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I got this book,
Deceptively Delicious by Jessica Seinfeld, for Christmas and decided to try it out today. If you haven't heard of it,(have you been living under a rock?) it's a cookbook. She was tired of auguring with her kids about eating their vegetables so she started to "hide" them in their food. Basically the cookbook has all these really yummy recipes but with things like spinach, and cauliflower and other vegetables added that you can't taste. All the recipes are backed up by a nutritionists and the book has lots of good info, like guidelines for how much fiber you need and things like that. When I saw the author on TV she was saying that she spends one hour a week pureeing all the food, measuring them, and putting them in ziplock bags. Then she stores them in the freezer. When she's cooking during the week she just has to grab one of the bags and add it to the recipe.
It sounded easy enough. I was naive to think I could get everything done in an hour. I won't even say how long it took me, it's too embarrassing. But I did finish. I was able to do butternut squash, carrots, cauliflower, sweet potatoes, raspberries, and pineapples. Once I was done it was gratifying to look at.
Tonight I made three of the meals and they were all good. Seth really liked the "tortilla cigars" (they had butternut squash and carrots), I loved the fruit punch (that had carrots, pineapple, and raspberries) and we all enjoyed the ice cream sandwiches (in the book Jerry Seinfeld says he loves it so much he would request it as has last meal). The crazy thing was you really couldn't taste the vegetables.
All and all I guess it was a success. Now my freezer is stocked with lots of fruits and vegetables that are ready to be added to any of her recipes. But after all that work, and considering that there are so many vegetables I still haven't done, I can't decided if it's worth it.