Clutterbug - Real-Life Hacks and Tips to Declutter, Organize and Clean your Home Fast - Genius Kitchen Hacks with Katie from Kitchen Stewardship | Clutterbug Podcast # 240

Episode Date: September 16, 2024

Healthy eating doesn't have to be hard or complicated! Join me as I chat with Katie from Kitchen Stewardship, who shares her simple tricks for making healthy eating easy. Katie talks about small changes anyone can make and how to swap out everyday foods for healthier options. Whether you're just starting or looking for new ideas, Katie's advice will help you create healthier habits with little effort!  Learn more about Kitchen Stewardship here: https://www.kitchenstewardship.com/     You can find more Clutterbug content here: Website: http://www.clutterbug.me YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@clutterbug TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@clutterbug_me Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/clutterbug_me/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Clutterbug.Me/   #clutterbug #podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey, Clutterbugs. Welcome back to the Clutterbug podcast. I am pretty excited for today's podcast because this is one of my challenges in life. And I'm looking forward to the hacks, the tips, and the tricks. I am interviewing Katie from Kitchen Stewardship. And Katie is known as the national voice of healthy kids cooking. She's a former teacher, two-time TEDx speaker, writer and the mom. of four kids. But I think what's really impressive is her blog kitchen stewardship that helps families stay healthy without going crazy. She is totally on a mission to provide real life examples of how you can simplify cooking, kind of master healthy eating, and do it in these little tiny steps. Are you ready? I know I am. Let's jump right in to this podcast. Welcome Katie to the Clutterbug podcast. Thanks for being here. Thank you so much too, Cass. I'm super excited to have you here because I'm going to just be totally 100% transparent with you. I feel like I've got a lot of areas of my life. I'm doing well with it. It feels like autopilot. Cooking in the kitchen is not one of those areas. So I'm thrilled to have you here because I know like me, a lot of people listening are busy. we've got a million things on the go and how can we take all of these principles of like decluttering and organizing and simplifying and apply it to healthy eating because right now

there's a lot of frozen lasagnas that I buy from the grocery store going on in my house Katie and yet I've seen you in a video making bread while talking and I was like that girl can multitask because once I start talking I like forget what my hands are doing I would not be able to make bread. I'm sure that bread's really edible and that's been like I can count on one hand how many times I've actually made bread. Well, bread baking is not a requirement for cooking. I don't think. I thought, I mean, I took care of a sourdough starter for months. I fed it like it was a pet, you know? What a pain in the patootie. I'm just going to, I don't have time. I don't have time. And I think a lot of my listeners, like, we love the idea of, you know, being good stewards of our kitchen.

But how do we actually do that and fit it into a real life, busy lifestyle? You know, there are so many hacks. And I've been at this, I mean, I sort of had my real food revolution when I was pregnant with my first. And he's 19 now. So I've been kind of chipping away at the healthy living lifestyle for almost 20 years. and that's probably step one. Like key number one is baby steps is don't try to do it all at once. Like, yes, we love the idea of overhauling our kitchen and completely transforming it,

but it rarely works because that's when you hit a wall and you would get overwhelmed and you quit. So I used to when I first started blogging way back in the OG days in 2009, I ran Monday missions. And so every Monday I would say here's one change you can make this week. And in fact, because my brain like works so slowly and has to clunk into being okay with new ideas, the Wednesday before I'd be like, hey, y'all, here's what we're going to do on Monday. Just think about it. Just get your brain ready. You know, because it's hard.

Our brains are very routinized and we do what we do. And it's very difficult to say, I'm going to try something new. And so sometimes you have to like get used to the idea and accept that. Like allow yourself to think about it. a while until your brain is ready. And then you can do the task. So at this point, you know, 20 years in, things are so routinized for me that, you know, I buy the fresh vegetables and I cut them up. And it's just sort of part of our life here in the Kimball household. So I don't know, where should we start other than baby steps? Because that's really important. Oh, I want to start

with baby steps. But I also love what you're saying because I am, I think all of us have this tendency to have this all or nothing mentality. And when my house was a wreck and I was living in clutter, I would like take one weekend and just, you know, go like a mad woman and get, and then I'd be burnt out, I'd be exhausted, and I would immediately fall back into old habits. And the only way I had lasting change was to like, just do the dishes every night before bed. And then when that started getting easy, I was like, I'm going to add on a 10 minute tidy up. So I love taking these same principles to sort of healthy eating. So if we had to pinpoint one thing where people can start, or me, when I say people,

I'm mostly meaning me, Katie, where I can start kind of creating a new habit in the kitchen. What do you think would be like the first thing you would recommend? Yeah, and I have so many. But I'll tell you where I started, but then I'll do something bigger because my first change, honestly was just switching from margarine to butter. Those are it. Like there's no actual routine change there. You just buy a different thing.

And that was, I was like, oh, I grew up on margarine. Wait, that's not real food. That doesn't actually grow in the ground or come from things that eat food that grows in the ground. Whoa, you know? Like, I guess I should buy butter now. So for me, that was literally my very first baby step was just beginning to swap some of the things that I bought.

Okay, I love this. I got to go more with. this because listen I've tried to do this in the past and it butter's annoying to me so I'm gonna ask you because I we eat margarine I don't know what it is but you're right it's not food okay I can start here but if I keep it in the fridge it's hard as a rock I have like this little butter tray how long is butter good for not in the fridge first of all like how long can I leave it out and is there a way that I can kind of make it keep some in the fridge if I need to to use it for baking, but like make it not hard as a rock quickly? Oh my gosh, please give me some butter

tips. Sure. Let's talk butter. We have three levels of butter in our house. So because I buy in bulk, there's always butter in the freezer because I never want to have a day where there's no butter in the house. And then there's butter in the fridge, which like you said, is ready for baking or, you know, cutting that nice tablespoon, measuring it out. And then there's butter in the butter dish. So our family who has never had butter go bad in the butter dish on the counter. But I do know what it taste like because when I was a college student, I had about a month at the end of a year of college where I needed to stay around. And so I lived with my then-fiancee's aunt. And I kept all my food in a box in my room. And my brain said, well, if you can keep butter in a butter dish on the

counter, obviously, I don't have to take up my, you know, boyfriend's aunt's fridge space with my butter and I'll leave it in the room. That was too long. I think it was like six weeks. And I made some like mac and cheese or some cheesy potatoes with a box, you know, and it used it a little bit of butter and served my, why forget, boyfriend, fiance, what exactly he was. We were in that time of life. Anyway, and we're trying to eat this. And he's trying to be so polite, but it tasted terrible. It tasted metallic.

You know, like when you sort of bite your lip and there's like a little iron taste, it was like that, but 100x. And we're trying to eat this meal and we're like, ooh, something. Something is not right. It's the butter. Okay. It took me about to figure out. It goes like rancid is what you're saying. You'd smell it and taste it immediately.

So just stick your butter in your butter dish, put it on the counter, and you can use it. Then it's really soft and you can use it. Even in Canada, it'll be really, it'll be plenty soft enough. Sometimes it gets hot, you know, in our house. But it's too, it's too soft. All right, this isn't easy. I love this. I can do this.

This is manageable. And if we've run out of butter on the counter, like how long if once you're taking it out of the fridge until it kind of softens? Or do we have like a quick softening tip? That's a great question. We have two butter dishes. So that's my solution is we just like keep rotating them. It's probably a couple of hours. So it's not like you can take it out and be like stare at it and wait for it to soften for your toast.

Let's try to bring it in the microwave and then I just have melted butter. So that's not great. either. You can microwave it on like power level two and then it will get soft or you can take a rolling pin actually. This is a great softening tip for baking in the wrapper still. You take a rolling pin and just sort of take out some of your aggression on your butter and it gets soft enough to like whip in a kitchen. That's so good. Okay. I can do this. This is so easy. This is doable. Check no more margarine. Now does that kind of go with I'm going to be, I'm just going to tell you. I also use like vegetable oil, canola oil for cooking, is that another thing that you're saying probably is a no-no? Because you're right,

it's not actually food. It's, you know what? It's a great swap because, again, you don't really have to change your habits other than your grocery list. You can use avocado oil or olive oil in similar fashion. And so it's not a routine swap. It's just a grocery list swap. So as far as, yeah, canola and corn and soybean oil, all those oils didn't exist 100 years ago. And so that's kind of one of my metrics is have our bodies had enough time to adapt to this new food that, you know, food scientists figured out, we figured out on milk a corn kernel, I guess, and make corn oil. Like, we didn't have the technology to do that 100, 150 years ago. And our bodies haven't really caught up yet. And so I just, I tend to leave those out.

And I prioritize the fats that people have eaten for like a thousand years, at least. Okay. So like avocado oil. is there another one for cooking? Because I do have olive oil, but my husband's like, don't use that for frying things. I'm not sure why I'm not supposed to use it for frying things, but he told me like something about the heat. I don't know. Okay, listen, the kitchen's not my friend. But is there another, so that's why I'm using like canola oil or whatever for frying something. Is there something else than that I could use instead of like canno oil? Yeah, avocado oil has a pretty high smoke point. That's an olive oil and avocado oil can be kind of pricey. So coconut oil is another good fat that people have eaten for thousands and thousands of years. And you can buy two kinds. One is called virgin and it smells like coconuts, which some people love for certain applications, not really for like green beans.

I love coconut though. I'll put on green beans. Yeah. And there's another one that's called refined coconut oil. And that doesn't smell like coconuts. And it has a really high smoke might. It's actually a super interesting fat because it melts at 76 degrees. So most of the time in your kitchen, it'll be solid.

and you'd kind of scoop it out, but it's soft and put it in your pan. But then if it's hot, it's liquid. And you just put it in. It's unique in that way. Okay. I'm feeling excited. These are two things that we can easily do that can, you know, improve our health, but it doesn't feel hard.

We're just changing things up at the grocery store instead of buying a big tub of, I don't even know what that's doing to our body, but I assume it's not good for not only our heart, but it's probably not good for our guts and inflammatory and All of those things. We can switch to... You hit the words, yeah. Yeah, real food, butter and using oil that hasn't been milked from a corn kernel. All right, all right.

Give us more. Give us more. Is there another little change that we can make or another little habit that we can start incorporating to just improve our health? Yeah, I'm going to give one little change and then one bigger one, if that's okay, because I feel like I want to challenge a little bit. Give it to me. I would say one little change if you're not already doing it.

this is to start every meal with some sort of vegetable, whether it's a, you know, carrots and hummus or a whole crudite platter with a lovely dip or a salad. And if you can just sort of start that habit, in our house, we've done that forever as long as my kids have been alive. And so when my kids first started cooking, because that's the other thing I do is I teach kids to cook, when they first started cooking, they made homemade pizza. And they made a side vegetable and a salad. I was like, that's so funny because most people just think of pizza as like the whole meal. And but it was so ingrained in them that you always have, you steam some broccoli or you fry some green beans in bacon grease or whatever. By the way, bacon grease, healthy fat.

And super inexpensive because you're usually just throwing it away. But lard is actually 51% mono unsaturated fats, the same fat that avocados are held up on a pedestal for. So you're like saving your Bacon grease and then you can like fry your vegetables. Oh my gosh. And that would be so delicious to stop it. Green beans, asparagus, Brussels sprouts, amazing in baking grease. And that can sit at room temp too. That can just sit on your counter or in your cupboard or you can refrigerate it? Not going to go bad. So can you like just pour it in a mason jar and then just like scoop it out? Because it would harden. It's solidifies. And then just oh, this is good. This is also free. It's also delicious and free. Okay. So that's a fun fact. So just starting your every meal with some sort of vegetable, you know, raw is great. Like that gets your gut microbiome going. And it doesn't take too much longer. And also if you've got like picky kids or selective kids, then they're getting another exposure. Maybe they don't eat it. But at least they're getting an exposure to that food. And it's expanding probably the number of foods you're serving in a meal. The higher,

number of foods you serve, the more choices kids have, and the more likely they are to serve themselves an appropriate amount, even within their selective references. So that's kind of a bonus. And so I think that's kind of little, because again, like, just buy some baby carrots. Like don't push yourself too hard. And eventually, you might get to the point, like at our house, we have one of those portioned containers that people would bring to like a party, right? Or you have like four sides and then the dip in the middle. We just keep that in our fridge in and out at every meal. And so we don't have to repackage anything. We just throw the lid on and then, you know, when the cucumbers are gone, kind of like wipe it out and refill it with more cucumbers and carrots

and stuff. So we just always veggies are available. This is good. My stepmom actually has always done this for my brothers growing up. And I don't know why I never incorporated this into my home, but I'll tell you like she did something a little different in that the kids would go nuts for the cucumbers and carrots and dip. So it was dessert. Like she would say, no, no, no, you can't have this until you've eaten some dinner. And then she'd bring out this tray that, like you said, it's always in the fridge. They're like monsters for it. So it is the dessert instead of the sweets and the things like that. They're like fighting over cucumbers and getting their hands slapped because they're like, you know. But I think it was because it was always incorporated into their home. Like I didn't

grow up in that house. This is my dad and my stepmom. I didn't have that same experience where I'm fighting over a cucumber. But if you do have little ones, that is so great that that just becomes part of every meal like it is there. And they're eating and getting all these nutrients. And she doesn't even cut the skins off the cucumber. She just like chops up a English cucumber. And it's delicious in dip. Okay. All right. I'm going to, I promise you, this is one thing. I'm going to do all of these things. I'm going to buy coconut oil. I'm going to ditch the margarine and get butter. And yeah, I'm going to always have cut up fruits and vegetables. I'm going to start to try that in my fridge at all times and just bring it out with every meal. Okay, oh, this is so good.

I'm super proud of you, but one step at a time, remember, give yourself a few weeks if you need it. I'm wanting to do the all or nothing. I'm wanting to do the all or nothing. Okay. Give us something else. All right. So here's a little bit bigger one. And again, I started my platform trying to help people keep a balance because if we go too far too fast, we lose it. And people worry about their time and their budget. Right. And so I felt like moms in my personal, you know, interpersonal real life community were just feeling so stretched. Like, if I want to get healthy, I have to spend so much money. Or if I want to get healthy, you have to spend so much time. And so I made it my mission to find things that are at. at the intersection where you don't have to spend much time, you save money, and you improve your family's health. So one of my favorites is making homemade bone broth because you start all the ingredients for homemade bone broth are literally things people throw away. They're garbage.

So it costs, it's the cost of your electricity or gas stove to run it. It's like maybe a dollar for three gallons of broth. And I started teaching this almost 20 years ago. And now bone broth is like really kind of hot and hip. You can get a cup in a in a shop, you know, and you can buy it in the store or mail order made in this really good, healthy way. And it's about $6 a cup. I've heard people are like drinking bone broth in like tea before all the nutrients and stuff.

Yeah, these boozy. You got these like bougie cafes and you get a cup of bone broth instead of coffee. Okay. All right. How, I think my mother and wife. law does this all the time with her leftover chicken carcass. She'd kind of like boil it on the stove. And I was like, what in the deuce is this woman doing? All right. And it like strains out the bits. Is this what we do? That is what you do. It doesn't look very pretty at all. But yeah, exactly.

You just take a chicken carcass. So you can, you can buy a chicken and roast it or slow cook it or you can get rotissory chicken, you know, from Costco. If that's your, your quick, easy meal, no judgment. Just save all the bones and all. all the bits and all the weird things that you'd normally throw away, put it in a pot. And this could be, this could be drumsticks, by the way. This can be any bones. So, like, if you cook chicken with bones, which I know is already like a very small percentage of people because of boneless, skinless chicken breast and how easy those are. But any bones that you cook, like I'll, if we have chicken drumsticks, I'll just

throw them in a bag in the freezer and wait until I get a significant amount. Yes, people have eaten them, but they're going to be boiled for four to 24 hours. So no more germs. Like, there's no germs left. Anyway, so chicken bones, onion skins, the parts of the onion you throw away when you're cooking. Stop. Yes, carrot ends and celery pieces. Like, again, the parts that you throw away, just throw them in a bag in the freezer until you get whatever, I don't know, four cups or so.

There's no science to it. You throw that all in the pot, you cover it with water or slow cooker or instant pot. Cook it for four to 24 hours, strain it out, and it's this beautiful colored thick broth. if you're really lucky, it'll get gelatinous in the fridge. Don't let that freak you out. That's actually gelatin, which is good for your joints, good for your hair and your skin and your nails. Okay. And then you're just using this as a soup base? Yep, soup base. You could cook rice in it. And one of the reasons that I think this is a great first big step is that once you have like a gallon of broth in the fridge, you're like, well, I guess I got to make soup. And soup is typically full of

vegetables, you typically make a big batch. So then you get a freebie night because you have leftover soup, right? Yeah. And it's not too hard. You're just throwing, you know, you're cutting stuff up and throwing it in a pot. But once everything's in there, you get to walk away while it cooks. So I think homemade bone broth is so frugal, especially now that like you said, it's bougie, $6 a cup and I spend $1 on three gallons.

Someone can do the math if they want, but it's a lot of savings. That's good. And it encourages you to then use it. You can totally freeze it in mason jars and quart bags, however you would freeze your liquid safely. So we always, again, my freezer always has homemade bone broth. It's just part of our life. And then if I want to make soup, I throw it in the fridge overnight. And I thought, oh, this is good.

Okay, I am a big soup person, but I do like the squeezy broth, you know. I like the squeezy broth. I like a real lot of flavor. It is so much salt in it. And yeah, it's definitely. not real food. It's definitely flavoring. And so you're getting all the nutrients too. And you're really making soup from scratch. Oh my gosh. I feel like I can do this. This is something that I do when I just make chicken noodle soup often. And then what we do is with the leftovers, I like thicken it with

cornstarch the next time around and put dumplings in it and have chicken and dumplings. So it feels like two different meals for my kids don't notice kind of thing. Yeah. Oh, Okay, soups, love it. You mentioned salt. So I do have to say, if someone's doing that based on just these verbal directions, it takes one teaspoon of salt per quart of broth. A quart is four cups. So it looks like a lot.

You're like, oh, my gosh, I'm putting so much salt in. But it almost tastes like nothing until you get the right amount of salt, which is one teaspoon per quart. But it's still less than commercially produced broth. It's definitely less than what I, my squeezer, McSweezer, because if it tastes like a McDonald's French fry sometime. I'm like, okay, not a lot of flavor going on. Okay, this is good. Is that your big one? Is that your big tip? Like making your bone broth? Yes, that is my big one because it's a whole new routine, right?

Yeah, but it doesn't feel big. And it feels like such a good thing to do because food's expensive right now too. And so you're taking all the things that are scrap and you're just really making another meal out of it, which is that feels good, especially in these times where I went to the grocery store and a roast was $45. And chicken with bones is generally less expensive than chicken without bones as well. So you're like, you're just chipping away at that food budget left and right to save more time. One last broth tip. Again, I'll throw a whole chicken in my instant pot and I'll let that go all day and then maybe we'll, you know, we'll use that chicken for a meal. And then my instant pot's already dirty, right?

Awesome. Perfect. the bones go right back in, so I don't have to do dishes that night. And you can reuse the bones for up to three batches. So I just keep, that's how I get like three plus gallons because I take out the veggies because they're kind of shot, they're kind of mush, and then put the bones back in, turn the instant pot on overnight and whatever time during the day, like if I had it running right now, I'd be like, oh, I just finished an interview with Cass.

I'll wander into my kitchen and strain it and let it cool on the counter until dinner. So it's little like five minute chunks of time to do that process. And do you find that this is like really flavorful, this bone broth? That's the thing I notice like if I'm buying pre-made broth, you know, it comes in those cartons at the grocery store. It doesn't have any flavor. It just is like watery. It is.

Those vegetables really infuse it with a lot of flavor. So I love purple onions, especially like the red onions because I know those are also high in kyrsitin, which is an anti-inflammatory. So you're getting like that additional benefit and that adds some. a nice rich, it's those onion skins, give it a rich color. You can also put in garlic cloves or garlic, even the little skins from your bowl of garlic. So it just not, you can't. Even the skins. Yeah, you're not going to eat them. It's just pulling the nutrients out. So it's cool. But you shouldn't put in things like broccoli or cabbage or leafy greens because they have some anti-nutrients,

plus they can add a bitterness to the broth. You don't want that. But it's all those vegetables. vegetables, give it the lovely flavor, and then the salt is key. It's critical. But that first batch of broth, I do, I've used a mug and just drank broth for breakfast. I'll add to like garlic powder and cayenne. And then it's delicious. I'm trying this. I'm excited. Okay, this is super exciting. I have three kids, and we talked about this earlier. Now, not only do I have a full-time job, I have a part-time job. Listen, like, because I'm a nut bar, and go into school. And So I, we try to do meal planning because I know meal planning is a lifesaver, but also I don't have a lot of time.

And then my kids are running to hockey at night. And Izzy has a job and she's running to that. And they're going a friend's house. And it's like Grand Central Station in our house, especially around dinner time. And I'm just, just trying to get something on the table and that we can quickly eat together would be lovely. Is there a meal that is kind of a go-to? for you that's like quick to put together that everyone kind of likes or a couple of meals.

I was on your website and I saw this like great breakfast hack with a mason jar and eggs and like sausage and you shake it and then you put it in these muffin tins. Katie, I immediately bought silicone muffin tins. So we can talk about that in a second. But is there something dinner wise? That's kind of a go-to for you. For us, yes. We love Mexican food at our house.

So once a week we have tacos. And my husband did, he was like the taco guy for a couple years. And my 13 year old just took it over last year. So when he was a 12 year old seventh grader, they took about a month. So four weeks. And my husband sort of transferred his knowledge to John, my middle schooler. And so now once a week, John comes home from school and makes that. And he's got it dialed in to a science.

It's less than half an hour for sure, you know, a can of refried beans. And money saving tip, by the way, if you do tacos, and your family can tolerate legumes is we do half beef and half lentils. So we cook up a big batch of lentils and we actually sprout them for extra nutrition, but that's kind of next level. We cook up a big batch of lentils. We freeze them in packages that look about the size of a pound of ground beef. Like we don't, we just eye it up.

And so then it's one pound of ground beef and one of our bags of lentils, which can come right out of the freezer into the pot and then you season it as if it's two pounds. and lentils are, I don't know what, like 70 cents a pound, a buck a pound. Like they're much less than ground beef. And it doesn't, you don't feel a lot of difference in the texture of the flavor. I'm going to tell you the truth. I've never cooked lentils in my life. That's okay.

You can be a lentil virgin. They're tiny. You know what they look like? Nope. Is this a bean? Help me here. They're tiny little legumes. They're circular.

So like if you would compare it to say like a kidney bean or a pinto bean, they're way smaller, like less than half a centimeter, dry or cooked. So are you doing the whole? I've heard people like when they cook, I've never cooked a bean either from dry. It's a can. Listen, help me here. You're soaking them first. Is this something I've heard? You do.

If you cook with dry beans, you should soak them first unless you have an instant pot or a pressure cooker. in which case you can skip that step, which is kind of nice. So with lentils, same thing. You can like, you're just cooking them in a pressure cooker? Yeah, we just put them in a pot on the stove. Actually, I think a pressure cooker might like obliterate them because they're so tiny. I mean, you could. It would probably be like three minutes.

I've never even looked it up because they're so tiny. Lentals, again, because they're so small, they don't actually need pre-soaking. It's a decent idea for health benefits because any seed, okay, so here's a little bit advanced next level. Yeah. Any seed, like the seed's goal is to grow a new plant. It is not to nourish a human, right? So the goal of the seed is to get planted. And until it's planted and sprouts, it has a bunch of protections against, you know, humans or other animals digesting it. It doesn't really want to be digested. And so when we eat seeds like nuts or grains or legumes, they've got some anti-nutrients that are working against us unless you soak it, which is like or sprout it, which is like turning on. the plant, right? And so then the seed lets down its defenses. And it's like, great, I get to grow. Ha ha. And then we cook it and we eat it. And it's more nutritious that way. I love this. Okay. What else can you put these magical lentils in? Like, what is this? Are you putting these in soup?

Like what the heck? And what does it taste like? Nothing. I don't know. Okay. What do they taste like? They're a little starchy. We have a great, I have a great lentil soup with like lentils and potatoes and carrots and sausage and it's really hearty, like almost like a stew texture. But they don't, I don't know. I have no idea how to describe the taste of lentils. But you're adding it to green beef. You're spicing it like you would, you know, taco and you can't really tell. You're just basically like saving money and adding nutrients to your food.

Like, why have I never heard of this before? I don't know. Because I'm creative, I guess. This is good. Okay. I'm feeling excited. I want to take a second to thank today's podcast sponsor, Cozy Earth. A few years ago, I switched to Cozy Earth bedding, and I'm just continually impressed by the quality, how soft they are, and that the sheets are temperature regulating.

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I need one more tip before I'm going to move into. like how we can get kids involved and maybe yeah just just keep going man i'm i'm absolutely just loving all of this um so for the saving time and money yes i think here's what happens to a lot of people cast and i've done it you've probably done it don't feel any shame but we meal plan and then that bad day hits when things took a little longer and we're walking into the kitchen far later than we thought or we forgot to thaw the meat or soften the butter or something really annoying like that and we throw the meal plan out the window and call for pizza or door dash or whatever your like oopsie thing is but then your budget is blown right sound familiar oh yeah gosh oh gosh

it happens to a lot of us so i i always recommend plan for some oh crap meals in your house so that they're there. So for us, you know, I mean, we have a Costco nearby. I don't know. In Canada, I think you guys have Costco's, right? And so Costco sells some like decent ingredients, sausages and Polish dogs and stuff like that or frozen burgers. So I just always try to make sure I have something like that on hand that I can convert from the freezer to my table within half an hour. I used to, when I was a little more ambitious and a little younger, and had a bit more energy, I would make massive batches of meatballs, homemade meatballs and freeze them. And you can literally take meatballs out of the freezer because they're frozen, like I would

freeze them on a cookie sheet, so they're separate. You can literally throw them into a jar of pasta sauce from the freezer. And in 15 minutes, they're hot and they're ready to eat. And Costco sells them already made for you if you just want to buy the meatballs and not make them yourself because you're not amazingly extra like Katie. I don't do it anymore, though. That's one habit that I dropped because I'm busy and lazy. I super, I love that. Okay. I'm feeling really, really excited about this. I do want to just talk quickly

about your breakfast thing. I think that was one of my contributing writers. Actually, unfortunately. That wasn't me. Oh, I haven't, I haven't tried it, but I immediately went and ordered the thing because for breakfast for us is, we're so rushed to get out the door. And our go-to is usually like cereal or toast. And what I found for myself, especially, like, I'm sure this is happening with my kids, too, but for myself, like, I'm just eating, like, starched sugar. And then so what happens is I get really tired after. So I kind of, like, get that spike right in my blood sugar, and then I crash, and I'm pretty much exhausted by 11.

And I'm not a huge egg person, and I just feel like, I feel like I don't have time to make eggs. You ever watch those movies, and the mom's, like, making pen? pancakes and bacon and eggs and has this big spread. The kid comes running down and the husband and they eat one bite and they're like, bye, mom, and they run out the door. And yet she's a lawyer. And now she's getting in her car and who is cleaning the pots and pans? And why is all that food going in the trash? Yeah, it's a major flat hole. Who's doing this for breakfast because our breakfast is like a cold pop tart while we're running out the door for the bus. I'm getting on

off. But I saw on your website you take mason jars and you add like eggs and kind of all the ingredients and then you shake it up and you pour it into muffin tins and it's got like cheese and stuff in it. Listen, I haven't tried this. And then you just cook it for 20 minutes at 400 and then you have like this little portable, yay kind of nutritious cup that's ready in the morning. But you didn't write this. So I'm sorry for saying this. This is one of your contributors. But I loved this idea. Does that make sense. Yeah. Well, yeah, to have something that's pre-made, that's high, fat, high-protein, that'll last a little longer for your energy. I mean, yeah, I have some awesome contributing writers who are so creative and, yeah, they're really smart. I'm excited to try this. So do you

have a snack or a quick little something like this when kids are just out the door and you're like, I can't give you another candy bar because I love you and this isn't good for you, but also all we have is gushers and bear paws and we're running out the door. So is there something we can do? Not just snacks, but yeah, like a quick little and just have it kind of ready besides the vegetables, which I think is genius. But my 11-year-old might like protest and start picketing the kitchen if all we have is cucumbers and carrots. We tend to keep a lot of nuts and dried fruit on hand. So my kids will make like a quick trail mix type of thing. And you could pre-make those.

And our go-to, this is not inexpensive, but we do some grass-fed meat sticks that I'm just on subscription. Like we always have them so that that's a, again, not so carb-y thing that they can grab and then, you know, cheese stick to go with it if they're a bigger kid and need some more calories for a snack. That's good. Okay. I'm loving this.

I find if I am going to get my 11-year-old to eat something, if I put it on a toothpick, he's like you know so i've cut up pepperettes before and like cheese strings and stuck them on toothpicks and then just had those and then he was like yay or those little swords you know you get those plastic swords you put some fruits and vegetables on a sword and suddenly kids think it's a kebab and it's way more appetizing i think yeah it's the idea in my brain that that's going to take a lot of time but in reality it's seconds and also it's something that everyone can help prep and kind of have it ready to go. This was really good. I'm feeling excited. I'm going to start small. Just like you said, I'm not going to do all these things. I don't know if I'm going to do the

legumes. Is that what they're called? Lentals. Yeah, lentils. They're a legume. They're in the legume family. So you were right. I told I know if I'm going to do that. But I'm definitely going to switch to butter. And I'm going to go buy some coconut oil and get rid of the, you know, yeah, plastic oils that I am cooking with currently. So I love that. And if anyone else is listening like me and are just like, give me more, how can we follow you? How can we get these like little slow things that we can do? If you go to my website at kitchen stewardship.com, the top offer is actually my first or well, my best 10 Monday missions from way back in the day. And I made them into an email series. And I don't know about you, but I hate clicking out of my email.

someone was reading on my phone. So I just put it all in the email just to be actually helpful. So you'd get every Monday, you'd get 10 different baby steps that you could start. And broth is one of them. So if you're taking that stuff, you're like, sweet, check it off. One out of 10 done. That's good. And it's a slow drip. So you're like building your muscle. Just like we build our decluttering muscle, right? We like practice, practice. It gets easier. It's easier. We're building like our kitchen stewardship muscle. Yeah. And it does get. easier. It really does. Like the way I shop is probably different than how a lot of people shop and, you know, how I shop when I was a young wife. But it's so ingrained that I just pass. I pass a lot of

those processed foods without even thinking about it because I know it's not good for my budget. You know, I know what's not what I want my kids having, so I just don't bring it home. And here's your baby step on the lentils, by the way. I want you next time you go to the grocery store is just find the lentils and stare at them. Where are they? Are they eating? With the pasta? Where's the lentils? Some grocery stores stock them with like the Mexican foods or with beans, canned beans and dry beans.

Okay. You're just a little funny looking thing. So I just want you to stare at them down and let them stare at you back and then pass them and see what happens. Okay. I'm feeling excited. I did buy quinoa because I was like healthy people and it's still in my pantry. All right.

So because I'm not sure also what to do with quinoa except stare at it. But at least I have a plan for a lentil now, right? I can put it in with the taco meat. So that's very helpful. And I know you must think I'm ridiculous. But I'm hoping there's other people who are listening like me that are just like we don't know. Yeah. I have a bag of cassava flour that I bought with good intentions also unopened for like five years.

So you're totally not alone. Do you want me to tell you what to do with your quinoa? Yeah. It's for breakfast too. So take a cup of cake. a cup of dry quinoa and rinse it and put it in a pot with a can of coconut milk. You don't have to measure it, just the whole can. And then cook it like rice.

I don't remember how many minutes, but Google how many minutes to cook quinoa like rice, right? Bring it to a boil, simmer, all that stuff. And then it gets like nice and thick. And it's super delicious with that on the bottom and some plain yogurt, Greek yogurt, whatever type. And then like frozen blueberries and cinnamon. And that can be a quick cold breakfast because quinoa is. high protein. Okay, can we put the quinoa that now we've cooked like in the fridge and just do this layering thing later? And it's got protein in it. So I'm not going to feel sick and crash.

Stop the front door. Like don't eat it. I don't actually eat it warm. Yeah, I cool it and then eat it for breakfast the next day after you cook it. This is so good. Can I just put you on speed dial and call you and be like, listen, friend. I is so good. Not a problem. You do that. Cass, but not all the listeners. You all can't do that. I'm really excited. You've made it feel easy to dip my toe in the water of healthy eating because I say all the time, I want to eat healthy, but I don't actually know, like, how to do that. You know what?

Like really, besides salad. So this is really good, like real life advice. Thank you so much for being here. I'm going to put all the links to your website and how people can follow you in the show notes. please follow Katie. She's absolutely amazing. And thank you so much for being here. And thank you to all of my listeners for showing up today. I hope you're just as inspired as I am. We'll see you guys next time.