Sneaky Cuisine? Deceptively Delicious by Jessica Seinfeld
In the haze of memory a significant portion of my childhood was spent sitting at the dinner table, long after the dishes were done, over a portion of untouched green beans. We called them "string beans," back in those days, not without good reason, and the traditional Southern style of cooking rendered the beans limp and khaki-colored. That film of saturated pork fat that congealed on top didn't exactly enhance them as they cooled down either. My father and I had a classic power struggle going over those beans and their rightful place in my diet, and had it not been for my mother's common sense and mercy, I'd probably be sitting there still.
If this scenario sounds familiar, here's a children-and-food book with an interesting new twist, Jessica (wife of Jerry) Seinfeld's cute and clever cookbook titled Deceptively Delicious: Simple Secrets to Get Your Kids Eating Good Food.
Jessica Seinfeld votes for a little loving deception. Armed with a variety of pureed fruits and vegetables and some "whole foods" ingredients in the pantry, she advocates a bit of sneaky cuisine, sticking pumpkin puree into pancakes and cauliflower puree into mac and cheese. It's actually a pretty easy technique: with blenders, food processors, and baggies in every kitchen, it's simple enough to cook up a batch of fresh veggies (or use those leftovers from the dinners where only the adults had a serving), puree them, and pop those puppies into the freezer for the next kid pleaser menu. Her recipes have the criteria you could call the three P's: kid pleasing, easy to prep, and easy in the process.
What about teaching a "spirit of adventure" in eating? What about learning to appreciate a variety of taste and texture? Well, that's the goal, all right. But let's face it. Nature probably hardwired small children back in the cave days to resist strong or strange tastes and textures to protect them from eating spoiled or poisonous stuff, so the spicy variety that adults dote on is just not in the cards for most young ones. As Seinfeld also points out, "As I learned the hard way, the more pressure you apply, the more kids will "hate" certain foods." (Like, um, green beans)?
So she has devised stealth recipes which incorporate the five fruits and vegetables recommended for the daily diet into the foods her children already loved--chicken nuggets (with broccoli and/or spinach, beet, or sweet potato puree in the batter), yellow birthday cake (with canned pumpkin and fruit yogurt), chocolate chip cookies (with chickpeas pureed right in the batter), "green eggs" (with spinach puree), blueberry lemon muffins (with butternut squash puree), and chicken salad (with a dab of cauliflower puree). She swears the veggies blend right in with no discernable difference from the traditional taste. You can check out her recipe for brownies (with secret spinach and carrots) here.
Seinfeld is hard-nosed about reducing saturated fats and sugar in her recipes and insists on the importance of building into the diet ample calcium, protein, Omega 3 and 6, and vitamins, along with whole grains and lean meats. Her house rule is that you don't have to eat what's on your plate, but what's on the plate is all that is being served. She emphatically states that every recipe was soundly approved by her three children (2 picky eaters and 1 adventurer) before being included in the book. She also adds that her oldest, Sascha, 7, is interested in cooking, chiefly because she loves sweets and knows that homemade ones are the only ones she's going to get. (Sascha apparently still believes that everyone puts chickpeas in their Tollhouse cookies.)
Deceptively Delicious: Simple Secrets to Get Your Kids Eating Good Food.
BTW, Predictably, I loved green beans as soon as I started cooking them my way.
posted by GTC at
12:01 AM
8 Comments:
It's all about control. I know what's good for you and I'm going to make you eat it. The kid knows that short of physical force-feeding, you can't make him put that stuff in his body. So, he resists as long as it takes until he wins. Then millions of otherwise rational adults lose, big time. I was never pressured to eat certain foods or certain amounts of food. We almost always had a variety of foods at each meal. Different people would sometimes talk about foods that we were having that they especially liked. An unwritten rule was to not make a fuss about a food you didn't like. You were expected to find something else to eat from the variety of foods presented. I tried new foods because I wanted to, not because I had to. From a very young age onward, I liked foods, all kinds of foods. Spicey, bland, meat, vegetables, sweet, sour, bitter - all kinds of foods. Still do and I'm 63. One of the stupidest things American parents do is the way they teach kids to be picky by being so heavy-handed at the dinner table.
By
Anonymous, at 11:00 PM
We've got this book. It's a great idea, in theory. In practice, most of the recipes just plain don't work. Maybe they do if your kids have never tried anything else. But frankly I found several of the recipes inedible, and eventually we gave up.
By
Anonymous, at 2:01 AM
Does anybody know if the plagiarism case over this book has gone to court yet?
Missy Chase Lapine's book, The Sneaky Chef seems to be the original source for many of these recipes. They both feature similar ideas, such as mixing vegetable puree in macaroni and cheese, and putting pureed avocado into chocolate pudding.
By
Anonymous, at 2:11 AM
What you mean to say about Omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids is the proper ratio is important in diet. We get too much omega-6 in our diet now. This is from wikipedia.
Omega refers to how far from the last carbon a double bond carbon-carbon is located.
Excess Omega-6 Fats May Be Disease-Promoting
Some medical research suggests that excessive levels of ω−6 fatty acids, relative to ω−3 fatty acids, may increase the probability of a number of diseases and depression. Modern Western diets typically have ratios of ω−6 to ω−3 in excess of 10 to 1, some as high as 30 to 1. The optimal ratio is thought to be 4 to 1 or lower.[1][2]
Excess omega-6 fats interfere with the health benefits of omega-3 fats; in part because they compete for the same rate-limiting enzymes. A high proportion of omega-6 to omega-3 fat in the diet shifts the physiological state in the tissues toward the pathogenesis of many diseases: prothrombotic, proinflammatory and proconstrictive. [3]
By
Anonymous, at 5:30 AM
Since you're retired, I imagine your father was of an age to have known true deprivation, and to be unhappy that his kids weren't grateful for his hard work to put food on the table.
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Anonymous, at 8:09 AM
Why would you hype a plagiarized book, particularly on a "Books for Kids" blog? Because it has the Seinfeld name attached? Isn't most of the material in this book plagiarized from an earlier published book called "The Sneaky Chef"? Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe there's an ongoing plagiarism case involved with this book. Personally, I try to stay away from spending my hard earned money on things other people have stolen, particularly as I try to raise healthy — and honorable — children.
By
Anonymous, at 2:56 PM
Re: Plagarism
How about "innocent until proven guilty"? Just because she was accused of plagarism does not mean she is guilty of it. Cooks throughout the ages have been sneaking "good for you" food into things people actually like to eat, and there are recipes galore on the subject. Thanks to the retired librarian for giving a well-thought out review of the book so that parents can make there own decisions about it.
-TF
By
Anonymous, at 11:39 AM
I don't like the deception. Kids hate dishonesty and it will come back to haunt in other ways AND it does not teach good food habits. I have been concerned with the same issue and have a differnt approach. . Parents and teachers interested in getting kids to develop friendly feelings towards fruits and vegetables should take a look at a new book called “The ABC’s of Fruits and Vegetables and Beyond.” Out only a few months and already being bought in quantity for class use. Suited for kids of all ages as it is two books in one – children first learn their alphabet through produce poems and then go on to more mature activities. It is coauthored by best-selling food writer David Goldbeck (me) and Jim Henson writer Steve Charney. You can learn more at HealthyHighways.com
By
Unknown, at 5:58 PM
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