A Hot Dog Is a Sandwich - Is Meal Prepping A Scam?

Episode Date: October 19, 2022

Today, we're talking about meal prepping and DOOMSDAY PREPPING. But mostly DOOMSDAY PREPPING!! Leave us a voicemail at (833) DOG-POD1 To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This, this, this, this is Mythical. I got 200 pounds of dried salt beef, enough fresh water to last one year in a bunker that could withstand a one kiloton nuclear blast. Josh, this podcast is about meal prepping, not doomsday prepping. Aw man, I gotta return some gently used body armor now. This is A Hot Dog is a Sandwich. Ketchup is a smoothie. Yeah, I put ice in my cereal, so what? That makes no sense. A hot dog is a sandwichwich. Ketchup is a smoothie. Yeah, I put ice in my cereal, so what? That makes no sense.

A hot dog is a sandwich. A hot dog is a sandwich. What? Welcome to our podcast, A Hot Dog is a Sandwich, the show where we break down the world's biggest food debates. I'm your host, Josh Scher. And I'm your host, Nicole, and I... And today we are talking about doomsday prepping.

Nicole, I didn't have time to rewrite it. Just freaking give me a chance here. We're talking about doomsday prepping. We are talking about the ethics of eating your fellow Nicole, I didn't have time to rewrite it. Just freaking give me a chance here. We're talking about doomsday prepping. We were talking about the ethics of eating your fellow man in the event of a zombie apocalypse. Nicole, what do you think? I don't want to talk about that, but did you know that David told me

one of the reasons why he married me is because he believes that I could be able to withstand a zombie apocalypse? Did you know that about me? Like, it's one of his favorite reasons. I don't know. I just look the part. Act the part. I don't know. I just look the part, act the part. I don't know. You act the part in the sense that you are like the underdog in the movie that nobody expects to survive.

See, that's your problem. What do you mean? You think I'm the underdog. In a zombie apocalypse, yeah, you're like. Maybe I'm the overdog. No, but you're okay. I have a very unique set of skills. I know how to sew and cook.

Do you know how to sew? I know how to, well, a button and a hole in my jeans. No, hear me out. In the movie, you're literally like, Nicole's from Beverly Hills. We tried to ask you what your hobbies were the other day and you were like, getting my nails done, getting a massage, ooh, getting pedicures. Like, Nicole, those

aren't hobbies. Those are personal care services that you pay for. I'm working on it. I know, but I'm saying you're not like the stereotypical gonna survive the apocalypse. That's why the many- I don't look like Rick Grahams. Are you trying to tell me that I'm not like Rick Grahams?

No, literally, I'm not kidding. Today we are talking about meal prepping. Yeah. Whether or not it's a scam and people get sucked into it like a cult. Okay. Well, I mean, I don't really know. Maybe it is.

Maybe I'm coming into this with a spiritual backing. Like the idea of meal prepping, so attractive, so easy. You just do a sundae. You just do your sundae. You cook a bunch of rice and you cook a bunch of meat in a crock pot and then you dole out veggies, and then you maybe have like one little side thing for each one. So it's a little bit different. But in reality, like my life is not set up like that. I cannot meal prep to save my life. I've tried it many times in different iterations throughout my life. I've tried it for a month. I've tried it for a week.

I've tried it for even a few days. To be honest, I need variety in my diet so I feel something and like cook actively. I like to cook every day. I get that. I do too. It all depends what you mean by meal prepping, right? Yeah. Because like when I think of meal prepping, one, I follow, God, so many like gym, bodybuilder type content creators. Sure. I have two before. Yeah. And you just unfollow them all? No, I still like follow, I still like have them on like my feet, but I don't like

absorb it. I mean, it's still on my feet though. Their version of meal prepping is like you cook, you weigh out the chicken breast, you weigh out exactly eight ounces of chicken breast per portion, and then you're measuring out a cup of rice, you weigh it all on the food scale, and you put it in their very specific meal prep containers. They're the black

plastic ones with the white clear cover with the white clear. No, clear is clear. Yeah. Those like everybody knows those are the meal prep thing. You could just use a Tupperware, but it's like, are they throwing them out after first use? I don't hope not. I wash all of mine. Oh, same here. And you put anything red in there and they're just stained for forever. And that's fine because that is the price you pay. But that type of meal prepping is, to me, unless you're living the aesthetics lifestyle and that is your whole goal. And I know people who do that and that's rad. And I know people for whom food isn't that sort of pleasure.

Joy, yeah. Yeah, they don't get joy out of that variety. Then that's super rad but for like most people food for those who say like food is just fuel for the body it's like okay that would be nice if that were the case you can't neglect like literally thousands upon thousands of years of human history and evolution and culture and ritual and the fact that like people have been playing with their food and new flavors for literally forever you're right right but is there a way to marry those two things? You know, I've tried it with like truncated meal prepping. So like, for example, and a great example of meal prepping is like making a big pot of like, I don't know, pulled chicken.

Yeah. Is that like in your instant? No, I know what you mean. Yeah. You know what I mean? And you recycle that chicken. Like one day you have tacos. One day you have a casserole. You put it in a salad. You know what I mean? And you recycle that chicken. Like one day you have tacos. One day you have a casserole.

You put it in a salad. You know what I mean? That does not work for my household. Why not? At this current time in my life. The way that I like to operate in my household with my partner is like I just cook. I'm the cook of the house. And that's fine.

I mean, he makes butter toast in the mornings for me, which is very nice. Aw, David, sweetie. Yeahid sweetie yeah that's very nice but um when i come home from work i'm cooking and i'm cooking meals that are normally an hour and a half to two and a half hours of of actual like prep slash cooking but you're doing that every night hour and a half to two hours i would i do it other than you could be driving uber man you You could be making money. My car is too dirty. But honestly, I mean, it just kind of centers me and I enjoy the act of like opening and cooking rice from scratch. I used to use frozen rice, but now I cook my rice from scratch. Wait, you use a minute rice or rice rice?

No, I'm using rice rice. Like I make my own rice from scratch now. Even though I don't necessarily have all the time in the world, I do take that time to make my own rice from scratch now um even though i don't necessarily have all the time in the world i do take that time to make my own rice i do take that time to cook my own chicken breasts to defrost whatever i have to defrost for the next day so yeah i i know i'm kind of an outlier in that for me for meal prepping but like like have you ever had salmon that's five days old in the fridge oh boy have i boy is that good well no that's why i asked if you can marry the two because i i've been sucked into i thought that i could live my utopian lifestyle dream of like i don't

count my macros like you know uh macros are protein fat carbohydrate that's how a lot of gym type people do it i tried once i was like i'm gonna give this a solid month and i'm going you remember do you remember this? I remember you went vegan for a month. I don't remember counting your macros for a month. You just ate tacos every day. When I was vegan? Yeah. That's what I remember. You get vegan tortillas and they're made with a vegetable lard. Man, you can roast

any type of vegetable and put it in there. It was great. But no, I tried actually meal prepping and every day I would come into work with my little black plastic container. I even bought those stupid containers because I was like, this is going to manifest it for me. Yeah. And Julia and I, every Sunday we would go out shopping.

I would plan the meals. We literally, we had a scale and we'd measure ingredients. I did that too. But what I tried to do, because people who do the broccoli rice chicken thing, that's very easy. You put chicken on a sheet pan. If you don't care about what it tastes like, you season up some thawne sashimi, something that tastes a little bit good. You'll have a like calorie-free sauce.

Mustard. Soy sauce mustard, which is Nick Scarvellis, man. I watched you just put mustard on white rice and eat it while we were watching an XFL game in the stands. That was weird, brother. Yeah, mustard, hot sauce, and lemon juice is like the secret sauce for a lot of people. But I tried to like make really complex dishes. i'd make like korean short rib stew and so every sunday was literally julia with a spreadsheet and me like barking out ingredients like it needs an extra quarter teaspoon of sesame oil and she's like that's nine calories i gotta divide it by five i swear it was soul-sucking

man yeah yeah but like if you have a goal and it'll help you reach your goals, if that's less time dedicated in the kitchen, if that's spending less money by going out to eat, if it's, you know, for health purposes, if you can do it, kudos to you. Do I think it's a scam? Maybe. I don't know. I think the scam is defined by the self delusion, right? Because anything, right? Because anything works. Skincare routines, those all probably work if you do it every single day. I mean, check it out.

Cardio-based programs, detox, juice cleanse, all these things. Are those real? I don't think detox is real. No, but if you drink juice every day instead of eating a, you know, bacon, egg and cheese sandwich for breakfast, yeah, you're probably going to notice some differences. Yeah. But the things that don't allow for wiggle room, like that's where you start to get in weird territory.

Yeah. When people are like, oh, I'm going to do this five days a week, every single day, you get to that, man, that fifth portion of salmon on Friday. And you just like gag, like you open it and you, you know what I mean? You open it and you gag. And then you create like a pretty negative response to the food and start to resent it. And so I can never go back to that. But like you were saying, if you're trying to like go out to dinner less or something, but say you have five meals prepped and then somebody invites you out to dinner. And what do you do? And then you're like, well, and then you go out to dinner and then you get the meal prep and then you're like well

you know saturday i have like you know a family thing and then you're at sunday and you're like i made this literally seven days ago and like probably shouldn't the the fumes have started to like bloat the lid and you're like but i'm i'm just gonna chance it need it because i don't want to waste the food god dang it and then you do it and then you wonder if you have botulism i've been there yeah it's not a fun place to be but what. God dang it. And then you do it. And then you wonder if you have botulism. I've been there. Yeah. It's not a fun place to be. But what about, what about?

So there's a lot of people talk. What is it? Michael Pollan did like Vegan Before Five or something. Is that him you're talking about? Oh, that book. Is that like a book blog thing? Yeah. He's one of those book blog guys.

Smart people with the words, you know. Shut up. No, but he wrote, he wrote. Yeah, Popular Diet. Did he coin the term oh that's mark bitman mark bitman did the vegan before five thing but like the whole idea of like reducitarianism as opposed to like veganism okay would not eating any animal products probably be good for the world like sure i mean there's a lot of different things regenerative agriculture and

yada yada but like you know net net net that's probably gonna be a good thing but are people ever gonna do that no so if you tell someone you got to go vegan or you're a piece of crap they're gonna like i will suck on this i'm gonna eat 16 hot dogs now to spite you but if you go like hey you can do things to reduce your amount of meat consumption sure you know meatless mondays are a thing on college campuses i do meatless mondays no, I eat like two pounds of animal flesh a day. Damn it, I forgot I had chicken. But I ate a salad if it was a chicken salad. Like I try to, I understand this concept

and I try to impart parts of these things in my life. But I think it's the mundane and the exhausting and you're opening the same lid and it makes the same noise. But what if there's like a flexitarian version of that? Is there? Y'all, I'm addressing the audience right now. This is called a soliloquy, breaking the fourth wall.

Yes, Hamlet. Hamlet, baby, give me a skull. No, I mean, the reason I want to talk about this is because, I don't know, people out there are probably looking for actual cooking tips. Sure. Cooking is a skill that people are using less and less. Like data supports that. People enjoy cooking less and less.

People are working longer hours, more jobs, more stress, more convenience foods are out there, but also food waste is at an all-time high. So I think like giving people practical cooking tips, probably a good thing. Yeah. You know?

And so I'm a big fan. I've started doing like this flexible meal prep situation. Okay. Where I'll meal prep like three to four meals per business week per five day week period yes okay and then weekends are out the window i might go to the farmer's market sure weekends or breakfast burrito whatever i get it um but i'll do like three to four meals and i'll like do what you were talking about earlier where you take chicken thighs and

you one i just i've just been roasting a lot of chicken thighs i love i love chicken thighs yeah but i'll put on like a neutral spice base. And I'll generally marinate it because marinating chicken is just a good thing. And I'll put on like a neutral spice base. I'll roast them off. And then I'll keep them in the fridge. And then I'll be like, all right, now I have a building block. I create like building blocks, right?

Yeah. That's how it should be. Yeah. Yeah. But why don't you do that? Why don't you think that works? I just, I like variety. David likes variety. But you don't think you could have works i it's i just i like variety david likes variety but you

don't think you could have like an infinite amount of variety in like you have to understand the houses that we came from like we're from two moms that were home all day and they cooked and they cooked well yeah and every day was a new food it was it just was yeah so you're like you're trying to like recapture that too i try to recapture some of it but also i'm a realist and i i work i leave the house at seven i come home at seven yeah yeah so you know there's there's there's moments where it's like hey man i'm just gonna you know defrost this really quick or yeah hey man just go get sweet green before you come home or there's like situation or like hey is your mom making dinner like there's there's

that too but but i don't think putting the label scam on it is is appropriate yeah because meal prepping isn't a scam it's a tool no i generally agree with that and i think like if you don't i'm gonna call it capital m capital p meal prepping right which is five days a week making the same hardcore yeah also i am the person who put out a video about my uh egg bars where i bake like polarizing 30 eggs those were some polarizing egg they were great here's the thing for me for nobody who saw this video here's my breakfast meal prep i don't do it anymore because now i just eat protein bars and i'll drink pre-workout i just gotta walk out in the morning uh but sometimes i'll take like two dozen eggs and i'll whisk it up with like a little bit of cheese.

I'll cook some mushroom, spinach, tomato, onion, some turkey breakfast sausage, nice and healthy and flavorful. Mix that in, put it in a nine by 13 baking dish with some parchment on the bottom, bake it until it's cooked, flip it over and cut it into bars and then wrap it in foil.

And then you got a perfectly portable egg bar. Who doesn't love egg bar? And then after day four, they get a weird gray on them close your eyes when you eat it if you don't like the weird gray ring around your eggs just kidding nobody does um well yeah also uh speaking of um having tips just go to the dollar store and buy the buy the meal prepping containers from the dollar store oh yeah like do not buy the expensive ones that are 15 dollars per 15 you don't need them buy the one dollar packs from the dollar store i cannot emphasize that enough that's one very important

thing about meal prepping what do you think? You seem pretty disconnected from the needs of the people, Nicole. Yep. At least I'm entertaining when I do it. No, but if you were to give people at home right now, like, the most practical cooking tip to improve their lives, what would it be? My issue is that I'm not big on practicality. No, I feel that. I like to just, like, push myself to the furthest possible

limit and then just kind of like collapse i know but like certainly you can you because i i generally agree with that like when people are like how do you cook an easy weeknight meal and it's like well i can do that and i do sometimes but also i'm a person who like i have this three-hour recipe then i'm gonna come home and start at 7 p.m and we're gonna eat at 10 because it's something i really wanted to make it to try. Yeah. You know what I mean?

I don't do that anymore. I kind of truncate it to about an hour and 15 minutes at this point. Yeah, that's odd. I mean, I always see, I'm just not a practical person. I cut, you don't understand. How much could a banana cost, Michael? $10? No, no, no.

See, I'm not talking from a place of privilege. I'm talking from a place of, if I don't cut a vegetable today, I won't feel like I did a good job. So I don't buy pre-cut veggies. I don't buy my, like, for example, like some people buy, here, here's one. You want to eat carrots? Use baby carrots. Baby carrots are just whittled down regular carrots. Is that a good one?

Baby carrots are the same as regular carrots. They're just whittled down and the outside tough layer is removed. So you're welcome. Don't they like, there was something about it. And they're like, they spray bleach on them or something. I'm down, whatever. So I don't care. Yeah, I don't care about that.

Like I buy my celery whole with the leaves on it. I buy my bell peppers. I buy those fresh and I remove the seeds and do all the things. Like, I don't do a lot of. I get, hold on. I thought this podcast was going to be about, like, giving practical cooking tips to people. Oh, pops it. Now, this is trying to give practical cooking tips to ourselves.

Because I don't buy any pre-cut vegetables. I don't buy. I have garlic. But, like, I'm, I mean, chopping so much fresh garlic. I chop fresh garlic, yeah. So much. And it's killing me, Nicole. It's killing so much time. It's killing me. I i could be uh communing with my fiance not like that well i mean i guess yeah

the amount of time that i chop that much garlic yeah you know a little you know yeah you know shower it's like a weeknight weeknight you know you're both just you got stuff to do um wait i'm sorry what i'm saying the opportunity cost of us like our own vegetables. I don't buy pre-made sauces because I feel like a fraud. I buy pre-made sauce. I will, but like... Mongolian barbecue simmer sauce. It's very good. No, I will literally get just like

ginger, garlic, sugar, soy, make my own cornstarch slurry. I do that too. I'm going to the gym in the morning. I'm generally going to gym at night. We're eating at like 9pm. Miserable, right? What's going on? How night. We're eating at like 9 p.m. Miserable, right? What's going on? How do we stop this?

I don't know. Do we like- Should we just- Freaking meal prep? Is this where we're going? I think what we have to do is have a meal prep service sponsor a podcast. No, I feel like one- Josh, Josh, Josh, listen.

Oh, go ahead. Go ahead. I'm trying to help you out. Okay, go ahead. Trying to help myself too. We got to get one of these like cool like, I don't know, like Margo fit, whatever. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't even know what Margo fit is.

You're talking about one of like the gym ones? One of the gym ones. One of the gym rat ones, yeah. The gym rat ones and they deliver it to your door sometimes. I actually worked in a commissary kitchen and I shared my space with those gym rat sweet potato mofos. Dude, they are the sweet potato eating mofos the sweet potato eating mofos that put like a garnish of kale and maybe like two like red pepper flakes in there

like okay so like I understand those people and I think we should just give them a chance Josh let them cook for us but I feel like the sodium levels they're gonna be too high it's okay wait hold on me and Julie got in a discussion cause she was like I just fill a salt well it's giant it's okay wait hold on me and julie got in a discussion because she was like i i just

fill a salt well it's giant it's like a 16 ounce salt well and it's done in less than a month and i'm like that's a lot of salt to put in things and i told julia that and she was like yeah well it's still not nearly as much salt as like restaurant food or prepared foods and i was like and i was like no it is we cook like restaurants yes and that's our problem correct it is. We cook like restaurants. Yes. And that's our problem. Correct. It is so hard to cook conservatively, I'll say. Yeah. When you know that the recipe would be better with so much salt, so much butter, so much X, Y, and Z. It's really hard.

I was making chili to impress Julia's boss. Shout out Bill O'Dowd. Hey, Bill. We love you, Dolphin Entertainment. I've heard so much about you. His favorite food is chili. And Julia was like, and literally he used to work with's boss. Shout out Bill O'Dowd. Hey, Bill. We love you, Dolphin Entertainment. I've heard so much about you. His favorite food is chili. And Julia was like, and literally he used to work with Rachel Ray.

My favorite meat is hot dogs. Sorry. Go ahead. Continue. He used to work with Rachel Ray. And he was like, Rachel Ray's chili is the best I've ever had. Let's see if you can beat it kind of thing.

And I cooked for his birthday. And so I was like, I got to really crush this chili. And so literally I made the base. I toasted the chilies, I ground them in powder, I sauteed that in the beef fat to sweat it down and aromatize it, yada, yada, did all this stuff.

And then we had the base built, I was happy with the consistency and it was like, all right, now, now's where you make the money. This is seasoning time. And so you gotta add salt early, but this is like final seasoning. So I'm like adding salt,

add a couple drops of vinegar, stir it, taste it, salt, vinegar. So I'm like adding salt, add a couple drops of vinegar, stir it, taste it. Salt, vinegar. Okay, this can be countered by a little bit of like sugar, you know? I know, I know. And you're tasting it constantly. You're refreshing your palate. But people don't cook that way.

They do not. Especially on the weekdays, and you shouldn't. They crack their everything seasoning that they got from Kirkland. They crack it over their vegetables three times and they call it a day. Well, that's, I mean. I can't do that. I can't do that. On weeknight meals, I do that because I work out so much.

Yeah. There are days where I'll like get ahead of myself and I'll think I want to cook something ambitious. Yeah. But like the meal that I eat the most is like, I take chicken thighs and I literally just dust them in Tony Sachery's and I let them sit for, this is seriously, this is how the Tony Sachery's bit became a thing on the show is because like I lived, yeah, I lived for an entire year without salt and pepper and just

Tony Sachery's. That's wild. I exclusively use that. Weird time of my life. But yeah, I will dust a chicken and Tony Sachery's and then I will take like broccoli and I will just cut it up roast it with some olive oil Tony Sashry's on it and then I will stir together yogurt and hot sauce

and I dip it all in that yeah but surely there's gotta be something more noble more dignified when people ask me what my signature dish is

I truly don't have one like you know how like during bachelor like things where they're like David what's the best meal Nicole's ever cooked for you and he's like I don Bachelorette, like, things are like, David, what's the best meal Nicole's ever cooked for you?

And he's like, I don't have an answer. Wait, you don't have? I don't have, like, a signal. Well, what do you think he would say? He said, like, go-to jang chicken. And I made it, like, three times. But, like, so what? Why are you?

No, no, no, no, no. Not so what? Not so what? Why are you writing yourself off? Because, like, I don't cook one thing more than, like, three times. Really? I don't. You don't have, like, any go-tos? I don't like to thing more than like three times. Really? I don't. You don't have like any go-tos.

I don't like to cook that way. Interesting. I like to cook new things all the time to keep myself interested in it. Yeah. Because I do it for a job, right? No, true. So it's my job to counterbalance that in a weird way by continuing to create in the privacy of my own home. Yeah, yeah.

And like sometimes i get some hits sometimes i get some misses i get a lot of hits i got lots of hits but see that's another thing like i can't meal prep it doesn't work for my my situation yeah it just doesn't it doesn't it doesn't do it's it doesn't meet its purpose for for me or my family yeah that makes any sense no that, that's interesting. Yeah, I've never made something three times. Like I've made a green curry twice. I've made gochujang chicken three times.

I've made meatballs twice. Yeah, you screwed up the meatballs. You screwed up the meatballs. I screwed up turkey meatballs, but then I made meatballs out of like beef and they were fine. Also, like, you know, being kosher in the kitchen, very challenging, but it's fun. It's a nice little, it's a nice little test. Yeah. To see how I can do. Also, all the food is all too salty.

Oh yeah, because you got to salt the meats for kosher, right? You got to salt the meats. So yeah, but I don't know. I mean, maybe, maybe this podcast is teaching you that I don't need to put all my energy into cooking something new every day. It's okay if you eat chicken that was made three days ago. Maybe it's okay. I think I thought of a practical cooking tip.

What's up, Josh? Because this is now just us trying to psychoanalyze each other and trying to make us feel okay about the way that we live our lives, which is great, and we love it. We're very happy. I don't mind. No, we're just happy. But, okay, so we try and eat healthy.

We try and not cook red meat in the house just because it's like, well, we ate a whole lamb wellington that turns out was meant for four people at a restaurant on Saturday. And we just crushed it after three appetizers. That's nice. So we live like that during the weekend. And, you know, we kind of have some little carbon offsets in the weekday. And so I eat a lot of ground turkey. So I'll get a three-pound tub of ground turkey, which is actually kind of expensive.

It's like $5.99 a pound when you can buy chicken thighs for cheaper. All food is expensive. All food is expensive. Food is expensive these days.99 a pound when you can buy chicken thighs for cheaper. All food is expensive. Food is expensive these days. Yeah. And I make a ton of meatballs in them. But I've probably made Julia meatballs, I mean, maybe probably 30, 35 times. No way.

That's like three years, dude. That's 100 days. That's like, what, 3% of days we're eating meatballs? Yeah, that's a pretty good estimate. I love meatballs. We love meatballs. We bond over them. Oh, my gosh.

But almost every culture has a meatball, right? Yeah. Sure, yeah. Everyone. You got frickendell. You got chatbola. You got succine. You got polpette from Italy.

Like there's just so many different kinds of meatballs. So I'll take the three pounds of ground turkey. And if I'm bored of meatballs, you know, if I'm bored of Italian meatballs with like garlic, chili flake, basil, all that, then it's like, cool, let's add some Thai flavors here. Let's grate some ginger in there. You know, let's, I don't know, add like soy, fish sauce, sugar, Thai basil, stuff like that. And so like if you view cooking like algebra, like, hey, here are component parts and then

you can add variables. You know, that's what I've done to keep our marriage fresh. You're not married yet. I know. One day. One day we'll get that ring. Josh, do you think people that meal prep are happier than people that don't meal prep? Because this podcast is all about finding happiness, right?

That's a good question. Well, okay. Here's the thing. What's up? When you analyze data, I was talking about this recently with like people who go to college make more money, right? But that's not necessarily because like, oh, they got smarter or even they're more qualified. To me, the confounding variable is they probably grew up with money. My confounding variable with going to college is you just make connections.

That too. But I think a lot of this stuff can be like conflated with the variable of like, if you grew up with money, you're more likely to get an education and you're more likely to make money if you grew up with money. Like that's the thing. It's like you are more likely to have fewer cavities if you went to college. It's like, well, yeah, it's because you only got money and you probably grew up going to the dentist and know how to do that and all that. So people who meal prep, are they happier? I think maybe if you have the capacity every Sunday to kill an entire day to meal prep, you are probably happier than other people because you have that much sort of free time. Not to say everybody who meal preps is like swimming in free time.

I know there's people that hustle and grind for it. But what if, Josh, the people who are not spending their Sundays cooking at cooking at home like pounds of stuff they're out i don't know in the sunshine could be doing that reading a book could be doing that toes dipping in the water of the ocean we don't know these people but this the fact is that data point exists are they happier than not i think they are i think meal prep people are happier than not? I think they are. I think meal prep people are happier than non-meal prep people. Is it because they are comfortable living their lives a week at a time and like just planning ahead for the future? I think so. And I think ultimately, does that lead to longer term happiness?

I guess. I wish I could be these overnight oat mofos. Oh, my God. Overnight oat mofos. They got, oh, they got. No, okay. Because they're not just like soaking oats in almond milk. There's like, oh, we got the cheese.

We got the flax. We got the craisins. I have both of those things at home. Oh, the pumpkin seeds. Oh, the pumpkin seeds. The pitas. Get out of here. No.

Like, no, I could never. But like, I bet they feel a sense of accomplishment that is significantly different than me waking up just like blind at 545 every morning, like scrambling to feed my cat and dump pre-workout into a mug and hop in my car to, you know, drive 25 miles to work. I feel like they probably get a sense of daily joy out of that, that we, I think, make up for in creating, say, a new dish at 8.30 PM on a Wednesday, even though it's late, you know, we made it in creating, say, a new dish at 8.30 p.m. on a Wednesday, even though it's late. You know, we made it.

We made lobster soup dumplings. That's, no, that's not a weekday. That's no weekday. That's a weekend. What? Lobster soup dumplings? Dude, I made like a lobster scampi xiaolongbao. Wow.

It was pretty rad. That's cool. So I was like, why can't you take other flavors and put them in a soup dumpling? David and I made chicken wings because it was football Sunday. Oh, that's rad. It was nice. That's fun. He helped and it was nice.

Yeah? Yeah. Well, I have asked, here's the point in the podcast where I talk crap on my fiancee who I love more than anybody I've ever loved in this world. You're not talking smack. If she offers to cook for me, if I'm really running late at work or gym or something, if she offers to cook for me, because we do the You Cook, I Clean. Nice. Yeah. I like to ask her, hey, don't. Just go get food. work or gym or something if she offers to cook for me because we do the you cook i clean nice yeah i i like i like ask her hey don't just go get food yeah because like i don't want to clean up after you that's fine because not because i'm like oh i don't think i should clean up but

because when she it's a war zone and i like i don't i've tried to watch it happen yeah i've tried to watch like how does the rice get on the floor like how are the onion like there's just like an entire onion in the garbage disposal and it's clogged. How'd the whole onion get? It's not even peeled. It just rolled. It just rolled.

And broccoli, if she cuts broccoli, it exploded. It's like she threw it against the wall. And I love her very much and I love the fact that she wants to care for me through food, but then there's 19 pans dirty and I'm like,

you didn't like that pan? Why is there fish residue on four pans? You only need one pan to cook fish. What happened? And so that's when it's Zanku chicken time, baby family meal deal for like 26 bucks. So Josh, answer the question. Is meal prepping a scam?

All in all, no. If you are somebody who can do it and who is satisfied with your life, et cetera, I think there's a flexible way to do it, to build component parts, cook some rice, cook some chicken, but then have a bunch of fun sauces on hand. Have tortillas, have vegetables. But if we're being honest, my plan tonight, because I'm so drained from everything,

I am literally going to Zenku Chicken and I am getting three family meals and I am putting them all in my fridge. So that way I get the hummus, I get the mutabal, I get the tabbouleh, and I get three chickens, and I'm good. My mother-in-law is dropping off cabob at 7.30. Ugh, I'm coming over. All right, Nicole, we've heard what you and I have to say. Now it's time to find out what other wacky ideas are rattling out there in the world. It's time for a segment we call...

Opinions are like casserole. What the hell was that? It was different. It was different, but to what end? Opinions are like... To let the court stenographer, Nicole, is cupping her hands around her mouth and kind of rocking forward to create a Doppler effect on the microphone. And again, for what payoff?

Opinions are like... Nicole has lost it. She needs one of those mental wellness checkups where somebody... You know about those? Oh, yeah. You're over the mom. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I got it.

I got it. We'll cut that out. It's all right. Don't worry about it. I'll leave it. All right. James D. Stott. I just want to ask why everyone thinks pilk is stupid and gross, but they definitely nosh

on a root beer float. Good use of nosh. It's basically the same. Grow up, people. Okay. I believe nosh means to eat. Yeah. Good use of nosh. It's basically the same. Grow up, people. Okay. I believe nosh means to eat. Yeah. Yeah, I get it.

I get it. Noshing is eating, so not a good use of nosh. No, but I still think it was kind of poetic in a way. Like they eat nosh on it. Okay. Because the root beer float has the sugar in the ice cream. Yeah. I want to believe in what James is saying, but that's like when I say out-of-pocket stuff, like mayonnaise is basically just pudding.

And it's like, well, there's some key differences that make it very different and used for different things. Correct. So milk and ice cream, it's not ice cream being a salt, like 65% milk. You know what I mean? I can see why people, but I agree with him that the outrage is disproportionate to the product.

Sure. Right? I get that. Because he's right that it's close enough, melted ice cream and root beer. I prefer Coke floats as it is. Melted ice cream and soda pop, it is close enough

to milk and soda pop to where people shouldn't be outraged they can go hey i don't think that'd be good but for people to go like this is the grossest thing in the world and listen we're reaping the benefits of the tiktok views follow us on tiktok we crave your approval all right let's listen to one of our beautiful messages beautiful message i'm nicole i'm a doctoral candidate in psychology. And I love how much you guys talk about therapy and mental health. Also, what is your opinion on like HelloFresh and food subscription boxes? I know you guys are sponsored by them at one point.

I think that they help cultivate people to be more creative in their cooking and more advantageous but my mom says it's making the next generation lazy however she thinks that our generation is entirely lazy so anyway love you guys bye first of all love a fellow nicole love a smart nicole look at you. I'd vote for you as a doctor. I don't know what a doctoral candidate is. You don't vote for doctors. They're a candidate. They're on the ballot.

I'd vote for them. Also, I didn't realize we talk about mental health and therapy that much, but that's cool that we do. We do. Yeah. Go get mental health. Go get, go therapy. It should not be blacklisted.

No. Is that what it is? Blacklisted? Maybe. It should not be taboo. No, it shouldn't it is? Blacklisted? Maybe. It should not be taboo. No, it shouldn't. More people need to go to therapy and just talk to a shrink.

And you don't just need to go to therapy if you think something's wrong, you know? You just try it out. I've never done it, but I'm trying. I did it.

I'm trying to make appointments. I did it, and it helped me tremendously. I thought I made an appointment, but I messed up on the intake forms and then they canceled it. I graduated from therapy.

I'm figuring it out. Anywho, meal prep, meal prep meal prep kits um do i think they're they make americans lazy like people lazy if we did not need any help getting lazy on our own um i think i think meal prep kits are useful very very very useful yeah again if food and you chopping the onion and you making the stock is not important to you go ahead also like meal prep options they have they have like options where it's like do you want to do more cooking do you want to do less chopping like meal preps do that now which is actually very helpful

too so yeah the most important thing that meal preps did for people those little meal kits is that they showed them what foods exist. That's true. So like, for instance, people who go to the gym, a lot of people get tripped up because they literally don't know what lifts to perform. That is so true. I've been cooking since I was six. I've been lifting since I was 13.

I could tell you 19 different bicep curl variations. I could tell you 19 different South American stews that you could make. Most people put their efforts and times into things that are less myopic. You know what I mean? So people are like, I don't know what to make for dinner. I don't have that creativity. You get like a HelloFresh. You get any of these other meal kits.

That's like lemon herb chicken with orzo. And people are like, holy smokes. I didn't know about that. Orzo, yeah. I don't know. And like you toss the dried or the fresh chopped herbs with the orzo and that brightens it up. People wouldn't know that technique if not for that.

But the funny thing is, is that the utility of meal kits is what makes it a like an interesting business model. Totally. Because I know so many people that have signed up for a meal kit and they're like, dude, I now have nine different dishes in my repertoire that I know how to cook. That's awesome. Which is and then they will be like, well, now I can go to the store and I can make that myself. Wow.

So it's literally like a public service that does not benefit the business model in a way that's really cool. So I don't think it's making Americans lazy at all. I think it's the opposite. If you want to be lazy, I mean, their fast food is on every single corner. And again, not saying anything, not using lazy in a judgmental way, like cooking is hard, life is hard, you got things to deal with. I'll go get a McChicken on the way home sometimes. But yeah, I mean, these meal kits, they have really taught a generation how to cook in a way that so many things have failed to do that. Yeah, ain't nobody got time to make a chicken pot pie from scratch.

Ooh, I want chicken pot pie. It's cold weather. It's pot pie season almost. Okay. Not underscore that. Michael says, don't knock it till you've tried it. A drizzle of caramel sauce is the best topping for a Jack's frozen supreme pizza.

Okay. I don't know what a Jack's frozen supreme pizza is. I don't either. What's, what's, I've never heard of Jack's frozen pizza. Never heard of it. Is it the one with the wacky hair?

You know, the one that's like. No, that's wild Mike's. In wild Mike's frozen pizza. Never heard of it. Is it the one with the wacky hair? You know, the one that's like- No, that's Wild Mike's. In Wild Mike's frozen pizza, effing rules, dude. Yeah, it really does. Caramel sauce on a frozen pizza, though. I've never seen- Is this regional?

Oh my gosh, this is like- Wait, is that Tony's? This is like some- I've seen this before once. The font of Jack's pizza looks like Tony's. Someone tells me- Something in my brain tells me that I saw this in the Walmart at Bentonville, Arkansas. You were in Bentonville, Arkansas?

Oh, honey. I don't know. Wait, Maggie, look up. So, okay, so Jack's is made by Nestle. Sorry we're getting sidetracked, but I'm curious. See if Nestle makes Tony's also. I wonder if it's like a Carl's Jr. Hardy situation. Similar, maybe not the same.

The colors are different. Is it part of Nestle? Is Tony's still independent? Anywho. Schwan's. 90%. Oh, it's Schwan. The colors are different. Is Tony's still independent? Anywho. Schwan's. 90%. Oh, it's Schwan's. Good for them.

Must be a Tony's competitor. It's called Jack. Less Italian. I've seen it before. I've never had it before, but I'm pretty sure it's one of those, like, crappy ones. Like, really crappy. Think it goes well with caramel? No.

Well, hold on. Honey on pizza has become a trend. Okay. If honey can go on pizza, caramel can go on pizza. Who has honey on pizza often? I mean. It's a special treat. I think some people might.

I don't even like the honey pizza really. I've like had. There's the one, Roberta's, the stinger it's called. It should be treated as a special pizza. Yeah. It should not be eaten as your typical pizza. Like a little balsamic reduction on a fig and prosciutto pizza. Something like that. Honey should go with like a spicy

soper sat. Sure. I'm dropping all the vowels like I'm Tony Sopran. Sopran. I've never seen an episode of The Sopranos, but I know I'd love it. And it would be my whole personality. You should watch it. You're such a Carmella. I haven't watched like a season and a half. I'm down with the caramels.

It makes sense in a certain way, but as somebody who doesn't even like honey on pizza, I don't think I a season and a half. I'm down with the caramel. It makes sense in a certain way. But as somebody who doesn't even like honey on pizza, I don't think I'm down with this. But I really respect you. Edie Falco? Oh, yeah. Edie Falco plays the therapist. I remind you of Edie Falco. Great compliment.

Wait. I thought Edie Falco was the therapist. Who plays the therapist? This is Carmella Soprano. That's Edie Falco? Who am I thinking of? Who's the Jewish one? She was like the Jewish club kid.

She was in House. What are you talking about? Come on. Curly haired, nice Jewish lady in House. Nice Jewish. Oh, are you talking about freaking Cuddy? I remind you of Cuddy? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

What's Cuddy's name? What's her name? I don't know. It's something like Edie Falco. It's like an Edie Falco-ish name. Like Edith Stein. Who would that be? No, that's not it's not edith

stein that's a german philosopher hold on okay hold on hold on dr cuddy lisa cuddy lisa edelstein lisa edelstein i remind you of lisa edelstein the compliments just keep flowing with this guy today my god who do I remind you of? You have never seen the social network? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, Andrew Garfield. Yeah. Yeah.

Oh, Justin Timberlake as a... Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, the other one. The star. Don't you say, don't you say Jesse Eisenberg.

Everybody says Jesse Eisenberg and I don't get it. You remind me of Taylor Swift. I'm 205 pounds and I'm a 205 pound ex-college athlete. Can you sing Wildest Dreams? And people only say that I look like

A, Taylor Swift, or B, Jesse Eisenberg. And I don't under, I want to look like Brian or Brock Lesnar. You know, give me one of them. Is Brock Lesnar like a WWE star? Yeah, he was in the NFL, WWE, and then MMA.

Yeah. All right, voicemail time. Sure and then mma yeah all right voicemail time sure i don't know if this voicemail is for opinion castles but you're getting one anyway um so who do you think it goes take a cold bar style pizza like bed in the fridge overnight put regular like heinz yellow mustard over it uh-huh So the cold yellow mustard on the cold bar pizza. Bar pizza. That is easily my favorite pizza eating experience. I would eat that every day if I could.

Okay, what's a bar pizza? A bar pizza, bar pizza, tavern style pizza. Some people associate it with Chicago. So Chicago is the deep dish, right? But there's another style of pizza in Chicago that's like, it's almost crustless in the sense that like they don't have a very risen crust. And so it's just like a circular pizza and it's pretty thin crust, pretty like ample toppings on it. It's typically cut into squares, but it's kind of like a very Midwestern style.

Some people will say like I met a chef who made like Jersey style bar pizza. I didn't know it's just like pizza you get at chef who made like Jersey style bar pizza. I didn't enjoy this. It's just like pizza you get at a sports bar. And it's cold? So he's saying cold and then you put mustard on it, which I think I know why he does this and why he loves it. Alcohol. Oh, maybe. I mean, who doesn't want to be drunk eating some cold pizza with mustard?

But no, I think it sort of gives it a deli sub, an Italian cold cut, a hoogie, a hoogie property to it. Sure. And I can see how that works. I can see that. I can see that.

Especially if you're eating like a big old loaded bar pie that's just got like, you know, salami, you know, bell peppers, stuff like that.

Then you're basically, you're getting, the cheese is cold, like a cold cut. You're getting a schmear of a delicious concentrated tomato sauce. You know, you're getting the meats, you're getting the mustard on it. Why not? of a delicious concentrated tomato sauce. Mm-hmm.

You know, you're getting the meats, you're getting the mustard on it. Why not? I think that sounds really good. I do too. I don't know if I like the mustard hitting my palate directly.

You know what I mean? Like I would sandwich another slice of pizza on it and then, you know, because we made a muffaletta using pizza. I can't believe we did that.

That was good. It's disrespectful. Yeah, it sure is. So disrespectful. Nicole, can I believe we did that. That was good. It's disrespectful. Yeah, it sure is. So disrespectful. Nicole, can I read an opinion that you deliberately skipped over? I didn't deliberately, deliberately skip.

You deliberately skipped over and at dust in your eyes, is it possible to craft a demi-glace using the au jus from an Arby's French dip in Swiss? And then they said, slams the mythical chef help button. Dustin and Nicole,

you want to take this or you want me to take this? I mean, you said it, so just take it. All right. So despite the fact that au jus, when you're typically making that with, say, a roast, if you were to cook a French dip from scratch, you're probably using like, you know, a large cut, a big old like whole sirloin roast or something. Okay.

Something sliceable. So you're making the broth from that. You're getting a lot of the fat, the collagen, all that stuff leaching out into the broth. If you were to take that and reduce that all the way down, you would indeed get a form of demi-glace, right? You'd get a very concentrated stock. You can mount that with butter, really delicious. But the Oshu at Arby's, Nicole, what they're doing, they're taking a powdered blend, right? They're taking powdered beef bouillon.

There may be a slight thickener in there, maybe some maltodextrin, maybe a little bit of cornstarch but not too much so that it's really just powdered beef stock so you're not getting the collagen you're not getting the fat you're not getting all those things that make a homemade stock so wonderful you know you buy beef stock at the store you make beef stock at home it's got a mouthful at home anymore i make beef stock at home i make a lot of fun i make a lot of fun you don't know what i do at home so you're making a lot of about making your. You know, all that collagen turns into gelatin after a while, so that's what really gives demi-glace its thickness. But if you're just using a powdered bouillon a la Arby's,

you reduce that down, all you're going to do is create more bouillon because bouillon is just stock that has been reduced all the way down into a powder. So, dust in your eyes. No, you cannot reduce an Arby's au jus cup from the French dip in Swiss to make demi-glace, but thank you so much for your eyes. No, you cannot reduce an Arby's Au Jus cup from the French Dip in Swiss to make demi-glace, but thank you so much for your time. Are you satisfied? Are you

asking me? Yes, how was your experience with that answer, Nicole? I can neither confirm nor deny, but I do need to go to Arby's. I thought you were going to say therapy. Well, obviously. To some, Arby's and therapy are the same.

Give me a big old beef and cheddar and I'm a happy man for three days. And then I start reliving my childhood traumas. On that note, thank you for listening to Hot Dog is a Sandwich. You want to hear more from us here in the Mythical Kitchen, we got new episodes for you every Wednesday. If you want to be featured on Opinions or Like Casseroles, you can hit us up on Twitter at MythicalChef or at Henny Zonda with the hashtag OpinionCasserole. Or if you want to leave us a voicemail,

give us a ring and leave a quick message at 833-DOGPOD1. Hey, you did, I'll just leave you some message at 833-DOGPOD1. That's 833- D-O-G d-o-g d-o-d

did you hear my stomach? I have indigestion for more mathematical catching check us out on YouTube where we launch new videos every week we'll see you next time bezos