Deceptively Delicious - Jessica Seinfeld [1]
INTRODUCTION
I had begun to dread mealtime.
I had tried everything, and yet all my efforts to feed my family were being undermined by a powerful force: vegetables. Mealtimes were reduced to a constant pushing and pulling, with me forever begging my kids to eat their vegetables, and them protesting unhappily. Instead of laughing and having fun with my family, I was irritated and stressed as I labored to coerce them to eat food they found “disgusting.” I couldn’t take it anymore. I just wanted a little peace around the dinner table.
Then, one evening while I was cooking dinner, pureeing butternut squash for the baby and making mac and cheese for the rest of us, I had the crazy idea of stirring a little of the puree into the macaroni. And so I did. The colors matched—you couldn’t really see the squash in there—and the texture was perfect. So I stirred in a little more, tasting to make sure the flavor of the squash didn’t overpower the cheese. Feeling only a little guilty that I was tricking my children, I stirred in enough of the squash to feel satisfied that I was giving them a respectable portion of vegetables.
And then I held my breath.
It worked! The kids, entirely innocent of my deceit, plowed happily through their dinners. I was beside myself with joy. I couldn’t stop smiling at the knowledge that my kids had eaten vegetables without a word from me. My husband, Jerry, was dying to know what all my smiling was about. It was the first meal in a very long time during which I hadn’t said, “Eat your vegetables,” even once. And that was pure pleasure.
I have not uttered the dreaded phrase since and from that meal on, I have become an expert at hiding vegetable purees and other healthful additions—foods my kids wouldn’t touch otherwise—in all of their favorite dishes. The whole family is happier, and we can finally enjoy mealtimes again.
Since becoming a mom, I’ve discovered that being a parent is largely about being challenged all the time. Whether you work outside the home or stay at home with your children, parenting is just plain difficult, and mealtimes are often an unpleasant pressure point. All we want is to make simple, fast, nutritious meals that our kids will actually eat. But after just one experience of watching a child throw our best efforts onto the floor, or refuse to eat, we just want to give up. Who has that kind of time—and food—to waste?
The recipes in Deceptively Delicious changed that equation for me.
This book is nothing more than one mom’s coping skills. We all have shortcuts and wisdom we learn from our own mothers, from friends, and from the best teacher of all—failure. But there’s no reason why everyone has to repeat the same mistakes. You should know that for every recipe in this book, I’ve tried ten others that no one—and I mean no one—liked. I’ve endured the catastrophes so you don’t have to.
I’m not a professional chef—far from it—and these recipes require no training or kitchen knowledge whatsoever. Each one has been tested—relentlessly—on my own kids and other families with young children. And when I found the gems that worked for me, I enlisted the help of a wonderful kid-friendly chef, Jennifer Iserloh, to distill my research into practical recipes any family can enjoy.
I’ve chosen dishes that I’m confident children and parents will feel comfortable with because they’re the familiar ones that kids love already—macaroni and cheese, tacos, chicken nuggets, pizza, pancakes, and brownies. The recipes were developed for speed and ease, and most of them are doable in thirty minutes or less,