The Healthy Eating Plate Online with Mollie Katzen

One of the high points of the term is going to a luncheon talk by Mollie Katzen (it is cool that so many great folks come to Harvard and I get to hear them), and today’s Mollie lunch talk was Understanding the Healthy Eating Plate, the healthy eating plate being a concept created by nutrition experts at Harvard School of Public Health, in conjunction with Harvard Health Publications.

Mollie was fabustrordinary, as usual (I believe in portmanteau words these days), giving us recipes for, and serving up Cozy Red Lentil Mash, Garlic-Braised Greens, Fantastic Bulgar Dish (it was), Roasted Squash with Pomegranate, Simple Celery-Date Salad (more of a poem than a dish), and Thai Eggplant Salad with Coconut Tofu Strips. She also talked about the flipped plate, whereby you still eat the foods you love, but you make vegetables the largest part of your plate, followed about equally with whole grains and healthy protein, and then fruits on a smaller scale (see the Healthy Eating Plate link, above, for more info.). She proceeded to show us some of the healthy eating plates she’s creating (many in preparation for her upcoming 12^th book, due out in 2013, to be titled, The Crispy Sage Chronicles — having already sampled some of the recipes I can highly recommend it!).

Mollie is working with Harvard University Dining Services, helping develop recipes to more fully answer the unique dietary needs of people who choose a meatless diet. She’s also working with folks in the medical and public health fields, and is a member of the School of Public Health Nutrition Roundtable (founded by Dr. Walter Willet).

Today Mollie asked for a show of hands of how many people at the luncheon were from the library ‚ and 90%+ of the audience hands shot up. Some of us have dubbed ourselves Mollie Katzen Groupies (proudly). It’s my impression that many librarians are especially interested in healthy eating. A bunch of us who work in Widener Library are planning a dinner based on Mollie’s recipes (check out www.MollieKatzen.com for recipes and links to her existing 11 cookbooks, and check out her Facebook page, Mollie Katzen’s Get Cooking, to see more and watch her videos). Given the huge reorganization of the Harvard Library that’s going on, I’m wondering if a covered-dish supper might be a good community-building event ‚ you get a roomful of librarians together over good food, and we’re inevitably going to talk shop ‚ but in this case, healthfully.

More power to you, Mollie ‚ I’m already anticipating your next visit to Cambridge!
More as it happens, healthfully and tastily,
Cheryl