Jessica Seinfeld's Cookbook (merged w/Sneaky Chef)

yo'ma

Sun, Jun 15 2008, 5:47 pm

I don't need to hide it. My 10 year old dd doesn't like zuchinni. The other day, I made zuchinni latkes w/o telling them what kind of latkes they are, just to taste them. Since then, she's asked me to make them again. LOL

Crayon210

Sun, Jun 15 2008, 6:10 pm

Motek wrote:

Crayon210 wrote:

I read an article about this idea...it was against the whole concept, since it might provide nutrition but it doesn't teach nutrition, and children who eat carrot brownies or beet mashed potatoes don't learn to eat carrots or beets, just brownies and mashed potatoes. Confused

Hiding vegetables in recipes does not mean you cannot put vegetables on their plate. And that is what the author of D.D. says she does. But she's not as obsessed with her kids eating them which made meal time miserable.

That's interesting.

But I could see some less responsible parents saying, eh, forget the whole veggies on the side, I'll just sneak them into the brownies.

Motek

Sun, Jun 15 2008, 7:51 pm

Crayon210 wrote:

That's the other thing. I think there should be trust regarding what you're putting in your body.

Why?

If the mother is cooking, does she owe it to her family members to provide them with a list of ingredients? Confused

Or is it commendable to provide nutritious, tasty food?

Crayon210

Sun, Jun 15 2008, 8:04 pm

If someone davka doesn't like a certain food, I think it's wrong to sneak it into their food.

Sometimes I will use a healthier ingredient to see how people react, but if someone davka doesn't like a particular ingredient, I wouldn't sneak it in.

Motek

Sun, Jun 15 2008, 8:15 pm

Crayon210 wrote:

If someone davka doesn't like a certain food, I think it's wrong to sneak it into their food.

Wrong? Why?

By the way, the D.D. book's author has children 6, 4 and 2. Do you think children are entitled to know what all the ingredients are - why?

And there's Sneaky Chef for husbands. I suppose to avoid any feelings of "wrongness," a wife can ask her husband:

"Would you care if the food I made contained healthy ingredients that you don't usually eat because you don't like them, if you won't realize they're there?"

If the husband says yes, he would mind, I'd like to know why. Would seem absurd to me.

But I don't think a cook must disclose her cooking methods to anyone.

If someone can serve me something I don't like, that's good for me, and I won't know about it, kol ha'kavod to them!

Clarissa

Sun, Jun 15 2008, 8:16 pm

Call me shallow and petty, but I'm so bothered by Jessica Seinfeld, I have completely dismissed Deceptively Delicious. I'm not really familiar with the Sneaky Chef, but I assume that's who Seinfeld plagiarized.

For me, hiding food in food isn't the way I want to introduce my kids to vegetables. I have nothing against making somewhat healthy and tasty vegetable or fruit-based treats (like pumpkin muffins or fruit-bran muffins, for example) but I don't think about sneaking vegetables into things as a rule. I make plenty of foods (pasta sauces, roast mixed vegetables, salads with fresh fruit involved) that have fruits and vegetables, and I do my best to include other healthy elements to their diets. I've dealt with the typical kid stuff -- my older one ate everything when little, but now has gotten really picky and more difficult to feed. I don't think hiding things at this age would really work.

Crayon210

Sun, Jun 15 2008, 8:17 pm

I don't know, some people have hangups about certain foods, don't want anything to do with them. And if they are given something called a brownie that has a carrot in it, even if they can't taste it, they're likely to be upset about it. It's not rational, but so what? People are entitled to their inyanim.

Motek

Sun, Jun 15 2008, 8:24 pm

Crayon210 wrote:

if you say, "Ha ha, you ate a carrot!" I can see that the person might get upset

I don't recommend doing that. Wink

Tefila

Sun, Jun 15 2008, 8:27 pm

Quote:

I could see a parent doing this out of sheer desperation.

Yes when it comes to cooked onions and celery including sweet pototes that has been for years with the small kids my only option, other then eliminating it altogether.

louche

Mon, Jun 16 2008, 10:42 am

Funny you should bring this up, I just took one of those books out of the library. what I don't like is the complete lack of nutritional data (calories, grams fat-carbs-protein-vitamin values). yeah, it's a great recipe, but if it's a bazillion calories per serving, who cares if it has a whole head of spinach in it? There was a recipe for BBQ sauce or something and she was kvelling how when they eat the buffalo wings or what have you they're eating carrots! No, they're not. they're eating BBQ sauce that has maybe half a carrot in a cupful. every wing contains about 3 carrot molecules.

I plan to try a recipe or two, but I don't foresee converting to the sneaky chef school of cooking. I mean, we love sweet potatoes, blueberries, cherries, strawberries, etc, plus the fruits are expensive. Hiding them in anything would be a criminal waste. Turnips or beets, otoh....those I could see camouflaging. unfortunately the book I have uses neither of these.

Motek

Tue, Jun 17 2008, 11:14 am

louche wrote:

There was a recipe for BBQ sauce or something and she was kvelling how when they eat the buffalo wings or what have you they're eating carrots! No, they're not. they're eating BBQ sauce that has maybe half a carrot in a cupful. every wing contains about 3 carrot molecules.

I was wondering about that. So big deal, you put in half a cup of pureed cauliflower. How much nutritional value did it add to each portion?

And what nutritional value is left of the vegetable after it has been cooked, pureed, frozen, defrosted, and cooked again?

Capitalchick

Thu, Jul 24 2008, 10:53 am

[quote="Motek"]

louche wrote:

And what nutritional value is left of the vegetable after it has been cooked, pureed, frozen, defrosted, and cooked again?

That's EXACTLY what I was thinking! All that processing must kill the nutrients!

TAPS

Thu, Jul 24 2008, 11:03 am

I tried the choc. chip cookies in it, saw the book at someones house. You add chickpeas for protein. They are GROSS. My kids won't touch them. I won't be buying book.

rockys

Mon, Jun 15 2009, 1:33 am

I have no patience for Jessica Seinfeld. I almost put her in the same category as Jenny McCarthy (don't get me started).

But, I love the Sneaky Chef books. I have all three (the most recent one has new recipes, lower the fat on some favorites and ideas for kids on restricted diets).

My second son has Autism and has a very limited diet. He will not touch a vegetable. Period. No way, now how.

But, he gets blueberries and spinach in his pancakes and brownies. He gets sweet potatoes and carrots in his chicken fingers (we call them schnitzel!), cupcakes, etc. Her flour blends are made with wheat germ, whole wheat flour and regular flour. Choc chip cookies were also a hit.

Not everything was "sold" but enough so that he is actually getting some fruits and vegetables.

Love the book.