Deceptively Delicious Cookbook

[River]

I think you can get it for $21 from Kmart. I live and breathe the Deceptively Delicious philosophy now. Love it to bits. I sub in pretty much any puree into the recipes now, and add extra in too. For example, the choc chip cookies have a tin of chick peas in them but I add in a cup of various vegie purees too - usually 1/2 cup carrot and 1/2 cup sweet potato (as they are usually the ones stocked in my freezer the most).

My older kids love the idea and ask what vegies are in each thing they eat. My 2 year old who won't touch a real life vegie eats them unknowingly in her 'treats'. I can't rave enough about the whole concept.

[Erin_25]

I'll chuck this negative thought out there & hope I don't get stomped on LOL.
But I'm actually a little against it, I can understand many kids will not eat certain things & this is a great way to get them to get the nutrients etc a vegi etc can offer. But I dont like the idea of hiding something I want my son to eat & know what it is IYKWIM. I also dont want to encourage the eating of brownies & such...boring mum I am. But that's just me, in moderation not a bad idea I suppose.

[River]

Oh there is SO much more to the cookbook than just the brownies and the 'treats'. There is spaghetti and lasagne, french toast (with sweet potato!) and soups. And if you ever do give a 'treat', it's much better to serve a home made deceptively delicious treat than a freddo frog or a chuppa chump or something. If you *have* to give them something not completely healthy, you may as well add as much goodness in as possible.

I still serve out a plate of proper vegies to my girls - the older two (9 and 7) and the baby (9.5 months) eat the vegies just fine, but the picky 2 almost 3 year old will not touch them, I offer and encourage, but she will not eat them (a white food eater for sure ). So, if I can get some nutrients into her by stealth then she needs that to tide her through until she is no longer using food as a control mechanism. I know she will eat properly eventually, there's no reason to press the issue and make food time into a battle ground.

I mean, if you can get a child to eat a brownie with as much fibre and vitamins as the DD ones have and think they are getting a treat, that's amazing. They beg for more, without knowing that they are eating what they really refuse to.

It also makes all the 'treat' foods they eat to more closely resemble the 'good' foods. Subliminally it makes them accept and love good foods because it thickens up the junky foods and makes the texture more like vegies, it slightly changes the taste, they still like it, but it makes their taste buds more accept the vegies further down the track.

I haven't bought a single museli bar or roll up or le snack all year thanks to cooking from the ideas in this book. Even if I served my bigger kids brownies for lunch at school every day it would be better than just one museli bar in a week (which are full of additives and sugar btw!).

Individually each piece doesn't have very much volume of vegies (you add about 1/2-1 cup for a full recipe), but if EVERYTHING you make has a little bit in it, you are getting nutrition by degrees.

Whoops, I rambled