The Sneaky Chef Experiment - Day 1

Have you seen this cookbook? As the title suggests, The Sneaky Chef is full of recipes and other creative ways to "sneak" healthy foods into your kid's favorite meals. The main premise of the book is to freeze fruit and vegetable purees into small portions that you can easily add into classic dishes boosting your family's nutritional intake. (Don't worry Mom, even if we adopt these new recipes into our family's meal plan, I'll still continue to serve vegetables on the side to encourage our daughter's developing taste preferences  :-)

The recipes in this book were written with the picky child in mind, but ironically, it is the adults in my household who need some help in reaching their daily fruit and veggie quota. Our daughter loves most fruits and vegetables. My husband, however, does not.  And honestly, I'm not one to eagerly eat steamed cauliflower either. But if I can hide cauliflower and zucchini within delicious mac and cheese - well, that may be an extra cooking step worth taking. 

My friend has loaned me her copy of The Sneaky Chef (thanks HK!) In the next few weeks I plan to test out the recipes with my family. Today I did the advance prep work by mixing the author's purple, white, and bean puree. Tomorrow I will make and freeze the green and orange purees. Here's a picture of my purees all divvied up into individual portions and ready to freeze.

Tonight's experiment was the Mac 'N Cheese with the cauliflower/zucchini puree and the bonus boost of two eggs, baked in the oven until hot and bubbly. Here's the verdict...
Baby: ++
Husband: A
Me: B-

Overall, the meal got positive results. I was the harshest critic- wishing that I had omitted the eggs because I thought it tasted like a quiche. However, my husband and daughter thought it was great. The vegetable taste is well hidden.