Episode four seventy nine, Meal Planning to save money and reduce food waste with Just Dang.
Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast, where you'll learn to save money, embrace simplicity, and liver your life. Here your hosts Jen and Jill.
Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast. My name is Jen, my name is Jill, and today we are talking about food waste how to reduce it because we believe it is the biggest waste when it comes to your money. We can save dollars by shopping sales, but we waste tens of dollars through throwing away food. And so this is going to be a big focus for us this year. And it's just like not great for the environment either, So that's where we're focusing today.
Yeah, pairing these two things together is so important, not just meal planning, but also how can we meal plan so that we're not throwing away as much food? And just as the perfect person, can you answer these questions?
But first, this episode is brought to you by fourteen Days. If you, like me, are thinking about food, I mean we just recently last year said we spend about twenty thousand minutes a year just planning food. But what if we could have that food planned for us for two weeks?
You love that you can.
Because cook Smart's the meal planning service started by justaying our guest today is offering fourteen days free and if you pay for a subscription you get twenty percent off. And that's at Frugal friendspodcast dot com, slash cook Smarts or if you're short on time, Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash cs. Either one will get it for you.
But we I know after this interview you are going to want to check it out because so much thought and intention goes into the meal plans that Jess and her team create, and you are definitely going to want to see what that intention is for fourteen days and that's that's eight meals essentially because they do four meals a week. And so get it Frugal Friends podcast dot com,
slash Cooksmarts. That's with an S at the end, and give yourself, you know, a couple hundred minutes back over the next few weeks.
Yeah, you're we're all gonna need it. I mean, once the holidays are over. It's like we're coming out of a coma. Yeah, our brains have to work again, but they're not working.
And we have these great plans for January, and by January twenty fourth, they are kinda in the pooper sometimes, So let's revitalize. Let this episode kind of be a rejuvenation for your motivation. Last year we focused a lot on simple meal planning, low ingredient efficient meal planning in
an effort to reduce food waste beau. So leading up to this, if you want to check out those episodes, we've got episode four fifty eight the Key to Simple and budget friendly Meal Plans with Mandy Klintz and episode four sixteen Simplified Meal Planning, where we talk about low ingredient meal plans. So you can search those numbers on our Frugal friendspodcast dot com website or search the title plus Frugal Friends in your podcast player to find those episodes.
So again, Just Sang is the founder of cook Smart's this online meal planning service that we've been talking about that has been around since two those thirteen. They make some incredible recipes. They're just coming out with an app for the phone, so lots of cool new stuff happening, but they've also been around for a while doing it. So she's able to now share with us from her expert experience. Let's get into it.
Jess, Welcome back to Frugal Friends podcast. It's always so lovely having you here and talking about food.
I'm so glad to be back, and this is just the perfect time to be talking about food and saving money on food because food is really expensive right now.
You are our dynamite guest. We often don't invite people back to the show except for when they've got some really great, helpful, tangible tips to share. We talk about you in our friend letter as well, so all the time it only makes sense. But here we are talking about not just meal planning but also food waste. This seems like a really good place to focus on in twenty twenty five. But I do want to hear from
you before we get to all of that. What you see are some of the biggest mistakes that people make when it comes to meal planning.
Oh gosh, Well, clearly the biggest mistake is if you it's just not meal planning, like not doing it and just going just like some people can improv but I think it really involves. It takes a lot of experience. So if you're not someone that can just come up
with meals. You know, it's you really do need a meal plan and go to the grocery store with a list, because that's the biggest mistake is walking into a grocery store without a list, like knowing what you need to buy, because then you're just going you know, you're buying things you don't know what you're going to be doing with and that is what I think leads to the biggest amount of food waste. So I think and also just over complicating it. It doesn't have to be something that's
super complex. It's got to be something that's simple that you can do every single week. And so at the end of the day, it's like you just think about, like, what are the things that you will do every single week? Make it simple and make sure you have a grocery list and make sure you have a process in place.
What would indicate a complicated meal plan to you? Like when if you were to see it, be like that's too complicated, that's not gonna work.
Yeah.
Well, I think one of the mistakes people make, or maybe the like misconceptions, is that meal planning means that you're cooking every single night, which is definitely not the case, right, Like I think to me, meal planning is putting together like what you plan on eating during the week, and that can be a combination of leftovers as well as takeout or even things that are like you know, frozen frozen foods that like already in the freezer, that are
already prepared. So it's really not about feeling like you have to cook every single day. So if I saw a meal plan where someone was like, I'm going to cook every single day and it's like all in every day, it's going to be a new recipe like that, to me would be like an over over complicated meal plan. I think a lot of people forget to build in like there's leftovers nights or if you take you know, you made it big pot of chicken, silk cooker chicken one night, that can be you know, one meal, but
the next night it can be chicken tacos. Right. So there's a lot of efficiencies that can be built into place to make your not only your meal planning less complex, but also clearly the execution of your meal plan less complex.
I appreciate it taking some of that pressure off because I think that's been a part of my journey as I've kind of gotten better at meal planning and cooking at home, has been these times where I think it's got to look really beautiful, and every day needs to be new flavors and and the healthiests and the healthiest, and even for myself, I've thought I need to keep it exciting and engaging for me, which is true in part, but it then led to I'm making new meals every
single day and using unusual ingredients, and it just started to get to be too much. Sure then, right, I hate meal planning because I then equated it too I've got to constantly be doing new and fresh and exciting and innovative and.
Not at all. And I think like everyone has meals that they love, right, and those if you want to make the meals you love like every single week, that's great. Then you just fill in a little bit and that helps it. If you know this is like, you know, Monday, I'm cooking a meal, it's one of my top fives.
Then you're gonna want to cook it and actually execute on the plan that you created, right, And then you fill in with like one or two new meals a week, and that to me is like plenty it's like to have to sort because when every time you're starting a new recipe like you are, you really do have to refer to the recipe itself to know how to make the meals. So it's just going to take longer. So I think a lot of times I talk about these
back pocket meals. Everyone should have anywhere from like a dozen to you know, two dozen back pocket meals that they could make, like you know, in their sleep, and you don't need to refer to a recipe. You can wing it a little bit because you know, maybe you're out of chicken thighs, you can stub in something else.
But those are the recipes that I think, you know, you make two or three every week, and then the rest you kind of fill in with something new that's going to take you a little bit longer, and you save those either for the beginning of the week where you have more energy, or like the weekends when there's more time.
I always say, Sunday Gen, who made the meal plan, is not the same as Wednesday Gen, who then has to execute it. So Sunday Gen has to be very cognizant of the person Wednesday Gen and Thursday and Friday ET cetera.
Gen is and that happens to me too. And I'm a professional meal planner, like I do you know, I make these meal plans, and I'm always constantly trying to like be in the kitchen developing new recipes. And I often don't like the Thursday Friday, Like I don't always
stick to the meal plan. I think one of the things when you're talking about food waste, when you're sort of ordering your meal plan, I always try to order for the things that are going to spoil first, right, so like make those as soon as you know, the days after your grocery shop. So, like there's just things that are more perishable, like leafy greens, those types of things, Like if I know those are on the menu, I try to make those, you know, early in the early
in the weeks, they don't spoil. If I saved them for the end, maybe you don't have the energy and you're just or like someone invites you out to dinner or something. So those things, like the things that are more that are less perishable, like carrots, potatoes, cabbage, those are the kinds of vegetables that you can kind of
save to the end of the week. And so even if you don't end up making that like Thursday Friday meal, those things are going to last for another week or two and you can always kind of push those meals to the next week and you're not dealing with like, you know, spoiled spoiled vegetables that you have to throw away.
I love that you think about that and you consider that, and because your meal plans, they prioritize these ingredient efficiencies. And I would love to hear more of that. That sounds like one of them, what you just said, but like using the thiefy greens up front, But yeah, tell us about these ingredient efficiencies and like how you use them in meal planning.
Yeah, so a lot of it is like th meth proteins, right, you know, those are often the you know, the main part of the meal. And so if you're spending time cooking proteins, whether it's fish or beans or land roaming proteins like chicken, I always like to think about, like how do we double up on those so that we can have them either for like lunch leftovers, or it can be creatively, you know, repurposed into a different whole,
different meal. And so we have these things called dependencies within our meal plant service, where you know, one day you might make a big pot of beans and it's like the filler for taco and then you have them ready for stew the next day. It's very similar. We made, like recently, like a big pot of slow cooked pork, and slow cooke pork was you know, it's great for sandwiches one day, and then we used it later on in the week as the protein for a salad, even
if you don't repurpose it for another night's dinner. It's great to have these proteins. It's ready to go for lunches. I don't know I have I have three young kids. I'm constantly thinking about like what am I going to pack them for lunch? And so today is one of those things where like we'd made a big batch of tofu earlier, you know, over the weekend, and so I was like, okay, great, I have tofu and I have some lefto of a rice. So that was their their
lunch today. So just it doesn't really proteins is what's great about proteins is it doesn't really take much extra work, especially if you're like slow cooking it or post or roasting in the oven. Maybe a little bit more chopping, but you know, whether you're slow cooking four servings of meat protein or tofu or beans versus eight, it's it's going to take you pretty much the same amount of time.
So that's a really great way to you know, save time, not only from the cooking perspective, but like also just having one less thing to think about, you know, later on. And it's also that it's a way to like take advantage of sales. I think proteins are one of the things I would say, like, you know, do shop the sales for proteins if there's is there there's a good deal on a protein that you use often in your planning and you're cooking, Like that is one thing that
you should take advantage of sales. There's a lot of sales I would say like steer away from because it's kind of like, oh, you know, like I should buy this because it's on sale, But if you are not going to use it, then that's not going to save you money in the long run and also probably cause more food waste.
How about leftovers, Like in addition to maybe the proteins that you're like cook twice or cook once used twice sort of thing, like what other leftover repurposing things do you use commonly, Oh, we.
Actually have the whole infographic on this. I wish I had in front of me, but I you know, we take things and turn them into you know, leftover sandwiches. Anything can be made into like a filling for a burrito, right like sort of like things that are like, you know, I like our yeah, I think about our members, like, oh, I had like levet or X, Y and Z, and I put into a sandwich or I put it on
top of a pizza. You know, a lot of times, like you can just take something leftover, like the odds and ends of vegetables that you have a little bit left of at the end of a week, throw them into a stir fry. It's really easy also to turn leftovers into into a you know, a soup. I honestly think like you can just add like a little bit of broth and some pasta and you have some leftover veggies. Like that's really like a whole new a whole new meal.
So think about things where there's like a lot of ingredients usually mixed together where it doesn't so much matter, like what the ingredients are there's like usually some sort of like you know, foundation or binder, whether it's like bread and sandwich or tritilla in a in a burrito,
or like broth in a soup. So those are things we often you know, just will combine and it's it's and I think as you the more you do it, like just like the better you get at it, it's like a fun creative muscle to flex, and then you'll be like, Wow, I'm just so awesome in the kitchen because I like came up with this, you know, fun new way to like turn my leftovers into something else versus just like throwing them away or just like you know, being sad that you're eating the same meal over again.
Yeah, it's giving me such great ideas. This is also making me think, though, Joss, about the people who might not feel.
So confident in the kitchen.
Like when you're saying these things, it's clicking for me, and there's puzzle pieces kind of connecting or dots connecting whatever. It's all happening, and yeah, that sounds great, I'm going to do that. But what do you see for somebody like how much does cooking confidence play into following through with the meal plan or feeling as though you know they can be creative in the kitchen, Like where does that confidence with cooking and their skill set in the
kitchen cut? Like, how does that play into this?
Yes? Clearly, Like some people are just like naturally creative, you know, whether it's in the kitchen or you know, in visual arts or whatever it is. But I think everyone can get become better at any skill, right And for those that don't feel like they have that natural talent, it's just a lot of practicing, right, Like I think, you know, it sounds like I have young kids and they're like, I'm not good at this. I'm like, no,
Like it's just because you haven't done it enough. And so I think a lot of it is just putting in that time. And it's one of those things where like, you know, no one walks into the kitchen use knowing how to use a knife like proficiently on day one. So I think a lot of it is just putting in that time and that practice, and also using all
the resources that are out there. There are so many recipe resources, there are so many meal penny resources that are free, Like you don't you know you have to pay anybody there's tons on the internet and just as you're doing, as you're using them, kind of understand. I don't just follow it on autopilot, but really understand like why, like what is this recipe? What is the formula or
the foundation behind the recipe? And I think when you kind of kind of go down one layer to understand, like well, most soups start with some like onions, and then they put in the a few more vegetables, and then they put in the protein, you know, whatever, it is, so kind of understanding those steps and I think seeing that those sort of foundation layers of things helps you then go and be creative on your own because you know, like, well, this is how most soups start, or this is how
a stir fry is made, or how a curry is made. So I think a lot of it. I talk about it. The analogy uses like GPS these days, like we all get into our car and we put the address into our phone and we're just on like autopilot. We follow and we're like, oh, we have no idea like what our neighborhood looks like or how to actually get from point A to point B. Yeah, and that's what it
is amazing. It's you know what we can do that, and it's amazing to have like just print out a recipe from the internet or look at it on your iPad and just like follow it but not really think like, oh, like why are we doing these things? Or like how did we get from point eight to that finished product? And so I think we just take a little bit of time to just for like, okay, how like what were the steps? Why were these ingredients ordered in this way?
Oh?
Like actually, like making a curries really is just like you know, coconut milk and a little bit of broth and some you know, like curry paste. I think kind of seeing like those like you know, these sort of core ingredients that go into a lot of the things
that we make. If you take the time to like uncover that, you could that really helps you then be able to like steer away from recipes at some point, right like that you have the confidence to be like, oh, I actually know how to make this because I know what the core ingredients that go into X meal.
It's so true.
So much of food has become demystified for me as I've spent more time in the kitchen, like even making my own salad dressings and making my own kind of like base ingredients. Not that I'm always in forever going to make my own mayo or make my own bread or make my own but it really helps with that barrier to entry to understand that, oh, these things aren't
actually that complex. Usually I have the core ingredients to make this thing, and it helps to feel more confident in being able to utilize substitutions, to not feel so beholden to a certain recipe exactly how it is when you can kind of understand a little bit more of the core and foundations. And I think, as you're talking too, it's helping me to realize that in some ways meal planning is a little bit fruitless if we don't consider food waste in that process. That we could just throw
out things that we want to eat that week. But if we aren't considering where there's crossover of ingredients and how we might be able to utilize leftovers, we really
might not see that much cost savings with it. And so I think it's really helpful to kind of hear what you're describing here of how we can go about meal planning with some of these ingredients that will be efficient throughout the week and keeping in mind some of these core ways that we can reuse ingredients throughout the week, is is helpful impairing these two Like, yes, start with a meal plan, but like if that like very soon it needs to be paired with thinking about food waste.
Yes, it really does.
And I think learning how to read a recipe and understand like what is important to the recipe, like because a lot of times we feel like we have to buy every single thing a recipe list in order to make it. Like there's people just you know and want to like just make sure like I have all of this and I'm going to make it exactly how it's stated, And I don't really believe that there. I think there's a lot of these sort of core ingredients like spices that you'll you'll use a lot not even you know,
across cuisines. But then there's like these sort of you know, like a little bit more niche things that like if you see, like you only need a quarter tea spoon of this, it's like, well, yeah, it'll add of course a little bit to the finished product, but like you can also miss it. Like that's how I tell people that you see a recipe and there's like ten spices listed.
Look at the ones where you're like putting in a lot of the amount, Like those are the ones that are really going to create that flavor, like you know, foundational flavor and the other stuff like it's it will make a difference. But if you don't have it and you don't want to spend money on it, because then you're like you bought it and you don't you know, you use a quarter teaspoon and then you never use
it again. Like that is what Even if it's while it's sitting in your drawer, it's still like a it's it's waste in terms of it's taking up room. And so I just think that to help people think through like do you need everything in a recipe? And oftentimes you do not. And then they're also like these great
chronic crossover ingredients. The way we think about meal planning, it's like, okay, if you we put a some cilantro in one meal, we always try to find another meal to like help you use up the rest of that like a bunch of cilantro, right, because so oftentimes, like if you really do want to buy the herb at all, like some people are just we have so many members are like I just always skipped the herbs, and that's totally fine too, But if you are gonna, you know,
we like, if you are gonna buy it, we want to help you use the whole thing. And what's it's what's so great is if you actually think about cuisines, there's a lot of crossover, right, Like cilantro is used in Latin food, but it's also used in a lot of Asian food. So for us, it's always like, oh, we have cilantro and it's being used in tacos. Like we'll just find like, you know, so we don't all
have two Latin meals in a week. We'll like find something Asian because that's also a very popular urban Asian cooking. There's just yeah, there's just a lot of crossover when you think about things and sort of look at the Venn diagram of foods and cuisines.
Yeah.
You uh, you were the one that got me making my own salad dressings when I was using Cooksmarts. Yes, and then Jill has said, like I inspired her inspired her to make her own salad dressings.
Yeah, and now it is all I do now because I'm just like, this is so easy.
I'm not falling for waste.
Four.
I waste salad dressings because I just don't want to use that salad dressing over and over, whereas I could just know the base. You have these fantastic infographics with like these bases for things, and then waste to come off of it, and then I have like twelve different options for salad dressings. Yes, yeah, and instead of just one more, twelve tattles.
Of dressing, fantastic homemade Asian dressing on my salad for us today.
Yeah, it still tastes a little bit on the ingredience.
Yeah, salad dressing, they're all just pantry ingredients that don't go bad. You know, it's vinegar and oil, like well you know oil can go bad. But like most people have those things lying around, and it's so easy to make your own and you don't have to have all the jars sticks taking up room. But yeah, I think it really goes back to these cooking formulas, right, Like, so it's not just we have all these cooking formulas for all the meals we make, and salad dressing is
just one of them. But it's most things you can kind of see like what is the formula and then you can just know like oh yeah, like you said, Gelex, being able to swap, you know, being able to feel more confident about subbing things because you're like, okay, well this is just you know, I can sub the proteins or I can sub these spice or sub the vinegars, and it's yeah, it makes a big difference to understand the formulas behind what you're cooking. Yeah.
I feel like this has been a game changer for me, is learning more about how to cook and all of this stuff, because it does open up a lot of things to that are simple. So like my limited meal cooking you know, is already limited because I don't want to know a lot about it. But when I have mentioned out and learned more, like I can open up this realm of simple cooking and simplicity that I didn't have before. And I will never aspire to do fancy
things in the kitchen. It's just like not my thing, but like it's it's opened up so much more on this like base level for me, and I actually follow through with my meal plan because I can simplify it.
So yeah, I love that.
Yeah. Okay, so we've talked about these ingredient efficiencies and kind of like knowing the cooking like Formula's baseline education. Are there any other heavy hitters for reducing food waste that you love use I want to talk about?
Yeah.
So I think a lot about is comes comes to shopping, right, because that is like sort of the source of the food race food waste is how you shop, right. So I think a lot of it is going always, always going to the store with a list and not as much as you might want to, like really trying to stick to that list.
Uh.
I know that sometimes we can be thrown off by sales, right, Like you know, especially now, it's like, oh food, food is really expensive. But if it's something that's on sale and you're like this is not something I know how to use or will use, often like it's just not
worth buying that sale product, right. So I think a lot of it is just making that meal plan, knowing and what you just said, making the meal plans so that like the meals themselves are things you will execute and include nights off, include you know, leftovers whatever it is, and going to the store and buying buying the things that make sense for your life, right, I think, Oh, there's a lot of aspirational buying in at the grocery store. We buy things saying like one day I'm gonna cook this.
It's like one day I'm gonna like wear this outfit. But it's like what is your life really like and really understanding? Like those are the things that you should that should you should put in your cart stick the meal plan, and I think that will help people reduce a lot a lot of food waste.
Yeah, you know what else helps people just in general?
Yeah, it's definitely not a waste 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 Williams. Maybe you've paid off your mortgage, maybe your car died and you're happy to not have to pay that bill anymore. Dust bills, butfalo bills. Bill Clinton, this is the bill of the week.
Yes, yes, just every week we yell at our listeners and our guests alike and ask for them to share with us their bill for the week, and we would love to hear yours.
I love this and I'm going a different direction. I'm going like a non frugal direction. So I got I just thought our cook Smart's bill, our Cooksmart's credit card bill for the month of November, and it was the highest bill we've had for the year. And I'm really happy about that bill. And I want to tell you why.
So we are, like we're a very lean company. We're remote, we like we run so leanly all year long, but we get together, our meal planning team gets together once a year and we like just go bananas and like, you know, we're we're we're very excited to take time off from the kitchen, right Like, so this year we went to Charleston and just ate like our hearts out, and like the meals are just so good and it really inspires us to like get to eat like really
interesting meals. There's a lot of you know, it gets gives our like creative juices going. And so I think a lot of it is like, you know, sort of what you guys preach. It's like you you do you you're frugal about the things that you need to be frugl about so that you can buy like something special for yourself. So you are like saving up for those
like special moments or special things that you want. And for us, that was what like, you know, we get together just once a year, and we don't want to worry about like, oh, like is this in the budget, and because all year long we have stuff to the budget and we are, you know, we're a lean company, like I said, and so we just go all out. And I'm always happy to pay that bill because it's like,
produces such great memories. And so that is the one time I'm like, I'm I'm totally fine and happy with a higher bill because the rest of the time we were very responsible and good.
And I would like to remind the audience you had one of my other most favorite bills of all time.
Oh my gosh, I don't remember.
Oh you paid for your I don't know if she was an employee at the time or co owner maternity leave bill. Yes, you paid maternity leave for her, and that was a bill you were happy to pay and all time one of my favorite bills for this.
Thanks for remind me of that. I totally forgot. But yeah, we're you know, we're like a small little company of twelve people, and we want people to like take time off and enjoy meals when we're all together, and yeah, I'm always happy to do that. Because it we responsible the other times, then we get to enjoy one, you know, because we were responsible.
Oh this makes me so happy.
And I would argue that this is still being responsible with the money. It is still Yeah, it's an intentional decision, and it is aligned with your values, and it's supporting the things that make you come alive and inspire you and help you to feel creative. And there's so many things we can point to about why this was a good money decision and we are so supportive of it. Thanks for sharing that. If you all listening, have a
bill you want to share. If it's about a high bill that you don't mind paying because it aligns with your values, if it's about not needing to pay a bill, if it's about paying for an employee's maternity leave.
You know, we love just celebrating all of it.
Google Friends, podcast, dot Com, slash bill can't.
Wait to hear yours love it. And now it's time for the lightning round you.
All right, Jess, you're a bill pro. We already know that.
All right, you have great bills of the week, But can you can you carry it over into.
The lightning gos?
I'm nervous, Okay, today's Lightning Round question, what basic cooking skills do you think everyone should know? Also, I'd like to follow up with what is a basic cooking skill that you kind of learned or mastered way later than maybe you thought you should. Oh, interesting a double hatter question, so they could be the same thing, maybe.
Okay, Okay.
So I think that the cooking skill that ever everybody needs is to learn how to use a knife properly. Like you know, there are there are knife skills classes in person. I still recommend going in person versus you know, and that clearly you know online is fine, but having someone show you how to hold the knife, telling you like what you're doing wrong, because pretty much every time
you're in the kitchen, you are chopping something. And I think for so many people that is like the main frustration, because we have people be like, oh this like this meal, turn neck right, but it took me like forty five minutes to chop the vegetables. And I'm like, no, it should not have taken you forty I can get like twenty macs. And so I think like having that skill is not only like saves you time, but also hopefully we'll gave you some like cuts and cuts and scrapes
in the future. And it is a skill that I think people learn too late or never learn at all, and so there's always frustrated in the kitchen. So I think that is the one cooking skill, not the one, but like, I think that's such a foundational cooking skill that everybody needs to have.
I think that's a great birthday gift or Christmas gift, like people are up here giving people like axe throwing in room destroying, Like when are you ever going to throw an axe in real life?
All right?
And when are you ever going to need to smash a computer in real life?
We all know how to do that, right.
But give you girl a gift of knives, knowledge of knives in the silent case.
Yes, we love them. I love we love knowing things. Oh so many silent kids.
Who's next?
You or me?
Yeah?
Yes, okay, you know I actually have a couple here getting on my high horse in the kitchen.
Okay.
But the first one I'll say is knowing what temperature and for how long to cook something or even just heat up food. That's mostly it just reheating food, not trying to throw anyone under the bus. But the amount of times that I get asked or hear somebody ask to somebody else like how long should I heat this up for? Like at what temperature should this be?
And it's just like.
Your guess is kind of as good as mine, but like my guess is really good, Like.
Why can't we just guess at this?
Like I don't know, in the microwave for two minutes, try it out, sticks are low, I don't know, in the toaster oven for at three fifty for five minutes. Then go back and take a look is it warm? Do a finger test?
Like this is like anyone else?
Is anyone else right now?
See and hear and understand this like I, yeah, you got a I'm not gonna throw anyone under the bus.
It's me.
You have also got no me too, but like you've gotten phone calls at work to ask you, like how long to heat something up for?
Just like just microwaves give my husband.
Yes, I said I wasn't throw anyone under the bus, but it's not it's.
Not just your cum ask me how long to mic well something?
You can fill it in yourself.
Yeah, I just feel like this is the most basic. You don't even have to know how to cook, just like know how to take guesses at temperatures and timing.
It helps me to.
Figure out what the temperatures like, what's a baked temperature, what's a roast temperature, what's the broial tempature? Like, it helped me to figure out like those things are different, those denote different temperature ranges.
Yeah.
Also maybe it's the starting point if you're like.
Us, people should know how to freeze things.
I think just being more brave and daring with the freezer is another thing. Listen, I'm it's low over, I'm on a high wake out and with low hanging fruit like these are the basics, like, hey can I freeze this?
I don't know, give it a try? Yeah, what could go wrong? Take chances, make mistakes.
Yeah, you defrost it again and you realize you don't like the consistency.
Okay, not much as lost there.
I love the freezing thing because, like, first of like most things can be frozen. If you walk down your your grocery store freezer aisle, like everything you want to eat has been frozen.
There yet, right, pasta's there? Rice is there?
Bread is there?
Bread?
Yes? All the vegetables you know, look, just look through all of the like the TV dinners, and you'll see like every every meal that you food on heat has been frozen, so you can you can freeze your own.
Even food that is not frozen was maybe one time frozen.
But to your question of what what have you learned too? I recently learned with an avocado, you know the trick that people are always like, all right, and then with the pit, like hack it with a knife and turn it, and then like, how do you get the pit off the knife without slicing your hand open. No, what you can do is identify that it is ripe. So that's another skill I think people. Oh that's another one picking out she's still on the quality fruits and veggies that
feels that feels low hanging. But it's one of the reasons I can't do I can't do delivery grocery services because they're given me just subprime veggies and fruits. And I feel like that's a skill that really needs to be honed for people. But is it avocados and hash the side that has the pit, You just push on the skin with your thumb.
It pops out.
No need to slice and dice your hands. I just learned that recently.
Wow, that's a good one because that is I think the like one of the biggest injuries that occupational therapists have to deal with, Like.
Ooh, sliced hand.
Yeah again, get you a girl a knife class.
That's it.
I think that's the moral.
Okayc turn, I know I took like five turns, but so so.
I think one of those things that I learned maybe a little later, was that the the different temperatures for the oven. But I think another thing would be that oil crisps. I was not getting speed roasted vegetables. If they were crispy, they were.
Burnt, right.
But I didn't get the right crisp on what I wanted because I wasn't using enough oil or I wasn't coating the vegetables fully in oil. And I don't use a ton of oil, but that is what provides the crisp. So that was something I think everyone should know. And I didn't know that till I watched that documentary The Salt Fat Acid. So I learned so much heat. Yeah, I learned so much from that documentary.
That was good.
That was a good one to learn from.
Some means a genius, and I think That's why often when you get roasted veggies at restaurants, they're better because they are willing to use a lot, lot more oil than most want to use at home. But that is that is really why do you feel like your roasted veggies are not as good at home as a restaurant. It's because they use a lot of oil. So there you go.
There, you're all learning something here. If people want to learn more from you, Jess and get all your resources.
Yeah, please brag about cook smarts and the new smarts app. And we've been to brag about it all for the time in the friend letter, but please please thank you.
Yes, so cook smarts go to cooksmarts dot com. That's with an s like book smarts. If you go to cooksmart com, you'll see something totally different. But we yeah, we've we are now. We launched our meal plan service in twenty thirteen, which means there are now like over eleven years worth of recipes and meal plans in there. Every week we have a new meal plan and so that's just a lot of meal plans that we've done.
So we've just had a lot of experience really understanding you know, how do we meal plan simply, but had also a meal plan to reduce food waste. And how do we meal plans so that people actually will cook the meal plans? That's always your Can.
You listen to the feedback of all of your people that use it? You have a Facebook group and people are always in their commenty you take into consideration.
Yeah, we really understand like how people want to cook. And even though people always say like we want healthy meals, it's always like the comfort meals and like the steak or the heavier things that get the best reviews. And so even though you know we try to make sure there's lots of light, healthy meals, we also make sure there's also lots of comforting meals that you'll recognize from your childhood as well. But yeah, we're really excited because
we're watching our app in January, or mobile app. We've been a web app since twenty thirteen, but really excited for iOS users as at least that they're able to download a mobile app. And it's just it just it's so nice and slick, and it was such a fun process to work on and our team has had such a great time putting that together this year. So I'm really excited about that.
That's so exciting.
I love tools and resources that are going to help solve a very real daily issue.
Yeah.
I recommend Cooksmarts all the time for people who are just starting with meal planning because it is so daunting and all the things you just said are like from an ingredient efficiencies to when to like when to use an ingredient throughout the week, et cetera, et cetera, so
daunting and so important to success. And when you can pay somebody to do all that thinking for you and teach you what those important things are, like, it's worth every penny for the amount of money that it will save you in the long run.
Yeah, I do agree. It's like if we say to you just from like one meal of takeout every month, it's it's totally worth it, but a lot of it, you know. For I come from like a cooking education background, that has always been my goal, and so I've tried
to really work that into the service. So as you're making a meal, you're kind of getting a little bit of a cooking lesson each night, whether it's like knife skills of like how to properly chop like an onion or but or not squashed to understanding breaking down some of those cooking formulas, because I mean, like, at the end of the day, I would love for people to use us, learn and then feel like they don't need
us anymore. You know. That's really my goal is, like to help you do this thing that everybody needs to do because we all need to eat. Some of us choose to eat without meal planning, and it's really stressful and you know, it results in a lot of wasted money and food. And so to help people with this like really important life skill to me, I think and feeling like helping them master it and feeling like, oh, now I can go off and do my own thing.
Then that's great. And so I think, yeah, we've helped a lot of people get there, and some people still use this because they don't want to think about it, and some people are like, oh, I feel like I've got it, and then they move on, and that's also really great and gratifying for me.
Yeah, beautiful.
Thank you so much for being here with us, Jess and get inspiring us and giving us so many great ideas around our food.
It's been fun.
Thanks ladies for having me back. I so appreciate it.
That was great, And Jess failed to mention she has an extensive culinary history. She was on the Food Network.
God, that's right.
Yeah, she competed for one of these like food chef spots in a TV show and you know who she lost to, Guy Fieri.
Yeah, you're gonna lose to anyone.
I g's gonna be right. Yeah, that's gonna be it. So she is legit and who you want to learn cooking from.
And you want her holding my hand?
We love she could come here and just hold both of our hands, and she and we together we could hold a knife, two knives. We'll have two extra hands. But she They include like videos in the meal plan too, So like I remember one time I was making me something with wanton rappers and I did not know how to fold them. And I didn't need to because right there in the meal plan was a little, short, little video telling you how.
To do it. I am such a visual m hm.
And again for goal friendspodcast dot com, slash cook Smarts or slash cs, we'll get you that two week free meal plan and twenty percent off if you do choose to go with the subscription.
If you are the.
Person who's like, yeah, I'm new to this, I need my handheld for a little bit of time. Yeah, this is going to be your best time. They don't run sales all the time, so it is worth taking advantage of it when they do.
Yeah, and we definitely we will say in the front letter when they do. But it is something I think everyone should try for a year. And I'm just passionate about cook Smarts because they take the time to teach you these skills in the kitchen that extend beyond meal planning.
Yeah.
So that's I mean, that's just why I love them as as a service and I just love them as a company. So I'm done. They didn't pay us to do this episode. If you do purchase a subscription through our link, we do get a commission, but like, nobody's paying us to say this like a flaffy.
So thanks so much for being here everyone. We do hope that this has been helpful and inspiring and helps you to make better meal plans and actually eat the food or be willing to pay for some of that convenience.
Let somebody else make an plan for you.
If oh, well, we just love your reviews too. We love food, and we love your reviews. These are two things I love most of my like this one from Sanja six one two gets.
Better every week. You hear that, I hear yeah, five stars.
I started this podcast in the middle, right after hearing Jill on three and thirty, and I just kind of skipped around with episodes that interested me. I forget which episode, but one of them had them saying, whatever you do, don't go back to the beginning and listen in order. So of course I had to do exactly that. This podcast started outright and got even better age so many action items and tips, mindset stuff annoys me absolutely, love all the grocery and investment episodes.
Love you ladies at your work.
Oh my gosh, how tall that was me jen on three and thirty, And I'm so glad you said that, because that was I was so excited for to do three and thirty. If you don't it's a podcast for moms. And I did that interview in my house after our handyman had painted the side of our He scratched the side of our fridge and then like spray painted over it and the fumes were so strong, wow. And I had been sitting in there. I thought it was going
to dissipate. It didn't so like a strong I was not in a good headspace to do that interview, and I thought I totally botched it. I was like, they're never going to air it. I did that interview in April and I think it aired in August. Okay, And but I was just going to put you on it, and I.
Look at.
It helped you in home that you thought we got better with age like wine, So lovely.
If you are listening and you have not given us a rating or.
Review, even if you haven't gone all the way back to the beginning again, please don't. If you've just been listening for you know, a couple of weeks, a couple of months, a couple of years, even you've not left us a rating or review, please do that. That would mean the world to us. It's so fun to hear what you have to say about it. But it also is so helpful in other people finding us as well.
Yeah, and if you have, if you want to buy our book that is available now by what you Love without Going Broke, we would love that and maybe leave a rating and review for the book. So good, Thank you, love you, See you next time. I Google Friends is produced by Eric Sirianni.
Okay, I had a frugal fail with food lost day.
Tell me I don't love that you had a fail, but if you learn from it, I loved it.
Tell me, I don't know I learned from it maybe a little bit. But so we've been trying out these last two weeks a coworking space, you me and Eric, because we got two weeks free, speaking of two weeks free somewhere two weeks three at this co working space. We're like, yeah, let's try it out. Let's see if this is something that would be worth spending some money on being able to just get out of the house have access to some of the extra space that an
office like this could provide to us. Anyways, we've been packing our lunches, so you know, I'm used to working from home and just eating whatever I have my friend, So it's been a little bit extra effort.
I need to think I how pack a lunch? Take it.
So yesterday we went just Eric and I and I we just decided to pack Babe and Jay sandwiches and we had leftover sour del loaf bread which was really good when it was freshly baked. Has been fantastic bread to have on hand. It's definitely on its last leg. And we cut it kind of thick. By we, I mean me, I cut it kind of thick because she
loves bread. I do love bread, yeah. But then paired with the peanut butter and jelly, it just it was so dense and on the verge of being stale and had such a specific kind of flavor that didn't totally coalesce with the peanut butter and jelly, and it made it somewhat inedible. I ended up pulling it apart and more so like treating it like an open face because it was far too much bread to peanut butter and jelly, but because the bread was so kind of hard and dense,
not crunchy, just dense. Wow, you almost couldn't get enough peanut butter and jelly in the middle, if that makes sense.
And then even no.
Matter how yeah, so just to help improve the ratio of condiments to bread, I pulled it apart, and even still I couldn't hardly finish it. I probably ate like a third of the sandwich.
Wow. Thank goodness.
We also brought chippies because I don't entirely hate myself absolutely an apple and an avocado, so these things did sustain us. But Eric and I both were just looking at each other like, this is this is what frugal feels like, Like this is what a frugal fail feels like. Yeah, this is this is not good. But you know what, it wasn't bad, Like it wasn't the food wasn't rancid, so we weren't gonna go out to go get ourselves food.
I don't totally know.
What the takeaway is because we both were like, well, we got fed.
Your food is in our belly.
It's a new season. Like coworking, even though I don't know if we'll do it long term, would be a new season would require new experimenting in the way that we eat and spend money. And this was part of your experimentation that just you know.
It was especially bad because you've got other people in the space heating up their launches.
Oh that just sounded so good. Sounded smelled.
There was definitely some Indian food being heated up, and here we are with just like the grossest peanut butter and jelly. It felt it like had me get had me having flashbacks to like my elementary.
School days where it is what lunch felt like for me growing up.
My mom would always do the like grain bird seed bread and like the all natural whatever and something you know, homemade, which I can appreciate now, but like growing up, it never was the cool lunch that you're looking forward too.
It was just always something you kind of just suffered through, wishing someone would trade their lunch with you, but knowing if I don't even want this, they're not gonna want it. But I really wanted some of that Indian food. I'm so sorry. It's okay, it's okay. It's just still a little bit fresh for us. But we're gonna do better. We're gonna do better next time. Yeah, good luck. Thanks