Q & A:Sesame Street cookbooks author has ideas (and recipes) for picky eaters

Susan McQuillanPicky eaters are no match for nutritionist Susan McQuillan and her Sesame Street cookbooks "B" is for Baking and "C" is for Cooking. The author of several books and numerous articles on diet and nutrition knows that part of the secret to getting kids to eat well and advenenturously is exposing them to a variety of nutritious options as soon as they are able to handle solids. McQuillan, whose own daughter is a teen-ager now, took some time to offer suggestions to the parents of choosy eaters and discuss her latest Sesame Street cookbook.

Q: I appreciate that "B is for Baking" goes beyond the run-of-the-mill recipes for children. (I can't wait to try the veggie biscuits, the carrot puff, and the almond tea cakes made with almonds instead of almond extract). Please tell us about your process in developing the recipes. Did you involve your daughter?

A: My daughter, Molly, is my No. 1 taster, of course, and she also contributes a lot of ideas and helps out with the cooking when she has time. She is older now, just started high school, so I have to rely on younger friends and neighbors when I want a preschool helper or opinion.

Also, I have been contributing recipes to cookbooks and magazines for many years and my job has almost always been to develop family-style recipes that are a little healthier than the traditional version, and also to make sure the recipes are doable for the average family. That means using ingredients that are familiar and readily available in supermarkets. One important way I make the recipes healthier is to include a lot of fruits and vegetables, or recommend that the recipes be served with fresh fruits and vegetables. I also try to keep the recipes as short and quick as possible, though with baking you do usually need to set aside some extra time.

Q: Please comment on the beets in the red velvet cupcakes. What a brilliant way to hide vegetables!

A: The red velvet cupcakes are a good example of including a vegetable in a recipe where there wouldn't normally be one. But in this case, it's there for the color as much as anything else. I think food coloring should be used sparingly, if at all, so that kids see the natural colors of food so they don't always expect the bright, sometimes neon, colors they have come to associate with commercially prepared cupcakes and other "fun" foods that are mostly junk. It's OK sometimes, in small amounts, but I think those artificial colors steer kids away from healthier foods. Also, some parents tell me their children are allergic to specific food colorings, and this gives them a better option.

Q: Many of the cookbook's recipes use a mix of whole wheat and all purpose flours. Why is that?

A: Healthy eating is just as much about what you add to your recipes as it is about what you take out – so you take out a little of the white flour and add in a little whole wheat flour, or oatmeal, or wheat germ. Same with fat – butter is a saturated fat, the kind that's not so good for your heart if you eat a lot of it, while olive oil is a monounsaturated fat, which is known to be good for your heart. So what I do is replace some or all of the butter with olive oil. There isn't necessarily less fat in the food, but there is a healthier combination of fats.

Q: There has been lots of interest in white whole wheat flour. How would someone go about substituting white whole wheat flour in the "B is for Baking" recipes? Could one substitute white whole wheat flour for both the white and the traditional whole wheat flour without compromising the finished product?

A: White whole-wheat flour is still whole-wheat flour (it's just a different type of wheat) and has a slightly different texture than regular all-purpose white flour. It's a texture that kids might still have to adjust to, so my advice to anyone whose kids are not used to eating whole-wheat or whole-grain foods is to start by substituting the same amount of white whole-wheat flour for the regular whole-wheat flour in some of the recipes in “B is for Baking” and then gradually add a little more whole-wheat and a little less all-purpose flour when you make the same recipe again. (Unless your family is already used to eating foods made with whole-grain flours, then you could certainly tip that balance and substitute more white whole wheat or use all white whole wheat in many of the recipes, especially something like a pizza crust.)

Q: In addition to their obvious nutritional value, many of the recipes seem to employ calorie-cutting and fiber-boosting techniques (the crustless quiche and pumpkin pudding, the addition of brans and the previously mentioned use of whole grains). Can "B is for Baking" be a tool against the trend toward excess weight in the nation's children?

A: Cooking your own food, in and of itself, is a helpful tool for fighting excess weight. There's no better way to control both the ingredients and the portion sizes. The portion sizes in “B is for Baking” are not huge, and that's a great lesson for kids.

What's really most important is that kids learn from an early age to include more healthful foods in their diets, especially when it comes to snacks and desserts, to develop a taste for healthier foods, and not to overeat, but to eat only until they are satisfied.

It's equally important for parents to be good role models and set the example. Cooking with a parent is also a great bonding experience and creates great memories.
When I leave the crust off a quiche, or make pumpkin pudding instead of pumpkin pie, I'm not just eliminating calories, I'm eliminating "empty" calories. Empty calories come from foods that are high in fat or sugar and low in healthful nutrients – so I am eliminating the least nutritious part of a traditional recipe. You still get the best part – a sweet pumpkin filling and richly flavored quiche – which also happens to be the part that contains the most fiber or nutrients. On the other hand, there are recipes in “B is for Baking that include a crust but they are alternative crusts. For example, one is made by simply lining a pie plate with thin slices of potato, another is a flour crust that uses frozen olive oil the way you would use butter in any pastry. Parents can apply these techniques to their own recipes.

Q: I'd love to know if you had any challenges with your daughter being a picky eater. Please share any quick tips you might have on helping children to be open to new and nutritious foods.

A: While my daughter was never a picky eater, she has become a teenager with her own personal preferences. I always told her that we eat healthy food most of the time so that we can eat "fun" food like sweets some of the time -- for celebrations or just once in a while for the heck of it, and not worry about it. And that's pretty much the food rule we both follow.

My advice to parents is to stick with it. Just keep exposing kids to healthy foods – fresh fruits and vegetables – and make sure they see you eating them. If they don't like fruits and/or vegetables in one form, they may like them in another – when we have carrots or broccoli at home, I eat them raw but my daughter only likes them cooked. When she was younger and could manage it, I would give her a whole tomato to eat like an apple and she still prefers tomatoes that way. I'm not saying parents should become short order cooks, but we can respect our children as individuals with individual tastes, so we can take some time to figure out not only which healthy foods our kids will enjoy, but in what form.

- Interview by Kimberly L. Jackson