Rise & dine: breaking the fast with Mollie Katzen's cooking

Vegetarian Times, Oct, 2002 by Alexandra Greeley

Rise and dine, America, If Mollie Katzen has anything to do with it, we will be waking up to a new way to breakfast with the publication of her Mollie Katzen's Sunlight Cafe cookbook.

Katzen, whose 1977 Moosewood Cookbook helped inspire an American stampede toward healthier eating, is picturing a generation of folks who grab a doughnut and coffee as they commute to work or, worse yet, slump over their desks midmorning in a fog of fatigue after skipping breakfast altogether. Experience has taught her better. "As I become busier," she says, "I am finding that front-loading the day with the best possible breakfast completely impacts our functioning. The timing of our food intake and the way we combine fiber, fat and protein affect how we feel and how we function." Eating healthy breakfasts is also an effective weight-control method, she believes, and it helps people avoid random late-day snacking.

Katzen confirmed her fears about American breakfast-eating habits while interviewing people for the book, finding that many loved the idea of breakfast, but didn't take the time to eat one. "They would say, `I just grab something and always crash later. In the late morning, I have trouble feeling focused,'" Katzen says, pointing out that eating a good balance of fats and proteins early in the day gets people started and affects how they feel later on.

Her prescription? Recipes that invite busy and not-so-busy Americans to start each day with a nutrient-packed breakfast. Many of her dishes can be cooked ahead, then packed up for easy carry-along. And all of her recipes reflect her belief that a vegetarian diet, "if it includes a lot of fresh fruit and vegetables and whole grains and nuts, is really more of a blueprint for healthy eating in general," she says.

A charter member of the prestigious Harvard School of Public Health Nutrition Roundtable, Katzen felt the time was right for a breakfast book Breakfast is both symbolic of optimism and a way to initiate each day with a fresh start, she says, adding that in today's world she had to approach this cookbook project differently. "When I first started writing cookbooks," she says, "I didn't know people who were too busy to cook, and I didn't think about food costs and the time it takes to raise children and prepare recipes, all of which are now critical issues."

For the book to win its place on the kitchen counter, Katzen knew she had to address such lifestyle issues. So she has constructed clear, concise recipes with timelines, handy tips and suggestions for alternatives. She also acknowledges that it takes more work and time to eat healthy food. For example, such healthful ingredients as whole grains not only take longer to cook, they are chewy and take longer to eat. "You have got to participate in eating," she says.

But few people could object to allotting time to devouring such dishes as Crunchy Coated French Toast. And if eating breakfast on the run is mandatory, many of her recipes pack up well.

Katzen concludes, "I want people to care more--to eat well and enjoy cooking--and, paradoxically, at the same time, to care less. So we will see food as a means to an end, albeit a glorious one. I guess I would say that my bigger message is: Eat beautifully, then turn the focus outward to be effective in the world."