Deviously Delicious-- what's it all about?

When I tag a recipe as Deviously Delicious, it means that this recipe is full of unexpected, secret ingredients which are healthy, nutritious, and actually improve the way things taste!

The main 3 components in my nutrition arsenal are as follows:

Wet ingredients for baking: Until you have baked with zucchini, beets, or carrots you don't realize they actually add huge amounts moisture, flavor, and nutrition to cookies, cakes, breads, and brownies... it's incredible. No seriously-- it's shocking, try it-- you don't substitute with these items, simply add them to an existing recipe.

Dry Ingredients for baking and/or breading: When working with dry ingredients, I like to substitute some or most of the white flour with ground flaxseed (also known as linseed), stone ground whole wheat flour, oat bran flour, and rolled oats. I think both children and adults alike, prefer the heartier textures and tastes that these minimally processed, more satisfying ingredients bring to the table (literally, of course).

Ingredients for cooking (sauces, casseroles, etc.): I have some staple items which I incorporate into just about everything. Spinach is probably numero uno on my list. I chop it finely (so it looks like an herb) and throw it into sauces, rice, pasta, casseroles, chili, quesadillas-- seriously---anything! Tip: The trick to spinach is to add it only the last 2-4 minutes of cooking. This is short cook time is important and beneficial for several reasons: a) the flavor will not permeate into the entire dish b) if cooked too long spinach can taste bitter c) the longer you cook it, the more nutrients you lose. So listen-- and listen good-- do not add your spinach for more than a few minutes!

Other favorites I throw into stuff I make are: finely diced carrots, frozen peas, cauliflower chopped very small (like pea size pieces).

So this is currently my most used repertoire of healthy stuff I shove in my family's food and they eat with huge smiles on their faces. In fact, in my house it's not really all that devious-- because my kids actually wash and tear apart the vegetables we are adding to sauces, rices, etc. And they measure the cups of flaxseed we use when baking-- so they know it, and they are all over it- and begging for more!

So now you know-- when you see Deviously Delicious after the name of a recipe on my site-- we're talking delicious, and full of stuff that makes you feel so good!