A quick pureeing tip (we make our own infant/1st foods too) – make big batches and freeze aliquots in ice cube trays (lined with plastic wrap if necessary to get the cubes out). Then you essentially have pre-measured cubes, and that part of the prep work is taken care of.

Generically I have a bit of a problem with hiding veggies, but I also understand the frustration of trying to get a toddler to eat [anything in particular]. Because of that, we look at nutrition on a weekly basis, rather than a per-meal or per-day thing.

I wouldn’t worry about they lying aspect. You just make a dish, put it in front of your kid, and give it a cool name. I don’t think you are morally obligated to disclose all vegetable contents. After all, it can’t be worse than putting some processed thing in front of them without mentioning “this contains high fructose corn syrup”, right?

Hopefully, you will be transitioning to regular preparations looooong before they are headed off to college. I figured this was a toddler/preschooler strategy.

My only point of confusion is: how have you managed to raise a child who has never eaten dirt?

Just let your kids grow up dipping their cucumbers in ketchup, their carrots in mustard and experimenting and playing on their own.

Vegetables are good and fun and healthy, not secret cloak-and-dagger spies in your food.

And to be honest, I didn’t mind many of the other recipes either. If they didn’t require so much prep work (pureeing took me a whole afternoon a week) I’m sure we’d prepare many more of the dishes! I actually put pureed pumpkin or sweet potato in with my mac and cheese each time now. Even the box variety!

We add spinach to tons of stuff and when he’s old enough to be a part of the process it will be what it is. Just how we prepare the dish.

I bought it, not to really deceive my kids, but just get tips to add even MORE veggies to our diets or make foods slightly healthier by adding veggies. My kids are great veggie eaters and we never hide anything in their food. We think it’s important for them to know all about healthy eating and let them participate in choosing veggies at the store and cooking with them at home.

I think they might like the pink pancakes, have to give them a try!

There we were, munching away on our hamburgers, when he suddenly announced with great flourish that they weren’t, in fact, beef.

They were made of lamb. His lambs he’d had processed.

Many of us girls were fuming. I myself don’t eat much meat, but hamburger and chicken. I wasn’t really thrilled to be eating a baby ANYTHING, but beyond that there was a girl in our class for whom lamb was a migraine trigger (weird). Plus, we didn’t like being deceived.

He brushed off our anger, saying “You didn’t even know it wasn’t beef until I told you.” As if that mattered.

Would you like to eat something without knowing what it is?

Don’t lie to your kids. They deserve as much respect as you’d like to receive.