The Deceitful Vegan

In a continued effort to make healthy meals for the fam, I borrowed The Sneaky Chef and Deceptively Delicious from the library. If you didn't already know, the 'trick' behind these two books is to puree healthy fruits and veggies and add them into regular-looking meals so no one notices that they are eating 'healthy'. Now the only part of this that I think is a little silly is that often only one tablespoon of puree is in one serving but whatever...it's something I guess! Of course I had to veganize the recipes to make them truly veg-friendly.

My fave has been the Unbelieveable Chocolate Chip Cookies (link is slightly different than the recipe I used). Chock full of wheat germ, whole wheat flour and pureed white beans, these are awesome! I definitely didn't feel so bad eating them. The author noted that she couldn't make these any healthier, but by omitting the eggs and replacing with ground flaxseed, I did it!

Magic Meatballs - I used the Green Puree, tomato paste and a package of Yves Original Ground Round. Easy and simple! I followed her suggestion and added some White Puree and Orange Puree to a jar of store-bought spaghetti sauce.

Covert Quesadillas - Comprised of White Bean Puree and soy cheese. I guess if you liked the taste of cheese you would like this, but this again confirmed that I don't like the taste of cheese. Even though I said it before, I won't try soy cheese again.

Breakfast Ice Cream - banana, avocado, cocoa, agave nectar and probably something else I'm forgetting. Who cares - frozen, it was delicious and tasted like Jello Pudding Pops that I remember from being a kid.

Stuffed Potatoes - Vegan soy sour cream, white puree and veggie bacon made these pretty darn good.

Chocolate Thumbprint Cookies - I thought it was weird to have crushed cereal flakes, and I was right. Although when they came out of the oven they tasted normal, when they cooled the texture of the cereal was really odd. Maybe I didn't crush them enough? Folks were amazed to find out there was sweet potato and carrots in these.

And now for the really not so great stuff. Brainy Brownies with spinach and blueberries would have been great if I had added some baking powder when omitting the eggs. They had nothing in them to help rise!

I can't remember the exact name, but I'll guess Roasted Chickpeas. I guess they are supposed to taste like cinnamon sugar treats, they weren't great. For comparison, I made the same thing from the Vegan Lunch Box with nooch. I actually liked the quicker version of these, and just sprinkling some nooch on chickpeas right out of the can rather than roasting them. A great sub for popcorn!

The only thing I made from Deceptively Delicious was the Chocolate Pudding with avocado. Made with icing sugar, it turned out like frosting. It was supposed to serve like 6 people, but it barely made enough for Kyle and I. Unless we are complete pigs.