Recipes That Hide Vegetables

My mom use to hide carrots in mashed potatoes from my little brother. IT makes the mashed potatoes orange in color, but you can't taste it. Just boil the carrots till soft with the potatoes. Good luck!

I have the DD book also, but since my daughter doesn't eat most of those foods even normally, I will have to wait until she is a little older and her tastes change to try them out. Last night, I loaded a canning jar with frozen veggies (mixed, plus broccoli), added some water, covered it and cooked it in the microwave for 5 minutes. Then I topped the jar with the blade assembly of my blender and blended them all up - looked like baby food. I added that to the ingredients I was using to make a meatloaf. Could not taste or see the veggies at all - and the meat wasn't green either. It was very good.

SMOOTHIES!!!! I was watching a demonstration for this ultra powerful blender at Coscos and he was throwing in some undetectable veggies in with the more stronger fruity flavors. He used cabbage, kept the greens on strawberries and some others that I can't recall. If you go to coscos one of these weekends, check it out. Its very interesting eventhough the blender is super expensive. OR you can just by a smoothie book that has some good recipes.
Good luck!

yes, you might want to check out "the sneaky chef" book. i have one. i cant really share any recipies wright now though cause it would take time to gig that book up. you could also try an internet search. some might pop up. good luck/ god bless!

Definitely buy the Jessica Seinfeld book, "Deceptively Delicious". The recipes really work and my kids are eating disguised veggies all the time. You puree them all ahead of time so it's easy to slip them into recipes.

I bought a book called Deceptively Delicious. It's all about how to hide veggies (and other nutritous stuff I think) in foods for kids. It was like $13 at the book store, can't remember which book store. I haven't used it yet, but I've skimmed it and it looks like some great ideas. The author uses purrees and other ways to hide them in the foods so the kids can't tell. Good Luck!

There are lots of veggies like carrots and beets, that you can puree up, freeze in small, separate portions (even in an ice cube tray first, then put in freezer bags). Then you can add a few to things like cassaroles and taco meat. They never know it's in there!! I add about 1/3 can refried beans to my taco meat, too, and they never know it's there unless you add too much. Also, my sister just told me about adding prunes to your brownie mix (I think the baby kind or just pureed) instead of the oil, and you can't taste it. I haven't tried it yet but she swears by it. Lastly, my kids like their fruits and veggies when I make it more fun like veggie with dip and making the veggie pizza (with cream cheese, cold, not a red-sauce pizza)! (We do fruit like bananas with peanut butter or chocolate sauce, and make smoothies) Happy eating!

I love to put things into pancakes. A half cup or so of sweet potato puree or squash puree works great. We also make green smoothies every mornning for breakfast. There are a ton of options, but basically I throw in a handful of greens (spinach is a great starter one and you can start with just a few leaves and as they get used to it add more and more; kale, sprouts, romaine, red leaf lettuce, etc. are all options); a banana or two; water (although to sweeten it up you can use juice- my girls prefer a coconut/pineapple blend); fresh or frozen fruit (strawberries, blueberries, a few cranberries, mango, etc. options are almost endless). I also add their probiotics and sometimes flax seed or some other nutritional type supplement. When we started we used more fruit, now I am able to use a lot more greens and they don't even mind if the color is green. There are all sorts of recipes that you can get ideas from in Seinfeld's wife's book- I think it's called Deceptively Delicious?

Victoria
mother to a 6.5 and 4 year old

Good Morning C.- There is a cookbook called "deceptively Delicious" by Jessica Seinfeld. All of the recipes in the book are about hiding veggies in normal foods. Some of the recipes are invovled but I have found that they are worth the time and are yummy. It basically requires you to cook the veggies and puree them into the recipes. My favorite recipe is one for brownies that uses pureed spinich and carrots. You can't even taste them. I got my cookbook for less than $15 at Target. Good luck!

To try another direction, if your child isn't into trying new foods, you might try some different drinks. My kids like one called "Green Goodness" at the supermarket, by Bolthouse Farms. You can call it Monster Juice or whatever you want! It has lots of green vegetables and some sweet fruits mixed in to give it a more kid-friendly taste. Don't worry; just keep introducing foods regularly. One day they will eat it and open up a whole new world of nutrition and enjoyment! Keep at it. You're doing great!

try the book Deceptively Delicious by Jessica Seinfeld...

I have the book but don't use it now (my son LOVES fruit/veges) just not anything "normal" kids eat like macaroni & cheese, icecream... anything with calories. He is really small- so it's ironic (I want him to eat all of the time! :)

I don't have any recipe's that hide veggies, but I do put flax oil in some of my daughters foods and she doesn't know. I/we always make her a yogurt milk at night. It contains soy milk and yogurt. I pour some flax oil in it and she has no idea. I get it at the nutrition store in the refridgerated section. The brand that I get is Flora.

http://www.florahealth.com/flora/home/USA/Products/TGU6.htm

You can put it in their milk/soy (oatmeal) without them even knowing. Start with a little to see if they notice. I put a tsp in her milk. Of course, don't let them see you do it

It is so rich in omega's and fatty acids. Best wishes on recipes

I looked at your other responses and see that everyone mentioned the Deceptively Delicious Book. I have it but I hardly use it. Pureeing up veggies just seemed time consuming to me just to put them in brownies. I am sure they taste good but if you think about how much veg they are really getting in one brownie it is not much. Some recipes have more than others and some are really good ideas. My boy still wouldn't eat some of the disguised food because it still looked a little different. But I do add pureed onion and red pepper to red sauces (mainly for the hubby) And I used to finely chop up carrot shreds and added it to a PB&J sandwich. My son will eat broccoli, carrots, and peas, and of course corn so I settle for these and once in a while he will eat my salad. Good luck and just keep trying. I also try and tell him (and his cousin) what each food does for you. Example; Carrots give them super vision, and chicken makes them strong, and broccoli makes them tall...and so forth. Start with foods he likes but give the best powers to the most nutritious foods. Cookies? They make you silly (never say fat it may start a whole other issue someday!) Good luck..it is a phase!!! Hopefully.

This isn't a recipe, but my son won't eat vegetables, so I got a juice extractor, some carrots and juice one carrot and put it in 8 ounces of Tampico Orange juice. He drinks it so I get a carrot in him a day. I plan to try other things as well to vitamins in him, but I want to get him used to this first. I hope this helps.

Try the cookbook - "Deceptively Delicious" by Jerry Seinfeld's wife. It has recipes that make mashed potatoes with cauliflower, chicken nuggets breaded with pureed veggies - etc. She was on Oprah - and Oprah was taste testing everything and swearing that it was delicious and that you couldn't detect the veggies. Good luck!

Here are some of the ways I get veggies into my kids diet:

My kids eat scrambled eggs with veggies. I often cook eggs with squash, zucchini, asparagus, frozen spinach and corn. Sometimes I add cooked rice. I like red peppers added at the end so they are still crisp and crunchy. My daughter loves tomatoes which I also add at the end, if I use them, or as a side slices with a little salt. Sometimes I top with feta cheese and/or slices of avocado. I like to cook my scrambled eggs with sesame oil instead of butter.

One of our favorites is shells and cheese with veggies and here is the recipe (I don't actually measure but I took a guess at the quantities):

Box of Kraft Velveeta Shells and Cheese
1 Cup diced Squash and/or Zucchini (and/or broccoli)
1/2 Cup frozen cut Spinach
1/2 Cup frozen Corn kernels
1 Cup diced Tomato
Grated Parmesan cheese (to taste)

Follow the cooking instructions on the shells and cheese. When you add the noodles to the boiling water, also add your fresh and frozen veggies (not tomato). When it's cooked drain and add the packaged cheese, tomato and parmesan cheese. My kids love this and we make it almost every week. It does not work with powered mac and cheese.

I put chopped carrots and broccoli in my spaghetti sauce.

I also make hearty vegetable soup that my kids eat but not as consistently. If you are interested in the recipe send me a message and I'll get it to you. I don't have it typed up yet but I'd be happy to do it if you want it.

Finally, I have the cookbook "Deceptively Delicious" and have tried many of the recipes. I liked some of them a lot (some I didn't care for). My favorites were the rice balls, tacos and the brownies. My kids wouldn't eat anything but the brownies and it was a lot of work but I do like the idea of using purees more often.

Chocolate Zuchinni Cake is great. Also the zuchinni cookies.
Carrot cake. Google recipes with hidden vegetables and I bet you will find a lot of them.....

Hi C.,
There is a great recipe book for just that. It is called Deceptively Delicious.

S.

I saw a hardcover copy of Deceptively Delicious at Marshalls for about $8.00 A good deal. I bought mine for the cover price.

Or there's a another book called The Sneaky Chef that uses the same premise, pureed healthy foods. Go to Amazon.com to take a look. I think her last name is Lapine or Chapine.

Have you seen the Jessica Seinfeld cookbook? Her premise is to puree the veggies, then she puts them in everything. I love the chocolate chip cookies with chick peas! She adds the purees to mac and cheese, baked items, etc.

I have found that if you chop veggies small, you can put them in baked pasta dishes or on pizza without complaint. I also add many veggies to chili, taco filling, and cous cous. My kids and I are vegetarian, so they are more willing to try new veggies than most kids.

I also suggest that you make your kids take a bite of unhidden veggies every time you serve them. It takes as many as a dozen tries to develop a like of foods. My 4 year old is picky, but we make her at least taste everything. She is very slowly getting a bit less picky.

Hope this helps.

B.

If you end up having a really hard time, there are great 'super food' powders that you can add to a drink that incorporate a full days worth of most of the good stuff that you get from fruits/veggies. They have them in flavors and I got a kids chocolate flavored on that you can blend with a small milkshake or smoothie or even just into chocoate cow or almond milk. I got it from the kids section at Natures Food Patch but I'm sure they have it at another health food store too.

Of course eating raw veggies or cooked meals is best, these are good back-ups, especially on days that you know you didn't get much in....