Take the basic ingredients and use them in your own recipes

books:


	• The Sneaky Chef: Simple Strategies for Hiding Healthy Foods in Kids' Favorite Meals Missy Chase Lapine Running Press, 2007 - 272 pages average customer review:based on 256 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

This is a GREAT cookbook!

After spending couple of hours this evening preparing green puree, orange puree, and flour blend, I have successfully made the Breakfast Cookies, Guerilla Grilled Cheese and Magic Meatballs. I wasn't feeling very confident about the Breakfast Cookies when I took them from of the oven - I was sure my 3-year old wouldn't touch them. But when she saw them, she asked if she could have one and proceeded to eat THREE! I hadn't even sprinkled cinnamon-sugar on them as suggested. She was thrilled when I told her she could have cookies for breakfast, too. I was just plain stunned. The Guerilla Grilled Cheese was a big hit - she had no idea she was eating carrots and sweet potatoes, too.

The kids haven't tasted the meatballs yet, but my husband, who suffers from an acute Fear of Green Vegetables, gave them two thumbs up (I like them, too). I can't wait to see my kids eat them, especially knowing that they'll be eating spinach, broccoli and peas without even knowing it.
Tomorrow I'll be making the white puree and the Masterful Mac n' Cheese.

It's hard to be enthusiastic about preparing a nutritious meal when you're almost certain that someone in the house will push it away and say, "Yuck!" Since I'm already two for two with the recipes in this book, it has me excited about cooking again. I'm very happy with The Sneaky Chef - so happy in fact, that I just ordered her new book. Thanks to Ms. Lapine, my whole family will be eating better - though some them won't know it ;).

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Take the basic ingredients and use them in your own recipes

This book has strategies for sneaking healthy foods into recipes that supposedly your kids will eat. There are recipes for several purees (mostly veggie mixtures), and other things such as a flour blend that contains all-purpose flour, whole wheat flour, and wheat germ. I really like these recipes for things to hide in foods. The carrot and yam puree is my favorite.

However, I found the recipes for the foods you are supposed to "hide" this in to be hit and miss. The macaroni and cheese recipe wasn't that great...the cheese, milk and puree would have been better if it had been made into a sauce instead of just put into a dish and baked (it didn't incorporate together very well). The chocolate chip cookies were okay considering all the stuff that was "hidden" in them, but my son would not eat them. The crunchy elbows were inedible...they were very tough. We did like the baked ziti, and my son ate a lot of it.

I would recommend taking the purees and other "basic" mixtures that are in the front of the book and incorporating them into your own recipes.

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More Than Just "Hiding" Strategies

My oldest and youngest sons are wonderful eaters. My middle son, who is autistic, is not. I have recently been strategizing on how to improve his diet by finding nutrient-rich foods that he enjoys (tomato soup, for instance, and sugar-free peanut butter, both favorites). I read the reviews on Sneaky Chef and was instantly won over. "However," I said to myself, "I'm not going to just 'fool' my kids constantly. I'm going to continue to offer them *whole* vegetables and fruits with their meals in addition to hidden-vegetable foods."

Surprise! That's exactly what this author recommends. She devotes a section to it, as well as a section on why children dig their heels in about "new" or "icky" foods. The author does NOT say one should sneak in good foods and never present the child with the real deal. She states just the opposite and she states it explicitly, with its own little explanation.

I agree that a lot of the book seems to be filler. As a writer, it's easy to see where she was asked to flesh a section out by repeating herself. That doesn't make the book less worthwile, in my opinion; if you already know it all, skip those parts. Worked for me.

There are plenty of recipes; enough to round out any child's day for a number of days. The recipes (as well as the bulk of the book) also give good indications of where you can take the ideas from here on how to up the nutritional value of your children's own favorite foods.

I tried pureed zucchini (forgot the cauliflower at the store...d'oh!) with a tiny pinch of salt in boxed macaroni and cheese tonight (rather than the author's recipe--it looked good, but I figured, one change at a time) and at first my middle son took a bite and paused. I did, however, use the maximum recommended amount (another d'oh! for me). After a minute or two, he started again to eat...and he ate plenty. As for the toddler, he ate his mac 'n cheese plus the carrot sticks I cut up for both of them. :)

I'd recommend this book to anyone trying to increase the nutritional value of his or her children's foods. Personally, I don't think I'll need to be all that sneaky, if at all...EVERY recipe has a few ingredients that the entire household doesn't automatically know about. If you're thinking of trying this philosophy (no one food philosophy is for everyone) but worry about the "trick" factor is still nagging at you, ask yourself whether you've yet informed your children that their favorite Jell-O is made from pig cartilage, whether you've gently let them know that there's baking soda and TSP--a stain remover and enema ingredient--in their Trix, and whether you always warn them in advance, "Mom is putting a pinch of sugar into the tomato paste and canned tomatoes...I know any child would think sugar with tomatoes is 'yucky', and I'd feel deceptive not telling you."

Again, not for everyone; but definitely for us. Loved this book; would recommend it...and am doing so.

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I've been looking for a cookbook like this for years

I've long looked for a cookbook that took favorite dishes and made them more nutritious. My children eat nearly any vegetable I put before them -- but what they really love are foods like macaroni & cheese, buttered noodles, white bread, mashed potatoes, etc. This cookbook has completely changed the way I cook. When I made the chicken nuggets (which had an unbelievable amount of pureed vegetables hidden underneath the whole-grain breading), my husband & children said, and this is a direct quote, "These are the best chicken nuggets you've ever cooked!" I am now adding vegetables purees to everything -- beef stew, chicken noodle soup, tacos, spaghetti, buttered noodles, mashed potatoes .... I think that every mother in America ought to read this cookbook just to rethink ways to cook favorite recipes. Even the way I make popsicles has changed.

I would like to note that I also bought a copy of "Deceptively Delicious," which had a cute cover that caught my eye at Target. If you are trying to pick between the two, I have this advice. If you are a visual person, you will might be inspired by the D.D. book, for it had a very talented graphic artist design the book. It is adorable as much as a cookbook can be. But if you want the best content, by far the Sneaky Chef is superior. The recipes are better, the quality of the content overall far better, and the author has real-world experience in nutrition and cooking and food writing. If you take the time to read both books thoroughly, and then to test a few recipes from each, you will see exactly what I mean.

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Awesome Sneaky Book!

But what does that teach kids I want him to want to eat veggies. I guess this will have to do for now. He's only 3 years old and hates veggies. Good recipes though we tried the brownies with spinach, blueberries and oatmeal in them and you can't even taste it. My son beggged me for more brownies.

reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

Parents will do almost anything to get their kids to eat healthier, but unfortunately, they?ve found that begging, pleading, threatening, and bribing don?t work. With their patience wearing thin, parents will ?give in? for the sake of family peace, and reach for ?kiddie? favorites-often nutritionally inferior choices such as fried fish sticks, mac n? cheese, Pop-sicles, and cookies. Missy Chase Lapine, former publisher of Eating Well magazine, faced the same challenges with her two young daughters, and she sought a solution. Now in The Sneaky Chef, Lapine presents over 75 recipes that ingeniously disguise the most important superfoods inside kids? favorite meals. With the addition of a few simple make-ahead purees or clever replacements, (some may surprise you!) parents can pack more fiber, vitamins, and antioxidants in their kids? foods. Examples of ?Sneaky? recipes include: No Harm Chicken Parm Power Pizza Incognito Burritos Guerilla Grilled Cheese Brainy Brownies Health-by-Chocolate Cookies Quick fixes for Jell-O(R)

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