A Recipe of Lies

I can hardly believe it's almost the end of 2012.  With a new year comes a sense of starting fresh and renewal.  I don't know about you, but I personally have started to get away from the whole "resolutions" since they are usually over-zealous, over the top at times and tend to be hard to maintain - or at least the ones I've tried to keep up in the past.

My goal for most of last year and will be into 2013 is to be healthier.   As I mentioned, I'm a diet whore junkie and I've recently been following the Eat To Live plan by Dr. Fuhrman.  It's been going really, really great.  Aside from currently having a cold, I feel really good.  The weight is still not coming off as I'd hoped but I haven't weighed in again hoping for a bigger loss (fingers crossed!).  I'm also currently reading his books Super Immunity and Disease-Proof Your Child.  They're quite eye opening and informative.

Ok, back to the post and my recipe of lies.

So, for 2013 my goal is be healthier.  Not skinnier or fitter or anything like that.  I'm just striving for health.  Just this past weekend I actually got my husband on board with the whole cutting out processed foods and eating healthier idea also which is awe.some.  I've been on Pinterest for quite some time and I've come across some awesome blogs and resources for recipe, inspiration and so much more.  So as 2012 went on, I had already incorporated green smoothies and had been eating a more vegetarian diet.  Now, I'm almost borderline vegan (but not exactly) due to the Eat To Live plan.  And now with the hubby aboard the healthy train we should be in even better shape to achieve health in 2013.

Me eating healthier. Check.  Husband on board and agreeing to eat healthier, unprocessed foods.  Check.

Kiddos - Yeah.  Not quite a check there yet.

It's just going to be tricking the kiddos to eating healthier that I have to work on.  I started that plan today by making Zucchini Banana Muffins (recipe found on Pinterest on this blog) which I made without the glaze.  No offense, but the "glaze" in the pictures looks like ketchup and is so unappealing - but I altered the recipe a bit to make it a little more palatable for our taste.  So I turned the Zucchini Banana muffins into Zucchini Banana Applesauce muffins and they are yummy!  (Note:  I think they are but I can't taste anything really due to this darn cold!)

Without further adieu, I present the recipe of lies!

Ingredients

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1  teaspoon cinnamon(I added more since I like cinnamon!)

1 egg

2/3 cup of unsweetened applesauce (the original recipe called for butter but I didn't use any)

1/3 cup brown sugar

1/4  cup of white sugar

1/3 cup milk – plus another splash as the mix was a little too dry after mixing

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 1/3 cups freshly grated zucchini

1/3 cup mashed banana (about 1 small banana)

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350ºF and then get the muffin pan ready with either liners or non-stick cooking spray.

In a medium bowl, combine together flour, baking soda, salt,and cinnamon.  Mix well.

In a larger separate bowl, whisk the egg and brown sugar until smooth and until there are no lumps. Add in white sugar and continue to mix.  Add vanilla extract, applesauce and 1/3 cup milk. Add more later if you find the mix is too dry.  Whisk again until smooth and stir in the previously grated zucchini and mashed banana. Once combined, slowly add the dry ingredients a little at a time, folding the batter until just combined.  Divide batter into muffin cups.

Bake for 15-17 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean. Remove to a wire rack to cool completely. 

The finished muffin

Oh whoops, I forgot to put in the key ingredient.

THE LIE!

So, in the whole tricking the kiddos theme, my 4 year old daughter helped me bake these muffins.  I should note that she is a fairly picky eater and does not really enjoy trying new things. Or eating vegetables.  Or trying new foods.  Or - well, you get the idea. My 3 year old son is a bit more adventurous with trying foods and his overall taste for diverse foods.  So, when my daughter saw the green zucchini, she asked me what it was.

So, I sort of lied and called it a green banana.

Well, she totally bought it!  I was shocked.  This coming from a child who would shy away from parsley and green flecks in anything that was on her plate.

Then once the muffins were baked and cooled, she proceeded to eat it - green bits and flecks of zucchini and all.  (See image)

Am I proud that I lied?  No.  I mean, she saw with her own eyes that it was green - a color of food she normally is repulsed by.  Maybe because I quickly called it a green banana, it made it okay by her standards?  But for the sake of her long-term health and getting her to eat more green vegetables I guess I'd have to say it is a lie I'd tell over and over again.

And I just may.

While I consider myself an honest person, I'm kind of a huge fan of trying to sneak more veggies into foods that kids prefer to eat - such as chicken nuggets, cookies, muffins, chili's  soups and stews.  I really love Jessica Seinfeld's Deceptively Delicious cookbook which I need to go back through and try more of the recipes again now that my kids are older.

Now tell me, do you struggle with the same "picky-ness" with your kids?  How do you or did you overcome it.  Did you ever tell lies to get your kids to eat new things?  I'd love to hear it?
~Carly