The recipes in this book are quick and easy. The grandkids loved the french toast, chocolate chip pancakes and mac and cheese. They had no idea that these things actually contained ingredients that were healthy!

This is a great book for picky kids. My daughter would only eat bland colored foods and NO VEGGIES!! This book is great for hiding like colored veggies and/or picky eater foods, but you have to buy other ingredients not normally purchased (at least for us). Other than that, it works!! Be sure if your child has texture issues and is very sensitive, to watch what veggies and/or picky eater foods you choose to "hide" in your dish.

My toddler daughter is finicky. She loves eggs, cereals, ground beef, milk, pasta, cheese, applesauce, she has a sweet tooth and is in good shape. However if you come near her with a piece of produce she will scream. If she finds corn and peas mixed in a meal she will spit them out like bullets.

This book solves the problems. The purees for "mix ins" and recipes from scratch are great. I made mini Peanut Butter and Jelly muffins which contain sweet potatoes and carrots. She kept coming back for more. I made Health By Chocolate Chip Cookies with spinach and blueberries. My daughter kept asking for more "cake". I even tried the Magic Meatballs with spinach and broccoli and made them nice and crusty (the best way) in olive oil on the stove. She wasn't particularly hungry but the adults in our house have enjoyed all 3 courses without any hint of veggies.

Prep the purees and flour in advance, keep it in the fridge and meals are tasty, quick and easy!

Great Recipes and my kids love them. Although I am not so sneaky. They cook along side me and I use the time in the kitchen for some quality time with the kids. So they know what is going into there food, and have a healthy appreciation for all sorts of different food. =)

This book is simple, practical and contains great ideas, but I personally don't like the constant need for the "make-ahead recipes" (mostly purees and juices). If you have the time and freezer space to prepare and store 13 varieties of prepared half-meals, fabulous! But if you are looking for recipes that ask for ingredients you always have in your pantry or fridge, this book is not for you.

basically, Missy tells us how we can puree fruits and vegetables that are high in fiber, vitamins and antioxidants and add them to basic recipes so that they're undetectable. the purees are a little time-consuming to prepare, but once you have a stockpile of them, you can use them in virtually everything. (i freeze mine in ice cube trays, then store them in airtight freezer containers - usually 3 large cubes are enough for a recipe).

once you learn how much, or how little puree you can get away with, the possibilities are endless. the best part is if you're dieting, this is a great way to get extra nutrition (and fiber) without adding a lot of calories. i've even come up with my own veggie/fruit combos to puree.

my one concern was how the processing and cooking affects the nutrients of the veggies, so i did some research....and for most veggies, as long as you keep them under a certain temp (like maybe adding them towards the end of the cooking), the nutrients remain....some, like tomatoes and carrots actually need a little heat to break down the cell walls and make the nutrients digestible.

Missy has put some great info in the book and my favorite part about it is that it's really inspired my creativity in my everyday cooking. whenever i pick up any recipe now, i instantly think about which puree i can sneak into it, or how i can enhance the nutritional value in some other way. i no longer feel guilty when i have to resort to one of those frozen skillet meals or jarred pasta sauce; i just add some frozen veggies (fortunately, we like to eat them whole, too) and drizzle a little olive oil on top at the end ;-)

This cookbook is for those who want to eat healthier and still eat the classic/standard American diet. Though it takes a little planning ahead and thinking about the details these are fairly easy steps toward better eating. Lapine includes helps for store bought items that make it easy to improve standard meals. All the purees can be made ahead and frozen for later use. Most if not all the recipes have more than one healthy addition or change. I love the Brainy Brownies and the Triple Stuffed Potatoes. My family raved about them, too. (I didn't hide the ingredients as much as play a guessing game with them after they ate them, of course.) I plan to prepare more recipes and continue to make the ones we've already claimed as ours.

I did spend some time with Jessica Seinfeld's Deceptively Delicious and like The Sneaky Chef better because of the multiple changes per recipe. I didn't care for the font choice in The Sneaky Chef, though. The ingredients are printed in orange and black. The orange amounts were challenging to read.

This book is terrific. My two children refuse to eat vegetables and one refuses to eat fruit. I've used many of the recipes to hide nutritious food and the kids are loving it, and have no idea what they are really eating! Like many parents, I was sick of the food fight. Now we're all happy at the dinner table.

I've long looked for a cookbook that took favorite dishes and made them more nutritious. My children eat nearly any vegetable I put before them -- but what they really love are foods like macaroni & cheese, buttered noodles, white bread, mashed potatoes, etc. This cookbook has completely changed the way I cook. When I made the chicken nuggets (which had an unbelievable amount of pureed vegetables hidden underneath the whole-grain breading), my husband & children said, and this is a direct quote, "These are the best chicken nuggets you've ever cooked!" I am now adding vegetables purees to everything -- beef stew, chicken noodle soup, tacos, spaghetti, buttered noodles, mashed potatoes .... I think that every mother in America ought to read this cookbook just to rethink ways to cook favorite recipes. Even the way I make popsicles has changed.

I would like to note that I also bought a copy of "Deceptively Delicious," which had a cute cover that caught my eye at Target. If you are trying to pick between the two, I have this advice. If you are a visual person, you will might be inspired by the D.D. book, for it had a very talented graphic artist design the book. It is adorable as much as a cookbook can be. But if you want the best content, by far the Sneaky Chef is superior. The recipes are better, the quality of the content overall far better, and the author has real-world experience in nutrition and cooking and food writing. If you take the time to read both books thoroughly, and then to test a few recipes from each, you will see exactly what I mean.

My oldest and youngest sons are wonderful eaters. My middle son, who is autistic, is not. I have recently been strategizing on how to improve his diet by finding nutrient-rich foods that he enjoys (tomato soup, for instance, and sugar-free peanut butter, both favorites). I read the reviews on Sneaky Chef and was instantly won over. "However," I said to myself, "I'm not going to just 'fool' my kids constantly. I'm going to continue to offer them *whole* vegetables and fruits with their meals in addition to hidden-vegetable foods."

Surprise! That's exactly what this author recommends. She devotes a section to it, as well as a section on why children dig their heels in about "new" or "icky" foods. The author does NOT say one should sneak in good foods and never present the child with the real deal. She states just the opposite and she states it explicitly, with its own little explanation.

I agree that a lot of the book seems to be filler. As a writer, it's easy to see where she was asked to flesh a section out by repeating herself. That doesn't make the book less worthwile, in my opinion; if you already know it all, skip those parts. Worked for me.

There are plenty of recipes; enough to round out any child's day for a number of days. The recipes (as well as the bulk of the book) also give good indications of where you can take the ideas from here on how to up the nutritional value of your children's own favorite foods.

I tried pureed zucchini (forgot the cauliflower at the store...d'oh!) with a tiny pinch of salt in boxed macaroni and cheese tonight (rather than the author's recipe--it looked good, but I figured, one change at a time) and at first my middle son took a bite and paused. I did, however, use the maximum recommended amount (another d'oh! for me). After a minute or two, he started again to eat...and he ate plenty. As for the toddler, he ate his mac 'n cheese plus the carrot sticks I cut up for both of them. :)

I'd recommend this book to anyone trying to increase the nutritional value of his or her children's foods. Personally, I don't think I'll need to be all that sneaky, if at all...EVERY recipe has a few ingredients that the entire household doesn't automatically know about. If you're thinking of trying this philosophy (no one food philosophy is for everyone) but worry about the "trick" factor is still nagging at you, ask yourself whether you've yet informed your children that their favorite Jell-O is made from pig cartilage, whether you've gently let them know that there's baking soda and TSP--a stain remover and enema ingredient--in their Trix, and whether you always warn them in advance, "Mom is putting a pinch of sugar into the tomato paste and canned tomatoes...I know any child would think sugar with tomatoes is 'yucky', and I'd feel deceptive not telling you."

Again, not for everyone; but definitely for us. Loved this book; would recommend it...and am doing so.

But what does that teach kids I want him to want to eat veggies. I guess this will have to do for now. He's only 3 years old and hates veggies. Good recipes though we tried the brownies with spinach, blueberries and oatmeal in them and you can't even taste it. My son beggged me for more brownies.

After spending couple of hours this evening preparing green puree, orange puree, and flour blend, I have successfully made the Breakfast Cookies, Guerilla Grilled Cheese and Magic Meatballs. I wasn't feeling very confident about the Breakfast Cookies when I took them from of the oven - I was sure my 3-year old wouldn't touch them. But when she saw them, she asked if she could have one and proceeded to eat THREE! I hadn't even sprinkled cinnamon-sugar on them as suggested. She was thrilled when I told her she could have cookies for breakfast, too. I was just plain stunned. The Guerilla Grilled Cheese was a big hit - she had no idea she was eating carrots and sweet potatoes, too.

The kids haven't tasted the meatballs yet, but my husband, who suffers from an acute Fear of Green Vegetables, gave them two thumbs up (I like them, too). I can't wait to see my kids eat them, especially knowing that they'll be eating spinach, broccoli and peas without even knowing it.
Tomorrow I'll be making the white puree and the Masterful Mac n' Cheese.

It's hard to be enthusiastic about preparing a nutritious meal when you're almost certain that someone in the house will push it away and say, "Yuck!" Since I'm already two for two with the recipes in this book, it has me excited about cooking again. I'm very happy with The Sneaky Chef - so happy in fact, that I just ordered her new book. Thanks to Ms. Lapine, my whole family will be eating better - though some them won't know it ;).

This book has strategies for sneaking healthy foods into recipes that supposedly your kids will eat. There are recipes for several purees (mostly veggie mixtures), and other things such as a flour blend that contains all-purpose flour, whole wheat flour, and wheat germ. I really like these recipes for things to hide in foods. The carrot and yam puree is my favorite.

However, I found the recipes for the foods you are supposed to "hide" this in to be hit and miss. The macaroni and cheese recipe wasn't that great...the cheese, milk and puree would have been better if it had been made into a sauce instead of just put into a dish and baked (it didn't incorporate together very well). The chocolate chip cookies were okay considering all the stuff that was "hidden" in them, but my son would not eat them. The crunchy elbows were inedible...they were very tough. We did like the baked ziti, and my son ate a lot of it.

I would recommend taking the purees and other "basic" mixtures that are in the front of the book and incorporating them into your own recipes.

This is one of my favorite cook books. I bought this book about a year ago. I have a 10 year old, a 3 year old and a very picky husband.

This book has more than just recipes. It is filled with nutritional information about the purees you are sneaking into the recipes. It also has a "must have in your pantry" list, which are items that are now a must have in my home. There is also a section that talks about how to sneak the purees into your own recipes. Very helpful I must say.

The first thing I made was the brownies. My husband and 10 year old liked them but asked me what I had done different, texture wise. My 3 year old had no clue they were different. I even gave some to my father in law who called me later when he found out that they had spinach and blueberries in them and told me that it wasn't right to be able to sneak that kind of stuff in there and him not know.

I have made several other items in this book that have gone over very very well. The favorite has got to be the chicken on a stick. They are not only yummy they are on a stick which makes it cool for the kids.

Today I purchased The Sneaky Chef: How to Cheat on your husband Cook Book. I can't wait to get it.

i love this book, the style in which is was written, the recipes, the whole enchilada. i have bought several copies as gifts AND i think it's much better than seinfield's wife wanna be who copied it.

I've heard some strong opinions about this book being about deceiving own children and that no matter what good intention a mother has, she should never deceive her own children. Although this could be a good ground for a longer discussion about ethics, here are some points that, in my opinion, make `Sneaky Chef' a good buy:

1. Children only eat what they find attractive to their eyes and their taste buds. Any reasoning about food nutritional value is blocked and absolutely ignored. So if you have a case of a child absolutely abhorring vegetables then the only way to make vegetables a part of daily meals, is to sneak them in to the dish under some disguise.
2. Any reasoning about nutrition is simply not possible in case of small children. It's better to feed them now with the help of Sneaky Chef and teach them later to eat more variety of foods.
3. Many of the recipes provided by the author are also very useful in case of stubborn adults who, like big children, are only guided by the physical appeal of meals rather then by their nutritional content.
4. In the first part of the book the author provided a lot of valuable information about selecting the proper ingredients for making meals, about organic foods, as well as about food contamination, etc.
5. The variety of healthy food recipes in this book is tremendous!
6. Last, but not least, the meals are tasty and appealing to the eye.

`Sneaky Chef' is a great book for anyone who makes his or her meals at home, not only for mothers concerned about properly feeding their children. I also suggest reading about Proper Food Combination in this other book that I highly recommend for all people concerned about healthy life style and longevity.

Love the nutritional info! The recipes are easy and practical. I am very pleased with this purchase.

Because kids rarely like vegetables and healthy foods, this book fills an important need. The main useful emphasis of the book is the idea of sneaking pureed vegetables into kid-friendly dishes. In addition to sneaking in the vegetables, the recipes take some of the unhealthy ingredients out. The book offers traditional recipes with purees or healthier replacements that add fiber, vitamins, and antioxidants to meals. The book is easy to read and presents a practical guide for parents.

Contents:
Introduction by Anastassios Koumbourlis, M.D. MPH
Chapter 1: Keep `em Happy and Healthy
Chapter 2: For Their Own Good
Chapter 3: My Philosophy About Food
Chapter 4: The Lists (Organic foods, Contaminated foods, "In" and "Out", Staples)
Chapter 5: The Sneaky Chef Bag of Tricks
Chapter 6: Make-Ahead Recipes (Purees, Juices, etc)
THE RECIPES
Breakfast Recipes
Lunch Recipes
Snacks
Dinner
Treats
Drinks
Index

I like the idea of sneaking in healthy purees, but after kids decide they like one of the dishes, tell them that what they liked contains healthy fruits or veggies! Then kids learn that healthy foods don't have to taste icky. If you also need to slim down (a child's most important role models are his/her parents), I also recommend THE 3:00 PM SECRET: Live Slim and Strong, Live Your Dreams. I hope people will buy Sneaky Chef rather than the celebrity copycat.

I don't love the concept of lying to your children and not teaching them to eat like socialized humans.
But I hope Jessica Seinfeld loses her shirt. What a witch.

This book offers many great ideas for sneaking nutrition into meals that would have never crossed my mind. Our picky 2 year old is finally getting some green in his diet!

All the purees are quite easy to make. I've even enlisted the help of my 4 year old, and she thinks it's fun (of course, she doesn't know where these purees are ending up!) I just took a couple of hours one evening and prepared all of them by pouring into ice cube trays, freezing, and then popping out into labeled Ziploc baggies. It's extremely easy to then thaw out individual portions to ramp up to the maximum amounts the author recommends for given recipes.

My only reservation is that she could have done a better job of instructing readers about consistency of purees. The bean recipes really need an extra reminder or kids will detect texture a mile away.

Buy this, you will be happy you did.

"The Sneaky Chef" was a good purchase. While I would prefer to feed healthy foods to my toddler straight-up, he isn't so keen on that. Rather than constantly fight him and risk driving him further away from veggies, I figure it makes more sense to sneak some great food into him while still offering and encouraging him to eat the "regular" vegetables. I'm hoping that he'll eventually come around and eat them on his own; meanwhile, at least I know he's eating a pretty healthy diet.

I liked Lapine's writing style, although I felt she spent a little too much time on preamble and not enough on recipes. As of yet I haven't tried many of her recipes, and I don't intend to feed my child chocolate anything more than once in a while, however the simple concept of sneaking pureed vegetables into various foods makes a lot of sense to me, and I've worked them into some of my own recipes with success. I found this to be a logical follow-up to "Super Baby Foods".

I got really enthusiastic about upping the nutritional content of my meals after reading this book. I liked the simple layout and the easy recipes. THESE I can do!

My husband and I don't cater to the kids much at mealtimes. They eat what's offered or they don't eat. Period. Yet we've learned to skirt potential battles by giving them only very small portions of the things they don't like (such as the straight-up veggies). Maybe I'll get them to eat more fruits, veggies, and grains by surreptitiously adding them to the things they do like while still getting them to eat the little portions of the plain 'ol veggies they eat reluctantly.

I have to say that over all, I preferred this book to "Deceptively Delicious", though that one had a few good recipes as well (I got it from the library). Maybe I just balked at the "another-wealthy-celebrity-tells-you-how-to-do-it-right" angle.

This is not a bad book, just wished it had more colored pictures so I could get a better visual.

These are great recipes!! I am constantly surprised at how good everything tastes. One of my favorites is the Banana Breakfast ice cream. While I don't believe in getting my son in the habit of having ice cream for breakfast, I certainly have no problem giving it to him after a healthy dinner of baked Crunchy Chicken tenders or Covert Quesadillas. I also make sure my son is aware these are homemade & healthy not like the food we get at restaurants.

This book's a MUST HAVE for parents of picky eaters. I love that she gives us an alternative, for those of us who may not have time to make ahead the different purees and juices.
I'll definetly use these methods with EVERYTHING I cook for now on. I wish this book came out when my kids were younger, but at least I can start getting those veggies in them now-better late than never!
The only downside for me has been the breakfast ice cream not turning out :( But, that's alright-everything else has been great so far.

We are very much the "this is dinner, so you have to eat it," kind of parents. As a result, my kids like many veggies and a lot of other foods their friends won't even look at. But it's never a bad idea to get more nutrition into our diets, so I tried some of the recipes in the book. My kids love what I've made, and I'm happy to offer a healthy alternative to the conventional prep of these recipes. We don't eat the food in the book often (mac & cheese, tacos, brownies, etc), but when we do, we'll be getting an extra dose of vitamins. I can't wait to try the breakfast recipes!

I ordered this book because my kids were not eating veggies! Well I would have to say that it has been wonderful! It has made me a lot less stressed about what they are eating because secretly I know they are getting good vitamins and minerals. This has made me come up with a lot of my own sneaky recipes.

I purchased this book because I needed more nutrition in a small amount of food. Boy did I get more than I bargained for. I'm completely obsessed with this book and what it can do for me and my husband. I've already ordered the second book and the third one won't come out soon enough for me. Missy, thank you and please remember the gastric bypass patients will go crazy for this...thanks so much!!!

I really like this book. Not only is it filled with great information about food in general, the recipies look great and I can not wait to start making them for my family.

If you are going to buy one of these covert vegetable books - get the original. While in a perfect world it is best to feed your kids delicious foods with visible fruits and veggies rather than hiding them in otherwise not-so-healthy dishes, this book is great for creating some fun and still veggie-infused meals. The puree concept is a great idea! The book has fun recipes for creating some weekend meals for your kids. You may also want to be creative and make some kid-friendly-yummy dishes with the veggies out-of-the-closet! If you let kids participate in making dishes (that are also healthy) they are more likely to eat them because they are their own creations. This book is a good starting point for introducing fruits and veggies into your kids' diet. If you tell them what they just ate and enjoyed had broccoli in it, they may be more likely to eat broccoli when it is not hidden. Author of THE 3:00 PM SECRET: Live Slim and Strong, Live Your Dreams.

the first 3/4 of the book is useless. Looks like they needed to fill in lots of pages just to say they had a complete book. The recipes are good and very creative. However the recipes only take up the last 10 pages of the book. Everything before that is why you should hide things in your kids food. Not what I expected, but the recipes are useful.

My pediatrician said I have to get my daughter to eat more fruits and veggies. the only fruits she eats willingly are bananas and apples, she refuses all veggies except the occasional carrot and potato. So, I bought this book and the Seinfeld book. I tried the Power pizza recipe - she loved it, devoured it! I even added some of the green puree for a little extra nutrional value. Hubby said he could "taste the texture" of the bean puree, but I didn't. Now, I can feel better about my toddler eating pizza.

I agree that I would prefer if she just ate a handful of carrots, or broccoli, etc, but she won't. So, this way, she is eating things she likes (pizza, mac 'n' cheese, etc) and getting some nutrional value out of it. Of course, I still encourage her to eat veggies (I even cut up cucumber and bell pepper with cookie cutters to make them more intriguing - she was excited by the shapes, but not enough to tempt her pallate). So, purees it is, at least until her tastes change and she starts eating veggies.

Why oh why did I buy this book? I guess I gave into the hype. This book is nothing more than the author patting herself on the back for the first far too many pages. The recipes are like an after-thought.

I got this book in a effort to better hide nutritious foods within my cooking. My sons have convinced themselves that they don't like any other vegetable other than carrots. I immediately tried several recipes and even KNOWING what went into the brownies, macaroni and cheese and meatloaf, I couldn't taste the veggies. I have to admit, I was very skeptical about spinach in brownies....but you REALLY can't tell its there.
It DOES take time and planning to make the purees ahead of time, but I found an afternoon long cooking extravaganza yields enough purees for several weeks ( if frozen).
My only criticism would be that the recipe sections aren't as intuitive as I'd like them to be - the difference between lunch food and dinner is a little bit of a fine line.
I will be using this book for recipes and inspiration for a long time to come. My hope is to develop a 'taste' for healthy foods in my sons without them realizing it and then later, filling them in on the secret!

This cookbook has helped me feel better about the way my 5 year old daughter eats. She is getting those veggies in her diet and she doesn't even know it! I am a working Mom so it really helped me to make the puree and juices up ahead of time and freeze them. I freeze them in ice cube trays so I know the portion sizes and then thaw what I need in the microwave on defrost and volia.......in the pre-packaged macaroni and cheese!

I really do like this book. I'd heard a lot of the hype about this and the Seinfeld book (I like this one better) and I was skeptical. But, I also have a very picky 2.5-year old son who won't even eat fruit, let alone vegetables, doesn't care for meat or fish, or even pasta. What two-year-old hates mac and cheese, I thought? There are very few foods I can get him to eat without it turning into a battle. So, I checked the book out at the library, and now I own it.

FOr those who are worried that this will encourage bad eating habits, don't be. YOU are still in charge of your kid's diet, even if they control what goes in their mouth. Are you going to let your kid munch on brownies all he wants, jut because they have blueberries and spinach in them? Of course not, and that's not the author's intention. The intention is to give your child the nutrition he/she needs, through the basic foods your child will tolerate. You're still going to serve them fruits and vegetables and whole grains with their meals, but now you don't have to fuss if they don't eat them, because it's already in what they WILL eat. And if they try the spinach and decide they like it, all the better. Eventually, your child's tastes will change, and you can start cutting back on the purees.


There are some recipes I'll probably never use, but I've already tried several, like the potato skins, which my son happily wolfs down without ever knowing he's eating califlower and zucchini!

These are also recipies that most people in the family will like, and that we'll feel a little less guilty about eating. Who wouldn't like to have junk food that's not so junky? I've tried the breakfast ice creams and they're really good, even with avacado in them, which I can't stand. I also drink a lot of sparkling water to keep me away from soda, and adding the juices with a twist of lime is a nice change. And we LOVE the cocoa pancakes! I like the breakfast cookies for a grab-and-go morning, and my husband likes the muffins.

All in all it's a good book. Read all of the beginning, understand the author's philosophy and intention, and get out your food processor.

This book presents the "hidden food" method of feeding a child in a way that allows you to actually tackle it. Other books almost made it feel as if casually steaming and blending veggies into meals while you may already be strapped for time was no big deal. Even though there were great recipies in them I just never seemed to have the time (full time student, working mother...you know the story). This version gives you the resources to be able to either freeze or substitute store brought purees (baby food) in the recipes. Defiantly a handy short cut when you get home late and you need dinner in 15 mins or less....

This is definitely worth buying!!! The idea of vegetable purees never crossed my mind, but now they sneak into almost every meal. It is amazing how many vitamins my kids are getting without even knowing it. I still offer regular vegetables at every meal, but my kids will not touch them. Now they are eating broccoli, cauliflower, SPINICH...yes spinach, zucchini etc. at every meal. This cookbook is just a guide. You can sneak vegetables into almost every dish you are currently making without them knowing.
It is best to make all of your purees once a month and freeze them individually. I freeze them in ice cube trays (2-3 cubes= approx 1/4 cup; depending on your tray size). This way I can use a little or a lot depending on what I am making. The breakfast cookies are fabulous. My husband brings them to work everyday with a mug of coffee or milk.
I can't say enough about this book...Thank you for putting it together!!!!

Sneaky Veggies by Chef Chris Fisk was written long before either this book or the Seinfeld book were written, but that's not the point.

Sneaky Veggies is a valid, funny, helpful, real-life hands-on common-sense COOKBOOK which gives you simple life-altering suggestions for feeding yourself and others in a loving responsible way.

There's nothing really wrong with this book, if you want a book with a publicity machine behind it rather than one written by a working chef... As for me, I'll take my cooking advice from a trained cook.

This book gives you excellent ideas for cramming extra nutritional value into your meals. I bought one copy, and went back for 4 more to share with family and friends. After looking through it, my friend also bought several copies to share. I like it because I'm not crazy about vegetables, but I get more than enough with her recipes.

Before purchasing this book, I always worried about meeting the nutritional needs of my daughter on a daily basis. My daughter loves veggies, but I still wanted to be able to incorporate more veggies, and fruits, in her food, even without her knowing.
The recipes are ingenius! And my daughter truly can't tell the difference (of course, I think it helps that she likes veggies). I'm really glad I bought this book!

I have never written a book review before but am now compelled to for The Sneaky Chef. I don't have children and normally would not have picked up this book, but I have a cook book addiction and the cover was interesting. This book is certainly not just about kids, this is about (SAD) The Standard American Diet. I know so many adults that just don't eat vegetables or who proudly state "I'm a meat and potatoes person". So, when the opportunity presents itself to include some vegetables in a diet that may not include ANY vegetables, this book is priceless. I love veggies and am always looking for ways to add more to by favorite foods, like mac n cheese.

This book has inspired me to really strive on a personal level to be conscious of the way I eat. I have noticed in the other reviews that parents feel uncomfortable about "sneaking" the veggies into their children's diet but I congratulate them for caring enough to try!

So, for more than just being a "Sneaky Chef" for kids, be a "Sneaky Chef" for yourself!

While I would NOT rely upon the idea in this book for my children's entire vegetable needs it gives me some great additions to get in some "extras". We always serve a main dish (protein), a main veggie (broccoli, cauliflower, asparagus etc...) and then a salad or something else with more veggies(rice or couscous with peas etc..). This where the recipes come in handy, the mac and cheese has sweet potatoes,carrots, and cauliflower (if you choose to add both white and orange puree's which I suggest for the "kraft" orange color. ) I do not think that it's a good idea to rely upon the recipes to hide ALL of your kids veggies, they gotta eat some greens! Plus the amounts in the recipes are no where near enough for a daily serving. We need to learn everything in balance, it doesn't have to be all or nothing and some of these recipes are great for my family. I REALLY love the meatballs, they are SO good, and they have spinach, peas and broccoli in them!!!! I can't wait to try the brownies with spinach and bluberries.

I'm not much of a "chef", however this book is very straight forward in it's receipe's and puree's. It even shows how to incorporate boxed goods into their receipe's. In a world where high frucose sugars, lard, cholesterol, saturated fats, and McDonald's Happy Meals rule, I want my children to be healthy and fit. I want them to learn proper nutrition. But, let's face it, they're going to choose their favorite foods (pizza, cookies, mac n' cheese) over steamed vegetables and salad. This book really helps allow for "food coversation" to be one less contention. If there's a book out there that claims chicken nuggets, brownies, mac n' cheese, pizza, pancakes, etc. can be helathy I'm all for it. They have been a success in my family.

My 3 year old is a very picky and poor eater. I have only tried one of the recipes, the orange puree, because all he will eat is spaghetti sauce on ravioli, chicken, pizza etc. I put it in a jar of Ragu and it worked like a charm. I will try more recipes as my little guy becomes less picky. This is genius!!!! So happy I found it.

This book is awesome! I haven't used too many of the recipies from the book but I like the idea of using pureed veggies and hiding them in the food you already eat!

I'm sorry we have this cookbook. The basic premise is to grind up small amounts of vegetables and stir the puree into recipes - secretly! The vegetables are not seasoned and add, well, nothing to the dish. If you did this in a commercial restaurant you would either be summarily dismissed or charged with food adulteration.

The amount each person eats is too small to be nutritionally significant; the net effect is a little like spitting into someone's Coke and stirring it in. Your victim never knows, but - you do.

An example if the monstrosities found in this book is macaroni and cheese with - are you sitting down? - pureed cauliflower. You can add potatoes to a dish to absorb salt if you've over seasoned it; cauliflower evidently does the same thing. Plus, I didn't realize the flavor of cheese could be neutralized. It was numbingly bland.

If you want vegetables in your or your children's diet, then boldly commit to a evening or two during the week on which real, genuine, from-the-ground-up vegetarian recipes are prepared. Authentic vegetarian cuisine is everything that the recipes in this book aren't: flavorful, light, with a variety of textures and colors, and healthful. Try Molly Katzen or Madhur Jaffrey of just search for Vegetarian Cooking. If your children try it, great; if not, you have lots of tasty leftovers for breakfast and lunch the next day. If you make it a normal thing, they'll eat it.

This book adds bean and vegetable purees into ordinary sauces and foods, so that kids get the good food they need. It adds fiber and vitamins, and they don't taste bad. You can even fix up mediocre food like store bought instant mac and cheese. My kid gets cauliflower or white beans in there, and extra real milk. You can add pre-frozen purrees to a little store bought spaghetti sauce, or freeze the spaghetti sauce with the veggies. My purreed zucchini, spinach, onions, basil, cauliflower, & sweet potato. Now I also puree leaks, onions, and cooked broccoli into quiche.

Some reviews have questioned the method. Yes, it would be nice to not deceive our kids. But lecturing a two year old about eating more veggies doesn't work. Mine won't touch most veggies at all. I've tried making them look neat, calling broccoli trees, with no success. Isn't it better to feed them the good food now, and reason with them when they are a little older, and willing to try more new foods? In the meantime their health, immunity, and digestive system, and blood sugar (as in stable blood sugar) can only benefit!

This book has great ideas for "sneaking" in veggies and extra fruits into our foods. We actually like the quick fix for boxed mac-n-cheese better than plain. It was also fun to sneak some extra veggies into the mashed potatoes at the holidays. No one knew and they tasted great. The author offers do-ahead purees to add to your recipes as well as some of her own tried and approved recipes. It was a fun book to read and one I continue to go back to when creating meals for our family with three kids (2, 5, 7).

The Sneaky Chef is a great cookbook for finding ways to sneak fruits and veggies into my child. My toddler loves fruit, but has issues with vegetables. I have made a few of the recipes... the dessert items have worked, but I did not have success with the chicken nuggets.

Positives: The book is well-organized and it is easy to find recipes based on ingredient or on outcome (ie brownies).

Negatives: The serving size is not listed and I would like to have the page number for the recipe listed with the name of the recipe on the puree pages (I know that sounds confusing... look in the book to see what I mean).