Deceptively Delicious

Did anyone see this on Oprah? I was sooo inspired. This book has recipes for kid-friendly food, but with a little extra thrown in. ;) Brownies with pureed spinach (sounds gross, but supposedly, you can't tell), scrambled eggs with pureed cauliflower, and chocolate chip cookies with chick peas.

Now my boys (both the little ones and the big ones) will not touch vegetables. Ryan actually picks out veggies and makes a pile on the side of his plate! So the other day, I was feeling sneaky, and put pureed butternut squash in some mac n cheese, and no one noticed a thing! (How do I insert the twiddling-thumbs, evil laugh emoticon? LOL)

Anyway, here is a recipe (from some magazine) for yummy italian meatballs with a little added something. Kids loved them.

Tuscan Meatballs (aka, "cheesy green balls" in our house)
1/2 cup steamed, pureed spinach (you can also just chop instead of pureeing)
1/2 steamed, pureed carrots
1 lb ground turkey
1 egg
1 cup italian bread crumbs
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
2 handfuls shredded mozarella cheese
1 tsp garlic salt
black pepper to taste
1 - 2 Tbsp olive oil

Heat oven to 350. Mix ingredients (except oil) and form into balls. In a pan with olive oil, brown meatballs 2-3 minutes. Finish in oven for 20 minutes. Serve with pasta and marinara sauce.

And while I am being domestic, here is a new secret I discovered. With these messy boys, the kids shirts get stained a LOT. I tried every trick - Spray and Wash, Zout, baking soda, OxiClean, and sometimes I just couldn't get the stain out. So the clothes were tossed. But I found an answer! Put 1/3 scoop of powder OxiClean in a big glass bowl, fill half-way with hot water, put the shirt in, and microwave for 5 minutes. P.S... no metal or buttons, and I watch it closely (so don't blame me if your microwave blows up!) It is amazing, and I think I should win a prize. :)