Welcome to Katie's Crib, a production of Shondaland Audio in partnership with iHeartRadio. Any advice for parents who are packing lunches for their first time kindergartener, which I'm about to do.
Make it very easy for them. I would always think about how are you going to get the most nutrients in every single bite? So like raw fruits, raw vegetables. Don't make it hard for them. Don't make anything where they have to like peel stuff off, like make it easy. Do a bento box so immediately you lift it, you see all of your choices, because you'd be shocked that sometimes kids will end up eating the cucumber for the cookie because I don't know. Their bodies are different than ours.
Thirsty and they just wanted something else exactly. Hello, everybody, Welcome back to Katie's Crib. Today's guest makes me salivate. Her food is delicious.
She packs the best kids lunches I've ever seen. And for all of your mothers listening who have school age children, I'm sure you follow people on Instagram or have looked people up on blogs or whatever where you see all these moms making like the most amazing packed lunches ever, and you feel like a failure because your lunches suck compared to that. It ends here. Stop feeling like shit about yourself. We've got the one and only Catherine McCord
here today, who is the Instagram behind we Delicious. I'm telling you all of her posts and pictures and recipes and descriptions of how you pack a kick ass kids lunch that they actually eat, and how to get them to eat it. She makes it seem achievable, easy and doable, and I.
Actually use all of her tips and tricks.
Not only that, but I know her personally because she's a former actress who I've done seen classes with together when we were up and coming like twenty years ago in LA. I don't even think i've seen her since then, so we've got a lot to catch up on. Let me tell you about her. Her name is Katherine McCord. She's a formal model, actress, and television program hostess. She's the founder of we Delicious, a website dedicated to helping
parents expose their children to wholesome, delicious, homemade food. She's a best selling author of three books, The Smoothie Project, Welicious, Lunches and we Delicious Enhanced edition, and at the time of our recording, her fourth book, Meal Prep Magic Time Saving Tricks for Stress Free Eating, was just about to be released as of early April. Now it's available wherever books are sold, so make sure you get a copy. McCord is married to film producer and former movie studio
executive Jonathan Gordon. A couple have three children, Kenya, Chloe and Gemma Catherine. Hi, it's been forever, Hi, I was busy doing your very sassy, sexy intro.
Was it sassy and sexy? I hope so?
And what the hell scene did we do in Lesli Khan?
Do you remember this?
Oh my god, I love that you just remember that. I have no idea what the scene was, but we.
Were paired up.
Yes, I think I was twenty five, so that's fifteen years ago. Yeah, And you're so tall and beautiful, and I just remember us being assigned a scene together. And I had a one room studio apartment literally a piece of shit, but really anuffort made for small people, like for people only four foot five and below. And you are very tall and modelesque. As we know, you were
a former model actress and television post. But I remember us rehearsing the scene and my couch was also a futon was also the bed I was staying in, and we were trying to like block the scene around my apartment, and I'm like, this tall, gorgeous creature can't even take a step in this piece of shit, tiny thing.
I'm so happy to see you.
I can't believe what it is that you've made of your life, your three beautiful children, the incredibly successful books and website and Instagram, and information that you are bringing to all of us mothers out there in a very saturated market. I have to say, like, I get so much inspiration from you and the food you are giving to your children.
How did this come about?
I was very obsessed from a very young age in cooking from Kentucky. My grandparents were into farming, growing their own food. So they had a big old compost in the back that they would just throw everything and it would have like insane tomatoes and peas, all this stuff growing off of it. I was just like super obsessed from a very young age. There was no oil or but it. It was just a scoop of bacon, grease and everything. I had Bonappetite and Gourmet when I was ten years
old and had a subscribe. Shouldn't obsessed with cookbooks, And it wasn't until I went to culinary school. I mean that was like definitely the trajectory. Somehow, like modeling and other things got in the way, but like, that's the thing I really always wanted to do.
Wow, you make food looks so good.
I don't for those of you listening who don't follow Wheelishes on Instagram, and you want to watch her children go with her to the farmer's market and show what her spread looks like and how she shops and how she then translates it into food for the week, and it's so remarkable. And your children are literally like sitting on curbs at farmers' markets, like crushing raw frickin' brussels prus. Yeah, okay, so that's how you got started.
Yes?
Do you think that because of you your kids have been raised in the same way or one of your three kids is like a very picky eater or something, so you've gotten to experience my side of the coin.
Hi, By the way, I love that you're asking this because I have been thinking about this so much lately, because I have a sixteen year old, an almost fourteen year old, and a seven year old. They have all grown up in the same house. They all eat everything. I will put everything in quotes, but everything. My son, though, became a vegetarian when he was five on his own, like we were like, who are you? And even when he was little, meat or if he would chew, and
he was never into it period the end. My middle daughter she looks at a steak like it is the Mona Lisa. It is the most beautiful thing she's ever seen at all times. So I do think that nature versus nurture being around food, like they'll all eat every fruit and vegetable. So I do think that I was able to be like, Okay, here it is exposure. Let's go to the farmer's market. Let's have it on your plate, let's have it steamed and roasted, air fried brags like
with saws without without Yeah exactly. But I do think that all you can have experiences like what My middle daughter will not eat orange cheese. It is a hard pass. She threw up mac and cheese when she was six years old and that was it. But I do think a lot of it has to do with the way they're raised and like the exposure.
So let's say she doesn't give like orange cheese.
Was there a time where you were still putting orange cheese on the plate and like offering it for her to decide and maybe change her mind? Or is it just taking off the menu for her? And if you're making something with orange cheese for dinner for everybody, you don't make it on hers, Like how do.
You do that?
So okay, let's even go back earlier. If your kid's like, I'm not eating broccoli, ugh, You're going to try ten different times, ten different ways, and they will eventually like it unless there's some kind of I do think that there are predispositions to just not liking certain foods, and that's okay, But I would say that almost every fruit or vegetable like that's something that we It takes some more,
it takes some work. If something happens to a child that they're like, we did twenty three and meters with my son, Yes, and he has eighty seven percent predisposition to be to vegetarianism. That type of thing.
Is just is real.
It's very real. But I think it's exposure. I think you have to keep trying with kids, and there is such a thing as picky kids and kids that have no control in their life, and so they all food becomes the one thing they can be like, I'm not gonna eat that.
A bunch of seasons ago, we had this amazing nutritionist, pediatric nutritionist come on, who was very much about when you're making a plate for your kid, it's like you always give them a definite, like something that they always eat regardless, and you always give them a maybe, and then you can always also give them the no.
God.
Now I'm in this thing with my two year old daughter where the minute she sits down at the table, if there's something on her plate that she doesn't like, she points at it. She may a gagging sound. Jesus to sit down unless it's removed from her plate. And I know I'm speaking for all of us moms out there, like I'm tired. I'm like, fine, fuck it, I don't care, get it off the fucking plate. Like whatever are we
having pasta wheels again? Pasta wheels again? Do you stick by that I'm making one dinner for the whole family. Is that something you've you put in to effect early on with your kids.
Yeah. The first Reelicious cookbook is called One Family, One Meal, because I was like, I'm not going to be a short order cook. I'm not going to be like who wants eggs? And who wants waffles? And who wants pancakes? And you want blueberry? It's too much. When I was growing up, it was like, here you go eat it. This is it. We are a catering to our children.
Generation are We're so concerned about their happiness and every bite that goes in their mouth and their friends and everything, and we need like the solution for me which has become a win. And this is what I do at dinner every night. I do a diy dinner and I put out everything because also when you have a vegetarian, it's easier that way. So it's taco nights, so there's ground turkey, and there's guacamole and salt. But you have to eat a vegetable or a fruit. It is not an.
Option at every meal.
Every meal. It's like a hard it's just it's a hard pass to not But I do always tell my kids, like we do donut Fridays where we go at for donuts.
Oh god, yes, that right, at the time reporting.
Let it be known that's also be donut Friday.
It has to be donut Friday. But it means that other days, like I made chia pudding for breakfast and I'm like, oh, there's no fruit, but I know that my daughter's snack has a fruit. The exposure if they're not seeing it, and then all of a sudden it shows up, even with a two year old. Though, I think dy is such a great move because when kids have their plate just show up and they're like ford objects.
I have no control. I don't what is all this opposed to, like two choices, Like we've always done the two choice rule in our house. Do you have carrots? A do you want celery or apples or whatever it is? So I think giving especially younger kids some choice, that's your choice, really.
Right, because I'm cool with either thing they pick exactly. So are all these things on a buffet and then they sit down or is all of these bowls like in the middle of your kitchen table is if you're feasteering Family's not funny.
It's funny you asked that we happen to have an island and a kitchen table. So I tend to put the food on the island and like people stand up as they want more, doesn't matter, it's what works for your family. Like the DIY situation, it just works better. My other company, One Potato, it's very much built on that, where it's like here's the idea of the meal. But like you can break it down. One Potatoes a family meal delivery company, so you can get up to three dinners,
bento boxes, fully prepared smoothies, lunches, everything. The meal are made to be very DIY and that you know, if you have a kid that just hates carrots, but you want to make this meal, you can just leave the carrots at It's not a big deal.
I just can't believe what your children need, Like I can't believe.
Like I feel like we're doing pretty good, Like I've got one who love steak, one who hates steak, one who likes salmon, one that's hates salmon, one that likes broccoli, one that hates broccoli, but one that loves they both love c couvers.
Like I.
Every parent has.
Their battles to pick right that are just massive triggers in themselves. I'm weirdly not completely freaking out that my kids don't crush vegetables. Look, do I wish it was different? Sure, Again, it's not keeping me up at night. However, there are other things for those listening that do keep me up at night. But I have a lot of moms that this is the battle. This is the worry about what are they eating? How much are they eating?
Is it good for them? Is it healthy?
Are they eating their lunch? What do you tell parents and moms you're working at just to deal with the stress of this.
I think you have to look at it as like in three or four day chunks or even seven day chunks, because also, let's just remember like little people's dot their system is just developing and they're trying to figure it out. And you may have a child that just can't poop, and so they're like, I'm constipated, but they don't know that they're constipating. You're like, why aren't you eating? Do
you not like this? There's so much self loathing and so much like emotional stuff that goes into it, and I think you have to just let it go sometimes. That's why I like the DIY because make a bunch of foods and hope that like Timmy eats broccoli on Tuesday and Wednesday, but maybe he's just not feeling it on the next two days. I think that you have to look at every week as like an overall win
and not as like every meal. There's so much pressure. Sure, and you can even do things which I've seen incentivizing some kids, and like everyone has a different kid that everyone's different with this, but like we did a palm palm jar for a whole different thing, but you can do a pom pom jar for food. Like you're gonna get a palm palm for every new vegetable you try, and when the jar is filled up, you we're gonna go like a special day to I don't know, the park.
It doesn't have to be food related, or it can be a cake party. We're gonna get a special cake for you. Or kids are very visual in that they can see that win. Oh my god, I ate all those different vegetables.
So you're you're putting the stress on exposure versus like actually enjoying.
It's like actually trying things.
But what you just said, like my child only likes cucumbers and carrots, I'm like, that's awesome. Cucumbers and carrots are two highly nutritious foods. Sure that those are wins. Instead of being like that's all they eat, look at it. Spin it into a positive and every time that they your child now eats cucumber's, carrots and broccoli. You want kids to feel empowered when you start to think that you, as a parent, are responsible for twenty one meals plus
snacks per child for eighteen years. It's the one thing you cannot get away from unless you know your kid is like stealing the keys to your car. Like the reason that all the cheese It's got in your house was because of you. We have to take some responsibility but also be easier on ourselves.
Totally. Did you have cheese its or goldfish in your house?
No? I make them homemade.
Oh my god, get the fuck out of here, goodbye. No, I'm kidding. It's amazing.
But wait a minute. Here's my hack is I make a ton of them and then I freeze them, so you pop them out and then they defrost in thirty seconds. You have them all the time, but you only make one batch like a month or every month or two.
And they are actually as good as of regular ass goldfish.
They're better, but because they're made with homemade cheese, like real good.
My dad is watering.
I love it so good, They're so good.
Talk to me about reward based food stuff? Is that like the no go in your house. I don't think anyone knew in the eighties or nineties that this could equal out into food issues. And my husband and I are two products of that, where like, Okay, you had the greatest thing happen, you get some fucking junk food. Or you had the worst day of your life, guess what you get to go house? An Italian meal and a canoli whatever it is.
You know what I mean?
But like we either the best and the worst are both rewarded with food. Talk to me on this topic.
I think it's very specific person a person. I think that if you can somehow I'll wrap it into less reward and being like should we go get an ice cream tonight or should we have donut Friday?
Yeah, like a tradition, like a routine versus like because you got this, you get this.
But I'm personally a bigger fan of that. We don't really do any reward based food, but I do understand the idea of it, and like why we do it because it's something all the time, and it's sweet and it feels good, and it builds so much excitement in kids that it's somehow like between like a janky gift a piece of plastic and an ice cream. People tend to just be like, oh, the ice cream is easier. I wanted to I don't think it's that we try not to do it. It's more we unconsciously really don't do.
It, which is probably good in the better in the long run.
With everything with your kids, you like wishing we could rewind it and be like, oh, why didn't we just start this habit earlier.
On when you can now like people listening to us, like I'm trying to get inspired, like I'm sitting here, like, fuck, I have a five year old.
It's too late. It's too late, Ruin. No body is just built on goldfish in a prayer.
No. But I mean that's why I've always loved like cooking with kids, because I think that more than anything, it goes back to the point of like it's showing up on their plate once they understand like how what it takes to make something, and that it's all kids want is to spend time with their parents. Period the end yes, period, they act out because they're like, look at me, I want to tench yes, I just want attention because you're on your phone, you're working, Please be
with me. Making time to cook with your kids as often as possible, letting them participate in dinner. Here, can you sprinkle the vinagrette on the sala? Can you sprinkle some salt on something? The tiniest job makes kids at a dinner table, then be like when someone goes, oh this is delicious, be like, yeah, Timmy helped with that, and then Timmy feels awesome. So now Timmy's like I should eat it because I made it. And just build them up, make them feel powerful without in those little.
Jobs great call. I remember even my son like he's terrible at it. But I'm like, do you want to help the fact that he's like, yeah, I want to help set the table? That's crazy and it's with crap like it's with horrible, like my table setting. Don't put in your head that anything looks remotely cute.
Oh no no, but even table settings like I see it could be paper napkins and paper plates. Who cares like it? Let them get creative because that's a funny one because even on Thanksgiving, my kids get like really into it, and my mother would always be like, they need to use the nice china, they need to use the nice napkins. I'm like, I could care less. Let them make it look like Disney in there, yes, because they take so much pride and that's tradition to a kid.
What is your advice for the moms like me who are not good at cooking and don't enjoy it. I mean, I like baking with my son, and I am good at copying your lunchboxes, which I want to get to because I think it's remarkable. But like, I literally can't make the dinners you're making.
I make.
I can make a scrambled egg, a frozen waffle, a pasta in a water with a can of sauce, like I can't. I just am lost, Like I'm lost.
So you're gonna get your kids, your spouse or whatever. Everyone needs to make a list of their ten favorite foods and you're gonna keep those on hand at all times. It could be tortillas, cheese, and cucumbers, and so you're gonna make Caesa das. I am actually quite as simple cook like Welicious is all built on like simple, easy recipes, and I hate doing dishes, so it has to be like as few dishes as possible and think about just like this most simple, two three, four ingredient foods that
you can possibly make up. That's why the DIY situation just like having things a few things cut up because kids like you don't have to cook for them, you'd be shocked, like my kids are, Like, give them a thing, a hummus and some vegetables and they will cruise through it. It doesn't have to be like this extraordinary meal every night. There's no problem with buying a rotisserie chicken.
We do spaghetti once a week, non negotiable with the side of broccoli, Like that's it unctual. And also I have to say the only thing I do do, which I is a tip for anyone listening who's also not
a cook. When my kids get home from school, they're like the most hungry four o'clock and I try to put out dinner around five thirty, but sometimes it's more pushing six and I put out a huge platter that I've already cut up at the beginning of the week of the cut up peppers, cucumbers, carrots, some snap peas, and a shitload of organic ranch dressing. My kids freaking
love ranch and I don't care. And they just shovel in like a ton of vegetables that way, and so that by the time I get to dinner, if they carbo load here and they're just having the spaghetti in the wheels and maybe I don't know what we're doing for protein, but whatever, I feel like at least I did something.
Okay, No, But by the way, that's the hottest tip known to man. Feed those like little rat is thing when they're starving, give them the vegetables, give them the foods that because they're so hungry, they're much more apt to eat it then than at dinner time with all the pressure on them.
Yes. Yeah, that's when my daughter started trying like raw green beans. Like she finally was like yes, thank you God. And then the next day it was over. By the way, people listening, it's like, nope, we're back to eating green beans.
That was a miracle. I don't know what happened. But then try it again, right.
Yes, no, grow them be like I saw you eat green beans. Should we grow some green beans? Should we grow some basil. We have like a garden tower that we grow stuff and I'll pick herbs off. That's cool. And I'm a passion fruit nerd, so we have like literally hundreds of passion fruit dropping for mercy. But whatever, wherever you live, lemon's grapefruit. That stuff can go wild.
It's a little bit easier. But go to the farmer's market because like the farmers, they cannot wait for that little two year old adorableness to walk up and be like, be interested, and they'll hand it to them. That's our thing, like we instead of church, we go to the farmer's market on Sundays.
Oh, that's your thing.
My kids work at the farmer's market. Now. They both have jobs. Yeah, they've been. My son's been working there for two years and my daughter a year. They work, Yeah, every Sunday. It's real fun. Do they do?
What are their jobs?
They sell sweet potatoes and scallions and gar Like my son wanted a car and so he's I was like, you got to work for it. I got to work for it.
Yeah, that's it. Do you do dessert every day? Every night? Never? What's your dessert deal in the house?
Okay, so this is actually much more personal than psychology psychiatry. My mother, like dessert was super taboo in my house. Sugar was very taboo, so I think it made me a bit of a hoarder as like I was like donuts and like ice cream, like I would do anything to get it. So I was very conscious in raising my children that I was not going to do that.
I would say every night, we have dessert. But dessert they may be like I want an orange, I want we make a lot of ice cream, so it's it's almost like a smoothie with less milk, so just pur it. It's like tastes like ice cream, but it's like really just period fruit and some you can. I we add frozen cauliflower. But I think dessert is like you made it through the day. I don't know something sweet.
I'm with you, I don't understand.
Like I'm so impressed by my friends who are like, oh, like dessert isn't a thing in our house, Like we just finished dinner and we're done, and I'm like, wow, that's so amazing, Like I can't do that, Like I'm sure, shit, don't expect my children to do that. Like I also like to have my little cookie or my little dark chocolate.
I'm like that.
And again that isn't a trigger for me. It might be for some of the people listening. Do you what's the vocabulary you use in your household around this is healthy?
This is not healthy? What do you say?
I think we do a lot of what is your body feeling? And does that kind of feel good in your body? I think Jem's grown My littlest has grown up definitely hearing that the most your body needs. I didn't make this up as science. Like flour sugar, it's gonna make you tired, You're gonna crash. So I've always tried to get away from bread first thing in the morning. It is the hardest thing in the American breakfast, Like American breakfast is just like a bagel, a waffle. It's
really it's a part. That's why I wrote the Smoothie Project, because having a smoothie is really what you should do, because it's just true vegetable and protein. And so you're like, you're sending your kids to school, they're already tired most likely, and you're on a focus for eight hours. You'll be fine. It's yeah, they're totally they get there dead to the world.
Wow, I never even thought about that. What a great.
Yeah, my kids are definitely like frozen waffle bagel cereal, Jesus, if you.
Can prep smoothies the night before, like in a bag, I mean in a bag and so you just dump it into the blender, like frozen fruits and vegetables whatever. We have a smoothie station so like literally it's like, well, it takes me two seconds. Jemma's my seven year old, she's grown up on it, so it's like her thing. She loves it. And my older kids definitely my daughter and my son.
Many days, God, I gotta get back out. We went through a smoothie phase and then I like forgot about it. But what's interesting a smoothie station. See when you put the blender away, which ours is away. It's a sort of a bad idea because you a forget about it, but be you like never want to take it out and clean it and all this shit. But you're right, it should really just be. It should live out there.
Okay, So envision your kitchen. What small kitchen appliances.
Sit out teapot which I use all day, okay, the like air fryer, toaster every day best, well, a coffee maker, but none of us drink coffee.
It's more friarity.
But that's very important.
A lot of the utensils and stuff that we don't use. Yeah, I should put a freaking blender out there and I might use it all the time.
Yeah, you know glender like one of those little magic bullets or something. You just think about all the foods you can get, like we literally like a blueberry cheese smoothie, so chias heats, frozen blueberries, call a flower or spinach. You don't taste it and it's call far is more protein cup for cup than any other vegetable.
This is great.
I'm going to try to do this for breakfast because we are in the worst thing going on right now.
Bad. If you want to hear something embarrassing my children and I have to stop. It's my fault.
My children went through like a big boycott breakfast problem right.
Like eating like breakfast no interesting.
Also because my kids are big milk they like milk, got it?
No fair fair so, but like when they're having a little bit of milk with breakfast, which when does that stop?
I got to talk to the pediatrician he's five, What the fuck am I doing?
Tea.
It's the teeth.
It's the teeth that's the reason not to talk to the dentister versus the pediatrician. The dentist will be.
Like, get the milk out because it's all sugar.
Because it's all sugar. But do this, okay, I'll trade you here. Ask them, would they what color milk they'd like? Or my daughters love chocolate peanut butter smoothie and all that is cocoa powder, which has no sugar, So figure because then you can keep their milk but you can get some more like nutrition in there.
Wow, guys, this is all huge. I'm so impressed when I take my son to school and people have these thermoses filled with like incredible tortolini's with shit, and I'm like, excuse me, what it's turkey sandwich or peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I don't know what we're doing here. Sometimes they might be cut into a shade, but like, thank god, my kid loves a sandwich, loves it, and how weird it's so boring.
I love a sandwich. That's why I would eat peanut butter and jelly every day of my life.
He goes back and forth, peanut butter and jelly or a turkey sandwich, and he loves it, and it's always gone, it's never in there.
What's on the turkey sand much?
It's so easy, it's seated. Dave's Killer bread.
He likes I sometimes. I do vegan as sometimes and he likes straight up Helman's.
Mayonnaise, A man after my own heart.
And then he likes jelly turkey, and he loves romaine. But it has to be a Caesar salad. He loves the Caesar.
I'm telling you, there's so many rules kids.
Have, so many kids are but Natas like, why.
So many rules? Okay? I like him.
I would do his, but the bread would have to be toasted, and there'd have to be a ton of romaine. There'd also have to be mayo and mustard, maybe a little bit of avocado and then tomato.
Oh delicious.
My yeah. My middle daughter, she's a thermist. She's a hot thermist kid.
What's in the thermos?
It's always different. Her big one is gioza, And I'm just gonna tell you, I absolutely do go to Trader Joe's and buy those gioza and put them in my air fryer in the morning.
Absolutely, they're delicious.
Okay, two things, any advice or parents who are packing lunches for their first time kindergartener, which I'm about to do.
And also let's do start there.
Let's just remember that there's now more kids at lunch. There's so much sensory stuff. All they want to do is go play. Food is the last thing they're thinking about. That is for the majority of kids, not all not a full roll. Make it very easy for them. I would always think about how are you going to get the most nutrients in every single bite? So like raw fruits,
raw vegetables. I mean, the reason I like sushi sandwiches, which is where you roll at the bread and you fill it and roll it and cut them into little wheels is it's much easy exact them. Bastard gets it in cheese stick like whatever it is. Don't overwhelm them, don't make it hard for them. Don't make anything where they have to like peel stuff off, like make it easy. Do a bento box so immediately you see all of your choices, because you'd be shocked that sometimes kids will
end up eating the cucumber for the cookie. Because I don't know. Their bodies are different than ours.
We thirsty. They're thirsty, and they just wanted something else exactly. I used to be so upset my kid.
I always put a little if it's like a Justin's peanut butter cup or something, and my nursery school teachers are like, he always eats that first, and I'm like yeah, and then he eats his lunch.
I don't care. I'm like what again. I think it's for some people.
I hear moms in my life like you cannot have that until you have something else, or a lot of the language between like you're not getting up until you have one more bite. And we went down that path for a couple of weeks and it felt really icky to me, and it felt just not how we parent. But again, again, this is such a personal thing for people, like I think this is I think food and being.
A parent is so hard. There's so much of your own stuff, there's so much about how you were raised.
Food fights, it's the worst. You have to just remember that. Like the goal of meal time, especially when your kids are little and all the time, is to be together, to spend time together. If you are offering good food, they will eat the good food. It's just a matter of what the foods are. And just make it simple cheese stick and some crackers and a handful of strawberries. Fine, that's fine, you don't have to make spend two hours making enchiladas that no one's gonna eat. Also, let them
go to the grocery. Let them go to the farmer's market and pick one new food. Like my seven year old surprises me at every turn because she'll be like, oh, I want these beach mushrooms. She's like obsessed with beach mushrooms. And so I put beach mushrooms in pasta. Now I air fry them. She was the one who discovered that. I never would have thought that she would be brave enough for like willing to try that. So I think that letting kids have some power over the discovery. Let's
go find a food at the grocery. What is it? Do you want to learn about it? How is it grown? Where is it grown? Just let kids discover.
There's just so much respect for the kid themselves, Like whether they're diy ing their own food, or they're helping you pack their lunches the night before, or they're going to the grocery or they're going to the farmer's market, like are there helping you actually grow it in the backyard. This is all massive. Any advice for parents who are starting first foods with their little ones, did you just purate all of it yourself.
With ken yam? My oldest I did curate everything and they cut things in little pieces, and then by child number two I did a half and half because I was exhausted and had to make dinner. And by the third kid, I was like, good luck on that, Like you're gonna eat. You're gonna eat what we're eating. So there is no wrong way. They all turned out to be great eaters. I think that it's just what works for you. But I do think get in the early eaters,
like under twelve months and especially under ten months. It's exposure as much as anything, either breast milk or formula. And then let's start with avocado and try it for a few days. Don't give up. That is the one thing. Just because broccoli was spit out day one, keep trying. Put some toasted sesame seeds on it, put a little brags on it, let them eat it in funny ways with them. It's all foreign to them at this point, So just making it something fun, funny, silly, whatever it is.
You have a book coming out. I'm so pumped, and at the time of this probably releases this recording. It will be out so you can get every single place books are sold. It's called Meal Prep Magic, Time saving Tricks for stress free Eating. If this book shit wasn't written for me, I don't even know. Tell me about this book and how it came to be.
Meal Prep Magic came to be really during the pandem because what had happened to me was I was like trapped at home, not going to the grocery, and only because my husband had bought two hundred and twenty cans of beans.
He just was like, oh the box knocking up.
Yeah.
Of course, of course was like, oh my god.
What am I gonna do with all this? But I wrote the book by much more of a category than breakfast, lunch, dinner, Like, you've got a lot of beans, what are you going to do? The biggest idea is that we have so much stuff clutter in our kitchen. Let's get it out. Let's pare it down so that your kitchen is organized, so you know where things are, so it moves more efficiently. And then meal prepping just being able to meal prep,
and that really goes to the DIY part. If you can spend two hours one day a week prepping different fruits and vegetables, make a batch of rice, make some pasta, make some roast chicken, mix and match different meals through the week. I'm telling you, it makes life so much easier.
Meal prep magic everybody.
That's really what it's all about and what we all need, because if we just took a couple hours earlier in the week, it would save all that time later in the week. What is the favorite lunch meal of each of your children that you make from the new cookbook?
And why ooh, that's actually interesting. One. My son is obsessed with this blender banana chocolate chip bread. So you just dump everything in a blender. It's so easy and it's all gluten free too. Put all the ingredients, so oats and bananas and like all the ingredients and then you just put into a loaf pan and it's just it's so delicious. My littlest one loves the crispy salmon burgers because she loves salmon. That's like her biggest one. And then what is Kloe like the most? Chloe is
like my eater that she's like everything. I love it. I love it. She's just like anything I put in front of her she loves. I'll say the overnight Bell waffles are pretty amazing, creamy chia pudding, four ways. Oh, and freezer stash breakfast burritos. You make them, you wrap them in foil, you unwrap it, throw it in the
air fryer. So that's what I end up doing. I take them in the freezer and you can put them right in the air fryer or the oven or the toaster, or you can put them in a refrigerator and do the same thing the next day. But they're all wrapped up. They're all like exactly ready about. You can write your kid's name. If someone likes cheese, someone likes salsa, and they're ready to go, and they're like, especially my daughter loves a savory breakfast. That's a good one too.
On the good so delicious.
Yeah.
Is there anything you'd like to teach your own children that you wished you had or were taught growing up in regards to food.
I think my grandmother was the one who was just like every all fruits and vegetables were beautiful and they were like a gift to our bodies. I think that for me, I want my kids to have the connection of what goes in here, what goes in your mouth is good for your body, but it's also good for your brain. So not thinking of food as a band aid. And I had a happy day, I'm gonna eat. I had a sad day. I'm gonna eat instead just being like,
what's like, that's the way that I eat. What's good for me is going to help my body run like an engine, and like I need my engine to like really move. So how do I feed it?
I love it? I love it. Are your kids having any birthdays coming up?
We just went through a bunch of birthdays. My middle daughter her birthdays in a week from today.
Wow, what would you What advice do you like to give your kids as they get closer to their next birthday or let's say your daughter.
I just want my kids to be kind, Just be kind people. Just be good, good to the earth, good to your friends, good to yourself. That's the one thing I think we all forget. Be good to yourself.
Oof, that's a great one.
Yeah, I forget that all the time, and we always ask people in closing finish the sentence, parenthood is the.
Hardest thing you'll ever do. I want to be like, it's joyful. It's the hardest thing.
You can say it here.
It's the hardest thing you'll ever do. And the more kids you have, there's you're always catching someone.
Oh my god, I can't imagine having three. I literally cannot imagine it the greatest.
Everybody who's listening, tell us where we can find you and the name of your book again.
At Welicious on all social media, and you can get Neil prep Magic absolutely every bookstore and on Amazon.
It's delicious, Welicious. It's so helpful, inspiring, important, Catherine. I. I'm so impressed by.
This whole thing you built, sweet Like it's really amazing.
Thank you guys so much for listening to today's episode. I want to hear from you. Let's chat questions, comments, concerns. Let me know.
You can always find me at Katiescrib at Shondaland dot com. Katie's Crib is a production of Shondaland Audio in partnership with iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from Shondaland Audio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.