make four servings. In a recipe for Chocolate Chip Muffins, the recipe calls for one cup of pumpkin puree and one-half cup of squash puree and yields twelve cupcakes. Some recipes do actually up the veggie quotient: adding cauliflower to mashed potatoes, adding squash and carrots to spaghetti sauce. With that being said, adding veggies can't really be a bad thing, and certainly can't hurt. After all, a half tablespoon of hidden veggies at breakfast and another two or three tablespoons at dinner is more than if you didn't hide any at all.

As I mentioned at the beginning of the review, I have tried some of the recipes (pancakes, hot cocoa, and chocolate chip muffins come right to mind). Just my opinion, but they were okay, and definitely were different than a non-puree hiding recipe. But my family did try them, did consume some of them, and got some veggies into them that maybe they wouldn't have had to begin with.

All in all, this cookbook is easy to use, well-organized with lots of pictures and step-by-step instructions. If you're looking for a different take on regular fare, or just interested in making healthier decisions regarding meal preparation, then give this cookbook a try.

What did you think of this review?

Helpful

Thought-Provoking

Fun to Read

Well-Organized

Post a Comment

More Deceptively Delicious: Simple ... reviews

Quick Tip by Bethany_Halligan. June 22, 2010

A Quick Tip by Bethany_Halligan

hilarious! and actually works really well too

Comment Compliment

Quick Tip by zhiiscool. June 20, 2010

A Quick Tip by zhiiscool

good book for good food.

Comment Compliment

Quick Tip by lyssachttr. February 16, 2010

A Quick Tip by lyssachttr

Diving in full force now, and pureed a freezer full this weekend. Great so far, tho not sure how much nutritional value such small amts add.

Comment Compliment

see all Deceptively Delicious: Simple ... reviews (4)

About the reviewer

momoftwingirls
Ranked #1235

I am a married mom of 4 year old twin girls. I work part time at an office. I love to read books of all varieties, and read whenever I get a chance (my girls' nap times & bed times!).