Bribes, Lies and Deception (or Feeding Vegetables to Your Children).

In this house we're big on modelling behaviour. We try to avoid mealtime power struggles, making a good example of ourselves, hoping the kiddies will eat the right things...and trying not to get too upset when they don't. We've been pleased to see greens and soups and stews heartily gobbled up and we LOVE when quinoa, chicken and broccoli are the snack of choice...BUT.

BUT THEN, just when we think we've got things under control, a week will go by that leaves me wondering "will you ever eat a vegetables again?".

Last week I wrote about my "Stacked Sundays", how I use one day a week to prep for the rest. As I was making baby purees for the Pipster on one said Sunday, I was reminded of Jessica Seinfeld's book Deceptively Delicious. The idea is simple and effectively genius: when you steam and puree vegetables you can hide them in virtually anything.



Her cookbook is fabulous, inexpensive and really necessary if you're looking for great ways to add purees to baking (oatmeal raisin cookies with zucchini, pink pancakes made with beet puree, or yellow cake with butternut squash) but for cooking you really can just go for it!

Add veggie purees to anything and everything (just add slowly and taste frequently!).

My favorite ideas from her book:

• Adding cauliflower puree to scrambled eggs (or a spinach puree for GREEN eggs!)
• Adding chickpeas to chocolate chip cookies
• Adding sweet potato puree to hot chocolate (see pics)
• Using veggie purees as part of the breading process for homemade chicken nuggets

Last week I needed a quick, last minute dinner for Winnie. I had some leftover rice pasta in the fridge and she asked to have it warmed up with butter and cheese. "Sure thing!".





I warmed the pasta up in some leftover, home made chicken stock (with bits of chicken in it), adding butternut squash puree that I had defrosted for the baby, and then added a dot of butter and sprinkled with cheese. It was really delicious, she ate the WHOLE thing and had no idea she was eating vegetables and protein. Imagine that.

We try to keep the lies and bribery to a minimum but a little deception can't be bad....right?