Food Glorious Food

Okay. Bare with me. A few weeks ago I caught the Oprah where Jessica Seinfeld (Yes, Jerry Seinfeld's wife) was on talking about how she got tired of fighting her kids about eating vegetables and so she started pureeing veggies and hiding them in their food. She had a new cookbook she has made and on Oprah.com they had several of the recipes. Now, I have always made an effort to feed my children healthy foods and I already have a few things I make that I sneak some veggies into but I was really excited to try these new recipes.

Having Nathan away from home has turned out to be a good time to try making some of these new recipes cuz I'm not gonna lie- some of them were NOT so tasty-but I think I found a few that will become staples in our diets. If I was to write all of the fiascoes and reactions to each of the foods I tried you'd be reading all day so I will try to keep it short; prediction- I will fail. First I tried the Chicken Nuggets with Spinach Puree. I thought they tasted really good but I learned a lot from making them. Make sure your chicken pieces are small, don't get the puree mixture too thick on the chicken or the breading comes off and this green mixture is revealed...Kennedy was not okay with this. The picture with nuggets is actually spinach filled 'chicken nuggets' they sell at our Costco out here and a friend recommended them and my kids will eat them and I actually really like them. Next I tried the Scrambled Eggs with Cauliflower Puree. I liked these okay. Kohen eats them and Aly ate them once and threw them once, and Kennedy picked at them. What I learned: don't add any or much water to the cauliflower puree when blending it, and I didn't add the oil that was in the recipe either because there was all of this liquid that I had to drain out the first time I made it. Better the second time with less liquids. Then I tried the Quesadilla with Squash Puree- people, please. I hadn't bought a squash (or cauliflower) in my life before I tried these. It was so fun to cut open that squash and realize oh yeah, this is in the same fam as pumpkins! And Kennedy enjoyed spooning out the seeds. I thought making the squash puree might be a little more involved than I was willing to be but you just throw it in the oven and forget about it for 45 min and then blend it up. I have since been just feeding 1/2 Cup or so of the squash puree to Aly at lunch because she loves it- who knew?! Anyway- the quesadillas are a hit for sure, even for Nathan and I. Kennedy is not a meat lover so I took the precooked grilled chicken strips from Costco, out of the freezer and blended them into the bean mixture and she was never the wiser :) Love that. Again, we really liked these. I made the Italian Meatloaf, would have liked it better without the spaghetti sauce on top but that is just a personal pref, reality is most of it ended up going down the sink. The Macaroni and Cheese- for the first time that I can remember since I have been making dinners for my fam did I make something that I felt was not worth eating. It looked all creamy and good- we all dug in and I even took a couple extra bites trying to make myself like it but I really just DID NOT. So even though my children often don't like what is for dinner, it would be rare that they all don't like it. So I did something I had never done before, took away the M.C. and broke out the cereal. Now, if you are someone who likes the Velveeta Shells and Cheese (Kristin :) you used to love that!) then this might be more up your alley. Let me know where I went wrong. And now, the finale. The Brownies with Spinach and Carrot puree. I was doubtful ya'll. And really if you eat a lot of refined sugars this would take a little getting used to. I didn't obey the directions and served it while still warm. I took one bite and there was a hint of spinach and I was like, 'blech! Why are my kids eating this?!' But then I tried it again after it had cooled completely and I was a much bigger fan. I proceeded to eat the rest of the pan for several breakfasts which I don't think was the intended purpose. Note: one bag of baby spinach makes one 1/2 Cup puree which is what the recipe calls for so keep that in mind. Anyway, thanks for reading, if by some miracle anyone still is- if you have any other questions let me know! And check out the link to the recipes up above!