Last week we left the TV on after the news and Oprah’s late show came on. Her guest that day was Jennifer Seinfeld (Jerry’s wife). She was sharing about her new cookbook, Deceptively Delicious. She steams vegetables, purees them, and then adds them to foods that her kids will eat. For example, she uses pureed butternut squash and mixes it into macaroni and cheese. A great idea for adding nutrition and fiber to her kids’ diets. You can read more about it at my new friend’s blog here or at Jennifer’s blog here.
BUT DON’T TRY WHAT I DID!! Previously, I’ve successfully added minced or blended fresh vegetables to things like meatloaf and even spaghetti sauce. In keeping with Jessica’s idea this week, I decided to add some nutrition to my spaghetti sauce. It’s not unusual for me to add onions, garlic, peppers, and even wheat bran to canned spaghetti sauce before I cook it. But this week, I only had tomato juice. So, I added an onion (red), a pepper, several cloves of garlic, some fresh basil and oregano from the garden, and on a “healthy whim” added a large handful of fresh spinach to the blender jar full of tomato juice. I covered it, and turned it on, and the previously red tomato juice turned …….an awful shade of muddy brown! Duh! What was I thinking? Being the frugal person that I am, I decided to go ahead and add the sauce to my already browned ground beef. Interestingly, the sauce was the same shade as the ground beef! I simmered it for about an hour. It looked a bit better. It smelled really good and tasted great! Some of my family came through the kitchen wondering what we were eating for dinner that evening.
“What is that, Mom?”
“It’s spaghetti,” I’d answer.
“It doesn’t look like spaghetti…”
BUT DON’T TRY WHAT I DID!! Previously, I’ve successfully added minced or blended fresh vegetables to things like meatloaf and even spaghetti sauce. In keeping with Jessica’s idea this week, I decided to add some nutrition to my spaghetti sauce. It’s not unusual for me to add onions, garlic, peppers, and even wheat bran to canned spaghetti sauce before I cook it. But this week, I only had tomato juice. So, I added an onion (red), a pepper, several cloves of garlic, some fresh basil and oregano from the garden, and on a “healthy whim” added a large handful of fresh spinach to the blender jar full of tomato juice. I covered it, and turned it on, and the previously red tomato juice turned …….an awful shade of muddy brown! Duh! What was I thinking? Being the frugal person that I am, I decided to go ahead and add the sauce to my already browned ground beef. Interestingly, the sauce was the same shade as the ground beef! I simmered it for about an hour. It looked a bit better. It smelled really good and tasted great! Some of my family came through the kitchen wondering what we were eating for dinner that evening.
“What is that, Mom?”
“It’s spaghetti,” I’d answer.
“It doesn’t look like spaghetti…”
They were right....
Guess what? When we sat down for dinner, everyone enjoyed the meal! Covered with plenty of grated parmesan cheese, it didn’t even look so bad! The dish has since been lovingly entitled “Spin-ghetti”.
And my picky eater, Kody ate spinach without even realizing it!
Guess what? When we sat down for dinner, everyone enjoyed the meal! Covered with plenty of grated parmesan cheese, it didn’t even look so bad! The dish has since been lovingly entitled “Spin-ghetti”.
And my picky eater, Kody ate spinach without even realizing it!
I think Jessica is on to something here. I just need to learn to color coordinate better!
My daughter and I eat fruits and veggies with no problem...we love them. My husband does NOT, mainly because of the texture--which is why I'm so excited about this technique. We also take Juice Plus+, but pureeing more good foods (and adding Flaxseed MEAL to everything) and putting them in our foods...it's just more of what God made for us. I'm SOOOO excited about this! I had never thought about it and it's creating so many new avenues for our meals. I'm using veggies for which we previously had little use (beets, butternut squash, pumpkin, etc.) Also, I'm adding cauliflower to almost everything because it is white and almost flavorless. Each serving gives my daughter HALF of her daily Vitamin C, so I think it's going to be great for the cold season!!!
ReplyDeleteOkay...I guess I'll quit writing my novel now... :)
Have a great week! Thanks for sharing your experience!
P.S. My mom and I are going to the retreat. I hope we see you there!