Deceptively delicious!

On a day trip to the States last week, I happened upon a copy of Jessica Seinfeld's Deceptively Delicious cookbook in Kohl's for a scant 5$. I knew a bit about it and a couple of friends of mine have used it. Basically, it's a collection of recipes that sneak pureed fruits and veggies into picky eaters' meals. I had also talked with Registered Dietitian Sister about it, and I agreed with her point that kids should be directly given vegetables and fruit in order to consciously make good nutritional choices later in life. At the same time, I think it would be wise to supplement snacks and side dishes with fruit and veggie purees baked into things. Hubby even leafed through the cookbook with me and pointed out several recipes he'd like to try out.

So I bought the book on Wednesday, went grocery shopping on Friday, and started making purees on Saturday. Each recipe calls for at least half a cup of a certain puree, so I figured I'd get ahead of the game. I steamed cauliflower and roasted squash, and froze each in 1/2 cup amounts. Leftovers went to baby D's meals, so I now have several reserve jars of baby food. I appreciate that she has an entire section that explains the prep and cooking times for various produce, as I usually have to look that up.

Today I tested out my first recipe: mozzarella sticks. It's a fairly simple; sift together bread crumbs with a little flaxseed meal, mix together grated cheese, cauliflower puree and cornstarch, and roll the latter in the former. Then you freeze them for a bit before pan-frying them. Think about how delicious cauliflower is with cheese, and you'll get an idea of how good these sticks are. There are 8 sticks in a batch, and I ate them all for lunch, with a bowl of soup.

Other recipes I can't wait to try out:
-mac & cheese with butternut squash
-mashed potatoes or twice-baked potatoes with cauliflower
-pita pizzas with spinach (hidden under the tomato sauce)
-quesadillas with squash (admittedly not that different from my sweet potato-black bean ones, but less time-intensive)
-creamy potato soup with cauliflower and squash
-sloppy joes with sweet potato and butternut squash
-doughnuts with pumpkin and sweet potato
-frozen yogurt pops with various frozen fruits
-chocolate chip cookies with chick peas (I know, weird, right? But I want to know what they taste like)
-lemon raspberry cupcakes with squash and beets
-blueberry cheesecake cupcakes

And we're having mozzarella sticks with chili on nachos for dinner tonight.