I never thought I would be THAT mom, but....

I hid some vegetables in my kid's food.

A few years ago, this book by Jessica Seinfeld came out to much hoopla (appearances on Oprah, Today show etc.). In it, Ms. Seinfeld explained how she made purees of vegetables, hid them in her kids' food and they were none the wiser! At the time, I rushed out and bought it, tried a few recipes and they were TERRIBLE! Then, as fate would have it, my child LOVED broccoli, cauliflower etc. so I was convinced of my moral superiority. Hiding vegetables was a horrible thing to do! You must be honest with your children and teach them to eat as you eat! My kid LOVES vegetables! What's wrong with yours??

and then Mario came along. He brought my hubris to a screeching halt.

He doesn't eat. I made spaghetti carbonara the other day, and he picked out the pancetta, drained the sauce and ate exactly four noodles. He eats fruit, I'll grant him that, but really his repetoire of foods shrinks by the month. I kept my vow that I would NOT make a separate meal for him (pizza, french fries and strawberries would be HIS request) and I dutifully put a plate of food in front of him every night. He picks at it, then runs to the fridge to get a wedge of laughing cow cheese, some crackers and some fruit. Apparently this is called his "french" phrase, only we're not french. It's so frustrating!

So I returned to the Seinfeld book. I felt really, really guilty about it. Last night on the way home from work, I bought a bag of baby spinach and some fancy looking carrots at Trader Joe's. I made the recipe for brownies (with the aforementioned vegetables "hidden" in them), and as it turns out....the kids LOVE the brownies. So far no one has asked if there is spinach in them. Right now I am steaming a batch of cauliflower that I am going to try and add to some scrambled eggs and then maybe a baked potato later on.

I feel HUGELY guilty about this. Like somehow I have failed as a mom. To top it off, they are CHEF'S kids! They should be eating kalamata olives, prepping artichoke hearts and eating vegetables from our garden.

Except they are not.

This summer I'm going to try and plant more veggies. I'm going to continue to present dinner and if Mario doesn't eat it, he has to fetch his own. I'm going to continue to hide vegetables. and I suppose I'm going to continue to feel guilty about it. Somehow I don't think my mom stressed about this so much.