I know you’re probably shocked to hear me say it, but here goes: the boys hate vegetables.
Now, in all fairness, Bryan is trying mightily hard to be more healthy when he eats. He’s drinking more juice and water than he ever has, and he’s consciously choosing healthy proteins over red meats and other fatty choices. So I’m very proud of him for that.
But Oprah’s show the other day on feeding kids nutritionally-sound food really called to me. Specifically, I love Jessica Seinfeld’s new cookbook, Deceptively Delicious, where she purees vegetables and hides them.
Like, in brownies and chicken nuggets.
How brilliant IS that?
Also, Dr. Oz made some very good points about how to gently curb obesity. He pointed out that, on average, American men are fatter than American women. (Which, honestly, stunned me.) He says that a major reason might be that, post-dinner, women get up and do the dishes. (BRYAN.) Men just recline. He said that activity, right after eating, can make a huge world of difference.
(Alright, so he also said walking the dog was a great idea, too.)
I used to do the sneaky fruit and veggie thing all the time when I had a daycare. Luckily, my kids love veggies, they’re frickin’ vegetarians for heck sakes, so I don’t have to hide ‘em now. My favorite hiding places were spaghetti sauce (grate up zucchini and it disappears) and chili (I would hide grated zuchinni again, also onions and carrot puree.) We had carrot “cake” all the time with walnuts and raisins and pineapple and of course carrots (I used fruit juice concentrate to sweeten instead of sugar) and the kids loved it. Ditto with pumpkin bread and sweet potato pie. If you like pumpkin pie, try this: 1 thing of instant vanilla pudding (fat and sugar free if you want it low cal, or regular if you don’t care) 1 can of pureed pumpkin and add some pumkin pie spice (and we add extra sugar, lol) to taste. It is delicious and healthy and (milk+pumkin) and you don’t get all the transfat that most crusts are loaded with.
I don’t think that by “doing the dishes” she meant”popping them in the dishwasher”…The dishwasher I installed…
Mal, I love those ideas! I will have to try the pumpkin.. I love this time of year. (I will use every part of a pumpkin. Pumpkin seeds are a favorite snack of mine.)
Bryan, I love the dishwasher. It is my favorite part of the house. I would marry it if you hadn’t have come along first.
My mom used to always puree veggies in our spaghetti sauce. It worked very well. Making fruit smoothies at home is also a lot of fun- mix yogurt (frozen or not) with pre-frozen fruit in small pieces (cut a banana up before you freeze it to make your life easier) and blend it until it’s smooth. It gets cold from the fruit, so you don’t have to add ice and risk it getting all chunky at the bottom. My grandmother used to buy 5 pounds of blueberries at once when it was all on sale and keep it in her outdoor freezer for smoothies.
RYC: I don’t know if you ever watch(ed) Homestar Runner, but your story about “crayons” reminded me of this cartoon:
http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail160.html
I wouldn’t recommend watching it at work though, unless you have very relaxed Fridays.
I hope you have better luck getting ahold of that cookbook than I can. There is not a store in Jacksonville, anywhere, that has it in stock after Oprah the other day. The manager at the three Barnes and Nobel’s I went to said it would be at least a couple of weeks before anymore came in. My youngest needs more veggies snuck past her and if that’s how I can do it-so be it.
It’s available at Amazon! It’s be just as quick to order it through there and have it delivered right to your house.