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Maddie
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| Posted: Dec 31 2007 at 1:01am | IP Logged
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Has anyone reviewed or own this book?
It looks promising, I would love to hear if it is practical, helpful, recipes doable with regular on-hand ingredients, etc?
Thank you,
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~Maddie~
Wife to my dh and Momma of 9 dear ones
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Cay Gibson
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| Posted: Dec 31 2007 at 8:45am | IP Logged
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My daughter bought it for me. We haven't tried any recipes though because we're up to our ears in holiday stuff. 
Not a review, but I did jot a few notes of it here. Now I have the book in hands.
Looking through it, I have all the ingredients on my shelf or can find them easily on the market shelf except flaxseed meal which I've seen in several of the recipes. Other than that, everything is on-hand and the recipes are very do-able.
HTH!
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Cay Gibson
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wahoo92
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| Posted: Dec 31 2007 at 1:08pm | IP Logged
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My MIL was just talking about this "fabulous" book. She is so anxious to get our niece to try anything new with food (she's four and very picky) and constantly looking for ways to sneak healthy foods into her diet.
I have not seen the book, but she apparently tried the pink pancakes that have beets and a few other things in them. There is only a tablespoon or so of each "healthy" ingredient in them, so I guess it wasn't enough to affect the flavor. She said my niece loved them. Personally, I would not spend that much time with so many ingredients for each and every dish. But, it does sound interesting if you are really invested in it.
Sarah
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SuzanneG
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I checked it out at the library and really liked the couple of recipes that I tried and so did the kids. I'm waiting for "The Sneaky Chef" to see which one I like better, to purchase.
The pureeing can get tedious and time consuming and not something that gets done in "survival mode" which is often around here. But, it gives so much versatility with putting more veg in your foods that you would never dream of....desserts, etc. It's also surprising how much vegetables are in 1 c. of puree. But, like everything that is healthy and nutritious, there is a time investment. 
I tend to puree less often and freeze more. She suggests pureeing every week. I would do it more like every 3-4 weeks and freezing everything. Stuff lasts in the freezer.
The recipes are for small amounts of food. Even for our small eaters, I always doubled or tripled them to have some left over.....i would imagine some of you would have to quadruple or multiply by 10!!
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mellyrose
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I own this book. One of my biggest problems with it is that there is NO nutritional info included with the recipes -- so I don't really know how much more "nutritious" the recipes are.
The premise is to add pureed fruits & veggies to recipes to "up" the nutritional value and get veggies and fruits into kids when they might not eat them otherwise.
I think it's worth borrowing from the library -- I don't know if it's worth owning?
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Maddie
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| Posted: Jan 01 2008 at 12:09am | IP Logged
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Thank you, ladies! Your posts have been very helpful. I do a puree for my soups so my interest was piqued when I heard of this cookbook. I have a 2 yo that is just impossible right now; she balks at all fruits and veggies except bananas and an occasional carrot.
I would definitely look for the nutritional info, I hadn't thought of that.
"The Sneaky Chef" sounds promising too. Maybe someone could offer a review? I wish I was near a good bookstore to review for myself, but everything is a good hours drive. 
I am presently in the trenches of survival mode, postpartum, dh works 2 full-time jobs ...another good point. It may end up collecting dust on my shelf.
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~Maddie~
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Mary G
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Maddie,
I got this out of the library yesterday and altho the recipes look interesting, as Suzanne pointed out, they're small quantities (even the pictures of the dishes look small) and I don't like that she doesn't encourage "whole foods" but instead trans-fat-free margarine  and mixes, etc. Also, as was pointed out, there is no real nutritional info -- no fat grams, calories per serving, etc. It's just adding a boost of veg/fruit to the children's diet.
But, on the upside, some of the recipes sound like they'd be good (but she does bake desserts with spinach puree and warns to let cool completely else the kids will know )
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DeAnn M
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Hi There,
I actually have both books and while I haven't made very many of the recipes, I think I like The Sneaky chef better. She seems to have more of a variety of foods and "sneaky" purees.
I also read a review-- I can't remember where--in which a group of moms did a taste test using the same foods (chicken nuggets, mac and cheese, brownies, etc.) from the two books. They said that the kids chose the Sneaky Chef recipe over the Deceptively Delicious one every time.
I kind of came to the conclusion that my kids would be better off if I just kept offering veggies and mixing them in with oatmeal, quesadillas, meatballs, soups, etc. rather than trying to trick them. I don't really want to encourage the Standard Kid diet too, too much. I do what I can to feed them healhful foods and cut the junk. This, I think has more potential for encouraging healthy habits and bodies throughout their lives. That's just my opinion. I am all for moms doing whatever it takes to feed kids nutritionally dense meals.
All in all, I think these books are worth checking out of the library and copying recipes that interest you.
Hope that helps,
DeAnn
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Maddie
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| Posted: Jan 02 2008 at 10:28pm | IP Logged
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Thank you! I really appreciate the responses. 
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~Maddie~
Wife to my dh and Momma of 9 dear ones
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mandmsmom2001
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I've gotten both books from the library and prefer The Sneaky Chef. Both are lacking nutritional breakdowns or comparisons to non-sneaky, non-deceptive recipes.
I haven't tried any recipes yet but have some puree (by chance, not design) I'd like to use up. I may simply replace oil/fat in a baked good recipe to use it. Simple to do without a cookbook - use fruit puree in place of fat up to 1/2 of the quantity required.
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