Deceptively Delicious Part II

After several days of trying these Deceptively Delicious recipes, I've come back to report on them.  In my first post about Jessica Simpson's book, I promised to share my findings on my sneakiness.  First of all, the instructions to make the purees ahead of time, is the best advice EVER.  I find that now the vegetable purees are in my freezer, it is sooooo easy to just throw them into anything and everything I am making.

As far as the recipes themselves, they are ok.  The chicken nuggets were alright, but what a pain to make! The sweet potato coating was gooey and very awkward to work with.  Plus, my kids did not gobble them up the way they do with the regular kind.  The rice balls were a flop. They took way more time than I wanted to spend on them and my kids didn't even like them.  The turkey meatloaf was great, but my favorite recipe so far was "Buttered Noodles". They were made with yellow squash and tasted amazing! Everyone ate happily and obliviously.

The reason I am glad I went the whole ten yards to read the book thoroughly and stash a month or two worth of vegetables in my freezer is because it enabled me to serve vegetables all time when I normally wouldn't have gone the extra mile.  I now serve vegetables during morning, noon, and nighty-night too and my kids have no idea! For breakfast, I either put pureed cauliflower or spinach in with our normal scrambled eggs.  If we have pancakes, I put beet puree in with the regular batter mix.  I'm even throwing in pureed vegetables into our regular brownie mix.  Don't get me wrong, I still will serve vegetables every now and then, so they don't forget how they taste (and hopefully start to enjoy them).  At least now, I can find some peace knowing we are getting a well balanced diet--without the constant struggle.