Eureka!!!

This week, my children ate sweet potatoes, carrots, white beans, wheat germ, cauliflower and zucchini. And they loved it!!!

I assure you my children are normal, red-blooded American children whose diets primarily consist of chicken fingers, mac and cheese and pizza. And I am a normal, American mom whose concept of "making dinner" is popping something in the microwave or ordering from the Chick-Fil-A drive-thru window.

But that's all behind us. We've discovered the joy of being a sneaky chef!

The Sneaky Chef is an ingenious cookbook full of standard kid fare recipes with a boost of nutrition snuck in. The sneakiness starts with a variety of veggie purees mixed into the recipes. You add just enough puree for your kid to get some honest to goodness vitamins, but the veggies themselves go completely undetected. This week, we loved the cheese quesadillas, pizza bagels and peanut butter mini muffins all made with the sneaky orange (carrots and sweet potato) and/or white (cauliflower, zucchini or white bean) purees. But the biggest hit of the week was the chicken fingers made with the orange puree and the wheat bread crumb, almond and wheat germ breading ("MMMmmm!!!" said the four year old; the seven year old asked for seconds.) Even moms like me can handle these recipes. Although the purees forced me to get reacquainted with my food processor, they're easy enough to make and can be frozen for future use.

God bless the original Sneaky Chef, Missy Chase Lapine, for spending hours on end with her girlfriend testing tons of sneaky recipes that our children would love. The sneaky chef concept is now a hot new trend. Jessica Seinfeld (Jerry's wife) has come out with her own cookbook (watch Oprah tomorrow) which offers more sneaky recipes and ingredients to choose from. As loathe as I am to buy Seinfeld's book (ok, I admit I'm anti-celebrity. She may be a very nice person and I realize it's not her fault, but I'm a bit bitter that the doctor that cured me of cancer and my mom who taught inner city kids each made a teeny tiny fraction of the fortune that her husband did for what -- pretending to be himself on TV??? But I digress...), I'm now a sneaky chef convert and am anxious to find some other recipes to add to the repertoire.

These books kill two birds with one stone answering the dilemma of what to make for dinner while minimizing the food wars with the kids. The sneaky chef concept is a great example of the kind of balance I seek -- making things better for my kids, yet making life (so much) easier for me.

Eureka!!!

The Secret to "The Secret"

Everyone's all a buzz about Oprah's latest find, "The Secret." According to its official Web site, "The Secret" is the gateway to all you've ever wanted -- unlimited joy, health, love, money, and so on.

"The Secret" is based on the law of attraction -- we attract things into our lives by what we think and believe. So if you focus on negative things, you'll attract bad things to you. If you focus on positive things, you'll attract wonderful things to you. Simple, right? So now that we all know "The Secret," we can all be ecstatically happy, skinny billionaires with fulfilling careers and perfect families (like Oprah, but thinner)! All you have to do is "Ask. Believe. Receive."

It sounds too good to be true, but I have to admit, I have seen "The Secret" work in my life. Right after college, I was diagnosed with cancer. I had been going through a rough time, all of my friends had moved away after graduation and I could not find a job. I was depressed. But after my diagnosis, my attitude changed. I knew I would live through the ordeal and adopted a positive outlook to convince my friends and family of the same. Suddenly, I was offered a contract job that allowed me to work full time but take time off for my treatment. Despite having chemo, I kept most of my hair. But about halfway through my treatment, the darker side of my reality started to cloud my positive attitude. My contract position was eliminated and my hair began to fall out in clumps. At the urging of my then boyfriend (now husband), I went into therapy, rid myself of my negative emotions and refocused on where I wanted to go. I finished treatment, found an amazing job that not only jump started my career, but introduced me to a incredible group of young dynamic people, many of whom are still my friends today.

About four years ago, just before the birth of my second daughter, I decided I'd had enough of the working mommy whirlwind. It was hard enough juggling one child and a demanding full-time job, I just knew I didn't want to do it with two children. But of course the professional in me didn't want to give up a job I loved and a career I had worked so hard to build. As I despaired, my husband asked, "What would be the ideal situation for you?" I told him I'd love to do my current job part-time so I could be with my children, yet satisfy my professional drive. Three days later, my boss asked me to consider part-time work instead of leaving all together. I've had the best of both worlds ever since.

But "Ask. Believe. Receive," is much easier said than done. Not only do you have to look past all the crappy things that may be happening to you, you have to believe that you deserve the good things in life. That's a particular stretch for us moms. We're programmed to never ask for anything. And because we're too busy beating ourselves up about all of the things we didn't do right as a mother, a wife, a friend, we certainly don't believe we deserve it.

This is core reason I wanted to write this blog. To make our lives better, we have to begin to believe that we deserve better than what we have now. We have to believe we deserve the respect of our families and our society. We have to believe that we can combine fulfilling careers with a flourishing family. We have to believe that our voices can make a difference and that we can, eventually, "Have it all." The secret to "The Secret" is believing that we deserve to live the life we want to lead as mothers and as dynamic women. All we have to do is believe.

The Secret to "The Secret"