When Jessica Seinfeld’s first cookbook came out Deceptively Delicious: Simple Secrets to Get Your Kids Eating Good Food I remember thinking why would you need to trick your kids to eat good food???

You’re the adult they’re the child they eat it or they don’t get up from the table. That’s how we did it. I remember having numerous wait it out competitions with my mother where I would sit at the table and she would try and convince me to eat my dinner or bribe me with dessert.

Eventually Mary would cave and the portion that I had to consume would become smaller and smaller because I was and still am about as stubborn as they get, but she also wasn’t hiding squash in my macaroni and cheese, sneaking broccoli into my chicken fingers or zucchini into my oatmeal cookies. This was what we were having and I better eat it and like.

And then it happened… I started hiding things in my recipes to get my dad to eat them. Yep that’s right not a child but my father. For some reason or another he thinks ground turkey is about as delicious as pedigree dog food.

 

If I even say the words ground turkey when it comes to dinner he turns his nose up and says no turkey for me thanks.

Then the light bulb moment happened… What if Jack didn’t know that he’s eating ground turkey??? Relax, it’s not like feeding meat to a vegetarian, he had eaten ground turkey before but he thought he hated it. Thought being the key word there.

 

Cats out of the bag now I guess, sorry Nilsen but that soup that I make that you love so much… turkey. That chili you ate the other day and licked the bowl clean… turkey. That stuffing you couldn’t get enough of at thanksgiving… full of, you guessed it, ground TURKEY!!! Don’t hate the player hate the game.

So when I decided to try my hand at a little cauliflower fried rice I thought I better cut my losses now and just let everyone think that they’re eating rice and great success followed.

Cauliflower fried rice with Shrimp

Serves 4
Ingredients:

1 head of cauliflower
8-10 mushrooms
4 celery stalks
1 cup of frozen peas
2-3 large carrots
3-4 garlic cloves
24 shrimps
Soy sauce
Toasted sesame oil
Coconut oil
salt and pepper to taste

First step is to get your cauliflower looking a little bit more like rice, you know to fool your dad. In a food processor and in small batches pulse your cauliflower until it starts to resemble crumbly sand. Be careful not to pulse it too much or you’ll end up with cauliflower puree.

Next up get your mushrooms and garlic going in the pan with a little bit of coconut oil. Once they start to cook down throw in the rest of your veg and a tablespoon or two of soy sauce. You just want to lightly steam your veg now with the addition of the soy sauce.

In another pan with just a little bit of coconut oil and over medium heat start up your cauliflower rice, this only takes about 10 minutes to cook from start to finish so you could almost start it up right after your mushrooms get started.

 

The sign of a true chef is timing and getting everything ready to plate at the same time.

 

 

Then lastly you want to saute your shrimp in a little bit of coconut oil and fresh garlic and these don’t take long at all. You just want to cook them until they are completely opaque.

Divide the “rice” into all of your bowls or plates, top with sauted veg and shrimp and then right before you impress your guests and fool your dad add just a few drops of toasted sesame oil to each bowl. Gives it that fried rice flare.