Kids' Eating: Healthy Deception

When my oldest son was a toddler, his entire repertoire of foods consisted of two things: pasta and Cheerios. He would eat nothing else! So instead of fighting it, I simply got sneaky! I perfected the art of sneaking grated carrots into spaghetti sauce, only used whole-wheat grains and made chocolate pudding out of tofu. It turns out I should have patented my recipe for zucchini pancakes and the spinach and corn pesto pizzas made out of whole-wheat pita bread, because pretty soon celebrities and chefs were publishing books and getting rich on the strategies I'd gotten down pat. I could kick myself. I should have written the book. I really could have written it!

When my second child came along, he was such a good eater. He ate anything and is still very easy to please in the kitchen. With my third and final son's arrival comes a whole new slew of taste testing. My veggie spaghetti and tofu chocolate pudding have already passed his taste test. And, hey, it was only a short while ago that my sons realized that tinned SpaghettiOs don't actually come with the peas I would always secretly add, so there is hope!

Forget Jessica Seinfeld and the rest of them: I have been there, seen it and bought the T-shirt on the art of getting kids to eat fruits and veggies. I just wonder how many more of us are out there with our quirky invented recipes, just like her?

Got your own sneaky recipes? Submit them and share them with the world!