The Evil Cookbook

As a family we aren't great about eating our veggies, unless you count the potato (which I don't). With dinner I regularly serve peas, broccoli, uncooked baby carrots and less often corn, which again I think is not truly a vegetable, but a grain.  Recently, I've been trying to incorporate more vegetables into our diet and less meat and dairy.  This is mostly as a result of reading a book called "The China Study."  The essence of the book is this: most western diseases, i.e. heart attacks, cancer, strokes, high blood pressure, etc. are a result of a diet high in animal protein and less a result of "bad" genes.  These diseases can be prevented by eating a diet rich in fruit, vegetables and whole grains and by omitting all meat and dairy.  I got the book from my parents who got it from my dad's sister.  

My parents have pretty much gone vegan (no meat, dairy, eggs but they do eat some fish).  My dad now dramatically refers to milk as "white poison."  I've taken a less drastic approach, mostly because Justin refuses to read the book and doesn't want to give up all meat, milk and ice cream, etc and I have to accommodate him.   The kids and I have switched from milk to soymilk.  Brynne and Barrett made the switch easily, but Blythe only did under duress.  I've tried to cut out red meat, so I use ground turkey in our spaghetti sauce and meatloaf now.  When I do make chicken I try to serve a dish that has a high veggie to meat ratio, such as making a chicken and broccoli stir fry.  The only chinese food we eat anymore is what I make at home because of Barrett's nut allergy.  I also have to do a lot more baking because I don't feel comfortable giving Barrett any store bought cookies, muffins, breads, etc any more. (I did find a brand of bread that is made locally in Salt Lake called Prairie Grain that I buy because I called to find out if it was processed with nuts and it turned out that the owner of the company has a nut allergy.  So that is now our brand of bread.) My SIL Amy gave me a great vegan dessert cookbook called "Sweet and Natural", which has a good chocolate chip cookie recipe in it.  I read the cookbook a lot, but have only tried two recipes from it so far.  This is not however, the "evil" cookbook of the title of this post.  

For Christmas, my SIL Brittney gave me a cookbook called "Deceptively Delicious" written by Jessica Seinfeld, wife of Jerry.  The premise of the book is the art of sneaking pureed vegetables into all sorts of food, from pancakes and muffins, to soup, macaroni and cheese and tacos to, yes even brownies, chocolate chip cookies and chocolate cake.  Blythe, the perceptive girl that she is, was instantly suspicious when she saw the cover of the cookbook  . . .

"Why would there be spinach and carrots on the counter if the woman is making brownies????"

As it turns out there are pureed spinach and carrots in the brownies.  I've been too chicken to try this recipe or any other one involving spinach.  However, I have made several recipes from this cookbook and attempted to do so without Blythe realizing which cookbook I was using.  I didn't have much success.  She's much too suspicious and she quickly realized that I tend to rate a recipe after I've made it (see photo below.)

She soon learned to flip through the cookbook looking for my notations and checking to see if any matched up with the meal I was serving.  The meatball soup was one of the first ones I tried.  It has carrot puree in the broth and sweet potato puree mixed into the turkey meatballs. It went over well with the rest of the family.  My favorite recipe from the book so far is the one for Applesauce Muffins which I am now going to share.

Applesauce Muffins with Butternut Squash or Carrot

Topping:

2/3 cup quick oats

1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

2 Tbl trans-fat-free soft tub margarine spread, melted (I use Earth Balance)

Batter:

1 1/2 cups unbleached flour (I use part whole wheat)

1 cup old-fashioned or quick oats

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup unsweetened applesauce

1/2 cup milk (I use soymilk)

1/2 cup butternut squash or carrot puree (I've only tried the squash option)

1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar (use less if your applesauce is sweetened)

1/4 cup canola oil

1 large egg

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.  Coat a 12-cup muffin tin with cooking spray or line with paper baking cups.

2. To make the topping, put the Earth Balance spread in a small bowl and microwave it to melt it.  Then stir in the sugar, cinnamon and oats in that order.  Set aside.

3. To make the batter, combine the flour, oats, baking powder, cinnamon and salt in a large mixing bowl.  In a second bowl, mix the applesauce with the milk, vegetable puree, sugar, oil and egg and stir with a wooden spoon.  Add the flour mixture slowly, stirring until just moistened.  Do not overmix--the batter is supposed to be lumpy.

4. Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups and sprinkle with the streusel topping.  Bake until the topping is lightly browned and a toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the center of the muffins, about 18-22 minutes.  Let the muffins cool for a bit in the pan before removing.

To make the butternut squash puree:

Cut off the stem, cut squash in half lengthwise and scrape out seeds.  Roast the halves on a cookie sheet, flesh side down at 400 degrees for 35 to 40 minutes or until very soft to the touch.  Allow to cool, then scoop out flesh and puree in a food processor or blender for about 2 minutes.  

To make the carrot puree:

Peel, trim the ends and cut into 3" chunks.  Steam for 10 to 12 minutes, then puree in a blender or food processor for about 2 minutes adding a few teaspoons of water if needed for a smooth texture.  

Some of the recipes were less successful, such as the spaghetti pie, which calls for broccoli puree to be mixed into the ground turkey meatball mixture.  This was not deceptive at all because the meatballs were obviously green!  The sauce also was too soupy and it just was an overall failure.  I was using this cookbook regularly when I first got it and it didn't take long for Blythe to dub it the "evil cookbook."  Every morning on the school bus she would tell her best friend Kaelena all about the disgusting meal I had tried to get her to eat.  She was over playing at this friend's house during this time and told my friend all about my evil plan at Kaelena's insistence. Then she got invited to stay for dinner because Kaelena felt so sorry for her.  Blythe is definitely my most picky eater, which is too bad because her younger siblings often follow her lead.  Justin comes in second, followed by Barrett, then Brynne. Brynne actually loves to eat raw red pepper and dried plums and really likes soymilk.  Also the other night at dinner Barrett was stealing broccoli off his sister's plates and eating it with much gusto.  I tried my best to hide my delight from him.  Sadly, I am the only one in my family who will eat sweet potatoes, which I absolutely adore.  I do recommend this cookbook to anyone who feels like their family should be eating more veggies and needs to be sneaky about doing so.