Jessica Seinfeld’s book Deceptively Delicious is a new and innovative way for Moms to approach nutrition for their families. Thankfully at this point my children are very into vegetables and eat a nice variety of foods but knowing how varied children view foods as they get older its nice to learn new things sooner rather than later. The basic premise of the book is just how easy it is to incorporate vegetables into every aspect of your family’s diet. She provides recipes focusing on main meals, lunch ideas, snacks, and desserts.

I tested 3 recipes for this review. First I put to use one of my favorite kitchen items ever.

Our rice steamer has been a dear friend for our family who loves to eat rice for every meal of the day. I however had rarely utilized it for steaming vegetables. I followed the Deceptively Delicious directions and was able to steam carrots, sweet potatoes, and spinach. I then used my food processor to puree each individual vegetable and was surprised at the resulting smooth even consistency. For Moms out there with infants this book just might have all that you need as you transition to solids and want to make your own baby food.

The first recipe up was the chocolate chip cookies. The recipe calls for draining and rinsing and entire can of chick peas into the batter. I however knowing how keen my children are on textures of food opted to puree the chick peas a bit in my food processor before adding them into the batter. I have to admit the batter itself was pretty yummy.

Once cooked the cookies definitely had a noticeably different texture but not so different that my boys complained at all. After a taste test by 2 moms and 5 kids ranging in age from 2 to 6 the cookies were definitely a huge hit.

Next I tried the Chicken Nuggets. Because of the previous pureeing I already had the base ingredients ready for putting together the meal. I used spinach puree in the recipe and found the puree/egg mixture a bit thick to really stick to the chicken. The strips cooked up and had very nice flavor but weren’t nearly as crisp as I would like. I will be trying the recipe again but will add a bit more egg to the vegetable base to hopefully get a better final coating. The boys and EDad were very happy with the chicken strips with EBoy proclaiming they were the best chicken he’d ever tasted.

The final recipe attempt was the brownies (with carrots and spinach). I was thrilled to see that the recipe only required a few ingredients, most of which I already had on hand. Everything mixed together nicely and the spinach puree blended so well that it wasn’t even noticeable in the batter. However that was the end of my good report on this attempt. My brownies looked strange and had a bit of a lumpy cake texture. I was so dissappointed with how they turned out I didn’t even try to give them to the boys, but will have to try them again to make sure I didn’t just get something off in my own measurements.

Overall I give a huge thumbs up to Deceptively Delicious. The recipes incorporate ingredients which are easily accessible to all and provide an easy way to stockpile purees for quick preparation of dishes. If simple meals packed full of nutrients and vitamins are needed in your family’s everyday life I recommend that you give Deceptively Delicious a try. You can check out a few more of the recipes on Oprah.com.