To Puree or Not To Puree

That is the question of mothers everywhere who face the dilemma of children who refuse to touch anything that resembles a vegetable.  How this problem begins is a bizarre chain of events that begins somewhere around the time we introduce our children to breads and meats.  Who needs a vegetable then?  When we start our babies on pureed foods, it begins with vegetables, progresses to fruits, and finally ends at meats, which lets face it only a few babies tolerate much less eat enthusiastically.  Around the time they begin eating meats, they also get table food slipped to them - a nibble of a graham cracker here, a torn piece of bread or roll there - and they get "Baby Snacks" such as Puffs which have been affectionately called Baby Crack by my husband.  Of course there are other choices, but these are the most obvious ones.  So, there you go.  A child who has eaten nothing but fruits and vegetables (and milk of some form) for a couple of months suddenly has the choice to eat bread, and you and I expect them to still be ga-ga over those veggies?  Who's the crazy one now?

Fast forward a few years, and you have toddlers who are notoriously picky, often fixating on one particular food that they will eat, eschewing all others.  Gloriously, this phase for my daughter was short-lived, and at nearly-age-5 she will now eat almost anything we give her.  This child would eat an entire 15 ounce can of carrots or peas by herself, willingly, would ask for them by name, when she was old enough to transition from puree to solid...until we tried "Honey Carrots."  Those things were disgusting!  They tasted like they had been cooked with coconut.  She was the first to try them, and she literally threw them up immediately after eating one bite.  To this day, 3 years later, she will not eat canned carrots by themselves.  My son is still stubbornly stuck in the carbo-loading phase of toddlerhood.  PBJ is his go-to meal.  He loves pasta, oyster crackers, potato chips...pretty much anything with little-to-no nutritional value is his favorite.  He will not try vegetables, doesn't like the most basic and bland things like mashed potatoes.  He does enjoy fruit - raw apples, bananas, dried fruits.  All the same I still worry that he may be neglecting some of his nutritional needs by avoiding anything with color and nutrients.

Hiding on my cookbook shelf in the kitchen for the last couple of years has been a pair of recipe collections by Jessica Seinfeld.  Titled Deceptively Delicious and Double Delicious, they sound like something naughty and forbidden.  I suppose if you get down to it, you are lying to your children, which is naughty, if only by omitting the full answer to "What is this?" and "What's in it?"  I bought them through a bit of foresight, which is rare, knowing that one day my children might not enjoy vegetables as much as they did as babies just learning to appreciate the finer points of food with taste.  I am turning to them now in desperation, sheer and utter desperation.  There is no other way to speak of what I feel when for the third time in a day my son asks for PBJ.  Of course I do not allow him more than one a day, but there is still a part of me that thinks, "My gosh, I have failed to get this kid to like anything other than peanut butter, bread, and jelly.  What is he going to do, eat it for the rest of his life?"  So I have begun my journey down the road of deception, trickery, and lying by omission to my children.

My first step was to look through the meals section of Deceptively Delicious and choose things that I thought would effectively conceal the taste of vegetables.  There were 13 such meals, and I dutifully wrote them down, noting how many servings and what type and how much of each puree I would need.  Then I decided there were 3 main purees that I would be using for that set of recipes:  sweet potato, cauliflower, and carrot.  I purchased 5 pounds of sweet potatoes, 1 head of cauliflower, and 2 pounds of carrots.  Then I tried to figure out how to properly steam them.  The sweet potatoes weren't much trouble, because I had oven roasted some the week before and kind of knew what I was doing and how long it might take.  The cauliflower and carrots, however, presented a problem.  Roasting them dries them out, and I didn't have a steamer or steamer basket.  Improvisation, my friends, improvisation.

I roasted sweet potatoes, pureed them in the food processor, cooled the puree, bagged it, and froze it.  A couple days later I repeated the process with the cauliflower and carrots.  I decided my first attempt at deception would be macaroni and cheese.  That's usually a good side that everyone likes.  Not this time.  Five of the six adults who tried it liked it, zero of the two kids liked it.  In fact, my son didn't even get his one elbow macaroni piece swallowed before he threw up.  Yep.  Just what you want around the dinner table, a 2 year old puking as you're trying to eat.  I don't think it was the cauliflower, because surprisingly you couldn't really taste it at all - just a faintly earthy flavor that was not-at-all unpleasant.  His issue was with the cheese.  See, he has problems with cheese anyway, especially sliced cheese.  This was cheddar, and it does not melt as smoothly as Velveeta, my mac 'n cheese cheese of choice.  I will try it again with Velveeta and see if the outcome is the same.

In the meantime, I will share with you my step-by-step process for roasting these three vegetables.

Sweet Potatoes

approx 5 pounds yields 6 cups puree

- Scrub outside of potatoes and pierce with the tip of a knife all over, cut off ends
- 350° F  directly on the top rack (middle position) foil on bottom rack to catch any drips for 1 hour 15 minutes to 2 hours, check at 45 minutes, then every 30 minutes after that; potatoes should yield easily to the "squeeze test" - be careful, the peels are HOT!
- Cut potatoes in half lengthwise and let cool slightly before scooping out flesh into food processor fitted with metal blade. Pulse to start, then turn on to puree.  Scoop out puree to a large bowl, return any chunks to the processor for another whirl.  I did this in 2 batches (3 potato innards per batch).
- Place plastic cling wrap across top of puree (it should touch it), and refrigerate overnight
- Measure 1/4 cup amounts into snack-size zipper bags, squeeze out air, press puree out flat, and lay flat in a square dish to freeze overnight before bagging in gallon-size zipper bags labeled with the type of puree.

Cauliflower

1 head yields 2 cups puree

- Remove all leaves and the main center stem from head.  Using a sharp knife, cut large florets from the head and then cut them down to 1/2" thick pieces and remove any thick stems (more than 1/4").  Rinse with cool water.

- Place enough water just to touch the bottom of steamer basket, add cauliflower, and turn on medium heat.  Steam for 10-15 minutes until fork tender and stems are slightly translucent. (If you do not have a steamer basket, use your largest colander fitted inside your largest stockpot with a lid).

- Turn cap off and let water stop boiling before removing cauliflower.

- Pulse, then run, to puree - it will be chunky.  Add water 1 tablespoon at a time (up to 2 Tb) and puree/scrape down bowl each time until it is smooth but thick.

- Measure 1/4 cup amounts into snack-size zipper bags, squeeze out air, press puree out flat, and lay flat in a square dish to freeze overnight before bagging in gallon-size zipper bags labeled with the type of puree.

Carrots

2 pounds yields 3 cups puree

- Peel, rinse, trim ends, and cut carrots into 1/4" thick sections

- Place enough water just to touch the bottom of steamer basket, add carrots, and turn on medium heat.  Steam for 20-25 minutes until fork tender. (If you do not have a steamer basket, use your largest colander fitted inside your largest stockpot with a lid)

- Turn cap off and let water stop boiling before removing carrots.

- Pulse, then run, to puree - it will be chunky.  Add 1 tablespoon water and  puree/scrape down bowl until it is smooth but thick.

- Measure 1/4 cup amounts into snack-size zipper bags, squeeze out air, press puree out flat, and lay flat in a square dish to freeze before bagging in gallon-size zipper bags labeled with the type of puree.

Year of Living Optimistically

Negativity?  Psht!  This is my year of living optimistically...or at least my best attempt.  I don't consider myself to be an overtly negative person.  I'm not all doom and gloom, glass half empty, the sky is falling.  Most of the time I feel like things are going to be fine, and that is because I have some pretty powerful players on my team.  

With that being said, I do tend to be hyper-critical of everyone, myself included.  That is a negative personality trait that I have prayed about for years.  I don't remember it being so bad when I was in high school, but something about college brought out my cynical side and my critical nature.  Maybe it was because I was upholding myself to nearly unattainable standards (which is understandable when you consider the educational achievements of those who graduated before me), or maybe it was because of all the negative things that happened during my senior year of high school and shortly after graduation.  Who knows?  At this point I don't really care how it happened or why.  I just want to fix it so my children do not grow up thinking that criticizing others (and themselves) is an appropriate behavior to indulge in.

I am trying to start small.  This is in no way a "New Year's Resolution."  I honestly do not believe in making an NYR, because simply giving it the title of a resolution dooms it to failure.  I also believe that you can resolve to make a change at any point during the year (and fail just as completely), so why force yourself to start a new year that you can't even remember to write correctly with a huge goal that you have no intention of fulfilling?  Here is an example of a failed NYR, and it's only the third week of the new year...I resolved to get out of bed at 8 o'clock each morning for the entire month before gradually moving my wake time backward until I was rising early enough to ensure I could get my daughter to school on time when she starts this fall.  I did well for the first week and a half, and then slowly I began to add just 5 more minutes until I either get up at 9 or fall asleep on the couch as soon as I'm out of bed.  Last year I waited until February to make my resolution, and it stuck much better - I am still exercising most days of the week.

So, get on with it, you say.  Alright.  The two littlest loves of my life, who have the largest chunks of my heart, are where I am starting.  I had already begun to avoid talking about my kids' bad behavior in front of them.  So if they've had a really bad day, been in trouble a lot, I try really hard not to mention it while they are in the room - preferably not even if they are still awake.  My mom gave me that jewel of an idea.  It makes sense, though.  If a child only hears the negative things that they have done, they soon begin to believe they are "bad" children and are doomed to failure and getting in trouble.  Why on earth would I want to set my kids up for a lifetime of feeling like they are "bad" people?  I've been there briefly as a child, it ain't pretty!  

That has been going pretty well, but lately I've noticed that the anger I feel toward their "bad" behavior outweighs the joy I feel at their "good" behavior.  My kids have been yelled at quite a bit lately - yes, I do yell when they won't listen to me.  They have been in time out or had toys taken away as punishment.  I have been at my threshold for dealing with this type of stuff.  So a couple of nights ago, as I was trying to go to sleep after a particularly trying day, I prayed.  Remember those powerful players I have on my team?  Yeah, I was talking about God and his Only Begotten.  I asked God to give me some way that I could turn this around and make it better for us all.  A way that I could focus on the goodness in my children (who really are angelic when compared to a lot of their age-mates).  

As I was about to drift off to sleep, it came to me - Write it down.  I thought, huh?  What do you mean write it down?  Then again - the image of an index card with all the good things for the day just written on it.  Specifically it was a lilac colored index card.  I was literally on the verge of being out for the night, and when that message was sent to me my eyes popped open and it was like Grampy's lightbulb was hanging over my head.  I went to sleep with a smile on my face, a thank you in my heart, and I slept very soundly for the first time in a while.

The next day I tried to figure out the best way to write down these kindnesses and good behaviors.  Should I use index cards and bind them some way?  Should I get a pocket calendar for each child?  Should I keep a journal?  After church I went to the Family Dollar store and tried to find something, but there was nothing that really stuck out to me.  I didn't want a perforated page, because I didn't want the chance of the evidence of their goodness being ripped away.  I want this to be something they can look back on and see that their mother thought they were good children, caught them being good, and took the time to document their goodness.  I finally settled on standard issue black and white composition books with 100 pages.  Yes, I realize that if they had a LOT of goodness in one day that would not be enough for an entire year, but I estimate these will last more than a year.

It has been nice to focus on catching them doing good things.  Picking up the room without a fight, playing nicely together, giving me random hugs/kisses/I love yous, wiping down and then setting the dining table, sharing toys, waking up with a smile.  I am focusing on what my kids are doing right rather than what they are doing wrong.  It doesn't mean that I don't still discipline them.  I am just taking a different approach.  In the last two days I have not yelled once (at my children), and I have only marginally raised my voice.  They have still had a few time outs, but because I am not focused on what they are doing wrong I am allowing them to make mistakes and learn from it with gentle correction rather than being made to feel like they are horrible children.

I pray that this year will bring wonderful things for my children.  I want to have a close relationship with each of them, and I want them to know how much I cherish every moment that I spend with them.  I want to look back at the end of the year, read through their books, and say, "Look at what a good year you had."  Is a child inherently good?  Absolutely!  It is up to the adults in their life to point out the ways that they are good and encourage more goodness.  If a child feels worthless or as if they can only do bad things, they might just grow up to be adults who do only bad things.