Deceptively Delicious by Jessica Seinfeld: Review

I have been struggling for a long time to get my family to eat healthier. After hearing about Jessica Seinfeld's book Deceptively Delicious, and watching her promote the book on the Oprah show, I was sold. Seinfeld cooks using vegetable purees, sneaking them into regular dishes she serves her family.

The day after the Oprah show, I purchased Deceptively Delicious. I have used it every day since then to prepare meals for my family. While cooking with purees is not a novel idea (see the book The Sneaky Chef), Seinfeld's book is wonderful.

Deceptively Delicious begins by giving the reader a guide to purchasing the equipment needed to make purees. It then offers a list of items to keep in the pantry that the reader will need to use in the recipes that follow. There is also a list of foods to puree, and all their nutritional value. This makes it easy to tell exactly how much nutrition you are adding to your kids' foods.

Deceptively Delicious offers recipes for breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks and desserts. The recipes included are very kid-friendly and include things like tacos, mashed potatoes, hamburgers, and mozzarella sticks.

The first night I used Deceptively Delicious to prepare a meal, I put cauliflower puree into mashed potatoes. No one knew the difference! The next night I put sweet potato puree in the taco meat. Again, no comments on any funny taste or texture. In addition to feeling a little devious, I was absolutely thrilled.

Throughout Deceptively Delicious, there are tips from other moms on getting kids to eat things. There are also facts about nutrition offered every few pages as well as quotes from Jessica Seinfeld's kids.

I love the fact that there are photographs of nearly every recipe. The pages are durable and I've already wiped several splattered purees off of them without a problem. This cookbook is bound in a manner that makes it easy for the book to lay wide open on the counter while cooking. Below each recipe title there is a list of purees that will be used in the recipe. Usually there are a few alternatives, so you can experiment as to which works best for you.

I wouldn't recommend Deceptively Delicious to someone simply wishing to increase the nutritional value of their food. It is really geared toward children and getting them to eat foods that are healthier. However, the tips offered in this book can be carried over into more adult fare. In short, Reading Deceptively Delicious has changed the way I prepare food for my family. I have reached a point where I have incorporated purees into my meals for which I do not have a recipe.