WEBVTT - Cheap Meal Prep For Struggling Chefs w/ Frankie Celenza #661 0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:03.080 Welcome to Hat to Money. I'm Joel and I am 0:00:03.120 --> 0:00:05.840 Mad and today we're talking cheap meal prep for struggling 0:00:05.920 --> 0:00:10.280 chefs with Frankie Celenza. 0:00:27.680 --> 0:00:30.680 Yeah, there is nothing more elemental than our need to 0:00:30.760 --> 0:00:33.239 eat food. Right, So, no matter how much money you've 0:00:33.240 --> 0:00:35.519 got in the bank, no matter how much debt you have, 0:00:36.000 --> 0:00:38.720 we're all united by the fact that we get hungry. 0:00:39.080 --> 0:00:41.839 And while some folks might like to splurge when it 0:00:41.840 --> 0:00:43.480 comes to their meals, the rest of us are looking 0:00:43.520 --> 0:00:45.959 for ways to cut those costs so that we can 0:00:46.000 --> 0:00:49.199 reach some other financial goals. And that is why we 0:00:49.200 --> 0:00:52.440 were pumped to be joined by Daytime Emmy Award winning 0:00:52.479 --> 0:00:57.040 culinary host Frankie Celenza. Frankie's show Struggled Meals. It is 0:00:57.080 --> 0:00:59.360 all about getting the most bang for your buck in 0:00:59.400 --> 0:01:02.040 the kitchen, both for your wallet and when it comes 0:01:02.120 --> 0:01:04.720 to the amount of time that you're spending cooking that's 0:01:04.720 --> 0:01:08.520 important as well. So we're excited to talk about that today. Frankie, 0:01:08.600 --> 0:01:10.880 thank you for joining us today on the podcast. 0:01:11.560 --> 0:01:12.960 So happy to be here you guys. 0:01:13.160 --> 0:01:15.759 Frankie, We're glad to have you man, and I feel 0:01:15.840 --> 0:01:18.600 like you even make cooking accessible to someone like me. 0:01:18.959 --> 0:01:21.119 Who is terrible at the stuff. So I appreciate that. 0:01:21.520 --> 0:01:23.960 But our first question to everyone who comes on the show, 0:01:24.000 --> 0:01:25.800 we want to know what your craft be. Your equivalent 0:01:25.840 --> 0:01:28.759 is Matt and I. We splurge outrageously on good beer 0:01:28.800 --> 0:01:30.920 while we're saving for the future. What is what is 0:01:30.959 --> 0:01:31.840 that in your life? 0:01:32.400 --> 0:01:39.240 Yeah, it's it's mountain bike parts. Yeah. Actually, just before yeah, 0:01:39.360 --> 0:01:42.760 I got a package with a new set of long 0:01:42.800 --> 0:01:47.080 fingered gloves. Very important. My current pair is wearing through 0:01:47.160 --> 0:01:52.360 on the index finger from heavy breaking and intense rock riding. 0:01:52.480 --> 0:01:55.000 So it's time for another pair, you know, gotta gotta 0:01:55.400 --> 0:01:57.120 protect the contact points. 0:01:57.200 --> 0:02:00.240 It's incredibly important that in your feet. So how did 0:02:00.280 --> 0:02:02.400 you get into biking? Was it just a love for 0:02:02.560 --> 0:02:04.680 you said? You said mountain biking specifically, and it sounds 0:02:04.720 --> 0:02:07.320 like you are actually on trails. Was it a love 0:02:07.360 --> 0:02:09.600 of being an outdoors like on the mountain or did 0:02:09.680 --> 0:02:11.760 you start like most of us, riding around your cul 0:02:11.760 --> 0:02:13.200 de sac? How did you get into biking? 0:02:14.080 --> 0:02:16.959 This is so bizarre, but when I was thirteen years old, 0:02:16.960 --> 0:02:20.160 my very best friend got into road biking because it 0:02:20.200 --> 0:02:22.679 was the Lance Armstrong era, and so I hopped to 0:02:22.760 --> 0:02:25.880 my dad's bike and started riding with him, and before 0:02:25.919 --> 0:02:28.120 you know it, I mean we were competing in the 0:02:28.200 --> 0:02:32.440 national championships as road bike riders and I've probably done 0:02:32.919 --> 0:02:36.520 nine hundred laps of Central Park and stage races and 0:02:36.520 --> 0:02:38.840 that was my sport as a teenager, Like I actually 0:02:38.880 --> 0:02:42.240 thought about maybe going pro. I was a very good sprinter. 0:02:43.040 --> 0:02:45.680 This is before the days of texting, even T nine, 0:02:45.960 --> 0:02:48.639 nobody was even T nine texting. Now when I get 0:02:48.639 --> 0:02:51.440 on the road, the cars seem to be going faster, bigger, 0:02:51.480 --> 0:02:53.799 and with less focus. So I love being in the woods. 0:02:53.840 --> 0:02:58.280 I love being with nature, and it's a natural antidepressant. 0:02:58.280 --> 0:03:00.240 It makes me feel really good. 0:03:00.960 --> 0:03:04.239 I love it. It's good for you from so many 0:03:04.240 --> 0:03:06.720 different angles. I mean from a transportation standpoint, from a 0:03:06.800 --> 0:03:09.280 just staying healthy standpoint, and obviously, like you're saying, from 0:03:09.280 --> 0:03:11.280 a mental clarity standpoint as well. 0:03:11.320 --> 0:03:13.040 And I know it costs money, but from the value 0:03:13.080 --> 0:03:16.280 you get from biking regularly, it's like it's so worth 0:03:16.320 --> 0:03:17.840 the money you stick into it, for sure, So. 0:03:18.080 --> 0:03:20.160 It really is. We have firm your splurge. 0:03:20.760 --> 0:03:23.840 Oh sweet, Yeah, well, I will say this my first 0:03:23.880 --> 0:03:27.000 mountain bike, I literally just changed it six months ago 0:03:27.040 --> 0:03:31.679 and I had been riding that since two thousand and one, 0:03:31.919 --> 0:03:33.799 So I got my money's worth out of that. Man, 0:03:33.840 --> 0:03:36.360 the technology has changed quite a bit. The stuff I 0:03:36.400 --> 0:03:40.920 can get up and down now is like I couldn't 0:03:40.920 --> 0:03:43.280 believe it. I thought lightness was all that matters. It 0:03:43.360 --> 0:03:44.240 is not the case. 0:03:45.000 --> 0:03:48.080 Yeah, that's I mean my splurge. We totally do. 0:03:48.160 --> 0:03:48.880 Man. We sign off. 0:03:48.920 --> 0:03:51.560 So well, let's talk about your area of expertise, which 0:03:51.640 --> 0:03:55.640 is which is cooking, which is helping us helping everyone 0:03:55.680 --> 0:03:59.360 out there cook and make awesome meals for less. I'm 0:03:59.360 --> 0:04:03.240 curious too, what was the inspiration for struggle Meals We 0:04:03.280 --> 0:04:05.600 love your philosophy? Was this born out of necessity? Were 0:04:05.640 --> 0:04:07.880 you like some broke college student sort of thing and 0:04:08.120 --> 0:04:09.400 you're like, I got to figure out how to do 0:04:09.440 --> 0:04:11.840 this on my own? Or yeah, what kind of necessitated 0:04:11.920 --> 0:04:14.720 or brought about this creative endeavor. 0:04:15.400 --> 0:04:17.480 It's sort of twofold because when I look back when 0:04:17.520 --> 0:04:19.720 I started making these videos in two thousand and nine, 0:04:20.279 --> 0:04:22.280 I actually have a reel that I made where I'm 0:04:22.320 --> 0:04:24.760 holding up packets and I'm like, I'm like, get the 0:04:24.800 --> 0:04:27.320 packets from the dining hall, use them right here. You 0:04:27.320 --> 0:04:29.880 know it's going to be perfect. But what I did 0:04:30.000 --> 0:04:32.320 in school was I undercut the meal plan by a 0:04:32.400 --> 0:04:34.480 dollar and I had people come over to my place 0:04:35.200 --> 0:04:37.320 for what was definitely a better meal than what was 0:04:37.320 --> 0:04:41.880 being served in the cafeteria. Coming full circle, I mean literally, 0:04:41.960 --> 0:04:44.919 we were just filming random recipes that taste made. Someone 0:04:44.920 --> 0:04:47.640 from the office came onto the set and said, hashtag 0:04:47.720 --> 0:04:50.360 struggle meals is trending. We think we should make a 0:04:50.400 --> 0:04:53.760 show around that. And it just started like that, wow, 0:04:54.560 --> 0:04:57.440 and I was like, Okay, let's revisit this. I figured 0:04:57.440 --> 0:05:00.440 it would be people in school or just out of school, 0:05:00.520 --> 0:05:03.960 or people with their first job, and it is a 0:05:04.240 --> 0:05:08.800 much wider swap of people than that. I mean, I mean, 0:05:08.880 --> 0:05:12.159 after like housing and transportation, I feel like food is 0:05:12.560 --> 0:05:15.400 number three or four biggest expense for sure. 0:05:15.480 --> 0:05:18.719 That really is yeah, months to month. Yeah, you discovered 0:05:18.720 --> 0:05:20.960 that there's a lot of folks who are cooked like 0:05:20.960 --> 0:05:24.160 they're just out of college, even old. 0:05:24.320 --> 0:05:27.560 Yeah, they anything beyond that, beyond like some of the wealthiest. 0:05:27.120 --> 0:05:28.800 People in the world. I mean, I can't believe they 0:05:28.880 --> 0:05:31.160 just grab whitebread and slap some stuff on it, and 0:05:31.440 --> 0:05:33.839 you know, we can do better than that. So the 0:05:33.880 --> 0:05:37.479 struggle is broad, it can be multifaceted. It doesn't have 0:05:37.520 --> 0:05:39.520 to just be financial. Yeah. 0:05:39.600 --> 0:05:41.560 I guess a common misconception in the world of food 0:05:41.600 --> 0:05:46.359 at least is that you can't eat healthy on a budget, 0:05:46.360 --> 0:05:48.680 that you can't do it cheaply, that the cheap foods 0:05:48.760 --> 0:05:51.720 are the worst foods for you. But when I watch 0:05:51.839 --> 0:05:55.039 your content, that's not the experience I get, And it's 0:05:55.080 --> 0:05:57.040 not the experience I have at the grocery store. 0:05:57.240 --> 0:05:57.560 Yeah. 0:05:57.600 --> 0:06:00.200 Like, sure, some of the nicest whole foods you can 0:06:00.200 --> 0:06:02.520 spend a whole lot of money on, But I feel 0:06:02.560 --> 0:06:05.680 like you you don't have to eat like crap if 0:06:05.720 --> 0:06:06.480 you want to save money. 0:06:06.480 --> 0:06:07.120 Do you agree? 0:06:07.279 --> 0:06:09.120 I one hundred percent agree. That is my job to 0:06:09.160 --> 0:06:11.640 agree with that. And it is misleading when you look 0:06:11.640 --> 0:06:13.719 at the title the show struggle meals, because it sounds 0:06:13.760 --> 0:06:15.520 like I'm going to be, you know, cutting up a 0:06:15.520 --> 0:06:17.880 hot dog and you know, cooking it on a George 0:06:17.880 --> 0:06:20.120 forumangrill and slapping it on white bread, And that's not 0:06:20.160 --> 0:06:22.880 what we do. And you're right, the unhealthy foods are 0:06:22.920 --> 0:06:25.960 the cheapest ones. But do you know the biggest cost 0:06:26.040 --> 0:06:27.400 in food for Americans, the. 0:06:27.360 --> 0:06:28.440 Biggest cost in meat. 0:06:28.440 --> 0:06:29.800 If you look at your bill at the end of 0:06:29.839 --> 0:06:33.760 the year, where did the largest amount of your money 0:06:33.800 --> 0:06:36.080 that you spent on food go. Where did it go? 0:06:36.320 --> 0:06:40.480 I'm guessing prepackaged foods like cereal, chips, Swiss misrolls, all 0:06:40.480 --> 0:06:41.160 that kind of stuff. 0:06:41.920 --> 0:06:45.080 It's actually that money went directly into the garbage because 0:06:45.160 --> 0:06:48.960 thirty percent of the graceries go directly into the garbage waste. 0:06:49.080 --> 0:06:52.800 So so now imagine that we decide that we're going 0:06:52.880 --> 0:06:55.440 to put effort into cooking, and we're going to plan 0:06:55.760 --> 0:06:57.719 a little bit, and we're going to just maybe just 0:06:57.760 --> 0:06:59.400 work on five dishes, and we know we're going to 0:06:59.400 --> 0:07:01.800 fail at the beginning, but we get to an efficiency 0:07:01.880 --> 0:07:06.120 point where we have no waste. Now our budget kind 0:07:06.120 --> 0:07:08.360 of got bigger because we're not throwing out so much money. 0:07:08.640 --> 0:07:09.920 Now you can buy real food. 0:07:10.280 --> 0:07:13.720 Yeah, absolutely, So when you are buying real food, I'm 0:07:13.720 --> 0:07:16.480 thinking about the trend that we've seen in particular over 0:07:16.480 --> 0:07:18.680 the past few years with higher inflation, like that's also 0:07:18.760 --> 0:07:21.840 hit the grocery stores as well in a pretty serious way. Right, 0:07:21.840 --> 0:07:23.840 And so, have you changed your approach or have you 0:07:23.920 --> 0:07:27.280 changed your advice when it comes to spending less on food? 0:07:27.480 --> 0:07:28.800 I guess basically, at the end of the day, I 0:07:28.800 --> 0:07:31.120 want to know if you're still buying eggs because we 0:07:31.160 --> 0:07:34.000 saw the eggs bike. It's starting to level off now, 0:07:34.040 --> 0:07:36.320 But yeah, what are your thoughts on inflation and how 0:07:36.320 --> 0:07:38.920 that's impacting how folks shop and prepare their food. 0:07:39.680 --> 0:07:43.320 I think I've purchased a dozen eggs this year, so 0:07:43.480 --> 0:07:45.240 I was pretty low on it. I was like, it's 0:07:45.280 --> 0:07:47.280 not really worth it. And I'm not a huge breakfast 0:07:47.360 --> 0:07:50.400 guy anyway, so I don't mind just having overnight's oats 0:07:50.480 --> 0:07:52.720 or you know, sprinkling a little bit of This is 0:07:52.760 --> 0:07:54.720 going to sound so bougie, but it's a great breakfast. 0:07:54.760 --> 0:07:56.520 A little bit of chia with some oat milk and 0:07:56.640 --> 0:07:59.480 tiny bit of maple syrup or honey and like a cow, 0:07:59.640 --> 0:08:03.280 leave that overnight. I love it. But here's like, here's 0:08:03.280 --> 0:08:07.840 the main thing. We live in such a convenient time, 0:08:08.440 --> 0:08:11.160 arguably the most convenient time of all time. And if 0:08:11.200 --> 0:08:13.280 you walk into the supermarket, and this goes for all 0:08:13.280 --> 0:08:16.720 things in life, Okay, you can go so deep down 0:08:16.920 --> 0:08:20.360 every single path of everything we do. I'm sure you 0:08:20.400 --> 0:08:26.560 could spend a thousand hours learning about toilet flappers. I'm 0:08:26.600 --> 0:08:29.640 sure you could so like, and maybe that would save 0:08:29.680 --> 0:08:32.199 you water money, I don't know. But you walk into 0:08:32.240 --> 0:08:35.840 the supermarket and they have pretty much everything all the time. 0:08:37.480 --> 0:08:39.160 If you're in a food desert, that's a different story. 0:08:39.480 --> 0:08:42.559 But the problem is people buy things that are out 0:08:42.559 --> 0:08:46.360 of season and they're expensive. And so if you're not 0:08:46.400 --> 0:08:48.439 really paying attention to the fact that the prices are 0:08:48.440 --> 0:08:51.040 fluctuating over the course of the year based on supply 0:08:51.120 --> 0:08:53.520 and demand and whether it's in season and the climate 0:08:53.559 --> 0:08:56.320 that you're actually purchasing it in, then you could you know, 0:08:56.360 --> 0:09:00.480 you could look at asparagus in December and say, sparagus 0:09:00.559 --> 0:09:03.520 is too expensive. I'm never buying asparagus because it's too 0:09:03.600 --> 0:09:06.000 It's like, yeah, it's coming from Argentina. It's not asparagus 0:09:06.040 --> 0:09:10.480 season now, yeah, and you're paying for shipping. There's a 0:09:10.559 --> 0:09:13.320 lack of supply, so the price goes up. And right now, 0:09:13.440 --> 0:09:15.520 I just bought a bunch of asparagus an hour ago. 0:09:15.720 --> 0:09:18.320 They're super skinny because they're just they're just coming out 0:09:18.360 --> 0:09:20.840 of the ground, you know, and they came from nearby, 0:09:21.000 --> 0:09:23.839 and the price was not high. It was two ninety 0:09:23.920 --> 0:09:27.400 nine for a pound and a half. Because they're in season. 0:09:27.559 --> 0:09:29.480 So there's gonna be a flood. They're gonna flood the 0:09:29.520 --> 0:09:32.480 market with asparagus right now, price is gonna drop, so 0:09:32.880 --> 0:09:34.839 you know, go on the internet, see what things are 0:09:34.840 --> 0:09:37.880 in season where you live, and try to eat seasonally. 0:09:38.200 --> 0:09:40.040 That helps a lot with the money too. 0:09:40.440 --> 0:09:43.959 So revolving our meals kind of around what's currently cheap, 0:09:44.360 --> 0:09:47.600 not just not being agnostic when you're making your grocery 0:09:47.640 --> 0:09:50.760 list and kind of knowing what's going on seasonally. That's 0:09:50.800 --> 0:09:52.800 really important to saving money. Right, So, I guess we're 0:09:52.800 --> 0:09:57.440 talking about winter vegetables in winter and like berries in 0:09:57.520 --> 0:09:59.320 April and may, that kind of thing. When those are 0:09:59.400 --> 0:10:01.600 kind of like because you can get strawberry sometimes like 0:10:01.600 --> 0:10:04.480 a buck fifty a pound right about now, but in 0:10:04.520 --> 0:10:06.880 a few months they're going to be way more expensive. 0:10:07.200 --> 0:10:11.040 Yep. And unless they start like hydroponically growing it nearby, 0:10:11.240 --> 0:10:13.080 and then the seasons don't matter as much and the 0:10:13.280 --> 0:10:18.560 surprise is constant and they've figured it out. But all 0:10:18.640 --> 0:10:22.400 these tips take probably five hundred days of you having 0:10:22.440 --> 0:10:25.640 your eyes peeled, you know, and just monitoring all these prices. 0:10:26.960 --> 0:10:29.480 Are you buying in bulk when that stuff happens and 0:10:29.920 --> 0:10:33.880 freezing some of it or something like for instance, no berries, no, no, 0:10:33.880 --> 0:10:34.800 none of that kind of stuff. 0:10:35.559 --> 0:10:37.720 If I'm gonna have berries, I'll just buy frozen berries. 0:10:37.760 --> 0:10:40.160 I'm not gonna buy freshens and freeze them. They pick 0:10:40.200 --> 0:10:44.720 them at the season. They have blast freezers, which are 0:10:44.760 --> 0:10:47.360 really great because they are so cold that when you 0:10:47.360 --> 0:10:50.320 put the berry into the blast freezer, it freezes so quickly. 0:10:50.800 --> 0:10:53.640 As you know, water, when it becomes as solid as 0:10:53.679 --> 0:10:55.840 one of the few elements that expands. So if you 0:10:55.880 --> 0:11:00.439 freeze something slowly, the water inside the berries expand and 0:11:00.480 --> 0:11:04.480 it breaks apart all the I guess meat, if you 0:11:04.520 --> 0:11:07.040 could call it that. When you defrost it, it always it's 0:11:07.080 --> 0:11:10.400 just the texture's gone. It doesn't have the snap. So 0:11:10.800 --> 0:11:12.560 that's if you do it in a home freezer. Is 0:11:12.600 --> 0:11:14.080 it a little bit better when you buy it from 0:11:14.080 --> 0:11:15.400 an industrial process? Yeah? 0:11:15.440 --> 0:11:17.880 Absolutely, Yeah, I guess I've never thought about the Yeah, 0:11:17.920 --> 0:11:20.120 the difference between the frozen veggies you buy at the 0:11:20.120 --> 0:11:21.920 store versus what you can freeze yourself. 0:11:21.960 --> 0:11:25.000 Well, they're probably doing that process when berries are at 0:11:25.000 --> 0:11:27.400 peak season, right, They're using a lot of resect. 0:11:27.080 --> 0:11:29.080 They're picking them when there's a ton of supply. They're 0:11:29.120 --> 0:11:31.760 putting it in their industrial strength blast freezer so that 0:11:31.840 --> 0:11:34.400 it doesn't you know, crystallize and expand and break apart 0:11:34.480 --> 0:11:36.719 all the fibers inside and then they're selling them to you. 0:11:36.880 --> 0:11:39.600 So yeah, if something's out of season, like peas, the 0:11:39.640 --> 0:11:41.679 frozen aisle is definitely the way to go. Like, I'd 0:11:41.679 --> 0:11:44.120 pick frozen fees over over canned peas any day. 0:11:44.320 --> 0:11:44.680 Okay. 0:11:44.960 --> 0:11:47.080 The biggest thing that stands out to me, Frankie, just 0:11:47.160 --> 0:11:49.880 watching your show is that you are incredibly creative when 0:11:49.920 --> 0:11:52.040 it comes to how it is that you approach your food, 0:11:52.200 --> 0:11:53.880 and it makes me think that most of us aren't 0:11:53.880 --> 0:11:55.680 thinking outside of the box. I think most folks just 0:11:55.800 --> 0:11:58.959 may not be getting creative enough, and that we're maybe 0:11:58.960 --> 0:12:02.600 two either specifically meal focused or were too gadget focused 0:12:03.080 --> 0:12:06.000 when it comes to how folks cook today. What are 0:12:06.000 --> 0:12:07.760 your thoughts there? Do you do you agree with that 0:12:07.600 --> 0:12:08.280 that statement? 0:12:08.320 --> 0:12:09.120 I guess I totally. 0:12:09.160 --> 0:12:10.120 What's your recommendation? 0:12:10.440 --> 0:12:13.160 Yeah, it's I actually think we're in a nice era 0:12:13.320 --> 0:12:15.880 right now with the social media because you can visually 0:12:15.920 --> 0:12:18.520 watch a recipe in thirty seconds. Some of them are 0:12:18.520 --> 0:12:21.480 getting a little bit too elaborate because they're clearly chasing 0:12:21.600 --> 0:12:23.600 views and I'm not learning anything and there's too many 0:12:23.679 --> 0:12:26.640 ingredients and I can't mimic it. But I just did 0:12:26.640 --> 0:12:28.800 one yesterday. It has like three ingredients. I don't know 0:12:28.840 --> 0:12:30.880 how I'm going to make it longer than thirty seconds. 0:12:30.920 --> 0:12:33.000 There's so little happening on in it. It's a great 0:12:33.320 --> 0:12:36.120 it's a great meal, but if you've never been in 0:12:36.160 --> 0:12:38.360 the kitchen, it's like anything else in life, like it. 0:12:38.480 --> 0:12:40.439 The first thing you make is probably not going to 0:12:40.480 --> 0:12:42.679 be great. You do need to learn. I would I 0:12:42.679 --> 0:12:46.480 would do the kiss rule, keep it simple, silly, and 0:12:47.880 --> 0:12:49.880 the gadget you don't need. The gadgets you don't need. 0:12:49.920 --> 0:12:52.080 You really don't need much to get started. As the truth, 0:12:52.120 --> 0:12:54.600 you just like buy and season plan on using everything. 0:12:55.160 --> 0:12:56.440 Suck it up. Yeah. 0:12:57.440 --> 0:12:57.600 Yeah. 0:12:57.640 --> 0:12:59.679 When Matt talks about getting creative, like you used an 0:12:59.720 --> 0:13:02.440 eye to make a panini, are those like you don't 0:13:02.480 --> 0:13:03.640 need a panini press? 0:13:03.760 --> 0:13:03.960 Right? 0:13:04.280 --> 0:13:05.880 No, we think we need all these things to make 0:13:05.920 --> 0:13:09.640 a decent meal, but really we just need a little ingenuity, right, We. 0:13:09.600 --> 0:13:12.200 Need a little ingenuity. And obviously, if you're making a 0:13:12.200 --> 0:13:14.440 lot of sandwiches, using in an iron is a silly thing. 0:13:14.600 --> 0:13:16.559 But when we do stuff if like that on the show, 0:13:17.000 --> 0:13:19.640 you know we're I think I'm talking to two audiences. 0:13:19.679 --> 0:13:21.960 One is the people that haven't ever been in the kitchen, 0:13:21.960 --> 0:13:23.679 and I want them to see that, like you can 0:13:23.760 --> 0:13:26.760 use items from around the home and cook. And the 0:13:26.800 --> 0:13:29.000 other group are people that cook all the time. So 0:13:29.120 --> 0:13:30.560 the people that cook all the time, if they're going 0:13:30.600 --> 0:13:32.920 to make that recipe, they'll use their panini press, or 0:13:33.280 --> 0:13:35.920 they'll heat up two cast iron pans, one smaller than 0:13:35.920 --> 0:13:37.920 the other, put the sandwich in the bigger one, put 0:13:37.920 --> 0:13:40.400 the smaller one on top, which is now hot because 0:13:40.480 --> 0:13:42.200 you had it on the stove and you just made 0:13:42.280 --> 0:13:45.120 a panini press. I mean, cast iron is a giant 0:13:45.120 --> 0:13:48.079 heat battery and it'll hold that heat and it'll crisp 0:13:48.120 --> 0:13:53.160 it up real good. Absolutely, But more than anything, I 0:13:53.200 --> 0:13:56.200 want people to feel like they can take liberty. You know, 0:13:56.240 --> 0:13:58.040 when I think back to my mom and my aunt 0:13:58.080 --> 0:14:00.160 when I was a kid or whatever, every time they 0:14:00.160 --> 0:14:02.800 would cook out of a cookbook, they would always be like, oh, 0:14:02.840 --> 0:14:04.720 I changed this, I changed that, I changed that. Like 0:14:04.760 --> 0:14:08.079 you didn't even make the recipe the right way once, 0:14:08.120 --> 0:14:11.320 they're already changing it. And that's the right attitude to 0:14:11.360 --> 0:14:14.160 have if you've cooked enough enough meals in your life, 0:14:14.640 --> 0:14:18.960 because a recipe is simply a destination and as you know, 0:14:19.040 --> 0:14:22.200 I'm sure you've used GPS. There's a lot of ways 0:14:22.240 --> 0:14:22.720 to get there. 0:14:22.920 --> 0:14:24.960 Yeah, no, I like that, Yeah, there can It's gonna 0:14:24.960 --> 0:14:27.760 have the inspiration perhaps something to set. 0:14:27.600 --> 0:14:28.000 Your sites on. 0:14:28.080 --> 0:14:30.840 But how do we want to inspire people to improvise? Absolutely? 0:14:30.880 --> 0:14:32.640 Yeah, a little. I love it. 0:14:32.920 --> 0:14:35.760 Well, Frankie. We're going to get to several other topics, 0:14:35.800 --> 0:14:39.040 including how it is that you can affordably incorporate meat 0:14:39.160 --> 0:14:41.480 into your your meals as well as meal prep. That's 0:14:41.520 --> 0:14:45.520 another a hot tactic that folks can include. We'll get 0:14:45.560 --> 0:14:48.000 to those plus more right after this. 0:14:57.360 --> 0:14:57.840 Our we're back. 0:14:57.840 --> 0:15:01.680 We're still talking with Frankie Celenzo about making meals for 0:15:01.760 --> 0:15:03.880 less money and making good meals right, not having to 0:15:04.480 --> 0:15:06.680 suck it up and eat like crap, and and the 0:15:06.680 --> 0:15:09.680 fact that it's it's not necessarily as expensive as as 0:15:09.680 --> 0:15:09.960 you think. 0:15:10.040 --> 0:15:16.160 You don't have to be over there slicing up your bolooney. 0:15:14.040 --> 0:15:16.560 Is BLOONI man, I don't. I don't know if I've 0:15:16.600 --> 0:15:18.520 ever had boloni, to be honest, but you do like 0:15:18.520 --> 0:15:18.960 hot dogs. 0:15:18.960 --> 0:15:20.200 We've talked about this on the show before. 0:15:20.280 --> 0:15:20.920 Let's go hot dog. 0:15:21.000 --> 0:15:25.800 Sometimes that doesn't make ye, Frankie. 0:15:26.600 --> 0:15:28.440 That is that's why we call it Boloonia. If you 0:15:28.440 --> 0:15:30.680 look at the way Bolooni is spelt, it's spelt Bologna, 0:15:30.880 --> 0:15:33.560 the town which is where Mortodella comes from in Italy. 0:15:33.560 --> 0:15:35.480 And so it is Moretadella, like an improved version. 0:15:35.840 --> 0:15:39.360 Mortadella is the original one, and just like parmi gihan odgiano, 0:15:39.560 --> 0:15:42.920 it has like Italian protections of the European Union, so 0:15:42.960 --> 0:15:45.000 we weren't allowed to call it that if we manufactured 0:15:45.040 --> 0:15:47.560 it over here, which is why we have parmesan and 0:15:47.560 --> 0:15:50.800 boloney when it's American. Isn't that interesting? 0:15:50.840 --> 0:15:52.680 It's like we need to go straight to the source 0:15:52.760 --> 0:15:53.840 and get the real story. 0:15:54.200 --> 0:15:57.640 It's very good and I don't mind. Listen. One of 0:15:57.720 --> 0:16:00.600 my favorite things is a Oscar Mayer boloney sandwich with 0:16:00.680 --> 0:16:02.400 mayo and white bread and a little bit of dress. 0:16:02.440 --> 0:16:03.120 It's delicious. 0:16:03.280 --> 0:16:05.800 So every once in a hot dog by the way, 0:16:06.280 --> 0:16:08.840 oh okay, all right, And even Frankie slums it every 0:16:08.880 --> 0:16:10.840 once in a while, right, even though he's making good stuff. 0:16:10.840 --> 0:16:12.040 Most of the times are great. 0:16:12.120 --> 0:16:15.120 It's not slumming. It's a fun little treat. Well. 0:16:15.160 --> 0:16:16.720 I take my little man and we go to Costco 0:16:16.760 --> 0:16:18.520 occasionally and we do we do the hot dog thing 0:16:18.520 --> 0:16:20.720 together and it's a nice little like father son date. 0:16:20.840 --> 0:16:23.520 So we have a good time. But my my, my 0:16:23.560 --> 0:16:25.520 girls are not into the hot dog nearly nearly as 0:16:25.640 --> 0:16:27.800 much as as the guys are. I get Okay, So 0:16:27.800 --> 0:16:30.000 while we're talking about meat, let's let's keep talking about meat. 0:16:30.040 --> 0:16:33.040 These are we're talking about the barkain basement cuts here 0:16:33.080 --> 0:16:37.120 in terms of hot dogs and in blooney, But meat 0:16:37.160 --> 0:16:39.320 is you talk about this, and it's just kind of 0:16:39.440 --> 0:16:42.720 common understanding this point that meat just costs more than 0:16:42.840 --> 0:16:44.680 a lot of the other things. If you're eating ribbi, 0:16:44.920 --> 0:16:47.840 you're gonna bust your budget pretty quickly. So like, how 0:16:48.040 --> 0:16:51.360 how should we be thinking about trimming our meat consumption 0:16:51.480 --> 0:16:55.040 and being able to maybe still eat meat sometimes but 0:16:55.320 --> 0:16:56.760 without like breaking the bank. 0:16:57.040 --> 0:17:00.240 Yeah, you gotta just eat less meat, is the truth 0:17:00.280 --> 0:17:02.840 of it. And you know, if you look at history, 0:17:02.880 --> 0:17:06.320 meat was always like the food of the nobility and 0:17:06.760 --> 0:17:09.800 all the off cuts off the off cuts, sorry, like 0:17:09.880 --> 0:17:11.960 the the ofal and the things that were really fatty 0:17:12.000 --> 0:17:16.000 and tough what went down to the working class people. 0:17:16.240 --> 0:17:18.159 Those are the cuts that have more flavor, which is 0:17:18.200 --> 0:17:21.520 ironic now, but the whole world is so efficient at 0:17:21.560 --> 0:17:24.960 making food that now, all classes of people seem to 0:17:25.000 --> 0:17:27.760 be eating meat a lot more than the human body. 0:17:27.840 --> 0:17:30.320 It's able to process. And I'm not going to get 0:17:30.320 --> 0:17:32.440 into like diet and all that stuff, but I mean, 0:17:32.480 --> 0:17:34.479 I think we're all eating way too much of it. 0:17:34.800 --> 0:17:38.240 I will tell you this. I have some guanchali frozen 0:17:38.240 --> 0:17:40.600 in my freezer. It's fancy Italian bacon. It comes from 0:17:40.640 --> 0:17:43.040 the cheek. I bought it two months ago. I keep 0:17:43.080 --> 0:17:47.760 it frozen. I literally I just sliced a couple thin slices, 0:17:48.040 --> 0:17:51.000 probably one ounce of it, put it in a pan 0:17:51.080 --> 0:17:54.119 over medium heat. It shriveled up, rendered out fat, and 0:17:54.119 --> 0:17:56.440 then I saw teate a bunch of spring onions, which 0:17:56.440 --> 0:17:59.800 are in season right now in that fat. And I 0:17:59.880 --> 0:18:02.160 just put spaghetti in there, and like that was delicious. 0:18:02.160 --> 0:18:04.240 And I'm eating meat, but I'm using it as a 0:18:04.280 --> 0:18:07.159 flavoring and as the fat for the dish rather than 0:18:07.280 --> 0:18:10.360 using olive oil. And then the center point is perfectly 0:18:10.400 --> 0:18:14.800 aldente spaghetti, which I think is textually pleasing. 0:18:15.320 --> 0:18:18.360 Yes, yeah, that's my My wife calls using meat as 0:18:18.359 --> 0:18:20.440 a garnish just like you said, like the ability to 0:18:21.440 --> 0:18:22.720 kind of pull some of that flavor of. 0:18:22.840 --> 0:18:26.120 So like you know, instead of getting four chicken breasts 0:18:26.160 --> 0:18:29.399 that have been deboned and de skinned. That's always going 0:18:29.480 --> 0:18:32.399 to cost more money because it's just on a fundamental level, 0:18:32.560 --> 0:18:35.320 like there was a lot of process there that you're 0:18:35.359 --> 0:18:38.719