Veggie Subterfuge

Aidan is a picky eater above and beyond all picky eaters. He eats because he has to eat to survive, but beyond a deep affection for pepperoni (blame his father) and baked goods (totally my fault), his food intake is at a minimum. It gets even worse when we talk veggies. It's a daily struggle to get some form of veggie in that kid's body. He probably end up with scurvy or some other horrific disease that leads to the doctors concluding it is ALL the mother's fault because I didn't force feed him more veggies. (Because, yes, it really is all about me, isn't it?)

So then I saw Jessica Seinfeld on Oprah with her genius little book Deceptively Delicious. I loved the idea of hiding the veggies in my kiddies' food and I thought about getting the book. I never did it, but I really pondered it. (I get good mom points for the thinking about it at least, don't I?) And then my friend Danielle (an amazing mother) got the book and upon hearing I was interested in reading it, photocopied the whole flippin' book for me and dropped it in my mailbox. (amazing friend too!)

It's a cool idea - this veggie subterfuge. I like it. As a mother to children who eat mac n' cheese at least once a day, I love the idea of hiding some veggies in with all that cheesy processed goodness. But - oh lord, who has the time to clean, steam and puree all those vegetables? I mean, I consider the day a success if I shower, let alone puree? Based upon my reality, I determined my kids were just doomed to their veggie nonexistent life.

But then! I was making yet another box of mac n' cheese the other day and I happened to spy a leftover jar of Griffin's butternut squash baby food. Hmmmmm. My mind started working overtime. What is baby food except pureed veggies? So I tempted fate, threw that jar into the cheesy mix, and served it to my boys with bated breath.

They ate every last bite. Not a word of complaint. Their lunch actually had some nutritional value. This is so unbelievably great. I am like the lazy version of Jessica Seinfeld. Slacker moms of the world unite!