Not So Deceptively Delicious

Like all moms that actually care what their children are eating on a daily basis, I try my best at trying to get Hailey to eat a balanced, healthy diet full of good foods. Some might think I'm a little on the crazy side and restrict her from take out, store bought refined treats, and even something it seems every toddler has in tow... juice. I'm not a total freak about sugar, but if my baby is going to have it, I'm going to be the one baking the goods (reducing preservatives and excess junk) and I think that is a system that has served us well so far. When she gets a bit bigger I will be a bit more lenient on what she eats, but my rule is now if she can't ask for it she isn't going to be getting it. The only exception to the rule at this point is grandparents, because I know that when Hailey goes and spends time with her loving grandparents they will spoil her. I might not like that her Popa gives her ice cream after almost every meal, but I know that Hailey also doesn't spend a lot of time with him so it's not really going to cause too much damage. I guess it was all a part of letting go of some of the control when I went away on our vacation last summer, but I'm at peace with what happens while we are away in the eating department.

But getting to the point of this blog, for Christmas this year my BFF gave me a cook book by the master of vegetable disguise Jessica Seinfeld, Deceptively Delicious. If you haven't heard of her clever little books, they are basically recipes crammed full of vegetables but all sneaky like. I was super excited to give this a try, Hailey gets a lot of veggies in a day but if I can get in a couple more servings in then I'm totally game. So yesterday I got out my baby food making arsenal and steamed/cooked/roasted/chopped/peeled/pureed all the veggies I had bought, bagged them up and froze them for future use. I had totally forgotten how much work it was to do! It's been close to a year since I whipped up my last batch of homemade baby food, and back then I had a system one batch a week, needless to say yesterdays task was quite ambitious. I have made two of the "supper" recipes so far and I haven minded them so much and Hailey eats it, the hardest person to sell on the idea is Mitch. He actually said to me yesterday while eating dinner "if this is the way Seinfeld lives, what is the point of having all his money". So now I don't even tell him what I have put in the food so he will at least try the food that I make for dinner, it seems to go over a little better when he isn't concentrating on the butternut squash or the peas hidden in the pasta. Sigh... I think I might have to stick to the baking recipes as I have tried a few of the cookies and bars that my friend has had out on play dates and I'm sure Mitch wouldn't even really know the difference. So I guess what I'm saying is that dispite my best efforts on trying to get our little family to eat a little better, Jessica you are not so deceptive and you do not have very delicious ideas. Although I'm not ready to quit after 2 recipes I have lost a little faith and quite a bit of enthusiasm on what could have been.

I don't believe that children (or husbands in my case) should be tricked into eating vegetables, and they should know what it is like to eat them in their natural form but I was just hoping that this might be a way to get us all eating better. It's a lot of work to get all the ingredients prepared to make any of the recipes, so if I'm not getting the feedback I want then I'm pretty sure that this cook book is going to be gathering a bit more dust then the rest we have in our house.

L