Creating a Minimalist Kitchen w/ Kristin Marr of Live Simply Mom

recording this intro. I finally hit record and we are so excited to be replaying one of our most downloaded episodes about creating a capsule pantry and a minimalist kitchen with Kristen Maher of Live Simply Mom. Excited to put this in front of you all again, especially because we know most people do not go this deep into our archives to listen to episodes. And I think very fitting for this time of year as well, to be looking at what are the essential things that I need in

my kitchen? How can I curate them to be most useful uh and build contentment, especially during the holiday season. Yeah, and it's a great time to use up all that stuff you haven't used for the past eleven months and then throw it away because you probably won't use it for the next eleven months either. So this is a good one. But first we got to thank our sponsors. On this episode, we're brought to you by the debt

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free planner. Also brought to you by the Essentials. All the essential people and things have gathered together to sponsor the show. The nurses, the grocery store clerks, the toilet paper, the water bottles and so many more have united to say you're welcome and We're tired the essentials. Let's keep valuing and being grateful for them. Amen. Yeah, the toilet paper is tired. It's had a year. The toilet paper is tired. Yes, being bought up, being mass produced and

then actually serving their purpose. Holy smokes. Serving your purpose is exhausting, especially when you're doilet baby. So it's a dirty job that somebody's got to do it. Uh, keep going, let's yeah, let's get into the episode again. This is a replay. We have curated a very specific list of our most downloaded episodes, and we're excited to share the next one on the list with you. Hey, Kristen, thanks so much for joining us on this podcast today. We're

so pumped to have you. Yeah, thanks for having me. I'm excited to be here. Yeah. We love what you're doing over on your blog. Super cool. You've got words and videos and pictures so yeah, live simply so beautiful. Yeah. I love reading your articles because it's like, oh man, I can stop here and do a video, and then I can keep going. Nice pictures and then it's so well done. It's so fun to interact with. So great job right there. Yeah. So it all makes me wonder

how did you get started on this journey? You talk about real food, and I know this is kind of a buzzword right now. I'm sure you've been into this for much longer than before it came at became a buzzword. But this concept of eating real food, how do you define that? And what was your journey to becoming so passionate about this? Yeah? So it actually I didn't grow up knowing about like quote unquote real food or um

anything like this. In fact, they grew up very much like a product of the eighties and then the early nineties, So we're talking like kool Aid and Velveta cheese and all of that, you know, like the little freezer meals that had like little tattoo with it, you know, you name.

That's how I grew up. And then so it wasn't until around two thousand and eight that this idea of like real food came into play, which I can share a bit about um that, but it was really because of Michael pollen Um, who's a big real food advocate, UM and writer and journalist, and he was part of a movie called Food Inc. Which came out was one of the first documentaries about Since that, there's been a lot of documentaries, A lot of them I don't think

paint a great picture of food. But Food Inc. Really was like one of the first documentaries that really got

you thinking about what you were eating. And so we watched that and um, my husband and I both we had only been married a few years at this point, and we kind of looked at each other and we're like, what in the world, Like, we've never even thought that what we were eating wasn't actually food, um, but the idea that you could actually recognize ingredients that they came from the ground or from from an animal, and we're very minimally processed m versus these like chemicals that were

being created in food labs am to look like food, right, And we're like, like, we've never even thought about that basically, I mean, the idea of real food. I think it's

like a word these days. But if you go back like a hundred years or even today, if you visit like cultures where um industrialization hasn't really happened or they hold on to a big food culture, you know, like real food is just food, Like that's just what they eat, like food in America because so far from like what food actually is because there is such a thing as

fake food. Yeah, why exactly. Yeah, but like if you look at those cultures, that's still very much adhere to like traditional eating the way like our grand like great great great grandparents, ay and before that, like that's just the way they ate. They came from an animal or it came from the ground. It wasn't like highly processed. They didn't like grow corn and then turn it into

the substance that doesn't even resemble corn at all. Um. So yeah, so I very much grew up like eating that kind of stuff, and then two thousand and eight we really began to think about what we were eating. Um. And honestly, at the time, like I didn't know that there were great altern relatives to things like meat or dairy, which we're very much painted in a bad way in food in so my automatic response, I'm very much like an all or nothing kind of person. And I was like, Okay, fine,

we're just gonna become vegan, Like that's the solution. We're literally plants, and that's what I decided to try. And I did that for a number of years. My husband never fully embraced that because he was like, you're crazy. I can't do this, UM, but I end we ended up embracing veganis UM, trying to get away from the process food, which the funny thing is I kind of just swopped out like meat for like soy products, which now I realized wasn't my best idea to do, but

it was. It was when I um became pregnant with my son and then he was born and he ended up developing UM some speech issues, a big speech delay around two and a half. He should have been talking and he wasn't, and we ended up going to a nutritionist, and the NUTRITIONISTUM as well as some other therapies, and she said, look, he needs fat, like you have to

put him on fat. And at the time I was like low fat and vegan, like this huge like storm basically of bad, bad choices, which I really thought I was doing the right thing because you know, we're trying to eat more um, you know, real food at the time,

and that's what I thought it was. It was at that time that I learned about something called Weston a Price Foundation, which is the idea of basically getting back to like a traditional form of eating, so instead of like looking out just like fads, but looking at like, how have people for generations upon generations been eating And if you look at that, people have very much been

eating plants and animals. But the difference was that you could actually, um, these animals were like pastured, you know, they were out roaming grass. They weren't in these like feed lots that we have in this industrial system. UM. So we decided to incorporate meat and dairy back into our diets. But it came now from local farms. Um, from you know, grass fed cows and chickens that were out pecking the ground and eating you know, bugs and everything else. Um. And so once again, like our real

food journey kind of evolved even more. UM. So that's where we went. And then I got pregnant with my next child and we continued to eat that way. And around that time, I just said, I friends were noticing how we were eating, that we really were away from all these packaged foods and we were buying from local farms. And I was cooking at home and I was also a stay at home mom during this time. I had left my career, so I had time to be doing this. And they were like, hey, can you share, like what

you're making? What are you doing these changes, like how you're getting your family away from the box macaroni and cheese and um, you know, all this processed food. And and so I started like sharing on Facebook, and I think people got a little tired, so they're like kind of a blog. I don't know if they actually by blog or they just were like, get this girl off Facebook,

like she's clogging my feet. This was back when my Facebook was the thing, you know, and um, so yeah, So in two thousand and thirteen I started Lived simply it was like this poorly done website. I mean it was you know with iPhone three photos, which I mean now the iPhones and this amazing camera and back then, you know, they were really bad photo and yeah, and it just grew from there. I mean over time, like we had hundreds of thousands and then millions of people

coming to the site, which I didn't even was. I was like, oh my goodness, people are interested in this. Um. And then it evolved into what it is today, which is a blog and a now a podcast and um, just a community of people who are very much on this journey, whether they're starting this journey or they just want to figure out how to make it easier to put real food on the table. Um. And during this time I also began like questioning the products I was using as far as like all my skin and cleaning.

It was just like this very natural progression. And so lives simply has not just become about food, but also about like a full on lifestyle of getting away from overly processed everything to really embracing um, simpler ingredients that you can actually recognize. Wow, and it sounds like for the for the health of you and your family. I mean, it's so interesting to hear what had happened with your son. Did they directly link his delayed speech to diet? They

he was diagnosed with UM. We went through like a speech screening through a local children's hospital, and they had diagnosed him with a praxia, which is basically like the simplified form of explaining it's like this brain to mouth disconnected something with the brain. And so children's brains are made up of fat, like they need fat in those

developing years. And so for me, who grew up first like believing in low fat everything, having been a child of the nineties, you know, when like fat was bad, and then to embracing veganism, which also really restricted my fat amount. Um. I like it was he didn't have any fat basically in his diet for the first couple of years. So yeah, they um, while like the conventional system didn't recognize that when we saw it like more holistic treatments, which we also did therapies through speech and

everything else. Um, they were the ones that were like, hey, like I knows that may sounds so crazy, but why don't you consider some dietary interventions um. And Yeah, within we were told he wouldn't talk until he was eight or nine years old. Yeah, seriously, and within like six months, we started seeing dramatic improvements and we were he was going to like speech therapy two to three times a week at that point. On top of the dietary interventions we were doing, we were giving him you know a

lot of egg yolks cream from a local farm. We were buying raw milk at the time. UM, just like really up. And we were giving him fish oil, like just a ton of fat to really help his brain development. Um. And there's a lot of like information out there these days on that both in like the conventional medicine um, you know, realm and like the holistic functional medicine doctor realm. So um, yeah, it's just something like I didn't know.

I thought I was doing the best I could as a parent and that's all we can do in the moment. But and um, and I was just really amazing to see the power of food and how it really can aid in the body. Yes, yes, I am so interested in that, like it's and being pregnant. I'm becoming more aware of what I'm putting in my body because I feel like I was thank you, um, because I feel

like I was. So I was a vegetarian for ten years and I just recently started incorporating meat back in my diet and so and yeah I was guilty of taking out like those bad processed things and just replacing them with other processed things. Right, yeah I did that too. And I think like vegetarianism, you can definitely like do

do it well, so to speak. But like veganism, it just cuts out like every like you can still have eggs being a vegetarian, you know, just such a great source of fat or even butter which is from grass fed cows, which is like such an amazing source of fat. But yeah, like vegan goes like a step further and nothing against my bays vegan, but I would definitely do your research because, um, there's lots of studies that show that, like over time, it can deplete deplete the body of

the nutrients you need. Yeah, so while you're making this transition and you're a stay at home mom and like trying to get this you know, grass fed, locally produced stuff, Like, so, how do how did you manage your budget with all that? Because I know all of our listeners are also interested in eating this way or eating more real food, more local, but like price is such a big deterrent. Yeah, yeah, definitely, And you know, honestly, in the beginning, I had issues

with it. I mean I struggled with it and my grocery budget at the time. You know, we were like a one income family. My husband worked for a church at the time period. You know, so it's not like we had this large amount of money. Um, And so I was really guilty of like blowing our budget in

the beginning, Like I went all out out. It was like, you know, just like spending money everywhere I could on all these ingredients I thought that I needed, um, but I ended up finding you know, kind of tweaking things after, you know, kind of being scolded by my husband over and over again. He's like, this has to be sustainable, you know, like you have to make this work over the long haul. So I've kind of developed some tips over the years, um, and and like, no matter what

your budget, like I know, it can vary. You know, my friends in the Midwest and they pay like five dollars a pound for grass fed beef, whereas like we live in Florida and we're paying a whole lot more for for you know, so it's gonna vary depending on where you live. But I feel like these tips kind

of apply, um regardless. And the first thing is like we had to cut other areas in our budget, Like we had to realize that food was our top priority, and so like there were areas that we were spending that honestly we didn't need, like certain forms of entertainment

or whatever. And I feel like, if you're living in America and if you have or any kind of you know, Western society, and you have like a cell phone and you have internet, and you have all these things like we generally are spending, we're spending in areas that are like luxuries, right, and so if we look at some of those luxuries, there's definitely areas we could be cutting back on in order to make things a priority. But

second off that said, um, like there I had to prioritize. Okay, So, like everybody talks about organic, but for me, I would rather buy something like pastured meats and eggs and dairy because you can't wash that off, like you can't wash off all the you know, like the you can't wash off the fact that that cow has been basically sitting on a feed loot and eating an unnatural diet for

however long. But it is like something a piece of produce you can you know, make like a simple vinegar wash or something you can do your best to like wash it off or you compeel it a lot of times.

So I was like, you know what, instead of focusing on spending my money on organic all things organic, which can be more expensive, I'm gonna save a few extra dollars and instead just by like the conventional produce, go to produce stand um, that kind of thing, and use that money towards you know, be our grass fed beef

for past your chicken or eggs. The other thing is like eggs are pretty even if they're like seven or eight dollars a dozen, which I mean like our food system has really messed up our view on the price of food because people don't realize like how expensive it is to actually produce food well because our food system is so messed up. But I mean even at that,

like those eggs can stretch a long time. You can make like a veggie fried rice and add like two eggs in there and feed an entire family of four six people, you know. So he's same with meat, you know. I mean like I'll buy a whole chicken from a farm and it's not cheap. I'll admit, it's like twenty bucks for that whole chicken, but that whole chicken is

not feeding us for one single meal. Like that chicken will be stretched across maybe two days, and then after that the bones will be turned into broth with which will then make a soup. So I'm not buying froth um.

So I think we really have to get away from the mentality of like what I'm buying as far as meat or eggs is just like this giant meal, like this giant steak on my plate, But instead thinking about how you can like stretch those across multiple meals, if that makes sense, and we've talked about that in other episodes to that even our view, our portion view of you know, a lot of times will make meals and the biggest portion on our plate is the meat or

the protein, and then smaller are the and when you refer to them as sides, the main dish is the meat and this side, the smaller thing is the veggie. And it doesn't have to be that way, Like you can still get your protein, your meat, but it doesn't need to take up half of your plate, and in and of itself, you can save money exactly. Yeah, And you know, to the other thing is if it's available in your area, is shopping a farmer's market, Like seriously,

that's going to save you a lot of money. But when you shop a farmer's market, you get in touch with farms and then you can if you choose to buy me if you eat meat, you you can a lot of times, um, go in and buy like a quarter cow or a half a cow. Um. And granted, yes you have to like save up for that, but you're gonna like save drastically. You saved sometimes three to four dollars a pound buying it that way versus buying it if you're you know, and then you're still smart

about what you're doing. You know, You're not um, You're not You're not like you know, I mean like steak. Like we've eaten steak once in the past like six months, and that was from my husband's birthday, and like we've spent a pretty penny on that steak. It was like a grass fed steak from the farmers market. But even then, if you calculated it, it was cheaper than going out to dinner. Um. But at the same time, like that's

not something that's on our plate every week. Generally, it's like these, like you said, these cuts of meat that are stretched across days or they're like accompanied with grains or vegetables so that they're really um. Just like I lived in West Africa for a number of years and like that's how they approached their their meat was. It was very much like a flavoring for food or like

an accompaniment accompaniment to a dish. First is like this idea of like a quarter pound hamburger, which granted I love a hamburger, right, but like if you're on a budget. How can you stretch that, you know, like maybe you use like half a pound of beef and then use like beans, right, and you make together instead of like a full pound of beef, and that gives you another half a pound for another day, which you can do

with hamburger and meatballs too. You can shove that thing with some cauliflower and spinange and beans and meat, and it can have a tons of flavor. Yeah, so you really have to be like wise and intentional about how you're using that. You didn't change your mindset, like you

said about like the portions on your plate. Yeah, speaking of making the most of our ingredients, I know that you talk about on your blog this idea of a capsule pantry, and I'm wondering if you have any tips for us on how to do this, how to start to pare down, Like, if we've got this cluttered pantry with a ton of stuff in it, how can we make the most of what we have and figure out what what that even is? What what do we need? Yeah? Definitely, So I think first you have to think about what

you actually use. So I actually recommend that people, first of all, in order to simplify meal planning, that you create like a list of things, uh, meals that you can regularly rotate over and over again. So if you sit down and do that, then you really know like what you need to build these meals, and then you can take a look at your pantry and be like, Okay,

what do I actually use regularly to create meals? I mean, now that you know what you make and a lot of us I think have like I love making like specialty recipes and like cookbook you know, recipes and cookbooks

that call for specialty ingredients and on Pinterest. But the problem with like constantly making new recipes is that a lot of times they require buying like all these specialty ingredients, and that's going to send your grocery bill sky high, right, But if you have like a list of rotating meals that you really you rely on constantly and maybe just like once a week or once every couple of weeks you're you're inserting one of those like extra new meals

to you, then your pantry can really you can really pair down your pantry to just what you're using on a regular basis, so you can take a look at those meals and say, okay, like what do I use. I know that I use rice salt a lot, I use keen wall a lot to make these meals. I use these spices and then everything else donate or get rid of, right, so that UM really have. And that's not to say you're not going to occasionally have like a specialty ingredient. Like I have black sesame seeds sitting

in my pantry right now. How often do I use that? Not? I didn't know that was a thing. Yeah it is, I know, yeah, And so I mean, like I used it for a specialty ingredient, but it's one of those, like very few items that I don't use very often. Most of what's sitting in my pantry or things that I know that I'm using regularly to make our favorite meals,

the meals that are constantly being rotated. Not to mention, Google is so good with substitutions sometimes if if it does call for a specialty ingredient, before I go to the store, I'll say what's a good substitute for DA? Da DA? And it comes up with a lot of options. Usually there's three to five substitute options, and I've done just fine typically that way. Yeah. Absolutely, Now, as a recipe creator, if you mess up on the recipe, don't

go blame now. I get commets sometimes that are like one star, well, I did change this and this and this and oh and this, and I actually banked it instead of actually made a completely different recipe and I did not like it. I used apple sauce instead of butter,

and it had just like this weird orchard flavor. So I don't know that's her fault, Christian, clearly, I think that I think, like I in a Garten wrote like a whole post, like a blog post somewhere out there about that or something like all like the weird comments she's received over the years for people who are like the completely change your recipe. But yeah, like a lot of times you can do like subs, you know, and like you can google and find like easy subs that

you might have on hand. But yeah, I mean like just keeping those like ingredients that you constantly use. And the great thing about that is it like simplifies, like we said, meal planning, because you're relying on the same meals. You always have ingredients stocked in your pantry to make these meals, but also you can pick things up on sale.

So like, I know, I used canned tomatoes all the time. Um, so like when they go on sale and I can buy, Like I I like this brand called Jovial, which let me tell you is not like the cheapest brand, but there's this amazing brand as far as like quality and commitment to what they do. And it would cost me a fortune to buy those tomatoes if I just like randomly went and bought them. But because I know it's a staple in my pantry, those things go on sale down to like two dollars a jar, which is like

two dollars and fifty cents off or whatever. So when that happens, I like stock up on those things and I fill my pantry. So the idea is like having ingredients you actually use allows you to really be smart with you know, keeping a simplified pantry using those ingredients, but also making sure that you're saving money by stocking up when those things do go on sale, because you need feeling okay about buying in bulk. Then it helps with that if you know, okay, I do I use

this all the time, then fine, get a ton of it. Yeah. I think a lot of us just like them, or we buy stuff because somebody on Instagram told us we need it when we don't actually use it ever, or you see the sale and then you like stock up, but then how many boxes of Zatarans do you need for some inspiration? I'm curious what are some of the essential capsule pantry items that you have, Kristen, I actually

just f y I'll share, but I did. I just did a video which just came out, by the way, you can find it over on YouTube, which I kind of like showed the well I didn't kind of, I did show I find it because my pantry is like we don't have coats in Florida really, so it's a coat closet which doing the feel and there was like, oh gosh, the poor guy doing the video, He's like, you seriously want me to like go in that closet with you. It's like, yeah, yeah, I come see that.

Though you can see like in you know, if you're a visual person, like what's in my pantry. But some of my favorite are definitely rice, Like rice is so cheap and you can I mean people are like, oh rice, but you can really make that nutrient vents. I mean you can like mix it with veggies or cook it and broth. You know. I mean that just like ups the nutrients right there. Um. So definitely rice and if you look at a lot of cultures around the world,

they definitely rely on rice. Why we have this idea that rice is like inferior, I think it's because quene wa really you know, became like a star in the past few years. I will use like keene wa. Um. That's another staple and I picked that up at Costco and it's really inexpensive. Costco is amazing if you're looking to save money and buy and balk, especially on some of those staple items. Like I said, canned tomatoes. I always have pasta. I like the pasta for um, the

brown rice pasta from Jovial, like I mentioned. Um, I just think it tastes really good. It doesn't have like a heavy wheat taste or like a heavy taste. It taste like white pasta. Um. But again it's expensive, but I know I always stock it, so when it drops drastically in price, that's when I like stock up on it and keep in my pantry. Um. See, like spices, seasonings or something I always keep on hand. So cinnamon um, a reggano human um, let's see garlic powder and ginger

are definitely my go to. I think you can you can add so much flavor to any dish if you season it right. And salt, like salt is. The power of salt is amazing. There's a really good documentary which actually was a book to begin with, called Salt, Fat, Acid Heat. I watched it. She's but like seriously, like I think she goes to show people the power of salt, like how you can use salt and it just like

instantly transforms a dish. Um, let's see what else. Oh my goodness, oh, dry beans or something I always keep stocked again like super cheap, and you can use them in so many different ways, like you can cook um, chickpeas. I cook my beans in my instant pot, which I know people are like, oh my goodness, that's not very minimalistic to have like an extra appliance. But let me tell you, I am, Like I don't use a lot of appliances, but I feel like the instant pot is

one that everybody needs. Um, it's just amazing and will really transform Like if you're busy or don't know how to cook stuff, um, so be the thing. Um and I'll cook them in like a weekly chickpeas in the instant pot and then I'll use half of those to make hummus or I'll roast them in the oven. Um. And they're great for like salads or hummas is constantly my kids lunches, or for snacks. Um yeah, roasted with

some seasonings and they are a great snack. It's so simple, but it's so it adds like so much, like all the things that you say are so simple, but they're diverse. And that's why you can have like this minimalist like paying tree and fridge if you just have the right things, like the right diverse things. Yeah, and like you said, you can use them in multiple ways to build multiple meals.

And I think that's like the idea of really minimalized, minimizing your pantry down to like the basics, is thinking like can I use this in multiple you know, in multiple ways to build multiple meals. Which I think that's the difference between real food and like processed food. It's like processed food, like everybody's like, oh, it's so expensive

to eat. Well, I'm like wait, wait, wait, sorry, if you buy like a box of pop tarts that it's going to cost you like three dollars and it's literally going to get you through one meal and it's not going to fill you up, and you're gonna be hungry

with them like an hour. But if you look at these real ingredients, so sometimes maybe you're gonna work over a little bit more for some of them, like pastured meat or something, but a lot of them are really cheap, like rice and beans, And when you think about that, like those are going to last you a really long time, feeds you for multiple meals, and they're going to fill you up, so you're not going to be like you're not snacking throughout the day and you're not stopping at

the drive through on the way home because you're filled with actually nourishing food and the vitamins and the minerals and the fat and everything your body needs. That's awesome. Yeah, And if you make like most of your meal those inexpensive items and then apport smaller apportion the more expensive ones than then there's your budget. Yeah. Yeah, so I

feel like it's like a nice balance. Um definitely. Yeah, Like you don't need to like live off just chia seeds and hemp seeds and you could literally eat real food and never buy any of those things, you know. I love hearing that. Yeah, even like collagen, Like I love college and I take collagen right now mainly because I was working on healing my gut last year. But like, you literally don't need collagen or any of these like special powders or like any of these special seeds. Like

you can buy you know, almonds if you want. I mean, like seriously, it doesn't. You don't even need that buy pumpkin seeds, you know, I mean, like if you want, it's just a matter of really, like um, finding what works. You've got to think, like there are cultures around the world that don't spend a lot on food and that eat eat well. You know, we just become like obsessed with health that it's turned into this like giant industry.

It's almost like we've gone from extreats the other extreme health and wellness has become like this megamillion dollar, billion dollar probably indstry. But really you get back to it and it's like what would like great great great Grandma would have been eating, and it's probably like carrots and some rice and a little meat here and there. You know, you don't have to have the juicer and the mixer and the grinder and the spiralizer exactly, like you got

those and you want to use those. Awesome, but it's it's like it's a disservice to people to show that like those are a must. You know. It's like eating well isn't just for the rich and the famous. Huh. That's so good to hear, Kristen. So how do you deal like with those times that you do have to buy ingredients that you wouldn't normally keep in your capsule pantry,

like black sesame seeds? You know, it's just because I'm mainly relying on those recipes we're making over and over again, right that are like our favorite recipes, which I know that sounds boring, by the way, But it's not like you can change them up based on seasonality. Like a stir fry doesn't always have to be broccoli and write peppers. It could be whatever is at the market that week,

you know. Um. But anyway, when I do have to buy something because let's say I'm gonna make like a special um ingredient, then I'll try to find other ways to use that. So, like you said, the power of Google, Like if I have black sesame seeds. I might try to find like other ways to use that, and I might not get something just by using, um, by googling black sesame seeds, but I might be able to use them, um in other ways that you could use sesame seeds.

So maybe that's adding them to like a granola. I think you just have to really get creative honestly in the kitchen. I mean, like even overnight oats or something that's really popular right now, and um, I thought it was like a fad, but what we we recently went overseas and like they were all over there and they're like, oh, we've been eating these forever. You guys thought you were cool. I think we're in Germany and they're like, oh, this

is like at a staple of ours forever. I was like, okay, wow, okay, yeah, I thought this is like something we just invented in the past year. Apparently not, but anyway, like you could add like sesame seeds are really good in that kind of um, like an overnight oat. So I think it's just for one it's like a matter of like having some experience in the kitchen and really like knowing how to take one thing and add like diversity to it

um and using those ingredients UM. But it's also like like you can google and find out how to use you know, different ways to use that UM. But even like when I'm meal planning, like if I'm going to buy a specialty ingredient, like even a piece of produce, and i know I'm not going to put it all to use, then I'll try to find other ways that week to be able to put that to you. So it's not like I'm ever buying one ingredient for one purpose.

R They never, it's just rare. If it's going to be left over, I'm all is looking for ways that

I can put that to you. Or I know, at the end of the day, a lot of people if they have extra veggies that they that they're just not using and they are about to go to waste or even scraps, you know, from that that bit of the end of the tomato that you didn't end up using, keeping a stash of it in a freezer, and then when you get enough of it, creating a broth, and like you said, even then cooking rice in that or making a soup in that, and somehow just using all

of these things that they don't have to go to waste, absolutely, and I think in all that comes with time, Like the more you do it's like riding a bike. The more you do it, the better you get at it. And the more, like you said, you're going to be like, oh, I can do this and I can do that, you know,

like all of a sudden, these ideas come. Yeah, yeah, I mean in the beginning it's hard, but like as you you know, as you go you you have more ideas than how do you use stuff like how to make save your scraps and make broth and all of that kind and it's fun. It starts to get fun when you're my goodness, I know what I'm doing and

I'm being creative exactly. And when you think about it, like that's how like that idea of like getting back to the way we've always consumed food and been traditional, Like that's the way like our great great grandparents knew how to consume food, like they knew how to use their scraps, and they knew how to use ingredients and all of that, and it's just something we've lost in like our age of business, which and like the age of like not having like parents in the kitchen, which

are teaching their children, you know, all of that, Like we've lost those traditions of knowing how to use food and use it in multiple ways and how to you know, make broth out of scraps and all of those stuff. So I think, like it's a little bit harder for us, but it's definitely possible. It's especially since the age of the Internet has come about. You know, ten years when we started this, it was a lot harder to find information,

and now like it's so easy. Nobody has an excuse not to can literally google, like you said, and find out anything you want. Practice to say, I'm so proud of myself this week. I had a breakfast of yogurt that I had made in my instant potana I had made in the oven, and this like strawberry like preserved thing that I had made myself, and I was like, oh my god, everything in this bowl. I was the most proud I've ever been. You are pregnant nesting woman.

Next level. I have yet to make yogurt in my instant pot so maybe you can give me some tips on that, because I get so many questions. People are like have you made yogurt? Like no, great, I did the I did the hot the boil method first, so I would only have to buy the like organic milk that I got it all di not the like the

other special stuff. Because I know there's like two ways to do it, but I wish I The only thing I wish I had done differently is strained it in like a cheese bag because it was a little thinner and used to yogurt. So that was the only thing I would do differently, So definitely more like Greek yogurt. Yeah, and then you have that way. Yes. Speaking of having fun, though, I think we're about to the funnest portion my second proudest moment episode. Yeah, it's hill. It's probably the worst

year's ever done that. It's fun to be awkward. Yes, that's right. It's time for the best minute of your entire week. Maybe a baby was born and his name is William. Maybe you paid off your mortgage. Maybe your car died and you're happy to not have to pay that bill anymore. That bill, Bill, Bill Clinton, This is the bill of the week, all right, Kristen. Every week a listener will call in and give us their favorite bill, and as our guests, we'd like to invite you to

share your favorite bill lower case or upper case with us. So, okay, what do you have? Oh I can the only okay, the only thing I can think of is literally all of our bills are on auto responder, because if I didn't have it on auto responding, my bills would never get paid. And then hail all I can think of

auto pay, like all hail auto pay. I talk a lot about like how what areas can you delete in your life in order to simplify, And I feel like that's what I've deleted in my life, paying my billsh I mean, the bills that you can avoid but still pay. It's amazing, Yeah, exactly, easier than ever. Yeah exactly. I think we recently had to do that. We had to fill out some form and they were like, can you

lift out all the bills you pay? And I was like, I mean I'm checking this obviously, I check our bank account and whatnot, but still like, uh like like it's different than when you're like sitting there writing a check. You know. Anyway, here's not knowing what bills you six cheers.

Okay that sounds awful, but you know I problem. I'm a responsible bill pay yes, you are because of auto Yes, if you are listening and you have a bill of the week to share with us, please visit Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash bill and you can leave us a bill on our Google voicemail or speak pipe. And we want to hear what bills you have if you can remember them. Yes, don't don't call us if you can't remember your bill. That would be the only thing

that I would say. Yeah, it's all good, It's all good. Oh man, are we ready for the lightning round? We are as we as we love to call all it Really it has nothing to do with lightning other than the fact that it's a little bit shorter than the first. We have to hear that. Yeah, quick, quick, think on your feet. I know. So we are curious, Chris, and what are your top three go to weeknight recipes? It sounds like you rotate some meals. What are some good

ones that you found? Definitely beans, black beans are my favorite. Like I could eat black beans all the time. Um so, like whether that's paired with like rice or we make it with tacos black beans and it's always in the instant pot and you can flavor them. However, um, and it varies all the time. Um. Some type of rice dish that will either do stir fry or like a

fried rice. I just put up a recently a fried rice that uses like part rice, part cauliflower, part broccoli, um or like whatever is in season vegetable wise, stir frying that up some as well. Add meat sometimes eggs all I mean sometimes like if you haven't made by the way instant pot, if you haven't made um, soft boiled eggs. They're not boiled, but soft eggs in your

instant pot, like they're amazing. Keep like game changing, Like I feel like you need an instant pot just to make beans and eggs like it would just it's like a can change. Um. And then generally, like I'll roast

a whole chicken, and generally that's on Sunday night. I'll roast like a big thing of chicken, uh, you know, a big chicken um with some vegetables, and then I'll debone it and whatever the leftover meat is becomes lunch the next day, and then the bones go in the instant pot to make broth, and then we have soup another time that week. So generally some type of soup of some sort, and it's all based on like what's in season, which also lowers our grocery budget by the way,

like buying season. Yeah, definitely, thank you. It's making me hungry, yes, all right. And then second question, top three places that you have traveled too, because I see you're like a traveler and you're right about it on your blog and I love it. Yeah, travel Um, my husband actually travels for a living. Um. So that's why we travel a lot, is because we amassa a lot of hotel points in airline points, so we might So Iceland is like my top number one spot that we've been to, I know,

trendy and whatnot. Um. And it was because of Instagram that I found Iceland. I was like, I want to go there after seeing pictures. Um. So we actually went there in May of last year. We took our kids and we took my parents and then my husband and I obviously went um and and literally, like we've been to a lot of places in the world, and Iceland

was like number one. Like I feel like everybody should go there because it's kind of like untouched and there's only like a hundred and thousand people that live in the country. So most of the countries, you know, it can't be um. You know lived in so Um it's still very like untouched and just like beautiful and amazing. And we've stayed on a farm for a few days through an Airbnb and like saw baby sheet. I was

just like, oh my goodness. And the food talk about a food culture like I've never seen a food culture like Iceland, like the best food I've ever had. I would not have expected that. I would have thought, like whale, whale, they eat whale, I mean they do like that, like the tourist side of the menu. Um, but like a lot of lamb, Like lamb is a huge staple there, and fish and like greenhouses um, like galore because it's so cold there all the time. Anyway, really amazing food culture.

And let's see what else. Um. We just recently over Christmas went to Europe, so we did Switzerland, Germany and France. UM. And I would say Switzerland was definitely like one of the top places we've been to. I would love to go back to Switzerland. We were in Zurich and then spent some time the Alps. We are actually in the German Alps, just um, just next to Switzerland but absolutely amazing, Like the Swiss culture in the countryside was gorgeous. Let's see.

And then finally, oh, Alaska. We went to Alaska my husband I a couple of years ago, and um, it was like, not Anchorage, we want five hours outside on a prop propeller plan to the Aleutian Islands, which are like basically the islands before you get to Russia, like the closest I think city was like, yeah, five hours away, by my gosh, like we almost got attacked by bears. But it was cool. It was the craziest thing I think we've ever done in our entire life. My husband's

nineties six year old grandfather took all of us. Um, I know, talk about like life goals there. They are a hardy people in these cold climate areas. Yeah, absolutely crazy, Like people are like, oh, where's the one place you'd never want to return to it. I was like Alaska, but at the same time it was one of the most amazing experiences. I love it. That is awesome. Ye Iceland, the Alps or Switzerland and then Alaska. Wow, you have single handedly in our lightning around made me very hungry

and very motivated to travel. Yeah. Yeah, you know, it wasn't until just the past couple of years that we started traveling again because our kids are finally old enough to travel um and like go on an airplane so um. And we don't have anybody like watch your kids for an extended period of time, so if we go somewhere, we have to bring them. Um. Yeah. Yeah. So it's been great for them to to have those experiences. We started something where I'm a former teacher, so like I

feel like that's that's like stayed with me. So I was like, we should have them keep travel journals. So every location we go to, they keep a travel journal and they like write every single day and they're at the end of the day like what they remember from

that day. And then when we get home, we print off the pictures and they put them in their book and they draw a little picture each Do they love it or are they like, Mom, it's really funny to hear like the stuff that they remember, because the stuff that I think made that day like epic is the stuff that they don't even mention. And like in Iceland, we get stuck in the mud for like three hours somewhere and like that was like the highlight of their day.

I'm like, we did all this other amazing stuff. They're like, that was the highlight was getting stuck in the mud. So it's funny to hear from perspective of you know, um, yeah, that's crazy. Christen. It has been so fun to have you on. If people aren't already obsessed with Live Simply, where can they find you? And what do you have

coming up on the blog and podcast? Yeah, so you can find us that live Simply Adopt Me UM, and also you can find the podcast which has lives Simply the podcast, and I spend a lot of time, most of my time on Instagram these days, so um, I'm

live Simply mom over on Instagram. UM. And as well as we have some free crash courses on the blog, UM, we have a really large email community UM that gets like the crash courses and all of these little extras UM that are really um extra resources is to help you live out a real food and natural wellness lifestyle. So yeah, that's where people can connect with us. The blog, the podcast, UM, Instagram, and then of course email is always the best. So thanks for having me on, ladies,

It was fun awesome. Thanks for joining us. This has been so good to remember my bills going for it. God, we have helped you as Yeah, there's no shame in auto pay, Kristen, You're good. We hope you enjoyed that replay of Kristen's interview. It was great then and so even if you did listen to it the first time around, I hope you've got something new out of it. And it's always good to refine the minimalism in your kitchen m hm. And life seasons have changed too. I think

when we recorded that, I was in the camper. Now I'm in a home, So there's new things for me to now be thinking about because that I have more space, and so yeah, how do I curate things now? Yeah, and if you enjoyed this episode, um a few more that you might like, our episode seventy where we talk about the most frugal way to buy groceries. And then also episode ninety two, which is another one on the curated list. It's reducing food waste with debt, Kick and Mom.

So those seventy and ninety two are awesome episodes to also play. Interviews are always my favorites. Yeah, they are good and they're they're special. So thanks for listening. We want to thank you for your kind reviews on iTunes and Stitcher, like this one from apes zero four to zero eight nine. Humor and informative, this podcast has been serving me well and becoming more frugal. I'm such a spender, and while doing the debt payoff currently, these two have

been keeping me motivated while being very informative. I also love the zippy humor that make you feel like you are part of this squad you to have. We should get. We should definitely get mugs or something that's a squad, frugal squad. Yeah, yeah, that makes me feel cool. One is the year for um unnecessary merch? I think probably yes. I've been wanting friendship bracelet since we started to get those and sure not making them, so I don't know

we'll get there. In addition to figuring that out, we want to thank you our friends who share these episodes on social media. So when you share the latest episode and tag us on Facebook or Instagram, we add you

to our monthly drawing. For every five tags and reviews we get each month, we give away a copy of the Frugal Friends workbook we do and so keep leaving us those reviews on iTunes and Stitcher, and sending those screenshots to Frugal Friends podcast at gmail dot com, and don't forget to tag us on social See you next week. Frugal Friends is produced, edited and mixed by Eric syria Um. During our last recording of an episode not this one, did you pick up your phone and take a picture

of the computer screen? I did? I put it on Instagram? Uh? Did you get my permission? Did I sign a release of information? Yeah? In our in our business agreement that either one of us has signed. I I said, I can take um pictures if I'm in them, uh and post them anywhere. That's amazing. I take a picture of me, Jill. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, I am almost. I was like, oh my gosh, what's happening right now. I did it because I thought, oh, she won't she won't notice right

now because she's like looking at the article. Um, And then I was looking at you. Yeah, she's what keeps me grounded. I know. I'm so sorry for throwing you off, Um, but I thought I was. I thought it would be fun to share more behind the scenes like pictures with people. But that was like in my mind. I immediately went to oh, no, am I frozen? Is she's taking a picture because my face is frozen and I'm doing something

silly like if I'm frozen. Though, she would say, something is messing up our recording all of this while I was trying to say, but I'm so sorry to get it. No, you're good when you going yeah, when you are frozen or on repeat like your mike did that thing, I just like put both my hands up or one of my hands and like true when that, yeah, we have now signals that we're learning. When just your hammer goes up, then I know, like how I'm probably looking cute. I

should keep going, Yeah you are? You're looking fly today? Yes, popping collar and everything. Do you remember when we used to do that? Nope, never did that. Layered polos with popped collars was a bit of a style for a minute. It was also a style here, but like this is Florida and polos are thick enough, and so I'm like, y'all are dumb. Yeah, it was really you're covering your necks, there's no airflow on there. You're doubling up your material.

Then you actually are because you've got so many polos happening. Yeah, and I was like, where do you live? I don't know where that came from. Yeah, but I'm glad it's over. Yeah, don't worry that this will come back around, because apparently we've got a quick turnaround. Like styles of the nineties are back, so and I thought those would never come back.

That was like the ones that was the worst. Yeah, And I was like, oh, at least the nineties won't come back, and all these twenties some things are like that was so cute, and we're like that was our worst nightmare. It was, Uh, but you know I can't. I can get in with a little crop top every now and then I can get there. Probably shouldn't though, because we're in our thirties now, and oh, you're so right, but just like an inch, just it's just an inch.

That's like the Britney Spears reveal, you know, like right Britney Spears Christina Aguilera. That was like the like the one inch with the belt with like that white belt with the grammets on it. I wasn't I guess I want to remember that either. Jeez, I should quit well ahead, I'm not even ahead. I should quit quit while I'm behind