Deceptively Delicious Review Part II

To add on to my review earlier this month, as promised: Deceptively Delicious: Simple Secrets to Get Your Kids Eating Good Food's author Jessica Seinfeld started her deception because her family members wouldn't eat their vegetables and found them "'disgusting.'" She started with an idea of blending in pureed vegetables (butternut squash into mac and cheese for her first attempt) and it took of from there.

I believe the Sloppy Joe recipe I tried this past week alone is worth the price I paid for the book. I will say, however, that making the food purees right before the recipe (which I did) is not recommended. It added probably 20 minutes of prep time, for a total of about one hour from start to finish. Seinfeld takes about an hour making her purees for an entire week. I probably never would do that, because I have very rarely planned a whole week's worth of meals at one crack. But then, I don't have to juggle work, a husband and children, either. Whichever way works for you is fine.

The recipe calls for 1/2-cup sweet potato puree and your choice of either 1/2-cup red pepper (my pick) or butternut squash puree (which I might yet try next, as the red pepper was not fun to peel). I also added some paprika and garlic powder to it, because the garlic cloves it calls for were inadvertently left out and I felt it need a bit more kick. (I have never claimed to be any kind of domestic goddess. That's a good thing, because my family members would die laughing if I even implied such a thing, which would truly be a pity. I'm rather fond of them.)

The next time I make this, I might use pureed tomatoes rather than tomato paste, which means I'll need more of it and also will have to reduce the beef broth accordingly. Otherwise, the result will be sloppy joe soup, which would be just a little too sloppy for me.

I definitely believe that the downside to the cookbook is the lack of individual nutritional information for each recipe. The cookbook, does, however, include some general information about why certain fruits and vegetables are good for you. I did find a copy of the recipe on sparkpeople.com with calories, fat grams, etc. if you're interested in trying it out. It's probably healthier than most sloppy joes you'll be finding at any graduation party you attend, too.