My Dirty Cooking Tricks

Anyone that has cooked regularly for at least one other person runs into the frustration of another's likes and dislikes.

Over the years I have learned how to be a sneaky cook. Hiding nutrition and disguising foods. Here are a few of my tricks.

Any strongly spiced, seasoned or flavored dish can usually hide some shredded spinach. Fresh or frozen - it doesn't matter.

I have become infamous for a few handfuls of spinach to chilli, marinara sauce, bolognese sauces, lasagna, tacos, burritos and so forth.

The rich flavors of the dish, unfortunately, cover the flavor of the spinach. So, no spinach flavor, all the nutrition.

If using canned spinach, remember the flavor is very intense. The texture is, well, slimey. Chilli is the only dish I have been able to successfully hide canned spinach in.

Another of my tricks is food coloring. Yes, in an effort to eat more holistically, adding food coloring may seem contrary. However, I have weighed the options and chosen the lesser of the two evils.

My family is served a bang-up breakfast on the weekends. And often as a mid-week meal.

What they don,t know is that no one has eaten a whole egg in years. And everyone loves my scrambled eggs.

I simply seperate the yokes to the compost. Then, two to three drops of yellow food coloring later - presto! Rich yellow scrambled eggs.

Still thinking about that yellow food coloring? Great! I used to use a few drops in my homemade chicken and turky pot pies when weaning my blended family off of factory made ones. Just be sure to lessen the amount of food coloring you use every few times. Before long you pot pies are naturally colored.

My final trick was to slowly introduce whole wheat flour. I recommend replacing 1/4 of a cup in a recipe each time you make something. Before long, it's all whole wheat.

So, these are a few of my tricks with my five picky eaters. What are yours?

1 comment:

  1. I Love It!! Not surenabout the eggs, but I do believe you.

    I've added avocado to tuna, chicken and turkey salad. I use olive oil in any recipe I can where the flavor won't rob from the meal. Only use EVO or EEVO in veggies with seasoning cooked, baked and raw with seasoning as a dip.

    Keep up the good work!

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for your thoughtful comment. Stay frugal!