"Deceptively Delicious" Jessica Sienfeld Book?

I have been using "The Sneaky Chef" for a while now. Our son does not like any veggies, so I had to resort to hiding them. For those of you who think this is a bad idea, he does get served veggies and is asked to try them each time, he usually will chew a little then spit it out and say ick and drink his milk to wash away the taste. So I both hide veggies and serve them. This gives me peace of mind that he is getting his proper nutrients etc.
We are currently in the process of moving from England to Nebraska and have had to figure out how to hide veggies in his foods as we travel. I have managed to do this a little bit with baby foods, namely carrots and sweet potato added to any kind of red sauces. It has been a challenge, but he is still trying his veggies and spitting them out ;) I have asked the doctors about this and they say to be persistant with the trying and do not stress about it, so that is what I try to do ;)
Play with the cook book and have fun!

1 mom found this helpful

I haven't heard of this book. I'll have to check it out... sounds like I may like it too. I have, however, heard of "The Sneaky Chef". She also puts good things into recipes without others knowing. I've been intending on getting it (haven't yet). Thought you may like to know about this one too. It seems pretty simple. My husband and son are the picky ones with the veggies. My daughter, not so much. Here is a link if you want to check it out... http://www.thesneakychef.com/
Hope you find what you are looking for. Let me know what works out.
~SR

1 mom found this helpful

I have Jessicas book and it looks great. I have not tried any of the recipes yet, because it looks like a lot of work. I need to set aside a day just to puree stuff. Once that is done I think it is a great idea.

Hey C.-I got the book for Christmas because I wanted to try it with my girls. My oldest is so picky and hated everything I made, My middle will usually try anything so she ate some of the things I made, I thought most of the recipes were good but in the end I have stuck to my own recipes. Maybe see if some of the recipes are on-line and try them first or I can send you some from my cookbook if there is one in particular you'd like to try. Just let me know. :)

My son's grandma bought this book and we both love it. It's got great ideas like "pink pancakes" (my son's favorite) which are made with beets, or grilled cheese that has shredded sweet potatoes added in. There's so many ideas and the kids never know!

I have it. My kids are pretty picky and won't eat a lot of them, but I think some of the recipes are quite good. I have tried sneaking pureed veggies into other foods, though, and it does work :)

Good luck!
J.

the whole idea is great, and you can actually make certain recipies healthier by using other foods instead of some ingredients: exe: you can use avocado instead of butter (i use one average sized avocado per stick of butter called for in the recipe) and you can use applesause instead of sugar.

however, doing this to get kids to eat vegetables is not really a great idea. what if you go somewhere, anywhere, and "hiding" vegetables is not possible? how will you expect your kids to eat a vegetable if they dont have to eat them at home (or so they think because they dont see them)

my advice is to use this sparingly, for healthy substitutes, but not as a way to sneak in vegetables. the more often you offer fruits and vegetables as a normal part of all meals and snacks, and dont offer junk, the more kids will be willing to eat them, not only at home, but everywhere else too!

Yes, I have this book. My son is only 7 weeks old but I tried it on my 4 year old niece and it worked wonders. It works well for picky husbands too!

C.,
First of all, there is a possible law suit out because Jessica's recipes don't seem to be Jessica's after all... With that being said, I have the book, but it is sitting in the cupboard taking up space. My expectations were a lot higher than what I got. There isn't a great deal of variety with her "hidden" ingredients.
J.

I have The Sneaky Chef and Deceptively Delicious. I like the Sneaky Chef one better. Make sure you still serve veggies on the side so your kids get used to seeing them and trying them.

I spend every Sunday afternoon preparing some of the make ahead recipes out of the book, cutting up fresh fruit, veggies and preparing as many meals as I can for the week. I find it very relaxing and being prepared helps you avoid that pizza call or that run to a fast food restaurant when your sooooo hungry.

Check out the Sneaky Chef website, just google it.

I strongly reccomend this book, if you are unable to adapt your own recipies. As it is an excellant way to get good foods into your entire family. I have done this in the past and could kick myself that I never wrote a book and now Jessica gets the biog bucks for doing it. Your family will appreciate it in the long run. now that my children are grown and gone I continue to "sneak" good foods into many things as my Husband is now the "kid" who likes to eat "meat and potatoes and snubs his nose to the veggies when I suggest having them with a meal.
It is so easy to do this and you can get many different veggies into everything from meatloaf to cookies, alot of it has to do with just experimenting with your current recipies.
Good Luck you can do the same thing without purchasing the book, just keep in mind that you have to keep an eye on your moisture content in whatever you are making.

I love it! My 18month old DD will not eat veggies. I have tried everything! So I got this book, we've liked the recipes and they are easy to make. One of the criticisms of the book is "sneaking" veggies in, but in the book they tell you to still give them veggies, you just won't feel so guilty when they take a few bites and spit it out. I hope you enjoy the book as much as I have!

I bought the book and have honestly never made anything from it. however, I read the book and it did give me ideas for sneaking frozen squash into meatballs. Now that I have a newborn and will be feeding him pureed foods -- I plan on making some of the purees and recipes. Hope this helps. and really who is it hurting by sneaking in vitamins?
M

I bought it for the same reasons you mentioned, but the recipes weren't very non-chef-busy-mom user freindly. I bought The Sneaky Chef and found it much easier to follow. Good luck!

I checked it out, but thought The Sneaky Chef had more and better recipies, so I bought that one. Sorry to say I hav'nt gotten around to making anything yet!

YOu can check it out at the library- great ideas- I love the banana bread where you put cauliflower. I only pureed stuff once and then froze it. Its a big mess and a lot of work. I also made the chicken nuggets where you dip spinach in them and I thought they were a lot of work and they were not that good. But so I would give it a try- check it out first unless you know you will use it. YOu can also find some recipes on Oprah.

C.,

I have both "the Sneaky Chef" and "Deceptively Delicious". They are very similar, but have different recipes. The Sneaky Chef has more prep work to the vegi's... meaning, her recipes call for blends of pureed vegi's, vegi juices vs. Deceptively Delicious where her recipes call for a single vegi pureed.

Some of the recipes are easy (add cauliflower to boxed mac and cheese), others require a lot of work (fried rice balls with pureed chicken and sweet potatoes and broccoli).

My experience is that the recipes that have a lot of stuff in them (brownies with spinach for example) were not very tasty. Those with just an extra vegi added are pretty good.

I'd check them out from the library and see if you are up for the work of the extra prep for making the purees. I found that I made a bunch, used them up, and haven't had time to make much more, although in the winter I tend to have more time to cook.

Good luck!
J.

I've not read the cookbook, however, my mom was famous for "hiding" things in her meals. I was evidently a rather picky & stubborn eater and she figured it was better to get veggies in me that way than not at all. She confessed to it when I was in high school and we've been laughing about it ever since. The truly great part is as an adult, I still have a hard time with certain veggies (texture thing) so I'll do the sneaky thing to myself, it's better than not eating them at all! I say go for it :) Besides, don't all moms have "secret" family recipies?? Good luck!

I won the book and have not used it. I'm sorry, but spinach brownies???? Not even a chance I am going to do that.
I do sneak food in on my kids, but I didn't like any of her recipes enough to try them. There were a few that I plan to give a try eventually, but for the most part you can do it yourself.
I add frozen chopped spinach to meatloaf, meatballs, and even on pizza with the sauce. I sneak carrots in meatloaf, too. I think that pureed and then cooked would give less vitamins than if you just put it in there finely chopped. My kids can see it, but they can't taste it.

I would not buy it. I really wanted it, too, but it is not worth paying money for.

Love it. I have an infant, so I was already pureeing things for her, so I began making extra veggie and fruit purees for us! I have made a ton of the recipes and we've enjoyed most of them. the spinach ones I couldn't handle because I knew what was in them, but the rest of the family thought they were fine. I also have "the Sneaky CHef" but her purees require combinations of things, so it's a bit more work - and also she doesn't have nearly as many pictures in her book! LOL! The book also motivated me to just add purees to things I already make....why try and change my meatloaf recipe to hers when really, the whole idea was just add pureed carrots! WE also LOVED her home made fish sticks. My 2 1/2 year old DD loved the 'pink pancakes' - it had beet puree in it. She doesn't usually eat pancakes, but she at 3 of these! If you can take the 1 or 2 hours once a month to cook and puree (then freeze) a few things, then it's worth it. Also some things you don't have to cook - like the canned beets, I just microwaved them to soften them up and then blended them right into the pancake mixture. You can also just check out the book from the library and decide if you really want to buy it. Happy cooking!

Hi there!

I was given the book as a gift and I've really enjoyed it. It takes time preparing all the purees for the recipes, but then you freeze them and they're ready to go for whenever you need them.

I would say that if you enjoy cooking and experimenting it's a fun book. If you think cooking is drudgery and you just want to get meals over with then I don't think you'd use it much, unless you got someone else to prepare all the vegetables.

For quick fix meals with healthy ingredients in mind, I follow recipes from R Ray and R Miller from the Food Network (www.foodnetwork.com).

Good luck!

I just bought the Betty Crocker Junior cookbook. They are kid friendly so they can help you and also use good for them food. I am trying to get my lil one to eat table food so been using some of these recipes. MY whole family has loved them.

Hi,
I love it! So far I've made the mac and cheese, lasagna, chicken nuggets, pink pancakes, and chicken rice balls just to name a few. The only time my oldest caught on was when I used brocolli in the chicken nuggets but she actually asked for them this week! I bought those zip and steam zip loc bags and puree in a small food processor. The only one that hasn't really gone over well is the beet puree. As long as the veggie is the same color as the food you can hide the veggies in almost anything. You can even incorporate it into your own dishes. I found the cauliflower puree works in many dishes.

I got this as a gift and have tried a few recipes. It seemed like a lot of work to me and the items we tried were not that great. I should probably give it another chance. I still have cauliflower and broccoli puree in the freezer...