First of all, thanks for all your interest in my "Vegan 'til 6" plan. It's always heartening to see that others are interested in healthy and environmentally conscious eating. I'm excited about it and am using these days before lent kind of visualizing what I'll be eating and gathering recipes. I see myself making all the veggie side-dish recipes I've been marking but never getting around to. I'm aiming to close the drawing around 7 tonight, so feel free to leave a comment below if you haven't yet. All this is presupposing that Rainer doesn't end up in the hospital tonight. He probably won't, but he is going into the clinic today to be seen for some "extra" symptoms he's been having. I'm a little paranoid after his long hospital admission in Oct./Nov . . .Okay, so about these purees. Last year I was excited about my Deceptively Delicious book, made a few recipes, then set it aside. I was annoyed by the extra step of having the make and freeze the purees, and then by having to have a specific puree onhand for each recipe. But after seeing this photo on flickr', I decided to give it another go. I have two thoughts this time around:
One--that making and freezing purees is a great way to use up vegetables that might otherwise languish in the crisper. Someone from work gave me a head of cauliflower that was going off, and trimming it and making puree was a great use for it. I did the same with so many carrots we had on hand but weren't using.
Two--I'm just going to be more flexible about subbing purees into the recipes if I think it's a reasonable substitution. That will make the book work better for me.
Oh, and Three--I still really love the concept of adding in extra nutrition to something you might be making anyway--especially for muffins or quick breads for the teen lunches. I love including those things in their lunches instead of packaged "bars".
So thus encouraged, I made the blueberry muffins from the book, subbing carrot puree for the yellow squash puree, and they were great. In fact, they were all gone the same morning. The blueberries were frozen, so they bled a bit into the batter, but no matter--everyone was happy.Back tonight to post the winner. Yea for Fridays . . .
5 comments:
i love the concept too...i just dont like the word sneaking them in..i liked your idea of including them in.....plus we are puree crazy here since we have a little one...i put it in everything....and adding a little carrot *caluiflower puree with a touch of sour cream, veggie stock* spices and melting cheese turns it into a yummy quick vegetarian soup!
I have this book, but have yet to try any recipes. The blueberry muffin looks mighty tasty. That book's spine just might get crackin' soon. I know you are supposed to be making your own purees and all that mess but I bet you could substitute baby food in a pinch.
Another good book on the subject is "super baby food". I used that book so much my son's first year. I'm excited to crack it back open when i start making my newest babies food. I made his food for the first years and he eats so much more than other kids (variety at least). She has a great freezing technique which i still use today for veggies that i can't quite use up like celery, carrots, peppers, whatever i have extra of, i puree it. I love adding red bell pepper to pasta sauce etc. I hope the checkup goes well for him...
pumpkin puree in mac n cheese rocks!
Those muffins sound wonderful - I'll have to look into the whole puree thing! I trust all is okay with Rainer?
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