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Chicken Nuggets (with broccoli) and Applesauce Muffins (with carrots)

I am a big reader/book buyer, so it only stands to reason that I should blog a book review once a month.  And what better book to start with than the highly publicized new cook book, Deceptively Delicious by Jessica Seinfeld.

If you haven't heard about this book, then you haven't picked up a recent magazine lately.  Every magazine that I have read in the last month, from my issue of Parents to Vogue has had write ups on Mrs. Jerry Seinfeld's first book.  (She's even scheduled to be on Oprah on October 8th.)  I had read so much about this cook book that I was anxious to buy a copy when it was released last Friday, and after all the hype, I wasn't at all surprised to find only one copy left at my local Target.

So why all the hype?  What's so special about this book other than it was written by a famous comedian's wife?  Well, apparently Jessica Seinfeld has found a way to get her children to eat all of their vegetables by being deceptive--like putting pureed broccoli into chicken nuggets and spinach into brownies.  I couldn't get my children to eat broccoli and spinach if I paid them, so for me it was well worth the twenty-five bucks to find out her secret.  (It was also a great excuse to buy a new food processor.)

Deceptively Delicious is a very easy-to-follow cook book, lots of step-by-step instructions and great pictures of the food.  For a cook book, it's very charming--bios and cute quotes from her kids and Jerry.  Jessica makes herself very real, making you feel like she is the mother next door just trying her best to get her kids to eat healthy. 

So I grabbed what was in my refrigerator--broccoli and carrots--steamed them with my new favorite steaming bags, and pureed them according to Jessica's instructions.  Next, I found a couple of recipes that included these vegetables--chicken nuggets (broccoli) and applesauce muffins (carrots.) 

Both recipes were easy to follow and took a minimum of time to prepare.  (She suggests doing all your pureeing once a week and freeze it to cut down on your preparation time.)  The muffins smelled great cooking--what's better than the smell of apples and cinnamon coming out of your oven.  There was no sign of the cup of pureed carrots that were included in the recipe.  Taste?  On a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being "yummy!" I would give these muffins only a 5.  They were a little bland, not a lot of taste overall.

The nuggets were better.  Dipped in broccoli puree and then bread crumbs and lightly fried in a little olive oil, they looked just like "real" nuggets.  However, you could see a little green peeking though.  The picture in the book shows no green, so I'm not sure if I didn't use enough bread crumbs or what.  You could definitely see the green when you bit into them.  But that didn't matter because they tasted great!  My kids, however, weren't having it.  These nuggets didn't come out of a Happy Meal and weren't shaped like dinosaurs, so they wouldn't touch them.  But like anything new, it will take them a while to get used to them.  I'm only going to serve these nuggets from now on, so I hope they'll grow to like them.

There are lots of great kid-friendly recipes in this book.  I plan to try many more.  No matter if my kids like the recipes or not, the concept of hiding pureed veggies in kid-favorite foods is genious!  Last night I made my kids one of their current favorites--Kraft's Scooby Doo Macaroni 'n Cheese, but instead of putting in the three tablespoons of milk I only put in two and put in a tablespoon of pureed carrots.  The colors matched and it tasted the same.  Shhhh!  Don't tell my kids, but I plan to do this in as many of their favorite dishes as I can think of.

Mama's Book Rating:  4 out of 5 stars--Try it, you might like it.