Katie Lee Biegel‘s southern cooking with a northeast flare have been a staple on the Food Network for years! Since becoming a mom to her daughter Iris in September 2021, the WW partner revealed how her own cooking has evolved. “My cooking have definitely changed since I became a mom! I’m looking for recipes that are fast, that use maybe only one pan and that way clean up is quick!” she told HollywoodLife.com in an EXCLUSIVE interview. “I also want to make things that we all want eat, so that I’m not making a bunch of different meals. Iris is a little bit of a picky eater, but she’s a toddler so it’s to be expected, but I like to have at least one thing that I’m cooking that I know she’s going to want to eat, as well.”
Katie revealed that she refers to “a lot of sheet pan dinners,” saying, “We do roasted vegetables all the time, clean out the fridge type dinners, grain bowls, just easy and I’m looking for healthy foods.” She admitted that she had a “hard time” after giving birth “figuring out how to eat again.” “I was always a healthy eater. I’ve always loved fruits and vegetables, but I was having a hard time allocating the time just to make those things, to take the time to chop up vegetables and to cut up fruits. I was just grabbing for different foods and it was more about filling up and less about fueling my body with something that was good for it,” Katie explained.
The cookbook author found balance (as much as you can get as a mom!) and support through WW. “When I started WW, it was about three months after I gave birth. It gave me a reset and a way to to keep track in the app and make myself want to go for those foods that I used to love,” Katie said. “It made me want to make the salad and want to have a fruit bowl for breakfast. It was such a good thing for me at that time and it’s continued to be a tool for me and I love it. I love the idea of like keeping a diary on my phone with the app.”
She added that the WW way is reminiscent of how her grandmother would eat, making it “very familiar.” “I’m from West Virginia and we had all those good comfort foods, like the chicken and dumplings, biscuits and greens and meatloaf. I always remember my grandma eating all of that, but she would also eat a ton of vegetables. There was always a salad at dinner, she would make a crudité plate before dinner to snack on, and then she’d say, ‘Load your plate with 70% vegetables and then the rest of whatever else!'” Katie recalled. “That’s kind of the way that I’m eating on WW, so it feels very familiar to me. My grandma always started every single day with a fruit bowl and fruit is also zero points on WW, so I always start every day with a fruit bowl and I just love the way that it makes me feel for the day.”
The Kitchen host shared her favorite, WW-beloved, Three-ingredient blender pancakes, perfect for Mother’s Day brunch. Using just 1 cup of uncooked old fashioned oats, 1 cup of plain fat free Greek yogurt and 1 large egg(s), or 2 large egg whites, add oats, yogurt, and egg to a blender; pulse to combine. Off heat, coat a large skillet with cooking spray; warm over medium heat. Pour batter into heated skillet to make several pancakes at a time; cook until the tops start to bubble and the bottoms start to brown, 1-2 minutes. Flip; cook 1-2 minutes more until cooked through. Remove from skillet; keep warm and repeat with remaining batter. Yum!