Deceptively Delicious

The Parent Bloggers Network sent me a copy of Deceptively Delicious by Jessica Seinfeld to try out and reading it brought back some funny memories. The most memorable culinary deception I remember from my childhood involved liver and onions.

My brother and I were totally wise to Mom sneaking vitamins, nutrients, brain & body building substances into our meals. She did this with total depravity. I mean - how dare she try such a horrible thing?

Anyhow, whenever we would smell that distinctive scent of frying liver being masked by fried onions, we would inevitably ask Mom "what's for dinner?”. We would be told "steak" and it was said with a manner that just dared you to challenge the facts. Ugg... liver was a hard meal to eat.

But despite my ongoing hatred of liver, I know why she did it and completely understand. I was probably pretty high up on the “most accomplished” list of picky eaters and there is no doubt: as a child getting healthy food into me was an issue. I was a boney-butt, skinny leg, wiffet of a girl - so small that I could fit right into the palm of your hand. No really, it’s true. And I was transparent.

These days, despite the fact that my taste buds have matured, I still don’t eat many veggies, which I know is not a good thing. And of course, karma has come back to bite me for my childhood pickiness and poor eating habits. Bumper is proving to be a difficult sell on many healthy foods. Fruit is okay but vegetables? – not so good. Any help in this area is appreciated.

Sneaking healthy ingredients into recipes is not a new concept. But being veggiephobic, the challenge is finding recipes that use the right balance plus combination and still taste good. For each of the recipes tried from Deceptively Delicious, all of them passed our picky eater test.

We all ate cauliflower, broccoli, and carrots – and no one noticed the veggies, even me. I swear on a stack of holy books, cauliflower and carrots are something no member of this family willing prepares or eats. Broccoli on the other hand, is often on our plates but not always eaten.

While I did initially think the purées were going to be a pain, they turned out to be way easier to prepare than I originally thought. I have a hand-crank and hand-held purée devices that made clean up less involved. While I would use it for larger batches, I really, really hate cleaning the big chopper multi-piece thingy. I probably wouldn’t be so cranky and lazy if we had a dishwasher.

The whole family thought that the macaroni & cheese was definitely a keeper as well as the lasagne. Both were very easy to prepare. The meatballs and spaghetti pie were also requested for repeat. That is always a good sign. The only thing I would do next time is add a bit more purée to each of the recipes - I think we could have taken more - especially in the lasagne.

A part of the book I appreciated were the shopping lists for the pantry. I like checking out these types of lists for ideas, because I suck at coming up with my own check list (or maybe I’m too lazy). Some of the items in the list were “if I had an endless budget” items but most were excellent suggestions.

As for the recipes, they range from Breakfast through Desserts – there are definitely lots more I want to try. You can check out some select recipes over here. One thing that I did miss in the ingredient lists was metric, everything was imperial. I had to do conversions for meat and a few other items (OK, I can admit it: I'm a dork at remembering conversion formulas).

Oh, and from a functional POV (ohhh fancy acronym) – the spiral, lay-flat book design is always, always appreciated. I’m a chronic consulter of cookbooks during prep - I fret every step and ingredient. The ability to lay it flat without having to use large appliances to hold it open: absolutely wonderful. There was next to no swearing during the preparation and cooking processes.

Overall, my family liked the recipes, my family ate the food, and the book is filled with good ideas. Yet this is the first book – ever to my knowledge – to be mentioned at my local playground on different days – and not by me. Sure, there is a lot of publicity going on but I can say despite all the hullabaloo – Deceptively Delicious is a mighty fine collection of recipes that are tasty and good for you.

Check out what other Parent Bloggers are saying about it over at PBN. There is a Deceptively Delicious blog blast going on today - enter and you might win a $250 gift card for use at Williams Sonoma - SWEET!