Eat Healthier & More Affordably with Cassy Joy Garcia

on eating Healthier, More Affordably. And I would say it makes it easier because she talks all about really attainable meal prep. I know we have several listeners who have like chronic illnesses making standing up for long periods of time really difficult, and so I think Cassie's approached to meal prepping makes that more attainable for any of our listeners who may not have all day Sunday to meal

prep for seven days. This is one of my favorite episodes, and that's why we're rerunning it because it also was one of your favorite episodes. We love talking about food and anytime we can hack it and slice and dice it in a way that makes it more affordable. We feel good about the nutrition we're getting into our bodies, it's not taking up a ton of time. And we just love interviewing people like Cassie who have all of the tips and tricks for us. So this is just

a great one. It's a jam, it's a keeper. Yes, I'm funny enough. Cassie was about like pregnant as pregnant as I am now whoa when we interviewed her two years ago. How fitting? Right, So before we get into the interview, today's episode is brought to you by Beef. It's what's for dinner today and tomorrow. That's right. Eating the food you have at home for two days straight.

Feeding at home two nights in a row sounds difficult for you, Or maybe it doesn't sound difficult, but you've looked at your transactions and you've noticed, huh, I haven't been doing that. Try the Three Day Spending Makeover. It's a free, three day challenge to help you find what you value spending on, learn strategies for saying no to the things you don't, and create a plan for guilt free spending that won't leave you broke. If this sounds

like it, will help you eat at home more. Then head to Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash Makeover to start your three day challenge today. Again, it's free, it's three days. You can access it online. Yeah, and you don't have to do it three days, or you could do it all in one day. Yeah. I'm not gonna tell you what to do about freedom, all right. So if you love eating, which is something that Jill and I both love to do, then we have so many

episodes for you, so many. A few really good ones that kind of also talk about meal prepping and planning specifically, We've got episode two sixty two meal Prep and Freezer meal Tips. Jill and I get real spicy in that one. We got a big heated debate on defrosting. Episode one forty nine is Frugal Meal Planning with Ashton Cope. We talk a lot about how you candy your own meal planning. So those are a few good ones to queue up

for after this, but without further ado. Cassie Joy Garcia is the New York Times best selling author of Cook What's Dinner Fix? And we couldn't say that when the episode came out because I don't think the book had come out, but now we can't say it. And she's the creative force behind the popular food blog Fed and Fit and just a joy of a person. Let's do it. Here's Cassie. Cassie, welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast. We're so excited to chill with you today. Thank you all

so much for having me. Interviews are our favorites, and talking about food is our favorites. So I mean eating food is our favorite favorite. But it is gonna be Yeah, this is the second best thing is to talk about food with friends. So and then here we are. So yeah, we already introduced you a little bit, but please tell us a little bit about Fed and Fit specifically, I would love to so Fed and Fit. I started it

this past summer we celebrated ten years. So ten years ago as a personal blog, and you know, as so many personal blogs in their beginning days, it was just all about me and my journey and what I was learning, and that just blossomed over time. Eventually it wasn't just

my mom and my dad reading it. And I subvidly remember the first time I had three people on the website in a day, and I thought someone I don't know who could have It could have been an aunt who knows been Anyways, it blossomed overtime and I had

readers ask great questions. I was sharing recipes as I had really uncovered a new stage of health and wellness in my life, started feeling better than ever by way of feeling myself better than ever before, I wanted to develop recipes that supported that and then share those and read I started asking great questions, and so I went back to become a nutrition holistic nutritionists so that I

could help support them in that. And then my career has really just blossomed into this really fun tango, if you will, of just trying to solve problems for the fed and fit readers. And also as my life has blossomed, you know, I got married in that time frame, I had two kiddos, soon to be a third in December, and it's just, you know what, getting dinner on the table used to be really not that big of a deal in my house has turned into a really big deal. And so it was a problem for me. And I

love to cook. I was like, why is this so difficult? Why is it so challenging night after night, day after day. And it turns out that was a common pain point for our readers, and so I wanted to solve that problem and that's where we are today. That's an amazing thing about blogging. I mean, you've been doing it for a long time. Ten years is a long time to

do anything, but especially as it relates to blogging. I was reading in the intro part of your book, how you know when you began you had to explain what a blog was to people. I'm like, yeah, that's like how og you are. But also the nice thing about that is being able to grow with your readers and vice versa, that as you enter into new life stages, there's new things that you're discovering, and how sometimes the problems change and the ways in which you find solutions change.

So I couldn't imagine there'd be so many people who can relate to you on a variety of levels, right what it was like to cook for one person, then two, then kids, and how does this all weave together? So really excited for your perspective on this. Oh, thank you, and I love your honesty and saying like even you love to cook and even with like a spouse and kids.

It just became like really difficult, and like for the rest of us who may not love cooking, like that's a little sigh of really and be like, oh, Okay, I don't need to like change this part of my personhood to like succeed with it. I just need to learn a few shortcuts. And I know a lot of our listeners are like especially interested in, Okay, how do

I make this work? Also being healthy, because sometimes in the paying off debt journey or trying to be frugal, we're told like, Okay, just eat beans and rice, eat the cheapest things. But like, there are a lot of people who who can't do that, who because of dietary restrictions, actually cannot do that. I had somebody the other day message me and be like or maybe it was in CLUBBFF or something, and they were like, I want to eat healthy. I don't know how to lower my grocery budget.

And I was like, well, maybe you, maybe you don't. Maybe you just need to like either lower something else, like another category, or just like learn different techniques for repurposing or whatever. So I'm super excited for everything that our listeners are going to get from you today. So, like, as someone who places a high value on healthy eating, like, how can we find that balance between eating healthy and

keeping the grocery budget manageable? That is such a great question and it's a bit of a passion project of mine is to try to crack that code in as many different areas in ways as possible, and also to acknowledge that you know you're not I just I just have to say, you're not doing it wrong. Right, if you're not buying grass fed beef and pastured chicken, you know, an organic milk and all those things, yes, that's ideal,

but there's nothing wrong with the others. Like I put them in the good, better, best category, and so do like it's still good, it's still dinner. You know, it's still food. And so if you find yourself feeling like, you know, you're not quite checking the box because you're not leaning into the most healthful or health forward options, it doesn't mean that you're doing anything wrong. I just wanted to say that, yes, yeah, in general, I really

believe that. And also I think that I just want to reduce as much pain points in the kitchen as possible. So if you are looking though to optimize and tweak, can go a little bit at a little bit as you go. I think it's good to think about groceries in terms of number one, chasing the sales wherever possible. So they still do put organic produce on sale, and

we think about supply and demand. And you walk into the grocery store and you know when something is in season, I mean, it's probably going to be more affordable to you. You're going to see a sale in the center aisle for Brussels sprouts. Let's just make something up, all right, Brussels sprouts are on sale and they're organic. Oh my gosh, and it says it has a little local sticker on it. And the reason why they're on sale is because the

local farmers near you they all all the crops. If you've ever gardened anything, it seems like everything's available all at once, and you're thinking, goodness, gracious, how am I going to eat all this oprah? Or at least I have that thought in my house. And so everything's available all at once, and so there's a lot of supply,

not nearly the same amount of demand. It doesn't spike with it, and so they mark the prices down, and so I say, stock up, chase those center aisle sales local to you is going to be also less expensive because the car, the price to get it to you was less right, they didn't have to ship it in for Argentina. So that's one thing is to try to shop as local and in season as possible. Another sale

you can usually chase is in the protein section. Whether you lean into animal proteins or veggie based proteins, you're typically going to have seasons of sales around there. So if grass fed beef, for example, is the same price as conventional beef one day, it happens. Every once in a while, it'll happen stock up and that's usually when I'm grabbing five to six pounds of ground beef at the grocery store and then I freeze all that I

know I don't need right away. Okay, So those are really great ways you can give yourself a leg up. Another quick tip, I hope I'm not. This is not a runaway train. I get really cautiate. Okay. Another quick tip that I have for you is to think about nutrient density. This is we're going to geek out, so

bear with me. Nutrient density of what you're investing in. So, for example, I would put if you're everyone is on a budget, whether they or everyone is working within a budget, right, and regardless of what your number is, I always like to when I look at what's on my list, prioritize between organic slash, you know, whatever the category isn't conventional, Which one can I get? Right? Can I get away

with conventional for this category? And which are the ones that I if I can, if I've got room in my budget, I can splurge on the higher quality one. Fats are going to be the most nutrient dense thing on your plate, and so I'm talking butter olive oil, gee,

avocado oil, coconut oil, those kinds of ingredients. It's one of those things because they're so nutrient dense and because they have are just going to go a really long way, it makes a lot of sense to invest in a higher quality for that category, all right, Versus let me think of an example on the other end. You know you have there's the clean fifteen? Is it the clean fifteen?

And dirtvy doesen't yet? It is? You know, like when we think about the clean fifteen, it means that that produced item isn't necessarily going to carry a huge toxic load. If you get conventional, So get conventional for that item. An orange comes to mind. You know, something that has a thick skin that you're probably not going to eat is a good example of something where you can splurge

or get conventional on another. My other favorite protein to talk about on splurging for a slightly higher quality because

of nutrient density is an egg. Now, I know, when you're standing in front of the eggs section at the grocery store and you're looking at your options between conventional eggs and pasture raised and cage free and all that, you think when you're looking at the price difference between those two eggs, you might think, oh, my gosh, the pastured eggs are three x the price of conventional eggs. And that's true, but it's still going to be the most affordable protein of all of the animal based proteins

out there. And so I would almost rather you spend the extra three dollars a dozen on the pasture raised eggs than even get the grass fed beef over conventional. Wow. I never thought of it like that. Yeah, well, I just had no idea. I just thought you either care about how they treat the chickens or you don't I hadn't put the nutrient component into it. Yeah, the nutrients available in a pastured egg. If you've I wish I could, I could go get an egg for you, but it'd

be quite a walk. But I love to show the vision of when you're looking at an egg. Yolk is such a good example. Now there are ways that they can buy an engineer feed for chickens, so like just to put that disclaimer're out there, but generally a pasture raised egg or chicken is going to produce an egg where if you crack the egg in your hand or you put it on a plate, the yolk is going to sit up right more like a golf ball almost.

It's going to have more integrity in those protein structures, and it's gonna be a deeper shade of orange or yellow, whereas the conventional egg is gonna be a little more flat, a little more pancake less proteins really holding everything together in a little bit more washed out in color. Wow wow. And it's the protein content that keeps that like yolk rounder. Yeah. So that means YEA all work together, the vitamins, the minerals, the proteins, the fats. Then it's such I'm such a

fan of a whole egg. I'm always going to lean in that direction, you know, to eat the whole thing because they're so nutrient dense. But that's just kind know, a different way to think about your shopping list, you know, whereas some of the I don't know, conventional items, the crackers and the cookies, the things that you're buying in the center of the grocery store that are a luxury product,

right for really being honest, it's not a necessary product. Oh, although it's going to be nice to get, you know, maybe organic crackers. That's great if you've got room in your budget for that, but it's not something that I would say, You're going to get a lot of nutrient bang for your buck, and so I'd rather you spend that on the fresh mainstays beautiful, great, And even still, I mean I'm still stuck on this egg thing. Even with that, eggs are still very inexpensive considering what you

get per egg. It just looks more expensive because of the eggs that it's sitting next to and what we've been conditioned to expect eggs to cost. But even still, you're getting a pretty good bang for your buck, even when you're getting the more expensive are more nutrient dense eggs amazing. When I say one more thing about eggs,

we're on it. Now, let's go. I'm not a huge fan of egg like eating eggs by themselves, but the other day I whipped up an egg with a little bit of milk and a little bit of shredded cheddar and put it in the waffle iron. And Keto people have been doing this, so it's not like I found something new. But that egg was so fluffy and so delicious, and I was like, I like eggs. If this is what eggs can be, I like it. So if you're looking for a way to incorporate more whole eggs in

your diet, try them in the waffle iron. Just all caution to the wind with you, Jen, I don't even care how you're supposed to use this kitchen appliance. We're gonna just throw some egg on it. I had made waffles and I was like, Okay, the waffle iron's already dirty, let me put my egg on there. It was life changing, So I'm here for it. That's all. That's all I

have to say about eggs. Now. There is so much more though that We could say, so we're gonna get so a hijack, but there's so many ways you can make them hard, boil them, poach um brum, there's more things and put it in stuff. Even as it is, I love it. I love it so much. It's one of the most versatile things. You're like the guy from um Forrest Gump. But also I don't want to move so quickly past all these other tips that you've given us.

And it really is this beautiful blend of how we can eat well and within whatever our budget is, like to make that manageable where we're not just feeling this pressure to go organic with every single thing or to become somebody that we're just not if our priorities aren't exactly there, but if we do want to care for our bodies, well, there are good things that we can be doing, Like what's in season. It doesn't matter what Pinterest told you looks good and you saved the image.

Go with what's in season first and chopping the produce and the meats first rather than all the other I like the term, yeah, the luxury items. These are the ways that will help our budget and our bodies alliteration, but also You've got a whole other concept here that I think is a tip in and of itself of how we can feed ourselves well on a budget. So you've got this whole thing called a dinner series. Can you describe for us what that is, how you go

about it. Yes, So, when we're looking at what we're spending on groceries, probably the biggest leak in our our entire budget system for groceries is going to be wasted food. Right at least that's the case. Maybe I'm maybe I'm

projecting this, but that's the case, not alone. And it's and it's all well intentioned, right, and there's it's not not not to shame anybody again, but you know, we do our best, but we recipe calls for a quarter of an onion, We chop up that quarter of the onion, We with good intention, place the rest of it in a container in the crisper veggie drawer, and then we forget about it until it's a sad, sad onion and we're throwing it away and it's like, what did you

actually spend on that onion? Just went per tablespoon just went way up. And so I think that there's a there's got to be a better way where we can number one. I'll be honest. Although the efficiency as it relates to my grocery budget was nice, it was not my primary goal. My primary goal to solving the dinner problem was how do I make this just easier on me? Because I was exhausted and I wanted to not want to not I wanted to order also a luxury. I want to order take out every night, is because I

was so exhausted. And so what I found is that if we weave ingredients from one meal together into the next, not only can we yes save because we're using up that thing, we're using up that ingredient, but also we're saving on energy because we only have to cook something once and then repurpose it into several different meals. And so this dinner series what you brought up, and this is how cook one center fix. This new book is structured.

It's sixty of these dinner series, so one hundred and twenty complete meals, and they're paired up so that let's say, for example, I just I was just making one in the kitchen earlier today, but I have three pounds of shredded chicken, so I walk you through how to cook chicken so that it's shredded afterwards. And again this is one of those things. Lean into the sails. Go to

the butcher counter first and see what they've got. And if grass fed beef is just beef is on sale, a pork shoulders on sale, the chicken, whatever it is, grab that thing and then flip to that chapter. My hope is this is how it's going to be used. And then flip to that chapter in the book and say, Okay, I've got a pork shoulder. What the heck do I do with it? And I walk you through. And so I take that pork shoulder, which is a lot of meat.

And most folks when they do get a pork shoulder or a pork but they think I'm going to be eating carnetas for the next seven days, because we just think about one dish and then we just eat the leftovers. But there's a lot of food boardom that comes into play, and then by day three you're over it and you want to throw it away anyways, and so that comes

into that food waste. So I walk you through how to make that pork shoulder, and then once it's cooked, we divide up the cooked and shredded pork shoulder into two totally different meals. So maybe the first one our carnetests that we serve up crisp it I was a garcia. I feel really confident about the Karneta's recipe book. Spent lots of three decades figuring that out, and then it served up with fresh corn. And then the second meal is this sticky honey garlic pork that I serve over

like a white rice. So a totally different dinner, totally different meal experience. But you're able to extend the use of that protein what you've invested in it in terms of time and money. I love it. I am geeking out on this one, honestly because I think this speaks to not only me but my husband. I don't know that I've heard that term before. Food boredom. I know it. I know it well. Though my husband will not do leftovers,

Love him to death. He has so many other skills and qualities that are fantastic money will not eat leftovers, which has forced me to be creative. But then also it's so lovely to run into someone like yourself, Cassie who's on the work already to say, all right, here we go, here's what we can do with the means, so that we don't end up throwing this out and someone doesn't get bored with the thing that you spend all this time wavering in the kitchen. For Yeah, he's

not the only one. Like I know other people that don't like don't eat leftovers, and so this is essentially kind of like a way to repurpose leftovers, but like intentionally, Yes, I have a dear friend coined it really well. Her name is Michelle Tam and she said it's you made Bestovers. I was like, Hi, you pithy genius. That's so good. Gosh, that is that's the she's the she no nonpalea. Yes, yes,

not that website. Yes, okay, that's so great. And like you said, it also saves energy as well, Like certainly it probably would be easy if we could be the type of people who just eat the same thing over and over again. Okay, that would be ideal, but you can still get that, Okay, cook wants a big, massive thing and then repurpose it in a couple of different ways. And so that's I think like the best of both worlds or we're not putting in a ton of time

and energy, but we are getting variety. Yes, that's my hope. Yeah, absolutely, I mean and I eat like even will eat leftovers. I think I have enough room in my life for like one day of leftovers. Beyond that, then yeah, I totally get it, the food boredom sets in. So this is definitely something that I will be incorporated because and it's I hate dishes too, and so like the meaty parts of it of the meal take like all of the dishes, and so this is like cutting out like

a day's worth of dishes too, which is my arch nemesis. So, speaking of time saving, what are some of your face favorant time saving tips in the kitchen, because that's essentially really what helps people stick to their meal plan because they can like plan incorporate this dinner series into their meal plan. But like, how are we going to stick to it? I love that question. So a couple of my favorite tips are, Oh, this one's a little wild.

I'm going to give you the wild one first. So when you get home from the grocery store, you know, when you already probably have an idea of what meals you want to make, in mind when you get home from the grocer store, it's top of mind. It's fresh, and in two days, when you're ready to make that chili that you're planning on making, you will have forgotten all the ingredients that go into it. It happens to me and I write recipes and I'm like, what the

what does this call for again? And so I have to get out the book or pull up the website and go through the list and get all the ingredients out and then make the recipe going through the list. When you get home from the grocery store and you have all of your radients already out, and it's top of mind of what goes with what is to store the marigerator organized by meal, get bonus points makes it even better and even easier. And I say, y'all, throw the can of beans that you're going to put into

the chili. Put that in the refrigerator with the rest of the ingredients so you're going to put into it. So it's all together, and it eliminates that time, the rummaging time to find all the things that you need. And it's going to make it so much more likely because it's when it's been a day. It's been a day, and you're like, Okay, it's five thirty and I gotta start on this chili. I can't let that. You know, that beef that I bought go bad, and I really

gonna start on it. And you're thinking, I find everything, I can't remember what all goes in this stuff. You know it's already, they're ready for you. So that's one of my favorite tips. Another tip I have is that you don't have to be a meal prepper. Sometimes when folks think meal prep, they think making seven different dishes right stacked in your refrigerator and you grab them and you go. You can also meel prep by just doing little things to get you ahead, like chopping garlic an onion.

So the next time and a recipe calls for maybe a quarter of an onion, for example, and you already have your cutting board out, finish chopping up the rest of that onion and put it in a little mason jar and seal it, and then keep that chopped onion and your refrigerator and use it in the next five days.

Because there's a really good chance that majority of the recipes you're going to cook call for garlic and or onion, and that way you can just take a spoonful of it, put it in your skillet, and you don't have to get out the cutting board. Another dish you're saving on and that's already done for you. Same thing for the garlic. Put in a little mason jar, pre mince your garlic versus again a luxury item. Are things that are already

prepped for you. So if you're looking to optimize your grocery list, that would be a really great saving is to do your own minced garlic. So things like that I think really can save a lot of time. Beautiful Cassie, it is. It is wild that first tip there put the can into the fridge, just unbridled, unashamed. They are too much urgill today. But it strikes me as something similar to your boxed meals? Is that the right term

for it? Where you get the shipment of all of the ingredients, you cook it yourself, and there's something fun to that too, And I think it seems easier because you've got all of the ingredients right there. You just pull out the bag and they're still chopping involved, but you've got all of the portions for it, so it's

almost like doing that yourself. Yea, what if you got little clear containers like four of them to put in your fridge and that way you just pull out one of your containers and it has all of the ingredients in it. I want that for you. I really want that for you. Yes, I want that for you. Don't spend a ton money on the clear plastic. Yeah that might. Yeah, do the thing first and then make sure it'll work

for you. But yes, that is a beautiful eggs on the waffle maker and put your canned goods in the fridge. You heard it here first, folks. Anyways, No, that is awesome. Like I always when I'm doing a recipe, I always like think about the messan plats or something like everything out at the same time. But this is just taking that one step further and getting everything out ahead of time. Yes, so, and it makes it I think that that's also a motivating thing too, when you know you've got this and

it's all said, it's kind of fun. Yeah, we like fun. We do anything to make things more fun, and a clear plastic container can just like elevate that. It's like, oh, I have my little meal kit, but I didn't pay for it. I made it, Yes, I love it. And then your tips on the garlic and onion, Yes, I have done that before. I mean I love garlic and onions, so usually when I chop it up, I just use

it all all at once. But when I don't, I put it away and it's like a little gift for myself later when I'm making something else, it's like, oh, onion, Oh it's already chopped. I'm gonna get it out of the fridge and use it. Oh it's so beautiful when it works out, Oh my gosh. And our friend Gina, she doesn't even chop those things anymore. She just puts it through the food processor and just like you know, blend it all up and or not blend it, but

like food process it. Throw it in that glass container and you're done. Brilliant. Oh God, Speaking of tips, Cassie, I mean, we've already got our money's worth out of you today. Really, I mean we still have more time, So here we go. You have a whole section on freezing food, which is amazing. I think a lot of us don't really know how to like optimize our freezers. But what do you feel is the most important thing that people should know or take away about freezing food.

Oh gosh, lean on your freezer if you have the space. And if you have the space, but you're like, I don't know, I've got six two thirds eaten ice cream cartons that are taking up the space. You know, maybe optimize the space a little bit so you have it. Because the freezer can be so powerful, such a powerful tool in saving time, money and energy in the kitchen, and so gosh, some of my favorite things to do.

Number one is to yes, when you're shopping in season and you get those Brussels sprouts on sale or the grassbed beef is on sale, you have a place to put it and to stay organized if you can, right, So, have a section for protein, section for produce, things like that, and then freeze and wash your produce so that's ready to go as well. Another tip I have for you is if you're going to freeze things like that, I say, freeze them in containers that are actually what you need

for a meal. So instead of washing and chopping all of your Brussels sprouts and putting them in a galan sized ziploc bag, you probably don't need five pounds of Brussels sprouts at a time, and that's going to de incentivize you to use it, because what are you going to do with that big chunk of frozen brussels? And so try to freeze them in containers that you know, I can just pop this out, put it on a sheet pan and it can be part of supper tonight, right,

So something very very simple. And then my favorite tip for the freezer is to freeze your meals, your whole meals when you can. So if you are somebody who does not like leftovers, but you know that what you've just made is more than you need for tonight's dinner, then preemptively go ahead and before you just leave it out on the counter and serve it up for everybody, cut it in half and store that away in the freezer.

Label it, use it. I recommend using frozen foods within five months, use it up within five months, and then for reheating, some of the best foods that do well reheating wise are going to be soups, stews, casseroles, things that you can click in the crock pot, anything where the ingredients kind of become one with one another, like a souper stew. Those are very freezer friendly. Things that are not very freezer friendly are going to be things. When you think of like a grilled chicken breast with

a grilled peach salsa. Right, that's a very fresh, separate ingredient that's delicious because they're all separate. So things that are one chili is a great freezer meal, really delicious casserole. So try to think about what you're making in your kitchen. If you're making an enchil out a casserole like I just made today, I'm going to double the effort to make it because doubling what I'm making is not that

much more time and energy on my part. Like we talked about, the dishes are already dirty, and then I'm going to put this in the freezer. And then for reheating all of that food, a huge section I have in the book, although I'll just tell all the secrets now, is just to reheat the way that you cooked it the first time for optimal results. Okay, So for example,

sweet potato fries. If you made sweet potato fries and you had too many of them and you wanted to they know less in our house, it was probably a terrible a gable. But if you have too many of them and you want to freeze them for later. Then you would reheat them by putting them on a sheep hand in the oven, which is where you cooked them

the first time. Right, a chili or a soup, Let it thaw enough the container so you can pop it into a pot, put a lid on it, and let it come to temperature on the stove a castrole, cook it in the oven. And so that's a question I get really commonly is And of course a microwave is always there for you in a pinch, it's going to be the fastest, but for the best texture, try to reheat where you cook something the first time. Beautiful, you are just a powerhouse at pitch. Just back to back

right now on this. I am because I told you I love interviews. I love food. I love talking about food, eating food. I really don't like making food. But this is inspiring. Names that tip about not freezing all of your stuff together. That took me many years to realize that if I just throw it all into a bag because it's easy in the moment, I hardly ever utilize it. Or I thought everything out and then I don't use everything,

and then I just throw it out. Beause I feel weird about like refreezing it again, so having it in portions is golden. And then speaking of giving gifts to yourself, when you're able to put like half of your meal away later, like yeah, you might not want back to back the same meal, but you know you're going to have that meal again, and so now you've just like given yourself food for the days when you are just super busy and exhausted. Or sometimes I've used that for

like giving meals to people. You know, somebody's always having a baby, so dropping off food it's a nice little gesture. Plus you don't have to do all the work either. It's just like this is already my freezer. My husband's not going to eat it. I actually think that's the best kind of gift is someone who's now had two kiddos, is when someone brings you an already frozen castrole it means eat this when you want versus you know it's hot, do you want it now? It's hot now? And it's

always just like always yes. So when you have your thirteenth lasagna, you can freeze it and have it in five months when you've recovered from all the lasagnas. But give it to people in a container you don't want back. I don't even have kids, and I know that that's the nice thing to do. Yes, I am so glad your freezing section in your book is so robust, because I love the freezer because sometimes it's hard to stick

to the meal plan. And if I miss a meal, then if the stuff is already frozen, if I was using like frozen stuff in the meal plan, then that's very easy. I know that's not going to go bad. I can just use it next week or the week after.

And I found that for me freezing separate ingredients, I'm much more likely to use that than I am if a whole meal is frozen, like if it's a if I do like a curry or something like an individual portion for like a lunch, and I'm like, oh, I'll just I can bring this for lunch one day that I don't have leftovers, There's zero percent chance I will eat it. And that is just like me. Other people do not have that problem. That is a me thing.

But if it's a you know, two pounds of carnetas that are in the freezer, like, then I can do that for a completely separate dinner with fresh produce, and like, I am obsessed with my freezer. I buy most of my produce frozen now, and like, even if you get it organic, the frozen is cheaper, so you can buy like more, you know, organic produce, it's frozen. I just

love the freezer. I love it. There talk about nutrient density. Actually, that's a myth I would love to bust is that frozen foods are inferior to fresh produce, and that's just not the case. The reason why they are they are harvested and frozen at peak harvest and freshness. Like, you're actually probably getting more nutrients from your frozen produce than you would be from the produce section. I love hearing that. And you throw it in the oven and you roast it,

it tastes the same. I've even I've had listeners reach out to me on Instagram and be like, yeah, I roasted that frozen broccoli and you were right, it tastes the same. It's so good to hear you were right. Were they yelling at you like you're yelling it now? Yeah I imagine that. I mean I only read it, but I imagine, Yeah, that's how they were saying it. I've not had success with frozen Brussels sprouts. They always taste a little bit more mushy to me. I'm just

gonna be honest. Other frozen veggies, absolutely, but Brussels sprouts, I've not had luck. Love it if someone had some tips from me on that one. But try your hand, try your end. Very many veggies. Speaking of things that we love and are obsessed with, let speaks to me besides frozen veggies. The bill of the week. 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've paid off your mortgage, maybe your car died and you're happy to not have to pay that bill anymore. That's bills, Buffalo bills, Bill Clinton. This is the bill of the week. Nothing speaks to me like frozen veggies. But Cassie, But Cassie, the second best thing. I'm sorry, this is the best thing. Frozen vegetables are. The second best thing. Is the bill of the week. And so we invite our listeners or our guests to share their bills with us every week, and we would love to

hear yours. I would love to share it. So I was racking my brain on trying to share with pick which one I want to share with y'all, and I'll keep it food related. I wanted to share one with our girls. Maybe I don't know if there's time, but the food related one, my husband is his name is Austin, and he's an incredibly budget conscious human and I'm very grateful for that. However, he will eat Chipotle, not sponsor

until like there's zero food boardom there. The man will eat it all the time, and he's convinced that it is an like a very affordable option. And because I've been cooking and I've been on a mission, my mother raised me to be like, home cooked meals will always beat vegetarily anything you're going to find out. And I've been trying to share this with him, and we recently went through a tracking experience or experiment because I've been

cooking from cook ones dinner fixed so much lately. When it comes to writing a book, I cook from it, or essentially, I develop these recipes, make them four to five times, and then send it off to the publisher and then about nine months to a year ago was by, and then I get to start cooking from it. Again to be able to remember to talk about it and share some of my favorite recipes. And we've been doing

that NonStop. But I've been able to show him line by line because we were we were going through quarantine and everything. We were just eating out a lot more because we were home a lot more and exhausted a lot more, and being able to show him how much we're saving by cooking these meals. Even though I'm buying groceries three times a week in some cases, it's still a significant savings for our family. And so that's been

really cool. I mean, it's nice to feel right in the case of like a ten year relationship when you're chatting with somebody, but it was just so validating to just show that you really can serve because nothing against We're still going to eat it at least once or twice this week, but you know, just to show that there's so much power available if you've got the time and energy to cook from home. Yeah, and that is

the thing. Time is valuable, and sometimes we do want convenience over spending the time that it would take to make the knockoff of that item or cooking something different.

But it's really useful to hear your feedback that you actually were able to get so involved in the line by line items of a sipe to even know, because I think sometimes we're not fully aware, like we know how much we bought the chicken four but then we bought a bag of onions and we used a quarter of one onion, and we just don't typically get into the weeds of how much did this meal actually cost me. I think most of us can realize I'm able to spend less money cooking at a home, but we don't

always know what is the price per serving here. That's awesome and then also a little competition between you and your husband, so that's always fun. Yeah, is there like a knockoff to put light in the book? Of course there is absolutely yes. Gosh yes, the ground beef for readA bowls are in there, which is funny because I get chicken Chipotle, but it's a ground beef for reata bowl is in there. And we did it was because of this exercise, y'all that we I got with the

team and we did the math. We figured out it's four dollars or serving is the average dollar cost of a meal from cook One's Dinner Fix and then to just lean in a little further. That's going to fluctuate a little little bit. I really wanted to give people some sort of a compass. And so you know when you look on Yelp they have dollars signs for restaurants, it's like when a one dollar sign or a three dollars sign restaurant. I wanted to give people a little

bit of a guide. And so every single Dinner series also has that on all of them. And so it'll show you if it's a one dollar signed Dinner series, one four dollars one in the entire book, and it's it's a seafood one. So just you know, you can cattackle it. What if you were ready for a special occasion. But most of them are one and two dollars signs, and so I just just to give people a little idea, what where is this going to land? Me? Oh? Man,

I love it. You are just speaking all the way into our hearts, souls and minds today and waning like if you want to try one of the three dollars signs, like you just pair it with a one dollar sign and you don't have to feel like guilty about trying the three dollars sign or the four dollars sign one yep, like treat yourself, treat yourself and then balance it with a one dollar sign. Yes, Oh that's love dying. What a good bill, Cassie, thanks so much for sharing that.

If anyone listening has a bill that you all want to share, whether it relates to a competition you had with your partner, a realization you had a bill you paid off Bill. I don't know anything about Bill. You know, we're vague about someone named Bill that you're in a feud with and you'd love to prove wrong. But kindly visit Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash Bill. We'll listen to it. Yes, and now it's time for art. We really let you warm up before we show you our

true colors. Cassie, I know so excited. So this is the part of the show where we just get a little vulnerable with what we're doing with our food, and so we are all going to share. We're all going to share our latest like leftover repurposing or best over repurposing. It could be most recent or just like most proud of So Cassie, as our guest of honor, please go first. I would love to I'm gonna I'm gonna lean in to well, I'm cheating. I have a book of idea

as an examples, the best one. But we like to embarrass ourselves with how like mediocre hours are. Okay, actually you go knowledge, I'm cheating. Okay. Yeah. So one of my favorite things to do and it makes me feel very clever in the kitchen is I will take if

you've ever cooked a brisket, a brisket before. It's a big cut of beef, and depending on where you are in the country, they might be there might be a little tree he talking to your butcher about explaining what a brisket is in Texas, so it's a very straightforward anyway. So we take a brisket, cook it up for meal number one, make it really delicious and beautiful, serve it

with some sides like a polenta and a slaw. Yum, great meal, and then the rest of the brisket if you don't just want to have like barbecue style leftovers, again, thinly slice it pam syrit until it's a little bit crispy, and then make a sticky kind of Asian dark sauce. I do this Mongolian beef style brisket with this already cooked brisket. It's crisped, and I serve it over fluffy

white rice and it is. My husband will see me serve the barbecue style brisket on one night and he's like, does this mean we get Mongolian beef later this week? Oh gosh, are you looking to adopt? I know there's a third child on the way, but what's one more adult child? Take it? Oh, I'm practically drooling. I think I am like a little bit. That sounds so good. It sounds so unattainable for me. I'm not gonna lie moncoli and beef balls. I just don't know, but it

sounds so lovely. You can do it, Joe, I believe it. I'll give you the recipe. I'll send it to you and I'll walk you through it. We have the book. You've got the book, Yes that I want to try that, but I like hand holding too. Call me you just let me know. I just don't know how to do it. Maybe you should send me some. I mean it, let me know, all right, Jen, what you got for us? So I did this? I mean full disclosure. I write the outline so like I knew what the question was,

and so I did this. You were already proud of yourself. So you're like, how can I weave this into the podcast? Yeah, brag. So Cassie, you may be cheating a little, but I'm outright like cheating this. No. But so I use cook Smarts as like my meal planning app because like, I have zero mental energy for this in my current season. And they had a something like this. So the first day was like this Asian pork sandwich with this like

hoisten mayo and pickles, and so we had that. And so I had a big pork loin and I cut it in half and I used half for the sandwich and then the other half I cut up into little chunks and made like a pork fried rice. And I was like, this is a I mean, this slab of meat was like very affordable because I bought it so big and I used it in like two places and used it all up brilliant and I loved it, and Cassie,

as I love a job, Jen, thank you. I didn't come up with it, but like I was so proud that I executed it, because that deserves just as much praise as like planning it and in attending to agree. Yeah, Eric makes fun of me, because that's my husband. He's allowed to make fun of me. It's all right. I have like this one go too. That's the thing. I'll do something once and I'll be so proud that, like, look at how creative I was then, and then that's just that's what I do. That's how I repurpose things.

My classic, I'm just gonna say this because it's funny and you've probably heard me describe it before. But then I do have another one for you. Classic for me is getting a roadisserie chicken. Eating the road dissera chicken. I don't even make it, mind you. I just like went to the store and kind of rotisserie chicken that's like already heated up and ready to go. And then I pulled apart the leftover chicken and I make chicken salad and we have chicken salad sandwiches the next day. Oh.

Eric gives me such a hard time for that. Whenever we were wondering what should we do for dinner, He's like, maybe we should go get a Rodstrie chicken and then tomorrow big chicken salad with the left over but Eric, that's such a good idea chicken cold so good. And you know what, I stopped buying the cooked chickens because I know it's just gonna become chicken salad, so I will reheat the portion I'm gonna eat tonight, and the

cold one is cheaper. Yeah. But I don't even know if that counts because I didn't even make the roat dissery chicken. All I do is like pull it apart off the bone, and I think I'm like little House on the Prairie with that. I think, what do you think, Cat, I think it counts. I'm sorry, I would say it totally counts, y'all. I was gonna do a shred of chicken yesterday and I bought rotisserie chickens for it instead of cooking it from scratched, and I still feel like

I made dinner. Yeah. I mean, it's not that it's like five bucks for a rotisserie chicken. I don't know where they're getting the chickens from. I don't know how it's so inexpensive. I don't really ask a question chicken anyhow. Something I also did recently was just a whole pan a sheet pan full of just tons of veggies that I roasted, and I use it as a side dish one day. Then I used it for omelets, because omelets don't just have to be for breakfast. They can be

for dinner. Use the roast of veggies in an omelet, and then get this third thing, veggie rap the next day. Oh yeah, I just got real into crusts in these veggies. I have this waffle iron I made like a balsamic glaze. Oh there you go, chen, if I want to have real wilds, and everything's going on the waffle iron from now on. So I was so proud of my shelf that week. Like side dish, omelet, veggie rap has been hardly knew anything different. He's like, this is a totally

turned meal. I'm like, yeah, he didn't know anything. But also he's like, I'd rather have French fries and mac and cheese. And I'm like, well, you're welcome. You're not dead yet that I'm feeding you veggies. That's so so kind of you to do that, Jill, to preserve his life with vegetables. I tell him that often. I'm like, I don't know what would happen to you without me feeding you veggies. It's not manipulative at all. No, he

loves it. He's fine. Cassie, thank you so much for hanging out with us and sharing all of these tips because they are all like great money savers. But I also want to emphasize, like you are a nutritionist, so like your recipes are also healthy, so like I mean, I think everyone should check you out. Where can peop will get more from you? Oh, thank you? Well cook One's dinner fix. It's available really everywhere books are sold.

And then I live on the World Wide Web. I should stop saying that I think that funny though I live on the Internet. I thank you. I live on the is my upgrade. I live on the internet over at fed and fit dot com is our website. There's nearing twelve hundred free recipes for y'all there. And then I'm most active on fed and fit. Instagram is the account handle. I'm doing lots of demos right now of the dinner series concept, a lot of them. And so you want to click through and just visually get an

idea of what this looks like. That should be helpful, awesomely, and you do have such beautiful images to coincide your food, which is another amazing motivate or like, oh yes, I want my table to look like that. Yeah, I want to eat those things. You are a picture shale. So this is nice. This is nice. Well, thank you, thank you for coming to hang out with us. And I am very excited to make some of these one and two and four star star, five star, two dollars sign

Dinner series. Thank y'all so much for having me. Thanks Cassie. Oh wait, yeah, I am still here for that repurposing of leftovers, making it new again, eaten up what you've got in the fridge. I can say very confidently that I have gotten even better. She has repurposing leftovers since this episode came out, and I am so thrilled. It's things like this putting into practice, hearing how other people do it, feeding literally metaphorically, I don't know, pun intended

off of the community, gaining ideas from one another. I mean, it's so great. Yeah, and then I feel so great about having zero food waste. And I still take her tip about the eggs being a more affordable source of protein, even with the rising cost of eggs, if you still compare it to other meats, eggs are a more affordable way to get protein, especially if you're combining it with

some egg whites. It just yes, I still will think about that when I'm meal planning and I'm trying to focus on protein and take Oh there's so many different ways to eat eggs too. Yeah, love it. Thank you everyone for listening. We hope that you really enjoyed this replay and are gaining your own motivation and tips that you need on this journey. We also love and want to thank you all for your kind reviews. We especially

like this one. We're going to shout out pink a lover thirteen happen to give us five stars said love frugal friends Jen and Jill are such a dynamic and fun duo that make learning about frugality, money, and living life a lot more fun. I have learned so much from them and this is one of the only podcasts I listened to weekly and recommend to anyone looking for this type of content. Pink Lover for thirteen, thank you.

I feel that. I mean, if I didn't already have a screen name, pink Lover thirteen might be in back. Maybe pink Lover fourteen, yes, teal lover maybe. Well, everyone again, thank you for your listenership. If you did enjoy this show, or you have been enjoying this podcast for a minute, please take a minute to leave a rating and review.

It really does help potential new listeners know what the show is about, be able to identify if it's going to be right for them, and so having people who have listened for a while who have a good sense of the show is the most helpful, rather than the people who have listened for two seconds and think that they can leave a review about our voices, about our voices, It's just like those aren't helpful constructive reviews, So please help balance it out with a helpful and thankfully we

don't get a lot of them. Most of them are very very great. Thank so, thank you for your kind reviews, and we will see you read them next time, say next time. Frugal Friends is produced by Eric Sirianni. All Right, Jen, what's in your fridge? What do you have that you are either going to just eat leftover or repurpose? So last night you asked me when I was making for dinner, and I made a warm kale salad yea, And can I tell you I feel like kale is getting dirtier

because I will. I'll massage my kale and I'll rinse it and i'll spin it in spinner, and I feel like it's still got dirt. I feel like I need to wash it twice now. Man, Like, I don't know what's happening in the kale industry. It's really possible that quality standards are decreasing. Yeah, probably connected to a labor shortage, so definitely. My My recommendation to anybody eating kale right now is wash your leaves and then massage it and then rinse it again and spin it. Just do a

double wash. Yeah, so you have more of that leftover and you're gonna I'm gonna eat it cold. My plan was to bring it to your house and eat it today, but again, alas, I forgot my lunch. Oh yeah, it's pregnancy brain. Maybe I'll feed you some eggs. Maybe it'd be great, how about you. I just have a lot of laughedovers. I'm not going to try and repurpose them. I'm just going to reheat them perfect yep. Yep. Got to clean it out, make room for more, yep.