With over 6 million books in print, Mollie Katzen is recognized by the New York Times as one of the best-selling cookbook authors of all time. Her works include classics like the Moosewood Cookbook and children's cookbooks such as Honest Pretzels.
A charter member of the Harvard School of Public Health Nutrition Roundtable, Katzen also serves as a consultant to Harvard University Dining Services and co-creator of their new Food Literacy Project. She is a culinary adviser to the University of California at Berkeley, a nationally syndicated columnist through the Chicago Tribune, and a contributing editor for SHAPE Magazine.
Q: Why is it important to teach kids about healthy eating?
MK: Across the socioeconomic spectrum, children are eating very badly. It is not just on their own, it is parents looking for convenience, eating in cars, between school and soccer practice, or buying food at the convenience store. Everyone is in a hurry. Fewer meals are being eaten at the table, more at the desk. We are all losing that sense of real food and real context for that food. It is taking a toll on physical and emotional health.
Q: What do you do in the winter when fresh veggies are hard to find? Do you use frozen vegetables?
MK: As for frozen veggies, frozen spinach is always acceptable because there is very little difference once you have cooked it. If you can't get fresh vegetables and must use frozen, the biggest thing you lose is texture, so make frozen veggies into soup. A very quick way to do that is to get flavorful vegetable broth, which comes in a box like soy milk. Microwave a frozen vegetable, like broccoli, put it in a blender with veggie broth, season with salt and pepper, and you have a soup.
Q: What are some ideas you use to make food fun for kids?
MK: Kids love to dip things. If you have a delicious sauce, like homemade ranch dressing, store-bought tomato sauce, or peanut sauce, give them steamed broccoli, baby carrots, green beans, and let them dip veggies in the sauce. You will never have to tell them to eat those vegetables.
I have them decorate things. I put brown rice out with veggies, carrots, corn, and minced scallion, and let them decorate their rice with the vegetables. I call it polka-dot rice. I have them spread cream cheese on a mini bagel and use veggies to decorate. Anything they can do that is visual helps.
Q: What are some tricks you use to sneak veggies into meals when you are dealing with a kid that doesn't like his greens?
Mk: I don't go so far as sneaking veggies, because I really want to encourage food literacy. I find ways to add extra veggies. For example, get in a lot of veggies by piling them on top of pizza. Make sandwiches very thick by adding romaine, cucumbers, and tomatoes. Juice vegetables and combine with apple juice. Puree them into soup. Make veggies into sauces. You can puree a cooked yellow pepper in broth or fruit juice, and spoon it onto a piece of fish.
