Speaker 1: Episode two eighty seven is episode one eighty two, Eat
Speaker 1: Healthier and More Affordably with Cassie Joy Garcia. Welcome to
Speaker 1: the Frugal Friends podcast, where you'll learn to save money,
Speaker 1: embrace simplicity, rice and liver rich your life. Here your
Speaker 1: host Jen and Jill Ooo, Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast.
Speaker 1: My name is Jen, my name is Jill, And in
Speaker 1: preparation for my impending childbirth, we've got another classic episode,
Speaker 1: one of our most popular episodes from a few years ago,
Speaker 1: on eating Healthier, More Affordably. And I would say it
Speaker 1: makes it easier because she talks all about really attainable
Speaker 1: meal prep. I know we have several listeners who have
Speaker 1: like chronic illnesses making standing up for long periods of
Speaker 1: time really difficult, and so I think Cassie's approached to
Speaker 1: meal prepping makes that more attainable for any of our
Speaker 1: listeners who may not have all day Sunday to meal
Speaker 1: prep for seven days. This is one of my favorite episodes,
Speaker 1: and that's why we're rerunning it because it also was
Speaker 1: one of your favorite episodes. We love talking about food
Speaker 1: and anytime we can hack it and slice and dice
Speaker 1: it in a way that makes it more affordable. We
Speaker 1: feel good about the nutrition we're getting into our bodies,
Speaker 1: it's not taking up a ton of time. And we
Speaker 1: just love interviewing people like Cassie who have all of
Speaker 1: the tips and tricks for us. So this is just
Speaker 1: a great one. It's a jam, it's a keeper. Yes,
Speaker 1: I'm funny enough. Cassie was about like pregnant as pregnant
Speaker 1: as I am now whoa when we interviewed her two
Speaker 1: years ago. How fitting? Right, So before we get into
Speaker 1: the interview, today's episode is brought to you by Beef.
Speaker 1: It's what's for dinner today and tomorrow. That's right. Eating
Speaker 1: the food you have at home for two days straight.
Speaker 1: Feeding at home two nights in a row sounds difficult
Speaker 1: for you, Or maybe it doesn't sound difficult, but you've
Speaker 1: looked at your transactions and you've noticed, huh, I haven't
Speaker 1: been doing that. Try the Three Day Spending Makeover. It's
Speaker 1: a free, three day challenge to help you find what
Speaker 1: you value spending on, learn strategies for saying no to
Speaker 1: the things you don't, and create a plan for guilt
Speaker 1: free spending that won't leave you broke. If this sounds
Speaker 1: like it, will help you eat at home more. Then
Speaker 1: head to Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash Makeover to
Speaker 1: start your three day challenge today. Again, it's free, it's
Speaker 1: three days. You can access it online. Yeah, and you
Speaker 1: don't have to do it three days, or you could
Speaker 1: do it all in one day. Yeah. I'm not gonna
Speaker 1: tell you what to do about freedom, all right. So
Speaker 1: if you love eating, which is something that Jill and
Speaker 1: I both love to do, then we have so many
Speaker 1: episodes for you, so many. A few really good ones
Speaker 1: that kind of also talk about meal prepping and planning specifically,
Speaker 1: We've got episode two sixty two meal Prep and Freezer
Speaker 1: meal Tips. Jill and I get real spicy in that one.
Speaker 1: We got a big heated debate on defrosting. Episode one
Speaker 1: forty nine is Frugal Meal Planning with Ashton Cope. We
Speaker 1: talk a lot about how you candy your own meal planning.
Speaker 1: So those are a few good ones to queue up
Speaker 1: for after this, but without further ado. Cassie Joy Garcia
Speaker 1: is the New York Times best selling author of Cook
Speaker 1: What's Dinner Fix? And we couldn't say that when the
Speaker 1: episode came out because I don't think the book had
Speaker 1: come out, but now we can't say it. And she's
Speaker 1: the creative force behind the popular food blog Fed and
Speaker 1: Fit and just a joy of a person. Let's do it.
Speaker 1: Here's Cassie. Cassie, welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast. We're
Speaker 1: so excited to chill with you today. Thank you all
Speaker 1: so much for having me. Interviews are our favorites, and
Speaker 1: talking about food is our favorites. So I mean eating
Speaker 1: food is our favorite favorite. But it is gonna be Yeah,
Speaker 1: this is the second best thing is to talk about
Speaker 1: food with friends. So and then here we are. So yeah,
Speaker 1: we already introduced you a little bit, but please tell
Speaker 1: us a little bit about Fed and Fit specifically, I
Speaker 1: would love to so Fed and Fit. I started it
Speaker 1: this past summer we celebrated ten years. So ten years
Speaker 1: ago as a personal blog, and you know, as so
Speaker 1: many personal blogs in their beginning days, it was just
Speaker 1: all about me and my journey and what I was learning,
Speaker 1: and that just blossomed over time. Eventually it wasn't just
Speaker 1: my mom and my dad reading it. And I subvidly
Speaker 1: remember the first time I had three people on the
Speaker 1: website in a day, and I thought someone I don't
Speaker 1: know who could have It could have been an aunt
Speaker 1: who knows been Anyways, it blossomed overtime and I had
Speaker 1: readers ask great questions. I was sharing recipes as I
Speaker 1: had really uncovered a new stage of health and wellness
Speaker 1: in my life, started feeling better than ever by way
Speaker 1: of feeling myself better than ever before, I wanted to
Speaker 1: develop recipes that supported that and then share those and
Speaker 1: read I started asking great questions, and so I went
Speaker 1: back to become a nutrition holistic nutritionists so that I
Speaker 1: could help support them in that. And then my career
Speaker 1: has really just blossomed into this really fun tango, if
Speaker 1: you will, of just trying to solve problems for the
Speaker 1: fed and fit readers. And also as my life has blossomed,
Speaker 1: you know, I got married in that time frame, I
Speaker 1: had two kiddos, soon to be a third in December,
Speaker 1: and it's just, you know what, getting dinner on the
Speaker 1: table used to be really not that big of a
Speaker 1: deal in my house has turned into a really big deal.
Speaker 1: And so it was a problem for me. And I
Speaker 1: love to cook. I was like, why is this so difficult?
Speaker 1: Why is it so challenging night after night, day after day.
Speaker 1: And it turns out that was a common pain point
Speaker 1: for our readers, and so I wanted to solve that
Speaker 1: problem and that's where we are today. That's an amazing
Speaker 1: thing about blogging. I mean, you've been doing it for
Speaker 1: a long time. Ten years is a long time to
Speaker 1: do anything, but especially as it relates to blogging. I
Speaker 1: was reading in the intro part of your book, how
Speaker 1: you know when you began you had to explain what
Speaker 1: a blog was to people. I'm like, yeah, that's like
Speaker 1: how og you are. But also the nice thing about
Speaker 1: that is being able to grow with your readers and
Speaker 1: vice versa, that as you enter into new life stages,
Speaker 1: there's new things that you're discovering, and how sometimes the
Speaker 1: problems change and the ways in which you find solutions change.
Speaker 1: So I couldn't imagine there'd be so many people who
Speaker 1: can relate to you on a variety of levels, right
Speaker 1: what it was like to cook for one person, then two,
Speaker 1: then kids, and how does this all weave together? So
Speaker 1: really excited for your perspective on this. Oh, thank you,
Speaker 1: and I love your honesty and saying like even you
Speaker 1: love to cook and even with like a spouse and kids.
Speaker 1: It just became like really difficult, and like for the
Speaker 1: rest of us who may not love cooking, like that's
Speaker 1: a little sigh of really and be like, oh, Okay,
Speaker 1: I don't need to like change this part of my
Speaker 1: personhood to like succeed with it. I just need to
Speaker 1: learn a few shortcuts. And I know a lot of
Speaker 1: our listeners are like especially interested in, Okay, how do
Speaker 1: I make this work? Also being healthy, because sometimes in
Speaker 1: the paying off debt journey or trying to be frugal,
Speaker 1: we're told like, Okay, just eat beans and rice, eat
Speaker 1: the cheapest things. But like, there are a lot of
Speaker 1: people who who can't do that, who because of dietary restrictions,
Speaker 1: actually cannot do that. I had somebody the other day
Speaker 1: message me and be like or maybe it was in
Speaker 1: CLUBBFF or something, and they were like, I want to
Speaker 1: eat healthy. I don't know how to lower my grocery budget.
Speaker 1: And I was like, well, maybe you, maybe you don't.
Speaker 1: Maybe you just need to like either lower something else,
Speaker 1: like another category, or just like learn different techniques for
Speaker 1: repurposing or whatever. So I'm super excited for everything that
Speaker 1: our listeners are going to get from you today. So, like,
Speaker 1: as someone who places a high value on healthy eating, like,
Speaker 1: how can we find that balance between eating healthy and
Speaker 1: keeping the grocery budget manageable? That is such a great
Speaker 1: question and it's a bit of a passion project of
Speaker 1: mine is to try to crack that code in as
Speaker 1: many different areas in ways as possible, and also to
Speaker 1: acknowledge that you know you're not I just I just
Speaker 1: have to say, you're not doing it wrong. Right, if
Speaker 1: you're not buying grass fed beef and pastured chicken, you know,
Speaker 1: an organic milk and all those things, yes, that's ideal,
Speaker 1: but there's nothing wrong with the others. Like I put
Speaker 1: them in the good, better, best category, and so do
Speaker 1: like it's still good, it's still dinner. You know, it's
Speaker 1: still food. And so if you find yourself feeling like,
Speaker 1: you know, you're not quite checking the box because you're
Speaker 1: not leaning into the most healthful or health forward options,
Speaker 1: it doesn't mean that you're doing anything wrong. I just
Speaker 1: wanted to say that, yes, yeah, in general, I really
Speaker 1: believe that. And also I think that I just want
Speaker 1: to reduce as much pain points in the kitchen as possible.
Speaker 1: So if you are looking though to optimize and tweak,
Speaker 1: can go a little bit at a little bit as
Speaker 1: you go. I think it's good to think about groceries
Speaker 1: in terms of number one, chasing the sales wherever possible.
Speaker 1: So they still do put organic produce on sale, and
Speaker 1: we think about supply and demand. And you walk into
Speaker 1: the grocery store and you know when something is in season,
Speaker 1: I mean, it's probably going to be more affordable to you.
Speaker 1: You're going to see a sale in the center aisle
Speaker 1: for Brussels sprouts. Let's just make something up, all right,
Speaker 1: Brussels sprouts are on sale and they're organic. Oh my gosh,
Speaker 1: and it says it has a little local sticker on it.
Speaker 1: And the reason why they're on sale is because the
Speaker 1: local farmers near you they all all the crops. If
Speaker 1: you've ever gardened anything, it seems like everything's available all
Speaker 1: at once, and you're thinking, goodness, gracious, how am I
Speaker 1: going to eat all this oprah? Or at least I
Speaker 1: have that thought in my house. And so everything's available
Speaker 1: all at once, and so there's a lot of supply,
Speaker 1: not nearly the same amount of demand. It doesn't spike
Speaker 1: with it, and so they mark the prices down, and
Speaker 1: so I say, stock up, chase those center aisle sales
Speaker 1: local to you is going to be also less expensive
Speaker 1: because the car, the price to get it to you
Speaker 1: was less right, they didn't have to ship it in
Speaker 1: for Argentina. So that's one thing is to try to
Speaker 1: shop as local and in season as possible. Another sale
Speaker 1: you can usually chase is in the protein section. Whether
Speaker 1: you lean into animal proteins or veggie based proteins, you're
Speaker 1: typically going to have seasons of sales around there. So
Speaker 1: if grass fed beef, for example, is the same price
Speaker 1: as conventional beef one day, it happens. Every once in
Speaker 1: a while, it'll happen stock up and that's usually when
Speaker 1: I'm grabbing five to six pounds of ground beef at
Speaker 1: the grocery store and then I freeze all that I
Speaker 1: know I don't need right away. Okay, So those are
Speaker 1: really great ways you can give yourself a leg up.
Speaker 1: Another quick tip, I hope I'm not. This is not
Speaker 1: a runaway train. I get really cautiate. Okay. Another quick
Speaker 1: tip that I have for you is to think about
Speaker 1: nutrient density. This is we're going to geek out, so
Speaker 1: bear with me. Nutrient density of what you're investing in. So,
Speaker 1: for example, I would put if you're everyone is on
Speaker 1: a budget, whether they or everyone is working within a budget, right,
Speaker 1: and regardless of what your number is, I always like
Speaker 1: to when I look at what's on my list, prioritize
Speaker 1: between organic slash, you know, whatever the category isn't conventional,
Speaker 1: Which one can I get? Right? Can I get away
Speaker 1: with conventional for this category? And which are the ones
Speaker 1: that I if I can, if I've got room in
Speaker 1: my budget, I can splurge on the higher quality one.
Speaker 1: Fats are going to be the most nutrient dense thing
Speaker 1: on your plate, and so I'm talking butter olive oil, gee,
Speaker 1: avocado oil, coconut oil, those kinds of ingredients. It's one
Speaker 1: of those things because they're so nutrient dense and because
Speaker 1: they have are just going to go a really long way,
Speaker 1: it makes a lot of sense to invest in a
Speaker 1: higher quality for that category, all right, Versus let me
Speaker 1: think of an example on the other end. You know
Speaker 1: you have there's the clean fifteen? Is it the clean fifteen?
Speaker 1: And dirtvy doesen't yet? It is? You know, like when
Speaker 1: we think about the clean fifteen, it means that that
Speaker 1: produced item isn't necessarily going to carry a huge toxic load.
Speaker 1: If you get conventional, So get conventional for that item.
Speaker 1: An orange comes to mind. You know, something that has
Speaker 1: a thick skin that you're probably not going to eat
Speaker 1: is a good example of something where you can splurge
Speaker 1: or get conventional on another. My other favorite protein to
Speaker 1: talk about on splurging for a slightly higher quality because
Speaker 1: of nutrient density is an egg. Now, I know, when
Speaker 1: you're standing in front of the eggs section at the
Speaker 1: grocery store and you're looking at your options between conventional
Speaker 1: eggs and pasture raised and cage free and all that,
Speaker 1: you think when you're looking at the price difference between
Speaker 1: those two eggs, you might think, oh, my gosh, the
Speaker 1: pastured eggs are three x the price of conventional eggs.
Speaker 1: And that's true, but it's still going to be the
Speaker 1: most affordable protein of all of the animal based proteins
Speaker 1: out there. And so I would almost rather you spend
Speaker 1: the extra three dollars a dozen on the pasture raised
Speaker 1: eggs than even get the grass fed beef over conventional. Wow.
Speaker 1: I never thought of it like that. Yeah, well, I
Speaker 1: just had no idea. I just thought you either care
Speaker 1: about how they treat the chickens or you don't I
Speaker 1: hadn't put the nutrient component into it. Yeah, the nutrients
Speaker 1: available in a pastured egg. If you've I wish I could,
Speaker 1: I could go get an egg for you, but it'd
Speaker 1: be quite a walk. But I love to show the
Speaker 1: vision of when you're looking at an egg. Yolk is
Speaker 1: such a good example. Now there are ways that they
Speaker 1: can buy an engineer feed for chickens, so like just
Speaker 1: to put that disclaimer're out there, but generally a pasture
Speaker 1: raised egg or chicken is going to produce an egg
Speaker 1: where if you crack the egg in your hand or
Speaker 1: you put it on a plate, the yolk is going
Speaker 1: to sit up right more like a golf ball almost.
Speaker 1: It's going to have more integrity in those protein structures,
Speaker 1: and it's gonna be a deeper shade of orange or yellow,
Speaker 1: whereas the conventional egg is gonna be a little more flat,
Speaker 1: a little more pancake less proteins really holding everything together
Speaker 1: in a little bit more washed out in color. Wow wow.
Speaker 1: And it's the protein content that keeps that like yolk rounder. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So that means YEA all work together, the vitamins, the minerals,
Speaker 1: the proteins, the fats. Then it's such I'm such a
Speaker 1: fan of a whole egg. I'm always going to lean
Speaker 1: in that direction, you know, to eat the whole thing
Speaker 1: because they're so nutrient dense. But that's just kind know,
Speaker 1: a different way to think about your shopping list, you know,
Speaker 1: whereas some of the I don't know, conventional items, the
Speaker 1: crackers and the cookies, the things that you're buying in
Speaker 1: the center of the grocery store that are a luxury product,
Speaker 1: right for really being honest, it's not a necessary product. Oh,
Speaker 1: although it's going to be nice to get, you know,
Speaker 1: maybe organic crackers. That's great if you've got room in
Speaker 1: your budget for that, but it's not something that I
Speaker 1: would say, You're going to get a lot of nutrient
Speaker 1: bang for your buck, and so I'd rather you spend
Speaker 1: that on the fresh mainstays beautiful, great, And even still,
Speaker 1: I mean I'm still stuck on this egg thing. Even
Speaker 1: with that, eggs are still very inexpensive considering what you
Speaker 1: get per egg. It just looks more expensive because of
Speaker 1: the eggs that it's sitting next to and what we've
Speaker 1: been conditioned to expect eggs to cost. But even still,
Speaker 1: you're getting a pretty good bang for your buck, even
Speaker 1: when you're getting the more expensive are more nutrient dense
Speaker 1: eggs amazing. When I say one more thing about eggs,
Speaker 1: we're on it. Now, let's go. I'm not a huge
Speaker 1: fan of egg like eating eggs by themselves, but the
Speaker 1: other day I whipped up an egg with a little
Speaker 1: bit of milk and a little bit of shredded cheddar
Speaker 1: and put it in the waffle iron. And Keto people
Speaker 1: have been doing this, so it's not like I found
Speaker 1: something new. But that egg was so fluffy and so delicious,
Speaker 1: and I was like, I like eggs. If this is
Speaker 1: what eggs can be, I like it. So if you're
Speaker 1: looking for a way to incorporate more whole eggs in
Speaker 1: your diet, try them in the waffle iron. Just all
Speaker 1: caution to the wind with you, Jen, I don't even
Speaker 1: care how you're supposed to use this kitchen appliance. We're
Speaker 1: gonna just throw some egg on it. I had made
Speaker 1: waffles and I was like, Okay, the waffle iron's already dirty,
Speaker 1: let me put my egg on there. It was life changing,
Speaker 1: So I'm here for it. That's all. That's all I
Speaker 1: have to say about eggs. Now. There is so much
Speaker 1: more though that We could say, so we're gonna get
Speaker 1: so a hijack, but there's so many ways you can
Speaker 1: make them hard, boil them, poach um brum, there's more
Speaker 1: things and put it in stuff. Even as it is,
Speaker 1: I love it. I love it so much. It's one
Speaker 1: of the most versatile things. You're like the guy from
Speaker 1: um Forrest Gump. But also I don't want to move
Speaker 1: so quickly past all these other tips that you've given us.
Speaker 1: And it really is this beautiful blend of how we
Speaker 1: can eat well and within whatever our budget is, like
Speaker 1: to make that manageable where we're not just feeling this
Speaker 1: pressure to go organic with every single thing or to
Speaker 1: become somebody that we're just not if our priorities aren't
Speaker 1: exactly there, but if we do want to care for
Speaker 1: our bodies, well, there are good things that we can
Speaker 1: be doing, Like what's in season. It doesn't matter what
Speaker 1: Pinterest told you looks good and you saved the image.
Speaker 1: Go with what's in season first and chopping the produce
Speaker 1: and the meats first rather than all the other I
Speaker 1: like the term, yeah, the luxury items. These are the
Speaker 1: ways that will help our budget and our bodies alliteration,
Speaker 1: but also You've got a whole other concept here that
Speaker 1: I think is a tip in and of itself of
Speaker 1: how we can feed ourselves well on a budget. So
Speaker 1: you've got this whole thing called a dinner series. Can
Speaker 1: you describe for us what that is, how you go
Speaker 1: about it. Yes, So, when we're looking at what we're
Speaker 1: spending on groceries, probably the biggest leak in our our
Speaker 1: entire budget system for groceries is going to be wasted food.
Speaker 1: Right at least that's the case. Maybe I'm maybe I'm
Speaker 1: projecting this, but that's the case, not alone. And it's
Speaker 1: and it's all well intentioned, right, and there's it's not
Speaker 1: not not to shame anybody again, but you know, we
Speaker 1: do our best, but we recipe calls for a quarter
Speaker 1: of an onion, We chop up that quarter of the onion,
Speaker 1: We with good intention, place the rest of it in
Speaker 1: a container in the crisper veggie drawer, and then we
Speaker 1: forget about it until it's a sad, sad onion and
Speaker 1: we're throwing it away and it's like, what did you
Speaker 1: actually spend on that onion? Just went per tablespoon just
Speaker 1: went way up. And so I think that there's a
Speaker 1: there's got to be a better way where we can
Speaker 1: number one. I'll be honest. Although the efficiency as it
Speaker 1: relates to my grocery budget was nice, it was not
Speaker 1: my primary goal. My primary goal to solving the dinner
Speaker 1: problem was how do I make this just easier on me?
Speaker 1: Because I was exhausted and I wanted to not want
Speaker 1: to not I wanted to order also a luxury. I
Speaker 1: want to order take out every night, is because I
Speaker 1: was so exhausted. And so what I found is that
Speaker 1: if we weave ingredients from one meal together into the next,
Speaker 1: not only can we yes save because we're using up
Speaker 1: that thing, we're using up that ingredient, but also we're
Speaker 1: saving on energy because we only have to cook something
Speaker 1: once and then repurpose it into several different meals. And
Speaker 1: so this dinner series what you brought up, and this
Speaker 1: is how cook one center fix. This new book is structured.
Speaker 1: It's sixty of these dinner series, so one hundred and
Speaker 1: twenty complete meals, and they're paired up so that let's say,
Speaker 1: for example, I just I was just making one in
Speaker 1: the kitchen earlier today, but I have three pounds of
Speaker 1: shredded chicken, so I walk you through how to cook
Speaker 1: chicken so that it's shredded afterwards. And again this is
Speaker 1: one of those things. Lean into the sails. Go to
Speaker 1: the butcher counter first and see what they've got. And
Speaker 1: if grass fed beef is just beef is on sale,
Speaker 1: a pork shoulders on sale, the chicken, whatever it is,
Speaker 1: grab that thing and then flip to that chapter. My
Speaker 1: hope is this is how it's going to be used.
Speaker 1: And then flip to that chapter in the book and say, Okay,
Speaker 1: I've got a pork shoulder. What the heck do I
Speaker 1: do with it? And I walk you through. And so
Speaker 1: I take that pork shoulder, which is a lot of meat.
Speaker 1: And most folks when they do get a pork shoulder
Speaker 1: or a pork but they think I'm going to be
Speaker 1: eating carnetas for the next seven days, because we just
Speaker 1: think about one dish and then we just eat the leftovers.
Speaker 1: But there's a lot of food boardom that comes into play,
Speaker 1: and then by day three you're over it and you
Speaker 1: want to throw it away anyways, and so that comes
Speaker 1: into that food waste. So I walk you through how
Speaker 1: to make that pork shoulder, and then once it's cooked,
Speaker 1: we divide up the cooked and shredded pork shoulder into
Speaker 1: two totally different meals. So maybe the first one our
Speaker 1: carnetests that we serve up crisp it I was a garcia.
Speaker 1: I feel really confident about the Karneta's recipe book. Spent
Speaker 1: lots of three decades figuring that out, and then it
Speaker 1: served up with fresh corn. And then the second meal
Speaker 1: is this sticky honey garlic pork that I serve over
Speaker 1: like a white rice. So a totally different dinner, totally
Speaker 1: different meal experience. But you're able to extend the use
Speaker 1: of that protein what you've invested in it in terms
Speaker 1: of time and money. I love it. I am geeking
Speaker 1: out on this one, honestly because I think this speaks
Speaker 1: to not only me but my husband. I don't know
Speaker 1: that I've heard that term before. Food boredom. I know it.
Speaker 1: I know it well. Though my husband will not do leftovers,
Speaker 1: Love him to death. He has so many other skills
Speaker 1: and qualities that are fantastic money will not eat leftovers,
Speaker 1: which has forced me to be creative. But then also
Speaker 1: it's so lovely to run into someone like yourself, Cassie
Speaker 1: who's on the work already to say, all right, here
Speaker 1: we go, here's what we can do with the means,
Speaker 1: so that we don't end up throwing this out and
Speaker 1: someone doesn't get bored with the thing that you spend
Speaker 1: all this time wavering in the kitchen. For Yeah, he's
Speaker 1: not the only one. Like I know other people that
Speaker 1: don't like don't eat leftovers, and so this is essentially
Speaker 1: kind of like a way to repurpose leftovers, but like intentionally, Yes,
Speaker 1: I have a dear friend coined it really well. Her
Speaker 1: name is Michelle Tam and she said it's you made Bestovers.
Speaker 1: I was like, Hi, you pithy genius. That's so good. Gosh,
Speaker 1: that is that's the she's the she no nonpalea. Yes, yes,
Speaker 1: not that website. Yes, okay, that's so great. And like
Speaker 1: you said, it also saves energy as well, Like certainly
Speaker 1: it probably would be easy if we could be the
Speaker 1: type of people who just eat the same thing over
Speaker 1: and over again. Okay, that would be ideal, but you
Speaker 1: can still get that, Okay, cook wants a big, massive
Speaker 1: thing and then repurpose it in a couple of different ways.
Speaker 1: And so that's I think like the best of both
Speaker 1: worlds or we're not putting in a ton of time
Speaker 1: and energy, but we are getting variety. Yes, that's my hope. Yeah, absolutely,
Speaker 1: I mean and I eat like even will eat leftovers.
Speaker 1: I think I have enough room in my life for
Speaker 1: like one day of leftovers. Beyond that, then yeah, I
Speaker 1: totally get it, the food boredom sets in. So this
Speaker 1: is definitely something that I will be incorporated because and
Speaker 1: it's I hate dishes too, and so like the meaty
Speaker 1: parts of it of the meal take like all of
Speaker 1: the dishes, and so this is like cutting out like
Speaker 1: a day's worth of dishes too, which is my arch nemesis. So,
Speaker 1: speaking of time saving, what are some of your face
Speaker 1: favorant time saving tips in the kitchen, because that's essentially
Speaker 1: really what helps people stick to their meal plan because
Speaker 1: they can like plan incorporate this dinner series into their
Speaker 1: meal plan. But like, how are we going to stick
Speaker 1: to it? I love that question. So a couple of
Speaker 1: my favorite tips are, Oh, this one's a little wild.
Speaker 1: I'm going to give you the wild one first. So
Speaker 1: when you get home from the grocery store, you know,
Speaker 1: when you already probably have an idea of what meals
Speaker 1: you want to make, in mind when you get home
Speaker 1: from the grocer store, it's top of mind. It's fresh,
Speaker 1: and in two days, when you're ready to make that
Speaker 1: chili that you're planning on making, you will have forgotten
Speaker 1: all the ingredients that go into it. It happens to
Speaker 1: me and I write recipes and I'm like, what the
Speaker 1: what does this call for again? And so I have
Speaker 1: to get out the book or pull up the website
Speaker 1: and go through the list and get all the ingredients
Speaker 1: out and then make the recipe going through the list.
Speaker 1: When you get home from the grocery store and you
Speaker 1: have all of your radients already out, and it's top
Speaker 1: of mind of what goes with what is to store
Speaker 1: the marigerator organized by meal, get bonus points makes it
Speaker 1: even better and even easier. And I say, y'all, throw
Speaker 1: the can of beans that you're going to put into
Speaker 1: the chili. Put that in the refrigerator with the rest
Speaker 1: of the ingredients so you're going to put into it.
Speaker 1: So it's all together, and it eliminates that time, the
Speaker 1: rummaging time to find all the things that you need.
Speaker 1: And it's going to make it so much more likely
Speaker 1: because it's when it's been a day. It's been a day,
Speaker 1: and you're like, Okay, it's five thirty and I gotta
Speaker 1: start on this chili. I can't let that. You know,
Speaker 1: that beef that I bought go bad, and I really
Speaker 1: gonna start on it. And you're thinking, I find everything,
Speaker 1: I can't remember what all goes in this stuff. You
Speaker 1: know it's already, they're ready for you. So that's one
Speaker 1: of my favorite tips. Another tip I have is that
Speaker 1: you don't have to be a meal prepper. Sometimes when
Speaker 1: folks think meal prep, they think making seven different dishes
Speaker 1: right stacked in your refrigerator and you grab them and
Speaker 1: you go. You can also meel prep by just doing
Speaker 1: little things to get you ahead, like chopping garlic an onion.
Speaker 1: So the next time and a recipe calls for maybe
Speaker 1: a quarter of an onion, for example, and you already
Speaker 1: have your cutting board out, finish chopping up the rest
Speaker 1: of that onion and put it in a little mason
Speaker 1: jar and seal it, and then keep that chopped onion
Speaker 1: and your refrigerator and use it in the next five days.
Speaker 1: Because there's a really good chance that majority of the
Speaker 1: recipes you're going to cook call for garlic and or onion,
Speaker 1: and that way you can just take a spoonful of it,
Speaker 1: put it in your skillet, and you don't have to
Speaker 1: get out the cutting board. Another dish you're saving on
Speaker 1: and that's already done for you. Same thing for the garlic.
Speaker 1: Put in a little mason jar, pre mince your garlic
Speaker 1: versus again a luxury item. Are things that are already
Speaker 1: prepped for you. So if you're looking to optimize your
Speaker 1: grocery list, that would be a really great saving is
Speaker 1: to do your own minced garlic. So things like that
Speaker 1: I think really can save a lot of time. Beautiful Cassie,
Speaker 1: it is. It is wild that first tip there put
Speaker 1: the can into the fridge, just unbridled, unashamed. They are
Speaker 1: too much urgill today. But it strikes me as something
Speaker 1: similar to your boxed meals? Is that the right term
Speaker 1: for it? Where you get the shipment of all of
Speaker 1: the ingredients, you cook it yourself, and there's something fun
Speaker 1: to that too, And I think it seems easier because
Speaker 1: you've got all of the ingredients right there. You just
Speaker 1: pull out the bag and they're still chopping involved, but
Speaker 1: you've got all of the portions for it, so it's
Speaker 1: almost like doing that yourself. Yea, what if you got
Speaker 1: little clear containers like four of them to put in
Speaker 1: your fridge and that way you just pull out one
Speaker 1: of your containers and it has all of the ingredients
Speaker 1: in it. I want that for you. I really want
Speaker 1: that for you. Yes, I want that for you. Don't
Speaker 1: spend a ton money on the clear plastic. Yeah that might. Yeah,
Speaker 1: do the thing first and then make sure it'll work
Speaker 1: for you. But yes, that is a beautiful eggs on
Speaker 1: the waffle maker and put your canned goods in the fridge.
Speaker 1: You heard it here first, folks. Anyways, No, that is awesome.
Speaker 1: Like I always when I'm doing a recipe, I always
Speaker 1: like think about the messan plats or something like everything
Speaker 1: out at the same time. But this is just taking
Speaker 1: that one step further and getting everything out ahead of time. Yes, so,
Speaker 1: and it makes it I think that that's also a
Speaker 1: motivating thing too, when you know you've got this and
Speaker 1: it's all said, it's kind of fun. Yeah, we like fun.
Speaker 1: We do anything to make things more fun, and a
Speaker 1: clear plastic container can just like elevate that. It's like, oh,
Speaker 1: I have my little meal kit, but I didn't pay
Speaker 1: for it. I made it, Yes, I love it. And
Speaker 1: then your tips on the garlic and onion, Yes, I
Speaker 1: have done that before. I mean I love garlic and onions,
Speaker 1: so usually when I chop it up, I just use
Speaker 1: it all all at once. But when I don't, I
Speaker 1: put it away and it's like a little gift for
Speaker 1: myself later when I'm making something else, it's like, oh, onion,
Speaker 1: Oh it's already chopped. I'm gonna get it out of
Speaker 1: the fridge and use it. Oh it's so beautiful when
Speaker 1: it works out, Oh my gosh. And our friend Gina,
Speaker 1: she doesn't even chop those things anymore. She just puts
Speaker 1: it through the food processor and just like you know,
Speaker 1: blend it all up and or not blend it, but
Speaker 1: like food process it. Throw it in that glass container
Speaker 1: and you're done. Brilliant. Oh God, Speaking of tips, Cassie,
Speaker 1: I mean, we've already got our money's worth out of
Speaker 1: you today. Really, I mean we still have more time,
Speaker 1: So here we go. You have a whole section on
Speaker 1: freezing food, which is amazing. I think a lot of
Speaker 1: us don't really know how to like optimize our freezers.
Speaker 1: But what do you feel is the most important thing
Speaker 1: that people should know or take away about freezing food.
Speaker 1: Oh gosh, lean on your freezer if you have the space.
Speaker 1: And if you have the space, but you're like, I
Speaker 1: don't know, I've got six two thirds eaten ice cream
Speaker 1: cartons that are taking up the space. You know, maybe
Speaker 1: optimize the space a little bit so you have it.
Speaker 1: Because the freezer can be so powerful, such a powerful
Speaker 1: tool in saving time, money and energy in the kitchen,
Speaker 1: and so gosh, some of my favorite things to do.
Speaker 1: Number one is to yes, when you're shopping in season
Speaker 1: and you get those Brussels sprouts on sale or the
Speaker 1: grassbed beef is on sale, you have a place to
Speaker 1: put it and to stay organized if you can, right, So,
Speaker 1: have a section for protein, section for produce, things like that,
Speaker 1: and then freeze and wash your produce so that's ready
Speaker 1: to go as well. Another tip I have for you
Speaker 1: is if you're going to freeze things like that, I say,
Speaker 1: freeze them in containers that are actually what you need
Speaker 1: for a meal. So instead of washing and chopping all
Speaker 1: of your Brussels sprouts and putting them in a galan
Speaker 1: sized ziploc bag, you probably don't need five pounds of
Speaker 1: Brussels sprouts at a time, and that's going to de
Speaker 1: incentivize you to use it, because what are you going
Speaker 1: to do with that big chunk of frozen brussels? And
Speaker 1: so try to freeze them in containers that you know,
Speaker 1: I can just pop this out, put it on a
Speaker 1: sheet pan and it can be part of supper tonight, right,
Speaker 1: So something very very simple. And then my favorite tip
Speaker 1: for the freezer is to freeze your meals, your whole
Speaker 1: meals when you can. So if you are somebody who
Speaker 1: does not like leftovers, but you know that what you've
Speaker 1: just made is more than you need for tonight's dinner,
Speaker 1: then preemptively go ahead and before you just leave it
Speaker 1: out on the counter and serve it up for everybody,
Speaker 1: cut it in half and store that away in the freezer.
Speaker 1: Label it, use it. I recommend using frozen foods within
Speaker 1: five months, use it up within five months, and then
Speaker 1: for reheating, some of the best foods that do well
Speaker 1: reheating wise are going to be soups, stews, casseroles, things
Speaker 1: that you can click in the crock pot, anything where
Speaker 1: the ingredients kind of become one with one another, like
Speaker 1: a souper stew. Those are very freezer friendly. Things that
Speaker 1: are not very freezer friendly are going to be things.
Speaker 1: When you think of like a grilled chicken breast with
Speaker 1: a grilled peach salsa. Right, that's a very fresh, separate
Speaker 1: ingredient that's delicious because they're all separate. So things that
Speaker 1: are one chili is a great freezer meal, really delicious casserole.
Speaker 1: So try to think about what you're making in your kitchen.
Speaker 1: If you're making an enchil out a casserole like I
Speaker 1: just made today, I'm going to double the effort to
Speaker 1: make it because doubling what I'm making is not that
Speaker 1: much more time and energy on my part. Like we
Speaker 1: talked about, the dishes are already dirty, and then I'm
Speaker 1: going to put this in the freezer. And then for
Speaker 1: reheating all of that food, a huge section I have
Speaker 1: in the book, although I'll just tell all the secrets now,
Speaker 1: is just to reheat the way that you cooked it
Speaker 1: the first time for optimal results. Okay, So for example,
Speaker 1: sweet potato fries. If you made sweet potato fries and
Speaker 1: you had too many of them and you wanted to
Speaker 1: they know less in our house, it was probably a
Speaker 1: terrible a gable. But if you have too many of
Speaker 1: them and you want to freeze them for later. Then
Speaker 1: you would reheat them by putting them on a sheep
Speaker 1: hand in the oven, which is where you cooked them
Speaker 1: the first time. Right, a chili or a soup, Let
Speaker 1: it thaw enough the container so you can pop it
Speaker 1: into a pot, put a lid on it, and let
Speaker 1: it come to temperature on the stove a castrole, cook
Speaker 1: it in the oven. And so that's a question I
Speaker 1: get really commonly is And of course a microwave is
Speaker 1: always there for you in a pinch, it's going to
Speaker 1: be the fastest, but for the best texture, try to
Speaker 1: reheat where you cook something the first time. Beautiful, you
Speaker 1: are just a powerhouse at pitch. Just back to back
Speaker 1: right now on this. I am because I told you
Speaker 1: I love interviews. I love food. I love talking about food,
Speaker 1: eating food. I really don't like making food. But this
Speaker 1: is inspiring. Names that tip about not freezing all of
Speaker 1: your stuff together. That took me many years to realize
Speaker 1: that if I just throw it all into a bag
Speaker 1: because it's easy in the moment, I hardly ever utilize it.
Speaker 1: Or I thought everything out and then I don't use everything,
Speaker 1: and then I just throw it out. Beause I feel
Speaker 1: weird about like refreezing it again, so having it in
Speaker 1: portions is golden. And then speaking of giving gifts to yourself,
Speaker 1: when you're able to put like half of your meal
Speaker 1: away later, like yeah, you might not want back to
Speaker 1: back the same meal, but you know you're going to
Speaker 1: have that meal again, and so now you've just like
Speaker 1: given yourself food for the days when you are just
Speaker 1: super busy and exhausted. Or sometimes I've used that for
Speaker 1: like giving meals to people. You know, somebody's always having
Speaker 1: a baby, so dropping off food it's a nice little gesture.
Speaker 1: Plus you don't have to do all the work either.
Speaker 1: It's just like this is already my freezer. My husband's
Speaker 1: not going to eat it. I actually think that's the
Speaker 1: best kind of gift is someone who's now had two kiddos,
Speaker 1: is when someone brings you an already frozen castrole it
Speaker 1: means eat this when you want versus you know it's hot,
Speaker 1: do you want it now? It's hot now? And it's
Speaker 1: always just like always yes. So when you have your
Speaker 1: thirteenth lasagna, you can freeze it and have it in
Speaker 1: five months when you've recovered from all the lasagnas. But
Speaker 1: give it to people in a container you don't want back.
Speaker 1: I don't even have kids, and I know that that's
Speaker 1: the nice thing to do. Yes, I am so glad
Speaker 1: your freezing section in your book is so robust, because
Speaker 1: I love the freezer because sometimes it's hard to stick
Speaker 1: to the meal plan. And if I miss a meal,
Speaker 1: then if the stuff is already frozen, if I was
Speaker 1: using like frozen stuff in the meal plan, then that's
Speaker 1: very easy. I know that's not going to go bad.
Speaker 1: I can just use it next week or the week after.
Speaker 1: And I found that for me freezing separate ingredients, I'm
Speaker 1: much more likely to use that than I am if
Speaker 1: a whole meal is frozen, like if it's a if
Speaker 1: I do like a curry or something like an individual
Speaker 1: portion for like a lunch, and I'm like, oh, I'll
Speaker 1: just I can bring this for lunch one day that
Speaker 1: I don't have leftovers, There's zero percent chance I will
Speaker 1: eat it. And that is just like me. Other people
Speaker 1: do not have that problem. That is a me thing.
Speaker 1: But if it's a you know, two pounds of carnetas
Speaker 1: that are in the freezer, like, then I can do
Speaker 1: that for a completely separate dinner with fresh produce, and like,
Speaker 1: I am obsessed with my freezer. I buy most of
Speaker 1: my produce frozen now, and like, even if you get
Speaker 1: it organic, the frozen is cheaper, so you can buy
Speaker 1: like more, you know, organic produce, it's frozen. I just
Speaker 1: love the freezer. I love it. There talk about nutrient density. Actually,
Speaker 1: that's a myth I would love to bust is that
Speaker 1: frozen foods are inferior to fresh produce, and that's just
Speaker 1: not the case. The reason why they are they are
Speaker 1: harvested and frozen at peak harvest and freshness. Like, you're
Speaker 1: actually probably getting more nutrients from your frozen produce than
Speaker 1: you would be from the produce section. I love hearing that.
Speaker 1: And you throw it in the oven and you roast it,
Speaker 1: it tastes the same. I've even I've had listeners reach
Speaker 1: out to me on Instagram and be like, yeah, I
Speaker 1: roasted that frozen broccoli and you were right, it tastes
Speaker 1: the same. It's so good to hear you were right.
Speaker 1: Were they yelling at you like you're yelling it now?
Speaker 1: Yeah I imagine that. I mean I only read it,
Speaker 1: but I imagine, Yeah, that's how they were saying it.
Speaker 1: I've not had success with frozen Brussels sprouts. They always
Speaker 1: taste a little bit more mushy to me. I'm just
Speaker 1: gonna be honest. Other frozen veggies, absolutely, but Brussels sprouts,
Speaker 1: I've not had luck. Love it if someone had some
Speaker 1: tips from me on that one. But try your hand,
Speaker 1: try your end. Very many veggies. Speaking of things that
Speaker 1: we love and are obsessed with, let speaks to me
Speaker 1: besides frozen veggies. The bill of the week. That's right,
Speaker 1: it's time for the best minute of your entire week.
Speaker 1: Maybe a baby was born and his name is William.
Speaker 1: Maybe you've paid off your mortgage, maybe your car died
Speaker 1: and you're happy to not have to pay that bill anymore.
Speaker 1: That's bills, Buffalo bills, Bill Clinton. This is the bill
Speaker 1: of the week. Nothing speaks to me like frozen veggies.
Speaker 1: But Cassie, But Cassie, the second best thing. I'm sorry,
Speaker 1: this is the best thing. Frozen vegetables are. The second
Speaker 1: best thing. Is the bill of the week. And so
Speaker 1: we invite our listeners or our guests to share their
Speaker 1: bills with us every week, and we would love to
Speaker 1: hear yours. I would love to share it. So I
Speaker 1: was racking my brain on trying to share with pick
Speaker 1: which one I want to share with y'all, and I'll
Speaker 1: keep it food related. I wanted to share one with
Speaker 1: our girls. Maybe I don't know if there's time, but
Speaker 1: the food related one, my husband is his name is Austin,
Speaker 1: and he's an incredibly budget conscious human and I'm very
Speaker 1: grateful for that. However, he will eat Chipotle, not sponsor
Speaker 1: until like there's zero food boardom there. The man will
Speaker 1: eat it all the time, and he's convinced that it
Speaker 1: is an like a very affordable option. And because I've
Speaker 1: been cooking and I've been on a mission, my mother
Speaker 1: raised me to be like, home cooked meals will always
Speaker 1: beat vegetarily anything you're going to find out. And I've
Speaker 1: been trying to share this with him, and we recently
Speaker 1: went through a tracking experience or experiment because I've been
Speaker 1: cooking from cook ones dinner fixed so much lately. When
Speaker 1: it comes to writing a book, I cook from it,
Speaker 1: or essentially, I develop these recipes, make them four to
Speaker 1: five times, and then send it off to the publisher
Speaker 1: and then about nine months to a year ago was by,
Speaker 1: and then I get to start cooking from it. Again
Speaker 1: to be able to remember to talk about it and
Speaker 1: share some of my favorite recipes. And we've been doing
Speaker 1: that NonStop. But I've been able to show him line
Speaker 1: by line because we were we were going through quarantine
Speaker 1: and everything. We were just eating out a lot more
Speaker 1: because we were home a lot more and exhausted a
Speaker 1: lot more, and being able to show him how much
Speaker 1: we're saving by cooking these meals. Even though I'm buying
Speaker 1: groceries three times a week in some cases, it's still
Speaker 1: a significant savings for our family. And so that's been
Speaker 1: really cool. I mean, it's nice to feel right in
Speaker 1: the case of like a ten year relationship when you're
Speaker 1: chatting with somebody, but it was just so validating to
Speaker 1: just show that you really can serve because nothing against
Speaker 1: We're still going to eat it at least once or
Speaker 1: twice this week, but you know, just to show that
Speaker 1: there's so much power available if you've got the time
Speaker 1: and energy to cook from home. Yeah, and that is
Speaker 1: the thing. Time is valuable, and sometimes we do want
Speaker 1: convenience over spending the time that it would take to
Speaker 1: make the knockoff of that item or cooking something different.
Speaker 1: But it's really useful to hear your feedback that you
Speaker 1: actually were able to get so involved in the line
Speaker 1: by line items of a sipe to even know, because
Speaker 1: I think sometimes we're not fully aware, like we know
Speaker 1: how much we bought the chicken four but then we
Speaker 1: bought a bag of onions and we used a quarter
Speaker 1: of one onion, and we just don't typically get into
Speaker 1: the weeds of how much did this meal actually cost me.
Speaker 1: I think most of us can realize I'm able to
Speaker 1: spend less money cooking at a home, but we don't
Speaker 1: always know what is the price per serving here. That's
Speaker 1: awesome and then also a little competition between you and
Speaker 1: your husband, so that's always fun. Yeah, is there like
Speaker 1: a knockoff to put light in the book? Of course
Speaker 1: there is absolutely yes. Gosh yes, the ground beef for
Speaker 1: readA bowls are in there, which is funny because I
Speaker 1: get chicken Chipotle, but it's a ground beef for reata
Speaker 1: bowl is in there. And we did it was because
Speaker 1: of this exercise, y'all that we I got with the
Speaker 1: team and we did the math. We figured out it's
Speaker 1: four dollars or serving is the average dollar cost of
Speaker 1: a meal from cook One's Dinner Fix and then to
Speaker 1: just lean in a little further. That's going to fluctuate
Speaker 1: a little little bit. I really wanted to give people
Speaker 1: some sort of a compass. And so you know when
Speaker 1: you look on Yelp they have dollars signs for restaurants,
Speaker 1: it's like when a one dollar sign or a three
Speaker 1: dollars sign restaurant. I wanted to give people a little
Speaker 1: bit of a guide. And so every single Dinner series
Speaker 1: also has that on all of them. And so it'll
Speaker 1: show you if it's a one dollar signed Dinner series,
Speaker 1: one four dollars one in the entire book, and it's
Speaker 1: it's a seafood one. So just you know, you can
Speaker 1: cattackle it. What if you were ready for a special occasion.
Speaker 1: But most of them are one and two dollars signs,
Speaker 1: and so I just just to give people a little idea,
Speaker 1: what where is this going to land? Me? Oh? Man,
Speaker 1: I love it. You are just speaking all the way
Speaker 1: into our hearts, souls and minds today and waning like
Speaker 1: if you want to try one of the three dollars signs,
Speaker 1: like you just pair it with a one dollar sign
Speaker 1: and you don't have to feel like guilty about trying
Speaker 1: the three dollars sign or the four dollars sign one yep,
Speaker 1: like treat yourself, treat yourself and then balance it with
Speaker 1: a one dollar sign. Yes, Oh that's love dying. What
Speaker 1: a good bill, Cassie, thanks so much for sharing that.
Speaker 1: If anyone listening has a bill that you all want
Speaker 1: to share, whether it relates to a competition you had
Speaker 1: with your partner, a realization you had a bill you
Speaker 1: paid off Bill. I don't know anything about Bill. You know,
Speaker 1: we're vague about someone named Bill that you're in a
Speaker 1: feud with and you'd love to prove wrong. But kindly
Speaker 1: visit Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash Bill. We'll listen
Speaker 1: to it. Yes, and now it's time for art. We
Speaker 1: really let you warm up before we show you our
Speaker 1: true colors. Cassie, I know so excited. So this is
Speaker 1: the part of the show where we just get a
Speaker 1: little vulnerable with what we're doing with our food, and
Speaker 1: so we are all going to share. We're all going
Speaker 1: to share our latest like leftover repurposing or best over repurposing.
Speaker 1: It could be most recent or just like most proud
Speaker 1: of So Cassie, as our guest of honor, please go first.
Speaker 1: I would love to I'm gonna I'm gonna lean in
Speaker 1: to well, I'm cheating. I have a book of idea
Speaker 1: as an examples, the best one. But we like to
Speaker 1: embarrass ourselves with how like mediocre hours are. Okay, actually
Speaker 1: you go knowledge, I'm cheating. Okay. Yeah. So one of
Speaker 1: my favorite things to do and it makes me feel
Speaker 1: very clever in the kitchen is I will take if
Speaker 1: you've ever cooked a brisket, a brisket before. It's a
Speaker 1: big cut of beef, and depending on where you are
Speaker 1: in the country, they might be there might be a
Speaker 1: little tree he talking to your butcher about explaining what
Speaker 1: a brisket is in Texas, so it's a very straightforward anyway.
Speaker 1: So we take a brisket, cook it up for meal
Speaker 1: number one, make it really delicious and beautiful, serve it
Speaker 1: with some sides like a polenta and a slaw. Yum,
Speaker 1: great meal, and then the rest of the brisket if
Speaker 1: you don't just want to have like barbecue style leftovers, again,
Speaker 1: thinly slice it pam syrit until it's a little bit crispy,
Speaker 1: and then make a sticky kind of Asian dark sauce.
Speaker 1: I do this Mongolian beef style brisket with this already
Speaker 1: cooked brisket. It's crisped, and I serve it over fluffy
Speaker 1: white rice and it is. My husband will see me
Speaker 1: serve the barbecue style brisket on one night and he's like,
Speaker 1: does this mean we get Mongolian beef later this week?
Speaker 1: Oh gosh, are you looking to adopt? I know there's
Speaker 1: a third child on the way, but what's one more
Speaker 1: adult child? Take it? Oh, I'm practically drooling. I think
Speaker 1: I am like a little bit. That sounds so good.
Speaker 1: It sounds so unattainable for me. I'm not gonna lie
Speaker 1: moncoli and beef balls. I just don't know, but it
Speaker 1: sounds so lovely. You can do it, Joe, I believe it.
Speaker 1: I'll give you the recipe. I'll send it to you
Speaker 1: and I'll walk you through it. We have the book.
Speaker 1: You've got the book, Yes that I want to try that,
Speaker 1: but I like hand holding too. Call me you just
Speaker 1: let me know. I just don't know how to do it.
Speaker 1: Maybe you should send me some. I mean it, let
Speaker 1: me know, all right, Jen, what you got for us?
Speaker 1: So I did this? I mean full disclosure. I write
Speaker 1: the outline so like I knew what the question was,
Speaker 1: and so I did this. You were already proud of yourself.
Speaker 1: So you're like, how can I weave this into the podcast? Yeah, brag.
Speaker 1: So Cassie, you may be cheating a little, but I'm
Speaker 1: outright like cheating this. No. But so I use cook
Speaker 1: Smarts as like my meal planning app because like, I
Speaker 1: have zero mental energy for this in my current season.
Speaker 1: And they had a something like this. So the first
Speaker 1: day was like this Asian pork sandwich with this like
Speaker 1: hoisten mayo and pickles, and so we had that. And
Speaker 1: so I had a big pork loin and I cut
Speaker 1: it in half and I used half for the sandwich
Speaker 1: and then the other half I cut up into little
Speaker 1: chunks and made like a pork fried rice. And I
Speaker 1: was like, this is a I mean, this slab of
Speaker 1: meat was like very affordable because I bought it so
Speaker 1: big and I used it in like two places and
Speaker 1: used it all up brilliant and I loved it, and Cassie,
Speaker 1: as I love a job, Jen, thank you. I didn't
Speaker 1: come up with it, but like I was so proud
Speaker 1: that I executed it, because that deserves just as much
Speaker 1: praise as like planning it and in attending to agree. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Eric makes fun of me, because that's my husband. He's
Speaker 1: allowed to make fun of me. It's all right. I
Speaker 1: have like this one go too. That's the thing. I'll
Speaker 1: do something once and I'll be so proud that, like,
Speaker 1: look at how creative I was then, and then that's
Speaker 1: just that's what I do. That's how I repurpose things.
Speaker 1: My classic, I'm just gonna say this because it's funny
Speaker 1: and you've probably heard me describe it before. But then
Speaker 1: I do have another one for you. Classic for me
Speaker 1: is getting a roadisserie chicken. Eating the road dissera chicken.
Speaker 1: I don't even make it, mind you. I just like
Speaker 1: went to the store and kind of rotisserie chicken that's
Speaker 1: like already heated up and ready to go. And then
Speaker 1: I pulled apart the leftover chicken and I make chicken
Speaker 1: salad and we have chicken salad sandwiches the next day. Oh.
Speaker 1: Eric gives me such a hard time for that. Whenever
Speaker 1: we were wondering what should we do for dinner, He's like,
Speaker 1: maybe we should go get a Rodstrie chicken and then
Speaker 1: tomorrow big chicken salad with the left over but Eric,
Speaker 1: that's such a good idea chicken cold so good. And
Speaker 1: you know what, I stopped buying the cooked chickens because
Speaker 1: I know it's just gonna become chicken salad, so I
Speaker 1: will reheat the portion I'm gonna eat tonight, and the
Speaker 1: cold one is cheaper. Yeah. But I don't even know
Speaker 1: if that counts because I didn't even make the roat
Speaker 1: dissery chicken. All I do is like pull it apart
Speaker 1: off the bone, and I think I'm like little House
Speaker 1: on the Prairie with that. I think, what do you think, Cat,
Speaker 1: I think it counts. I'm sorry, I would say it
Speaker 1: totally counts, y'all. I was gonna do a shred of
Speaker 1: chicken yesterday and I bought rotisserie chickens for it instead
Speaker 1: of cooking it from scratched, and I still feel like
Speaker 1: I made dinner. Yeah. I mean, it's not that it's
Speaker 1: like five bucks for a rotisserie chicken. I don't know
Speaker 1: where they're getting the chickens from. I don't know how
Speaker 1: it's so inexpensive. I don't really ask a question chicken anyhow.
Speaker 1: Something I also did recently was just a whole pan
Speaker 1: a sheet pan full of just tons of veggies that
Speaker 1: I roasted, and I use it as a side dish
Speaker 1: one day. Then I used it for omelets, because omelets
Speaker 1: don't just have to be for breakfast. They can be
Speaker 1: for dinner. Use the roast of veggies in an omelet,
Speaker 1: and then get this third thing, veggie rap the next day.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I just got real into crusts in these veggies.
Speaker 1: I have this waffle iron I made like a balsamic glaze.
Speaker 1: Oh there you go, chen, if I want to have
Speaker 1: real wilds, and everything's going on the waffle iron from
Speaker 1: now on. So I was so proud of my shelf
Speaker 1: that week. Like side dish, omelet, veggie rap has been
Speaker 1: hardly knew anything different. He's like, this is a totally
Speaker 1: turned meal. I'm like, yeah, he didn't know anything. But
Speaker 1: also he's like, I'd rather have French fries and mac
Speaker 1: and cheese. And I'm like, well, you're welcome. You're not
Speaker 1: dead yet that I'm feeding you veggies. That's so so
Speaker 1: kind of you to do that, Jill, to preserve his
Speaker 1: life with vegetables. I tell him that often. I'm like,
Speaker 1: I don't know what would happen to you without me
Speaker 1: feeding you veggies. It's not manipulative at all. No, he
Speaker 1: loves it. He's fine. Cassie, thank you so much for
Speaker 1: hanging out with us and sharing all of these tips
Speaker 1: because they are all like great money savers. But I
Speaker 1: also want to emphasize, like you are a nutritionist, so
Speaker 1: like your recipes are also healthy, so like I mean,
Speaker 1: I think everyone should check you out. Where can peop
Speaker 1: will get more from you? Oh, thank you? Well cook
Speaker 1: One's dinner fix. It's available really everywhere books are sold.
Speaker 1: And then I live on the World Wide Web. I
Speaker 1: should stop saying that I think that funny though I
Speaker 1: live on the Internet. I thank you. I live on
Speaker 1: the is my upgrade. I live on the internet over
Speaker 1: at fed and fit dot com is our website. There's
Speaker 1: nearing twelve hundred free recipes for y'all there. And then
Speaker 1: I'm most active on fed and fit. Instagram is the
Speaker 1: account handle. I'm doing lots of demos right now of
Speaker 1: the dinner series concept, a lot of them. And so
Speaker 1: you want to click through and just visually get an
Speaker 1: idea of what this looks like. That should be helpful, awesomely,
Speaker 1: and you do have such beautiful images to coincide your food,
Speaker 1: which is another amazing motivate or like, oh yes, I
Speaker 1: want my table to look like that. Yeah, I want
Speaker 1: to eat those things. You are a picture shale. So
Speaker 1: this is nice. This is nice. Well, thank you, thank
Speaker 1: you for coming to hang out with us. And I
Speaker 1: am very excited to make some of these one and
Speaker 1: two and four star star, five star, two dollars sign
Speaker 1: Dinner series. Thank y'all so much for having me. Thanks Cassie.
Speaker 1: Oh wait, yeah, I am still here for that repurposing
Speaker 1: of leftovers, making it new again, eaten up what you've
Speaker 1: got in the fridge. I can say very confidently that
Speaker 1: I have gotten even better. She has repurposing leftovers since
Speaker 1: this episode came out, and I am so thrilled. It's
Speaker 1: things like this putting into practice, hearing how other people
Speaker 1: do it, feeding literally metaphorically, I don't know, pun intended
Speaker 1: off of the community, gaining ideas from one another. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's so great. Yeah, and then I feel so great
Speaker 1: about having zero food waste. And I still take her
Speaker 1: tip about the eggs being a more affordable source of protein,
Speaker 1: even with the rising cost of eggs, if you still
Speaker 1: compare it to other meats, eggs are a more affordable
Speaker 1: way to get protein, especially if you're combining it with
Speaker 1: some egg whites. It just yes, I still will think
Speaker 1: about that when I'm meal planning and I'm trying to
Speaker 1: focus on protein and take Oh there's so many different
Speaker 1: ways to eat eggs too. Yeah, love it. Thank you
Speaker 1: everyone for listening. We hope that you really enjoyed this
Speaker 1: replay and are gaining your own motivation and tips that
Speaker 1: you need on this journey. We also love and want
Speaker 1: to thank you all for your kind reviews. We especially
Speaker 1: like this one. We're going to shout out pink a
Speaker 1: lover thirteen happen to give us five stars said love
Speaker 1: frugal friends Jen and Jill are such a dynamic and
Speaker 1: fun duo that make learning about frugality, money, and living
Speaker 1: life a lot more fun. I have learned so much
Speaker 1: from them and this is one of the only podcasts
Speaker 1: I listened to weekly and recommend to anyone looking for
Speaker 1: this type of content. Pink Lover for thirteen, thank you.
Speaker 1: I feel that. I mean, if I didn't already have
Speaker 1: a screen name, pink Lover thirteen might be in back.
Speaker 1: Maybe pink Lover fourteen, yes, teal lover maybe. Well, everyone again,
Speaker 1: thank you for your listenership. If you did enjoy this show,
Speaker 1: or you have been enjoying this podcast for a minute,
Speaker 1: please take a minute to leave a rating and review.
Speaker 1: It really does help potential new listeners know what the
Speaker 1: show is about, be able to identify if it's going
Speaker 1: to be right for them, and so having people who
Speaker 1: have listened for a while who have a good sense
Speaker 1: of the show is the most helpful, rather than the
Speaker 1: people who have listened for two seconds and think that
Speaker 1: they can leave a review about our voices, about our voices,
Speaker 1: It's just like those aren't helpful constructive reviews, So please
Speaker 1: help balance it out with a helpful and thankfully we
Speaker 1: don't get a lot of them. Most of them are
Speaker 1: very very great. Thank so, thank you for your kind reviews,
Speaker 1: and we will see you read them next time, say
Speaker 1: next time. Frugal Friends is produced by Eric Sirianni. All Right, Jen,
Speaker 1: what's in your fridge? What do you have that you
Speaker 1: are either going to just eat leftover or repurpose? So
Speaker 1: last night you asked me when I was making for dinner,
Speaker 1: and I made a warm kale salad yea, And can
Speaker 1: I tell you I feel like kale is getting dirtier
Speaker 1: because I will. I'll massage my kale and I'll rinse
Speaker 1: it and i'll spin it in spinner, and I feel
Speaker 1: like it's still got dirt. I feel like I need
Speaker 1: to wash it twice now. Man, Like, I don't know
Speaker 1: what's happening in the kale industry. It's really possible that
Speaker 1: quality standards are decreasing. Yeah, probably connected to a labor shortage,
Speaker 1: so definitely. My My recommendation to anybody eating kale right
Speaker 1: now is wash your leaves and then massage it and
Speaker 1: then rinse it again and spin it. Just do a
Speaker 1: double wash. Yeah, so you have more of that leftover
Speaker 1: and you're gonna I'm gonna eat it cold. My plan
Speaker 1: was to bring it to your house and eat it today,
Speaker 1: but again, alas, I forgot my lunch. Oh yeah, it's
Speaker 1: pregnancy brain. Maybe I'll feed you some eggs. Maybe it'd
Speaker 1: be great, how about you. I just have a lot
Speaker 1: of laughedovers. I'm not going to try and repurpose them.
Speaker 1: I'm just going to reheat them perfect yep. Yep. Got
Speaker 1: to clean it out, make room for more, yep.