Can't it just be delicious?

While preparing for a Mother’s Day get together, I decided to buy big. We shopped Costco and came home with 3 lbs of flank steak and 2 fryer chickens. Far to much for the party, but enough for the party and easy cooking for the rest of the week. The flank steaks went on the grill with a homemade spiced rub and the chickens roasted in the oven heavily doused in butter and paprika. With the leftovers, and an Everyday Food recipe, I sliced the flank steak and served it with stir-fried snap peas and asparagus. I prepared fajitas another night and the following night there was of course my favorite stand-by: enchiladas.

As I was digging through the fridge and pantry to see what else I could add to my chicken and cheese enchiladas, I came across little baggies of pureed sugar beets in my freezer. Out went the thoughts of how I was using leftovers to save time in the kitchen while still serving tasty and healthful meals, and in came those of intentions gone awry.

I had roasted and pureed them after a visit to the farmers’ market in an attempt to build my freezer reserve necessary to prepare the recipes from Jessica Seinfeld’s cookbook. Yes, I caved. Yes, I bought the cookbook that I swore smugly to myself I would not. My children eat vegetables, I told myself. Deceptively Delicious? I want my children to KNOW they are eating vegetables. No deceit here, thank you very much. And add to the bulging wallet of a woman married to a celebrity who bleeds green? Must not do it!

Then one night I noticed the Moppet happily taking apart her green beans to get the teeny tiny peas inside and then discarding the rest on the floor. Yes, she’s still eating a part of it, but my floor shouldn’t be getting the bulk of her vegetable serving. So could adding more veggies to their diets in any form hurt? And that’s how Deceptively Delicious found a home on my cookbook shelf.

A month later and I haven’t gotten beyond the roasted and pureed sugar beets in 1/4 cup serving sizes stored in baggies in my freezer. Apparently you REALLY need a food processor. I’m still saving up for one. Well, have been for the last 10 years. Not to mention time to prepare the purees.

But back to the enchiladas. I plopped a baggie of pureed beets into the meat mixture. I also added leftover brown rice to pump up the fiber content. As for the Monkey and the Moppet? They did what they always do with enchiladas--devoured them. Still, I couldn’t get the image of Ms. Seinfeld smiling to herself while her children unwittingly ate their disguised vegetables as she describes in her introduction. So as soon as the Monkey paused from relaying one of his Speed Racer adventures, I chimed in, "Hey, can you taste the beets in the enchiladas?" "Sure, Mom," he replied as he took another bite. Unfortunately, he didn’t really care that I was talking vegetables, he just heard my question as a familiar cue to stop talking and, well, eat.