Sunday, February 17, 2008

Creatively tricky

I feel constantly amazed at people who are creative and motivated... those that think of something new and yet so obvious, and then not only think about it, they DO it.

Fellow food bloggers have been amazing me most recently, with what seem like professional pictures, easy explanations and wording for delicious recipes, and even being organized enough to develop a sensible layout that is both easy and fun to use. None of those are simple tasks, I assure you.

As I was lurking through various blogs (ahem, us hausfraus have a bit of time on our hands!), I stumbled across one that had a 'product of the week' category and this week was how to sneak healthy food into your kids everyday meals. With a laundry list of friends with babys and toddlers, and having my own food interests, I was more than a little excited!

What a fantastic idea, and I'm so impressed by the authors for the time and creativity it must have taken to think up the recipes, experiment, create a book, etc.

The blog I was reading discussed the Sneaky Chef, but I found another I wanted to highlight as well:

The Sneaky Chef, by Missy Chase Lapine, &

Deceptively Delicious, by Jessica Seinfeld


Wow! I wish I'd known of these books when my friends 'baby boom' was happening a couple years ago, what a great shower gift. Pureed carrot and sweet potato in a yellow mac & cheese recipe - ingenious!

If you have either of the above books and tried a recipe or two, would love to hear your thoughts. (There are also sample recipes on their websites, if you want to 'try before you buy')

Happy, healthy eating (for us, and the little monsters... oops, darlings)!

EDIT: After informing my Nutritionist mom about these books, her reply was that it's a controversial concept in the nutrition world. Some believe you shouldn't 'hide' the vegetables, but instead teach kids about them and expect them to eat them. My opinion was somewhere in the middle, since I think it's really, really hard for anyone (namely, me!) to eat 5 fruits and veggies a day, on top of all the other stuff you're supposed to eat/drink. Hiding some in your main dish or breakfast seems like a great way, on top of eating others 'au naturale', to get your daily dose. But, to each their own.

4 comments:

lisat said...

I love that deceptively delicious so I am happy to have another book to look at as well with the sneaky chef. I agree that kids should learn to eat their veggies but sometimes you can only get a few down even with a lot of prompting. It never hurts to be able to make food with healthy ingredients as well! Great post hausfrau!

Chria said...

I think a mix of both is a good idea, and actually don't think it needs to stop at kid food. A little pureed carrot and/or sweet potato probably only adds to the texture of mac and cheese. Now we'll see if I actually ever try it!

*also note that these books weren't out during the last baby boom, in fact they came out within weeks of each other last year and the non-wife-of-famous-celebrity author is suing the, uh, wife of the famous celebrity. Horrors!

Laura said...

chria- leave it to you to know all the behind-the-scenes tidbits! Now I have to google all these non-wife wives and see who they are, why they're suing, and what they ate for breakfast... thanks for the afternoon project! :)

Stef said...

Interesting concept. I've got no kids just yet, but this could come in handy at some point.