Deceptively Delicious - Jessica Seinfeld [2]
But if there’s one thing I’ve learned both from cooking these recipes, and from having three strong-willed children, it is this: ensuring your family’s nutrition requires much more than just the ability to follow a recipe. To make every meal (or nearly every meal) a healthful one, you need a system that works for your family’s lifestyle.
So, in addition to the simple, family-friendly meals contained in here, you’ll also find tips and suggestions from other parents with young children that could inspire and help you in your own home.
Organization is key: being prepared makes the most of your precious time and will give you the confidence to cook. So before you even get to the recipes, I’ve laid out a strategy for gathering a collection of must-have kitchen utensils; stocking your kitchen pantry so that you always have staple ingredients on hand; and, of course, making the purees. Once you’ve got your kitchen in order, you’ll find that cooking is the fun and easy part.
I’ve also gotten advice from two parenting experts, Jean Mandelbaum and Pat Shimm; and I’ve included their wisdom in the book as a series of tips running throughout. You’ll see that I’m the sort of mom who likes rules—I work best with structure—so I’m giving you the rules that I use in my household. It’s what works for me, but, of course, the best methods are the ones that work for you and your family.
The day that Jerry and I came home from the hospital with our first child, Sascha, we looked at each other and said, “Okay, now what?” We had no idea what we were doing—we were so clueless. We couldn’t believe they let us leave with her! But there’s no recipe to parenting, and I’ve spent every day of the ensuing six years just trying to figure it all out, solving problems and putting out fires. I find that these days I actually enjoy the process of solving parenting problems—I don’t mind failing now and then until I find a better way.
I hope that this book will give you the same confidence, or at least, ensure that you never again have to hear yourself say, “Eat your vegetables!” But more than anything, I hope Deceptively Delicious will give you the tools you need to give your family good, healthful, and peaceful meals.
CHANGING HABITS THROUGH LOVING DECEPTION
WOULDN’T IT BE great if kids came into the world with the innate desire to eat the right foods?
In reality, however, too many food choices—many of them unhealthy—make it impossible for kids to distinguish the good from the bad. It’s up to us as parents to make choices for them, at least until they are able to figure things out for themselves.
And it’s not realistic to simply disregard their food aversions, either. Forcing your kids to eat foods they hate only reinforces their distaste.
That’s where a little loving deception comes in handy. Deceptively Delicious enables parents to give kids what they want and what they need at the same time. It acknowledges your kids’ genuine dislikes without being confined by them. It empowers you to exert some legitimate control over what your children eat, without inviting the usual fights. And most important, it’s a way to give your kids a head start toward eating what’s good for them so that they’ll grow up and eat better food throughout their lives.
Just as the most powerful lessons are the ones that aren’t taught, the best parenting solutions are the ones that build good habits—invisibly. I want my kids to associate food and mealtimes with happiness and conversation, not power struggles and strife. With a little sleight of hand, you can make the issue of what your children will and will not eat disappear from the table.
Meet the KITCHEN CABINET
Jessica
Hi, I’m JESSICA, and this is my Kitchen Cabinet, my all-important staff of advisors. My three children are my official recipe tasters. They are my toughest critics. If they