Friday, April 24, 2009

Deceptively Delicious

Well, I do not own the cookbook that teaches you how to add veggie purees to meals in order to sneak nutrients into your kids. I have, however been known to add black beans to my brownies. I also showed up at last year's service auction with some racecars made out of celery and carrots. It must have been for these reasons that my friend Christi recruited me to give a mini presentation at her recipe club on the topic of "Kid Foods." I appreciated the chance to spend a little more time in the kitchen with my future chefs and decided to focus mostly on healthy kid foods, since we could all stand to eat a few more fruits and veggies around here.

I did want to include the angle of sneaking veggies into food, so as part of my research I looked up a recipe for Macaroni and Cheese with pureed cauliflower instead of butter. My kindergartener wants mac and cheese EVERY day after school. So if I could make this little substitution wouldn't she be that much better off? So I thought. I made sure she was occupied in the other room as I prepared the dish, then called her in when it was ready. This was her exact reaction:

"This mac and cheese tastes different."

"Let me see the box."

"You should have added more butter."

(We add some spray butter and a little salt, since the night before, I got her to eat the cream of broccoli soup by adding salt.)

"It still tastes bad."

"Salt came to the rescue last night, but not this time."

and her final comment...

"IT TASTES LIKE OLD YUCKY MUSHED UP VEGGIES."

I never told her what the difference was. I ended up giving her left over pancakes instead and eating the mac and cheese myself.

*Note- I just used a simple recipe with boxed mac and cheese- it would probably turn out better with Mrs. Seinfield's actual recipe.

The crazy tortilla face and the cute fruit and veggie flower garden, however, were much more of a success.








12 comments:

Jen said...

I'm on my computer working on PTA stuff and saw this come in on google reader. I'm just trying to not act like I'm totally addicted to the computer. :)

I love Caroline. That comment is so funny.

The garden is so cute!! I think I need a lesson so I can do that at Leah's Fancy Nancy party in July. She would love it!

Sarah Sidwell said...

How fun! I love that you looks for healthy eating ideas. When Molly gets eating regular food you know I will be coming for ideas too.

Katy said...

The cauliflower mashed potatoes are better, but I have to do half and half to even get Alexis to touch them. Domenic on the other hand would care less.

Cute flowers! I like them. You do such great things!

Jessica Jensen said...

ok so I really love it. Kids seem to always show us who is in control no matter how much we try. I love our Caroline!

Sarah Sidwell said...

Nick found out about a website at a conference that you might be interested in. yucktoyum.com

Joe'n'Jess said...

I need to try some of these recipes with joseph. tonight we had kabobs and one of our friends told me that joe only ate the meat off of his kabob and then stached the veggies on someone else's plate. later he told me that he would like my fajitas much better if it was just meat on a tortilla. I realize now that he has the food mentality of a kindergartener.

Amanda said...

I couldn't figure our who Jewel was so I had to see. :) I love the idea of trying to make the kids food more healthy. I am always stressing out about what they are eating. Your mom actually told me the story at church about the mac and cheese. so funny. I only put pictures of myself on my blog when I look appropriate. You should see the ones I leave off, YIKES!

Andrea B. said...

Funny!! Amazing what kids know!

Debbie Hadley said...

You are so creative. I love the snail!

Shermilton said...

the food looks awsome

Neb said...

OK it was a great demo however could you have found a better photo? I look a bit crazy! Thanks for all your support with recipe club. I truley love you and think you are the best! A good note cara is ALWAYS honest with her opinions!

Lissa said...

I had a good chuckle over the calif/mac and I like your tips to moms.