Product Description

It has become common knowledge that childhood obesity rates are increasing every year. But the rates continue to rise. And between busy work schedules and the inconvenient truth that kids simply refuse to eat vegetables and other healthy foods, how can average parents ensure their kids are getting the proper nutrition and avoiding bad eating habits?

As a mother of three, Jessica Seinfeld can speak for all parents who struggle to feed their kids right and deal nightly with dinnertime fiascos. As she wages a personal war against sugars, packaged foods, and other nutritional saboteurs, she offers appetizing alternatives for parents who find themselves succumbing to the fastest and easiest (and least healthy) choices available to them. Her modus operandi? Her book is filled with traditional recipes that kids love, except they're stealthily packed with veggies hidden in them so kids don't even know! With the help of a nutritionist and a professional chef, Seinfeld has developed a month's worth of meals for kids of all ages that includes, for example, pureed cauliflower in mac and cheese, and kale in spaghetti and meatballs. She also provides revealing and humorous personal anecdotes, tear–out shopping guides to help parents zoom through the supermarket, and tips on how to deal with the kid that "must have" the latest sugar bomb cereal.

But this book also contains much more than recipes and tips. By solving problems on a practical level for parents, Seinfeld addresses the big picture issues that surround childhood obesity and its long–term (and ruinous) effects on the body. With the help of a prominent nutritionist, her book provides parents with an arsenal of information related to kids' nutrition so parents understand why it's important to throw in a little avocado puree into their quesadillas. She discusses the critical importance of portion size, and the specific elements kids simply must have (as opposed to adults) in order to flourish now and in the future: protein, calcium, vitamins, and Omega 3 and 6 fats.

Jessica Seinfeld's book is practical, easy–to–read, and a godsend for any parent that wants their kids to be healthy for a long time to come.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #271 in Books
• Published on: 2007-10-01
• Released on: 2007-10-05
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Spiral-bound
• 208 pages

Publishers Weekly
…an elegant plan… The recipes blend nutrition into a meal and harmony into mealtime.

--Andy Cohen, SVP Programming, BRAVO and Author of Andy's Blog at BravoTV.com
"I don't even have kids, but this food looks so darn good and easy to prepare that I'm dying to make it for myself!"

-Sarah Jessica Parker, Mother
"It's not just a cookbook, it's a manual. For everyday. And what a clever and inventive way to change mealtime discourse. Oh what joy."

Customer Reviews

It is overall a good and practical cookbook.
I bought this book a few months ago after seeing it on a television show. I do not have children, and I love vegetables but know that I don't get enough. I was basically looking for ways to incorporate more vegetables into meals. This has been very helpful for that. I have made 10 recipes so far. Only one did not turn out very well, and that was the chicken nuggets. The author lists broccoli as a possible puree to coat them in, and it just really didn't work, but they were still edible -- just weird. I have found that I need to tweak a lot of the recipes. If you have cooking experience, you will be able to do this on your own. For example when making the meatball soup the meatballs were completely falling apart while I was trying to shape them, so I just added about twice the amount of breadcrumbs and the meatball soup was absolutely fabulous. Overall I think the recipes are tasty.

As far as the purees go, they are a bit of a pain to get started, but once you develop a stock of them in your freezer, it's pretty easy. I just buy a whole bunch of three or four vegetables at a time and puree them all in one night and freeze them. I slowly add to my collection as I go. It's actually worth it to me because not only am I eating more vegetables then I would normally, they are not rotting in the bottom drawer of my fridge, which is what would usually happen because I'm a busy working woman without a lot of time.

If you are an adventurous and practical cook who is looking to add more vegetables to your diet, I suggest this book. If your family's diet is already absolutely perfect or you can't figure out how to properly edit a recipe on your own, I don't suggest this book. Because you can't follow the book exactly and have to sometimes do your own editing, I only give it four stars. I would have only given it three stars if weren't for the complete practicality of the book. So often I have bought a new cookbook and not been able to cook anything because it was too complicated or had too many ingredients I couldn't even pronounce let alone find. This book is not like that at all. It's actually useful which in my experience of cookbook experimenting is definitely the exception.

Great
What an idea! The book is so pretty and well put together. The recipes are so easy and fast too. Just make sure you're going to spend the time to puree veggies, otherwise don't get this ;-)

Not Great
All the recipes seem to have too many ingredients, too many steps, and just creating the purees was a pain. And it seemed like I was always lacking one of the required purees (although I have plenty of the ones I don't need). The brownies were edible, but shouldn't really be called brownies. The pancakes didn't cook all the way through. Seems like there was one thing that worked out okay, but I can't recall what it was. (I only tried a handful of recipes.)
Just teach your kids to eat vegetables so they don't grow up needing to cook like this!