Wednesday, January 09, 2008

Cooking...

Cooking is not one of my favorites and my mom put it bluntly that I'm not a tremendous cook. She meant that I don't like to cook often and she was teasing, but I really don't love cooking. My MIL got a cookbook for me (kind of--I stole it in one of those gift exchange deals) Deceptively Delicious by Jessica Seinfeld. It is all about how you can sneak vegetables into normal food and no one is the wiser, but hopefully they are healthier. The really good part about this is that I am in the group of people that don't love vegetables, so I benefit as well as the kids. We've cooked four of the recipes so far and I'm working on my stockpile of pureed vegetables to put into our food. We like it! Last night we had turkey burgers with pureed cauliflower in them and then brownies with pureed spinach and carrots. The brownies had 1/2 cup of pureed spinach and 1/2 cup of pureed carrots, which ends up to be quite a bit (spinach really cooks down and then when you puree it, it becomes a lot of spinach in a little half cup). You bake them in an 8x8 pan, so you are getting quite a bit of veggies in your dessert! I highly recommend this cookbook to anyone with vegetable problems, or even it you don't, something different.
Disclaimer... This is not an advertisement, just something very cool that I found that works for our family!

8 comments:

rae ann said...

oh maaaaan! i wanted a copy of that book so bad! i'm half tempted to just go order it off amazon.com right this very second. glad to hear it's been good for you and yours. i made the chicken nuggets and they were fantastic! broccoli and everything!

Diane said...

I've got to try it, too. Uncle John & I aren't big on veggies either & I've been worrying about that lately. I was glad to see you added a note to "Thyme in the Kitchen", too!!

Our Family said...

Oh I have been using that book for the last few months. I have a stock pile of purees as well. The kids cannot tell a difference. So wonderful! Can't believe I did not think of doing it myself. Our favorite is the butternut squash in the mac and cheese homemade.....yum. Glad you are liking it!
kristen

Dim and Jana said...

Hey Rae--go get it! It is cheapest at Costco I think--$14 something. It is so easy once you get your purees built up in your freezer.

Shana said...

I've been reading the book too, but since I feel like I spend a lot of time in the kitchen already I was kind of worried about all the pureeing I would have to do, but it sounds like it's worth it?! Thanks for your recommendation- I'll have to actually try something now! :)

Dim and Jana said...

Shana--once you get a bunch of purees in your freezer it is just as simple as cooking regular. The time is getting the purees done. I usually make a recipe and the puree for that recipe plus extra puree so I can put it in the freezer, so I am slowly building my supply. I guess you could take one day and just puree away... My kids don't even notice the difference. They would not eat cauliflower, spinach, etc., but little do they know that they've eaten those this week--hidden in their food!

venomouskittens said...

harumph!! see if i eat brownies at your house! :)
ps the hat was cole's.

Shana said...

Thanks for the tip Dana! I don't know why I didn't think of that! I'll be getting started soon!