Hiding veggies in dishes I make

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Mamacita has posted on here about a book by Jerry Seinfeld’s wife…I don’t know the name of it, whereby she teaches her reading audience how to ‘hide’ veggies, etc…in various dishes so picky eaters (like kids!) will get their veggies, and not even know it.😉

Ok…so–I made this dish tonight, thinking of her. I got it from ‘Get Fresh with Sara Snow.’ It’s basically traditional lasagna (only I use thinner pasta sheets–more like homemade texture) with roasted squash, eggplant and tofu blended into the low fat ricotta cheese mixture, that you’d normally put throughout the lasagna. It was such a big hit tonight, and I told my kids afterward…this was their faces----->:eek: lol

My 15 yr old said…‘I’m gonna have to make sure I’m in the kitchen when you’re preparing our meals, from now on!’ 😃

Anyways…anyone hear of this type of cooking ‘technique’ and do you you use it yourself? I admit, I never liked just plain ole broccoli, growing up–so this is a great way to sneak in all those veggies, without the boredom and bad taste of some of our traditional veggie dishes. We also eat veggies raw a lot–surprisingly, my kids like raw veggies better than cooked.🤷

Just sharing, and curious if you have heard of this cookbook I speak of above?
 
No, I haven’t heard of it but I eat alot of vegetarian dishes anyway. My family NEVER eats them–they just look at them. I find some of the best ways to cook veggies are in soups or by roasting them.
 
I haven’t heard of that cookbook, but I’ll hide veggies so DH will get a little nutrition. I’ll make a cheeseburger casserole and add mixed veg; pizza with extra sauce, toss some black beans in spaghetti sauce, that sort of thing. I’ve got a lasagna recipe that he really likes–I haven’t told him I use turkey sausage and not pork!
 
my kids were like OP’s, very quick to find hidden veggies. to this day they insist on watching me open the jar of ragu and follow every step of preparation to make sure I don’t add blender beans to the sauce, as I did one never to be lived-down day. yes there are several creative chefs out there writing books and touring talk shows with these suggestions. I say do it the old fashioned way, serve the veggies, insist they eat one spoonful of something green, or no dessert or TV. If they ever find out they have eaten something gross (meaning full of vitamins, minerals and anti-oxidants) they will never trust you again. Tactic DD uses that seems to be working well is to involve kids in food prep, and they also have their own gardens.
 
puzzleannie said:
my kids were like OP’s, very quick to find hidden veggies. to this day they insist on watching me open the jar of ragu and follow every step of preparation to make sure I don’t add blender beans to the sauce, as I did one never to be lived-down day. yes there are several creative chefs out there writing books and touring talk shows with these suggestions. I say do it the old fashioned way, serve the veggies, insist they eat one spoonful of something green, or no dessert or TV. If they ever find out they have eaten something gross (meaning full of vitamins, minerals and anti-oxidants) they will never trust you again. Tactic DD uses that seems to be working well is to involve kids in food prep, and they also have their own gardens.
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We have a garden and it still hasn’t helped my kids’ love of veggies. 🤷 They help pick out the seeds and they help DH plant and harvest them. I don’t let them help me cook but they do help me prepare - break the beans, clean corn, etc. My 4 year old still doesn’t want to eat them (except corn on the cob). I’ll hide the veggies until they figure out otherwise. 😃

BTW, I have heard of the cookbook and it’s on my list of things to buy. :yup:
 
I have heard of the book - she goes so far as to make vegetable purees and adds them to different foods so they are not even detectable(is that a word?). I saw her put puree in brownies on a show once.

I don’t have to go that far. I usually throw a block of frozen spinach in with the meatloaf, one in with the ricotta in lasagna, and puree beans in chili. The kids are used to it, I guess. At first I had to “frost” the meatloaf with ketchup so they didn’t see the spinach. Now they think that’s just what meatloaf looks like.
 
I have heard of the book - she goes so far as to make vegetable purees and adds them to different foods so they are not even detectable(is that a word?). I saw her put puree in brownies on a show once.

I don’t have to go that far. I usually throw a block of frozen spinach in with the meatloaf, one in with the ricotta in lasagna, and puree beans in chili. The kids are used to it, I guess. At first I had to “frost” the meatloaf with ketchup so they didn’t see the spinach. Now they think that’s just what meatloaf looks like.
 
aurora77 said:
I haven’t heard of that cookbook, but I’ll hide veggies so DH will get a little nutrition. I’ll make a cheeseburger casserole and add mixed veg; pizza with extra sauce, toss some black beans in spaghetti sauce, that sort of thing. I’ve got a lasagna recipe that he really likes–I haven’t told him I use turkey sausage and not pork!
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hee hee…i do those things too, as my dh is obsessed with real pork sausage, and can’t bear to eat turkey sausage. i buy morning star, and he really likes that–he can’t believe it’s not pork.😉
 
HouseArrest said:
I have heard of the book - she goes so far as to make vegetable purees and adds them to different foods so they are not even detectable(is that a word?). I saw her put puree in brownies on a show once.

I don’t have to go that far. I usually throw a block of frozen spinach in with the meatloaf, one in with the ricotta in lasagna, and puree beans in chili. The kids are used to it, I guess. At first I had to “frost” the meatloaf with ketchup so they didn’t see the spinach. Now they think that’s just what meatloaf looks like.
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yes! i believe mamacita mentioned this in one of her posts…that Seinfeld’s wife uses beans or chick peas in her brownies…something like that.

sounds neat. i sometimes use baking chocolate in my chili…it gives a little thickness, and that something that you can’t quite tell what it is, but you love it, kind of thing. it also is a good source of anti oxidants.
 
I had Banana Bread once that had peeled and chopped Zuccini in it. You couldn’t tell by the taste & the small pieces of chopped Zuccini looked just like the chopped pieces of Banana;) 😃 ! You could try that sometime. I don’t have a recipe, but I think you could just add it to your own Banana Bread recipe. I don’t have any “tricks,” because I was fortunate that DD liked alot of veggies. However my Son-in-law is picky & only eats corn or canned, not fresh green beans:shrug:! DD is worried that when they have children they will take after him:eek: !
 
I made a Zucchini cake once - and there wasn’t even any banana in it. My boys said it was the first time they liked zucchini. It was actually quite pretty, pale cake with green flecks. They told me that I wasn’t to fix zuch’s any other way in the future and recently asked me why I never made another one cause they remember it being very nice.

Other than that, no, I didn’t hide the veggies. We kept telling them that they wouldn’t grow up to be big and tall if they didn’t eat their veggies. My eldest took us at our word and dutifully ate all his vegetables. My youngest wouldn’t eat much of anything, and the veggies were the least welcome. He pushed them around the plate a lot. Ironically, my youngest is now 3 inches taller than my eldest. 😃
 
I guess if you want to do this to your own kids I can see where you are coming from, but I have a problem with the “sneaking” in general, and with adults in particular. My MIL takes it as a personaly challenge to force you to eat things you don’t like because she is CONVINCED that you really do like it, its just all in your head. So she tries to hide food, and make you eat things. I’m glad I don’t have any serious food allergies or I’d probably be dead from her machinations.

I don’t particulalry like coconut. So she tries to hide it in stuff when we go there for holidays. Apparently she must have been glaoting to my DH after the meal that I did eat dessert with the coconut in it (she makes and serves the meals, so you don’t really get a choice like a buffet). He told me about it afterward. I said, “Just because I wasn’t rude enough to spit it across the table at her and yell “EWW!” doesn’t mean I didn’t know there was coconut in it. I was just raised better than that, so I choked it down and pretended it was fine.”

I have told DH that i’ll divorce him if he ever tells his mom that I don’t like something again, because now i get to face this every time, where if it was just chance, I’d probably be ok.
 
If you have a juicer machine you can make some amazing smoothies with low fat or fat free frozen yogurt, some berries, and CARROTS. It really is amazingly good - carrots are so sweet you don’t even notice they are there. You can add other veggies too, such as cucumber, beets, and all sorts of weird stuff. As long as you mix it with something sweet like berries or bananas, and the frozen yogurt (or ice cream if you don’t mind the fat), and add some honey - you will never know there are veggies in there.

👍

~Liza
 
It sometimes irritates my husband and me when people come up with these “brilliant, new” ideas that we’ve been using for years!

When my son (and his cousins) were little, I had a battle at meals. My son was NOT a picky eater and loved his veggies (especially carrots, peas and broccoli) and the other kids would pitch a fit whenever they found veggies in their food. Their usual favorites–chicken pot pie and tuna casserole–would be “ruined” by me putting in peas and carrots, which my son loved.

So one day, when I was making a chicken pot pie, the kids were already griping about the fact that I was going to put peas and carrots in it. I finally thought, Okay, let’s try this, so I put some of the gravy with a cupful of peas and carrots into the blender and pureed it. I added a little more carrots (to take away a little of the greenish tint from the peas) and then made the pie with just a scant half cup of veggies. When the kids made faces about the veggies, I said, “All right just pick out the peas and carrots and quit fussing about it.” They were shocked, but thrilled. So they picked out “all” the peas and carrots and loved it. So I did the same with the tuna casserole. And the lasagna. And the beef stew. Later on, they “oddly” developed a taste for veggies (how did that happen?)
 
**LOVE the cookbook!! I don’t care who wrote it or what the other chick says about it, it is AWESOME!

Okay, yes, I steamed a ton (and I mean a TON) of veggies back in January, all different kinds all in one night. Then, after they were steamed, I got out my handy dandy Magic Bullet and pureed away. Poured the veggies into ziploc bags, 1/2 cup in each since that’s what most of the recipes call for.

Here is some of the things I have made and have been HUGE hits w/ all of my children:

scrambled eggs w/ cauliflower
brownies w/ spinach
blueberry oatmeal bars w/ spinach
mashed potatoes w/ cauliflower (evidently cauliflower has cancer fighting chemicals in it?)
chocolate chip cookies w/ chick peas (lots of fiber and protein)
lasagna (it has cottage cheese instead of ricotta and you mix the cheese w/ 2 kinds of pureed veggies)
mac and cheese w/ squash
banana bread w/ cauliflower (this weekend I made the bread but put it in cupcake papers and put the streusel topping on it that is in the cookbook and they were delicious!!)
applesauce muffins w/ carrots
sweet potato pancakes (sounds gross but they aren’t at all!)

And I can’t remember what else I have made, but it’s been a lot!!

My sister argued w/ me just last night to be exact about ‘why don’t you make your kids eat veggies that aren’t hidden, you aren’t teaching them good eating habits this way!’ Well, they DO eat veggies at every meal but they aren’t getting enough servings per day like that so we just ‘hide’ them so they are getting more than they even know about.

We are very fortunate, my kids will eat spinach, aspargus, broccoli, etc. and it doesn’t have to be ‘hidden’ in anything.

So, that’s my story about the cookbook. By the way, my kids haven’t been sick a single time since last September and my grandma swears it’s because I am cooking w/ veggies in everything. I don’t know about that but hey, it sure doesn’t hurt!! 👍 🤷

I forgot to add that if you do get the cookbook, you might want to ‘tweek’ some of the recipes to make them taste ‘better’. For instance, the applesauce muffins call for unsweetened applesauce and all brown sugar. My sis in law (who also has the book) followed the recipe and said they were nasty, she threw them all away. So when I made them I used white sugar 😊 and sweetened applesauce and they were delicious!! Hey, as long as there’s veggies in it, I don’t think it matters what kind of sugar I use. 🤷 **
 
bluerose said:
It sometimes irritates my husband and me when people come up with these “brilliant, new” ideas that we’ve been using for years!

When my son (and his cousins) were little, I had a battle at meals. My son was NOT a picky eater and loved his veggies (especially carrots, peas and broccoli) and the other kids would pitch a fit whenever they found veggies in their food. Their usual favorites–chicken pot pie and tuna casserole–would be “ruined” by me putting in peas and carrots, which my son loved.

So one day, when I was making a chicken pot pie, the kids were already griping about the fact that I was going to put peas and carrots in it. I finally thought, Okay, let’s try this, so I put some of the gravy with a cupful of peas and carrots into the blender and pureed it. I added a little more carrots (to take away a little of the greenish tint from the peas) and then made the pie with just a scant half cup of veggies. When the kids made faces about the veggies, I said, “All right just pick out the peas and carrots and quit fussing about it.” They were shocked, but thrilled. So they picked out “all” the peas and carrots and loved it. So I did the same with the tuna casserole. And the lasagna. And the beef stew. Later on, they “oddly” developed a taste for veggies (how did that happen?)
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see that? you should have written a cookbook, and you would be on the ny times best seller list;)
 
mamacita needs to write a cookbook, I would even break my rule and watch Oprah if you become a guest there.
 
I will raise my hand. I hate most veggies.

I am a middle aged woman, and sorry to burst the cookbook maker’s bubble, but, - the kids in question don’t actually dislike the veg in question, they simply dislike the idea or the look or the texture of it.

As a kid, and to this day - I can taste that nasty veg “whang” when it is purreed or blended or chopped or painted silver and dipped in spun sugar. You cannot hide the taste of certain vegs.

Some of us CAN taste the difference between colas, Coke and Pepsi are easy, but, can you tell the difference between Shasta and RC Cola? I can.

From what I have seen, most kids do not truly dislike the veggies, they just like not liking something. One test - spinach. Many will say they hate it, but they will gobble down spinach dip. I OTHO, can taste one part per million of spinach. I could not eat spinich dip, if you fed it to me blindfolded, I’d have to force myself not to spit it back out. If your kid is like me, and really CAN taste the difference, don’t force them to eat something that makes them gag. For some reason, God gave us all different tastes, that includes kids.
 
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