Deceptively Delicious – Simple Secrets to Get Your Kids Eating Good Food By Jessica Seinfeld

A good friend of mine told me about this cookbook.  I believe she heard about it on the Oprah show.  The night we were over at her house she made us some turkey burgers that were in the cookbook.  They were really good and I was determined to check the book out from our local library.

The author of the cookbook was having a hard time getting her 3 young kids to eat vegetables.  So she decided to come up with a way to get the vegetables into the foods they already eat.  What she did was take vegetable purees and mix them into the recipes.

My husband thought I was crazy when I brought this book home from the library.  Our girls love vegetables; they eat all sorts of them.  Some of their favorites are carrots, green beans, celery, peas, mushrooms, tomatoes, potatoes, and many more.  I wasn’t concerned with getting them to eat their veggies.  But I do like the idea of getting more vitamins and nutrients into their meals.

What I liked about this book:

The format was set up really nice.  She gives great tips on cooking up and pureeing the veggies.  The book also has several tips on making mealtime all around more enjoyable.

We haven’t tried all the recipes yet.  Here are some of the ones we’ve made and the results.

French toast made with carrot puree. – The girls couldn’t get enough of these.  I really should have made a double batch the first time. Tip: make sure the carrot puree is really smooth or you will have carrot chunks on your French toast.

Scrambled eggs made with cauliflower puree. – We didn’t like these at all.  The texture was funny and we couldn’t get over the taste of the cauliflower.

Grilled cheese sandwiches made with butternut squash. – Again, the girls were not a fan of these.  The cheese mixture was too runny and the taste of the squash was not masked well.

Italian meatloaf made with carrot puree. – This one was OK.  But I won’t be making it again.  No one wanted to eat the leftovers.

Macaroni and Cheese 1 made with butternut squash puree. -  We really liked this one.  The cheese was creamy and the squash gave it a nice flavor.  I will definitely be making it again.

Burgers 2 made with mushrooms and zucchini. – Oh how I love these!  And Scott liked them too.  They are moist and have a really good flavor to them.  We really liked that the mushrooms and zucchini were chopped up and mixed in with the ground turkey.

Chocolate brownies made with spinach and carrot puree. – The girls and I really like these.  You have to wait until the brownies are completely cooled in order to not be able to taste the spinach.  I like that the brownies are dense, Scott not so much.  The girls like them because there is chocolate in them. =)

Chocolate pudding made with avocado puree. - When I made this the avocado wasn’t smooth enough and Kennedy wasn’t too sure about the avocado chunks.  I thought it was OK.  I will make this again making sure to smooth the puree better to give it a fair chance.

There are a few more recipes I am going to try in this book before taking it back to the library and I am excited to check the next book out in the series.

I would give this book a 5 out of 5 stars.


Happy Reading!

Scream Free Parenting – The revolutionary approach to raising kids by keeping your cool. By Hal Edward Runkel, LMFT

As a mom it is my duty to give our girls my best, to do that I need to keep learning and growing as a parent.  Raising kids is really hard.  I never knew how hard it was going to be.  I had fantasies of everyone getting along, no sibling rivalry in our house.  The girls would be the best listeners, following every request with an “OK mom.”  The older the girls get the harder and more demanding being a parent becomes.

One thing I am doing to be the best parent God wants me to be is reading as much information as I can.  I’m always looking for tips and tricks to be the girls #1 influence. In the book Scream Free Parenting I discovered something not to many people talk about in order to give our kids the best.  Taking time to make sure my needs are met.  It was such a relief to read that in order to be the best parent I need to take care of myself first.

What I liked about the book:
The book offers many tips on how to remove the anger from a situation. Reminding the reader that adding fuel to the fire doesn’t help anyone.  I only wish the author had used my real life stories through out the book.

At the end of each chapter are 4-5 reflection questions.  I really enjoyed being able to think beyond what I just read and apply it to our own life. 

I would give the book 3 out of 5 stars.

Happy Reading!

Cake Boss by Buddy Valastro

For Christmas Scott gave me the book Cake Boss – Stories and Recipes from Mia Famiglia by Buddy Valastro.  Scott knows that I have a passion for cake decorating and enjoy watching cake shows on TV.  I also enjoy a good autobiography.

What I liked about this book:

I found it very well written, thought out and easy to read.  I learned a lot about the family history of the Valastro family and how Carlo’s Bake Shop came to be.  I really like hearing Buddy’s point of view on how he dealt with the death of his beloved father, the leader of the family.  And how he became such a talented baker and cake decorator.

At the end of the book is a section of recipes of some of the items they sell in their shop in Hoboken, New Jersey.  I thought it was very nice of him to include recipes so those of us who may never make it to Hoboken, New Jersey can make Carlo’s Bake Shop pastries in our own kitchen.  I plan on trying out the Chocolate Chip Cookies and the Chocolate Cake.

I give this book a 5 out of 5 stars.

Happy Reading!!

Why a book review blog?

I love to read.  I will read just about anything; books, magazines, newspapers even the back of the cereal box.   The topics I like to read are biographies, cookbooks, parenting enrichment, novels and books to encourage my spiritual growth.

What I hope to give you through this blog is a review of the books I read coming from the view of a stay-at-home mom and wife.  I’m not a fancy editor of a newspaper or magazine.  I receive no compensation from the publishing companies or authors.  There is no rhyme or reason to the books I choose to read, just whatever catches my eye or a topic I want to learn more about.

I hope that everyone will give me some feedback on the reviews and if you happen to read the book yourself, you’ll give me your own thoughts and feelings.

Happy Reading!