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Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning.

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Speaker 1: This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's

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Speaker 1: tip is to take the stress out of dinner, even

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Speaker 1: if you are feeding a crowd. Most days, eating doesn't

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Speaker 1: have to involve copious mental work. I read a lot

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Speaker 1: of magazines, and over the years many have run some

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Speaker 1: version of an article aimed at solving the pain point

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Speaker 1: of dinner. This setup is often a person realizing at

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Speaker 1: five PM that he or she, and let's be honest,

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Speaker 1: it's always she has no idea what is for dinner?

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Speaker 1: Everyone is going to be hungry. What do we do

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Speaker 1: about the stress? Enter the magazine's thirty minute rest. I

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Speaker 1: will say that if you are reading a magazine at

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Speaker 1: five pm trying to figure out what's for dinner that night,

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Speaker 1: then yes, dinner could be stressful, but it really doesn't

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Speaker 1: need to get to that point. My family of seven

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Speaker 1: eats a lot of meals, and despite my not feeling

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Speaker 1: particularly stressed about it, no one has starved. The key

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Speaker 1: is to not overthink this meal, at least during the

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Speaker 1: work week. For us, that means a lot of repetition

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Speaker 1: of crowd pleasing favorites with a little variety thrown in

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Speaker 1: to keep the adults from getting bored. Almost every Monday

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Speaker 1: we eat pasta. Adults and children who like more interesting

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Speaker 1: flavors eat our pasta with jarred marinara sauce jazzed up

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Speaker 1: with Italian sausage, red peppers, spinach, or whatever other veggie

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Speaker 1: combo we have in the fridge. Children who don't want

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Speaker 1: that either have plain marinara sauce or butter or parmesan cheese,

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Speaker 1: all with cut up fruit on the side. Everyone is

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Speaker 1: reasonably happy and no one ever has to worry about

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Speaker 1: what's for dinner on Monday. Many Tuesdays lately we've been

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Speaker 1: having some version of chicken and rice. It turns out

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Speaker 1: that modern supermarkets carry a variety of international sauces. Add

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Speaker 1: thaie red curry, and you have one dish. Add Rogan

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Speaker 1: Josh sauce and you have an entirely different one. Tarayaki

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Speaker 1: or Sri racha mayo is something different. Entirely serve with

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Speaker 1: some vegetable like frozen corn that's been heated up in

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Speaker 1: the microwave, and voila, you have a meal. On Wednesday,

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Speaker 1: we outsource cooking, and it is always a surprise what

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Speaker 1: we get that keeps things interesting. Kids who don't like

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Speaker 1: what we get can make their own pizza with frozen

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Speaker 1: dough sauce and cheese. If we weren't outsourcing cooking that

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Speaker 1: particular night, we might do takeout one night per week,

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Speaker 1: or maybe one of those meal kits that would add

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Speaker 1: a little midweek variety as well, without adding much to

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Speaker 1: anyone's metaphorical plate. Thursday these days tends to be breakfast

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Speaker 1: for dinner, eggs, bacon, some sort of carb, and fruit

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Speaker 1: on the side. Yum. The kids can always do another

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Speaker 1: dinner of mac and cheese some night, or quesadillas if

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Speaker 1: we need to. We put a little more effort into

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Speaker 1: these things on weekends, grilling or doing something like fajitas

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Speaker 1: or even a surfin turf meal if we're feeling fancy,

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Speaker 1: But on weeknights I am not aiming for fancy. I

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Speaker 1: am just aiming to have everyone fed. To make this

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Speaker 1: all work, we just always get the ingredients for our

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Speaker 1: basic meals when we go to the store. That way,

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Speaker 1: there is no worry about whether we have stuff for

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Speaker 1: dinner or what's for dinner. Any stress during the work

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Speaker 1: week is pretty minimal. We always have the ingredients for

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Speaker 1: three to four crowd pleasing favorites, so it is all good. Now.

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Speaker 1: You might not like pasta or chicken and rice with

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Speaker 1: some sauce, or breakfast for dinner, but my guess is

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Speaker 1: that your family has at least three or so meals

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Speaker 1: that everyone is happy with and that can be served

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Speaker 1: on repeat for a long time. So why not just

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Speaker 1: choose one of those meals to always serve on Mondays

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Speaker 1: unless there is a good reason not to add in

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Speaker 1: another set night or two each week, and you can

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Speaker 1: save any mental meal planning energy for just a few

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Speaker 1: nights per week, then it is never overwhelming, no need

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Speaker 1: to be that stressed out person in the magazine, and

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Speaker 1: anytime we can take the stress out of dinner, that

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Speaker 1: is a good thing. In the meantime. This is Laura.

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Speaker 1: Thanks for listening, and here's to making the most of

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Speaker 1: our times. Thanks for listening to Before Breakfast. If you've

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Speaker 1: got questions, ideas, or feedback, you can reach me at

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Speaker 1: Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast is a

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Speaker 1: production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts from iHeartMedia, please visit

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Speaker 1: the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to

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Speaker 1: your favorite shows,