Natural Product Reviews

Deceptively Delicious: Simple Secrets to Get Your Kids Eating Good Food

Deceptively Delicious is a new family cooking guide written by Jessica Seinfeld. The motivation behind the book is pretty common: Jessica, a mom of 3 and wife to Jerry Seinfeld, was tired of stressful dinners where her kids would refuse to eat their veggies, crying and spitting them out, and making her feel like a failure as a mom.

She was so discouraged by this that she decided she needed to come up with a workable solution - something that would leave her and her family happy. One option is fighting with the kids about eating their spinach and lima beans, making the dinner table a war zone, and the other option is just give up, letting the kids eat whatever they want so everyone can have a little peace. Neither is acceptable.

Jessica came up with a third option, which was to get really creative and a bit sneaky too. She decided to hide the veggies so that her kids would not even know they were eating them. Many Moms think that if they let their kids eat whatever they like that they will ultimately get their nutrition from other foods, but this is just not so anymore. There is too much junk food available and many kids are eating diets composed mostly of foods with little nutritional value.

Many parents have children that refuse to eat just about every vegetable or fruit there is. They may eat only the “white foods” like chicken nuggets, french fries and milk. Parents may be desperate since this all their kids will eat and they don’t want their kids to starve.

This book presents a wonderful solution to this common problem. In a nutshell, Jessica spends time each week pureeing vegetables like broccoli, squash, cauliflower, spinach, carrots, peas, and beets, which she then freezes.

As she prepares meals throughout the week she mixes these purees with kid- friendly, familiar foods like macaroni and cheese, homemade pizza and chicken “nuggets”, tacos, banana bread, cookies, brownies, and cake.

Her kids never know the difference and she gets them to eat their veggies without their even knowing it. She still serves vegetables “as is” with every meal but she doesn’t stress if they don’t eat them because they are eating some in disguise. This is an important step since researchers say that children often need 15 exposures to a new food before they will incorporate it into their diet. In the meantime, their nutritional needs are being met.

 

 

 

Filed under: Cooking Stuff, Healthy Stuff, Household Stuff, Mama Stuff, Stuff To Read, Stuff to Eat, Uncategorized on January 6th, 2008