Tag Archives: Deceptively Delicious

When my husband and I got married, he was shocked to discover that I had never experienced three of the sweetest pleasures life has to offer:  Corndogs, boxed mac ‘n cheese, and Slurpees.  So of course I obliged and sampled all three–deeming the first two unfit for human consumption and reluctantly admitting that the third was pretty hard to beat on a hot summer’s day.  Our budget got the best of me, however, and so our limit of spending $25/week on groceries necessitated Winco’s 39-cent mac ‘n cheese more than I care to admit.

Thankfully as time went on our budget grew and our waistlines shrank, and I’m now living in the lap of luxury on $50/week and have grown to love experimenting with healthy foods and challenging myself to stretch the dollars my hard-working husband has earned.

Of course, I love sweets like nobody’s business and have two small children who for some reason don’t think roasted yams and spinach salad are a good idea.  So, as we all tend to stray off course when no one’s steering the ship, we had drifted into the land of quesadillas and peanut butter sandwiches … for every meal.  We needed a course-correction.

So I picked up a library copy of the much-acclaimed cookbook Deceptively Delicious by Jessica Seinfeld.  I was skeptical.  Firstly and mostly because I’d seen “vegetable sneak-in” ideas before and they usually managed to get a tablespoon or so of something relatively healthy into an otherwise nutritional monstrosity, and that didn’t seem worth the effort. Secondly, one of my main goals in nutrition is teaching my children about healthy eating, so tricking them into swallowing vegetables seemed counterproductive.  I envisioned the poor souls sitting in a college cafeteria unwittingly eating powdered mashed potatoes without knowing it’d really been cauliflower I’d fed them every Thanksgiving.

However, I was pleasantly proven wrong.  The author (Jerry Seinfeld’s wife) does a great job sticking in pointers and helpful advice on mealtime manners, creating a positive eating environment, and teaching children how to contribute to the meal-prep in age-appropriate ways.  She also includes a quick overview of the fruits, vegetables and legumes used as “sneak-ins”, including the nutritional value and how they specifically benefit our children’s growing bodies.  Great information.

For me, the recipes are a great starting point and source of inspiration.  She seeks to make things simple for busy moms, so she still includes boxed pancake mixes, white flour, white sugar, canned beans.  She also prefers light or low-fat items such as light tub margarine, imitation light mayonnaise, and reduced fat cheeses.  I lean more toward whole-grain-at-all-cost, evaporated cane juice (available now in bulk at Winco!), and dried beans, and I also prefer real mayonnaise, real butter, and full-fat cheeses, especially for kiddos.  So, I haven’t followed any of her recipes to a tee, but as I mentioned before–great source of inspiration.

So speaking of inspiration, we’ve had five fabulous nutritional successes thanks to Jessica Seinfeld’s ideas, and I’m excited to experiment with more. I’ve included these five here.  Even if you don’t have kids, simply tweaking your favorite recipes to include some nutrient-rich ingredients could greatly improve your diet. You might even develop a taste for some of these things, and find yourself craving beets.  Anything’s possible.

Overall, I’d recommend the book.  It would have done us wonders in those early years of marriage.  She even has two healthy mac ‘n cheese recipes … although I haven’t seen her redeem a corn dog.  Some things, I suppose, just aren’t worth salvaging.

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Ocean Cake

(Named by my three-year-old who is obsessed with ocean animals. Warning, this is very green, but delicious!  You could call it Monster Cake or Shrek Cake or whatever makes it exciting for your children.  The fact that I can actually serve this as dessert still blows my mind. It is crazy-healthy. I made this doubled and put half in a loaf pan, half in muffins.)

• 3 TB melted butter
• 1/4c. brown sugar (you could even leave this out if you really want super healthy–I like a little sweetness)
• 1/4c. ground flaxmeal
• 1 bag baby spinach sauteed or steamed in water and olive oil until wilted (or you could use 1 box frozen spinach), then pureed in blender
• 1 c. ground oats (pulse in blender)
• 3/4c. whole wheat flour
• 1/4c. milk
• 1egg + 1 eggwhite
• 1/2c. applesauce (I used homemade, with peels for extra fiber and nutrients, no sugar added)
• 2 mashed bananas
• 1/2tsp cinnamon.

Pour in muffin papers sprayed with Pam.  Bake 20 minutes at 375 degrees, or longer if using loaf pan.

Pink Pancakes

(This one still has me in awe.  My kids LOVE pancakes and we have them every Saturday night.  My three-year-old was skeptical when they were magenta-colored, but they devoured them so fast I couldn’t keep them coming quick enough.  These are my new favorite thing.)

• 1 egg
• 1 1/2 c. milk
• 2c. whole-wheat flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 TB evaporated cane juice (or sugar)
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 c. ricotta cheese
• 1/4c. beet puree (peel, cube and steam/boil beets, then puree in blender)

These turn out bright pink/magenta, and are so delicious.  We skip the syrup so this meal has whole-grain, protein, and vegetables all wrapped up on one yummy and kid-friendly entree.  Adding blueberries would be fun and nutritious as well.

Veggie-packed Chili

There are a million variations of chili/taco soup/tortilla soup.  I usually just make it with whatever I have on hand.  Tweak it however you like.

• 1 c. dried pinto beans soaked overnight (follow directions for cooking beans–1:3 ratio of beans to water; or you could use canned beans)
• 1/4c. leftover taco meat (or chicken or beef or nothing at all)
• 1 packet taco seasoning (or your own seasonings, chili powder and cumin, etc.)
• garlic (as much as you want–I’m a garlic girl)
• 2 cups shredded carrot (I just pulsed in blender)
• 1 cup pureed yams
• 1 can corn.

Cook all day on low in crock pot.

YUM. The yams are the secret; they make this chili taste sweet and a tad tangy.  Sprinkle with shredded cheddar cheese. My one-year-old devoured this.

Cauliflower Tunafish

(My three-year-old loves tunafish on crackers.  I was so skeptical about adding cauliflower, but it’s delicious.  In fact he said, “Please mommy don’t eat all my tunafish!”  We were both enjoying it.)

• One can Trader Joe’s tuna packed in water
• 1 TB real mayonnaise
• 1/4 cup pureed cauliflower
• salt to taste.

Chickpea Chocolate Chip Cookies

(This is really remarkable.  I had to try because I didn’t believe the chickpeas could be anything but offensive in a cookie.  You have to try it for yourself. They practically melt into the cookie and you cannot taste them.  A chocolate chip cookie that’s 100% whole-grain and full of protein?!  My dreams have come true…)

• 1/2c. real butter softened
• 1/4c. evaporated cane juice (or sugar)
• 1/4c. brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 c. ground oats (pulsed in blender)
• 3/4c. whole-wheat flour
• 3/4tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp. real vanilla
• 1/2tsp salt
• 1c. chickpeas (I used dried and soaked and cooked them myself, but you could use canned, just be sure to rinse them so they’re not salty)
• 1 c. chocolate chips.

Bake at 350degrees for 8 minutes.  Then hide them because otherwise you will eat them all in one sitting.

Enjoy!