Category: reading list

Deceptively Delicious by Jessica Seinfeld is a fantastic answer to the question, “how do I get my kid to eat her vegetables??” As the mom of three, Seinfeld has plenty of real experience feeding the under-8 set. Her premise is simple–what they don’t know, will actually be good them.

She spells out the method of pureeing and freezing vegetables (and fruit, but really, for me, it’s all about the veggies), and then adding them to assorted recipes where your family will be none the wiser. This a great technique not only for veggie-shy children, but for busy adults who have a hard time getting their 5-a-day as well.

After reading the game plan, I went ahead and tried an evening of steaming and pureeing vegetables to use for the next few weeks. (I even I purchased two vegetables I have never purchased before–cauliflower and sweet potatoes. I’d eaten sweet potatoes on occasion before, with you know, marshmallows, on Thanksgiving, but certainly never cauliflower.)
It was easy, and really did only take an hour. I chose to freeze my purees in 4oz glass canning jars, because I am trying to reduce the amount of plastic I use (Seinfeld recommends storing in baggies and then clipping the corner and squeezing out the puree).

I was wondering how food-allergy friendly the recipes would be, and I actually found many to fit within my daughter’s dietary restrictions. The recipes are incredibly healthy–by adding in the puree, the fiber content of every day foods (like mac and cheese) are boosted to new levels. All of the ingredients are natural–forget high fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated oil, “natural” flavor or food colorings. The recipes are also very low fat, because the purees hold things together much like fat would.

The recipe I will use the most? The recipe for homemade ketchup. Crazy, but remember I feed a two year old on a daily basis. Now instead of dipping her hot dog in high-fructose corn syrup with tomatoes, she is truly dipping her hot dog in tomatoes and carrots. And she loves it!

The recipe for taco meat with added carrots was incredibly easy, and the carrots went unnoticed by all parties at the dinner table. Honestly, if I am able to puree carrots on a regular basis, I can easily add it to just about anything tomato based (think Mexican and Italian dishes).

The dessert section appears incredibly delicious. Because of my daughter’s diet, I only tried one recipe, but it was an exceptional one… an out-of-this-world Chocolate Pudding, that really was to die for, with, of all things, avocados! The pudding was rich and creamy, and completely dairy-free (which is a good thing at my house). The rest of the desserts sound promising, and I fully intend to try them at some point.

I even tried the scrambled eggs with cauliflower. I could detect a slight cauliflower taste (or what I perceive cauliflower to taste like, being that I’ve not actually ever tasted it straight), but I think it could be overcome by adding back more egg yolks (the recipe called for 2 whole eggs and 4 egg whites). The recipes are easy and basic–it’s definitely a book for families with young children in the house.

This cookbook is absolutely gorgeous, beautiful photographs and graphics with a 1950’s feel. How appealing is the look and feel of this cookbook? Take a look inside at the publishers site. My daughter has learned the names of the Seinfeld family (there are little sketches of each family member commenting on assorted recipes), and loves the photographs of all the food. This is the book that she now wants to take in the car with her, and she’ll flip through the pages, naming the food she sees, along with the Seinfeld clan.

Deceptively Delicious lays out a very manageable way of improving the nutritional quality of every day family meals. Seinfeld’s simple techniques can be applied to other recipes–and this little tidbit of knowledge is handy in a toddler household. Currently my 2 year old is actually to the point where she removes anything identified as a vegetable from her plate and places it on mine, with a sweet, “Here, Mommy!” So obviously, anyway to sneak in veggie goodness is appreciated. If you know a toddler with similar habits, I recommend picking up this book for the ketchup recipe alone. Every time she nudges a green bean off her plate and proceeds to dip her hot dog in my homemade ketchup, it makes me smile.

Are you feeling lucky? Enter to win a free copy here!

Money for Nothing by Edward Ugel delves into the dark side of lottery winning. Dark side of lottery winning? How could winning a large sum of money have a dark side?? Well, Ugel explains it quite simply–money has more value when it is earned. When it is “free money”, it tends to lose it’s value.

My husband has always said that the lottery is a tax for people who are bad at math, and Money for Nothing illustrates that point beautifully. Not only does he explain a little bit about how the lottery works (basically, a for-profit gambling entity run by state government), Ugel also explains how winners never really win the whole amount advertised in the jackpot, how revenue generated by lotteries tends to replace, rather than add to state budgets, and other unpleasantness the “You’ve Got to Play to Win” people don’t bother to tell you.

He then explains his part in the business–buying out winners remaining payments. Until recently, winners had to take their winnings in annual payments over 20 year terms. Imagine winning $2million dollars, but only seeing it in $70k annual payments ($30k goes straight to taxes). Now in my world, $70k would enable me to quit my job, get a new car, and enable us to save a lot of money toward our daughter’s education. Heck, if we planned it out, we could even adopt another child and buy a new house. But would it be life changing money? Not really. Would it enable us to buy cars and houses for our relatives? Not really. Send all of our nieces and nephews to college? Not really.

But life changing money is what ALL lottery winners expect. After all, why else would you play the lottery?? That’s where Ugel and the company he calls The Firm comes in. The Firm buys your annual payments at a discounted rate, basically giving you instant cash. The deals can range from fair to ridiculous, depending on the winner’s situation and amount of money he needs. Truth be told, taking your lottery winnings in a lump sum is smart, because your winnings don’t earn interest until it’s paid out to you. Compare $1.5m you invest for 20 years to $1.5m you get paid out over 20 years. Lump sum is the way to go–even though the initial payout is smaller. Theoretically, once the money is yours than it can work for you and be life-changing money, if you know how to manage money.

Before reading this book, I never gave the lottery much thought, or what happens to lottery winners. The concept of the “lottery industry” wasn’t on my radar. Ugel makes it interesting, rather compelling actually. I found the parts about the lottery and the industry more interesting than toward the end of the book where he talks about exiting the industry. While reading his first person account, I understand why he had to get out–but that part of the story moved more slowly than the rest of the book.

I liked his first hand questioning of whether or not it’s appropriate for states to have such an upfront role in promoting gambling among it’s citizens. He makes valid points, and doesn’t come off as “preachy” because he’s a gambler in recovery himself. While working for “the Firm”, Ugel spent his generous commissions at casinos and gambling, a habit that was very common among his coworkers as well. They were living the “lottery lifestyle” as well, as a direct result of preying on lottery winners. He makes a compelling argument that the lottery is more dangerous than casinos because of it’s very availability and wide publicity by the very organization that’s supposed to have citizens’ best interest in mind.

Money for Nothing is a good diversion from my usual chic-lit, and I think the book would particularly interest readers interested in non-fiction, and those in sales. My husband likes to read autobiographies and non-fiction, so my copy has been passed over to his night stand. The book is officially in stores and on sale today, check it out online at Amazon.com, Harper-Collins.com and at EdwardUgel.com.

If you have a beginning reader in your house, chances are you’ve come across the BOB Book Series. written by Bobby Lynn Maslen–that boxed set of simply drawn first readers the children seem to love.

As a teacher, I am well acquainted with the BOB books, and I have to say, they own a unique space on the learning to read spectrum. When a child is beginning to read, confidence and comfort are just as important as decoding skills. Often, a child is capable of decoding a word, but because it is unfamiliar or there are too many words on a page, he hesitates or says, “I can’t.” BOB books are often the books the child begins to read on his own, and after reading several, he begins to say, “I can read!”

The very first series of BOB books rely on simple, three letter, phonetic words–the first type of words a child truly learns how to read. Once there is success in the first book, children are eager to read the following books–they KNOW they are able read because of their earlier success. The books each follow a repetitive pattern, with different characters doing the same actions, so the sentences are very predictable. This is another aspect that builds comfort and confidence.

Currently in my classroom, I have several children reading BOB books. They are all right around five years old, and they are having fun practicing with these books. They are old enough to understand the order of these books–and take great pride when they can fluently read one and are able to move on to another.

This new edition of BOB books features the classic simply drawn figures, with little splashes of color to brighten up the black and white illustrations. They still come in the handy 3×5 size, perfect for little hands. Each set comes in a compact little box, making reading an activity that can be done on the go or at home.

BOB books can be found on Amazon.com, and are a great way to help your young reader become more comfortable and confident in reading.