Deception
I just got the Deceptively Delicious cookbook by Jessica Seinfeld. I've read a couple negative reviews of the book and its principle, which is basically about hiding vegetables and fruit in kid-friendly foods so they don't know they're eating them.
It's obvious to me that the bitches online saying things like "Can't believe some parents have lost so much authority in the household that they have to resort to deception to feed them healthily!" are parents to weak, namby-brained children who ask "How high?" when someone says Jump! My son knows what he wants and what he doesn't want. He's gone to bed hungry every single night for over a month now because he won't eat the food I cook. On nights when we have chicken or steak and rice and broccoli, he eats. On nights when we have curried Indian quinoa with zucchini and red peppers or black bean soup with cumin and wilted spinach, he doesn't. So my choice is: let him be hungry and malnourished or make chicken and rice with broccoli every night. Both those options stink, in my opinion. Neither of them accomplish the main goals of parenting which are to raise healthy kids capable of making good decisions. If he goes hungry, he's not healthy. If I cater to his tastes, he's not learning to like new foods. So tell me, Mr. Parental Authority, HOW I should reclaim my title of head of the household?
I also don't think this is an either/or sort of thing. Kids should eat 3 or 4 different vegetables with their meals, so you can add pureed sweet potato to macaroni and cheese AND serve broccoli on the side. You can stir beets into spaghetti sauce AND serve veggie fritters at the same time. So who says that if you hide vegetables in food that your kids will never learn to eat them plain?
As far as the deception part goes...Eh. It's good for them. And it cultivates their taste buds. I mean, look, the reason kids don't want to eat vegetables is because meat and sugar taste better. Sorry, that's just how it is. You have to acquire a taste for vegetables like you acquire a taste for coffee or scotch. Their aversion to veggies isn't rational, it's just a natural stage they go through. So why not work around it? They have to eat vegetables, and if the bribing, cajoling, pleading, threatening, explaining, coaxing and insisting don't work (WHICH THEY DON'T!!!!!) then stop beating your head against the wall and just find another way. Jessica does not recommend feeding your kids foods that they truly, honestly despise. There's no "trick" for putting eggplant in your daughter's milkshakes after she's gagged and thrown them up before. But what if the main problem is a texture issue, as it is with Kaden and spinach? He's never going to eat it when it's just sitting on his plate, but if I puree it into breading for chicken strips, bing-freaking-o he's eating spinach.
Some kids are very sensitive to being tricked. These are the folk who grow up and insist they will never lie to their kids about Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny because they were SO BETRAYED when they found out the truth as children. Well, hopefully parents know their kids well enough to figure out if they're this type of personality and will adjust accordingly. Jessica says herself that her 7 year old knows all about the purees and doesn't mind because she can't taste it. Her kids help her bake and they just assume that everyone puts chickpeas into their chocolate chip cookies and beets into their smoothies. The deception doesn't have to be a deathbed confession sort of thing, "My son, come closer. It's time I told you the truth. When you were little...I hid vegetables in your food. I'M SORRY! I thought I was doing the right thing! Forgive me, please, and let me die without this burden on my conscience."
Anyway, I'm pretty excited. Hopefully I'll share some pictures of successful dinners from the cookbook and it will help make mealtimes less of an exercise in futility for me and the Doob.
It's obvious to me that the bitches online saying things like "Can't believe some parents have lost so much authority in the household that they have to resort to deception to feed them healthily!" are parents to weak, namby-brained children who ask "How high?" when someone says Jump! My son knows what he wants and what he doesn't want. He's gone to bed hungry every single night for over a month now because he won't eat the food I cook. On nights when we have chicken or steak and rice and broccoli, he eats. On nights when we have curried Indian quinoa with zucchini and red peppers or black bean soup with cumin and wilted spinach, he doesn't. So my choice is: let him be hungry and malnourished or make chicken and rice with broccoli every night. Both those options stink, in my opinion. Neither of them accomplish the main goals of parenting which are to raise healthy kids capable of making good decisions. If he goes hungry, he's not healthy. If I cater to his tastes, he's not learning to like new foods. So tell me, Mr. Parental Authority, HOW I should reclaim my title of head of the household?
I also don't think this is an either/or sort of thing. Kids should eat 3 or 4 different vegetables with their meals, so you can add pureed sweet potato to macaroni and cheese AND serve broccoli on the side. You can stir beets into spaghetti sauce AND serve veggie fritters at the same time. So who says that if you hide vegetables in food that your kids will never learn to eat them plain?
As far as the deception part goes...Eh. It's good for them. And it cultivates their taste buds. I mean, look, the reason kids don't want to eat vegetables is because meat and sugar taste better. Sorry, that's just how it is. You have to acquire a taste for vegetables like you acquire a taste for coffee or scotch. Their aversion to veggies isn't rational, it's just a natural stage they go through. So why not work around it? They have to eat vegetables, and if the bribing, cajoling, pleading, threatening, explaining, coaxing and insisting don't work (WHICH THEY DON'T!!!!!) then stop beating your head against the wall and just find another way. Jessica does not recommend feeding your kids foods that they truly, honestly despise. There's no "trick" for putting eggplant in your daughter's milkshakes after she's gagged and thrown them up before. But what if the main problem is a texture issue, as it is with Kaden and spinach? He's never going to eat it when it's just sitting on his plate, but if I puree it into breading for chicken strips, bing-freaking-o he's eating spinach.
Some kids are very sensitive to being tricked. These are the folk who grow up and insist they will never lie to their kids about Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny because they were SO BETRAYED when they found out the truth as children. Well, hopefully parents know their kids well enough to figure out if they're this type of personality and will adjust accordingly. Jessica says herself that her 7 year old knows all about the purees and doesn't mind because she can't taste it. Her kids help her bake and they just assume that everyone puts chickpeas into their chocolate chip cookies and beets into their smoothies. The deception doesn't have to be a deathbed confession sort of thing, "My son, come closer. It's time I told you the truth. When you were little...I hid vegetables in your food. I'M SORRY! I thought I was doing the right thing! Forgive me, please, and let me die without this burden on my conscience."
Anyway, I'm pretty excited. Hopefully I'll share some pictures of successful dinners from the cookbook and it will help make mealtimes less of an exercise in futility for me and the Doob.