| | Deceptively Delicious - Simple Secrets To Get Your Kids Eating Good Food |  | Author: Jessica Seinfeld
Publisher: Harper-collins Publishers
Category: Book
This item is no longer available
Avg. Customer Rating:  690 reviews
Sales Rank: 1296691
Media: Hardcover
ASIN: B001E98XOG
Publication Date: 2007
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| Customer Reviews: Read 685 more reviews...
 some good ideas... November 28, 2007
264 out of 291 found this review helpful
Jessica Seinfeld presented a number of good ideas in her book. I think the book will be very useful for many mothers. When you compare this book to Sneaky Chef you will notice that Sneaky Cheff has more interesting receipes. The receipes in this book are not really very much children oriented. However, I like the Deceptively Delicious idea of making fruit pureees instead of fruit juices as suggested in the othe book. But overall, if you really have to trick your children to make them eat nutritious food, I think this book is worth your try.
I bought the book for a friend of mine actually as I do not have any problem serving veggies to my daughter. I think it is very important to properly guide the children from the very beginning and not to make them dependent on sweets, pop drinks, etc. Unlike most of her friends my daughter does not like coke (can you believe it?) and most of the junk food that I see other children are enjoying so much. I also think that very important is proper food combination as described in the book "Can We Live 150" -- a perfect addition to this book. I follow the author's advice to the letter and with great results so far.
 I would give no stars if I could. October 30, 2007
145 out of 247 found this review helpful
I'm giving this book one star because the author made very good arguments on no fat/low fat alternatives, and I liked how it had a section on the nutritional value of each fruit/veg.
That being said, I would LIKE to give it NO STARS because 1] Each time you cook/puree/recook fruit & veggies, they lose vital minerals and nutrients. Brownies aren't healthy--that made me laugh out loud!! 2] Sugar is sugar no matter if you pair it with overcooked veggies or not! The "dietician" that helped her write this book, should be FIRED! 3] What difference does it make if you sneak your family vegs, if you don't teach them how to eat properly in the first place? Just so you can have "peace" at mealtime? Are you kidding me? You'd sacrifice your child's health just because you didn't want them to throw a fit?!?! What?!? I didn't like to eat a wide variety of veg when I was a kid, but I LEARNED to like them. My mother made us eat our veggies, and we sat at the table until we did. And if we didn't, we had them for the next meal--guess what? I didn't become emotionally scarred and I still love my MOM! I'm in my 20's now with three children--you learn as you get older. Here's an idea--why don't we make eating healthy and exercising a part of our busy lifestyles? Put the remote down and go for a walk! We as parents need to stop coddling our kids--it doesn't do them any favors as they get older. Adversity is part of life, and we all have to do things we don't want to do.
AND--5] these recipes ARE AWFUL!! They either have a bad aftertaste, aren't appealing visually (Pink pancakes that look like cooked vomit--are you kidding?), or they're so complicated to get right, it's not worth the effort.
Also--love how the author's husband, Jerry Seinfeld, is peddling his merchandised for his new movie, "The Bee Movie" through MCDONALDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Gimme a break--this book is getting returned!!!
Waste of time..... October 20, 2007
122 out of 168 found this review helpful
I have made one recipe from this book and I will not be making any others. The chicken nuggets were terrible! I followed the directions exactly and they were a huge dissapointment. The puree (I used broccoli) is not hidden at all, so there is an obvious layer you can see when you bite into the nugget. The puree does not stay on well and makes it hard to coat the chicken. The worst part was that the recipe calls for a very small amount of olive oil to use for cooking 1 lb. of chicken. My first batch was very close to being burned because of it, so I had to use quite a bit of extra olive oil to cook the rest correctly. It seemed like the puree actually made the chicken absorb more oil than normal, and as a result, they were too greasy for me.
I will admit that my kids did enjoy these nuggets, but not nearly as much as my own homemade version. I will try adding the flaxseed meal to my own recipe next time. After eating, I asked my 8 year old if he knew what was in them that was different, and he immediately said "broccoli." Thankfully, my kids eat their vegetables fine, but I just wanted to try these for something different, and since Oprah raved about them.
 Nutritionist gives it A+ October 8, 2007
112 out of 162 found this review helpful
I got this book for a friend who has three kids. She's also a nutritionist. So I knew that her assessment of the book would be fair.
Childhood obesity rates are increasing every year and continue to rise. This book is a good investment in your kids. The author helps you cut out sugars, packaged foods, and other nutritional nasties and she offers appetizing alternatives for parents who tend to take the fastest and easiest (and least healthy) food choices to the kids table.
One of my friends children is an especially "picky eater" and she was concerned that nothing would appeal to him. She was wrong.
She tells me that everything is well-balanced and nutritious and she highly recommends the book.
This book is the BEST!!! October 13, 2007
83 out of 94 found this review helpful
Well let me begin by saying that I am not a professional chef, nor I am an uber-fan of the "Seinfeld" show - so I could care less who the author is. I also had a feeling that anything that deals with food and children and not being 100% honest with kids in this "kid-centered" world we live in would push a few buttons. And it did! I am a married mom of two boys and I am also interested in better health for my family. I do believe in eating fruits and vegetables in their natural state but let's be honest: Who among us eats five servings a day? I saw Ms. Seinfeld on Oprah and thought to myself, Well I have beeing doing the puree thing myself so let's see what she has to say. How are thre recipes? Pretty good, as a matter of fact. Here is what I did to try some of the recipes out:
First, I plugged my Bob Seger CD and got the ball rolling. The Beatles work just as well, the decision is yours. Then I washed my hands, put on my "Lutheran Jello Power" apron and said to myself: "It's Go Time!" I own a Vita-Mix blender which double as a food processor. I own a rice cooker which can be used to stream veggies. If you do not own a food processor or a steamer, do not despair. You can bake a lot of the veggies or put a colander in a shallow pan of boiling water to steam them. You can always invest in a steamer and/or food processor if you want, later. The first recipe I tries was:
CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES: 5 star.They are delicious! The only tweaking I did to the recipe was I pureed the chickpeas before adding them to the batter. I also used brown sugar Splenda rather than regular brown sugar; when done you have a batch of cookies that have 1/2 cup of brown sugar plus protein in them!! There is no white sugar in this recipe and I also used whole wheat flour. Excellent!! I have actually made these twice in a week.
SPAGETTI AND MEATBALLS: 5 stars. My kids are not that into meatballs and they ate them. This was my first attempt at meatballs, ever, and they turned out great. I put the broccoli puree and the sweet potato puree in the spagetti sauce and no one tasted anything different.
CHOCOLATE PUDDING: 5 stars. I put the avocado puree in this and believe it or not my two sons complained that is was "too much chocolate tasting!" The pudding was that good.
MACARONI AND CHEESE: 5 stars. I tried putting the sweet potato puree in with a box mix and there was no taste difference. I mixed the puree withe the milk and you could taste the puree. The kids actually said it tasted better than before!!
FROZEN YOGURT POPS: 5 stars. Very good, very sweet. I do not own popsicle molds so I used those multi-color cups from toddler days (my kids are 8 & 10 yrs old) and although they worked great - I bought popsicle sticks from a craft store - next time I am going to use smaller dixie cups so the portions are smaller.
The recipes are mistake proof as well; I put avocado puree rather than the brocolli puree in pizza sauce to make pizza burgers (Jessica says to label your bags, guess now I know why) but it still tasted good. It actually made them taste a bit sweeter, like I had put banana peppers in the recipe as well.
One error I made was when I was done with the puree was I put all the puree in one large Zip-lock bag. Follow Jessica's advice and use smaller bags so you can pull out just how much you need. I pureed the following veggies the first day: Summer squash, broccoli, cauliflower, beets, carrots, avocados, spinach, zucchini and sweet potatoes. I bought a bag of frozen blueberries. I am little type A but I wanted all the puree to be available so I could try as many recipes as possible. If you want to try a recipe or two but don't own all the equipment (especially a food processor, which if you are going to do this long term you will need) try the sweet potato recipes. You can bake a sweet potato and mash it up with a fork and some water. And one sweet potato goes a very long way. I used three and I have enought puree to feed a day care. For a week. The avocado would be another one to try without all the equipment, as it is easily mashed with a fork and some water. The borcolli and caulifower recipes will require a food processor as they are tougher vegetables to mash, even in a steamed state.
There has been much discussion about another book that was published last spring and "competition" with this book. Well I am no expert but there is no way that this book could have been put together and published in six months. Why can't both books be on the market? I am sure both authors want the same thing: Better diets for us all. I have ordered the other cookbook as well, there is room for both on my shelf.
As for the argument that we are lying to our kids: Big whoop-de-doo. I have eaten more sweet potatoes, brocolli, califlower, carrots, etc. in the past week that I have in the past six months. Do I present veggies in their natural state? Yes. Do my kids always eat them? No. But at least they are presented and I know they are still eating them in the puree. Mealtimes should be about talking and sharing, not arguing over food. My younger son likes to help with cooking and baking and he knows the purees are in there and he could care less, as long as can still eat. I highly recommend this cookbook and as soon as I receive the other cookbook I will write a review of that book as well. This book, to me, is a great teaching tool about nutrition. My kids and I have gone through the recipes together and discussed which ones we want to try. Do my kids eat cake and ice cream? Of course, just not every day. We talk about nutrition in a matter of fact way: These are the things to make your body grow. Period. No arguing, no crying, no bribing. I am sort of like Dragnet that way: "Just the facts, ma'am!"
I also want to edit my review to add that I could not help notice that all the one star and rwo star reviews are very critical of the author's personal life. I sincerely hope that folks can see through such attempts at being critical of the author because she is once divorced and is now married to a celebrity. It is sad that such personal attacks are listed in what should be a simple book review.
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