Deceptively Delicious

Since getting in trouble at Micah's 3 year check up for the lack of veggies in his life, I have been on a quest to get him to eat them. You saw how well that turned out the night we made him sit in his chair for over 2 hours just to take a bite of broccoli. Though it is not going well, I am still bound and determined to make my kids veggie eaters! Micah still has to take one bite of everything on his plate but most nights thats all he does. A recent strategy I have been using is hiding the veggies. I know this is not ideal and our pediatrician says that this really isn't a good method because we want the kids to learn to love veggies but let's be honest, they are veggies, he is 3, and he doesn't like them. So, for now, this is all that works. I got the cookbook "Deceptively Delicious" by Jessica Seinfeld and have been making my way through. So far, I have been very impressed. David has liked most of the recipes but not all. If nothing else, she has taught me how to hide veggies in foods that I wouldn't ordinarily think to do so. She can find a way to add pureed veggies to almost anything. I add pureed butternut squash to mac and cheese (the regular old box kind) and the taste doesn't change at all, if anything it is creamier. I do cut corners by buying baby food for my purees instead of steaming and pureeing myself. I did that for the first recipe and it wasn't even close to worth the time. The first recipe I tried out of her cookbook is by far my favorite so far: chicken quesadillas with salsa and avocado dip. You definitely don't have to do both dips but we liked having variety.

Looks tasty, huh? It was.

Inside each quesadilla was 1/2 cup of each pureed butternut squash, sour cream, and cheddar cheese and then chicken (however much you want). I pureed mine thinking Micah wouldn't notice. I usually do my quesadillas on the stove with butter (like a grilled cheese) but this recipe called to put them in the oven. They were just as delicious but much healthier!

The avocado spread was my favorite dip and all that was it is was pureed avodaco (1 cup), greek yogurt (1/2 cup), mayo (1 Tbs), lime juice (1 Tbs), salt (1/2 tsp), and garlic powder (1/8 tsp). I seriously could've eaten that stuff with a spoon!

Try them out, they are definitely deceptively delicious!