i'm a cooking fool, part 2

whee! this deceptively delicious ("DD") thing is frickin' awesome!

the kid was off today for MLK day, so i made her some scrambled eggs for breakfast. and then our big outing for the day - we went to the grocery store to stock up on fresh veggies and other stuff for the week. woo-hoo! you're jealous of my exciting life, i just know it. and when we got home, i got right to work. i felt good about myself just throwing all that healthy goodness in my cart, instead of the usual plethora of processed food.

i steamed and pureed some cauliflower, and then roasted a butternut squash and some sweet potatoes - all while following jessica seinfeld's directions to the letter. it was pretty easy to do, although i think i overworked my poor blender. she's not used to being put to work at all! i also cooked up a nice batch of basic marinara sauce to use for tomorrow's baked ziti, and to freeze in 1-cup quantities for quick and easy dinners in the future.

so then, using the genius idea of hiding veggies in our dinners, i decided to throw some of that pureed cauliflower in the recipe i was using for chicken enchiladas with salsa verde. i served up two enchiladas with some mexican rice on a plate for the kid and held my breath as she took her first bite.
and - success! she closed her eyes, licked her lips, and proclaimed it "delish". this is high praise from the kid, and i barely managed to resist the urge to dance a jig right then and there.

while she ate, i threw together the DD recipe for banana bread - using pureed bananas, some whole wheat flour, and more pureed cauliflower. since the enchiladas were keeping warm in the oven, i decided to use my convection oven to bake the bread. i love that thing. since we're not blessed with a double-oven kitchen, this is the next best thing.

the kid just had a slice of it, slathered with reduced-fat peanut butter as suggested in the cookbook, and again - "delish!" i'm totally using pureed veggies in EVERYTHING from now on. not to mention, a lot of the recipes in the book that include fruit are going to be totally acceptable to me. all the fruit is pureed! no nasty ass texture for me to gross out on. sweet!

i'm really loving this cooking thing.

btw - just want to throw a quick "happy birthday" shout-out to my friend A! have a happy day, you birfday whore.