Passive Aggression: using it for good, not evil

Imaginary voodoo dolls of teachers that gave homework on the weekends, or of boyfriends who forgot my birthday. Tossing toys into the giveaway pile that haven't been put away. Leaving my empty grocery cart near my car instead of in the corral. Classic passive aggressive behavior. I know, I'm working on it.

But not in my kitchen.

Have you seen the cookbook Deceptively Delicious? It's written by Jerry Seinfeld's wife. I didn't know TV stars ate. Maybe they don't, because the recipes in that book are not that great. But the idea behind them is.

You sneak pureed vegetables, fruit, beans, other healthy stuff in foods you already enjoy!

At first I thought, "why would I go through all the trouble of cooking, pureeing, and sneaking foods like broccoli or beans, when my family would just as happily eat a side dish of broccoli or beans?" Except for that I really hate making side dishes. I guess I have main dishes on such a pedestal that they need to serve as the protein AND the vegetable.

Then I came across a recipe for pumpkin pancakes. Same sneaky idea: blend in a bit of pureed pumpkin.

Then my kids wouldn't eat the slices of zucchini in the lasagna. Never to be deterred, I thought, "no problem, next time it's getting pureed," and gave them a sly smile.

(Yes, that's a fire extinguisher in the background. Number One: I have a disorder disorder, and Number Two: you never know what kind of craziness can happen in a kitchen.)

So although I don't use the actual recipes from Deceptively Delicious (who in their right mind would really eat a chocolate chip cookie with garbanzos in it and not realize something was a little off?), I use the idea whenever I can. The only real backfire I had was incorporating pureed spinach into a blueberry crisp. I realized when it was in the oven that I had also thrown some garlic into that spinach! Garlic always goes well with spinach, right? But not with blueberries. I had to eat that crisp myself.

Here are some treats that are neither deceptive, nor, in my opinion, delicious. But look how cute they are!

Ghostly.