Please don’t mistake this breakfast as something I would only make for my children. Mainly because I have no children, just a bunch of lifelike Monkey soft toys. The reason I tried this is not to introduce pumpkin into my diet (it already features frequently), or to add vegetables (I eat a lot of veges). Its because, even before I cooked it, I knew this would be really good.

The spices in it, cinnamon and nutmeg, along with the milk give it an oatmealy almost pumpkin pie taste. Once you have the puree, its a cinch to make-indeed I made it on a busy work day morning using frozen pumpkin puree stashed in my freezer and microwaved for 1 minute. I preferred to add the raisins in while it was cooking as I love fat plump raisins. As far the peanut butter goes, it does enhance it but I think only 1 teaspoon of peanut butter would have done me or left out altogether would have been fine. And because I loathe the taste of skim milk and never have it in the fridge, I used a half water half full cream milk. It would be equally as fabulous on a weekend morning, tarted up with chopped pistachios and dried sweetened cranberries.

Oatmeal with pumpkin from Deceptively Delicious

• 1 cup nonfat (skim milk)
• 1/4 cup firmly packed light or dark brown sugar
• 1/4 cup canned pumpkin or sweet potato puree (I didn’t use canned, I used real pumpkin pureed and frozen in batches)
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract (optional)
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice (I used cinnamon and nutmeg)
• 1 cup old-fashioned oats
• 2 teaspoons natural peanut butter (optional, I’d say go with 1 teaspoon)
• Dried fruit and nuts (optional)
• Pure maple syrup, for serving

1. In a small saucepan, combine the milk, sugar, pumpkin, vanilla, and if using, and spice. Bring to a gentle boil and stir in the oatmeal. Reduce the heat and simmer for 2 to 3 minutes, until the oatmeal is soft and creamy. Stir in peanut butter, if using.

2. Spoon the oatmeal into bowls, sprinkle with dried fruit and nuts, if you like, and serve warm with maple syrup.

By Jessica Seinfeld from Deceptively Delicious

If you think that I’m on a Deceptively Delicious kick, you’re absolutely right. I’m completely intrigued by the idea of adding vegetables to sweet slices and cakes. One of the nicest slices that I’ve made is a pumpkin slice which is so deliciously moist and stays that way for several days that I know that vegetables can giveth the most dry sounding cake a humectant quality.

I altered these from their original recipe in that I substituted blueberry preserves with Morello Cherry preserves as I love Morello cherries. The slices themselves aren’t particularly low fat or low sugar, especially if you take heed of the amount of butter in the below picture, though I suppose if you divide 3/4 of a cup of butter or a cup of low sugar jam into 12 its not so bad…. well ok who am I kidding, they aren’t light at all.

Jessica Seinfeld’s Blueberry…I mean Morello Cherry Oatmeal Bars (with Spinach) from Deceptively Delicious

Crunchy and sweet, but full of spinach! Let the bars cool completely before serving so that the taste of the spinach has a chance to disappear completely.

INGREDIENTS

• Nonstick cooking spray
• 2 cups old-fashioned oats
• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup sugar (I used brown sugar)
• 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp. baking powder
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup Balance trans-fat-free soft tub margarine spread, chilled
• 1 cup low-sugar blueberry preserves (I used Morello Cherry fruit spread)
• 1/2 cup spinach puree

Preheat oven to 375°. Coat an 8″ x 8″ baking pan with cooking spray.

In a large bowl, combine oats, flour, sugar, cinnamon, baking powder, salt and vanilla and stir to mix well.

Add the margarine and cut it quickly into dry ingredients with two knives until the mixture resembles coarse meal and is no longer powdery. Do not overmix—bits of margarine will still be visible.

Set aside about half of the oat mixture; press the rest firmly into the pan. Bake until lightly browned at the edges (but not fully baked), 13 to 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, mix the preserves with the spinach puree in a small bowl (it looks like minted cranberry jelly!)

Spread blueberry mixture over the partially baked oat layer, then sprinkle with reserved oat mixture. Bake until topping is slightly browned, 20 to 25 minutes. Set the pan on a rack to cool completely before cutting into 12 bars.

How to puree spinach
PREP
No prep at all for baby spinach. For mature spinach, fold leaves in half lengthwise with the stem outside, then strip the stem off the leaf.
COOK
Steam for 30 to 40 seconds, or cook in a skillet with 1 tablespoon of water for about 90 seconds, or just until wilted.
PUREE
In a food processor or blender for about 2 minutes, until smooth and creamy.

By Jessica Seinfeld from Deceptively Delicious

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…

Brownies (with Carrot and Spinach) from Deceptively Delicious

These brownies fool everyone! You won’t believe how scrumptious they are (or how good they are for you) until you make them yourself. Just don’t serve them warm—it’s not until they’re completely cool that the spinach flavor totally disappears.

INGREDIENTS

Not your typical brownie ingredients

• Nonstick cooking spray
• 3 oz/90g semisweet or bittersweet chocolate
• 1/2 cup carrot puree*
• 1/2 cup spinach puree*
• 1/2 cup firmly packed light or dark brown sugar
• 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 Tbsp. trans-fat-free soft tub margarine spread
• 2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
• 2 large egg whites
• 3/4 cup oat flour or plain flour (I’d recommend using Self Raising flour as they don’t rise much otherwise with the small amount of baking powder)
• 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt

Preheat the oven to 350°/180c degrees. Coat an 8″ x 8″ (20cm x 20cm) baking pan with cooking spray or line with baking paper.Melt the chocolate in a double boiler or over a very low flame (or in microwave)

In a large bowl, combine the melted chocolate, vegetable purees, sugar, cocoa powder, margarine and vanilla and whisk until smooth and creamy, 1 to 2 minutes (it will look rather awful at this stage but do persevere)

Whisk in egg whites. Stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt with a wooden spoon.

Pour the batter into the pan and bake 35 to 40 minutes. Cool completely in the pan before cutting into 12 bars.

P.S. I made this a second time and used Self Raising flour in addition to the baking powder and they rose beautifully and were even better than the first batch.

Created by Jessica Seinfeld
From the book Deceptively Delicious
Makes 12 brownies

How to puree spinach
PREP
No prep at all for baby spinach. For mature spinach, fold leaves in half lengthwise with the stem outside, then strip the stem off the leaf.
COOK
Steam for 30 to 40 seconds, or cook in a skillet with 1 tablespoon of water for about 90 seconds, or just until wilted.
PUREE
In a food processor or blender for about 2 minutes, until smooth and creamy.

How to puree carrots
PREP
Peel, trim the ends and cut into 3-inch chunks.
COOK
Steam for 10 to 12 minutes.
PUREE
In a food processor or blender for about 2 minutes, with a few teaspoons of water if needed for a smooth texture.