The Sneaky Chef: Simple Strategies for Hiding Healthy Foods in Kids' Favorite Meals (Paperback) by Missy Chase Lapine
I was always the picky eater in my family. Looking back, I honestly don’t know how my mom dealt! I never liked anything my parents put in front of me, especially vegetables (well, OK, I would eat Mac ‘n Cheese – but that was about it!). If I had it my way, it would have been cereal for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
As I begin to think about having kids of my own, as well as watching friends and family raise their own picky eaters, I’m beginning to wonder how on earth I’m going to deal with a child who won’t eat what I put in front of them: Will I use the “3 bite” rule? Will I make them sit at the table until they finish (or at least try) what I’ve given them? I can’t imagine I’d just fix them something else? What will I do?!?
My friends don’t seem to be having much luck themselves, except, Sarah, who’s doing the hide-the-nutritional-stuff-in-their-food trick. There is actually a cook book out by Jerry Seinfeld’s wife, Jessica, on doing just this. How fantastic! The book is called “Deceptively Delicious” and has an array of kid-friendly recipes that hide the “good for you” in regular food, like Mac ‘n Cheese and Brownies! There is another book I’ve seen called “The Sneaky Chef” with the same idea. For some reason, though, Cauliflower Eggs doesn’t sound that appetizing…
What have been your tricks to get your picky eaters to gobble down your Chef-tastic meals? Have you tried any of these books, and do their recipes really help?! Let us know, and by all means, PLEASE share your Picky Eater Recipes!
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It’s tough to feed kids when they are picky eaters, isn’t it? When they are little, it sometimes helps to make the food fun, cute and kid-sized. It doesn’t take much extra time to cut out sandwiches with cookie cutters, or use small dishes to serve their portions. In Japan, the parents make their school children a “bento” box lunch, and they fill colorful stacking boxes with little portions of a variety of foods, always making it look very cute and enticing… familiar foods are cut into different shapes (have you ever seen an octopus hot dog?) and small paper cupcake cups are used to hold small portions of side dishes. As a working mom, my kids don’t get lunches as elaborate as the kids in Japan, but seeing these “bento” lunches gives me ideas for little things I can do here and there to make their meals special. Plus, maybe when the kids see you creating such fun meals, they may even want to help you!
How clever to hide cauliflower in mac and cheese! I think I’ll do this for sweetie…;-)
Ok, so I’m not a parent, but my parents say (they’re totally prepping me…what? they want grandchildren?!), don’t serve your kids anything outrageous, and set the expectation at a young age to eat their broccoli, peas, fish, etc. and they’ll be fine! The key is setting the expectation from the beginning and being reasonable with choices and portions – oh, and every single meal needs to have a healthy component. If we ever wanted seconds of pasta, or dessert after dinner, we knew the green veggie on our plates had to be GONE before even thinking about asking!!! Also, make sure you serve what’s appropriate for their age – don’t expect a 4 year old to want to eat spinach, right? Give em green beans, carrots, celery (even in the form of ants on a log! w/organic peanut butter of course), or broccoli… My brother and I have never had a problem eating….we’re not picky eaters and will try anything once, as outrageous as it may be. And we’ve never struggled with obesity or dieting. We’re very healthy eaters, and I think it’s in large part because our parents did it right – we didn’t know the option existed that you could refuse to eat what was served!!! 🙂
I’ve tried to be sneaky with Miranda. It doesn’t work. She can tell and figures out there’s something “off” about the pizza she’s eating. Lucky me!