The Sneaky Chef: Simple Strategies for Hiding Healthy Foods in Kids Favorite Meals

When you boil, puree, and heat again, the nutrients disappear!

I'm not sure where the common sense in this book is. It probably disappeared with all the nutrients and vitamins! If you take spinach, for example, and boil it, puree it, and then heat it again in a 350 degree oven (as it calls for in the brownie recipe) it's no longer the nutrient packed power vegetable you had when you began. The brownie recipe is delicous, but when you look at it from a nutritous standpoint, it still has 1 cup sugar, 1/2 cup butter and 8 oz chocolate, not exactly what I want my three year old eating. Processing foods in the way this book recommends sucks most of the vitamins and minerals right out, while giving the parents a false sense that their children are eating better. It also creates a lot more work, and what parent needs that? I'd rather continue to set a good example at the dinner table by serving nutrious and delicous foods, and save her from all the extra calories. Kids will come around eventually without making the dinner table a battle ground. By the way, my child would not touch salad, but after serving it several times, seeing my husband and I enjoying it, she now eats it no problem!

11 out of 15 people found this review helpful.

Loved This Book!

Missy Chase Lapine has really hit the mark on The Sneaky Chef. I bought this book after taking Jessica Seinfeld's 'Deceptively Delicious' out of the library. I found it much easier to use than DD because Lapine has basic purees to make ahead of time and to keep on hand. The recpies are also AMAZING. You cannot tell that any of them have healthy ingredients hidden in them.

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

picky eater husband??

my husband is not fussy so this book was not as helpful to me as it might be for others.
we saw missy in real life and her ideas and concepts to make food healthier are wonderful.
you truly can disguise some added nutrition into foods as she suggests without much difficulty.

would highly recommend this idea for kids (see her other books)

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Pretty Good Book

I got the book because I have 2 girls under the age of 2, and while the younger one hasn't moved to solids yet, the older one has, and is very particular about everything in her life right now, including her foods. I like to try different methods to get her to eat veggies, but most the time she finds them and spits them out. So, I liked the idea of mixing it in so that she has to eat the dish, veggies included, or not eat at all. So, as far as that part of the book is concerned I really like it. Easy to follow as long as you do a little prep work and freeze the purees.
I also really appreciate that she tells you why she chose certain purees for certain dishes. She gives you the health benefits of the purees as well as tips on making and mixing your own.
As far as the sneaky part, I totally disagree (hence the 4 stars). I tell my little girl that I added veggies and say, "Doesn't that taste so good?" I figure if I can get her to understand from the start that she really does like the taste of things with veggies mixed in, then maybe in the future she will be more willing to try them on their own.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Good Choice

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 "Can We Live 150 Years -- Your Body Maintenance Manual". I highly recommend this book for all people concerned about healthy life style and longevity.

1 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

Worth Every Penny

I know that setting a good example and introducing your children to a variety of foods is best, but there are some days that just does not happen. If all the peas end up on the floor, and the carrots go to the dog, then this cookbook is your fall-back. Want a sure fire way to get your kids to eat some carrots and sweet potatoes, mix the puree in with their mac-n-cheese. Some days you have to pick your battles, and if they want pancakes for breakfast, then by all means give them ones with spinach and blueberries. The recipes are good for grownups too, who don't always eat what they should. It's not that much work to make the purees, and every little bit helps when it comes to nutrition.

1 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

A reviewer

I think this book offers parents a great way to help make kid friendly food healthier. Most of the recipes are traditionally not healthy foods but this is a way to help add a little extra veggies to it. As a parent it helps me feel a little better about the things my daughter eats. This does not mean that I will stop offering her veggies that aren't mixed into her food. I still want her to eat veggies on their own but this is a easy way to get her to eat some without the fights at every meal.

1 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

Great book

This is a very informative book and has great ideas to get your children to eat veggies and fruits in their foods. I have both this and deceptively Delicious and I would recommend this one over the other one if you ahve to choose 1. The other one is good also but this one has more.

1 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

Works!

I bought this book in hopes (and prayers) that it would help me to get some sort of nutritional food into my kiddo who has been refusing just about everything here lately.
It DID work, but it took me about 1.8 billion forevers to cook some of this stuff. It helped to buy the baby food purees and mix them by cutting down prep time a bit, but still took a while. I suggest this book, but I also suggest The Speedy Sneaky Chef if you dont have all day!

It works!

I love the psychology behind her methods. I've tried everything to try to get my two year old to eat more veggies. She was even starting to turn her nose up to mashed potatoes. So I started with the mashed potato recipe and she was eating it out of the pot before I could serve her a plate. And even though she mostly ate the potatoes for dinner, I didn't worry because it secretly had zucchini and cauliflower, two things she would never try because they're "yucky!" Anyway, it's easy to follow and has ended the begging and pleading to "please eat your vegetables." Less stress for sure!

The Sneaky Chef: Simple Strategies for H

very sneaky

Wonderful recipes!

This book was a lifesaver! The recipes were easy to follow and were a huge hit with our toddler!

Great concept!

I like that she has good ideas for enhancing basic recipes like mac & cheese, grilled cheese sandwiches and spaghetti sauce because if the book required me to spend a lot of time in the kitchen following recipes and making new entrees, I wouldn't use it.

Wonderful, Easy and Fun to use

This book is great for people who are not necessarily gourmet cooks and are busy but want to cook healthy meals for their families. We received it as a gift with the birth of our first baby and during my maternity leave I have tried many of the recipes. Although our little daughter is not old enough to try anything out yet, my willing husband was and so far everything is a hit!!! It changes the way you think about cooking and you find yourself experimenting with the additions in other dishes, not just the ones in the book. All of the recipes are quick and easy too. I am buying a copy to send to my aunt who has picky eaters and I think this will be my new baby shower gift dujour!

Excellent recipes - awful ebook formatting!

Missy is a hero at our house, helping me create delicious and healthy food for my extremely fussy eaters. I don't know how I ever cooked without her methods. However, this ebook is atrocious! What good is a cookbook if you can't Find the recipe you want to make for dinner? I shouldn't have to flip through every page just to find the one item I need. They should have put more work into this format before releasing it. I want my money back so I can go buy the real deal and actually USE this book! If this was all you ever saw of her work, you would not recommend this to friends or buy her other books. If I were Missy, I would be hopping mad.

Loved this book!

I have two children, 4 and 5 yrs old. They are both extremely picky eaters who would be happy eating nothing more than peanut butter sandwiches and chicken nuggets every day. I borrowed this book along with Deceptively Delicious from my local library. I found the recipes in this book to be both more appealing and easier to make and was pleasantly surprised that my children loved the food. I will be returning both books to the library and going straight to buy this one! Also, as far as the reviewer who commented on boiling out the nutrients, you can just as easily steam the vegetables before pureeing.

Great book!

This book is a great find for picky men! At first I wanted to keep my guy in the know about the foods that I was "sneaking" him, but he told me that he'd rather not know. The food tasted really good and thats all he needed. And I feel great knowing that he's getting proper nourishment. Some of these recipes do need tweaking, but most cookbooks are like that for me. This is definitely going to be a staple in my kitchen! I'm actually going to buy her other book (the one aimed toward children) for more recipes. Even I still enjoy a good Mac'n'Cheese!

EXCELLENT CHOICES FOR MY PICKY 3 YEAR OLD.

THE ONLY VEGETABLE MY 3 YEAR OLD SON WOULD WILLINGLY EAT WAS CAULIFLOWER DRENCHED IN CHEESE SAUCE. HE NOW ASKES FOR THE MEALS FROM THIS BOOK. THE MEATLOAF IS A HUGE HIT, AS WELL AS THE MACARONI AND CHEESE, AND PASTA SAUCE. WE ARE THRILLED WITH THIS BOOK...I WISH WE BOUGHT IT SOONER!

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Helpful for Moms who need the WHAT and How-to for dinner

As a mom of four pre-schoolers, I often find myself feeling like a short order chef whose guilty of making several on demand mini meals for my kids just to quiet the whining. In light of our busy schedules and hungry tummies, I found myself looking for a book that clearly spelled out the how-to and what to cook for my family that also added a healthy dose of nutrition. This book proved helpful on several occasions although it did not create for quick meals or those that were especially loved. I happen to have a picky bunch, so with repetition, I may find more promise but currently, it has found a nice spot in my nightstand next to Jessica Seinfelds book which promised the same. It does have attracrive photos and nice ideas that I would recommend for the less picky and more well rounded. I plan to re-visit these recipes in a few years when they are all in elementary school and their palates are a little more diverse. It's worth a look for sure!

Love it!

This is for my kids, but for me too! I like the quick fixes to pre-made food.