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Speaker 1: Hi, everybody. 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. Today is episode one hundred and eighteen,

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Speaker 1: Shopping your Own Kitchen. I thought i'd start today with

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Speaker 1: a winter wellness check. How's everybody doing? I know temps

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Speaker 1: can like vary widely this time of year. Some of

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Speaker 1: you are still digging out of snow, while others of

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Speaker 1: you are starting to see the first signs of spring.

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Speaker 1: It feels like a fair amount of us maybe saw

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Speaker 1: like unusually warm temps this past week or two, teasing

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Speaker 1: us that spring was coming, only to see more snow

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Speaker 1: or a week of rain in the forecast, which always

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Speaker 1: seems to be the case. Right Personally, my family and

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Speaker 1: I we're good, but we have very little room to complain.

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Speaker 1: We live in southern California, pay for it, but that

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Speaker 1: sunshine tax feels worth it in the winter. But having

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Speaker 1: a warm weather vacation to Hawaii midwinter this year, it

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Speaker 1: really was like the best thing ever for beating those

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Speaker 1: winter blues. We are now kind of settling in for

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Speaker 1: being home for a full month and following our regular routines.

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Speaker 1: We have a few spring sports that are starting up,

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Speaker 1: like soccer for my girls. And you guys know, I

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Speaker 1: am generally happiest when we're sticking to a routine. I

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Speaker 1: am a type a routine girly, So I say, bring

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Speaker 1: it on March. I am so thrilled that there are

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Speaker 1: thirty one days in March and I am going to

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Speaker 1: be home for every single one of them. Part of

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Speaker 1: returning to a routine after being out of town always

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Speaker 1: includes grocery shopping. And I know I'm not the only

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Speaker 1: one feeling the shock when it comes to grocery prices.

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Speaker 1: Everyone is talking about eggs. I know it's crazy, but

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Speaker 1: just in general, grocery price is shot up during the pandemic.

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Speaker 1: It never really came back down. So I want to

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Speaker 1: chat with you today about this concept of shopping your

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Speaker 1: own kitchen. For me, it's the best way I save

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Speaker 1: money at the grocery store a week after week. And

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Speaker 1: I want to make sure you're in on this habit

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Speaker 1: that really saves me so much. But first, let's get

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Speaker 1: a few recipe ideas out there that you could throw

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Speaker 1: on your meal plan for the week. Here's what we

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Speaker 1: are eating. We are having my Asian lettuce wraps, which

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Speaker 1: we haven't had it in a really long time. This

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Speaker 1: is one of those recipes that got so popular that

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Speaker 1: my family had to be like, Okay, we gotta step

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Speaker 1: having those because we had them, so we like went hard.

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Speaker 1: But I have said this before, but you guys, ground

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Speaker 1: meat like ground pork, ground chicken, ground peep. I feel

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Speaker 1: like it's a sleeper hit, especially with kids, and this

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Speaker 1: recipes is ground chicken. It's so flavorful and so simple,

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Speaker 1: and it mostly uses pantry ingredients and as long as

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Speaker 1: you get some really delicious, crunchy butter lettuce, these Asian

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Speaker 1: lettuce wraps are so good. They are quite healthy, and

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Speaker 1: they are a hit for my entire family. We usually

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Speaker 1: serve them alongside rice and people just eat them up.

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Speaker 1: So I'm really excited to be making them because I

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Speaker 1: haven't made them in a long time. We're also making

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Speaker 1: a newer recipe. We're kind of doing a little Asian

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Speaker 1: theme this next week. And part of that is that

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Speaker 1: when I buy certain ingredients, I want to be able

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Speaker 1: to use them in multiple recipes throughout the week, and

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Speaker 1: so I'm very intentional when I create these recipe club

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Speaker 1: meal plans for our members because I don't want you.

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Speaker 1: I'm trying to help you reduce your grocery bill and

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Speaker 1: I'm not wanting you have to buy a million different ingredients.

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Speaker 1: So we're also having dumpling soup, which it's kind of

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Speaker 1: gone viral on TikTok, and I had so much fun

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Speaker 1: developing this recipe because it really is so simple. It

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Speaker 1: totally uses shables that you can keep on hand, like

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Speaker 1: frozen dumplings, so tasty, so delicious. It's very easy to deconstruct.

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Speaker 1: If your kids aren't gonna eat soup, the first thing

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Speaker 1: you do is you just cook the dumplings, so you

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Speaker 1: can just totally deconstruct those, and they can have the

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Speaker 1: dumplings that they can dip in sauce or whatever. But

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Speaker 1: it's still cold enough that I'm like, ooh, dumpling soup

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Speaker 1: so yummy. So that's happening. And then I'm also making

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Speaker 1: a sheep pan honey cilantro chicken that has this delicious

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Speaker 1: green sauce that I will most certainly double and use

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Speaker 1: either on sandwiches or in grain bowls for lunches, because

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Speaker 1: it's just it's one of those recipes where like the

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Speaker 1: sauce really makes it. I know, you know what I'm

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Speaker 1: talking about. But oh, it's so good. It's so good.

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Speaker 1: All right, there are your recipe ideas for the week.

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Speaker 1: You can find and print all of these recipes and

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Speaker 1: recipee Club individually or in our weekly meal plan that

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Speaker 1: has an easy to follow shopping list where it's broken

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Speaker 1: down by recipe. That way, if you only want to

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Speaker 1: make one or two of recipes, you can easily add

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Speaker 1: those ingredients to your shopping list. Recipe Club is the

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Speaker 1: resource I created to fix the problems with recipes on

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Speaker 1: the internet. No long blog posts, banner ads, drawn out stories.

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Speaker 1: I really wanted to make accessing recipes easier and have

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Speaker 1: intentionally created a space to do that. And we just

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Speaker 1: got our wildly popular recipe binders back in stock. They've

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Speaker 1: been out of stock for three months, which means it's

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Speaker 1: a great time to buy our bundle, which is a

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Speaker 1: recipe binder with an annual membership to recipe Club. Both

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Speaker 1: of those products were created to work with one another.

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Speaker 1: If you're looking for a complete system to help you

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Speaker 1: get dinner on the table more regularly, this is it,

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Speaker 1: and you save twenty bucks when you snag them together.

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Speaker 1: It has been life changing for me for dinner time.

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Speaker 1: I literally created the product that I could not find

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Speaker 1: anywhere else, and it is helping thousands of other families

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Speaker 1: get dinner on the table more often. All right, let's

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Speaker 1: jump into the back half of the podcast and discuss

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Speaker 1: how I shot my own kitchen. Whether you're trying to

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Speaker 1: save on groceries and let's be honest like we've discussed,

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Speaker 1: aren't we all right now, or simply trying to waste

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Speaker 1: less food at home. One of the most beneficial habits

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Speaker 1: I've developed is what I call shopping my own kitchen.

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Speaker 1: I do it almost every week, and I swear it

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Speaker 1: cuts my grocery bills, sometimes maybe in half. Truly, it

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Speaker 1: saves me so much. Here's how it works. If you've

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Speaker 1: been following me for a while now, this will not

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Speaker 1: be the first time you've heard me lay out this system,

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Speaker 1: but it is worth repeating because it works. In fact,

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Speaker 1: I jumped on Instagram the other day and said, if

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Speaker 1: I could walk in any of your kitchens right now

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Speaker 1: and tell you one thing that I think would be

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Speaker 1: life changing, I would do this. This is what I

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Speaker 1: would tell you. The first time I heard about this concept,

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Speaker 1: it was introduced to me by a famous food Network

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Speaker 1: chef Alex Corna Shelley, And if you're a Food Network fan,

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Speaker 1: you've certainly seen Alex on shows like Chopped, Grocery Store, Steakout.

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Speaker 1: I think anyways, she's an incredible chef. She owns multiple

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Speaker 1: restaurants in New York City, like the utmost respect for her.

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Speaker 1: She is the real deal. But she's also someone who

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Speaker 1: makes dinner at home and she's got a kid, and

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Speaker 1: she's feeling a lot of the things that you and

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Speaker 1: I have felt. And I will never forget we were

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Speaker 1: because as many even know, I was on Food Network

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Speaker 1: for a long time and we were I think we

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Speaker 1: were doing Chop together and we were sharing a makeup

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Speaker 1: room and she was in a makeup share next to me,

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Speaker 1: and somehow we got talking and she's like talking about

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Speaker 1: shopping her own kitchen, and it was like this light

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Speaker 1: bulb moment where she's like, you gotta treat your kitchen

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Speaker 1: like a grocery store. And ever since she said that,

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Speaker 1: treat your kitchen like a grocery store, I just have

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Speaker 1: thought about it countless times over the years. So this

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Speaker 1: is what that means to me and how I apply

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Speaker 1: that into these steps. So, first and foremost I start

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Speaker 1: by having a set time to map out my meals

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Speaker 1: for the week. Does this change occasionally, Yes, because life happens.

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Speaker 1: But I literally put a reminder in my phone and

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Speaker 1: I pick a time that's best. I know I won't

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Speaker 1: be interrupted or tempted to do something else. That time

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Speaker 1: has changed over the years, as my kids' activities change,

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Speaker 1: as my kids ages change, but pick a time. For

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Speaker 1: the longest time, it was nine o'clock on Thursday nights.

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Speaker 1: Now it is at five am on Saturday mornings, which

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Speaker 1: I know that's very early on a Saturday morning, but

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Speaker 1: I love my early mornings and that is when my

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Speaker 1: brain is clearest, and that is what is working for

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Speaker 1: me in this chapter. Before you pull up any recipes

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Speaker 1: or write out any ideas for the week, you must

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Speaker 1: shop your kitchen first. Think of it as a grocery store.

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Speaker 1: You're gonna open up your fridge, your freezer, and your

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Speaker 1: pantry and you're gonna see what you have on hand

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Speaker 1: to work with, whether it's half a jar mare and

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Speaker 1: airsauce that needs to be used up, frozen stir fry

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Speaker 1: veggies or potstickers, a bag of shredded cheddar that's almost

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Speaker 1: gone and needs to be used up. Look here first,

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Speaker 1: not only will this create a habit of wasting less food,

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Speaker 1: but that in turn has the potential to reduce your

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Speaker 1: grocery bill pretty significantly. If you don't do this, there's

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Speaker 1: a chance you're gonna be buying items that you already

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Speaker 1: have on hand. And by doing this, it kind of

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Speaker 1: helps build the muscle of learning how to swap things

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Speaker 1: out when it makes sense. So let me give you

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Speaker 1: an example of this. This week, my son requested that

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Speaker 1: I make baked ceedy for dinner. I know, the most

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Speaker 1: discussed recipe on this podcast of all time. In that rest,

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Speaker 1: I call for fresh basil. But for whatever reason, fresh

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Speaker 1: basil at my grocery store lately has been like seven dollars,

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Speaker 1: like so expensive. So rather than spending nearly seven dollars

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Speaker 1: on a few basil leaves, I decided that I would

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Speaker 1: just add a tablespoon of pesto to the marinaiir sauce.

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Speaker 1: That way, I still got that flavor boost without spending

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Speaker 1: extra money on a few basil leaves, and everyone was

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Speaker 1: still happy and no one's gonna miss it, right. So

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Speaker 1: being able to open my fridge and be like, oh yeah,

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Speaker 1: I've got marinaire enough sauce I need to use up.

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Speaker 1: I definitely have a box of ZD. He wants this great.

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Speaker 1: I don't have any fresh basil, but I see that pesto.

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Speaker 1: It's almost like I have to see it in the space.

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Speaker 1: That's why I'm telling you have to physically get up.

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Speaker 1: Open your fridge, open your freezer, open your pantry, and

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Speaker 1: look at everything. And don't forget that there are three

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Speaker 1: places to explore. It's not just your fridge, it's fridge, freezer, pantry.

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Speaker 1: For a long time, I did like my fridge Friday

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Speaker 1: clean out, and on Fridays I would look in my

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Speaker 1: fridge and sometimes I still do that, and I note

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Speaker 1: what I have on hand, and then that carries over

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Speaker 1: to my meal planning session on Saturday mornings. But pick

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Speaker 1: a time, pick a time. One of the other benefits

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Speaker 1: to developing this habit is that it helps answer the

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Speaker 1: dreaded question of what should we have for dinner. The

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Speaker 1: items in those places end up being almost like clues

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Speaker 1: for you as you decide to plan for the week ahead.

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Speaker 1: So another example is I just did this and I

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Speaker 1: opened my fridge and I had a package a chicken

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Speaker 1: Italian chicken sausage. Forgotten that I bought that. I can't

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Speaker 1: even be completely sure what I think. I bought it

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Speaker 1: because I was going to add it to a jar

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Speaker 1: of marinair sauce for like a quick spaghetti dinner. But

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Speaker 1: if I had not looked, I would have forgotten. It

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Speaker 1: would have spoiled. I would have wasted the eight dollars

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Speaker 1: that I spent on it. Now instead, I can take

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Speaker 1: that chicken sausage and literally go into recipe Club and

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Speaker 1: type chicken sausage, and it pulls up all of the

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Speaker 1: recipes that includes chicken sausage. And because I'm doing this,

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Speaker 1: and I can see, oh, that Italian sausage skillet that

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Speaker 1: has bell peppers. Ooh, I've got two bell peppers. Before

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Speaker 1: I know it, I only need one ingredient to make

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Speaker 1: this recipe happen, and I'm wasting less and I'm saving

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Speaker 1: so much. When I was first developing this habit, I

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Speaker 1: liked to physically pull the items out and place them

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Speaker 1: on my countertop so that I could visually see how

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Speaker 1: a meal was going to come together. I don't have

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Speaker 1: to do that as much anymore because I've been doing

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Speaker 1: this for years now. But if you're new to this,

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Speaker 1: think about that. Then, for me, as an online grocery shopper,

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Speaker 1: I fill my cart online right there as I'm looking

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Speaker 1: at the ingredients I need. I almost always have either

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Speaker 1: my recipe binder open or recipe Club open as well,

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Speaker 1: because I can just cross check things and make sure

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Speaker 1: that we're all good. But it makes me feel so

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Speaker 1: much more in control for the week, and it makes

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Speaker 1: me feel like I'm kind of just one step ahead,

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Speaker 1: and it's one less thing I don't have to worry about.

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Speaker 1: I know that I've already taken the ten to fifteen

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Speaker 1: minutes to decide what we're having every single night of

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Speaker 1: the week, rather than asking myself every single day, what

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Speaker 1: are we gonna have for dinner? Now, it's important that

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Speaker 1: you don't forget to write these meals down, either on

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Speaker 1: a meal planning notepad we have one that comes in

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Speaker 1: a recipe binder on a whiteboard, or even in Recipe Club,

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Speaker 1: we have this drag and drop meal planning tool so

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Speaker 1: you can look up the recipes and digitally put your

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Speaker 1: meal plan together, or just your phone. Honestly, that's what

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Speaker 1: I did for years, so I just put it in

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Speaker 1: a note in my phone. But what I'm trying to

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Speaker 1: help you do is I am trying to help reduce

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Speaker 1: the amount of things that you have to think about

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Speaker 1: at five pm on any given weeknight. We're gonna make

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Speaker 1: that decision once so that you do not have to

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Speaker 1: think about it every single day. Last night, both of

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Speaker 1: my girls are playing soccer this year, and it's the

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Speaker 1: first time that both of them have played, and we

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Speaker 1: had an unexpected dermatology appointment. It's just like the afternoon

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Speaker 1: got away from me and I walked in the door

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Speaker 1: at like five thirty. My son had to be somewhere

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Speaker 1: at six thirty, and I just I knew because I

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Speaker 1: already decided that we were going to have the skillet

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Speaker 1: chicken and yokio spinach. I had all the ingredients I

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Speaker 1: had recently purchased that like I knew it, and that meal,

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Speaker 1: I kid, you, not came together like in legitimately under

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Speaker 1: thirty minutes. And I know everybody says that, but let's

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Speaker 1: be honest. Most recipieces say that you can actually make

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Speaker 1: in thirty minutes. Like I am talking, I only had

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Speaker 1: to chop one thing, I had to drop one shallet,

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Speaker 1: that's it. And it was such a gift because guess

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Speaker 1: what if I had not planned, you know what we

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Speaker 1: would have done. We would have driven through in and out,

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Speaker 1: or we would have said free for all cold cereal.

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Speaker 1: And you know what, I still do those things. I

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Speaker 1: definitely have those nights. But it felt so much better

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Speaker 1: to throw a meal together quickly that was balanced and

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Speaker 1: that I knew my family would like, and it felt

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Speaker 1: it just felt satisfying to me as a mother that

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Speaker 1: I was nourishing my family that way. But if I

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Speaker 1: had not made that decision in advance, there's no way

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Speaker 1: that would have happened, because I was so frazzled by

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Speaker 1: the afternoon and that we had such a limited amount

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Speaker 1: of time before we had to be to our next thing.

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Speaker 1: So this is worth it. It is if you develop any

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Speaker 1: habit surrounding dinner this year, make it this, make it this,

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Speaker 1: shop your own kitchen, set a weekly meal plan. Even

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Speaker 1: if you think you hate meal planning, I promise you

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Speaker 1: will make your life easier. All right. Finally, let's finish

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Speaker 1: with my weekly give me five. These are five things

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Speaker 1: that made my life easier or more enjoyable for the week.

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Speaker 1: We're gonna start with something that I think is gonna

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Speaker 1: make my life more enjoyable. So I've started. I don't

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Speaker 1: know if it's me just trying to survive winter, but

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Speaker 1: for a long time, we've liked lighting candles when we

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Speaker 1: have family dinner. Even if it's like so simple, it

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Speaker 1: just kind of like sets the mood and calms everybody down.

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Speaker 1: We're not fancy like it, just I just like it.

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Speaker 1: It like creates a moment. But I've decided that I

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Speaker 1: kind of like lighting a candle when I'm cooking, because cooking,

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Speaker 1: especially when you've got, you know, young kids, it can

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Speaker 1: be such a stressful moment when you're trying to throw

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Speaker 1: stuff together. And something about lighting a candle just as

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Speaker 1: I begin the process to cook dinner for my family

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Speaker 1: feels very soothing to me. But what's tricky about this

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Speaker 1: is I don't ever want to light a candle that

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Speaker 1: is scented when I'm cooking. So I have been on

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Speaker 1: the hunt and I found this beeswax candle. It's so

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Speaker 1: cool looking. The company is called Cooking by Candle Light.

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Speaker 1: I just found it on Amazon. But it's a candle

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Speaker 1: by the hour and it's like almost like a rope

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Speaker 1: that has been it's been molded into a rope the

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Speaker 1: beeswax and you undo it just about three inches and

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Speaker 1: three inches gives you about an hour, maybe not even

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Speaker 1: three inches, maybe closer to an inch, and then once

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Speaker 1: it burns down, it just snuffs itself out. But it's

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Speaker 1: so cool looking. I can't decide if it's cool or weird,

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Speaker 1: but I've been on the hunt and so I finally

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Speaker 1: bought this one because cooking by candle light has been

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Speaker 1: i don't know, kind of like a little gift to myself.

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Speaker 1: And don't get me wrong, it's still complete chaos around me,

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Speaker 1: but something about having that candle burning next to the

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Speaker 1: stove just does something for me. So I will definitely

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Speaker 1: show you guys on Instagram. It'll be in our give

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Speaker 1: me five email this week as well and on our

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Speaker 1: blog post. But I'm really excited to try this. I'm

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Speaker 1: really and I'm glad that it's scentless because I needed

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Speaker 1: to get the sense out of there all right. Next,

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Speaker 1: I found a springy layering tea at Old Navy. Both

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Speaker 1: Old Navy and Gap were having kind of big sale

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Speaker 1: this weekend where you could use the Gap cash and

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Speaker 1: the Old Navy cash. Anyways, but I bought this tea

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Speaker 1: that is got a really subtle kind of floral. It's white,

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Speaker 1: it's all white, but it's kind of got like floral

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Speaker 1: imprinting on it. I'd say it's understated. It's nice. I

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Speaker 1: work under some overalls this week, and I wore it

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Speaker 1: under a blazer. I've worked with gene and I'm like,

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Speaker 1: I love this. It's just like just a hint of spring,

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Speaker 1: but mostly it's just kind of a great layering piece.

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Speaker 1: Green silicone tributes. I am you know when you realize

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Speaker 1: that when you go to reach for something pretty regularly

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Speaker 1: and you want the certain type of that thing. I

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Speaker 1: have these silicone tributs. They almost like are in the

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Speaker 1: shape of a rainbow, but they're all green, and they're

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Speaker 1: my favorite. I am ready to almost get rid of

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Speaker 1: the other ones because I don't even want to use them.

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Speaker 1: I love these. It's just a silly thing that I

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Speaker 1: use frequently because I make a lot of meals that

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Speaker 1: I bring, whether it's a skillet dish or something, I'll

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Speaker 1: just PLoP it right in the center of the table,

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Speaker 1: and I want to have something to protect the table.

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Speaker 1: So that's on my list. And then Nora, my eight

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Speaker 1: year old, found a new graphic novel series that she

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Speaker 1: is so excited about is called Surfside Girls, which is

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Speaker 1: perfect because we live in a surfing community and I

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Speaker 1: had never seen it before. I'd never heard of it,

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Speaker 1: and she is obsessed. And you know what makes my

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Speaker 1: life easier when my kids want to read. And it's

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Speaker 1: been if you have kids in elementary school, this week

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Speaker 1: has been reading across America and it's been a big

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Speaker 1: emphasis on reading, and there's been read to throns and

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Speaker 1: book fairs and it just thrills me as a mom

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Speaker 1: when my kids find a serious they like. And she's

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Speaker 1: so excited about this. So that's been fun. And then

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Speaker 1: finally I have returned to a makeup product or a

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Speaker 1: skincare product that I used for years and then I

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Speaker 1: ran out and I just didn't rehorder, and I am

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Speaker 1: reminded how much I love it. And it is the

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Speaker 1: Tula underre glow and get it cooling and brightening eyebomb.

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Speaker 1: And it's just that I use it both in the

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Speaker 1: morning and the evening. I have really dry eyes and

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Speaker 1: this just it's very calming and I'm liking it being

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Speaker 1: part of my routine first thing when I wake up

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Speaker 1: and right before I go to bed. It's just like

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Speaker 1: a little a little gift to myself. So there you

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Speaker 1: have it. That's it for today. You guys, make sure

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Speaker 1: you're subscribed to the podcast so that you never miss

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Speaker 1: an episode. This podcast is meant to be a quick

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Speaker 1: twenty minute listen while you map out your meals for

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Speaker 1: the week and support helping you set up a simple

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Speaker 1: dinner system. If you're looking to finally get them system

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Speaker 1: in place, join us in Recipe Club and, better yet,

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Speaker 1: snag the bundle with the recipe Binder because it's back

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Speaker 1: in stock. You save twenty dollars when you do that,

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Speaker 1: and it is such a great system for helping dinner

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Speaker 1: to feel a bit easier. Thanks for listening today, I'm

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Speaker 1: so glad you're here. Until next time, happy cooking. I'm

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Speaker 1: Kelsey and look forward to check all