One of the first cookbooks I invested in as a newlywed was the rather well-known title Deceptively Delicious. I flipped through it, put it up with the rest of my cookbooks, and didn’t touch it again for about a year. Then I got pregnant and started to want to incorporate more vegetables into my diet, but I found myself either not desiring them when I had them on hand or not being able to finish them all before they went bad. I also tend to cook larger dinner meals like casseroles other such reheatable dishes and eat those  for both lunch and dinner through the week. I wanted more veggies but I wasn’t willing to undergo the change to my habits that I thought would be necessary to get them.

The author of Deceptively Delicious, Jessica, talks about how the idea for her cookbook came in a eureka moment. One day, I had my own lightbulb turn on and realized that I could use the deceptively delicious system* of adding pureed vegetables to my dishes to increase our veggie intake. We didn’t have any kind of steaming system so I rigged up my own by placing a colander in a large pot filled with water and dumping a bunch of carrots/peppers/broccoli/mushrooms/peas/other fresh veggies in and steaming them until they were soft. I then added the now-soft veggies to my food processor and blended until smooth. The purees are placed in quart sized plastic bags labeled with the date and contents and stacked in the freezer. When you open the door to our freezer you are greeted with a wonderful assortment of green, orange, white and red bags. To use a the contents of one of the bags in a dish I fill the kitchen sink with hot water and defrost.

Now I hardly ever make a dish that doesn’t have some type of pureed vegetable added to it. Instead of making these muffins with pumpkin, I once added carrots, and the next time added a sweet potato/pineapple blend. Last week I made mashed potatoes and turned them a lovely shade of green by adding a bag of green beans, a bag of asparagus, and a bag of broccoli. They may look a little strange, but I really enjoyed the way the broccoli and asparagus flavored the potatoes.

Tonight I whipped up some Mexican Cornbread Casserole and added a carrot and green pepper blend (as well as a can of refried beans). Instead of making a dish composed of corn, beef, and cheese, I came up with something with corn, beef, carrot, pepper, and refried beans, topped with a handful of cheese. Tastes great and doesn’t look quite as crazy as the green mashed potatoes do. :)
With the lovely little Beaba Babycook my parents gifted us I’m finding myself using fresh purees instead of frozen ones when I have veggies on hand because the system is so simple. Tonight I browned the hamburger, mixed the cornbread, and steamed the carrots and green pepper all at the same time, layered it and baked it in the oven. By the time baby is old enough to start eating solids I’m going to be a pro at incorporating veggies into our dinner dishes.
There are most certainly difficulties with this method, as my dishes end up being runnier on average than they would be without the vegetable additions. The next dish I’m going to try is this Baked Spaghetti with the addition of some shredded chicken, and I’m thinking I might omit the milk altogether and replace it with a vegetable puree or two.  It’s always an adventure when I cook, especially now that I’m attempting to modify every recipe I get my hands on, but I no longer feel guilty that we aren’t getting enough veggies in our diet!**

*I realize that Jessica didn’t invent the concept of adding pureed vegetables to dishes but we most certainly use the term whenever I’m pureeing and adding veggies to any dishes. It’s just a fun phrase to use!

**Before someone brings it up, I will note that I still am working to find ways to incorporate fresh vegetables into my diet. The crunch of carrots has been particularly appealing lately, and I always love to make tacos loaded with lettuce, tomatoes, and avocado (which is a fruit technically!). This system has become a way for me to do even better than I was before.

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