Speaker 1: You go on pictures, you're scrolling, you find some recipes
Speaker 1: that look amazing. Week one motivated, Week two, you're okay.
Speaker 1: Week three you're like hating life and your kitchen is
Speaker 1: a mess and you've got all these ingredients and like
Speaker 1: weird herbs that you're never going to use again. Hello guys,
Speaker 1: and welcome back to Stepping Up. I am pumped for
Speaker 1: this episode. And I know you guys when you probably
Speaker 1: saw the title, you were like yes, because Okay, well
Speaker 1: maybe you won't, maybe you're not, you maybe have a life. Anyways,
Speaker 1: I did an episode like this a long time ago
Speaker 1: on meal prep Tips and Hacks, and it was one
Speaker 1: of my top episodes that you guys have listened to.
Speaker 1: And I think it's one of those things that you know,
Speaker 1: meal prep and like food in general, just takes up
Speaker 1: so much of our time and mental load. Like think
Speaker 1: about how many times, like a day, you literally are saying, like,
Speaker 1: what are we having for dinner? And then you realize
Speaker 1: being an adult is literally asking what are we having
Speaker 1: for dinner? Every day for the rest of our life.
Speaker 1: And I'm someone that I just hate making those trivial decisions,
Speaker 1: like big scary business decision let's go. I don't know,
Speaker 1: I thrive, but when it comes to like do I
Speaker 1: want chicken or beef, or do I want an ice
Speaker 1: latte or not like things like that, I just can't.
Speaker 1: I just my brain just doesn't want to deal with it.
Speaker 1: But I have evolved these meal prep tips and hacks,
Speaker 1: and I've even like gone on Reddit to see if
Speaker 1: there's anything else on there. But these are going to
Speaker 1: be the meal prep tips for people that hate meal prep. Now,
Speaker 1: this episode is for you. If you're someone who you
Speaker 1: know you've tried meal prep before, you've done your meal
Speaker 1: plan and then it gets to Wednesday and you look
Speaker 1: at what you're meant to have and you hate it,
Speaker 1: and then you have uber eats, or maybe you try
Speaker 1: to pack lunches for the week and it lasts for
Speaker 1: two days. Now, these are all the things that are
Speaker 1: going to help you, because I am also someone that
Speaker 1: I just really struggle to stick with things. And you know,
Speaker 1: I have done meal prep in that for a long time,
Speaker 1: but I have fallen out with it for a long
Speaker 1: time too. You know when I wrote the book and
Speaker 1: that I just ate Indian food all the time and
Speaker 1: it was delicious. I love a good butt of chicken.
Speaker 1: But you do need a kind of come back to reality.
Speaker 1: And also our health and my gut health was really
Speaker 1: really bad from you know, not making my own food
Speaker 1: as much as I should have. So these tips are
Speaker 1: just going to like change the game for you. Please
Speaker 1: as always, I'd love to see you guys implement these
Speaker 1: or even just take a photo of you listening to
Speaker 1: the podcast and tag me on Instagram. It just makes
Speaker 1: me so so happy. But I'm not gonna blab on
Speaker 1: for too much longer. My life update is not really
Speaker 1: like a life I guess it's a life update, but
Speaker 1: it's more I'm going to be really vulnerable with you
Speaker 1: guys and share an embarrassing moment. So the girls have
Speaker 1: started doing netball, which I'm so proud of them because
Speaker 1: I never did ball sports ever in my life and
Speaker 1: I suck and I always wanted the girls to get
Speaker 1: into ball sports. So for me, this is a really
Speaker 1: proud moment. I don't know the rules, I don't know
Speaker 1: what's happening, but I am on the sidelines cheering them on,
Speaker 1: so that's the main thing. So we were at netball
Speaker 1: the other day. They did training. They both have different
Speaker 1: training days and It was one of the girls training days,
Speaker 1: and I had a pretty big deadline, which the girls knew,
Speaker 1: and they were doing like a break so it was
Speaker 1: not like they were playing and I was ignoring them anyway,
Speaker 1: So I was on my phone standard and I had
Speaker 1: to go back to the car to grab something. Anyway,
Speaker 1: I have been using a rental car for a while
Speaker 1: because my car is getting fixed. So I got my
Speaker 1: like I'm literally staring at my phone, you know, zombie mode,
Speaker 1: looking down at my phone and walking to the car. Anyway,
Speaker 1: I must I think I was in the middle of
Speaker 1: writing an email or I was just writing, so I
Speaker 1: wasn't paying attention. I opened the door of the car
Speaker 1: and I kind of just stand there and I continue
Speaker 1: to write on my phone. And it's preb been a
Speaker 1: couple of minutes by this point. Anyway, I finished writing
Speaker 1: what I'm doing, and I look up and there's this lady,
Speaker 1: this poor woman, sitting in the driver's seat who looked
Speaker 1: like I think she was having a nap, but now
Speaker 1: she was no longer asleep. She's just sitting there staring
Speaker 1: at me, this like woman who's just come And I've
Speaker 1: opened her passenger door because I was gonna get my bag.
Speaker 1: I opened her passenger door, and I'd just been standing
Speaker 1: there for two minutes, just standing there on my phone,
Speaker 1: and she couldn't even see my face, like someone just
Speaker 1: come and open her door and stood there. I was.
Speaker 1: I was mortified. And then I was like, I'm so sorry,
Speaker 1: and I must have woke her up. I felt so embarrassed,
Speaker 1: and I do dumb shit all the time. Anyway, I
Speaker 1: finally went back to my car, got the thing I needed,
Speaker 1: and went back up and Ryan was just laughing his
Speaker 1: head off at me. I don't know anyway, things like
Speaker 1: that happen pretty often. So that's my life update is
Speaker 1: I am still a mess. All right, Let's get into it.
Speaker 1: So now I'm going to take you through the systems
Speaker 1: that I actually use. This is not like a Pinterest
Speaker 1: board type setup. This is just real tips that are
Speaker 1: actually going to help. And also these tips are really
Speaker 1: flexible as well. So when I talk about meal planning,
Speaker 1: it's going to be flexible. You're not going to be
Speaker 1: locked in. So let's get into it, and by the
Speaker 1: end of this episode, you were going to have a
Speaker 1: real proper meal planning system that you can set up
Speaker 1: in fifteen minutes. You can choose and chop and change
Speaker 1: what you want, but it's just going to make your
Speaker 1: life easier. Even if you do one of these things,
Speaker 1: it's going to make your life so much easier. First,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna give you like a little disclaimer, reality check.
Speaker 1: You know, like I feel like so many of us,
Speaker 1: you're probably sitting there thinking like why when I try
Speaker 1: to do meal planning, why does it only last me
Speaker 1: two to three weeks if that? And you feel like
Speaker 1: you're the problem. You think, why can't I just stick
Speaker 1: to this? And it's the same with the gym or
Speaker 1: exercise or anything like, you're like, why can't I stick
Speaker 1: to this? You know, you go on pictures, you're scrolling,
Speaker 1: you find some recipes that look amazing, and they look
Speaker 1: decent and healthy and easy enough. You go out and
Speaker 1: buy hundreds of dollars worth of groceries. You come back
Speaker 1: and usually for me, I will stop there. I will
Speaker 1: let you know, I will stop there. I won't even
Speaker 1: make the thing, and then say you prep the food
Speaker 1: and then you know you've done that for that one
Speaker 1: day and you're exhausted and you've already given up. You know,
Speaker 1: it's like week one motivated. Week two, you're okay. Week
Speaker 1: three you're like hating life and your kitchen is a mess,
Speaker 1: and you've got all these ingredients and like weird herbs
Speaker 1: that you're never going to use again because of interest,
Speaker 1: Like we're not doing that, Like, let's just do easy
Speaker 1: as you guys know, I did my Lazy Girl's Guide's
Speaker 1: Healthy Eating where I did reels. I need to do
Speaker 1: them again by the way of really really easy healthy recipes,
Speaker 1: and I have all those types of things. I've actually
Speaker 1: got an ebook on Stepha's planners. I think I think
Speaker 1: it's still on there. I think it's like lunch Hacks
Speaker 1: or something, and I'm just all about easy recipes, Like
Speaker 1: that's what we want here. Now. This brings me to
Speaker 1: meal prep hack number one, and this is having ten
Speaker 1: meals on rotation. That is it. So my family, we
Speaker 1: probably don't even have ten at this point, but we
Speaker 1: like what we like. I like what I like, which
Speaker 1: means I am more than happy to be eating the
Speaker 1: same meal on the same day if I want, every
Speaker 1: single week. And that works for us. And I know
Speaker 1: a lot of us try to, you know, spice it up,
Speaker 1: but it's not the bedroom. This is the kitchen, And
Speaker 1: I think when you are just you find meals you
Speaker 1: and your family, which is bloody hard in itself. If
Speaker 1: you find that golden meal, you keep that. So this
Speaker 1: is why having just ten meals, ten set dinners that
Speaker 1: you and your family eat on rotation, that is just
Speaker 1: gonna help with decision fatigue. You're gonna stop buying hundreds
Speaker 1: of dollars worth of stupid herbs you found on pinches
Speaker 1: you're not gonna use, and you don't have to have
Speaker 1: that extra micro decisions and thinking every day what are
Speaker 1: we going to have for lunches and dinners this week.
Speaker 1: Examples of our ten meals we love is we have
Speaker 1: pesto pasta. We have make your own pizza. We have
Speaker 1: the burrito bowls which is my slow cooked Mexican beef.
Speaker 1: We have Sarte chicken, we have chicken snitzel. We have
Speaker 1: steak and veg. We have salmon with like coconut yogurt.
Speaker 1: Sounds gross, but delicious. We have those types of meals
Speaker 1: and we have them every single week. And the good
Speaker 1: thing about having ten meals is like once you're rotating it,
Speaker 1: it doesn't feel as repetitive. So for me and our
Speaker 1: femi like, we're happy to have even the same four meals,
Speaker 1: but some people do like to mix it up a bit.
Speaker 1: And the good number about ten, ten really is the
Speaker 1: magic number because usually out of those ten, people like
Speaker 1: your family will like at least seven of them, there's
Speaker 1: going to be someone there that's going to be pretty
Speaker 1: happy with what you've picked. And you know what ingredients
Speaker 1: you need. You know how often you go through those
Speaker 1: ingredients again, like herbs or sources that you might need.
Speaker 1: You know how frequently you need to repurchase this. So
Speaker 1: then when it comes to grocery shopping, which is a
Speaker 1: whole other ballgame, you know what you're doing already because
Speaker 1: you've made these meal lots of times. And if you
Speaker 1: are sitting there thinking like, I don't know what these
Speaker 1: top ten meals are, just have a little think about.
Speaker 1: You know what you have been making. What are some
Speaker 1: things that you make that just seem easy to make?
Speaker 1: But also the kids are happy to eat. And if
Speaker 1: you still don't know, you can sit down with your
Speaker 1: family and just bounce ideas off of each other. I
Speaker 1: know that kids are probably going to say koc. But
Speaker 1: besides those, just come up with your even seven to
Speaker 1: ten meals. And then you have it, and please, for
Speaker 1: the love of God, write them down. Write them down
Speaker 1: in your planner, write them down, print them off on
Speaker 1: the wall, because you will forget. We will forget. I
Speaker 1: forget all the time. Like just then, I was like,
Speaker 1: I'm going to list all the meals we love, and
Speaker 1: I could only remember like five. And again, our brain
Speaker 1: is not meant to actually remember all the things. So
Speaker 1: pick your ten and then you're going to start rotating them.
Speaker 1: And this brings me to my meal prep hack number two.
Speaker 1: So this is having theme nights. Now. I talked about
Speaker 1: this in my weird ways, like to keep a cleanish house,
Speaker 1: and that's to have theme days with cleaning certain zones.
Speaker 1: So Monday was Master and minis so they're the bedrooms,
Speaker 1: and then Tuesdays is tiled area Tuesdays. So everything has
Speaker 1: a theme. And this is the same. So I'm sure
Speaker 1: growing up, you guys would probably have heard of, like
Speaker 1: I know, meet free Mondays or like I remember our
Speaker 1: friends had take away Fridays or something, and I was like,
Speaker 1: and you do it, you remember it? And I would
Speaker 1: remember I had dinner at my friend's house once and
Speaker 1: it was takeaway Friday or takeaway Tuesday, and I never
Speaker 1: forgot that that was the day they had takeaway, And
Speaker 1: it's something about maybe for me, I love alliterations, so
Speaker 1: I love if I can do you know, taco Tuesdays
Speaker 1: and things like that, You're going to remember it and
Speaker 1: that's going to take out the decision making as well.
Speaker 1: So he's a little example of what your theme nights
Speaker 1: can look like. So Monday pasta or meat free Mondays,
Speaker 1: Tuesday could be taco Tuesday or chicken and stir fry.
Speaker 1: Wednesday is slow cooker, which slow cooker in itself is
Speaker 1: a hack that if you don't have a slow cooker
Speaker 1: you need to buy one. Thursdays could be Mexican or
Speaker 1: it could be you know, like meat and veg. And
Speaker 1: then Friday could be fend for yourself Friday. So that's
Speaker 1: an example of what theme days look like for meal planning,
Speaker 1: because when you do that, you were going to take
Speaker 1: two seconds to actually do your meal plan which is
Speaker 1: my next tip for meal prep. Now, when I say
Speaker 1: meal planning, I think a lot of people do also
Speaker 1: get a bit overwhelmed because it's like you've decided this,
Speaker 1: you know, maybe on Sunday, you've sat down, you've planned
Speaker 1: your meals for the week ahead. You've decided on Tuesday,
Speaker 1: we're having fratatas. I don't know why I decided tratatas,
Speaker 1: but that's what you're having. And then Tuesday comes and
Speaker 1: you really don't want that. You're like, no, you'll no,
Speaker 1: thank you. The thing is with meal planning, guys, is
Speaker 1: you don't It's not like a contract. It's a loose schedule.
Speaker 1: It's like a go with the flow one, but it's
Speaker 1: you have it in place so you get the right
Speaker 1: groceries for those meals. So for me, my meal plan
Speaker 1: I tend to not even like I as you guys know.
Speaker 1: I've got the meal planning magnets that I make with
Speaker 1: SVP and having them on the fridge it just helps
Speaker 1: everyone know what's going on. And an extra tip I
Speaker 1: have with our meal planning magnets is in red. On
Speaker 1: in the red markers, I will write say the night before,
Speaker 1: if I have to take something out of the fridge
Speaker 1: to defrost, I will write it down. So say Wednesday,
Speaker 1: we're gonna have steak, but the steaks in the freezer
Speaker 1: Tuesday night in red it will say defrost steak. And
Speaker 1: I know that means to take it out, and people
Speaker 1: know everyone, even Harper knows it means to take it
Speaker 1: out and put it in the fridge. So having that
Speaker 1: visual queue in your face so other people can see
Speaker 1: it too, is so so helpful. But what you need
Speaker 1: to know with meal planning is it's a guide, it's
Speaker 1: not a contract. If you want to mix it up,
Speaker 1: it doesn't matter because you're going to have the ingredients anyway.
Speaker 1: The only issue here is if you say you buy
Speaker 1: salmon and it's in the fridge and salmon night was
Speaker 1: meant to be Monday, but now you want it Saturday,
Speaker 1: that's where it can get a bit messy. So I
Speaker 1: feel like if you just have you know, certain meats
Speaker 1: that you know you want to have within the first
Speaker 1: three days of the week, keep them in the fridge
Speaker 1: and you can mix a match and you don't have
Speaker 1: to be stuck with that. And also they say with
Speaker 1: behavioral scientists, they say, if you have a default like
Speaker 1: fallback option, so say yeah, like you see the bill
Speaker 1: plan and you don't want to have frattatas if I
Speaker 1: say that, bit fancy, don't I frattata anyway? If you
Speaker 1: have a fall back option to say like, okay, oh yeah. Well,
Speaker 1: like say I don't want them, and I'm like, oh yeah,
Speaker 1: but we've got this for pesto pasta. I'll just whip
Speaker 1: that up. Because you've got the fall back and the
Speaker 1: default option, you're then not going to resort to like
Speaker 1: getting takeaway. So you're still doing the habit, which is
Speaker 1: making your meals at home and eating healthy or whatever
Speaker 1: it is, and you're still following your meal plan. But
Speaker 1: you've got back up and that's fine. Now. My next
Speaker 1: meal prep hack is one that I will swear by
Speaker 1: till the day I die. And it it is. And
Speaker 1: I know you guys would have seen, you know, on
Speaker 1: TikTok and things, you'll see people meal prepping so they
Speaker 1: actually prep a full meal, which you're like probably thinking, yes, Steph,
Speaker 1: isn't that while we're here in the first place, But no,
Speaker 1: I do this differently. I guess I could probably call
Speaker 1: my food prep. So you know, you'll see people online
Speaker 1: who they prep there literally they will literally make the
Speaker 1: actual meal, so it could be the pasta, which I
Speaker 1: actually will do that. That one's an easy one to
Speaker 1: prep and I actually like that. But they will prep
Speaker 1: the meat with the veg and put it all together
Speaker 1: in the container. But for me, again, I like to
Speaker 1: have flexibility if I because I'm a walking contradiction, I
Speaker 1: need structure. But also if it's too rigid, I will
Speaker 1: run away. So that's why I'm also with these you know,
Speaker 1: different tips. I'm very much talking about being flexible and changing.
Speaker 1: And it's not like so strict and rigid that you
Speaker 1: feel like you have to eat this on this night
Speaker 1: and make this on this day. So what I mean
Speaker 1: by this is instead of me prepping full meals, I
Speaker 1: will prep components of meals. So if you followed me
Speaker 1: for a while, you would know this and I and
Speaker 1: if you haven't, this is what I mean. Basically, every
Speaker 1: week I will prep Mexican beef. So I will just
Speaker 1: prep the protein component and that's it. And with that
Speaker 1: Mexican beef, I can make tacos. I can make burrito bowls.
Speaker 1: I can make nachos. So you can see where I'm
Speaker 1: going with this. I will prep the one that's hardest,
Speaker 1: but it's ready to go. And usually yes, we will
Speaker 1: still always have burrito bowls, but I have the options
Speaker 1: to do other things. And also I'm not having to
Speaker 1: do the extra steps, and then it keeps it really
Speaker 1: nice and fresh. And it's the same down to like
Speaker 1: pulled chicken. So like chuck it in the slow cooker.
Speaker 1: You've got your protein sauce ready to go. You can
Speaker 1: make that into sandwiches, wraps, you can make that into
Speaker 1: part star stir fries, anything you need, but the main
Speaker 1: thing is ready to go. And another way I do this,
Speaker 1: we'll say vegetables and fruit is I will pre chop
Speaker 1: them so certain veggies, like the hardier ones like capskin,
Speaker 1: and that that will last me nearly the whole week. I
Speaker 1: will pre chop them, and certain fruits I will pre
Speaker 1: chop them as well, and I will get into the
Speaker 1: fridge storing stuff a bit later. But having them done
Speaker 1: and those extra steps made means when I go to
Speaker 1: make the kids lunches or quickly grab lunch or make snacks,
Speaker 1: they're already done. And also down to having the veggies
Speaker 1: pre chopped, they're ready to chuck next to the meat
Speaker 1: sauce I've made. So just prep components. Look, if you
Speaker 1: want to prep full meals, go for it. But if
Speaker 1: you're like someone like me, or if you're just starting
Speaker 1: out with this, just take the pressure off and like
Speaker 1: just prep components, and that's going to get your flexibility
Speaker 1: back as well, even down to like say, I'll prep
Speaker 1: the chicken and then I'll so I'll double it, so
Speaker 1: I'll do a double batch, which means I can use
Speaker 1: that chicken for the night we do the stur fries,
Speaker 1: and I can also use it later in the week
Speaker 1: for when we do pasta, and then it's done for
Speaker 1: both double where me and the thing is too. And
Speaker 1: actually there's actually, like I swear there's a study. Is
Speaker 1: there a study on this? Yes, I'm like I already
Speaker 1: written this down somewhere, so apparently, Like I don't know
Speaker 1: about you guys, but when something's reheated, I find it
Speaker 1: not satisfying at all. I just don't enjoy it as much.
Speaker 1: But when it's like kind of prepared fresh, so like
Speaker 1: dinner and things, because you've only prepared the meat component,
Speaker 1: you're still assembling it fresh, so you're still getting the
Speaker 1: dopamine from that, and it's going to be more satisfying
Speaker 1: and taste better in my opinion, things like pasta that
Speaker 1: I think that's fine, and like some slow cooked meals,
Speaker 1: you can one hundred percent just make the whole thing
Speaker 1: and chuck it in a container. But for me, it's
Speaker 1: really killing two birds of one star and you're getting
Speaker 1: the meal prep out of it, but you're also getting
Speaker 1: it fresh as well. All right, So my next meal
Speaker 1: prep hack is to do with storage. Now, there's two
Speaker 1: different parts to this tit or hack. Now, the first
Speaker 1: one is having something. So for example, if you want
Speaker 1: to be meal prepping, you want to be taking your
Speaker 1: lunch places. So say you know, obviously going to work,
Speaker 1: you need to be able to take all your things,
Speaker 1: or if you're out and about with the kids all
Speaker 1: the time, you need to be able to have the
Speaker 1: food you've prepped to come with you. So this is
Speaker 1: where I actually created my lunch bags. Now, this was
Speaker 1: I came up with this because I was going to
Speaker 1: the White House to pack planners every day. I had
Speaker 1: all these snacks I had made, I had my lunch,
Speaker 1: I had my drink bottle, I had like some supplements
Speaker 1: I got from my nature path, I had panatole, I
Speaker 1: had my phone, and I had all of these bags.
Speaker 1: And it was so frustrating and a lot of the
Speaker 1: time I would literally leave containers in my car with
Speaker 1: fresh food that now I couldn't eat. So I started
Speaker 1: so like any of my good product ideas, I sat
Speaker 1: down with a piece of paper and a pen and
Speaker 1: I did the dodgiest drawing on the planet of my
Speaker 1: new lunch bags, and then you know, a year later
Speaker 1: they were born and it's this like and again this
Speaker 1: is one hundred percent. This is a shameless SPP plug,
Speaker 1: but it is life changing. And you don't have to
Speaker 1: obviously use our lunch bags. You can use whatever nice
Speaker 1: lunch bag you find, but having something that is like,
Speaker 1: you know, aesthetic and pretty and just practical, you're going
Speaker 1: to want to use it. So my lunch bags is
Speaker 1: like the front pocket for your phone. I've got all
Speaker 1: these pouches inside, like it's got so much room in it,
Speaker 1: but it's so compact and it's really pretty. And we
Speaker 1: actually just bought out our new tan color which matches
Speaker 1: the lunch mice right my life pouch, and you guys
Speaker 1: weren't crazy. It's so I'm obsessed with it. It's so
Speaker 1: pretty anyway, So it's like a vegan leather. It looks
Speaker 1: like it's this beautiful and we use it for like
Speaker 1: picnics with the kids. And even La so Ela actually
Speaker 1: works at SPP. She's my creative assistant. She's a legend.
Speaker 1: And she even said, and you know, she hasn't got
Speaker 1: kids or anything, and she said, I she's like actually
Speaker 1: started bringing her lunches when she started working with us,
Speaker 1: because she's like, I've got this beautiful bag and I
Speaker 1: want to fill it up. I don't want to just
Speaker 1: chuck in a packet of chips. I actually want to
Speaker 1: put snacks. I want to put my lunch, I want
Speaker 1: to put my water, all of that stuff in there.
Speaker 1: And that really does It's given you dopamine for doing
Speaker 1: something healthy, like a healthy habit. So having something again
Speaker 1: to not have so much resistance to doing the thing.
Speaker 1: So if you're like trying to get a million containers
Speaker 1: and things and you're trying to carry it, that's extra
Speaker 1: effort for you. But if you can just chuck things
Speaker 1: in a bag and go, you're more likely going to
Speaker 1: want to pack your own lunch, you know what I mean. Now,
Speaker 1: the other part of this is having it look aesthetically
Speaker 1: pleasing in your fridge. Now, I love fridge porn. We
Speaker 1: know this. I don't know if my fridge is not organized.
Speaker 1: I feel very stressed and overwhelmed. But this is down
Speaker 1: too out of sight, out of mind. So you know,
Speaker 1: you might see my fridge on Instagram and think, oh, like, oh,
Speaker 1: that's just for like a Pinterest kind of thing. But
Speaker 1: the reason I do it is because again it's a
Speaker 1: visual cue. If you have fruit and vege and healthy
Speaker 1: options in clear containers in the fridge, you are going
Speaker 1: to want to eat them. The kids are going to
Speaker 1: want to eat them. But how many times I know
Speaker 1: all of us have done this. When I don't have
Speaker 1: this and I got packets of things up the back
Speaker 1: of the fridge shoved at the back, I forget they're
Speaker 1: there and say, with veggies and stuff, think about how
Speaker 1: many times you bought bloody iceberg lettuce which I still
Speaker 1: struggle to use. And you buy these bloody lettuce and
Speaker 1: it sits in the fridge or two weeks and then
Speaker 1: you find it and you're like, that's disgusting, and no
Speaker 1: one touches it. So it's out of sight, out of mind.
Speaker 1: So this is a visual queue to be like, if
Speaker 1: it's here, use it even so much. Down to like
Speaker 1: if you're prepping meal prep components and you're worried you
Speaker 1: might forget what day it goes off, Like just grab
Speaker 1: a bit of masking tape and get a texture and
Speaker 1: ride on it. Like you don't need pretty labels, just
Speaker 1: chuck some writing on it and then you will never
Speaker 1: forget it. So for my fridge storage, like you can
Speaker 1: get these things called like green savers. There's like special
Speaker 1: containers for it, so like there's certain things for you know,
Speaker 1: storing your fruit and veg and it's got like like
Speaker 1: a little vent system. But it really does make your
Speaker 1: veggies and that last lot longer then if you just
Speaker 1: left it in the crispa. I swear to god it
Speaker 1: is the best and even down like in terms of
Speaker 1: like and really think about functionality too when you're setting
Speaker 1: up your fridge in your pantry. So for our girls,
Speaker 1: they like to the little pouches of yogurt. I used
Speaker 1: to put them on the top shelf and they were
Speaker 1: never eating them, and it's because they can't reach them,
Speaker 1: and like unless I'm giving it to them obviously, but
Speaker 1: bringing things down to the level where you think it, like,
Speaker 1: it's like it makes sense. Like you know, when you're
Speaker 1: unloading the dishwasher and if you don't have like the
Speaker 1: forks and knives right next to it, it's really annoying
Speaker 1: and it's the same. So like the kids, they can't
Speaker 1: eat things they can't reach unless it's me there, and
Speaker 1: that's more efforts. So just moving things around, try out
Speaker 1: the functionality and see what works best. Now, this hack
Speaker 1: is probably one of my favorites. And I actually kind
Speaker 1: of came across this when we had this on site
Speaker 1: van at this caravan park. So usually like every second
Speaker 1: weekend we would be, you know, getting our stuff and
Speaker 1: going to stay at this van. But one of the
Speaker 1: things I was having issues with is what, like what
Speaker 1: foods do I need to get from the grocery store
Speaker 1: for when we go down there, because you know, you
Speaker 1: have to pack all your stuff up anything you need
Speaker 1: to go down there. Like obviously it's our van, so
Speaker 1: we're semi set up, but like food and stuff, you
Speaker 1: can't leave that there. So what I did is on
Speaker 1: like we get our stuff usually from Woolies, is online orders.
Speaker 1: They have lists, so when you order online, you can
Speaker 1: actually make a list. Now what like and this is
Speaker 1: like what it's meant for, but people don't know about
Speaker 1: it is. All you have to do is like the
Speaker 1: normal groceries you always get, build it into a list
Speaker 1: into Woolies. So whenever you want to do your groceries,
Speaker 1: Like I have a weekly grocery list, I have a
Speaker 1: fortnightly one, and then I have like literally one that's
Speaker 1: just for household cleaning and stuff. So all I have
Speaker 1: to do is click the list and everything I normally
Speaker 1: order will populate into my car and I just check
Speaker 1: out like it is life changing, and then even down
Speaker 1: to fortnightly, so I will just do my weekly, then
Speaker 1: I'll add the fortnightly as a top up, so anything
Speaker 1: that we know we don't go through that fast, that
Speaker 1: goes in there and then you check out. So I
Speaker 1: did this with the van, so I had a van
Speaker 1: list of certain things because I knew we were having
Speaker 1: a lot more barbecues down there, so there was a
Speaker 1: lot more of like sausages and stuff, and I would
Speaker 1: just literally click on that and that was our thing
Speaker 1: and we'd pick it up on the way down. So
Speaker 1: it's just again having these these visual cues and list
Speaker 1: things already prepped. Even if you do go to the
Speaker 1: grocery store, have your list down, like even down to
Speaker 1: the categories. I made my shopping list for SVP and
Speaker 1: it's in the category, so when you know you're in
Speaker 1: that section, you go to that part of the list,
Speaker 1: like it's about just making life easier. And now, I
Speaker 1: honestly could go on about this meal prep tips all day.
Speaker 1: So this is probably like a part one but my
Speaker 1: last one for this. Now, you guys know, I said
Speaker 1: with the meal plan, it's not like a contract, which
Speaker 1: is true, But I honestly do recommend deciding what you
Speaker 1: want for dinner that night at nine o'clock in the morning,
Speaker 1: not at five pm. So if you're feeling like, oh
Speaker 1: like and again, look you can change this because you're
Speaker 1: gonna have this stuff ready, but say, if it's a
Speaker 1: slow cooker meal, you're gonna want to know that you
Speaker 1: need to pop that on in the morning, and your
Speaker 1: brain is so much fresher in the morning. So just
Speaker 1: knowing like, okay, oh, like you know, maybe little Johnny
Speaker 1: Bloody Johnny's back. Johnny's not feeling great at the moment,
Speaker 1: and I don't feel like he's gonna want sushi. But
Speaker 1: we had part We've got stuff a pasta for tomorrow
Speaker 1: at night, so let's make that instead, or we're going
Speaker 1: to do the slow cooker and even down to maybe
Speaker 1: you forgot to defrost something from the night before, even
Speaker 1: though it was on your meal planner magnet on the fridge,
Speaker 1: You're now going to know that's what you need to do,
Speaker 1: because the last thing you want is well, after school
Speaker 1: pickup or whatever you're doing, you don't want to have
Speaker 1: to go back down to Woolworth. You don't want to
Speaker 1: have to be like, oh my god, what are we
Speaker 1: going to make now? But just having that kind of
Speaker 1: in your mind in the morning is the best way
Speaker 1: to go ahead. And so I actually no, I have
Speaker 1: a bonus tip here. So this is one thing I
Speaker 1: really love that we have in our pantry. It's called
Speaker 1: the Grab and go TP. Now, this also we use
Speaker 1: for school lunches, and basically it's a tub in the
Speaker 1: pantry that has a bunch of ready to go snacks
Speaker 1: that are preapproved by me of course, that the girls
Speaker 1: know they can just go in and grab it and
Speaker 1: they don't have to annoy you for snacks, because let's
Speaker 1: be honest, we're just a bunch of snack bitches all
Speaker 1: day for our kids. And having this tub not only
Speaker 1: for like after school snacks, but also so for yourself,
Speaker 1: like I'll have a bunch of like protein bars and
Speaker 1: just snacks. I know, I can grab. It allows you
Speaker 1: to be hitting you know, your protein goals and things
Speaker 1: like that and making sure you're actually eating. But also
Speaker 1: for the kids, so they're not having to like nag you,
Speaker 1: and it gives them some autonomy and it makes them
Speaker 1: feel confident as well, like empowers them to be like
Speaker 1: I can choose between this packet of chips or this
Speaker 1: packet of chips, you know. And yeah, so in the morning,
Speaker 1: when like say, if you've forgotten to prep their lunches,
Speaker 1: like they have a tub, they know they can quickly
Speaker 1: grab a few things. You've got your veggies in that
Speaker 1: pre chopped, chuck that in a container and then hopefully
Speaker 1: you've prepped their wraps and things and they're in the
Speaker 1: freezer from the night before and you're ready to go.
Speaker 1: So it's just about having like a nice default fall
Speaker 1: back and tubs. Tubs just fix everything in my life.
Speaker 1: I have tubs everywhere. Now. I know, I've just given
Speaker 1: you guys so many tips and tricks and I hope
Speaker 1: you guys love them. But even if you can just
Speaker 1: take one thing away from today is to go away
Speaker 1: and write down your ten meals that your family and
Speaker 1: yourself loves, that you can just have on rotation and
Speaker 1: stick it on your fridge. If you do one thing,
Speaker 1: just to do that, because it's going to make your
Speaker 1: life so much easier. And make sure you check out
Speaker 1: if you need any extra planning tools and stuff. Of course,
Speaker 1: we have lots oft SPP because it's my jam. We've
Speaker 1: got obviously got the lunch bags, and we've got the
Speaker 1: meal planner magnets and all that jazz. But even if not,
Speaker 1: just write it down on a piece of paper, stick
Speaker 1: it on the wall, stick it on your forehead so
Speaker 1: everyone can see, and you're set. Anyways, I love you guys,
Speaker 1: and I'll be back in your ears on Monday. Bye.