Everything Olympian Shawn Johnson Eats in a Day [Exclusive]
Shawn Johnson is no stranger to the Olympics. The former gymnast competed at the Beijing 2008 Summer Olympics, where she brought home a gold medal for balance beam and secured a silver medal for team, all-around, and floor exercise. Now the mom-of-three and wife to retired NFL player Andrew East enjoys the Games from the sidelines, where she’s a commentator with Yahoo Sports for the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics.
“I worked for them in 2016, and I love working with them because it’s just, we get to have fun,” Johnson tells The Kitchn. “We’ll go visit restaurants and try the food and go to all of the events and watch gymnastics.”
However, when she’s not traveling for work you can find her in Nashville with her family. She even partnered with Barilla to help them launch their new Barilla Protein+ pasta (which makes sense, considering her kids’ love of butter noodles!). “My kids would eat Barilla pasta every single night if I let them,” she explains. “I’m always trying to figure out ways to put protein in their meals, and so this was a blessing. This is the greatest hack ever.”
She continues, “We do pasta night every Saturday, and my kids will have the buttered noodles and my husband and I will have these decadent Wagyu meatballs.”
For this edition of Cooking Diary, Shawn Johnson walks us through her favorite meals to make for her family, the plant she cooks with, and the foods she always keeps in her refrigerator.
Is there a dish you’re famous for among your friends and family?
Salmon bowls. It’s really nothing fancy: steamed white rice, roasted broccoli, teriyaki salmon, and Yum Yum Sauce.
Are there any cooking rules that you break in the kitchen?
Probably all of them. I don’t know if I follow any rules in the kitchen.
Do you like to use recipes or do you just intuitively cook?
More intuitively.
Who taught you how to cook?
My mom — I just watched her.
What’s your go-to breakfast?
I make the same exact breakfast every single day: A slice of sourdough with butter, cashew butter, and strawberry jam, plus three eggs.
What about lunch? Do you eat lunch or do you skip it?
I don’t really skip it. I try to eat lunch every day, but lord knows.
What about dinner?
We do a lot of fish, veggies, and a lot of rice. Whether it’s salmon and broccoli and rice or last night, we did sea bass with pecan pilaf and green beans. It was amazing.
Do you have a secret ingredient or a favorite seasoning that you like to use?
Garlic on everything. I love garlic, and our kids love garlic. We like roasted garlic; large, roasted garlic.
What are your favorite snacks to make for your kids?
We do a lot of fruit, so at any given time in our refrigerator, we always have a ton of chopped up fresh fruit and a ton of chopped up veggies with hummus. Our kids love hummus.