This Cookbook Author Should Learn to K.I.S.S.—Keep It Simple, Sweetie
 I remember sitting at the dining room table as a child being forced to eat eight peas (one for each year of my age). This didn’t stop when I got older; I counted out 15, 16 and 17 peas throughout high school. As it so happens, I love vegetables, even fresh or frozen peas (something I didn’t discover until I moved out on my own). It was the canned version that had me gagging through dinner. Now as the maker of my own meals, you won’t find canned peas on my dining room table, but the experience allows me to greatly empathize with children who are forcing down vegetables with no end in sight. That’s why when I saw promotions for Jessica Seinfeld’s cookbook Deceptively Delicious, I thought I’d found a match made in heaven. You can’t go wrong with healthy cooking and fun foods that kids love—but you can spend excessive amounts of time in the kitchen as you prep and puree vegetables called for in these recipes.
The premise of Seinfeld’s book is that kids will eat vegetables if they don’t know they’re eating them. She prepares pureed spinach, bananas, avocado and cauliflower (among other things) to freeze and then include in her recipes. The idea is that kids need time to get used to the taste of vegetables. The more they eat them, the more they like them. So if you want to start incorporating more vegetables into your child’s diet, it’s a great idea. The challenge comes when your child is older and making food choices for him or herself. Because you’ve hidden the vegetables, your child won’t be able to identify healthy foods when he or she isn’t eating with you. Seinfeld’s book is full of recipes for mozzarella sticks, macaroni and cheese, pizzas and brownies. The recipes are healthy enough but all the vegetables are pureed and hidden (deceptively) out of site. So, what’s a kid to do the next time they’re at a birthday party, school lunch or just dinner with grandma and grandpa and faced with the extremely unhealthy versions of food they’ve eaten at home? Clearly, they won’t know any better.
Ultimately, there’s nothing wrong with any of Seinfeld’s recommendations or recipes—provided you’re still talking to your child about healthy eating and vegetables. We even tried several recipes ourselves and found them fairly tasty. Our favorites are the pumpkin spice oatmeal, macaroni and cheese (with garbanzo beans), tofu nuggets and pita pizzas (with pureed spinach). The reality is, sometimes you need to sneak in some nutrients and this is a great way to do it. But just like with anything else, moderation is key.
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