Soooo, what happens when a celebrity-by-association puts out a book on hiding veggies in otherwise innocuous foods? Well, at first it's all Oprah love (sez FameCrawler) and interviews , and then…the backlash. Critics of the covert food strategy
Like others have already pointed out, you’re still supposed to give them actual visible vegetables as that side dish you were worried about. That way it’s a part of their plate and there for the taking. However, if they don’t try them, at least they’re still getting the nutrients from the puree.
My oldest had trouble with the texture of vegetables but loved macaroni or shell noodles with spaghetti sauce. I would steam vegetables, then puree them with a bit of sauce, and dump it into the pot. She ate happily AND got her vegetables in – and my husband and I ate the same sauce and we benefited too. However, he and I would also have a salad on the side. Since she was at an age where lettuce was too hard to chew, I would supplement her “sneaky sauce” with a few spoonfuls of real, chopped vegetables.
She grew up to be a kid who would actually ask for a bowl of vegetables after her morning cereal. At five, she still loves most veggies and will eat any fruit but kiwi.
So it’s not necessarily a bad thing. Multivitamins are a way of “sneaking” the nurtients in but that’s considered okay. What difference is it really?
My kid is on a boob-juice only diet but my friend, mother of 3 (pre-teen to teen) loves this book for her kids AND her husband (who is a restricted, picky adult eater). Brownies with spinach might be better than the brownies without (that you’d make or eat anyway.)
I think we could all use a plate of healthier chicken nuggets. And if you are going to eat a brownie, why not have some apinach in there. It’s not like our morbidly obese, diabetes ridden, choking on our high cholesterol, falling over dead at 45 years old nation couldn’t benefit from a few extra veggies.
How can you comment about a book that you haven’t read? I left my comments over at City Mama, but since I’m lazy, I’ll copy and paste my comment:
It’s not a replacement for veggies, but rather, a way to ensure that your kids are getting them.
I give my kids the high protein noodles and the V-8 fusion (no sugar — full serving of veggies and fruit). She still gets veggies on her plate, which she may or may not eat, and which Jessica still recommends doing.
I think it’s fantastic that there are kids out there that will eat whatever you give them because you started them out early on good foods. But while I wouldn’t consider my daughter to be picky, she doesn’t eat most raw veggies. And she hates tomatoes.
But she’ll eat them in soups and casseroles. I might not puree them, but honestly, how is that any different?
And it’s not because I haven’t tried whole heartedly from the beginning to give them to her. Some kids have sensory issues with food. And some kids just don’t like it, no matter how hard you try.
Honestly, I’m tired and slightly offended when parents brag about how their kids eat everything and anything — implying that the parents out there with “picky” eaters haven’t tried everything. My kid doesn’t eat olives — feel free to have been at my house in the early days when she threw everything she didn’t like back at me.
We all ate zucchini bread — tastes like banana bread — and it never caused us psychological damage. I’m not for lying to my kids, so if my 3-year-old asks if there’s cauliflower in her macaroni and cheese then I’d certainly tell her.
But are we all about full disclosure with everything with our kids? My daughter asks where babies come from, do I give her just the information that she needs to know (not lying, but not what I’d tell a 14 year old).
If it’s a way for me to get more veggies into her little system, then so be it. But I’ll still feed them to her on her plate as well.
And in my opinion, there are worse ways that people lie to their kids — like telling them that the playground is closed or that the toy store is closed because they don’t want to stop or deal with the tantrums.
To me, this is totally different than trying to make sure your kids have good nutrition.
Jessica Seinfeld knows books and bees. Her husband Jerry has the Bee Movie opening soon, after 8 years of commercials and teasers. Jessica has a sneaky little cookbook, Deceptively Delicious . It's good times in the Seinfeld hive. Jessica has really
My son won’t eat fruit. Occassionally applesauce, or a bite of strawberry, but that’s it. As I personally prefer veggies to fruit, I wonder if it’s genetic.
That’s my point. Just put both in front of them, and even if they only eat the fruit they’ll get all the vitamins they need. They’ll eat the vegetables someday, if only just because they’re there.
We do both. I serve at least one type of steamed veggie with dinner AND I hide extra veggies in stuff. Just in case the kids decide not to eat what I made. As insurance. Seems like a pretty simple idea to me.
Perhaps you missed the clearly stated assertion from Jessica Seinfeld that she still serves whole steamed veggies as side dishes for each meal, so that her children will know that it is important to eat them and learn to like them. How did you miss that? (Obviously didn’t read the book or even watch her brief appearances on the talk-show circuits, Today Show, etc.) Also, I fear you have not tried squash lately– Butternut and Spaghetti squash are quite delicious and flavorful, not bland at all. My 8 year old and 10 year old love them.
Oh, and I forgot to mention that I had delectable brussel sprouts the other day. Yes, brussel sprouts. They were roasted with mashed garlic and extra virgin olive oil. I sprinkled some sea salt on them and ate all 10. My kids wouldn’t touch em’ after a few whiffs. BTW, a great place to “sneak” veggies is spaghetti sauce or lasagne sauce. I slip peas, carrots and shredded yellow squash into both. My husband’s the only one who notices … at least he pretends to like it for the kids’ benefit. One vegetable I just can’t hack is the mushy, squishy mushroom. Nasty.
I’ve eaten Madeline’s sneaky grated zucchini chocolate muffins and they are amazing. My kids begged for more after she sent me home with a to-go bag of her little moist, delicious wonders. I divulged Madeline’s veggie secret and they still gorged themselves. Little buggers didn’t leave a single mini muffin for me. How’s about some more muffins, Madeline?
When babysitting for my cousin’s 5 children, we got a few protestations over green beans etc. My cousin caters to them but my husband and I cook 1 thing for everyone and we all sit down together, them’s the rules. They were insistent that the offending veggies be removed from the plate. We maintained that they need not eat them but they are to remain on the plate. With no further cajoling or coaxing (who has time when there are 5?!) we looked up to find plates cleared! Kids can be pretty surprising sometimes when left to their own devices You never know what they’ll end up trying and liking when all of the drama and push-pull is removed from dinner time.
I grew up hating veggies because I was only served the frozen kind (um…defrosted, at least. But bleh.). I would eat broccoli or cauliflower if smothered with cheese sauce. (And it was good on the broccoli, too. Ba dum bum.) But as an adult I discovered the joys of REAL vegetables: brussels sprouts! Who knew they were edible! And learning to cook them properly so that *I* will eat them has resulted in 4 kids who love veggies. Oh, they each have their peccadillos, but for the most part they are veggie eaters. Not that I won’t make their baked goods healthier by adding carrots or pumpkin or whatever, but I’ve never out-and-out lied about it.
Seinfeld’s recipes are absurdly child-pandering, and so unnecessarily. I don’t believe kids are so picky that they need only “fun” foods all the time. My mother cooked for six on a tight budget. There was no way she would have prepared two meals a night – for so many reasons. We kids ate the grownup food and our palettes grew up with it. When broccoli is what you know, sooner or later, it becomes what you like. (Still a fan.) And while lacing mac and cheese with squash is a great way to get some vitamins into a comfort food, spinach should be had before eating a delicious brownie, not while. And brownies should be so rare that when they’re had, they can just be balls-to-the-wall decadent.
When I spoke to Jessica for Babble, she swore that the “sneaky” vegetables helped her kids transition into eating not-hidden veggies regularly — kind of like a gateway drug. Whatever works!
While Jessica Seinfeld single-handedly ups the Vitamin A and antioxidants intake of our nations
Soooo, what happens when a celebrity-by-association puts out a book on hiding veggies in otherwise innocuous foods? Well, at first it's all Oprah love (sez FameCrawler) and interviews , and then…the backlash. Critics of the covert food strategy
Like others have already pointed out, you’re still supposed to give them actual visible vegetables as that side dish you were worried about. That way it’s a part of their plate and there for the taking. However, if they don’t try them, at least they’re still getting the nutrients from the puree.
My oldest had trouble with the texture of vegetables but loved macaroni or shell noodles with spaghetti sauce. I would steam vegetables, then puree them with a bit of sauce, and dump it into the pot. She ate happily AND got her vegetables in – and my husband and I ate the same sauce and we benefited too. However, he and I would also have a salad on the side. Since she was at an age where lettuce was too hard to chew, I would supplement her “sneaky sauce” with a few spoonfuls of real, chopped vegetables.
She grew up to be a kid who would actually ask for a bowl of vegetables after her morning cereal. At five, she still loves most veggies and will eat any fruit but kiwi.
So it’s not necessarily a bad thing. Multivitamins are a way of “sneaking” the nurtients in but that’s considered okay. What difference is it really?
http://andromeda.qc.ca
I’m with Megan and MU…
My kid is on a boob-juice only diet but my friend, mother of 3 (pre-teen to teen) loves this book for her kids AND her husband (who is a restricted, picky adult eater). Brownies with spinach might be better than the brownies without (that you’d make or eat anyway.)
And deceiving the kids?
Come on, now.
I think we could all use a plate of healthier chicken nuggets. And if you are going to eat a brownie, why not have some apinach in there. It’s not like our morbidly obese, diabetes ridden, choking on our high cholesterol, falling over dead at 45 years old nation couldn’t benefit from a few extra veggies.
How can you comment about a book that you haven’t read? I left my comments over at City Mama, but since I’m lazy, I’ll copy and paste my comment:
It’s not a replacement for veggies, but rather, a way to ensure that your kids are getting them.
I give my kids the high protein noodles and the V-8 fusion (no sugar — full serving of veggies and fruit). She still gets veggies on her plate, which she may or may not eat, and which Jessica still recommends doing.
I think it’s fantastic that there are kids out there that will eat whatever you give them because you started them out early on good foods. But while I wouldn’t consider my daughter to be picky, she doesn’t eat most raw veggies. And she hates tomatoes.
But she’ll eat them in soups and casseroles. I might not puree them, but honestly, how is that any different?
And it’s not because I haven’t tried whole heartedly from the beginning to give them to her. Some kids have sensory issues with food. And some kids just don’t like it, no matter how hard you try.
Honestly, I’m tired and slightly offended when parents brag about how their kids eat everything and anything — implying that the parents out there with “picky” eaters haven’t tried everything. My kid doesn’t eat olives — feel free to have been at my house in the early days when she threw everything she didn’t like back at me.
We all ate zucchini bread — tastes like banana bread — and it never caused us psychological damage. I’m not for lying to my kids, so if my 3-year-old asks if there’s cauliflower in her macaroni and cheese then I’d certainly tell her.
But are we all about full disclosure with everything with our kids? My daughter asks where babies come from, do I give her just the information that she needs to know (not lying, but not what I’d tell a 14 year old).
If it’s a way for me to get more veggies into her little system, then so be it. But I’ll still feed them to her on her plate as well.
And in my opinion, there are worse ways that people lie to their kids — like telling them that the playground is closed or that the toy store is closed because they don’t want to stop or deal with the tantrums.
To me, this is totally different than trying to make sure your kids have good nutrition.
Jessica Seinfeld knows books and bees. Her husband Jerry has the Bee Movie opening soon, after 8 years of commercials and teasers. Jessica has a sneaky little cookbook, Deceptively Delicious . It's good times in the Seinfeld hive. Jessica has really
My son won’t eat fruit. Occassionally applesauce, or a bite of strawberry, but that’s it. As I personally prefer veggies to fruit, I wonder if it’s genetic.
That’s my point. Just put both in front of them, and even if they only eat the fruit they’ll get all the vitamins they need. They’ll eat the vegetables someday, if only just because they’re there.
That’s because fruit is sweet.
I don’t understand the obsession with vegetables; fruit has just as many vitamins and requires no persuasion at all. My kids eat both quite willingly.
We do both. I serve at least one type of steamed veggie with dinner AND I hide extra veggies in stuff. Just in case the kids decide not to eat what I made. As insurance. Seems like a pretty simple idea to me.
Perhaps you missed the clearly stated assertion from Jessica Seinfeld that she still serves whole steamed veggies as side dishes for each meal, so that her children will know that it is important to eat them and learn to like them. How did you miss that? (Obviously didn’t read the book or even watch her brief appearances on the talk-show circuits, Today Show, etc.) Also, I fear you have not tried squash lately– Butternut and Spaghetti squash are quite delicious and flavorful, not bland at all. My 8 year old and 10 year old love them.
Oh, and I forgot to mention that I had delectable brussel sprouts the other day. Yes, brussel sprouts. They were roasted with mashed garlic and extra virgin olive oil. I sprinkled some sea salt on them and ate all 10. My kids wouldn’t touch em’ after a few whiffs. BTW, a great place to “sneak” veggies is spaghetti sauce or lasagne sauce. I slip peas, carrots and shredded yellow squash into both. My husband’s the only one who notices … at least he pretends to like it for the kids’ benefit. One vegetable I just can’t hack is the mushy, squishy mushroom. Nasty.
I’ve eaten Madeline’s sneaky grated zucchini chocolate muffins and they are amazing. My kids begged for more after she sent me home with a to-go bag of her little moist, delicious wonders. I divulged Madeline’s veggie secret and they still gorged themselves. Little buggers didn’t leave a single mini muffin for me. How’s about some more muffins, Madeline?
The only way to eat yellow squash is in a yummy, southern squash casserole. Oops, my mouth is watering.
When babysitting for my cousin’s 5 children, we got a few protestations over green beans etc. My cousin caters to them but my husband and I cook 1 thing for everyone and we all sit down together, them’s the rules. They were insistent that the offending veggies be removed from the plate. We maintained that they need not eat them but they are to remain on the plate. With no further cajoling or coaxing (who has time when there are 5?!) we looked up to find plates cleared! Kids can be pretty surprising sometimes when left to their own devices
You never know what they’ll end up trying and liking when all of the drama and push-pull is removed from dinner time.
I grew up hating veggies because I was only served the frozen kind (um…defrosted, at least. But bleh.). I would eat broccoli or cauliflower if smothered with cheese sauce. (And it was good on the broccoli, too. Ba dum bum.) But as an adult I discovered the joys of REAL vegetables: brussels sprouts! Who knew they were edible! And learning to cook them properly so that *I* will eat them has resulted in 4 kids who love veggies. Oh, they each have their peccadillos, but for the most part they are veggie eaters. Not that I won’t make their baked goods healthier by adding carrots or pumpkin or whatever, but I’ve never out-and-out lied about it.
Seinfeld’s recipes are absurdly child-pandering, and so unnecessarily. I don’t believe kids are so picky that they need only “fun” foods all the time. My mother cooked for six on a tight budget. There was no way she would have prepared two meals a night – for so many reasons. We kids ate the grownup food and our palettes grew up with it. When broccoli is what you know, sooner or later, it becomes what you like. (Still a fan.) And while lacing mac and cheese with squash is a great way to get some vitamins into a comfort food, spinach should be had before eating a delicious brownie, not while. And brownies should be so rare that when they’re had, they can just be balls-to-the-wall decadent.
When I spoke to Jessica for Babble, she swore that the “sneaky” vegetables helped her kids transition into eating not-hidden veggies regularly — kind of like a gateway drug. Whatever works!