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Speaker 1: Hello, Hello, I'm Kelsey Nixon and this is Kitchen Prescription,

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Speaker 1: the podcast you listen to when you don't know what

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Speaker 1: to make for dinner. How is everybody? I hope you've

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Speaker 1: all been well. To be honest, I always forget what

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Speaker 1: a crazy time of year Spring is, in fact, May

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Speaker 1: in particular, when it seems that things are extra busy

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Speaker 1: with the dance recitals, the baseball tournaments, the school performances,

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Speaker 1: all all of that seems to be happening in May.

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Speaker 1: And you know, I expect the holidays to be crazy.

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Speaker 1: I expect, you know, summer to be its own kind

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Speaker 1: of crazy, but May in particular, it's nuts. It's just

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Speaker 1: around the corner. I was just filling out our family

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Speaker 1: calendar for the month, and I was like, WHOA, buckle up,

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Speaker 1: it's gonna be a big one. So it kind of

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Speaker 1: felt like this week was maybe the calm before the storm.

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Speaker 1: And I'm already feeling just a bit anxious about staring

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Speaker 1: down a very, very full month. So you may feel

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Speaker 1: that way. You may look a little lighter than my May,

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Speaker 1: and if so, that's great, congratulations. But as you guys

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Speaker 1: all know, dinner does not stop needing to happen during

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Speaker 1: busy months, and if anything, it's the busiest times that

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Speaker 1: we need the most ideas for really simple dinners that

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Speaker 1: can happen easily. So I wanted to share something simple

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Speaker 1: that I did this week that I thought might be

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Speaker 1: helpful to some of you. So you guys know my

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Speaker 1: son Alie almost ten. He's big baseball kid, so playing

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Speaker 1: a lot of baseball right now, multiple games a week,

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Speaker 1: multiple practices, and I find dinner to be particularly challenging

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Speaker 1: when we have lots of activities after school, and I

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Speaker 1: know there are so many people in this boat, so

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Speaker 1: whether it's the gymnastics class or the dance, or the

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Speaker 1: baseball or the basketball. I know I've seen a couple

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Speaker 1: memes people talking about how we either have dinner at

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Speaker 1: four pm or nine pm because those hours in between,

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Speaker 1: someone's always gone. So for my family structure right now,

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Speaker 1: where I have one child that's a little bit older

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Speaker 1: and I've got two younger girls, this is something that

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Speaker 1: worked this week that I thought might help, and you

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Speaker 1: might have to adjust it given the age of your kids.

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Speaker 1: But we were going to the baseball game, and I

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Speaker 1: knew that it was going to be tough to make

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Speaker 1: dinner happen around the table at any point that evening,

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Speaker 1: And so I got my girls excited, particularly my five

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Speaker 1: year old, about packing a picnic for the baseball game. So,

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Speaker 1: once again, depending on their age, you might have to

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Speaker 1: sell this in a little differently. But right now, my

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Speaker 1: life is full of tea parties and pretend to play.

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Speaker 1: So I told Norah we were going to have a

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Speaker 1: picnic at the baseball game, and I had her get

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Speaker 1: her teacups and I had her get her blanket, and

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Speaker 1: I essentially passed a picnic dinner. Right, So I did

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Speaker 1: peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for the girls. I grabbed

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Speaker 1: a bunch of fruit, I grabbed some chips, I grabbed

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Speaker 1: some drinks, and I grabbed some baby carrots, like just

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Speaker 1: picnicky foods, right, And I put it all into a

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Speaker 1: little cooler bag and we took it and it was

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Speaker 1: such a hit. Now, who knows if it's gonna work

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Speaker 1: over and over again, but picnic at the baseball game

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Speaker 1: was like massive hit for my girls. So just an

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Speaker 1: idea to throw out there, and please do not envision

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Speaker 1: some overly precious, overly curated situation. These were things that

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Speaker 1: Nora picked the cups did not match. It was like whatever,

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Speaker 1: but you know, there was a drinking fountain. She kept

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Speaker 1: filling up the cups with water, and she just thought

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Speaker 1: it was great, and it was in a way it

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Speaker 1: was It was great because I could be there watching

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Speaker 1: the game while also doing something that felt important to her.

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Speaker 1: So it just was a win all around. So who

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Speaker 1: knows what we looked like doing our picnic at the

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Speaker 1: baseball field, but whatever, it was good and Penny's crazy regardless.

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Speaker 1: So that happened. And then another idea that we did

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Speaker 1: for a baseball game is so there's a snack shack

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Speaker 1: at our baseball field, and that's very exciting, but I

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Speaker 1: also kind of hate it because my girls always want

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Speaker 1: to get something and then they always end up getting

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Speaker 1: junk and then we either spoiled dinner or you know,

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Speaker 1: we've had a terrible dinner. And so I decided that

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Speaker 1: on baseball nights, maybe what I do is I just

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Speaker 1: kind of packed some of the snack shack food. So

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Speaker 1: I made hot dogs the other day, hot dogs. I

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Speaker 1: wrapped them in foil, I did them just other girls

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Speaker 1: like them, and then I put them in the same

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Speaker 1: cooler with some juice. Boxes and some fruit and stuff

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Speaker 1: like that. And I told Norah she could still go

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Speaker 1: to the snack shack to get a treat, but she

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Speaker 1: had to eat our dinner first, and so it I

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Speaker 1: just literally pulled out hot dogs, you know, there were

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Speaker 1: a fraction of the cost of what they would have

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Speaker 1: been in snackshack, and we kind of had this, you know,

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Speaker 1: hot doggy dinner and it was great. And I ended

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Speaker 1: up spending one tenth of what I would have spent

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Speaker 1: to buy hot dogs to everyone and chips and all

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Speaker 1: of that. So another idea doesn't seem very intuitive to

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Speaker 1: pack your on hot dogs for the baseball game, but

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Speaker 1: it worked out great. So two simple ideas if you

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Speaker 1: find yourself taking young kids to baseball games, basketball games,

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Speaker 1: whatever it may be, to make dinner happen. All right,

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Speaker 1: speaking of simple, let's discuss a few simple recipes you

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Speaker 1: can throw on your meal plan this week. First, let's

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Speaker 1: talk about this green chili chicken and rice soup. Yes,

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Speaker 1: I'm talking about soup. It's not summer yet, and I

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Speaker 1: know a lot of you are having those very frustrating

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Speaker 1: feelings of it's supposed to be warm and we're still

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Speaker 1: getting snow. So soup might be just the perfect recipe

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Speaker 1: for you. And the reason I like this soup is

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Speaker 1: because the flavor profile is kind of like Mexican night

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Speaker 1: in a way. It's like a spin on a tortilla soup,

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Speaker 1: and I find those flavors to be a bit more

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Speaker 1: bright and not as heavy as something like a chili

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Speaker 1: or even a chicken noodle soup. And I really like

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Speaker 1: this soup for like a spring or summer soup option.

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Speaker 1: So this is a Recipe Club recipe from April. It's

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Speaker 1: super delicious. I think the thing that makes it really

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Speaker 1: great is this, I test a bunch of different combinations

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Speaker 1: of spices and I got this just right. And there's

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Speaker 1: even a teeny bit of brown sugar in this that

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Speaker 1: really just brings it all together. And I use the

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Speaker 1: same method that I've used for other recipes, or I

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Speaker 1: actually cook the chicken in the same pot that I

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Speaker 1: build the soup. And what that does is it establishes

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Speaker 1: a base of flavor that really enriches the broth. Now

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Speaker 1: you don't have to do that. You could skip that

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Speaker 1: all together and use a rotisserie chicken, and there are

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Speaker 1: instructions for that in the recipe. But if you've got

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Speaker 1: a pound of chicken breasts in your freezer fridge. It's

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Speaker 1: not that hard and it happens really quick. So there's that.

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Speaker 1: I use kind of a short cut ingredient of a

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Speaker 1: jar of salsaverde. I use some fresh kale in there.

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Speaker 1: You could also use spinach if you wanted. You could

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Speaker 1: also just remove that as some cilantros, some lime, and

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Speaker 1: then I use rice at the base of the bowl,

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Speaker 1: and then I pour the soup over the top. And

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Speaker 1: that's another kind of tip of mind that I like

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Speaker 1: to make a soup dinner feel a bit more hardy.

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Speaker 1: And so if you're you know, if you're not, you

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Speaker 1: could do keen, while you could do rice, you could

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Speaker 1: do you could do yours, so you could do all

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Speaker 1: sorts of grains, barley, farro or whatever. And then a

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Speaker 1: nice crushed tortilla chip over the top, some sliced avocado.

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Speaker 1: You could top it with sour creaming, a Greek yogurt,

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Speaker 1: some shredded cheese, pickle, the onions. It's just it's really

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Speaker 1: really yummy. So check that one out. Really easy to

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Speaker 1: come together, especially with those two short cut ingredients, the

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Speaker 1: jarred salsa verde and the rotisserie chicken if you want

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Speaker 1: to go that way. Okay. Next is an anti pasta

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Speaker 1: salad pizza. Now this sounds fancier than it actually is.

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Speaker 1: It's just salad on top of pizza. But it's this

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Speaker 1: is an oldie, butty goody. I made this on Kelsey's

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Speaker 1: Essentials years ago, and it's just so yummy. And what

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Speaker 1: I like about this is this is a perfect example

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Speaker 1: of a recipe that my kids love, and I can

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Speaker 1: serve it one way to my kids, and I can

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Speaker 1: serve it a different way to myself, my husband and

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Speaker 1: even my older ali, and it feels almost like a

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Speaker 1: restaurant quality meal. It's so delicious. So I just use

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Speaker 1: store about fresh pizza dough. I pick my nup at

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Speaker 1: Trader Joe's, but almost any grocery store is selling that now.

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Speaker 1: Sometimes are in the frozen section, but take a look

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Speaker 1: for that. I like to brush the crust with some

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Speaker 1: olive oil, and then in this particular recipe, I am

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Speaker 1: doing kind of like a white pizza with just mozzarella

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Speaker 1: and some palm on top. And if you've got kids

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Speaker 1: who are going to prefer the traditional pizza, just throw

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Speaker 1: some marinairiss on. Then you've got pizza, right, but I

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Speaker 1: like the white pizza. And then I build this really

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Speaker 1: yummy salad that basically has chick peas and some dice,

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Speaker 1: salammi and provolone and pepperancini peppers and some arugula. And

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Speaker 1: then I make this simple Italian vineagrette, a red wine vinegar.

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Speaker 1: I use a little bit of the pepper and chini juice,

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Speaker 1: some mustard, garlic, and I toss it all together. And

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Speaker 1: then I love serving that that salad right on top

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Speaker 1: of the pizza. Or you can take that pizza either

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Speaker 1: cut slices or almost like breadsticks and serve it alongside

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Speaker 1: the salad. And because you've got that salammi in there,

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Speaker 1: it really ends up feeling like a nice, hearty meal.

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Speaker 1: So there's an idea for you. Salad pizza. My kids

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Speaker 1: call it. That also sees salad pizza also a huge

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Speaker 1: hit around here. Caesar salad on top of pizza delicious.

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Speaker 1: I also have a recipe for that on my site

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Speaker 1: if you want to look that up. And then, last

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Speaker 1: but not least, my shredded barbecue chicken sliders. There's a

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Speaker 1: recipe on my site for a way to do this

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Speaker 1: with your instant pot But once again, you can customize

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Speaker 1: this anyway you want to go. If you want to

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Speaker 1: take a shredded rotisserie chicken and your favorite barbecue sauce

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Speaker 1: tossed it all together, get some Hawaiian rolls, top it

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Speaker 1: with a little slow, little pickle barbecue sauce, you have

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Speaker 1: dinner ready to go. If you want to go ahead

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Speaker 1: and use boneless, skinless chicken thighs or breasts, make a

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Speaker 1: quick barbecue sauce of everything in your pantry. I like

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Speaker 1: using one that uses ketchup and molasses and bolsters or sauces.

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Speaker 1: Very good handful of ingredients, but I guarantee you have

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Speaker 1: them all on hand. And then I just love serving

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Speaker 1: with that combination of potato buns, some shredded cabbage or

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Speaker 1: slaugh and pickles. So shredded barbecue chicken sliders such My

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Speaker 1: kids just they think those are the bees knees. So

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Speaker 1: there you go. Guys. Three ideas. Your green chili chicken

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Speaker 1: and rice soup, think of it. It's like a tortilla

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Speaker 1: soup that's had a bit of a makeover. Your antiposity

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Speaker 1: salad pizza, or you could make that caesar salad pizza.

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Speaker 1: And then these shredded barbecue chicken sliders. All right, there

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Speaker 1: are your recipes for the week. Let's jump into the

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Speaker 1: last half of the podcast, where I want to share

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Speaker 1: my method for organizing my recipes in my refrigerator. I

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Speaker 1: call it my Bindin system, and I'm excited to tell

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Speaker 1: you about it. All Right, you guys know how I

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Speaker 1: feel about me I'm planning. I know no one wants

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Speaker 1: to do it. I don't want to do it, but

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Speaker 1: every week that I do it, I am so glad

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Speaker 1: I've done it. It's like giving yourself a gift for

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Speaker 1: the whole week, just making a couple of decisions so

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Speaker 1: that you don't have to ask yourself the same question

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Speaker 1: every single day, what are we having for dinner? So

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Speaker 1: I am going to start with a disclaimer before I

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Speaker 1: talk about Bindon's. This is for the person that is

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Speaker 1: already meal planning somewhat successfully. Okay, if you are not

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Speaker 1: meal planning at all, I still want you to listen

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Speaker 1: because I think there's some stuff you're going to be

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Speaker 1: able to take from this. But here this start by

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Speaker 1: setting a set time that you think about what you're

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Speaker 1: going to cook for the upcoming week. Every week, create

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Speaker 1: an alarm on your phone and just get that. It's

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Speaker 1: the first muscle to develop when it comes to meal planning.

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Speaker 1: Just doing it at the same time every week. And

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Speaker 1: then I want you to shop your kitchen right, figure

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Speaker 1: out what you got on hand, how you can use

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Speaker 1: it up, and so forth. Then then then then we

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Speaker 1: go and we do our grocery shopping and we execute.

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Speaker 1: It is a plan, it is not a contract. So

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Speaker 1: that if things you know don't end up, you don't

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Speaker 1: end up making the green chili chicken soup on Tuesday

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Speaker 1: like you planned, no problem. You can make it any

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Speaker 1: other day that week or maybe even the next week.

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Speaker 1: So I think it's important. Now if you are someone

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Speaker 1: that likes to meal plan, but you're looking for someone

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Speaker 1: of a fresh approach to kind of shake things up

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Speaker 1: a bit, this is for you, and it's awesome. I

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Speaker 1: love it. If you love organization, if you might consider

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Speaker 1: yourself type A, if you are an ineogram three, if

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Speaker 1: you are someone who likes to have control in their lives,

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Speaker 1: this is for you. Did I just describe myself? Maybe

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Speaker 1: maybe I did? Maybe I did? All right, So I

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Speaker 1: call it the Middenen system and you'll figure out why,

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Speaker 1: all right. I love this for meal planning. What it

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Speaker 1: is is it's an approach to meal planning that is

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Speaker 1: both physical and visual organization. So let's break this down.

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Speaker 1: I'm convinced that it helps me, say precious dinner prep

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Speaker 1: minutes by both organizing and prepping my ingredients beforehand. So

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Speaker 1: what you're going to do is take a set of

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Speaker 1: refrigerator bins and pantry bins. Now, when I say pantry,

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Speaker 1: just dry storage, right, So that could be a beautiful

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Speaker 1: walk in pantry or it could be a cabinet pantry

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Speaker 1: like I have Right now, I like to unload all

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Speaker 1: of my grocery bags straight into their respective daily bins.

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Speaker 1: So that means that of each of these bins in

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Speaker 1: my refrigerator, I have a bin for every day of

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Speaker 1: the week I plan to cook. I typically cook Monday

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Speaker 1: through Thursday and Sundays, so I have five bins in

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Speaker 1: my refrigerator. Now, the bins are not that big, but

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Speaker 1: I don't have a family that's extraordinarily large either, so

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Speaker 1: I actually use for the bins in my fridge, I

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Speaker 1: use like a traditional soda can bin dispenser, but it works.

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Speaker 1: And so once I've done my meal plan Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday,

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Speaker 1: Thursday Sunday. Then as I receive my grocery order or

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Speaker 1: bring it home, I literally unload the ingredients into those

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Speaker 1: respective bins that I will need for those recipes. So

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Speaker 1: if on Monday, I am making the antipasti pizza and

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Speaker 1: I have been at the store and I picked up pizza,

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Speaker 1: do some arugula and provolone, cheese and salami, those ingredients

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Speaker 1: go in that bin nine times out of ten. At work,

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Speaker 1: sometimes the containers too big or something, and no big deal,

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Speaker 1: I'll keep it at the crisper. But what it is

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Speaker 1: is it's that physical and visual organization so that when

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Speaker 1: it comes. Oh, and then the pantry bin, I might

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Speaker 1: put all of the dry things I would need for

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Speaker 1: that recipe. So I'm trying to think of what would

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Speaker 1: be dry in that recipe. Maybe I'm using some spices,

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Speaker 1: some dried or regano. I'm just looking at the rest here, Oh,

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Speaker 1: like the red wine, vinegar, the garlic, what else there's

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Speaker 1: not a ton of. Oh, the chickpeas, the can of

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Speaker 1: chickpeas would be would go in there. Things like that,

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Speaker 1: And then when I go to cook that meal on Monday,

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Speaker 1: I pull out my refrigerator bin and my pantry bin,

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Speaker 1: and I have everything I need to make the recipe

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Speaker 1: and it's amazing. It is such a gift to yourself.

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Speaker 1: So I think the benefits include either organization, better refrigerator

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Speaker 1: and pantry management. I'm definitely wasting less food and it's

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Speaker 1: kind of an easy way to map out a week

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Speaker 1: of meals. So my goal is to kind of prep

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Speaker 1: each recipe seventy percent in advance, which significantly reduces the

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Speaker 1: cooking time. But I know that that's going to feel

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Speaker 1: overwhelming to some of you, so I don't want you

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Speaker 1: to think about that. But on Sunday, that's when I

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Speaker 1: really kind of take a look at my week. If

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Speaker 1: there's something I can chop, some onions and bell peppers,

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Speaker 1: whatever it is, then sometimes I'll chop those and keep

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Speaker 1: those in containers in their respective bins so that it

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Speaker 1: literally is a dump and store recipe by the time

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Speaker 1: I get to that day. So by having all of

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Speaker 1: the ingredients organized, it just makes the whole process feel

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Speaker 1: more manageable. I also want to tell you the bins

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Speaker 1: can be organized by recipe rather than by day, and

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Speaker 1: you can label them with dry erase labels. So right now,

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Speaker 1: my labels are just permanent and stay on the days.

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Speaker 1: But if I had a dry erase label, I could say,

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Speaker 1: you know, barbecue chicken sliders, and I could do you know,

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Speaker 1: girl cheese and tomato steep, whatever, and put the ingredients there.

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Speaker 1: Maybe you just have two bins in your refrigerator because

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Speaker 1: your goal is to cook twice a week. This is

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Speaker 1: kind of how it works, step by step. So you're

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Speaker 1: gonna want to start with a clean slate by cleaning

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Speaker 1: out your pantry and your refrigerator, and then make sure

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Speaker 1: you get some bins that will actually fit in your space.

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Speaker 1: And when it comes to the amount of bins, I

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Speaker 1: want you to think about how much you want to cook.

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Speaker 1: Do you think you're going to cook three recipes that week?

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Speaker 1: Two recipes we can cook five times that week. What

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Speaker 1: do you typically do and get those respective bins. Then

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Speaker 1: it's important to kind of map out that meal plan

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Speaker 1: and decide what the recipes are going to be. And

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Speaker 1: then once you've ordered or picked up your groceries or

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Speaker 1: they've been delivered however you like to do it, they

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Speaker 1: go straight into the bins. And then as that meal

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Speaker 1: time approaches each day, you know when your alarm goes

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Speaker 1: off at five o'clock to say, remember, we have dinner

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Speaker 1: at five thirty regardless unless we're heading to the baseball

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Speaker 1: field for a picnic. Then you pull out your bins

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Speaker 1: and you're able to start cooking and think less about it.

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Speaker 1: You're not running around being like, I didn't realize I

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Speaker 1: was out of red wine vinegar. What am I going

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Speaker 1: to do now? And then you're googling a swap for

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Speaker 1: red wine vinegar. We don't want that. We do not

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Speaker 1: want that. You really do shave off kind of some

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Speaker 1: precious minutes by having all of the ingredients pulled together

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Speaker 1: from the get go, and then before I meal plan

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Speaker 1: for the next week. This is almost my favorite part

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Speaker 1: is my bins are empty by that point, and I

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Speaker 1: can look throughout my fridge and be like, oh, I've

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Speaker 1: got some shredded mozzerella. Then I need to use up

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Speaker 1: on Monday. Let's do salad pizza again. I'm gonna take

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Speaker 1: these shredded mozzarella. I'll need to pick up some pizza dough.

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Speaker 1: Oh look, I have this caesar salad kit. We can

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Speaker 1: do season salad on top of the pizza. Let's do this,

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Speaker 1: And then I literally am like physically moving ingredients around

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Speaker 1: my refrigerator to pull recipes together. All right, I know,

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Speaker 1: I know it's a little intense. It is not for everyone,

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Speaker 1: and it might be for you after you really get

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Speaker 1: the hang of scheduling your recipes for the week. And

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Speaker 1: the other thing I want to say about this is

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Speaker 1: I think that sometimes when we think about a meal

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Speaker 1: plan for an upcoming week, we think about a lot

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Speaker 1: of recipes. I would suggest that if you are not

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Speaker 1: meal planning it all right now, to just think about

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Speaker 1: one or two recipes. Maybe you're just going to make

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Speaker 1: one recipe a week. Maybe you're a member of Recipe

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Speaker 1: Club and you're just going to make one of the

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Speaker 1: recipe Club recipes. That's actually a great way to approach it,

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Speaker 1: and it's easier to build upon that than to get

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Speaker 1: overwhelmed by cooking five recipes every week. So start small,

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Speaker 1: start small, really nail that down and then and then

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Speaker 1: built from there. All right, you guys, there you have it.

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Speaker 1: Remember that new episodes of this podcast will drop every Thursday,

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Speaker 1: and then in the meantime, you can follow me on Instagram.

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Speaker 1: I would love to have you in Recipe Club. It's

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Speaker 1: getting better and better and better. I am so stoked

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Speaker 1: about Recipe Club right now, and then if you're looking

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Speaker 1: force some help in organizing your kitchen and kind of

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Speaker 1: setting it up for success, you can always join my

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Speaker 1: family mail makeover course. So many you have been so

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Speaker 1: kind to leave reviews. I cannot believe it. It literally

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Speaker 1: just warms my heart. Means so much to me. If

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Speaker 1: you haven't had the chance to review the podcast, it

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Speaker 1: would really be such a gift to me. Please feel

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Speaker 1: free to do so. It's such a great way to

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Speaker 1: help others who are trying to figure out what to

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Speaker 1: make for dinner, because we all know that it is

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Speaker 1: a very very common problem. All right, Sending you guys

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Speaker 1: my best this week. I hope you have a good

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Speaker 1: win and I can't wait to chat with you next week.