Sneaky

Have you ever heard of the "Sneaky Chef?" Her name is Missy Chase Lapine and she is the author of several "Sneaky Chef"  cookbooks.  I have checked out her cookbook several times from the library and every time has been at a different eating stage for our girls.  The first time was "Oh this has some good ideas but L. is doing okay with eating right now so I'm not sure we need to resort to this," and the most recent time was "Okay L. doesn't want to eat anything but crackers and cheese and plain noodles with parmessan cheese, maybe we can find something in here."  Her basic strategy is purees.  She has various purees in different colors based on the ingredients which she then sneaks into different dishes that kids already eat and love.  For example she has a "white puree" that I think has cauliflower and maybe white beans (I can't remember exactly) and you can then add that to mac and cheese.  Her big thing is that the puree can't alter the dish in a noticeable way, or else the picky kid of course will not eat it.

My difficulty with this method is that one of my food goals for our family is that our kids recognize vegetables as they are (not pureed and hidden), and that they eat a variety of them knowingly. But maybe this could be a good way for us to ease in to it? That being said she does have a bunch of great ideas that we have tried.  One of them is a flour blend.  It is one part wheat germ, one part wheat flour, and one part unbleached all-purpose flour. I fill a gallon size zip lock bag with the flour mix and keep it in the freezer. She says that it should work fine in most things that call for flour, but I haven't been to daring and mostly use it in things that are pretty flexible with the type of flour you use, like muffins or banana bread. She has a bunch of recipes and ideas on her website: http://www.thesneakychef.com/  Check it out and see what you think.