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| Author: Jessica Seinfeld
Brand: Harper Collins
List Price: $24.95
Buy New: $9.93
You Save: $15.02 (60%)
New (58) Used (27) Collectible (2) from $8.24
Rating:  683 reviews
Sales Rank: 611
Media: Spiral-bound
Edition: 1st
Pages: 208
Number Of Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.5
Dimensions (in): 9.2 x 8.3 x 0.9
MPN: 0061251344
ISBN: 0061251348
Dewey Decimal Number: 641.5973
EAN: 9780061251344
ASIN: 0061251348
Publication Date: October 1, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Condition: New Book! Excellent Condition! Usually ships same or next business day!
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 6-10 of 683
 Nice recipes but lots of prep time October 20, 2007
HappyMom (Nashville, TN United States)
77 out of 85 found this review helpful
After seeing this on Oprah, my child and I decided to buy it. My child is one who actually eats and enjoys vegetables but we were both intrigued by the idea of incorporating extra vegetables into our diets.
The book is well-organized, offers detailed information about both the recipes and the benefits of the major ingredients, and I really like that the tone is not a "lecture" on the benefits of vegetables. She doesn't talk down to the reader but offers lots of helpful suggestions.
I do have one suggestion for busy parents - use organic baby food. I don't have a food processor and I don't have a dedicated block of time to clean, cook and prepare all the purees for the week. For about $.65 (or less) per jar, I can have 1/2 cup of organic winter squash etc. that has already been cleaned, cooked and pureed for me. Plus, it will keep on the shelf until I need it so I can buy extra when they go on sale.
Furthermore, I have started adding the purees to the recipes or boxed mixes I already use. I added 1/2 cup of mixed vegetables to a batch of Pamela's gluten-free brownie mix tonight and it was delicious. There was no noticeable change in texture and we could not taste anything but rich chocolate.
Don't be afraid to experiment :)
 Buy the SNEAKY CHEF philosophy, not this cookbook October 7, 2007
S. Roginski
75 out of 131 found this review helpful
I personally own a copy of The Sneaky Chef: Simple Strategies for Hiding Healthy Foods in Kids Favorite Meals. The Sneaky Chef cookbook is VERY EASY to use and has great recipes. The premise in Deceptively Delicious book is the same as the one addressed in the Sneaky Chef book. However, Missy Chase Lapine (the Sneaky Chef) provides the philosophy of adding purees into foods that kids will eat. Sometimes "trickery" is needed when you have an extremely picky eater that isn't ready to accept fruits and veggies outright. If trickery isn't needed, cook right in front of the kids using the Sneaky Chef recipes and add not only the purees, but chunks of the fruits and veggies. The purees are easy to make and can be substituted with baby food. The fruit juices are different from the fruit purees and have different purposes in the various recipes. I, like many other parents, make the purees ahead of time and freeze for quick additions to meals. I also keep a store of baby food in my pantry for the really last minute additions to pizza sauce, spaghetti, etc.
It is true that the Sneaky Chef offers alternatives like quick fixes for boxed Mac and Cheese which are less than stellar in the world of nutrition. However, there are some kids who won't eat any other type of Mac and Cheese besides Kraft. The Sneaky Chef identifies that the home cooked version is better but in some cases, already accepted foods can be made "more nutritious." I am one of those parents who needed suggestions for new recipes as well as the boxed/canned varieties that I can't get away from (like Mac and Cheese). My kids won't accept the whole grain pasta's yet, but we are working on them. Meanwhile, quick fixes are a welcomed suggestion for improvement over the former standard.
I am a disheartened that another author is getting much of the publicity about adding purees to kid's foods when the Sneaky Chef deserves the credit for providing this philosophy to desperate parents this past spring. The Sneaky Chef explains that it may take time for us to change our children's palate so they are more likely to try new foods, especially fruits and vegetables. Slow and steady can indeed win the race when you have a child as picky as mine. Mind you, as a baby she ate everything I put in front of her. But when she turned 2, she refused most anything healthy and yet I continued to offer them at every meal. I still do. Not only do I use the Sneaky Chef techniques, I offer the fruits and veggies whole on the plate as well, and with some success. I've been using the Sneaky Chef since May, and since then my daughter has started to eat peas, corn, carrots, and green beans, apples, pineapples, and grapes. These were items she refused to eat since she was two. Now that they have been snuck into her foods and offered at the table, her palate is changing and for the right reasons. Being sneaky for me was about getting the vitamins and minerals into my child's diet that wasn't getting there before.
If you don't believe me, go to the TSC website to see what the other parents have been saying about TSC. People with picky kids, spouses and elderly family members have all benefited. There are several postings by parents with autistic children who have had success using her techniques as well!
Knock off, or coincidence, it doesn't matter to me because I see no need to spend money on DD. Try a taste test before you buy the book...then decide for yourself. Go to each author's website and get some recipes. Make them both. Try it out on the kids. Then decide which book to buy. Or buy both for more recipes. There are other sneaky kid cookbooks out there as well. I don't need a 2nd book because I am armed with the knowledge of HOW to improve my child's nutrition until they can be reasoned with about making healthy choices. Had Jessica published first with the puree technique, I would have bought her book and tried it out on blind faith like I did with TSC. So for me, it's the principle of the thing and therefore the one star. If someone doesn't speak up, then no one is the wiser. I have adapted my own recipes to the point that I could write a sequel, so my money is better off in the bank.
 The reviews, the recipes, the nutrition factor and Oprah. October 16, 2007
restless consumer (Fort Lauderdale, FL)
73 out of 84 found this review helpful
A couple of thoughts on this book, its reviews, the recipes, the nutrition factor, & Oprah.
- First, re the reviews that are here - it seems that no one can post a negative review without immediately being shot down - this really makes me believe that the reviews are being monitored by interested parties in the book's success - perhaps, publisher, family & friends? If you note the first few reviews of the book, they were all made by members of Jessica's family, so they're here and active.
Second, re the recipes - I've made a few of them, and some work and some don't. The burgers have *way* too much garlic - maybe to overpower the cauliflower? The mashed potatoes are good and, on my own I put some cauliflower puree into some frozen spinach, and I ended up not needing to add any cream to jazz it up - it just worked. So, as a jumping off point, the purees are inspirational to incorporate into your own existing recipes - these recipes on their own, are a little touch and go, but overall the concept is brilliant - even though Jessica cannot be credited with having the idea first, as seen by the description of The Sneaky Chef, published previously.
Re the nutrition factor - this is becoming a sticky point as people bring up the question of why nutritional content was not included, especially considering that the foreward is written by a nutritionist. I think I can guess why - a 1/2 cup of spinach puree in a batch of brownies or 1/2 cup of cauliflower in a pot of mashed potatoes does not go a long way once you divide that up into individual servings. There is no way anyone is getting a full serving of vegetables from this technique, but I tend to be in the camp that thinks more veggies is better than less, even if the more is negligible. And, it may be even less than negligible considering the additional cooking beyond the steaming that is robbing the veggies of their enzymes.
Finally, re Oprah. I watched yesterday as Jerry came on to promote his new Bee Movie, that Oprah happens to be in. I realized this is why she had Jessica on in the first place and say, not the Sneaky Chef. There's definitely a bit of cronyism going on. And, was telling when Oprah groused about the book being number one on the bestseller list that Jerry thanked everone for contributing to "Seinfeld World Media".
All in all, I have no regrets about buying the book, and I'm sure I'll be doing purees from here on out.
Deceptive? Yes. Delicious? No way. October 20, 2007
starfox2020 (New York, NY)
73 out of 108 found this review helpful
For a moment, let's ignore the fact that the whole point of this book is sneaking vegetables into your kids' food. This means, of course, that they never learn to accept vegetables as part of their diet.
The two recipes I tried were just plain nasty. The chocolate cake made with beets? GAAAG! The scrambled eggs with cauliflower had a mealy consistency and looked odd. One has to wonder: did the author even try these recipes before releasing them on an unsuspecting world? Doubtful.
Is there any nutritional value left over after all this processing? October 15, 2007
Sable (Washington DC)
51 out of 81 found this review helpful
After washing, cutting, steaming, pureeing veggies and mixing it a brownie and then baked, is there any nutritional value left in the food? Doesn't a kid have to eat a truckload of brownies to get the recommended daily allowance of even one nutrient?
The author should list the actual nutrients left over after all this processing. I think parents will find it won't be worth their time.
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