The Sneaky Chef

Missy Lapine

Published By: Running Press

Book Category: Non-Fiction, Cooking

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Reviewed by Jamie Driggers

We all know what picky eaters children can be. Parents can start off with the best of intentions, and eventually a child will still stick his nose in the air and refuse the healthy food in favor eating macaroni and cheese for twenty-three meals in a row, if the parent allowed it. What is a parent to do? We don't want every meal to be a battlefield. And often the child will forsake food altogether rather than let his parents win.

Enter The Sneaky Chef.

With this book, parents will learn "simple strategies for hiding healthy food in kids' favorite meals." And no, it doesn't make food cute by making faces out of vegetables (which the kids pick off and throw away anyway). The methods in The Sneaky Chef are much more practical and realistic. What can't you do with a food processor?

By hiding superfood purees in food children already love, Missy Chase Lapine takes the battle out of mealtime. Yes, the children think they have won. And it doesn't convince them to try new things. That comes later when they can exercise logic. But they do get the nutrients that their bodies need to grow and fight off disease.

I tried several of the recipes and got mixed results. You certainly can't taste or see the vegetables that have been added, though I could smell them in some instances. If anything, my kids were fussy when a recipe came out too bland (I'm going to try that one again with more salt). Overall, the methods and recipes were good. But, for me, it is the recipes for the purees that are invaluable. Once I got the hang of what she was doing, I didn't need the other recipes anyway, I could use the purees in the foods I am familiar with and already know my children will eat.

Thanks, Missy, for teaching me how to sneak good food into our diet.

Armchair Interviews says: An answer for parents of picky eaters.