Jenny Mollen loves crafting delicious concoctions for her kiddos.
In her upcoming book, Dictator Lunches: Inspired Meals That Will Compel Even the Toughest of (Tyrants) Children, Mollen explores helping parents by sharing ideas for lunches and more.
Jenny Mollen Teases New Kid-Friendly Cookbook, Praises Husband Jason Biggs
On Thursday’s episode of the PEOPLE Every Day podcast, the mother of two, 43, explained to host Janine Rubenstein what inspired her to write this book.
As Mollen grew up with two working parents, this meant she would often would pack her own lunches and if not, would find herself “in the dreaded lunch line.” And the last thing Mollen wanted was for her kids to experience this.
“I was certain that I wasn’t gonna dumb down eating for my kids, but I also wanted to send them to school with these movable feasts that I wish that somebody had given me,” she said. “I’m not a chef, I’m not a great cook. I’m not a DIY artist. I’m just, you know, somebody who’s trying to work through my own mommy issues.”
And while she loves crafting meals for her kiddos, she also understands that it’s not every parent’s favorite activity — which is exactly why she created the book.
“I said to my husband, This doesn’t need to be rocket science,” she said. “I need to do a book that is truly just like a paint by numbers for packing different lunches.”
And while her husband, Jason Biggs, doesn’t normally craft the kids’ lunches, he helps out in other ways.
“Jason is so hands on as a parent, almost too hands on,” she told the outlet.
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“I always say that he’s like the guy that like, when I go scuba diving, he’s the one like checking all my gear. He’s like the buddy that never stops like futzing with you. Or like if you’re on a ski slope, he’s like adjusting your goggles. Or if you’re like on an airplane that’s crashing, he’s the person that you’re like, just get the f— away from me. Stop adjusting my oxygen mask. We’re gonna crash anyway.”
“He’s never done,” she continued. “I keep him out of the lunch boxes. I’m like, ‘These are mine. You can do everything else. You could pick out the back-to-school outfits.’ “
Biggs, 44, and Mollen recently celebrated their 14 year wedding anniversary, which the author celebrated in a heartfelt tribute.
“14 years ago, two people who’d known each other for only 9 months drove to a Calabasas FedEx Kinkos in their pajamas and got married,” she wrote alongside the photo on April 22.
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She then joked, “Who knows if that FedEx was even real or a figment of our imaginations or if the woman who married us was a licensed justice of the peace or just some down on her luck actress looking to make a quick 300 bucks.”
She concluded, “We may never know if our union is truly recognized by the state of California or if what happened that Earth Day wasn’t just some psychedelic mushroom trip but what has come out of it has been mind-bending, life-altering, and nothing short of a miracle.”
The pair, who share sons Lazlo, 4, and Sid, 8, have been forthcoming in the past about whether they want a third child. Mollen divulged to the outlet in 2020 how she would be open to it under one condition.
“I mean, if [Jason] could carry it, totally,” Mollen joked. “Or if somebody could present me with a 2-year-old that looked just like me.”
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