I’m not normally a huge fan of chicken nuggets being that I’m over 10 years of age. I’m sure that had they been around when I was younger I would’ve loved these as my taste was most certainly on the bland side until I was a teenager. Of course I had heard the stories that the chicken nuggets were made out of the grossest fattiest bits of chicken and that special obese chickens were bred to make into nuggets and whilst I listened to these stories with a degree of cynicism, a part of me wonders if its really true and stops me from ordering them. But it doesn’t stop me in trying these “healthier” version. I used broccoli puree as 1) I love broccoli 2) Its good for you and 3) Jessica said on Oprah that broccoli puree turns out the crispiest for some reason. Crispy is good when it comes to nuggets.

I didn’t use onion or garlic powder instead I used the actual items finely diced. I also didn’t turn the flax/linseed into meal leaving it in sesame seed sized bits which gave it a bit more texture although I’m sure children would prefer it ground up a bit more. I also found that it was difficult to add a substantial amount of broccoli to the chicken without it getting heavy and soggy. I love broccoli so I made sure to add quite a bit and as a result mine were quite heavy and the breading tended to fall off in broccoli puree lumps.

However they were tasty and quite addictive, especially with a squeeze of lime and served with fat golden potato wedges. Broccoli haters will be happy to know that the pureed broccoli becomes quite bland and you can barely taste it. Healthy and low fat eaters may not like the fact that the Panko breadcrumbs soak up quite a bit of oil, much more than the 1 tablespoon in the recipe if you want it to look and taste appetising.

I’m also not quite sure how much nutrition kids would get from the small amount of broccoli puree that sticks to the chicken pieces although I’m sure to some parents, even a small floret would be better than nothing!

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Buying on ebay allows me to “surprise” myself on a weekly basis. Although I know that I’ve paid for the items, I unfailingly fall upon the package like its the most wonderful gift from a secret admirer. Buoyed by the current strong Australia dollar, I was hooning around the ebay site and I saw Wilton colouring gels on ebay for $1.25US a piece. I did a quick exchange rate calculation, realised that they were $1.32 a piece and hit the button to buy 6 of these. Definitely beats the $5.95 retail price here!

There was one thing I had in mind to make as soon as I received the gels. What girl doesn’t like the Tiffany eggshell blue box? Even if it doesn’t house a gorgeous ring, and instead it has edible vanilla sponge spread with strawberry jam or thick chocolate mud.

I confess, this is my first effort and it probably shows. The ribbon and bow is probably the thing that needs the most work but I found it fun to do and oddly therapeutic when it came out sort of kind of looking like a Tiffany box (if you half close both eyes). I promise you my next effort will be better but in the meantime, I’ll give you the very easy instructions.

You will need:

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Now I know that there is a huge debate raging here about copyright and Jessica Seinfeld’s Deceptively Delicious book and Missy Lapine’s Sneaky Chef book and whilst its interesting, I’m more interested in the recipes than the controversy. Not that I’m not interested in Hollywood or literary gossip mind you, I am of course being an avid “trash mag” connoisseur, but my stomach beckons a little more.

After seeing Jessica on Oprah, I was intrigued by the recipes. I’ve noticed that whenever Oprah does a food show, she tries the food but doesn’t really go for it preferring to sample little bits rather than indulge. In this case, perhaps because the recipes are low fat and healthy, she was literally wolfing the food down throughout the whole show accompanying her degustation with amorous groans of pleasure. Her audience’s reaction too was similar in nature with a lot of head nodding so I knew I had to try these things for myself.

The odd thing about brownies is that they have a lot of eggs, butter and chocolate to help keep them moist. In this recipe, there’s hardly any, just 2 large egg whites and 2 tablespoons of butter so my skepticism was high. It became even higher when pureeing the spinach. I love spinach and cheese but plain spinach is not appealing at all. Plain spinach in a brownie is even less so. I remained skeptical until I tasted the final raw batter before it was about to be put into the oven. It was rather chocolately and no matter how hard I tried, had no spinach taste at all.

After baking, I found that they didn’t rise a great deal at all and whilst my baking pan was almost exactly 8inches (20cms) by 8inches (20cms) as specified, the brownies were a little flat. That was a bit disappointing. And if you’re expecting a typical luscious brownie with crispy top and moist chewy centre, you may be disappointed. I found that, as she said, with my first bite of a warm one, there was the slightest hint of “something” although it thankfully didn’t scream “spinach!!” to me. After letting it cool as suggested I started on a new brownie. Phew, no spinach taste. By the third or fourth bite, when I realised I was eating an extremely healthy version of a brownie but it was rich and chocolately I find they aren’t so bad after all. In fact, they were rather good. And by the end of my first cool brownie, I’m reaching for another…

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