Deceptively Delicious!

We had a fantastic Memorial day weekend - Ken had 4 days off, we went to the zoo, my brother and sister in law and nephews were here, we did a lot of swimming. It was wonderful. Too bad my camera is in my car and I'm too lazy to go get it, or y'all could see some pictures. I'm sure my SIL has some wonderful pictures on her blog ;)

So instead, my post is about forcing my son to eat a vegetable. Madeleine has never been a picky eater. Sure, she's annoying at mealtimes - plays with her food, stalls, tells stories, bangs her fork, etc. But she eats anything I give her. She loves all kinds of vegetables, fruit, beans, tofu, fish, anything I give her, she eats. It's been pretty great. John Paul, however, is much pickier. He thinks the food groups consist of meat, carbs (bread and pasta), fruit, and his favorite... boobs ;) I have tried all kinds of ways to cook vegetables and serve vegetables but he is not into it. He'll chew on an artichoke leaf for a second and then he throws it on the floor. If I dare to put a piece of avocado in his mouth, he will take it out and throw it as hard as he can. Pretty much any vegetable I give him goes on the floor. So my friend gave me the idea to break out the Deceptively Delicious cookbook again - by Jessica Seinfeld. I have that book and also the Sneaky Chef to the Rescue, but never really used them much since Madeleine wasn't picky. The concept is making vegetable purees and sneaking them into kids' food. So I bought several different kinds of vegetables at the store yesterday and made a bunch of purees - butternut squash, carrot, spinach and broccoli, cauliflower and zucchini. And I've tried several recipes. Last night I made "buttered" noodles - with butternut squash. He ate his entire helping and half of mine! It was delicious! Then this morning I made them "green eggs" which is scrambled eggs with spinach puree. (I am not an egg fan, especially during pregnancy, so I didn't try them) but the kids both gobbled them up. For lunch I made grilled cheese with carrot puree, and both kids and I loved it. It really was good. So I am loving this - he's eaten more vegetables in the past day and a half than in the past month. I have a stock of purees in the fridge and freezer now too, so I'll be using those recipes a lot. Tomorrow I'm making pizza with some kind of veggie puree in the sauce, and probably the banana bread. This weekend I'm making either the chocolate chip cookies with garbanzo beans (SO good! - Ken's all time favorite cookie!) or the chocolate cupcakes for our cookout. I'm still serving vegetables on the side so he'll get used to them, but I feel better that he's actually eating some of them.