Spinach Brownie Anyone?

So I just finished watching an Oprah that I recorded last week. It got me so excited I just had to share!

I have always tried to be really healthy when it comes to eating and feeding my children. And I have even stepped it up in the past few months. That is why I was so excited to watch this Oprah with Jessica Seinfeld and Dr. Oz.

Jessica, who is the wife of Mr. Jerry Seinfeld himself, was tired of fighting with her kids every day to eat vegetables. So she came up with a way to sneak lots of veggies in without the kids knowing it.

Once a weeks she steams a bunch of vegetables and then puree's them. She measures out each puree and puts them in a bag in her fridge. Then whenever she makes something she matches the puree color to what she is making and puts it in there. So when she makes Mac 'n Cheese she puts in cauliflower and butternut squash puree. She makes brownies out of spinach and chocolate cake with beets.

Now I know that sounds gross, but it is not. I remember a long time ago, like maybe 10 years ago, I ate a cake someone made with shredded vegetables. Before I tasted it I was thinking, NAS-TAY! But when I ate it, it was like the best cake ever. I have thought about that cake many times over the years and have always wished I had the recipe.

Anyway, some of Jessica's recipes are on Oprah's website which you can get to by clicking here. I was watching it going, yeah that is nice but you still need to teach your kids that they have to eat vegetables and then Jessica said that she still always serves vegetables with each meal, which I thought was very important. I just love the idea of loading my kids and myself up on extra veggies everyday.

Dr. Oz was on the show and he was giving tips for feeding your family healthier. One of the things he said was that nothing should be off limits. Which means that you shouldn't bring the stuff you don't want your kids to eat into your house. He said if you bring a bunch of garbage into your house and then tell the kids they can't eat it, it creates a schizophrenic environment (we don't need any outside help with that). I really have been trying to be good about that the past month or so. It means I have to make several trips to the store each week to keep fresh fruit and veggies on hand, but it has been nice.

Another thing that Dr. Oz said is that this next generation will be the first generation in history to have a shorter life expectancy than their parents and it is due to obesity and childhood diabetes. Wow. In the time that we live in can you imagine how sad that is that the life expectancy is declining. Americans are eating themselves to death. That is sad. He also said that to be a rich nation we have to be a healthy nation and we are raising up a very unhealthy generation.

Ok so enough said. I am excited and I am going to go out and buy the cookbook and start pureeing.