Deceptive or just sneaky?

A year or so ago, I was watching Oprah and Jessica Seinfeld was on talking about her book, "Deceptively Delicious". I was so interested in what her goal was (to get her young children to eat more fruits and vegetables). Many of you know I was a home day care provider for 11 years and getting kids to eat more healthy foods was a challenge! I love to experiment with cooking, so I bought the cookbook and started with some simple purees and easy recipes.
My kids didn't catch on for awhile (they commonly ask me, "What's in this?"), but they don't ask anymore, they just know it's good for them (because mom doesn't make junk)...
Jessica takes veggie purees and adds them to recipes.
Pretty smart cookie!
I started with sweet potatoes and steamed them and pureed them. I made little baggies of puree and froze the baggies. I added the puree to a whole wheat pancake mix, added an egg, water and bit of oil. I made these pancakes and NO ONE could tell I changed them.
That recipe is NOT in the cookbook. It was an experiment. I started with about 2 c. of whole wheat pancake mix, added 1/2 c pureed sweet potatoes, 1 egg, and 1-2 T oil, add a little water at a time until you get the consistancy you want for pancake batter.

My friend Janet and I thought we should take a few deceptive recipes to a church meeting. She took a can of black beans and pureed them in the blender, then she added the bean puree to a brownie mix and mixed well and baked according to the directions on the box. I might have added some chocolate chips, but they were still pretty good and all that fiber too!!!
I made Jessica's choc. chip cookie recipe. The hidden healthy food was a can of chick peas! WAIT! Chick peas (garbonzo beans) washed and drained in a chocolate chip cookie??? YEP. Jessica says she just puts the chick peas in the mixer and mixes them in the dough, but I wash and drain them and puree them in the blender.

I just recently tried a batch of choc. chip cookies with whole wheat flour and added chick peas (pureed). No one knew the difference, well, until my son asked me if I added EXLAX in the cookies. i asked how many he ate, he said 7! OH the poor kid. Please go easy on the fiber, especially if you are using whole wheat flour!

So thanks to Jessica, I have created some recipes on my own...from her inspiration.
Get her cookbook to INSPIRE the cook in you!