The Not-So-Sneaky Chef

In an attempt to get more REAL food into our daughter (vs. squeezy tube food or tiny bites of whatever’s on our plates), we headed out to the grocery store last weekend with a long list in hand. That list was loaded up with items from a site that our friend, Dan recommended called weelicious, a site filled with baby food recipes and ideas that counters the “sneak good stuff into your kids’ food” approach of Sneaky Chef with “be honest”. They “focus on quick, easy, nutritious recipes that are made using fresh, but minimal ingredients” (sounds great, right?) – and they highly recommend involving kids in the cooking process. They even have videos…

Anyway, since we’re new to this food thing, we thought we’d try some new things. First recipe: Carrot Snack Sticks. Very few ingredients, photo looks great, and makes a bunch. How could it go wrong? Well, see for yourself:

FIRST, it was the messiest food experience we have EVER had (and she’s tried a lot of food). They instantly crumbled when she picked one up, raining crumbs all over herself, her chair, the table… which created a pile of dust that looked SUPER fun. I say that because she instantly and repeatedly swiped her hand back and forth through the pile, tossing the crumbs all over the floor (and my sweet mother who was sitting beside her).

SECOND, as you can see in the video, eating one is like eating a pile of sand. They’re so dry that she had to have water after just about every bite in order to swallow.

Worse, SHE LOVED THEM. Not just for the fun of tossing them all over the room in bits, but she actually ate them, LOTS of them. One after the other, with both hands. To us, they tasted like a salt lick (no, I’ve never tasted a salt lick even though I am from the  south – regardless, you get the point), so maybe the intense salty taste was the draw? Regardless, we couldn’t bring ourselves to make the mess stop since she was loving them so much – well, and we were laughing quite a bit.

One might say that Bart did something wrong in the preparation of this fabulous snack, but when you go to the recipe post, you see 167 comments about how very dry they are, mixed with lots of ideas on how to make them “less dry” (including what to dip them in). No, we did not read any comments before selecting this recipe – but next time we will ;)

For what it’s worth, we have every intention of trying other recipes from the site – and we’ll let you know if we find a winner. Can’t say this one was a “loser” but chef beware… Just have the dust buster nearby, and you’ll be AOK.