Speaker 1: Episode four seventy nine, Meal Planning to save money and
Speaker 1: reduce food waste with Just Dang.
Speaker 2: Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast, where you'll learn to
Speaker 2: save money, embrace simplicity, and liver your life. Here your
Speaker 2: hosts Jen and Jill.
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast. My name is Jen,
Speaker 1: my name is Jill, and today we are talking about
Speaker 1: food waste how to reduce it because we believe it
Speaker 1: is the biggest waste when it comes to your money.
Speaker 1: We can save dollars by shopping sales, but we waste
Speaker 1: tens of dollars through throwing away food. And so this
Speaker 1: is going to be a big focus for us this year.
Speaker 1: And it's just like not great for the environment either,
Speaker 1: So that's where we're focusing today.
Speaker 3: Yeah, pairing these two things together is so important, not
Speaker 3: just meal planning, but also how can we meal plan
Speaker 3: so that we're not throwing away as much food? And
Speaker 3: just as the perfect person, can you answer these questions?
Speaker 1: But first, this episode is brought to you by fourteen Days.
Speaker 1: If you, like me, are thinking about food, I mean
Speaker 1: we just recently last year said we spend about twenty
Speaker 1: thousand minutes a year just planning food. But what if
Speaker 1: we could have that food planned for us for two weeks?
Speaker 4: You love that you can.
Speaker 1: Because cook Smart's the meal planning service started by justaying
Speaker 1: our guest today is offering fourteen days free and if
Speaker 1: you pay for a subscription you get twenty percent off.
Speaker 1: And that's at Frugal friendspodcast dot com, slash cook Smarts
Speaker 1: or if you're short on time, Frugal Friends podcast dot
Speaker 1: com slash cs. Either one will get it for you.
Speaker 1: But we I know after this interview you are going
Speaker 1: to want to check it out because so much thought
Speaker 1: and intention goes into the meal plans that Jess and
Speaker 1: her team create, and you are definitely going to want
Speaker 1: to see what that intention is for fourteen days and
Speaker 1: that's that's eight meals essentially because they do four meals
Speaker 1: a week. And so get it Frugal Friends podcast dot com,
Speaker 1: slash Cooksmarts. That's with an S at the end, and
Speaker 1: give yourself, you know, a couple hundred minutes back over
Speaker 1: the next few weeks.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you're we're all gonna need it. I mean, once
Speaker 3: the holidays are over. It's like we're coming out of
Speaker 3: a coma. Yeah, our brains have to work again, but
Speaker 3: they're not working.
Speaker 1: And we have these great plans for January, and by
Speaker 1: January twenty fourth, they are kinda in the pooper sometimes,
Speaker 1: So let's revitalize. Let this episode kind of be a
Speaker 1: rejuvenation for your motivation. Last year we focused a lot
Speaker 1: on simple meal planning, low ingredient efficient meal planning in
Speaker 1: an effort to reduce food waste beau. So leading up
Speaker 1: to this, if you want to check out those episodes,
Speaker 1: we've got episode four fifty eight the Key to Simple
Speaker 1: and budget friendly Meal Plans with Mandy Klintz and episode
Speaker 1: four sixteen Simplified Meal Planning, where we talk about low
Speaker 1: ingredient meal plans. So you can search those numbers on
Speaker 1: our Frugal friendspodcast dot com website or search the title
Speaker 1: plus Frugal Friends in your podcast player to find those episodes.
Speaker 3: So again, Just Sang is the founder of cook Smart's
Speaker 3: this online meal planning service that we've been talking about
Speaker 3: that has been around since two those thirteen. They make
Speaker 3: some incredible recipes. They're just coming out with an app
Speaker 3: for the phone, so lots of cool new stuff happening,
Speaker 3: but they've also been around for a while doing it.
Speaker 3: So she's able to now share with us from her
Speaker 3: expert experience. Let's get into it.
Speaker 1: Jess, Welcome back to Frugal Friends podcast. It's always so
Speaker 1: lovely having you here and talking about food.
Speaker 5: I'm so glad to be back, and this is just
Speaker 5: the perfect time to be talking about food and saving
Speaker 5: money on food because food is really expensive right now.
Speaker 3: You are our dynamite guest. We often don't invite people
Speaker 3: back to the show except for when they've got some
Speaker 3: really great, helpful, tangible tips to share. We talk about
Speaker 3: you in our friend letter as well, so all the
Speaker 3: time it only makes sense. But here we are talking
Speaker 3: about not just meal planning but also food waste. This
Speaker 3: seems like a really good place to focus on in
Speaker 3: twenty twenty five. But I do want to hear from
Speaker 3: you before we get to all of that. What you
Speaker 3: see are some of the biggest mistakes that people make
Speaker 3: when it comes to meal planning.
Speaker 5: Oh gosh, Well, clearly the biggest mistake is if you
Speaker 5: it's just not meal planning, like not doing it and
Speaker 5: just going just like some people can improv but I
Speaker 5: think it really involves. It takes a lot of experience.
Speaker 5: So if you're not someone that can just come up
Speaker 5: with meals. You know, it's you really do need a
Speaker 5: meal plan and go to the grocery store with a list,
Speaker 5: because that's the biggest mistake is walking into a grocery
Speaker 5: store without a list, like knowing what you need to buy,
Speaker 5: because then you're just going you know, you're buying things
Speaker 5: you don't know what you're going to be doing with
Speaker 5: and that is what I think leads to the biggest
Speaker 5: amount of food waste. So I think and also just
Speaker 5: over complicating it. It doesn't have to be something that's
Speaker 5: super complex. It's got to be something that's simple that
Speaker 5: you can do every single week. And so at the
Speaker 5: end of the day, it's like you just think about, like,
Speaker 5: what are the things that you will do every single week?
Speaker 5: Make it simple and make sure you have a grocery
Speaker 5: list and make sure you have a process in place.
Speaker 3: What would indicate a complicated meal plan to you? Like
Speaker 3: when if you were to see it, be like that's
Speaker 3: too complicated, that's not gonna work.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 5: Well, I think one of the mistakes people make, or
Speaker 5: maybe the like misconceptions, is that meal planning means that
Speaker 5: you're cooking every single night, which is definitely not the case, right,
Speaker 5: Like I think to me, meal planning is putting together
Speaker 5: like what you plan on eating during the week, and
Speaker 5: that can be a combination of leftovers as well as
Speaker 5: takeout or even things that are like you know, frozen
Speaker 5: frozen foods that like already in the freezer, that are
Speaker 5: already prepared. So it's really not about feeling like you
Speaker 5: have to cook every single day. So if I saw
Speaker 5: a meal plan where someone was like, I'm going to
Speaker 5: cook every single day and it's like all in every day,
Speaker 5: it's going to be a new recipe like that, to
Speaker 5: me would be like an over over complicated meal plan.
Speaker 5: I think a lot of people forget to build in
Speaker 5: like there's leftovers nights or if you take you know,
Speaker 5: you made it big pot of chicken, silk cooker chicken
Speaker 5: one night, that can be you know, one meal, but
Speaker 5: the next night it can be chicken tacos. Right. So
Speaker 5: there's a lot of efficiencies that can be built into
Speaker 5: place to make your not only your meal planning less complex,
Speaker 5: but also clearly the execution of your meal plan less complex.
Speaker 3: I appreciate it taking some of that pressure off because
Speaker 3: I think that's been a part of my journey as
Speaker 3: I've kind of gotten better at meal planning and cooking
Speaker 3: at home, has been these times where I think it's
Speaker 3: got to look really beautiful, and every day needs to
Speaker 3: be new flavors and and the healthiests and the healthiest,
Speaker 3: and even for myself, I've thought I need to keep
Speaker 3: it exciting and engaging for me, which is true in part,
Speaker 3: but it then led to I'm making new meals every
Speaker 3: single day and using unusual ingredients, and it just started
Speaker 3: to get to be too much. Sure then, right, I
Speaker 3: hate meal planning because I then equated it too I've
Speaker 3: got to constantly be doing new and fresh and exciting
Speaker 3: and innovative and.
Speaker 5: Not at all. And I think like everyone has meals
Speaker 5: that they love, right, and those if you want to
Speaker 5: make the meals you love like every single week, that's great.
Speaker 5: Then you just fill in a little bit and that
Speaker 5: helps it. If you know this is like, you know, Monday,
Speaker 5: I'm cooking a meal, it's one of my top fives.
Speaker 5: Then you're gonna want to cook it and actually execute
Speaker 5: on the plan that you created, right, And then you
Speaker 5: fill in with like one or two new meals a week,
Speaker 5: and that to me is like plenty it's like to
Speaker 5: have to sort because when every time you're starting a
Speaker 5: new recipe like you are, you really do have to
Speaker 5: refer to the recipe itself to know how to make
Speaker 5: the meals. So it's just going to take longer. So
Speaker 5: I think a lot of times I talk about these
Speaker 5: back pocket meals. Everyone should have anywhere from like a
Speaker 5: dozen to you know, two dozen back pocket meals that
Speaker 5: they could make, like you know, in their sleep, and
Speaker 5: you don't need to refer to a recipe. You can
Speaker 5: wing it a little bit because you know, maybe you're
Speaker 5: out of chicken thighs, you can stub in something else.
Speaker 5: But those are the recipes that I think, you know,
Speaker 5: you make two or three every week, and then the
Speaker 5: rest you kind of fill in with something new that's
Speaker 5: going to take you a little bit longer, and you
Speaker 5: save those either for the beginning of the week where
Speaker 5: you have more energy, or like the weekends when there's
Speaker 5: more time.
Speaker 1: I always say, Sunday Gen, who made the meal plan,
Speaker 1: is not the same as Wednesday Gen, who then has
Speaker 1: to execute it. So Sunday Gen has to be very
Speaker 1: cognizant of the person Wednesday Gen and Thursday and Friday
Speaker 1: ET cetera.
Speaker 5: Gen is and that happens to me too. And I'm
Speaker 5: a professional meal planner, like I do you know, I
Speaker 5: make these meal plans, and I'm always constantly trying to
Speaker 5: like be in the kitchen developing new recipes. And I
Speaker 5: often don't like the Thursday Friday, Like I don't always
Speaker 5: stick to the meal plan. I think one of the
Speaker 5: things when you're talking about food waste, when you're sort
Speaker 5: of ordering your meal plan, I always try to order
Speaker 5: for the things that are going to spoil first, right,
Speaker 5: so like make those as soon as you know, the
Speaker 5: days after your grocery shop. So, like there's just things
Speaker 5: that are more perishable, like leafy greens, those types of things,
Speaker 5: Like if I know those are on the menu, I
Speaker 5: try to make those, you know, early in the early
Speaker 5: in the weeks, they don't spoil. If I saved them
Speaker 5: for the end, maybe you don't have the energy and
Speaker 5: you're just or like someone invites you out to dinner
Speaker 5: or something. So those things, like the things that are
Speaker 5: more that are less perishable, like carrots, potatoes, cabbage, those
Speaker 5: are the kinds of vegetables that you can kind of
Speaker 5: save to the end of the week. And so even
Speaker 5: if you don't end up making that like Thursday Friday meal,
Speaker 5: those things are going to last for another week or
Speaker 5: two and you can always kind of push those meals
Speaker 5: to the next week and you're not dealing with like,
Speaker 5: you know, spoiled spoiled vegetables that you have to throw away.
Speaker 1: I love that you think about that and you consider that,
Speaker 1: and because your meal plans, they prioritize these ingredient efficiencies.
Speaker 1: And I would love to hear more of that. That
Speaker 1: sounds like one of them, what you just said, but
Speaker 1: like using the thiefy greens up front, But yeah, tell
Speaker 1: us about these ingredient efficiencies and like how you use
Speaker 1: them in meal planning.
Speaker 5: Yeah, so a lot of it is like th meth proteins, right,
Speaker 5: you know, those are often the you know, the main
Speaker 5: part of the meal. And so if you're spending time
Speaker 5: cooking proteins, whether it's fish or beans or land roaming
Speaker 5: proteins like chicken, I always like to think about, like
Speaker 5: how do we double up on those so that we
Speaker 5: can have them either for like lunch leftovers, or it
Speaker 5: can be creatively, you know, repurposed into a different whole,
Speaker 5: different meal. And so we have these things called dependencies
Speaker 5: within our meal plant service, where you know, one day
Speaker 5: you might make a big pot of beans and it's
Speaker 5: like the filler for taco and then you have them
Speaker 5: ready for stew the next day. It's very similar. We made,
Speaker 5: like recently, like a big pot of slow cooked pork,
Speaker 5: and slow cooke pork was you know, it's great for
Speaker 5: sandwiches one day, and then we used it later on
Speaker 5: in the week as the protein for a salad, even
Speaker 5: if you don't repurpose it for another night's dinner. It's
Speaker 5: great to have these proteins. It's ready to go for lunches.
Speaker 5: I don't know I have I have three young kids.
Speaker 5: I'm constantly thinking about like what am I going to
Speaker 5: pack them for lunch? And so today is one of
Speaker 5: those things where like we'd made a big batch of
Speaker 5: tofu earlier, you know, over the weekend, and so I
Speaker 5: was like, okay, great, I have tofu and I have
Speaker 5: some lefto of a rice. So that was their their
Speaker 5: lunch today. So just it doesn't really proteins is what's
Speaker 5: great about proteins is it doesn't really take much extra work,
Speaker 5: especially if you're like slow cooking it or post or
Speaker 5: roasting in the oven. Maybe a little bit more chopping,
Speaker 5: but you know, whether you're slow cooking four servings of
Speaker 5: meat protein or tofu or beans versus eight, it's it's
Speaker 5: going to take you pretty much the same amount of time.
Speaker 5: So that's a really great way to you know, save time,
Speaker 5: not only from the cooking perspective, but like also just
Speaker 5: having one less thing to think about, you know, later on.
Speaker 5: And it's also that it's a way to like take
Speaker 5: advantage of sales. I think proteins are one of the
Speaker 5: things I would say, like, you know, do shop the
Speaker 5: sales for proteins if there's is there there's a good
Speaker 5: deal on a protein that you use often in your
Speaker 5: planning and you're cooking, Like that is one thing that
Speaker 5: you should take advantage of sales. There's a lot of
Speaker 5: sales I would say like steer away from because it's
Speaker 5: kind of like, oh, you know, like I should buy
Speaker 5: this because it's on sale, But if you are not
Speaker 5: going to use it, then that's not going to save
Speaker 5: you money in the long run and also probably cause
Speaker 5: more food waste.
Speaker 1: How about leftovers, Like in addition to maybe the proteins
Speaker 1: that you're like cook twice or cook once used twice
Speaker 1: sort of thing, like what other leftover repurposing things do
Speaker 1: you use commonly, Oh, we.
Speaker 5: Actually have the whole infographic on this. I wish I
Speaker 5: had in front of me, but I you know, we
Speaker 5: take things and turn them into you know, leftover sandwiches.
Speaker 5: Anything can be made into like a filling for a burrito,
Speaker 5: right like sort of like things that are like, you know,
Speaker 5: I like our yeah, I think about our members, like, oh,
Speaker 5: I had like levet or X, Y and Z, and
Speaker 5: I put into a sandwich or I put it on
Speaker 5: top of a pizza. You know, a lot of times,
Speaker 5: like you can just take something leftover, like the odds
Speaker 5: and ends of vegetables that you have a little bit
Speaker 5: left of at the end of a week, throw them
Speaker 5: into a stir fry. It's really easy also to turn
Speaker 5: leftovers into into a you know, a soup. I honestly
Speaker 5: think like you can just add like a little bit
Speaker 5: of broth and some pasta and you have some leftover veggies.
Speaker 5: Like that's really like a whole new a whole new meal.
Speaker 5: So think about things where there's like a lot of
Speaker 5: ingredients usually mixed together where it doesn't so much matter,
Speaker 5: like what the ingredients are there's like usually some sort
Speaker 5: of like you know, foundation or binder, whether it's like
Speaker 5: bread and sandwich or tritilla in a in a burrito,
Speaker 5: or like broth in a soup. So those are things
Speaker 5: we often you know, just will combine and it's it's
Speaker 5: and I think as you the more you do it,
Speaker 5: like just like the better you get at it, it's
Speaker 5: like a fun creative muscle to flex, and then you'll
Speaker 5: be like, Wow, I'm just so awesome in the kitchen
Speaker 5: because I like came up with this, you know, fun
Speaker 5: new way to like turn my leftovers into something else
Speaker 5: versus just like throwing them away or just like you know,
Speaker 5: being sad that you're eating the same meal over again.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's giving me such great ideas. This is also
Speaker 3: making me think, though, Joss, about the people who might
Speaker 3: not feel.
Speaker 4: So confident in the kitchen.
Speaker 3: Like when you're saying these things, it's clicking for me,
Speaker 3: and there's puzzle pieces kind of connecting or dots connecting whatever.
Speaker 3: It's all happening, and yeah, that sounds great, I'm going
Speaker 3: to do that. But what do you see for somebody
Speaker 3: like how much does cooking confidence play into following through
Speaker 3: with the meal plan or feeling as though you know
Speaker 3: they can be creative in the kitchen, Like where does
Speaker 3: that confidence with cooking and their skill set in the
Speaker 3: kitchen cut? Like, how does that play into this?
Speaker 5: Yes? Clearly, Like some people are just like naturally creative,
Speaker 5: you know, whether it's in the kitchen or you know,
Speaker 5: in visual arts or whatever it is. But I think
Speaker 5: everyone can get become better at any skill, right And
Speaker 5: for those that don't feel like they have that natural talent,
Speaker 5: it's just a lot of practicing, right, Like I think,
Speaker 5: you know, it sounds like I have young kids and
Speaker 5: they're like, I'm not good at this. I'm like, no,
Speaker 5: Like it's just because you haven't done it enough. And
Speaker 5: so I think a lot of it is just putting
Speaker 5: in that time. And it's one of those things where like,
Speaker 5: you know, no one walks into the kitchen use knowing
Speaker 5: how to use a knife like proficiently on day one.
Speaker 5: So I think a lot of it is just putting
Speaker 5: in that time and that practice, and also using all
Speaker 5: the resources that are out there. There are so many
Speaker 5: recipe resources, there are so many meal penny resources that
Speaker 5: are free, Like you don't you know you have to
Speaker 5: pay anybody there's tons on the internet and just as
Speaker 5: you're doing, as you're using them, kind of understand. I
Speaker 5: don't just follow it on autopilot, but really understand like why,
Speaker 5: like what is this recipe? What is the formula or
Speaker 5: the foundation behind the recipe? And I think when you
Speaker 5: kind of kind of go down one layer to understand,
Speaker 5: like well, most soups start with some like onions, and
Speaker 5: then they put in the a few more vegetables, and
Speaker 5: then they put in the protein, you know, whatever, it is,
Speaker 5: so kind of understanding those steps and I think seeing
Speaker 5: that those sort of foundation layers of things helps you
Speaker 5: then go and be creative on your own because you know, like, well,
Speaker 5: this is how most soups start, or this is how
Speaker 5: a stir fry is made, or how a curry is made.
Speaker 5: So I think a lot of it. I talk about it.
Speaker 5: The analogy uses like GPS these days, like we all
Speaker 5: get into our car and we put the address into
Speaker 5: our phone and we're just on like autopilot. We follow
Speaker 5: and we're like, oh, we have no idea like what
Speaker 5: our neighborhood looks like or how to actually get from
Speaker 5: point A to point B. Yeah, and that's what it
Speaker 5: is amazing. It's you know what we can do that,
Speaker 5: and it's amazing to have like just print out a
Speaker 5: recipe from the internet or look at it on your
Speaker 5: iPad and just like follow it but not really think like, oh,
Speaker 5: like why are we doing these things? Or like how
Speaker 5: did we get from point eight to that finished product?
Speaker 5: And so I think we just take a little bit
Speaker 5: of time to just for like, okay, how like what
Speaker 5: were the steps? Why were these ingredients ordered in this way?
Speaker 3: Oh?
Speaker 5: Like actually, like making a curries really is just like
Speaker 5: you know, coconut milk and a little bit of broth
Speaker 5: and some you know, like curry paste. I think kind
Speaker 5: of seeing like those like you know, these sort of
Speaker 5: core ingredients that go into a lot of the things
Speaker 5: that we make. If you take the time to like
Speaker 5: uncover that, you could that really helps you then be
Speaker 5: able to like steer away from recipes at some point,
Speaker 5: right like that you have the confidence to be like, oh,
Speaker 5: I actually know how to make this because I know
Speaker 5: what the core ingredients that go into X meal.
Speaker 4: It's so true.
Speaker 3: So much of food has become demystified for me as
Speaker 3: I've spent more time in the kitchen, like even making
Speaker 3: my own salad dressings and making my own kind of
Speaker 3: like base ingredients. Not that I'm always in forever going
Speaker 3: to make my own mayo or make my own bread
Speaker 3: or make my own but it really helps with that
Speaker 3: barrier to entry to understand that, oh, these things aren't
Speaker 3: actually that complex. Usually I have the core ingredients to
Speaker 3: make this thing, and it helps to feel more confident
Speaker 3: in being able to utilize substitutions, to not feel so
Speaker 3: beholden to a certain recipe exactly how it is when
Speaker 3: you can kind of understand a little bit more of
Speaker 3: the core and foundations. And I think, as you're talking too,
Speaker 3: it's helping me to realize that in some ways meal
Speaker 3: planning is a little bit fruitless if we don't consider
Speaker 3: food waste in that process. That we could just throw
Speaker 3: out things that we want to eat that week. But
Speaker 3: if we aren't considering where there's crossover of ingredients and
Speaker 3: how we might be able to utilize leftovers, we really
Speaker 3: might not see that much cost savings with it. And
Speaker 3: so I think it's really helpful to kind of hear
Speaker 3: what you're describing here of how we can go about
Speaker 3: meal planning with some of these ingredients that will be
Speaker 3: efficient throughout the week and keeping in mind some of
Speaker 3: these core ways that we can reuse ingredients throughout the week,
Speaker 3: is is helpful impairing these two Like, yes, start with
Speaker 3: a meal plan, but like if that like very soon
Speaker 3: it needs to be paired with thinking about food waste.
Speaker 4: Yes, it really does.
Speaker 5: And I think learning how to read a recipe and
Speaker 5: understand like what is important to the recipe, like because
Speaker 5: a lot of times we feel like we have to
Speaker 5: buy every single thing a recipe list in order to
Speaker 5: make it. Like there's people just you know and want
Speaker 5: to like just make sure like I have all of
Speaker 5: this and I'm going to make it exactly how it's stated,
Speaker 5: And I don't really believe that there. I think there's
Speaker 5: a lot of these sort of core ingredients like spices
Speaker 5: that you'll you'll use a lot not even you know,
Speaker 5: across cuisines. But then there's like these sort of you know,
Speaker 5: like a little bit more niche things that like if
Speaker 5: you see, like you only need a quarter tea spoon
Speaker 5: of this, it's like, well, yeah, it'll add of course
Speaker 5: a little bit to the finished product, but like you
Speaker 5: can also miss it. Like that's how I tell people
Speaker 5: that you see a recipe and there's like ten spices listed.
Speaker 5: Look at the ones where you're like putting in a
Speaker 5: lot of the amount, Like those are the ones that
Speaker 5: are really going to create that flavor, like you know,
Speaker 5: foundational flavor and the other stuff like it's it will
Speaker 5: make a difference. But if you don't have it and
Speaker 5: you don't want to spend money on it, because then
Speaker 5: you're like you bought it and you don't you know,
Speaker 5: you use a quarter teaspoon and then you never use
Speaker 5: it again. Like that is what Even if it's while
Speaker 5: it's sitting in your drawer, it's still like a it's
Speaker 5: it's waste in terms of it's taking up room. And
Speaker 5: so I just think that to help people think through
Speaker 5: like do you need everything in a recipe? And oftentimes
Speaker 5: you do not. And then they're also like these great
Speaker 5: chronic crossover ingredients. The way we think about meal planning,
Speaker 5: it's like, okay, if you we put a some cilantro
Speaker 5: in one meal, we always try to find another meal
Speaker 5: to like help you use up the rest of that
Speaker 5: like a bunch of cilantro, right, because so oftentimes, like
Speaker 5: if you really do want to buy the herb at all,
Speaker 5: like some people are just we have so many members
Speaker 5: are like I just always skipped the herbs, and that's
Speaker 5: totally fine too, But if you are gonna, you know,
Speaker 5: we like, if you are gonna buy it, we want
Speaker 5: to help you use the whole thing. And what's it's
Speaker 5: what's so great is if you actually think about cuisines,
Speaker 5: there's a lot of crossover, right, Like cilantro is used
Speaker 5: in Latin food, but it's also used in a lot
Speaker 5: of Asian food. So for us, it's always like, oh,
Speaker 5: we have cilantro and it's being used in tacos. Like
Speaker 5: we'll just find like, you know, so we don't all
Speaker 5: have two Latin meals in a week. We'll like find
Speaker 5: something Asian because that's also a very popular urban Asian cooking.
Speaker 5: There's just yeah, there's just a lot of crossover when
Speaker 5: you think about things and sort of look at the
Speaker 5: Venn diagram of foods and cuisines.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: You uh, you were the one that got me making
Speaker 1: my own salad dressings when I was using Cooksmarts. Yes,
Speaker 1: and then Jill has said, like I inspired her inspired
Speaker 1: her to make her own salad dressings.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and now it is all I do now because
Speaker 3: I'm just like, this is so easy.
Speaker 1: I'm not falling for waste.
Speaker 5: Four.
Speaker 1: I waste salad dressings because I just don't want to
Speaker 1: use that salad dressing over and over, whereas I could
Speaker 1: just know the base. You have these fantastic infographics with
Speaker 1: like these bases for things, and then waste to come
Speaker 1: off of it, and then I have like twelve different
Speaker 1: options for salad dressings. Yes, yeah, and instead of just
Speaker 1: one more, twelve tattles.
Speaker 3: Of dressing, fantastic homemade Asian dressing on my salad for
Speaker 3: us today.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it still tastes a little bit on the ingredience.
Speaker 5: Yeah, salad dressing, they're all just pantry ingredients that don't
Speaker 5: go bad. You know, it's vinegar and oil, like well
Speaker 5: you know oil can go bad. But like most people
Speaker 5: have those things lying around, and it's so easy to
Speaker 5: make your own and you don't have to have all
Speaker 5: the jars sticks taking up room. But yeah, I think
Speaker 5: it really goes back to these cooking formulas, right, Like,
Speaker 5: so it's not just we have all these cooking formulas
Speaker 5: for all the meals we make, and salad dressing is
Speaker 5: just one of them. But it's most things you can
Speaker 5: kind of see like what is the formula and then
Speaker 5: you can just know like oh yeah, like you said, Gelex,
Speaker 5: being able to swap, you know, being able to feel
Speaker 5: more confident about subbing things because you're like, okay, well
Speaker 5: this is just you know, I can sub the proteins
Speaker 5: or I can sub these spice or sub the vinegars,
Speaker 5: and it's yeah, it makes a big difference to understand
Speaker 5: the formulas behind what you're cooking. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I feel like this has been a game changer for me,
Speaker 1: is learning more about how to cook and all of
Speaker 1: this stuff, because it does open up a lot of
Speaker 1: things to that are simple. So like my limited meal
Speaker 1: cooking you know, is already limited because I don't want
Speaker 1: to know a lot about it. But when I have
Speaker 1: mentioned out and learned more, like I can open up
Speaker 1: this realm of simple cooking and simplicity that I didn't
Speaker 1: have before. And I will never aspire to do fancy
Speaker 1: things in the kitchen. It's just like not my thing,
Speaker 1: but like it's it's opened up so much more on
Speaker 1: this like base level for me, and I actually follow
Speaker 1: through with my meal plan because I can simplify it.
Speaker 5: So yeah, I love that.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Okay, so we've talked about these ingredient efficiencies and
Speaker 1: kind of like knowing the cooking like Formula's baseline education.
Speaker 1: Are there any other heavy hitters for reducing food waste
Speaker 1: that you love use I want to talk about?
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 5: So I think a lot about is comes comes to shopping, right,
Speaker 5: because that is like sort of the source of the
Speaker 5: food race food waste is how you shop, right. So
Speaker 5: I think a lot of it is going always, always
Speaker 5: going to the store with a list and not as
Speaker 5: much as you might want to, like really trying to
Speaker 5: stick to that list.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 5: I know that sometimes we can be thrown off by sales, right,
Speaker 5: Like you know, especially now, it's like, oh food, food
Speaker 5: is really expensive. But if it's something that's on sale
Speaker 5: and you're like this is not something I know how
Speaker 5: to use or will use, often like it's just not
Speaker 5: worth buying that sale product, right. So I think a
Speaker 5: lot of it is just making that meal plan, knowing
Speaker 5: and what you just said, making the meal plans so
Speaker 5: that like the meals themselves are things you will execute
Speaker 5: and include nights off, include you know, leftovers whatever it is,
Speaker 5: and going to the store and buying buying the things
Speaker 5: that make sense for your life, right, I think, Oh,
Speaker 5: there's a lot of aspirational buying in at the grocery store.
Speaker 5: We buy things saying like one day I'm gonna cook this.
Speaker 5: It's like one day I'm gonna like wear this outfit.
Speaker 5: But it's like what is your life really like and
Speaker 5: really understanding? Like those are the things that you should
Speaker 5: that should you should put in your cart stick the
Speaker 5: meal plan, and I think that will help people reduce
Speaker 5: a lot a lot of food waste.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know what else helps people just in general?
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's definitely not a waste of the week.
Speaker 2: That's right.
Speaker 6: It's time for the best minute of your entire week.
Speaker 6: Maybe a baby was born and his name is Williams.
Speaker 6: Maybe you've paid off your mortgage, maybe your car died
Speaker 6: and you're happy to not have to pay that bill anymore.
Speaker 6: Dust bills, butfalo bills. Bill Clinton, this is the bill
Speaker 6: of the week.
Speaker 1: Yes, yes, just every week we yell at our listeners
Speaker 1: and our guests alike and ask for them to share
Speaker 1: with us their bill for the week, and we would
Speaker 1: love to hear yours.
Speaker 5: I love this and I'm going a different direction. I'm
Speaker 5: going like a non frugal direction. So I got I
Speaker 5: just thought our cook Smart's bill, our Cooksmart's credit card
Speaker 5: bill for the month of November, and it was the
Speaker 5: highest bill we've had for the year. And I'm really
Speaker 5: happy about that bill. And I want to tell you why.
Speaker 5: So we are, like we're a very lean company. We're remote,
Speaker 5: we like we run so leanly all year long, but
Speaker 5: we get together, our meal planning team gets together once
Speaker 5: a year and we like just go bananas and like,
Speaker 5: you know, we're we're we're very excited to take time
Speaker 5: off from the kitchen, right Like, so this year we
Speaker 5: went to Charleston and just ate like our hearts out,
Speaker 5: and like the meals are just so good and it
Speaker 5: really inspires us to like get to eat like really
Speaker 5: interesting meals. There's a lot of you know, it gets
Speaker 5: gives our like creative juices going. And so I think
Speaker 5: a lot of it is like, you know, sort of
Speaker 5: what you guys preach. It's like you you do you
Speaker 5: you're frugal about the things that you need to be
Speaker 5: frugl about so that you can buy like something special
Speaker 5: for yourself. So you are like saving up for those
Speaker 5: like special moments or special things that you want. And
Speaker 5: for us, that was what like, you know, we get
Speaker 5: together just once a year, and we don't want to
Speaker 5: worry about like, oh, like is this in the budget,
Speaker 5: and because all year long we have stuff to the
Speaker 5: budget and we are, you know, we're a lean company,
Speaker 5: like I said, and so we just go all out.
Speaker 5: And I'm always happy to pay that bill because it's like,
Speaker 5: produces such great memories. And so that is the one
Speaker 5: time I'm like, I'm I'm totally fine and happy with
Speaker 5: a higher bill because the rest of the time we
Speaker 5: were very responsible and good.
Speaker 1: And I would like to remind the audience you had
Speaker 1: one of my other most favorite bills of all time.
Speaker 5: Oh my gosh, I don't remember.
Speaker 1: Oh you paid for your I don't know if she
Speaker 1: was an employee at the time or co owner maternity
Speaker 1: leave bill. Yes, you paid maternity leave for her, and
Speaker 1: that was a bill you were happy to pay and
Speaker 1: all time one of my favorite bills for this.
Speaker 5: Thanks for remind me of that. I totally forgot. But yeah,
Speaker 5: we're you know, we're like a small little company of
Speaker 5: twelve people, and we want people to like take time
Speaker 5: off and enjoy meals when we're all together, and yeah,
Speaker 5: I'm always happy to do that. Because it we responsible
Speaker 5: the other times, then we get to enjoy one, you know,
Speaker 5: because we were responsible.
Speaker 4: Oh this makes me so happy.
Speaker 3: And I would argue that this is still being responsible
Speaker 3: with the money. It is still Yeah, it's an intentional decision,
Speaker 3: and it is aligned with your values, and it's supporting
Speaker 3: the things that make you come alive and inspire you
Speaker 3: and help you to feel creative. And there's so many
Speaker 3: things we can point to about why this was a
Speaker 3: good money decision and we are so supportive of it.
Speaker 3: Thanks for sharing that. If you all listening, have a
Speaker 3: bill you want to share. If it's about a high
Speaker 3: bill that you don't mind paying because it aligns with
Speaker 3: your values, if it's about not needing to pay a bill,
Speaker 3: if it's about paying for an employee's maternity leave.
Speaker 4: You know, we love just celebrating all of it.
Speaker 3: Google Friends, podcast, dot Com, slash bill can't.
Speaker 4: Wait to hear yours love it. And now it's time
Speaker 4: for the lightning round you.
Speaker 5: All right, Jess, you're a bill pro. We already know that.
Speaker 1: All right, you have great bills of the week, But
Speaker 1: can you can you carry it over into.
Speaker 5: The lightning gos?
Speaker 1: I'm nervous, Okay, today's Lightning Round question, what basic cooking
Speaker 1: skills do you think everyone should know? Also, I'd like
Speaker 1: to follow up with what is a basic cooking skill
Speaker 1: that you kind of learned or mastered way later than
Speaker 1: maybe you thought you should. Oh, interesting a double hatter question,
Speaker 1: so they could be the same thing, maybe.
Speaker 4: Okay, Okay.
Speaker 5: So I think that the cooking skill that ever everybody
Speaker 5: needs is to learn how to use a knife properly.
Speaker 5: Like you know, there are there are knife skills classes
Speaker 5: in person. I still recommend going in person versus you know,
Speaker 5: and that clearly you know online is fine, but having
Speaker 5: someone show you how to hold the knife, telling you
Speaker 5: like what you're doing wrong, because pretty much every time
Speaker 5: you're in the kitchen, you are chopping something. And I
Speaker 5: think for so many people that is like the main frustration,
Speaker 5: because we have people be like, oh this like this meal,
Speaker 5: turn neck right, but it took me like forty five
Speaker 5: minutes to chop the vegetables. And I'm like, no, it
Speaker 5: should not have taken you forty I can get like
Speaker 5: twenty macs. And so I think like having that skill
Speaker 5: is not only like saves you time, but also hopefully
Speaker 5: we'll gave you some like cuts and cuts and scrapes
Speaker 5: in the future. And it is a skill that I
Speaker 5: think people learn too late or never learn at all,
Speaker 5: and so there's always frustrated in the kitchen. So I
Speaker 5: think that is the one cooking skill, not the one,
Speaker 5: but like, I think that's such a foundational cooking skill
Speaker 5: that everybody needs to have.
Speaker 1: I think that's a great birthday gift or Christmas gift,
Speaker 1: like people are up here giving people like axe throwing
Speaker 1: in room destroying, Like when are you ever going to
Speaker 1: throw an axe in real life?
Speaker 5: All right?
Speaker 1: And when are you ever going to need to smash
Speaker 1: a computer in real life?
Speaker 4: We all know how to do that, right.
Speaker 1: But give you girl a gift of knives, knowledge of
Speaker 1: knives in the silent case.
Speaker 4: Yes, we love them. I love we love knowing things.
Speaker 4: Oh so many silent kids.
Speaker 1: Who's next?
Speaker 5: You or me?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 3: Yes, okay, you know I actually have a couple here
Speaker 3: getting on my high horse in the kitchen.
Speaker 4: Okay.
Speaker 3: But the first one I'll say is knowing what temperature
Speaker 3: and for how long to cook something or even just
Speaker 3: heat up food. That's mostly it just reheating food, not
Speaker 3: trying to throw anyone under the bus. But the amount
Speaker 3: of times that I get asked or hear somebody ask
Speaker 3: to somebody else like how long should I heat this
Speaker 3: up for? Like at what temperature should this be?
Speaker 4: And it's just like.
Speaker 3: Your guess is kind of as good as mine, but
Speaker 3: like my guess is really good, Like.
Speaker 4: Why can't we just guess at this?
Speaker 3: Like I don't know, in the microwave for two minutes,
Speaker 3: try it out, sticks are low, I don't know, in
Speaker 3: the toaster oven for at three fifty for five minutes.
Speaker 3: Then go back and take a look is it warm?
Speaker 3: Do a finger test?
Speaker 4: Like this is like anyone else?
Speaker 5: Is anyone else right now?
Speaker 3: See and hear and understand this like I, yeah, you
Speaker 3: got a I'm not gonna throw anyone under the bus.
Speaker 1: It's me.
Speaker 7: You have also got no me too, but like you've
Speaker 7: gotten phone calls at work to ask you, like how
Speaker 7: long to heat something up for?
Speaker 4: Just like just microwaves give my husband.
Speaker 3: Yes, I said I wasn't throw anyone under the bus,
Speaker 3: but it's not it's.
Speaker 1: Not just your cum ask me how long to mic
Speaker 1: well something?
Speaker 4: You can fill it in yourself.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I just feel like this is the most basic.
Speaker 3: You don't even have to know how to cook, just
Speaker 3: like know how to take guesses at temperatures and timing.
Speaker 4: It helps me to.
Speaker 1: Figure out what the temperatures like, what's a baked temperature,
Speaker 1: what's a roast temperature, what's the broial tempature? Like, it
Speaker 1: helped me to figure out like those things are different,
Speaker 1: those denote different temperature ranges.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Also maybe it's the starting point if you're like.
Speaker 4: Us, people should know how to freeze things.
Speaker 3: I think just being more brave and daring with the
Speaker 3: freezer is another thing. Listen, I'm it's low over, I'm
Speaker 3: on a high wake out and with low hanging fruit
Speaker 3: like these are the basics, like, hey can I freeze this?
Speaker 4: I don't know, give it a try? Yeah, what could
Speaker 4: go wrong? Take chances, make mistakes.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you defrost it again and you realize you don't
Speaker 3: like the consistency.
Speaker 4: Okay, not much as lost there.
Speaker 5: I love the freezing thing because, like, first of like
Speaker 5: most things can be frozen. If you walk down your
Speaker 5: your grocery store freezer aisle, like everything you want to
Speaker 5: eat has been frozen.
Speaker 4: There yet, right, pasta's there? Rice is there?
Speaker 1: Bread is there?
Speaker 4: Bread?
Speaker 5: Yes? All the vegetables you know, look, just look through
Speaker 5: all of the like the TV dinners, and you'll see
Speaker 5: like every every meal that you food on heat has
Speaker 5: been frozen, so you can you can freeze your own.
Speaker 1: Even food that is not frozen was maybe one time frozen.
Speaker 3: But to your question of what what have you learned too?
Speaker 3: I recently learned with an avocado, you know the trick
Speaker 3: that people are always like, all right, and then with
Speaker 3: the pit, like hack it with a knife and turn it,
Speaker 3: and then like, how do you get the pit off
Speaker 3: the knife without slicing your hand open. No, what you
Speaker 3: can do is identify that it is ripe. So that's
Speaker 3: another skill I think people. Oh that's another one picking
Speaker 3: out she's still on the quality fruits and veggies that
Speaker 3: feels that feels low hanging. But it's one of the
Speaker 3: reasons I can't do I can't do delivery grocery services
Speaker 3: because they're given me just subprime veggies and fruits. And
Speaker 3: I feel like that's a skill that really needs to
Speaker 3: be honed for people. But is it avocados and hash
Speaker 3: the side that has the pit, You just push on
Speaker 3: the skin with your thumb.
Speaker 4: It pops out.
Speaker 3: No need to slice and dice your hands. I just
Speaker 3: learned that recently.
Speaker 5: Wow, that's a good one because that is I think
Speaker 5: the like one of the biggest injuries that occupational therapists
Speaker 5: have to deal with, Like.
Speaker 4: Ooh, sliced hand.
Speaker 1: Yeah again, get you a girl a knife class.
Speaker 4: That's it.
Speaker 1: I think that's the moral.
Speaker 3: Okayc turn, I know I took like five turns, but
Speaker 3: so so.
Speaker 1: I think one of those things that I learned maybe
Speaker 1: a little later, was that the the different temperatures for
Speaker 1: the oven. But I think another thing would be that
Speaker 1: oil crisps. I was not getting speed roasted vegetables. If
Speaker 1: they were crispy, they were.
Speaker 4: Burnt, right.
Speaker 1: But I didn't get the right crisp on what I
Speaker 1: wanted because I wasn't using enough oil or I wasn't
Speaker 1: coating the vegetables fully in oil. And I don't use
Speaker 1: a ton of oil, but that is what provides the crisp.
Speaker 1: So that was something I think everyone should know. And
Speaker 1: I didn't know that till I watched that documentary The
Speaker 1: Salt Fat Acid. So I learned so much heat. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I learned so much from that documentary.
Speaker 4: That was good.
Speaker 1: That was a good one to learn from.
Speaker 5: Some means a genius, and I think That's why often
Speaker 5: when you get roasted veggies at restaurants, they're better because
Speaker 5: they are willing to use a lot, lot more oil
Speaker 5: than most want to use at home. But that is
Speaker 5: that is really why do you feel like your roasted
Speaker 5: veggies are not as good at home as a restaurant.
Speaker 5: It's because they use a lot of oil. So there
Speaker 5: you go.
Speaker 3: There, you're all learning something here. If people want to
Speaker 3: learn more from you, Jess and get all your resources.
Speaker 1: Yeah, please brag about cook smarts and the new smarts app.
Speaker 1: And we've been to brag about it all for the
Speaker 1: time in the friend letter, but please please thank you.
Speaker 5: Yes, so cook smarts go to cooksmarts dot com. That's
Speaker 5: with an s like book smarts. If you go to
Speaker 5: cooksmart com, you'll see something totally different. But we yeah,
Speaker 5: we've we are now. We launched our meal plan service
Speaker 5: in twenty thirteen, which means there are now like over
Speaker 5: eleven years worth of recipes and meal plans in there.
Speaker 5: Every week we have a new meal plan and so
Speaker 5: that's just a lot of meal plans that we've done.
Speaker 5: So we've just had a lot of experience really understanding
Speaker 5: you know, how do we meal plan simply, but had
Speaker 5: also a meal plan to reduce food waste. And how
Speaker 5: do we meal plans so that people actually will cook
Speaker 5: the meal plans? That's always your Can.
Speaker 1: You listen to the feedback of all of your people
Speaker 1: that use it? You have a Facebook group and people
Speaker 1: are always in their commenty you take into consideration.
Speaker 5: Yeah, we really understand like how people want to cook.
Speaker 5: And even though people always say like we want healthy meals,
Speaker 5: it's always like the comfort meals and like the steak
Speaker 5: or the heavier things that get the best reviews. And
Speaker 5: so even though you know we try to make sure
Speaker 5: there's lots of light, healthy meals, we also make sure
Speaker 5: there's also lots of comforting meals that you'll recognize from
Speaker 5: your childhood as well. But yeah, we're really excited because
Speaker 5: we're watching our app in January, or mobile app. We've
Speaker 5: been a web app since twenty thirteen, but really excited
Speaker 5: for iOS users as at least that they're able to
Speaker 5: download a mobile app. And it's just it just it's
Speaker 5: so nice and slick, and it was such a fun
Speaker 5: process to work on and our team has had such
Speaker 5: a great time putting that together this year. So I'm
Speaker 5: really excited about that.
Speaker 4: That's so exciting.
Speaker 3: I love tools and resources that are going to help
Speaker 3: solve a very real daily issue.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I recommend Cooksmarts all the time for people who are
Speaker 1: just starting with meal planning because it is so daunting
Speaker 1: and all the things you just said are like from
Speaker 1: an ingredient efficiencies to when to like when to use
Speaker 1: an ingredient throughout the week, et cetera, et cetera, so
Speaker 1: daunting and so important to success. And when you can
Speaker 1: pay somebody to do all that thinking for you and
Speaker 1: teach you what those important things are, like, it's worth
Speaker 1: every penny for the amount of money that it will
Speaker 1: save you in the long run.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I do agree. It's like if we say to
Speaker 5: you just from like one meal of takeout every month,
Speaker 5: it's it's totally worth it, but a lot of it,
Speaker 5: you know. For I come from like a cooking education background,
Speaker 5: that has always been my goal, and so I've tried
Speaker 5: to really work that into the service. So as you're
Speaker 5: making a meal, you're kind of getting a little bit
Speaker 5: of a cooking lesson each night, whether it's like knife
Speaker 5: skills of like how to properly chop like an onion
Speaker 5: or but or not squashed to understanding breaking down some
Speaker 5: of those cooking formulas, because I mean, like, at the
Speaker 5: end of the day, I would love for people to
Speaker 5: use us, learn and then feel like they don't need
Speaker 5: us anymore. You know. That's really my goal is, like
Speaker 5: to help you do this thing that everybody needs to
Speaker 5: do because we all need to eat. Some of us
Speaker 5: choose to eat without meal planning, and it's really stressful
Speaker 5: and you know, it results in a lot of wasted
Speaker 5: money and food. And so to help people with this
Speaker 5: like really important life skill to me, I think and
Speaker 5: feeling like helping them master it and feeling like, oh,
Speaker 5: now I can go off and do my own thing.
Speaker 5: Then that's great. And so I think, yeah, we've helped
Speaker 5: a lot of people get there, and some people still
Speaker 5: use this because they don't want to think about it,
Speaker 5: and some people are like, oh, I feel like I've
Speaker 5: got it, and then they move on, and that's also
Speaker 5: really great and gratifying for me.
Speaker 4: Yeah, beautiful.
Speaker 3: Thank you so much for being here with us, Jess
Speaker 3: and get inspiring us and giving us so many great
Speaker 3: ideas around our food.
Speaker 4: It's been fun.
Speaker 5: Thanks ladies for having me back. I so appreciate it.
Speaker 1: That was great, And Jess failed to mention she has
Speaker 1: an extensive culinary history. She was on the Food Network.
Speaker 4: God, that's right.
Speaker 1: Yeah, she competed for one of these like food chef
Speaker 1: spots in a TV show and you know who she
Speaker 1: lost to, Guy Fieri.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you're gonna lose to anyone.
Speaker 1: I g's gonna be right. Yeah, that's gonna be it.
Speaker 1: So she is legit and who you want to learn
Speaker 1: cooking from.
Speaker 4: And you want her holding my hand?
Speaker 1: We love she could come here and just hold both
Speaker 1: of our hands, and she and we together we could
Speaker 1: hold a knife, two knives. We'll have two extra hands.
Speaker 1: But she They include like videos in the meal plan too,
Speaker 1: So like I remember one time I was making me
Speaker 1: something with wanton rappers and I did not know how
Speaker 1: to fold them. And I didn't need to because right
Speaker 1: there in the meal plan was a little, short, little
Speaker 1: video telling you how.
Speaker 4: To do it. I am such a visual m hm.
Speaker 3: And again for goal friendspodcast dot com, slash cook Smarts
Speaker 3: or slash cs, we'll get you that two week free
Speaker 3: meal plan and twenty percent off if you do choose
Speaker 3: to go with the subscription.
Speaker 4: If you are the.
Speaker 3: Person who's like, yeah, I'm new to this, I need
Speaker 3: my handheld for a little bit of time. Yeah, this
Speaker 3: is going to be your best time. They don't run
Speaker 3: sales all the time, so it is worth taking advantage
Speaker 3: of it when they do.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and we definitely we will say in the front
Speaker 1: letter when they do. But it is something I think
Speaker 1: everyone should try for a year. And I'm just passionate
Speaker 1: about cook Smarts because they take the time to teach
Speaker 1: you these skills in the kitchen that extend beyond meal planning.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So that's I mean, that's just why I love them
Speaker 1: as as a service and I just love them as
Speaker 1: a company. So I'm done. They didn't pay us to
Speaker 1: do this episode. If you do purchase a subscription through
Speaker 1: our link, we do get a commission, but like, nobody's
Speaker 1: paying us to say this like a flaffy.
Speaker 3: So thanks so much for being here everyone. We do
Speaker 3: hope that this has been helpful and inspiring and helps
Speaker 3: you to make better meal plans and actually eat the
Speaker 3: food or be willing to pay for some of that convenience.
Speaker 4: Let somebody else make an plan for you.
Speaker 3: If oh, well, we just love your reviews too. We
Speaker 3: love food, and we love your reviews. These are two
Speaker 3: things I love most of my like this one from
Speaker 3: Sanja six one two gets.
Speaker 4: Better every week. You hear that, I hear yeah, five stars.
Speaker 3: I started this podcast in the middle, right after hearing
Speaker 3: Jill on three and thirty, and I just kind of
Speaker 3: skipped around with episodes that interested me. I forget which episode,
Speaker 3: but one of them had them saying, whatever you do,
Speaker 3: don't go back to the beginning and listen in order.
Speaker 3: So of course I had to do exactly that. This
Speaker 3: podcast started outright and got even better age so many
Speaker 3: action items and tips, mindset stuff annoys me absolutely, love
Speaker 3: all the grocery and investment episodes.
Speaker 4: Love you ladies at your work.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, how tall that was me jen on
Speaker 1: three and thirty, And I'm so glad you said that,
Speaker 1: because that was I was so excited for to do
Speaker 1: three and thirty. If you don't it's a podcast for moms.
Speaker 1: And I did that interview in my house after our
Speaker 1: handyman had painted the side of our He scratched the
Speaker 1: side of our fridge and then like spray painted over
Speaker 1: it and the fumes were so strong, wow. And I
Speaker 1: had been sitting in there. I thought it was going
Speaker 1: to dissipate. It didn't so like a strong I was
Speaker 1: not in a good headspace to do that interview, and
Speaker 1: I thought I totally botched it. I was like, they're
Speaker 1: never going to air it. I did that interview in
Speaker 1: April and I think it aired in August. Okay, And
Speaker 1: but I was just going to put you on it,
Speaker 1: and I.
Speaker 4: Look at.
Speaker 1: It helped you in home that you thought we got
Speaker 1: better with age like wine, So lovely.
Speaker 4: If you are listening and you have not given us
Speaker 4: a rating or.
Speaker 3: Review, even if you haven't gone all the way back
Speaker 3: to the beginning again, please don't. If you've just been
Speaker 3: listening for you know, a couple of weeks, a couple
Speaker 3: of months, a couple of years, even you've not left
Speaker 3: us a rating or review, please do that. That would
Speaker 3: mean the world to us. It's so fun to hear
Speaker 3: what you have to say about it. But it also
Speaker 3: is so helpful in other people finding us as well.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and if you have, if you want to buy
Speaker 1: our book that is available now by what you Love
Speaker 1: without Going Broke, we would love that and maybe leave
Speaker 1: a rating and review for the book. So good, Thank you,
Speaker 1: love you, See you next time. I Google Friends is
Speaker 1: produced by Eric Sirianni.
Speaker 4: Okay, I had a frugal fail with food lost day.
Speaker 1: Tell me I don't love that you had a fail,
Speaker 1: but if you learn from it, I loved it.
Speaker 3: Tell me, I don't know I learned from it maybe
Speaker 3: a little bit. But so we've been trying out these
Speaker 3: last two weeks a coworking space, you me and Eric,
Speaker 3: because we got two weeks free, speaking of two weeks
Speaker 3: free somewhere two weeks three at this co working space.
Speaker 3: We're like, yeah, let's try it out. Let's see if
Speaker 3: this is something that would be worth spending some money
Speaker 3: on being able to just get out of the house
Speaker 3: have access to some of the extra space that an
Speaker 3: office like this could provide to us. Anyways, we've been
Speaker 3: packing our lunches, so you know, I'm used to working
Speaker 3: from home and just eating whatever I have my friend,
Speaker 3: So it's been a little bit extra effort.
Speaker 4: I need to think I how pack a lunch? Take it.
Speaker 3: So yesterday we went just Eric and I and I
Speaker 3: we just decided to pack Babe and Jay sandwiches and
Speaker 3: we had leftover sour del loaf bread which was really
Speaker 3: good when it was freshly baked. Has been fantastic bread
Speaker 3: to have on hand. It's definitely on its last leg.
Speaker 3: And we cut it kind of thick. By we, I
Speaker 3: mean me, I cut it kind of thick because she
Speaker 3: loves bread. I do love bread, yeah. But then paired
Speaker 3: with the peanut butter and jelly, it just it was
Speaker 3: so dense and on the verge of being stale and
Speaker 3: had such a specific kind of flavor that didn't totally
Speaker 3: coalesce with the peanut butter and jelly, and it made
Speaker 3: it somewhat inedible. I ended up pulling it apart and
Speaker 3: more so like treating it like an open face because
Speaker 3: it was far too much bread to peanut butter and jelly,
Speaker 3: but because the bread was so kind of hard and dense,
Speaker 3: not crunchy, just dense. Wow, you almost couldn't get enough
Speaker 3: peanut butter and jelly in the middle, if that makes sense.
Speaker 4: And then even no.
Speaker 3: Matter how yeah, so just to help improve the ratio
Speaker 3: of condiments to bread, I pulled it apart, and even
Speaker 3: still I couldn't hardly finish it. I probably ate like
Speaker 3: a third of the sandwich.
Speaker 4: Wow. Thank goodness.
Speaker 3: We also brought chippies because I don't entirely hate myself
Speaker 3: absolutely an apple and an avocado, so these things did
Speaker 3: sustain us. But Eric and I both were just looking
Speaker 3: at each other like, this is this is what frugal
Speaker 3: feels like, Like this is what a frugal fail feels like. Yeah,
Speaker 3: this is this is not good. But you know what,
Speaker 3: it wasn't bad, Like it wasn't the food wasn't rancid,
Speaker 3: so we weren't gonna go out to go get ourselves food.
Speaker 4: I don't totally know.
Speaker 3: What the takeaway is because we both were like, well,
Speaker 3: we got fed.
Speaker 4: Your food is in our belly.
Speaker 1: It's a new season. Like coworking, even though I don't
Speaker 1: know if we'll do it long term, would be a
Speaker 1: new season would require new experimenting in the way that
Speaker 1: we eat and spend money. And this was part of
Speaker 1: your experimentation that just you know.
Speaker 3: It was especially bad because you've got other people in
Speaker 3: the space heating up their launches.
Speaker 4: Oh that just sounded so good. Sounded smelled.
Speaker 3: There was definitely some Indian food being heated up, and
Speaker 3: here we are with just like the grossest peanut butter
Speaker 3: and jelly. It felt it like had me get had
Speaker 3: me having flashbacks to like my elementary.
Speaker 4: School days where it is what lunch felt like for
Speaker 4: me growing up.
Speaker 3: My mom would always do the like grain bird seed
Speaker 3: bread and like the all natural whatever and something you know, homemade,
Speaker 3: which I can appreciate now, but like growing up, it
Speaker 3: never was the cool lunch that you're looking forward too.
Speaker 4: It was just always something you kind of just suffered through,
Speaker 4: wishing someone would trade their lunch with you, but knowing
Speaker 4: if I don't even want this, they're not gonna want it.
Speaker 4: But I really wanted some of that Indian food. I'm
Speaker 4: so sorry. It's okay, it's okay. It's just still a
Speaker 4: little bit fresh for us. But we're gonna do better.
Speaker 4: We're gonna do better next time. Yeah, good luck. Thanks