Today’s show features a new cookbook that’s designed to empower teens, college students, and young adults how to cook. It’s written by one of my favorite dietitian cookbook authors, Katie Morford, MS, RDN. Katie’s new book is called, PREP: The Essential College Cookbook, and the tips, recipes, and kitchen wisdom in the book provide the foundation for a lifetime of kitchen confidence.
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I hope you’re hungry because Katie joins me to answer your questions and to talk about some of my favorite recipes from the book including Butter Lettuce with Green Goodness Dressing, Roasted Broccoli with Lemon and Parmesan, and Golden Banana Bread. We dish about how to teach kids knife skills (yup, it can be intimidating), the importance of empowering kids of all ages with the skills they need to work their way around the kitchen, lots of kitchen wisdom, the benefits of knowing how to cook when you’re a young adult.
“A lot of parts of parenting are scary … and teaching knife skills is no different!”
~ Katie Morford, MS, RDN
Book Giveaway:
Katie and I are giving away a copy of PREP: The Essential College Cookbook to one lucky winner (U.S. entries only, please). To enter for a chance to win, tell me why you’d like to win the book and/or tell me about your first kitchen cooking experience. What was the first recipe you ever made when you were a kid or young adult or the first recipe you made with your teen? Winner selected at random on May 8th.
Katie’s Golden Banana Bread recipe is made simply with mashed bananas, all-purpose flour, chopped walnuts, eggs, and oil. I added a handful of dark chocolate chips and used pecans instead of walnuts, since that’s what I had on hand. Get the recipe on the blog.
Roasted Broccoli with Lemon and Parmesan
The next time you roast broccoli or cauliflower florets, toss at the end with grated Parmesan cheese and a squeeze of lemon juice. The citrus works wonders to brighten up the veggies.
Show Highlights:
- All the juicy details of Katie’s life and work as a registered dietitian, writer, cookbook author, and busy mom of three daughters
- Katie’s go-to supper meal: roasted veggies tossed with cooked grains ora dded to tacos or eggs
- Katie’s new book, a “starter” cookbook for people of any age
- How the cookbook idea came about as Katie’s oldest daughter prepared to go to college
- The double meaning of the title, PREP
- Benefits of learning to cook from scratch (and not relying on take-out!)
- How to teach your kids knife skills
- How to encourage a college kid to eat healthier and learn to prepare simple meals
- Katie’s basic tips for cooking rookies, which you’ll learn about in the book:
- Taste as you go
- Realize that everyone makes mistakes
- Double check your recipe
- Know terms like chop, dice, whisk, beat, etc.
- Kitchen equipment essentials that Katie recommends
- How Katie wrote the directions for the recipes in PREP
- How anyone can pick up this book and have success, even if they’ve never cooked before
- Family favorites for Katie: Applesauce Cake, Banana Bread, and salads
- Katie’s Butter Lettuce with Green Goodness Dressing, which is made with avocado, green onion, fresh basil, lemon juice, olive oil, sour cream, and mayo
- Katie’s hacks for using a blender for the dressing and for cleaning the blender
- Katie’s Lighter Green Goodness Dressing from Mom’s Kitchen Handbook
- Tips for quick and easy meals after a long day at school (or work):
- Plan ahead on the weekend
- Use boneless, skinless chicken thighs in the slow cooker for versatile meals
- Liz’s Pulled Pork slow cooker recipe
- Katie’s Roasted Broccoli with Lemon and Parmesan (this technique can be used with cauliflower, sweet potatoes, fennel, and turnips)
- The importance of knowing how to prep vegetables
- Katie’s personal favorites from the chapter called, “How to Feed Your Friends:” Thai Coconut Curry Noodle Soup and “Mix-in-the-pan” Applesauce Cake
- Why the book doesn’t include nutrition information
- Which, if any, of Katie’s daughters is destined to become a Michelin Star Chef
- What’s next for Katie?
LINKS:
My email: [email protected]
- The Parents On Demand Network
- www.superhealthykids.com
Find Katie Morford, MS, RDN:
Rise and Shine: Better Breakfasts for Busy Mornings by Katie Morford
PREP: The Essential College Cookbook by Katie Morford
Best Lunch Box Ever: Ideas and Recipes for School Lunches Kids Will Love by Katie Morford
Have a question about the show or a suggestion for a future show? Ask away by posting a comment below or joining my Podcast Posse
I specifically remember making cookies with friend as a kid and mixing up the salt and sugar
I would love to win this cookbook so that I can give it to my daughter who is finishing up her first year in college. I think she would love this!
I remember in college, having to call my friend to ask how to boil water. ?. I still call her with random cooking questions.
That is hilarious! Thank goodness for YouTube these days.
I’d like to win this cookbook. It sounds as if it’s filled with yummy, simple recipes. I’d give it to a family member who is moving into their first apartment. ❣️
I regularly cook with my 8th grader, but I’d love to give him a book to start with specifically designed with young adults who are beginner solo cooks in mind! Right now he makes a mean guacamole and salsa, egg dishes, etc… We just recommended my teen learn how to grill to help feed his friends in the backyard this summer…
My grandson is learning to cook. He has looked at the book preview and said the recipes look very good!
My daughter starts college in the fall and will be in a kitchen far, far away! I would like to give the book to her – she appreciates healthy cooking, but never learned to do it herself.
Congrats to your daughter. Where is she going?
My mom would write out a recipe like enchilada casserole and have most of the ingredients on hand for me when I was a teenager and she had gone back to work.
I’d love the cookbook for my daughter. She’s going off to college this year. I love cooking and have shown her some things but she could use some help. I remember as a kid making a “magic” cheeseburger pie. It was a recipe where you mixed the meat, tomato sauce, cheese etc into a pie pan then poured a liquidy bisquick mix over it to make a pie when baked.
Where is she going? Congrats to your daughter. I remember a similar pie recipe with zucchini and other veggies!
My mom was a terrible cook when I was a kid, so my brother and I pooled together our money and bought a Peanuts cookbook it was lime green and hot pink, we would make all the recipes in the book and rate them. It kept us from fighting and we learned to cook. One of our first recipes was French toast, still love French toast to this day. I’d like to win this cookbook for my daughter who is going away to college in August.
I would love to win this book since I have two teen daughters with varying experience in the kitchen. One is finishing her junior year in high school, so I really want her to get more cooking experience this summer, and the book would be perfect for that.
I love this idea! I remember being in the college dorms and relying on the school meal plan and unhealthy snacks to get me through. Knowing what I do now about nutrition I want my own kids to be better equipped to make healthy choices on their own and this book looks like a great stepping stone!
I would love this book for my daughter who’s going off to college in the Fall (UMass- Amherst). She knows how to make pasta but hasn’t really done much else, despite my coaxing to start a one-meal-a-week plan where she comes up with the menu and prepares it for our family of 3. Still working on that! Will also buy this book for some other graduates – perfect gift for the high school or college grad!
The first meal I cooked was spaghetti. I was earning my cooking badge in Girl Scouts!!
Today, I encourage my kids, 12 and 15, to get in the kitchen with me to cook. My 12 year old son already is thinking about what he is going to cook when he goes to college because he tried Ramen Noodles and he decided he did not want to live on those for 4 years. 🙂 So, I’d love to be able to give this book to my daughter first, and then she can pass down to her brother.
I remember helping my sister make pies. I was always in charge of making the meringue!
Thank you Liz and Katie for a great podcast! I have 2 teenage daughters who are starting to cook. They’re excellent at making pancakes and quesadillas -and I know they’ll be inspired by your ideas!
I would love to win so I can share this book with my kiddos
I made spaghetti. I remember making it for my parents anniversary and they couldn’t believe how good it was. I showed my mom the packaged meat I used and she said no wonder, I had used the most expensive ground sirloin. ?
I was in 4H and made cookies for my County Fair 4H project. I won a Blue Ribbon and went on to the State Fair where I won a Red Ribbon.
The first dish I made regularly was scrambled eggs
I had so much fun teaching my daughter to make homemade pizza
Hi LIz
I would love to receive this cookbook for my daughter who is going to James Madison in the fall. I have Katie’s other two cookbooks and they are some of my favorites so I can only imagine how good this one will be.
Thank you so much!
My daughter is going to college in the fall and she is only now starting to learn how to make simple meals.
The first recipe I ever made was from a kids cooking book, chocolate truffles.
Congrats to your daughter. Those truffles sound great 🙂
I would love to give this book to my son who is in high school. He has Boy Scout Cooking merit badge (for which he had to plan , shop for, and cook several home meals), but I am always looking forward to trying to encourage him to cook more.
While not my first, one of my more memorable early cooking/baking attempts was when I was in my first apartment and decided to bake angel food cake. I was convinced it had to be in a ring shape, but only had a soufle dish. I decided that it would be ok to just put a plastic Solo cup in the center. When the batter caused the cup to rise, I then decided to put Tang mix into the cup. To get proper sides, I tied foil around the pan with a shoelace as we had no string. Despite the ensuing smelly melted plastic in the middle, which we cut away, we actually ate the rest of the cake which turned out pretty good!
My son just finished his freshman year in college. This book will be perfect to share with him!
I would like to win this to encourage my kids to learn to read recipes.
Love your podcasts. I have one son who is 15 and loves to cook but doesn’t really do much of it. My 17 year old isn’t so interested in cooking, but cooks for himself everyday– just the same things over and over. I’d like to expand their skills and horizons as I get them over the finish line to adulthood. Crossing my fingers we win your book!
Would love to share with my youngest grandchild that should go off to college in 3 years.
I would like to give a copy of this book to my niece who is living on her own and cooking for herself for the first time. She knows nothing about cooking!
I would love to win this book for my 21-year-old daughter who enjoys working in the kitchen but would definitely benefit from learning more skills. One of the first recipes I remember making as a teen in my home ec class was chicken divan.
I would love this cookbook! I am also a registered dietitian and teach college bound kids how to cook simple meals using a hotpot or microwave. This cookbook would upgrade my teaching!! Also, the first thing I taught my boys to make was seared ahi and california rolls.
I have a high school senior getting ready to graduate and head off to college! We’ve been making her a hand written recipe book full of her family favorite recipes and she’s been testing them out in the kitchen to see if she can be successful in getting them to turn out. She will be a student athlete and having easy, healthy recipes for her to make is going to be essential. Would love to add this book to her college collection! Thank you, great podcast topic!
I’d love to share this with my kids as they’re beginning to learn how to cook and prepare food on their own.
My niece is about to turn 16 and is interested in cooking. Her mother doesn’t cook and unfortunately I don’t live near her to get in the kitchen with her. This book would be the perfect guide for her. The first thing I made on my own was Mexican wedding cake cookies for my Spanish class
I would love to win this for my niece. She is graduating and going to college this fall and I would love to gift this to her.
The first recipe I remember Making with my mom is my great grandmother’s brownies! I loved cooking with my grandmother too… sugar cookies, minute steak, biscuit and peach jam!
I grew up cooking with my mom and it seems like I’ve been cooking with my son his whole life. I wanted to make sure he knew how to cook, and he does! He’s in law school now and juggling all the school work with living on his own for the first time. He cooks most nights, but I’d love for him to have more easy to fix recipes to take back with him in the fall. Thank you!
I’d love to give this book to my rising junior son, who is moving into a house with 4 other classmates. It would be well-used by all of them!
When I was 18, I decided to cook a nice, “fancy” dinner for my dad and my 2 older brothers and their wives. Our mother had recently passed away, so I was doing this on my own. I made Cornish hens (which we had never even had before!), and being the inexperienced cook I was at that point in my life, I didn’t know whole poultry needed to be cleaned out. Imagine my horror when we all cut into our gorgeous Cornish hens and they were full of all their giblets! We still laugh about that 45 years later, but what help a book like this one would have been to someone like me that was totally clueless.
Now, I love to get in the kitchen with my three-year-old grandson and just have fun. Maybe this book is something I could pass on to him.
I love that story! Must have been quite the sight indeed. But trust me. You’re not alone. Millions of people have done that. Ha!!!
Hi Liz! I’d love to win this book for my college student son who is moving in to an apartment with some friends in the fall. He just told me yesterday that he wants to be the one in the apartment who cooks for the other guys! I thought this would be the perfect cookbook for him to have on hand to learn some great, simple recipes, other than pizza and burgers!
I used to love to make sandwiches of all kinds when I was young. I have a picture of me when I was 3 and I had just made myself a ketchup, mayonnaise and Cheez Whiz sandwich…on white bread, of course:)
Well … that sandwich sounds interesting!! I’ll bet you were smiling ear to ear 🙂