Arbor School eighth-grader cooks up website and cookbook on healthy, low-cost eating for senior project
Published: Friday, June 25, 2010, 4:00 AM
View full sizeNatalie Lerner, 14, chops carrots, broccoli and green beans for her Pasta Primavera recipe. She said she has been cooking since her dad taught her to make french toast as a little kid.One serving costs just $2.66 and is a healthy, balanced meal that could be prepared by any eighth-grader.
Wearing a T-shirt she designed that reads "It's cookin'" on the back and "kidskitchencoach.com" -- the name of her website -- on the front, she begins to prepare a meal for her family.
Natalie is out to disprove some culinary misconceptions: the first being that kids can't cook, the second being that healthy food is expensive and difficult to make.
She turns on the stove in her Northeast Portland home, boils pasta and prepares vegetables, as her dad washes strawberries at the sink, not once looking over her shoulder to coach or critique.
"I love to cook and I wanted to do something that could benefit people locally, in Oregon," she said of her decision, a year ago, to create the Kid's Kitchen Coach website and cookbook as her senior project at Arbor School of Arts and Sciences. The private Tualatin school that emphasizes "intellect, character and creativity." Next year Natalie will attend Oregon Episcopal School.
In November, the USDA declared that Oregon's rate of "very low food security" had risen to 6.6 percent, making Oregon one of the five most "hungry" states in the country. "Food security" is