I think I have finally one over the top into the category of crazy. For those of you who don't already know, I have always been a little health-food nutty when it comes to my children's diets. I make Tanner whole grain (quinoa, millet, buckwheat, wheat, soy flour, wheat germ....you name a grain and I've baked with it) breakfasts made with honey or pure maple syrup as the sweetener. I also make him homemade sweet potato fries (so he'll get his beta carotene), smoothies with fruits, vegetables and soy milk, organic homemade baby food, homemade wheat bread made with fresh ground wheat, olive oil and honey, etc. I'd have to say the most extreme I went was when I made him a smoothie with cherries, spinach, carrot juice and bean sprouts that I grew myself. Don't try this at home, my toddler and husband wouldn't eat it. = ) Now don't get me wrong, he eats a lot of sweets too and anything that Daddy gives him, but I honestly try really hard to provide lots of opportunities for healthy eating. So, onto my craziness.
I hear about this book "Deceptively Delicious" about making vegetable purees and sneaking them into your kids food. For example, there is a recipe for brownies that has spinach and carrot purees, mashed potatoes with cauliflower puree mixed in, banana bread with bananas and sweet potato mixed in, etc. Before I bought the book I wondered, "Okay Lizzie, you already spend a lot of time and effort on healthy cooking, is this a little over the top?" I knew what it entailed: making tons and tons of purees and freezing them, then making special recipes to use the purees and then crossing my fingers that my kids will eat the food. Anyhow, I gave in and bought the book. I got really excited and read it cover to cover, every word in the book last weekend. So, today the pureeing started, and you know what I decided? After cooking and pureeing 15 lbs of sweet potatoes and who knows how many pounds of bananas, butternut squash and cauliflower, I decided that I AM CRAZY. I have been pureeing for 5 hours now, and I still have spinach, broccoli, carrots, peppers and avocado to cook, puree, measure and bag up to freeze. I am tired, hungry and my hand is burnt from steaming so many vegetables. I am so sick of looking at the purees that I don't even want to cook with them. I am so sick of steaming vegetables that I don't even want to eat them. Hopefully all of my efforts will not be wasted and I will end up sneaking purees into my family's diets, but right now, at this moment all I want is some good old packaged oreos filled with transfat and white sugar. Doesn't that sound good?