Cooking for an allergy, and 'conning" children into eating vegetables.

If you are into classic Greek food - stop reading! I am about to mess with a recipe for Moussaka, so out of respect, I will rename it "Mince and Vegetable Bake". For starters, my husband is allergic to tomatoes i.e. fresh cooked tomatoes and tinned tomatoes. This rules them out in my cooking. Tomato paste or tomato sauce are fine as they don't contain the seeds. Apparently a lot of people are allergic to the seeds in cooked tomatoes. People at restaurants look at me as I am completely mad when I ask if a dish has cooked tomato in it as it makes my husband violently ill, and then the dear man asks for tomato sauce for his French Fries.
From when my children were small, if they couldn't visibly see vegetables on their plates, they were happy to eat whatever was served. I love vegetables and therefore became creative at adding them to dishes which ordinarily may not contain many veges, and thus 'conned" my kids into eating them.
I make a basic savoury mince to which I add 5 ml of cinnamon powder, a bay leaf and fresh thyme, both of which are grown in my garden. After the mince mixture has simmered for a while, I add a splash of good red wine and about a tablespoon of Red Wine Jelly. This is added according to your own personal taste, or you could leave it out altogether. I thicken the mince with a packet of oxtail soup powder. While the mince is cooking I slice and cook potatoes and butternut squash until just soft. Now comes the insult to Moussaka - the brinjals! ) In this particular recipe I used sliced mushrooms, chopped onions and chunks of chopped brinjal. I lightly sauted the veges in a little butter and Macadamia Nut Oil. A small amount of water (about a cup and a half), and a tablespoon of tomato paste were added. The mixture was simmered until the brinjal was soft and the water reduced enough to form a "vegetable sauce". Season with salt and pepper to taste. The following ingredients were used to make a Bechamel Sauce and the egg was beaten and stirred in at the end. I like to add a cup of grated Cheddar Cheese to the sauce for richness. I then layered the meat and vegetables starting with a layer of savoury mince.A layer of potato. A layer of brinjal sauce. A layer of cooked butternut squash.Finally top it off with a generous amount of cheese sauce, and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. Bake at 180 degrees C until golden brown. As I mentioned in my previous post, I cook by taste and invent my own recipes as I go along. I am a home cook, who has a passion for cooking and feeding family and friends. If you are not confident to cook without a recipe, then I suggest you find a basic Moussaka recipe and adjust it to your own taste.
Another wonderful recipe for "hiding " vegetables from your children is Shepherd's Pie, or Cottage Pie as it is known in South Africa. I always added grated carrots and cabbage; and frozen peas and corn to the mince mixture. I always received a loud, "Yay! No vegetables!" I rest my case.