Deborah, with her thirty years of being an ltrepreneur and creating over seven companies, knows exactly what it means to accept the mission. When you make that decision, when you accept the mission to become a solo preneur to take yourself and your talents to market, then you embrace a life of not only unlimited possibilities, but also the unknown. It's an elixir of fear and bravery that
only someone who's taken the leap really understands. On our show, deb digs deep with her guests to highlight what you the listener wants to know, the stories, the whys, and the hows to navigate the journey to success. Get ready to hear from some of the most incredible mission takers from Generation Z to boomers. So sit up, perk up, and get ready to be blown away. Now Here is your host, Deborah Drummond. Hello, Hello,
Hello, you best listeners you. I'm so excited today. You know can alop you the best listeners and thank you for coming to Mission Accepted podcast. If you are a listener, you know we love you and there's many of you that I have great relationships with because you call me and you email me and if you want to be on the show, I want you to be on the show, so you know where to go. But I got
to tell you, but man, you are hungry. You're hungry for life, You're hungry for Oh let me guess that takes me into introducing are incredible, fabulous fellow foodie. You guys know a live food you know they say, you know, people shouldn't be scrolling on their phone and it's not a way to get to decompress. I have a serious addiction to the Food Channel. And a fellow foody friend of mine who we both are inspired by the
same person which we'll get to later, is here with us today. This is Mary Lumberting and you may recognize her from the two sixty two project. Yes she's in the book. Yes she spoke. Yes she's speaking again because people are hungry to hear what she has to say too, not just you cool people. So if you don't know Mary, Mary is a personal chef and a cooking coach. Okay, don't we all want a personal chef?
Isn't that something that goes on your treasure map, on your dream boards, on your vision I'm like I have written that many times I just want someone to cook for me. It's so incredible and it feels so pampering, and honestly, sometimes it doesn't even matter what it looks like or tastes like, even though that's important. And Mary's going to tell you that and just let someone cook some meal for you. Sometimes it can be poached eggs on toast,
and it feels good to have someone love on you. But here's what is nice about Mary is that she teaches us how to do that for ourselves as well. So Mary, welcome to the mission accepted podcast show. Thank you, deb, thank you for having me. It's wonderful to be here on your presentation. Yeah, well what you do is super important, not only to like you to cook for usoo, but you know what, there's so many things about food that's so like you know, we listen to like
nutrition for the soul and having a good digestion. It allows you to digest all the things going on in your body. And I think, you know, we've had this great, you know revolution around food in terms of you know, the things that people, you know, we're eating that aren't good for you. I don't think it's a surprise anymore that our body really needs good nutrition and cellular and there's all sorts of awakening that's happened around food.
But on the other side, as our world has become awakened and there's been you know, a rise in entrepreneurship and a rise in bigger families, and a rise and abundant things to do. Because we don't use the word be here is that it also can scrimp on people's times. And some times when people are tested in terms of the clock, they don't eat as well. They grab things quickly. The world has become abundant, but it's also become
really convenient. So I am so glad that you're here today. And a lot of people probably haven't heard of the word cooking coach, right, They're like, oh, you can go to a cooking class. You know, you can watch a show that'll teach you how to like you know Julia childa duc range, But we don't know what a cooking coach is. So can
you please enlighten us? Sure? Thanks, jev a cooking coach. I think I created the position because I see people going for cooking lessons and they go home they have a pile of recipes, but they don't have this necessarily the skills, the food at home or with the equipment or even the space. So I like to help people to figure all of that stuff out so that they can make the recipes. Yeah, well, I can imagine that
happens quite a bit, right. We get inspired and then we get motivated and then or sometimes things look really great and it requires all these you know, maybe spices or herbs or even terminologies that we don't really know. Right, it's like and how that works. And there's always something different about you know, you know, going to the movie and then writing the movie yourself. I mean, there's always something different about that. So how does that
start for people? Like? When people contact you? What is what's going on for them? Like? Why do people need I mean, we all need a cooking coach, we all need a personal chef. Okay, we chick that box already. But when do people call you? Why should they call you? What is it that you're doing for people? They contact me because they don't feel like cooking, but they feel that they shouldn't be cooking.
That maybe they used to cook and they're bored with it and they want some directions, some inspiration, and I like to help them to get back on track cooking or get started, like get organized and make it easy for them. Well what inspired you? I mean, I'm sure that wasn't you know, Like, hey, what is maybe your professional background? How did you decide that you wanted to do this? Where did that inspiration? You know? Well, I have been a professional cook. I took my chef's
training at George Brown College in Toronto. That was a two year course because it included chef training, the baking, and managing a kitchen. And I cooked professionally for ten years. But then I moved into working for the government. It was a little bit more stable, and I raised my son, who has ADHD, and worked with him, helping him, and we worked
side by side in the kitchen. He liked cooking, he liked coming in and cutting the vegetables for me. So we actually had a little truck that he would stand on, got them up to the counter, and then we would cut the vegetables. And it was a good time. Because when you're with kids, they don't always they don't want to be drilled about their day or what's going on. But if you can work side by side with your
child, then it helps. They're sort of focusing on cutting the vegetables and then we can talk at the same time and they're more likely to share. And also they're learning to cook. So I did that, and just like, I bought a cookbook called for Poquet making the bowl with the grains and vegetables and stuff, and it had all these ingredients. So I made a list and I went to a Japanese store to pick up the ingredients, and
it turned out to be more of a takeout place. All these young people were hanging around and I showed her my list and she had no idea what I was talking about. So, you know, people need help to figure these things out, or else you're going to go back to, like say the chicken nuggets, or you know, go back to McDonald's because it's a lot easier. Yeah, it's easy to fall back on convenience, right, It's easy to tell ourselves we don't have time nurturing our you know, our
meals isn't something that you know, we normally think about it. I also noticed, so I'm with you, like, hands down, we must have raised the kids the same way, because I have pictures of my son ocean in the kitchen sink at two, learning how to crack eggs right. And by the time he was twelve, he literally was cooking the Thanksgiving turkey and we used to call him Mini Martha Stewart, but he really took to cooking
because it is creative. And my daughter cooked as well. And now, I mean, I keep saying that we need to buy our bakery, but she loves to bake and loves to cook. It is a time of commune, right, I mean, I think it's such a bonding time. And you are absolutely right. Now, I got more out of my daughter going shopping and just but you know, and as we were shopping, she would
divulge all this stuff that was going on at school and her feelings. And in the kitchen, I think for my son it was a lot about community because he didn't know any different. I'm sure he thought all his friends cooked in there as well. Every time his buddies came over, you know, of course, we would cook things like cookies and brownies and things like that with no sugar. And they didn't know it. But the yeah, they didn't know it, but they it was almost it didn't look like a craft.
It wasn't like I was learning something that wasn't you know, but it was a very creative, but it was an instant, instant gratification, sense of accomplishment. So literally we could do something and within half an hour an
hour there was a product. Whatever it looked like, whatever it tasted like, it didn't really matter, but there was a great sense of accomplishment, like we made these so we can eat them almost more legitimized, instead of coming in and saying, hey, can I have you know, three brownies, and you'd normally say no, So it was like that when we need these, So for us it was really it was really that as well. We were talking a little pre show about one of the people that inspired you.
Maybe share with us how who that is and how they inspired you. Yes, Jamie Oliver really inspires me, partly because I like the way he cooks. It's a little bit of this and a little bit of that, and it's fun. He just throws it all on a wooden board and then serves it up and it's a lot more fun. But also he travels around
and learns from different people. There was one time where he visited markets and he's lucky he's able to go with the restaurant owner to the market they pick up a few fish and different things to eat, and then they go back to the kitchen and cook together, which would be so much fun. And he includes his children. There's some very funny stories. But also I watched his series when he did Cooking with America or something like that, and he
was trying to get people to just make an omelet for themselves. You'd give them a burner. It was like a gym full of these little mini workstations, and he got them to make omelets for themselves, just to show how easy it can be to make your own food. You know. You buy a few eggs and a fry pan and a flipper, and you can make yourself an omelet, you know, and it can be so easy. And I would agree with you. We talked pre show. I think all of
us were nodding our heads when we're talking about the Oliver. First of all, I think there's something very easy about him, right, like when he explains things, there's no I mean, I love. I mean, there's very few people on the World of Food channel that I don't identify with or have fun with. But for him, he's easy. His voice is easy. It's kind of poetic. I think for me, it was easy for Jamie Oliver to be with the kids, like when I was teaking with the
kids. But that must have been the series that I watched. So I'm a foo pah. I don't anymore. But you know, we used to have so in our house. We had something called the family bed. It was mine and we would to get together once a week and I'll get together and if any of us had anything to say to each other, so you know, my ex husband who wasn't my ex at the time, obviously we're all sit in the family bed, but any of the kids could say something
that bothered them and you know whatever, we just had this commune. So the bed was this hub, right, And so I had a TV in my room. It was very small, but we were watching Jamie Oliver. One day it just popped on for some reason, Me and my son and my daughter all popped in my bed obviously watching TV. And it was an episode that he did that he was showing how you could make your own chicken nuggets and what really went into like he bought all the stuff that the chicken
nuggets that we know today. I had that you know, famous restaurant that made them and he showed what went in there. Now, I didn't see anything. To my kids, I didn't, you know, we weren't obviously
big, We didn't go to those kind of restaurants a lot. Anyways, I don't think my daughter even knew what one was till she was five, and she was mad at me had never taken her too, because her girlfriend's mom took her and she's like, hey, these are French fries and so anyways, so my kids watched and I didn't really I didn't sit them down and go, you need to watch this, but it made such an impression.
It made such an impression. It was kind of harsh though, because when he showed them what it was, and it was obviously young kids, it showed them what it was versus, you know, making them themselves. It was interesting. Not everybody was onto the whole new thing. It just was interesting how it really didn't get into their head. And here's me, as a parent, going, oh, thought, I didn't even know that those were the ingredients. But it got in my kid's heads so much that
it almost became this like place you should never go. And it's so I was like, oh, thank you, Jamie Oliver. You just did. She just did so much, so much work for me. But yeah, he's a he's a really good guy. He's a really good guy. Let's talk a little bit about you know, get We'll get past Jamie because we're all inspired, and I think that we do get inspired. I think food
is inspiring. Culinary has really it's gone from dry. You know, when I was in school, we had cookbooks and there wasn't very many pictures, and if they were, they were black and white. But the world of culinary has become an adventure and going to restaurants and seeing how they make these incredible food and and you know, just how they take care of the food and prepare the food, and it's it's such an experience now going for dinner is such an experience now, and you know, you know, maybe that's
intimidating for people to come home and create that same environment at food. But what are some of the things how you help people? I mean, you're in your home kitchen and they're like, okay, I need to create something. What are some of the things that you do to help people do that? Okay, Well, the first thing I would have them do is turn on the music, because that just lightens the mood. You know, there's different kinds of music. Of course, there's cooking music, there's clean up
music, and there's eating music. Eating music is very mellow and calm sort of. We play old blues music and I just put on either YouTube or Spotify. You know, it's easy to find playlists, and so when somebody is starting out cooking, I would put music on in the background because it just helps people calm and relax. And then we would I encourage them to clear out their space. You know, you need working space. If the
counter is clattered, you end up stabbing things with a knife. You know, if there's oranges and bananas and stuff all over the counter, you'll stab them. So you have to clear off your space and get all your ingredients ready so that you're not running all over the place, and just these little things that can really help to put it all together for people so that when
they do go to make something, it's easy. And I encourage people to clean up as they go along so that when they're finished cooking, they don't have a huge mess all over the kitchen. And after dinner, all you do is put the dishes in the dishwasher and you're finished, So there's I like to give people little steps that they can build on to make success in the kitchen. I think that's wonderful. I mean, first of all, I think the should be in everyone's life. But I think that's really incredible.
It reminds me of my first massage teacher, and she had different music for the beginning of the massage, different music during the massage, and then at the end of the massage she put on a song that let you know when that song was done, it was time to get up, so you've had some rest time. But I don't think people make cooking as fun as that. I don't think they set the stage right. And I know that I've heard you share before and I was laughing inside because you know, thank
goodness, I have some good kitchen counter space. But I mean, I'm like, how many people have a kitchen office, you know, as an entrepreneur, we joke about it all the time. I have a coach office, I have a kitchen office. You know, I have a dining table, downing and table office. I mean, we joke about it all the
time. And then of course we have our office, which for me has the least amount of paperwork but we take things with us, or people drop things, or they have something in the kitchen where they drop their wallet and they drop their keys and all that kind of stuff when they come in. And when as soon as you said bananas and oranges, how many people have food, I've got containers of tea, you know, in the space that
you should be cooking. And it's cumbersome. It doesn't make you necessarily feel like this is a place where you're cooking something to make you feel good.
And we also know that food puts you in a great happy place. And I'm sure you're even digesting your food better and taking in the nutrients better, right, Yes, yeah, So while you're saying that, I'm picturing having a tray on the counter so that the knives, the keys, and the mail go into the to the tray, and then when you want to cook, you just pick up the tray and put it someplace else, you know, instead of all these bits and pieces that you have to pick up.
Yeah. Absolutely, that's a great idea something like that. Yeah, there you go. There you go, people, and you used to go by yourself. Another beautiful container to put your things on that you can lift up and move right Oh, my gosh, what's one of the favorite things that what is one of the favorite things about what you do like for you? What's one one of the most favorite things for you? One of my favorite things is just making suggestions and people go, oh, yeah, that could
work. I was talking to one woman and she said her son doesn't like his food touching. So I said, well, do you know about Bental boxes? And she didn't, And Bental boxes have most of them have a lot of segments, and he could put each food into a segment and keep it totally separate, you know, And she goes, oh, And it's
so much fun to make suggestions to people. And I guess I have a lot of different experiences, and I have a lot of different interests, and I'm able to bring all these ideas together that people don't necessarily think of. And it's so much fun to make a suggestion. And if it doesn't work for someone, we'll get together again and we'll hash it out and figure out something else. But it's fun to throw out ideas and encourage them to try.
I think that once people start to get into the habit of cooking for themselves, like it does it at first of all, gives you a sense of accomplishment, but also from an economic standpoint, Mary, what are some of the things that people can do, because I've heard many times now I'm, you know, not your typical recipe person. When I cook some me and my son, we've been cooking for a long time, so we just look at a picture and adapt it to the way we want, or we
know enough what to use. But I hear people go, yeah, but then I got to go buy this and this and this and this and this, and then I don't know what to do with it again. What are some of the suggestions that you can suggest for people around like how do they
get started or how do they keep going? Or like you know, that reminds me of one time I was visiting a friend of mine and she was a good friend, so I was able to go through a fridge and I found out half an avocado, and I said, well, what's this for? And she said, well, I made a recipe and I didn't know what to do with the other half, and so I looked a little bit more and she had some sour cream and green onions and a tomato. So
I made a guacamole for her. But actually these days, you can just go on the computer and put in, you know, half an avocado and you'll probably get you'll get in a guacamole recipe for sure. But yeah, it's just encouraging people to the computer makes it much easier. Yeah, well that's that's great. I mean I never even thought to say that to people. You've got some spices and your you know, go into the computer and say, hey, I've got human coriander and you know, ginger leftover from
this one curry I made. Now what do I do with it? Right? And yes, what people what people can do with the ingredients that are in their home. I think that also there's people that come up against like so, you know, I see you're a cooking family or a cooking family, but there's people that don't come from a cooking family. And one of my dearest best friends of forty years plus literate, literally, I'm like, why do you never have me for dinner? I was like, why do
you never have me for dinner? You're you know kids, She's like, I don't know how to cook. I'm like, you have three kids, what do you mean you never had to cook? I mean I just obviously I was never there for dinner. To know, She's like no, and I'm like okay. And I literally had to teach her how to make spaghetti, which for some people to be like, well, you just put us it. But so there is there's people that just really don't know how to
cook because they weren't taught how to cook, right. Sure. Yeah, there's generations now that grow up with take out food, and there's I know of one lady that it's part of her story is that she never saw her mom cook. They would go to Wendy's for a period of time, and then they'd go to the other ones for another and then they'd switch around. And yeah, some people don't. And I think that delivery services really help. I know one person that was gifted a year with the home delivery service,
and that actually helped her to start cooking regularly. All of the ingredients are portioned out, the recipe comes in a card, and it made it very easy. But when you were talking, it also reminded me of a fellow I met at a summ at once and I was talking about what I do, and he said that he tried one of those delivery services, but it took thirty minutes to make the meal, and he's used to just popping something into the microwave for five minutes. I should he spend thirty minutes making
something? And I said, well, how did the taste compare between the microwave dish and what you made? And he thought for a minute. I don't think he even really considered, and he said it was much better. And I said, well, maybe it's worth the thirty minute. But there's also other value in spending that thirty minutes in the kitchen. Partly, like you say, you're nourishing yourself, your body. It's a good break from his work. It it actually helps the brain in a neurological way, sequencing,
following directions, making decisions. There's all different kinds of things that add to the value of cooking. But it was very interesting that he just saw the thirty minutes versus five minutes and didn't even consider the flavor and the nourishment that was in the dish that he made. That is eye opening to me, and not in an insulting kind of way or oh my gosh, in a way that because that wasn't how I was raised. I just don't think
that for me. Take off food was a treat for us, you know, oh you know, you know, look, it won't take out what I I was younger was you had two choices. You could do Chinese food, you could do pizza. Sometimes they had lasagna. That's pretty well it. I'm not thinking. I don't think there was anything else that we chose from Greek. Maybe I don't know, but for us it was it was. It was a big treat. But when you think about it like that from a time frame, now that is for us, it was like,
oh, we're in a hurry, let's do it as an occasion. But I never really thought about people not comparing the difference or having you know, even I think that I think the difference between even when you have a really great restaurant, like I got a great restaurant up the street and they're like, oh, here comes the cauliflower chick. Like, I mean, I'm always ordering that, right, So I we have our favorite restaurants, but sometimes I think we don't realize how food, how good it does taste at
home, right that you know, some people do it at home. They're like, oh, it's cheaper to cook at home, but I don't think they realize can you share with this a little bit on that insight about what you're talking about, because some people are like, but what do you mean nutritionally or better for my brain? Or like just the difference because some people like, oh, let's go home for dinner has such a ring to it,
Oh we got to stay home tonight for dinner. Sometimes I don't think people have that sense of appreciation of just the value of staying home for dinner. That's huge. It is huge right here now we're winning, Okay, we're getting into long to have. Those are not all the questions we talked about. No, it's no, it's not that. It's just like there's so much in there, you know, like, yeah, the flavor of food. It's it's part of the slow food movement. I think we got
that hashtag slow food movement. That's you've heard it, Yeah, Mary tell us about this. Yeah, it's it's part of slowing down in your in your life, like they talk about not scrolling all the time, like put on the music, you know, invite some people over and enjoy your food. You know, restaurants are are often loud and busy, and you can't always relax unless you're rich and get the private dining room in the back corner. Yeah, it's it's part of just slowing down and enjoying your food.
Some people eat really slowly, you know, like just chew your food and enjoy it. Like my husband eats really fast, and it's like slow down, slow down. But yeah, and I guess it's it's just inviting people to find a simple recipe. Make a salad. You don't go to the store and buy a beautiful head of lettuce. You know, some nice fresh, right red tomatoes. Find the reddest tomatoes, whether they're little ones or
big ones. Get the reddest one. You know, a nice cucumber, and smell the cucumber when you cut it, like, you know, cucumber smells so good. And maybe try a mango cud a mango and put that in your salad, you know, try something different, and some sprouts, and a nice salad dressing. I often don't make my own salad dressing because we buy a range of them. But yes, salad dressing can be simple.
But that's something else. But yeah, just put together a nice salad, turn on the music, set a place at the table, and sit down and eat and enjoy your food. And I invite people to just just start with a simple salad and taste it. I love that slow food movement because, Okay, I know that a lot of our listeners are entrepreneurs adventurists taking on the mission. You know, what can we do? I know someone that listens to our show while they're doing yoga, which is awesome,
thank you very much. But there's a lot of people working from home that eat standing up in between meetings. Right. They run to the kitchen, They're like, oh, I'm kind of hungry a little bit. They stand there, they show some food in their face, and they get back to their desk. Yeah, what's your opinion on eating at your desk while you're working? Do I need to ask you these? This is truth, right,
this is you know, hashtag real truth around food. But I don't probably know how nourishing that is. Maybe, well, I think that's where smoothies come in, right, Yeah, buy a really nice splendor. If you're a successful entrepreneurur, you can you can invest in one of those beautiful big ones and just put put a whole bunch of stuff together, find a recipe. And I haven't made it smoothie in a while, but I know that some people make them put them in the fridge. You could portion them
out into the bottles. And yeah, if you have a busy day with back to back meetings, have some smoothies put together ahead of time. And yeah, sometimes that's the way life is to get us squished in. And yeah, it's just taking that time, that prep time. When you have some time available, make a few smoothies or something easy so that you can get something more nourishing in between, because that'll help keep your energy up for those meetings as well. You know, I'm sure you know, you get
through all those meetings and you're just wiped. If you can have a smoothie, a good, solid, nourishing smoothie in between, then your energy is going to stay good right through the last meeting. Well, here's the that I like in our conversation is that there has been just a multitude of different pieces of advice that you've given that some people are really going to blomp onto.
And I think that's where the personal cooking coach comes from. It's like, look, it's like going to a trainer, right, Like I know I should and I want to, but I don't know where to start. And I look at all these weights in the gym, and I'm intimidated my ground. You know, my uncle isn't Jamie Oliver. You know, I don't watch the Food channel, like I look at pictures of food and go, hmmm, someone probably put that together and that would never be me.
So I think, you know, eating is necessary, but it can be also pleasurable, and it can also be nutritious, and I don't think it needs to be from what I've heard, it doesn't need to be expensive. There's things like time batching and even just that whole thing like I can't get my kid to eat their lunch because their food is touching and you're like, oh, well that's easy, go get a bento box, and they're like,
what the heck is a bento box? Like those kind of things can make a whole big of differ between you know, a kid coming home and hasn't eaten their lunch and their mom's like, I'm wasting food, And honestly, there's just some really simple solutions. And I think that the nice thing about having a cooking coach is you can take I can take my lifestyle and have a conversation with you with my lifestyle. You know, I start here. I start here. My kid has food allergies to this, you know,
da da da. I'm finding them cooking three different meals. My kids don't want to eat, like all those things that people come up against, which is about, you know, the battle within to learn something new. But as a cooking coach, you're giving them those things that allow them to do what we all know that we need to do. I mean, this is not like, oh, really, we all need to eat better,
we all need to eat healthy. I you know, my aribated coach is like, you know, get up from your desk, go to your living room, leave your phone in your you know, your office, and go have that twenty minute just I'm going to have a snack. I'm going to eat my lunch have it at the same time. Like all those little things that we yeah, the decompression that happens. So many people are shoveling food right like you know, I call my son a vacuum. Now he's twenty
and he shoves his food in his face. And I don't think he does it for any other reason. Then you know, he just shoves his food in his face, you know, like you know, he's not mature enough yet. To understand and appreciate. But I think those are all the things that you're telling us that solves the solution for people. And even you know, if someone is busy, that whole this is you know, it's a technique where you go and do something what people consider brainless, to let your
brain decompress and relax. And there's nothing like going And can you talk to people about food batching time blocking for food batching, Like it's easy to say, well, you can make all your food in one in one hour for the week or whatever it is, which are people are like, yeah, it doesn't it go bad? And I don't know how to like, can you talk about food batching a little bit because I think we think people know
what it is, but I don't think they do. Food batching is actually picking a time in your schedule where you have a few hours to be able to make meals that you can make through during the week, and some of them can be frozen. They only take a day or two to thought out. It's usually a time first of all, you go shopping and pick up
what you need before that. Even is meal planning, you know, figuring out what you're going to make, maybe invite a friend or two where I know someone that gets together every Sunday with a friend and they get together and make food to help with the week. Some people they just chop a big pile of onions and celery and their vegetables so that it's easier to cook during
the week. So it can be very simple as chopping, pre chopping your vegetables and putting them in the fridge, or some things can be frozen, but just pre chopping your vegetables so or having them cleaned up. I like having my salary container and I've trained my husband to clean up the celery so that I can just go in the fridge and grab a couple of pieces of celery, so when you get home from shopping, prep some of your vegetables
and that they're easier to prepare during the week. But also the batching.
There's of course Facebook sites and YouTube channels that show that. And there was one woman that laid out she made them for kids too, So she made the egg wraps and so she had her paper out, I think it was nine pieces of the paper and she did all this egg meals and then put them in the freezer and then the kids could get up in the morning, pop it in the microwave for I think it was a minute thirty seconds way whatever they figured out it needed, and the kid could eat on the way
to school, which is not sitting at the table relaxing and eating, but it works for them. Yeah, there's different ways of doing it. You just have to feed. You have to look at your schedule, when are you available to do the work. One of my friends, one person I worked with, would they did their shopping on Sundays, so Sunday afternoon they would do a bit of prep and Mondays she was often home either doing housework
or entrepreneur type work that she would do at home. So we had her putting on the slow cooker in the morning on Monday mornings and she was able to make a bigger meal, say chili or you know, some kind of stew, and then the extra would be frozen so that later in the week when they were really busy, they could take that meal out of the freezer
and just heat it up, which I call it heat and serve. And you can get nice little containers and they stack up in the freezers so they don't take a lot of space, they don't end up all over the place and and yeah, you can. You can do a batch by just putting
on the slow cooker. And there's books of slow cooker recipes where people have rewritten the recipes so that there they taste better, they cook better, Like it used to be that everything went in at the very beginning, the raw meat and the vegetables, and the vegetables would be overcooked and the meat is not seared, and yeah, it's they were kind of gross. But you can find really good cookbooks for slow cooking and get it. Get a slow cooker, and but you have to put some some planning into it. It
starts with meal planning and what do you like to eat? You know what, what can you get your local store? How can you adapt for the recipe if you find something. It sounds to me very like probably the first decision is just making a decision to eat better, care for yourself a little more, recognize and do something about the fact that we need to take care of our bodies. They are taking care of us and that food for the most point, port but the most point is our nutrition, like it's our
fuel. And so really I think it's the same kind of decision we take when we're going to bed a little earlier because we know we need sleep. It's the same mindset around getting some exercise. It's the same mindset around hanging around with good people because it affects how we feel. And also that it's just a piece of self care and basic nutrition. People call it like it's a basic nutrition, and I think eating well is a basic nutrition. It's
basic need. Is there anything else that you want to share with us before we kind of go into some I'm going to ask you a question or two that's kind of maybe off other than I would love to hear what your favorite pastime is. My favorite pastime. I like going out in the garden. I like just stepping out the door. I just took a deep breath and, like you say, decompress. It just helps me relax. We have a marvelous bird feeder, so I get to watch the birds flittering around.
And yeah, we grow a lot of our own food, and I just really like being out there nourishing the garden and working in the garden. We grow right now, we're hard, well we're not today because it's snowing, but we have we have carrots and beets in the garden that we can pull up and they're just marvelous. And we also in the garage we have our
garlic and onions and squash from now from the garden in the summertime. And yeah, I just love being out in the garden and also have a couple of nice cape con chairs where you can just sit back and relax and drink my smoothie and relax and have you know, read or listen to music. Yeah, I like being out in the garden. Good for the soul. Good for the soul. Well, anything else food or personal chef or cooking that you want to talk about before we kind of start to wrap up here,
dont thinks. So I just encourage people to consider close your eyes and where does food sit in your life? You know, just think about where does it sit in your life and how can you change or improve it or inspire yourself to discover something different. Yeah, that's awesome. That'd make for a great meditation. All right, great lead into a self care retreat. Oh, I know one of those that's going on. Okay, so we're going So look, we talked a little bit about music today and the power
of music. Get a band anyone knows or has watched the show before they all know that. I think music's probably been my best therapist. So you, Ms Mary, if you were on your way to go to one of these gorgeous trips, maybe you're going to keep cod who knows, but you're on your way to go to a desert island and it's you and you, and you've got room for one suitcase and that one record album or one piece of music in that suitcase before you go. What are you taking with you?
Wow, that's hard. I think. I think I'm going back to Bruno Mars an uptown funk, because that one gets me all the time. When I'm going to start cooking, I'll put on Bruno Mars and dance around the living room in the kitchen and just enjoy myself to cook. All right, you heard it here uptown funk. Now we're all gonna put on some uptown funk and make ourselves some beautiful, healthy food. Thank you so much for sharing your time with us today and your wisdom and what an incredible journey.
And I think people listening never really saw the multifacets of cooking and food and important and self care and nutrition and ideas right, and it doesn't need to be grand, right, it doesn't need to be grand. You talked about throwing a mango and your salad to spice it up a little bit, and just the power of hashtag slow food. I love that. It's going to be my little phrase for a little bit here. Mary. You're gonna get sicky hearing about it. So look, listeners and viewers, thank you
so much for tuning in today. We so appreciate you, and we know you appreciate us because you let us know. So keep doing that. Share this information that's come help people live and eat better and have more fuel. And we are here to help people like Mary get their word out and we can only do that with your help, So please send this out. This is a fundamental podcast that all people need to read or not read, need
to hear and watch. So thank you again. Anna. You know we got this big party going on. It's the two hundred and sixty two. If you want to be on the show, if you want to be in the book, if you want to be on the stage, you need to go to Depth Drummond dot com and just fill up that contact and get in touch with me. It's not difficult. It's dep at Deep drummond dot com. It's Dev drummond dot com. I guess what my name is, Dev Drummond. So thanks for being you. Until we meet you again, you
be weill and you stay groovy. Thank you Mary for joining us today. Bye bye