The Liz Moody Podcast - Healthy Cooking Secrets #2—Secrets To The Best-Tasting Veggies, A Lebanese Spice To Beat Bloat & Freezer Hacks to Save A Ton of $$$ ft. Julia Turshen, @dadaeats, and @feelgoodfoodie

Episode Date: April 21, 2021

I’m so excited for a brand spanking new episode of Healthy Cooking Secrets. On our first episode of this series, The Korean Vegan, Justine Snacks, and Feed the Malik all came on the pod and shared SO MANY good tips, like how to get protein and even marathon-train on a vegan diet, why you should be adding corn starch to cookies, how to always know the best thing to order from restaurant menus, and more. If you like food and you haven’t listened to that episode yet, I highly recommend that you do, but don’t worry—it’s not at all required to enjoy this episode. On this episode Samah Dada from @dadaeats shares:  The four spices to keep on hand for amazing Indian dishes Why she never drinks cold water How living in London influenced her self image and cooking style The BTS of cooking on television Her favorite make-ahead work lunches Then Yumna Jawad from @feelgoodfoodie gets into: Her secrets for getting kids to eat healthy 3 ways to get even the pickiest eaters excited about veggies The tiktok trends she’s tried that have been total wins—and which ones were total fails The Lebanese ingredients she always keeps on hand to uplevel all of her dishes The one spice she adds to dishes to combat bloating Finally, best-selling cookbook author Julia Turshen (@turshen) shares:  How she dealt with her wife’s Type 1 Diabetes diagnosis How she’s healed her relationship with food and learned to intuitively eat Her secret to making vegan and vegetarian dishes SUPER satisfying Why she doesn’t like meal prep and what she does instead Her top tips for saving a ton of money on healthy food Her freezer, pantry, and spice cabinet must haves I can’t wait to hear your thoughts on the episode! Screenshot and tag me—I’m @lizmoody— and my guests and share your thoughts, feelings, and reactions. I’d also love to know any foodies you’d love to see on future episodes! PS: Have you snagged my Foodie preset pack? You can get all 8 presets, designed to make your food pics look as good as they taste, at lizmoody.com/presets.  PPS: Healthier Together is officially a number one best-seller! You can get your copy on Amazon or at lizmoody.com/cookbook. Please keep sending me your creations on Instagram—they make me so happy! This episode is sponsored by Organifi, the makers of my favorite caffeine-free energy drink, Red Juice. You can go to www.organifi.com/healthiertogether and use the code “healthiertogether” for 20% off your order. This episode is sponsored by Nuzest, one of my favorite protein powders. It’s 98% digestible (a rarity in the protein powder space) and—get this—it actually tastes good. I recommend the Digestive Support Line—they have a Probiotic Vanilla and a Probiotic Cacao. You can use the code “HealthierTogether20” for 20% off your order on nuzest.us/healthiertogether.  Healthier Together cover art by Zack. Healthier Together music by Alex Ruimy.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello, friends, and welcome back to the Healthy Together podcast. I'm your host, Liz Moody, and I'm a cookbook author and longtime journalist. I am so excited for a brand spanking new episode of Healthy Cooking Secrets. On our first episode of this series, the Korean vegan, Justine Snacks, and Feed the Malik all came on the pod and they shared so many good tips, like how to get protein and even marathon train on a vegan diet, why you should be adding cornstarch to cookies, how to always know the best thing to order from restaurant menus, and more. If you like food, and I hope you like food, please say that you like food. And you haven't listened to that episode yet. I highly recommend that you do, but do not worry. It is not at all required to enjoy this episode.

On this edition of Healthy Cooking Secrets, I am so excited to welcome Samadda of Dada Eat, Yuma Jouad of Feel Good Foodie, and best-selling cookbook author Julia Tertian. We have got a ton of good stuff crammed into this episode, from super actionable kitchen tips to deeper conversations. about the impact of food on a relationship with our bodies. You'll find out how to incorporate Lebanese and Indian ingredients into your daily dinners, while your freezer will help you save a ton of money, the one spice that gets rid of bloating, how to help even the pickiest kids or grownups learn to love vegetables, tons of time-saving tricks, what cooking on television is really like,

the secret to making vegetarian and vegan dishes taste incredibly craveworthy and so much more. My goal with these episodes is to both get really up close and personal with some of your favorite food personalities. It is the healthier together podcast after all. We are big on asking those intimate questions, but also for you to come away armed with a ton of super actionable information to make healthy cooking easy, accessible, and super enjoyable. My guests all share their IG handles throughout the episode and I would love to hear what's resonating if you try any of their tips in your own kitchen if there's something that really inspires you. so definitely tag them and at Liz Moody in screenshots with thoughts, feelings, things that you think are really, really delicious. If you have friends who love healthy cooking or you think would benefit from many of these secrets, I would so love if you shared the episode with them. We are all

about getting healthier together here after all. And if there are cookbook authors or foodie personalities that you would love to see on future editions of healthy cooking secrets, definitely let me know. I make these podcasts for you. And I love your feedback on who you want to hear from. Without further ado, let's get right into the episode. All right. Thank you so much for joining me on the podcast, Sama. I'm so happy to be here, Liz. Thanks for having me. I've wanted, I feel like we talked about having you on the podcast like literally years ago. So I feel like, but also you were just starting to work on your book back then. And it was like, it's so exciting that like now it's years later and it's coming out and it's just such such a cool time.

And I'm so excited to see the book and have it all out in the world. So first of all, for people who don't know you, can you start us off by just telling us a little bit about who you are and what you do? Sure. Well, thanks for having me. I know we talked about this ages ago and it's just crazy how the world took a turn, but I'm Samadatta. I am a host for Today Digital. I have a show called hashtag cooking on their platform. I'm coming out with my first cookbook in June called Love to Cook It. I am a blogger and I just love to create food that has sort of a healthy comfort food twist with a lot of influence from my Indian roots, Mediterranean flavors. And yeah, I'm just out here right now. I mean, I was in New York for five years, as you know. And now I'm kind of between home in

California and back in New York and just trying to plan our life, plan my life with the uncertainty in there. So yeah, that's a bit about me. I love. So we're going to talk about sort of your TV background a little bit. We're also going to talk about your Indian heritage, which I think is Indian food is maybe my top food. I'd have. have to think about it, but it's very high up there. And it's also a type of cuisine that I'm very intimidated by cooking myself. So I'd love for you to make me a little bit less intimidated. But let's start with your cookbook. Is your cookbook all plant-based recipes? Yes. So it's going to be all plant-based recipes. It's dairy-free. There are some eggs in there,

but everything is vegetarian. And it's kind of cool because I sort of accidentally fell into that. Like, I didn't really purposely set out to become a plant-based chef or a plant-based blogger. It just happened to be what occurred when I used the ingredients that I did. And also a lot of Indian food is primarily vegetarian. It does lean very veggie forward. So, yeah, but you're right. A lot of people are very intimidated by Indian cooking. And that's something that I hope to dispel a little bit in the book.

Do you consider yourself to be plant-based or do you put any limit or labels on? I love how that was so Freudian that I was like labels and then I was like limits. Do you put any labels on your diet at all? You know what? Not really. I would say I do eat primary plant-based just because that's what I prefer. But, you know, I think in the earlier days of my blogging and my recipe development, I did lean more towards like, this is a vegan recipe, this is a gluten-free recipe. But I'm really trying to get away from that and focus a lot more on the ingredients because I think that's where the stars are. So that's sort of what I've been trying to do. But with myself and with my lifestyle,

I would say I lean more towards a plant-based diet, but I don't like restricting myself in any way. What does, like when you think of eating healthier, eating well, what does that mean to you? Do you have sort of a dietary philosophy that you follow or foods you really try to incorporate a lot of regularly? I would say my philosophy for my diet and for food and eating well is not to operate in extremes. I think that's something that I've definitely fallen into in the past where it's like, if I'm healthy, can I not have this cookie? And I just didn't like that mentality. I didn't like that mindset that was really going around. And I'm sure, like, you had noticed this too and a lot of people as well where, you know,

there is a very all or nothing mentality with health eating for a lot of, you know, within media or wherever it is. And I just don't love that. I'm like, listen, I want a cookie. And I'm going to eat it if I want it. But that doesn't mean that I have to have 12,000 cookies in a day. I like to really focus more on the addition of really wholesome foods, things that make me feel good, like the leaf, be greens, like the fruits, like the vegetables.

But then also, I think a part of a healthy diet is also having that chocolate and it's also baking that cake. And what's cool is that with my recipes and I know yours as well, you know, we really lean on ingredients that are more wholesome. And to make those sweets and to make those desserts, there is a way to kind of hit a balance between the two. Okay, let's get into the Indian cooking a little bit because I want to come away with this feeling like empowered to make some really delicious Indian dishes in my home. I know that you have spent a lot of time there. I know that you are culturally Indian and Indian Bay heritage. So can you tell me what you learned growing up in

your Indian household, what you learn when you go over there. Are there secret ingredients or prep styles or how does it taste so good? For sure. I mean, you know, what you said at the beginning, like it really is intimidating for a lot of people. And I think especially when you haven't grown up around those flavors like the turmeric, like the cayenne, like the garamasala, all of those spices are very unique and they have very different flavor profiles. But I would say one of the biggest things I've learned, both from watching my mom cook growing up and also just being in India, is that really measurements, not a thing. It's really about your taste.

It's really about how you can adapt to add a little bit more spice, add a little bit more lemon juice for acidity. It is a lot of give and take there. And I think that's something that I really leaned on. For example, I'd always ask my mom, you know, so like what's the recipe for this? How do you make this? And she's like, I really don't know how much I put in of anything.

Like no dish I make turns out the same twice. And I think that's the really cool thing about, Indian cuisine. And I know a lot of other cookies too is that you really iterate and you change it and you, based on your flavor, based on your tasting, you always kind of have, you know, just a feeling of what you like

and what is your personal preference. But I think I would also say that there are a few key spices that I do rely on in Indian cooking and that really make up a lot of the food. And those are something that I hope that everybody gets to use in the kitchen more. For me,

that's cumin, coriander, cayenne and turmeric. And those are kind of my four like holy grail spices when it comes to masala. Okay. So I feel, can you walk me through maybe just like, do they all go into most dishes? Do you have a dish that you would be like, cumin's great for this, coriander's great for this. For somebody who's unfamiliar with using those spices regularly, how would you introduce them to them?

For sure. So start with just a bit with everything, you know, just see how you feel and see how you like of flavors. I really do pair cayenne, cumin, and turmeric together the most, I would say, because they create a flavor profile that's pretty common in a lot of whether you're making a chana masala or whether you're making a bag in bartha, which is an eggplant masala. Those are really core spices that you can mix, especially adding it to onions and garlic and really roasting the masala. So it gets that nice aromatic flavor. That's what you really want to start with. It's not so intimidating when you think, okay, so here are my three spices that I'm going to just

use right before I add any of my tomatoes or my beans or whatever I'm using. Roast the spices, taste it later to see how it feels, add some salt to taste. And I think relying on those core spices is what has really allowed me to guide people when it comes to Indian cooking. Are there any Indian dishes? I was watching a TikTok the other day and it was an Indian guy being like, white people go to Indian restaurants and here's what they order. And then it was like a picture of butter chicken.

Are there any Indian dishes that you feel like we're all sleeping on that me as a very white person should definitely be trying? Well, the thing is, is that a lot of people have this conception of Indian food, which is very large in part due to the butter chickens and the chicken chicken chicken picomassas of the world, that Indian food is something that you eat and you must roll yourself home after. You're like literally full. You like don't know what to do with yourself. But in actuality, you know, I grew up with cooking that, especially Indian home cooking, my mom really relied on tomatoes like for a base rather than cream or she would add really healthy ingredients and fresh vegetables that you don't actually feel so heavy when you eat it. I think that what you're talking about is really more like the white iteration of Indian food

where it's like let's add a bunch of cream, let's add a bunch of butter. And that does exist. I'm not saying, not discounting that as a dish at all. But a lot of what I hope people. will learn about Indian food and maybe through the book as well is that it really relies on vegetables a lot. It really relies on healthy oils or healthy beans or really good greens. So a lot of what Indian food too is is Saug. So Saug is like a mixture of vegetables. So you could get like a dal saug for example, which is lentils and spinach. That's one of my favorite dishes. And you've

got the protein from the lentils. You've got the greens and the iron and everything that spinach can give you. And you know, there's also that that side of it where it's, Those veggie dishes are my favorite. Yeah, can you tell, is there any other veggie dishes you could? Like, what, you know, is broccoli used a lot? Is carried? Like, what veggies does Indian cuisine would you say, like, rely on or lean into a lot? Yeah, I would say a lot of the vegetables that Indian cuisine relies on, there's always a really good eggplant dish.

There's always like a lentil sog. So definitely some leafy greens with some pulses. That's definitely a big thing as well. And, you know, there's also vegetable cormas where, you know, is an incorporation of a lot of different vegetables. So, you know, I think it's great. I, for example, have a beet masala in the book. So that's like a really unique thing that's different and delicious. And it's really, like I said, about you can make any vegetable into some sort of masala, right? Like I have a green bean dish as well where, you know, I'll roast all of my core spices,

my cumin, my coriander, my cayenne, my turmeric with some onions. I'll add in some green beans, fresh or frozen. Doesn't matter. You just cook it all together in the flavor profile when you use. those spices, this just really takes it up to another level for sure. At least me. Maybe I'm biased because I am brown. But you know what? It is what it is. No, I think spices, I always say spices are like the original superfood. I say that they, people are buying these like bags of expensive superfood powders and really they have a whole cabinet full of superfoods and their spices. And spices are super because they make your food taste really good. So I love any cuisine that's really, really spice heavy. It makes me excited. Also, spices are so good for your digestion. They make, I mean,

what you were saying about Indian food, you don't need to roll yourself out of there. Actually, you're eating a lot of things that are really good for your gut health and really good for your digestion. Have you ever dabbled with like Ayurvedic thinking or any of those types of philosophies? Totally. I mean, a note on the spices too, it's like, you know, when turmeric became this huge craze and everyone, their mother was making a golden milk latte, we were like sitting here all us Indians. Like, wait a second, we've been using this forever. I'm sure that's frustrating. Is that frustrating when you see the like sort of white people appropriation of things

that have been part of your cultural heritage for thousands of years? Yeah, that's a lot of, it's definitely an interesting thing to sort of grapple with because when you see the appropriation and the profit off of spices that are really inherent to a certain heritage, it feels a little bit like you're either betraying yourself because you haven't felt comfortable enough to share it with the world or, you know, there should be some at least level of, you know, saying, okay, this is where the spice comes from. This is what is inspired by some sort of credit to the region. But that's definitely a larger conversation, too, where I know different heritage, different cultures and ethnicities and backgrounds do

struggle with that and see it in their food. And food is one of those things too where it's not just food. It is a conversation. It is a lot to do with background and culture. and family. So it does feel like it is a struggle sometimes to see that, but at the same time, you know, I think I also see more of us embracing our culture to be like, wait, this is ours, you know? And I don't think that I had even felt comfortable growing up, especially like feeling like I'm straddling between this line of like not being American enough, but not being Indian enough. And it's interesting to be like, we, I am and I can embrace this part of my culture. But in terms of Ayurvaded cooking and Iervated food, I love it. And I, I, it's been one of those

things where I always try to incorporate at least some parts of it into my life. I definitely not an expert. But even just with like kichity, right, it's such a tri-doshic and very comforting, warming, cleansing food. And when you see people doing like kichdy, cleanses, it's like, you know what I mean? But it is so warming. It is so comforting. And it's a really amazing philosophy that is really grounded and rooted in health. For somebody who's like, what is kitcheny and what is trinotia? Can you just explain that in a nutshell real fast? Yeah. Again, not an expert on Ayurvedic at all. But basically, Irovedic cuisine tries to work with your body and what your own body can tolerate between all of the different dosha. So Vata,

pita kafa. Basically, I'm pita, for example, which means I have like a lot of fire in me, L.O.L. I should be eating things that calm me. So I shouldn't be eating a lot of spicy foods. I shouldn't be eating a lot of sour foods. I should be eating things that really balance

and put out that fire. So essentially, Ayurvedic food tries to look at your dosa, whatever dosha you are, and say, okay, this is what's going to be good for your lifestyle. Kichiti is a really delicious, is almost like a stew of lentils, vegetables, rice, basmari rice, and it is stewed together until it's really almost mushy, which I know is not the cutest word, the use was, but that is what it is.

And it's supposed to be a dish that's warming and comforting for all three dosha. So whether you are one or the other, it's something that is comforting and cleansing and warming for your body. So a good starter one, if you wanted to sort of explore Ayurvedic cuisine without knowing, for instance, your dosha is. Exactly. Am I crazy or did you do like some sort of Ayurvedic thing in India like last December or something like that? You're not crazy at all and I'm actually so impressed that you remember that because we did talk about it when we got coffee. But yes, I did go to an Ayurvedic kind of workshop retreat with my family and it's one of those things where my family, we would never like step foot in a yoga retreat. It's just,

not our vibe. Like I don't even think I've ever seen my dad be like, yeah, for sure. Like, let's go do a yoga retreat. But it was this really interesting thing that our family had learned about, one of my cousins. And we were all kind of going through a very stressful time in our lives. We just visited some family in India. So we're like, let's make a stopover and just visit this for a few days. And it was amazing. I mean, it's really interesting to be very, there was like no cell phones. you, everyone had to wear like the same clothes. And you only ate Ayurvedic food that was rooted in Ayurvedic medicine. And that was really interesting.

And it made me, it made me a lot more interested in the cuisine. And one thing that I'll say that I took away from it, which I still do to this day. My whole family does is in the morning, I'll drink warm water. So you should really never be drinking cold water. Like ice cold water is not great in Ayurvedic, the philosophy. So warm water actually like helps, like, soothe your body. and it's like a good thing for digestion. So the first thing I do in the morning, not with lemon or anything, which I'm sure is fine as well,

I'll just drink like a big glass of warm water before I even start my coffee. And that's something that has not only made me a little bit more mindful in the morning, but it's also started my day immediately hydrated and kind of in a good calm place. And do you notice a difference in your digestion? I do. I feel like a lot more hydrated, which means that I just, yeah, my, digestion works. It works a lot better. Amazing. So I know you also, you grew up in Southern California, but also in London. And I'm curious if those two environments had any impact on your view of food,

if there's any cooking secrets or not to do things that you learned from either of those places. 100%. I think I grew up in Southern California. And obviously I was, I mean, I guess maybe this isn't too obvious, but I was really the only Indian person I knew. Like, I didn't see anyone who really looked like me. So I felt definitely like a fish out of water and, and felt like I didn't really fit in either in my school, but I also didn't really fit in with like an Indian crowd when I went back to India because I was too American and too Indian for, you know, growing up in a primarily white town. So what was cool about London is that it is so diverse both in people and cuisine. So it was the first time in my life that I started to feel more at home with both my identity as an Indian

woman and also with cuisine and with food. I was exposed to Lebanese food for the first time. I was exposed to a variety of different types of food. There's so much amazing Indian food in London. And I think I was lacking that growing up in Newport Beach. And it just really opened my eyes to flavors and also just really informed the way I cook. So now because of my time spent over there and the proximity to Europe in different places. A lot of my cooking is inspired by that, inspired by a lot of Mediterranean flavor, is inspired by what I initially first saw in London.

Can I ask, do you, have you been to DeSoum? I have. Yes, I have. And is that like authentic, or is that just like Indian food for white people? It's like one of my favorite restaurants. So I'm curious if it's good. No, it's delicious. And no, it is really delicious food.

And their cookbook is also. amazing. So I would say it's authentic and it's really good. Those black lentils though. So good. That was like that blue. The first time I ate that, I was just like, how can food taste like this? And then I looked in the cookbook and I was like, oh, because it has like a stick of butter. Like an entire stick of butter. We should go, Liz. We should say to the trip and go. So let's get into the TV side a little bit, which is mainly the fact that you woke up at 3.30? What time did you wake up when you were working at the Today Show. Yeah, I would wake up at 3.30 in the morning and go to work. Okay, so I want to use this to talk about the potential to eat well when you have a

crazy schedule. So I would love to know what you did to set yourself up to be as healthy as possible while you were waking up at 3.30 in the morning to go work at the Today Show. That's literally such a good question because it is so difficult. It is so challenging. And Even if you're not waking up at 3.30 in the morning, which was crazy, it is really difficult to eat well and feel like you're healthy when you're stretching yourself really thin with your sleep and with your routine. So I would say because I was waking up at 3.30 in the morning to get to work, I always made sure that I was prepared. So whether that was, you know, having some bars on hand or making a smoothie the night before to bring to work, having some overnight, oh, it's in the fridge

that I could just pull out of the fridge before I went to the control room. I think it was really important for me to say, okay, you know, 3.30, that's pretty early. Like, let's see if you can have, like, a morning snack at, like, 4.30 and then have your real breakfast a couple hours later. Because it really shifts your entire sleep schedule. And sleep, too, of course, is one of the most important things about being healthy. So I would even say, like, aside from being prepared with healthy food and snacks, making sure I was in bed at 8 p.m.

was, first of all, a major struggle. I'm not saying I was perfect or did it every single day. But the fact that the less sleep you get, of course, your hunger hormones and all of that is so thrown off that you don't know how to stay healthy and how to stay on track of feeling well if you're deprived of sleep. So I would say being prepared

and then also being really regimented about my sleep schedule. Do you have any like make ahead dishes? Like people are always asking me for make ahead work lunches. And I was terrible at that even when I worked in an office. So I love to pick other people's brains for their secrets. Yeah. Some of the stuff that I do are really easy. Either I'll do like a blender pasta dish.

So an avocado cream pasta kind of turns into a pasta salad the next day because you can eat it warm when you make it and then you can pack it for lunch the rest of the day. So I love doing that. That's the recipe that I make all the time. Another thing too is some sort of vegetable sort of stir fry with some quinoa. Again, these are things that you can eat for dinner and then also pack for lunch the next day and you can eat it hot or cold. So I'll put beans and some red peppers, like a little bit of a Southwestern style quinoa.

That's really delicious. You can do onions, bell peppers, beans, zucchini, whatever vegetables you even have in the fridge to make sure that nothing goes to waste, saute it with some quinole, olive oil, spices. Pack that up for lunch and have it for the next day and even as a dinner or a side. So yeah, I mean, it's really difficult. I know you have amazing like freezer burritos and things like that, which are so clutch to just have something. Like, that's the big thing, right?

If you're not prepared, you're going to reach for something that may not make you feel as good as if you're like, wow, like, Sama, I am so proud of you. Like, you made this quinoa, like, and you're like prepared. It makes you feel a lot better and makes you feel more healthy. I also love, like, even the way you just put it was about the self-talk. It was about like, I care about my. myself enough to do this for myself. And I feel like sometimes we can treat this stuff like,

oh, it's a chore and I'm tired. And this is the last thing I want to do. And I love the idea of being like, and I think you're good at this in general and life of being like, girl, I'm worth it to treat like this. I deserve this moment for me. Yeah, exactly. I think that's so, so true. And it's the reframing portion. It's the how do I make myself feel good. I'm worthy of making myself feel good. And also, I'm in charge of that. I'm in charge of how well I feel. I'm in charge of my health. I'm in charge of saying, okay, like, I don't want to wake up 20 minutes earlier than my alarm, but if I do this 20-minute yoga class, I'm going to feel a lot better for the rest of the day. Do that for yourself. Make that choice because it's really all about the choices that you make. I love that. Can you demystify, maybe de-glamorize?

I know you cook on TV a lot, and it looks so easy and so effortless, and I think people have no idea what goes in behind the scenes. So can you just tell us a little bit about that? Yeah, I mean, especially if I shoot something digitally or even broadcast, there's like a full team behind making sure the food is prepped the night before. In the morning, you've got everything set out in different stations at different stages of like a cookie dough, baking the cookies, having the dough ready, waking up in the morning to like look glamorous for error. And there's a full team behind it. I definitely cannot take credit for like being prepped. And what's interesting, and I don't know if a lot of people know this, but when you actually do come to set, in the morning or whatever the show is airing,

everything is set out for you. So I'm not actually cooking the cookies on air. Everything in stages is already done. I don't do anything. I just come there and show up. So it is an interesting thing where I'll be prepping and going the night before at a rehearsal or whatever, but that's when all the burgers are already ready for the next day

or all the cookies already ready. And we're just making different batches of it to show it at different stages of the recipe. So definitely a lot of hands. in the pot for sure. Do you get nervous when you're like literally millions of people are watching this? It's sort of weirdless because I kind of black out. So I get just a bunch of adrenaline and I just go.

Don't even remember what I said. I'll be done with a segment. And they're so quick too. They're like four minutes. And I'm like, wait, what did I just say? Did I just? And we were like, oh, you were great. And I was like, okay, good, because I don't remember.

I love it. What if you said something bad? What if you blacked out and you were like? Al, you look stupid today. You know, like. I mean, definitely. You won't like this. Yeah.

I love it. I love it. I love the energy. I love the adrenaline. I think it's a really, it's a really unique skill to sort of learn to feel like, okay, you got four minutes to do this. You can't really mess up because if you mess up,

that's losing, like losing time on air. So just get through it. And the pacing is really important too. I always try and be really. mindful of going as quickly, but also as eloquently as possible. So people understand what I'm saying without running out of time. And you've got the stage managers being like one minute left. Like you know, so you've got a lot of factors to really look at while you're on air.

Yeah, it is very stressful. But I don't know. I'm a freak. I love it. I would do it every day. Yeah. I mean, you do, but you seem like a natural. I would be very, very nervous.

Okay, let's do some quick speed round. What are three pantry staples that you always keep on hand so that you can make healthy dishes? Tahini, almond flour, and turmeric. Ooh, give us one example of tahini in a dish. So I'll either make a pasta sauce, like a pasta salad with a really delicious tahini lemon dressing that I'll just over it. And that's something that could be really great for the rest of the week. And I'll also throw in a dessert. My tahini cake is one of my favorite things.

and it's really amazing and delicious to bake in baked with tahini. Go to healthy breakfast. Avocado toast with an egg on top. I know it's basic. I know, but I do it anyway, and I love it. Do you add any, like, fun spices to, you know, josh it up? Or you're just like, no, I'm just going to lean into basic ass avocado. I just need it in.

No, actually, I've been adding some chop masala to my avocado toast, which is an Indian spice that has a lot of different spices. It's sort of like a garam masala, but more of like the street food version. It's like tangy and spicy and delicious. And I'll usually put that with a squeeze of lemon, some salt pepper, and then a little red pepper, like if I'm feeling like a little spicy. Is chap masala something that is it a spice one that we could probably find at our local grocery store? Or where do you purchase that?

So you can definitely find it online. I would say is a safe place. even if you're in New York, Klooscians is a great place to find spices. But I would say online is definitely the best if you can't find it in your local store. Are there any healthy ingredients that you think people are just absolutely not thinking about or underutilizing? It can be fridge, pantry. It can be anything you want, but something that you think people should be using more that they're not. You know what?

I would say lentils. I think that people are a little bit scared of lentils sometimes. I know I was scared of lentils when I first started cooking them because it's the whole process. But I think one of the important things to know about lentils is if you soak them for like 30 minutes to an hour before you cook them, it's going to be a lot faster to cook. And you don't have to just make lentils and like throw in a salad. I really like to make dolls, of course. So that's like me returning to my brown roots again. But it's super easy to just simmer it with some coconut milk, some spices, some vegetables.

And you have both a soup and a doll. That's really great to prep for the week. I love that. I love that. Okay. So then this is the last question. And it's just this is all about getting people to eat and embrace and enjoy vegetables. So tell me your favorite vegetable and your favorite way to prepare it. My favorite vegetable? Okay. I can't. I really can't give you a favorite. But I'm going to say what my favorite is right now. I love vegetables. I literally live for them. I'm again, like I said, I'm a freak. Currently, I have been eating so much cauliflower, but this is what I've been doing. I have been taking my cauliflower, cutting them into little florets, I've been putting them in a little eggwash, and then kind of breading them with an almond meal like masala mixture. So I'll do cayenne, turmeric, cumin, salt, pepper, roll it in the almond meal mixture and I'll bake it. And it's like, almost like a buffalo cauliflower, but masala style. You have to try this, Liz. It's so good. I'm going to, I have a cauliflower in my fridge. I'm going to try it today. I am sold.

That's my favorite way to eat them right now. Yes, please report back. Well, that's amazing. Okay, for anybody who wants to find you, find your book, follow your journey, where can they do so? You can find me on Instagram at dadaeats. That's D-A-D-A-Eat. You can get my book wherever books are sold, and I'm very excited that we were able to talk today. So thanks for having me.

I am too. This was wonderful. Thank you so much. You're listening to the Healthier Together podcast. When you think about strength and resilience, like your ability to feel energized, to recover well, to stay strong as you get older, what do you think that actually comes from? Most people say working out or good nutrition, and yes, of course that matters. But there is a biological foundation underneath all of that that most people are completely

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all of which have been used as natural energy boosters for centuries. There's also a freeze-dried berry mix, which both makes it taste really good, even when it's only mixed with water, and it adds a ton of vitamin C, which I have been prioritizing, including in my diet, ever since the skincare episode of the pod. If you listen to that one, you will definitely know what I'm talking about. I will do a scoop in the morning if I am feeling sluggish, but I really love it around 2 p.m.

One glassful fully gives me the energy that I need to enjoy and thrive for the rest of my day. Organify also makes a green juice that Zach's obsessed with. It can basically act as your daily multivitamin. That one has a little bit of caffeine for matcha or I would be all over it, but he says it taste amazing and has gone through like five canisters of it already. So I will take that as a ringing endorsement. The ingredients are really why I love Organify so much. A lot of companies put like 45 different ingredients into a blend, but Organify picks the absolute best ones and puts enough in their blends for you to actually feel a real effect. They're also all organic and incredibly

well tested and source, which can be such a problem in supplement land. Basically, I love them and I can't wait for you to try them, especially the red juice, because I feel like you're all going to message me saying that you feel like a superhero. I, of course, have a code for you. you can go to www.organify.com slash healthier together and use the code healthier together for 20% off your order. Again, that's Organify, O-R-G-A-N-I-F-I-com slash healthier together, and the code is healthier together for 20% off. Enjoy. Thank you so much for joining me on the podcast today, Yuma. Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited to be here, Liz. I am too. For anybody who's unfamiliar with you, can you just give us a little bit of background about

who you are and what you do? Absolutely. So I run a food blog called Feel Good Foodie and I basically started eight years ago on Instagram and it was just supposed to be a hobby. I had about 10 years of experience doing marketing right before that and I was on maternity leave, just having fun on Instagram, sharing what I was making for dinner, snacks for the kids, things like that. And before I knew it, it was really fun, really catchy. There was an audience that was starting to follow me and it just became this like really fun, addictive, obsessive thing that I was doing on the side, you know, while still trying to work part-time for the marketing company. And so after a while, I realized that it would be fun to just take this Instagram hobby and develop it further into a blog,

a website, a full resource. And now this is my full-time job doing this for, you know, eight plus years. So it's super exciting. And I love what I do. And on the website, we feature a lot of Mediterranean recipes, a lot of just recipes with like feel good ingredients and the kind of food that's going to make your body feel good, you know, the healthier, healthy-ish, like all of that, you know, vibe. I wanted to ask like what your cooking philosophy is and what sort of feel good means to you. Does it leave anything out? Does it have a lot of any ingredient? What does that mean? Yeah, that's a really good question because there's so many different ways of eating healthy these

days and healthy to me is different than healthy to you. And everybody just has a different perspective on that. For me, it basically just means wholesome, whole food that are prepared as minimally as possible. And so I like to try to keep things fresh. I like to try to keep things minimally processed. And I like to try to keep things organic or natural whenever possible. So it does not exclude any food groups. It does not exclude any types of food or any types of cooking. So it's just kind of, you know, the type of food that looks closest to nature is the one that I really love to eat and feed my kids. So that's kind of the philosophy that I've followed. And, you know, what's interesting is Lebanese food and Mediterranean food is so naturally that kind of just gives you that feel good vibe already with the fresh ingredients, you know, seafood and just all of those very nutritious, like wholesome ingredients.

So did you grow up eating pretty much Lebanese food all the time? Yes. Actually, I was born and raised in Africa, and I lived there until I was 11 years old. Which country? I was in Cyril Yon. And in Cyril Yon, I was in a little small town called outside the big city, free town. And so very tiny town, but it was very heavily Lebanese influence. And a lot of people, a lot of Lebanese were there just because of the culture, because of the industry.

And so my mom basically cooked Lebanese food all the time, you know, from breakfast, lunch to sweet. It was all very Lebanese-centric. And, you know, she would make things like spaghetti and things like that, like kind of more worldly types of foods or like pizza. But for the most part, it was very Lebanese heavy. And then when we moved to the U.S., you know, my mom started integrating more quote-unquote American type of dishes, like making burgers and like tacos and things like that. What is the cuisine like in Sierra Leone? You were obviously quite young, but did that influence your perception of food at all? The cuisine is very, I think it's similar in the way of, like, Lebanese food as well.

Lots of stews, lots of rice, lots of dishes that, like, cook for a while. I think it's reminiscent of the comfort food, comfort food side of Lebanese food, like the stews and the soups that we have. So I actually do feature some West African dishes on my website as the ones that I really grew up with. So one of them is like a cassava stew, for example. Another one is called Jolof rice, which is basically red tinted rice with like lots of onions and tomato paste and something like a Mexican rice. You know, it looks just like that. So I don't think that it's too different. And I think that some of it can be heavy and some of it can be very fatty because of the use of palm oil.

But for the most part, it's lots of leafy greens and tomatoes and peanuts and rice and grains and things like that. And we ate a lot of it as well. My mom learned how to cook them and we ate all of those dishes. And I've actually learned how to make probably five of them that I make often. Not many more than that, but like five of them that I love and still make today. I'm like so jealous of people who grew up in really interesting places because I grew up in like a small town in an agricultural region. And I really wanted to travel and didn't travel. internationally until I was 16.

And I had to beg my parents. I was like, please just let me go anywhere. So when people are like, oh, I grew up in Sierra Leone, I'm like, oh, my God, I want to talk to you about that for like an hour now. But we will talk about food some more. It's just so cool. Yeah, absolutely. Okay, so let's talk about kids.

I would love, do your kids eat healthy, would you say? Are they picky? Do you have any secrets for getting vegetables into them? Oh, yeah, absolutely. So a lot of people on Instagram will see my kids on stories eating all of these, like, healthy, quote-un-cold foods. Like, they're eating kale chips and they're having spiral zucchini and things like that. And they just constantly comment like, oh, you're so lucky. Look how good your kids eat.

And I said, there is no luck involved in this whatsoever. It's basically, you know, trial and error with the kids and just them seeing me eating all of this food and testing these foods and trying new things and taking them with, taking them with me to grocery stores and farmers markets and having them like smell the produce and taste it and try things. And so in our house, we have a motto of just like, taste it once. You don't have to eat it again for another like 12 months. You know, just taste it once. And then if you hate it, 12 months, you don't have to touch it. And, you know, and I'm constantly telling my kids that, hey, you know, your taste bloods change. And so you didn't like tomatoes last year, but let's try tomatoes again.

Let's try it in a new way. And so I'm constantly just getting them excited about food and not necessarily trying to hide these good ingredients, but trying to show them the appreciation for it and the fact that it could actually make their meals more fun. You know, like my daughter refused to eat salads forever because she always believed that salads had to have tomatoes in them because I love tomatoes. And I put tomatoes in almost 100% of my salads. And so she always thought salads needed to have that.

And one day I said, let's try it. She's like, but I don't want tomatoes. And I told her, we don't need tomatoes. And that just like baffled her mind. And so sometimes I think kids have these perspectives about like what healthy means. Like zucchini is only eaten raw. No, you can actually turn it into a tator taunt. You know what I mean?

And so over time, I just want to show my kids and show other people and other moms and their kids as well that there's other ways to appreciate food. And there's other ways to introduce these wholesome fruits and vegetables into our diets. than what's typical and what's known, you know? So instead of tomatoes, I had my daughter put strawberries in her salad because why not? I mean, it's red. It's fruity. It gives it that sweetness that tomatoes give it. And she appreciated it.

So, yeah, those are kind of like my tips for that. And I always think get them involved as much as possible. Get them involved in the kitchen. Get them involved at the grocery store and get them involved in the cleanup to see like, oh, man, I didn't finish my food. now we're throwing this food away, you know. And so that process from like the grocery store to the actual like, you know, throwing away the food that like, you know, I didn't appreciate it.

It's fine. But now we're wasting this food. And it just kind of gives them this 360 appreciation of where it's coming from, what we're doing with it and what's happening when, you know, when we're done eating. Yeah, I love that. I also love the point even for picky adults that your taste buds do change. I think sometimes we get stuck on the idea like, oh, I hate mushrooms or I hate zucchini.

And our taste buds really evolve over time. And so I love the idea of like retrying, resampling, being open to that as a concept. Absolutely. And you'd be surprised. There's a lot of people who don't like tomatoes because of the texture of tomatoes, for example. But like if I just took tomatoes and pured them,

my daughter has no idea and she absolutely loves them. And it's perfectly fine and she enjoys it that way. So it's just interesting because you think you don't like an ingredient, but sometimes you just don't like the way that ingredient is prepared. So yeah, for all moms, just kind of keep that in mind as well. If somebody was as a kid or an adult, a very picky eater and you wanted to get them excited about vegetables, what would you make them? I would roast the vegetables 100%. Whenever possible, I think roasting the vegetables, making them into fritters and then cutting them into different shapes. So if you think about, for example, celery, we're normally used to seeing celery as a stick.

So think about cutting celery like in a diagonal way so that you kind of get the more width of it instead of the stick of it. And that's something that I do sometimes with cauliflower as well. So cutting it like razor thin to kind of look like a chip instead of cutting it into a florett. So that unusual shape of it, for example, can get people really excited. Another way to get people excited about vegetables is to turn them into a fritter, chop them up really small, like whether in a food processor or whatever, throw in some eggs. cheese, flour, whatever. And you're having a couple servings of vegetables easily that way through a fritter form. Everything is better in a fritter form. I totally feel that way. And I agree. I think fritters are the best, most underutilized way of, I fritter so many.

And leftovers, too. I just like, will it fritter? Probably. Will it taste better? Probably. It's just a genius way of getting veggies into your diet. I love that. Will it fritter? Probably. And that's, you know, and people say, well, how do you make a fritter? It's really just get it to stick and fritterize it and just throw it on a skillet. And, you know, and the third way I would say is to roast vegetables. Roasting vegetables just makes their flavor deeper. Sometimes it's sweeter. You get that charred flavor.

And I just feel that as any vegetable, especially a root vegetable, can really get a flavor enhancement and a flavor glow up, if you will, just by roasting it. I mean, even roasting leafy vegetables, if you think about it, they really just, just, kind of get that charred flavor to them and it takes them to another level. So I found that works really well with my kids. I never boil or steam vegetables. It's always something roasted. So you get that crunch, you get that color, and you get that sweetness sometimes as well. I feel like most people who think they hate vegetables have only had boiled or steamed vegetables.

I agree. 100%. I love watching one of my favorite things is that on your TikTok, you test all these like tips and tricks and you're just like anything that's, that's going viral or that's new and fun, you're trying out. And I'm curious if you've been doing that for a while now. So I'm curious if there's anything that you've like actually tried that you've been like, this is genius. I'm incorporating this into my life. And I'm curious if there's anything you've tried that like, you're like, this is a complete fail and nobody should do this ever. Well, there is the, there's the lemon trick where you put a chopstick inside of the top of a lemon.

I don't know if you've seen that. Yeah, to squeeze the lemon juice out, right? You poke a hole and of cutting it in half. Yes, you poke a hole instead of cutting it in half. And honestly, I did not find that to work at all for me. I tried with a juicier lemon. I tried with a firm lemon. I tried keeping it at room temperature, rolling it. It was just way too hard. And maybe I'm, maybe my hands are weak, but it did not work for me at all. I don't think you get enough. I've tried it too. And I just don't think you get like, you can get a little bit of juice out, but it feels like a huge waste of the lemon. Yes, exactly. It just feels like you said, like it's a waste of lemon and I just have such different better ways of squeezing a lemon than doing that.

So that is one hack that I tried that I did not love. I did try the draining of spaghetti the opposite way with the colander by putting the colander on top of the pot. Have you seen that one? I haven't, but that makes sense. You kind of nestle the colander directly into the pot and then flip the whole pot kind of into the sink. Yes, exactly. And I've tried that and I thought that was genius. I'm like, I'm learning things with this TikTok university apparently. But I thought that was really cool. It was very smart. And what happens is nothing sticks. You just take out the water. And then you, you have the pasta still in the pot that you cooked it in. So then you can add a little bit of pasta water if you wanted to or throw the sauce right in there. So I really like that

hack. I think that worked really well. And I'm trying to think of some other fun ones. Yeah, there's just like some, you know, it's just fun just to see like how different people cook and how they incorporate different ingredients and just when things go viral. One recipe that I did try from because of TikTok is baked oats. And as a healthy food blogger, I'm constantly cooking oats in different ways. I grind them. I've made baked oats. I made baked oatmeal before.

I've made muffins using oat flour. So the concept wasn't new to me. But then it's the single serve idea of baked oats that, you know, it looks like cake. And basically it's just a small cake muffin that's single serve. And when I first saw it on TikTok, I thought, oh, this is cool. It's baked oatmeal. I have so many baked oatmeal recipes. Let me make one and throw one on TikTok.

And it wasn't. It was actually a cake that's made with oat flour. So that was a really fun one. And I think TikTok just has a fun way of branding things that make them sound just more fun. Like fruit in a bowl with coconut water is nature cereal, you know? It's those little things that just kind of have the marketing term, right? and it just becomes more catchy. I loved your, I thought nature cereal in general is kind of dumb, to be honest, but your version of it,

can you just say what you did because it sounded actually delicious? And I think it was a great example of what I love about Middle Eastern flavors and Middle Eastern cooking. Yeah. And so when I first saw that, I thought, hey, my mom actually made this growing up all the time. And basically we just called it fruit salad. And so we would chop up a lot of fruits. And then my mom would put orange juice in there. So I was like, all right, let me do this nature cereal using the way my mom would make it.

So what I did was I did the berries as normal with the pomegranate and the coconut water. But then what I did was I added pomegranate milk, pomegranate syrup. Sorry, not pomegranate, rose water is what I added. I added some rose water in there. And rose water is basically rose petals that are steeped with water. They get like all the essence and all the aromatic and it just flavors it so well. So I added a hint of that. And then I also added sliced bananas because my mom always did that with food salad growing up.

And they just gave it a nice sweetness. They give it like the soft texture that kind of contradicts the crunchy pomegranate. I just thought it was wonderful. But that rose water in there is just like takes it to another level. Are there any other Lebanese ingredients that you keep on hand to sort of elevate regular dishes? Yeah. The other one that I was just hinting to was the pomegranate molasses actually. So it's basically made by, it's basically made by pomegranate juice, reducing pomegranate juice,

the way you would reduce balsamic vinegar, for example. So it becomes lemony, acidic, and then it's sugary. And it's like sugary and lemony at the same time, and it's sticky. And we use that a lot in different kind of like drinks, for example, but I use it on chicken because I think about it like a sweet balsamic vinegar or sweet balsamic lace. So I use it to toss chicken with to make marinade. and it just takes it to another level. Like the chicken gets nice and crisp and caramelized on the outside,

and it just gets this like nice, sweet, subtle, like, sweet and sour flavor to it. And it's just phenomenal. So I love pomegranate molasses. And you just need, like, a teaspoon or a tablespoon of it. And it goes a long way. I also use that to make dressing, actually. So when I make my fatouche dressing, I add pomegranate molasses to it. And again, it gives it that sweet and sour taste to the dressing.

And it gives it that like a balsamic glaze type of color. So anytime you would like maybe use balsamic in a recipe, could you potentially try out pomegranate molasses? Absolutely. Yeah. See how that glaze. Yeah, I would definitely do that. And so I have a bottle and I just constantly throw it on things and, you know, add it to a top

of a salad. For example, like a capricia salad, you can add a little drizzle of that on top. And it just takes it to another level. So that's what like you said with Lebanese cooking, a lot of times. it's just the simple things that we know and eat all the time, but just a little bit of a difference. Like I make a cake, but I make it yellow by adding turmeric in it, you know, or instead of lining the bottom of a pan with parchment paper or with oil or butter, I use tahini, for example, tahini. So the tahini is nutty, it's fatty, it's just the right, and nothing sticks to it. And it just kind of coats the bottom of a baking pan.

Wait, what? Yeah. So you can use tahini. Yeah. Crazy. That's like you're probably like my bed. I'm like mind blood. I love tahini.

I would have never thought to use it in that way. And it makes it's like it's kind of like coating it with butter essentially. Like it makes it not stick. Exactly. Yeah. And does it add a little bit of like that sort of bitter nuttiness as well to whatever you're baking? Yep. And then it also adds some color to the bottom of like if you're doing a cake recipe for example,

It adds a little bit of color to it. So it comes out more golden, I think, because of the fat content in Tahini. So, yeah. And it's just like those little things where I think a lot of people are using tahini to make like chocolate chip cookies or using it instead of butter and like brownies and things like that. But just new fun little ways to use it. So tahini is something I always have on hand.

Rose water is another one that I absolutely love just for, I add that to baked goods as well. Like I would add it to anything. My son hates it because the rose. it's just too fragrant for him. But I just feel like it can enhance, you know, like mocktails and smoothies and sweets. I add it to cookies sometimes and it just gives it this like beautiful essence. I think it's an amount thing. Like I think you have to use really the right amount because if you go too far,

it can smell like a grandmother's drawer or something. But if you go just the right amount, it's just absolutely beautiful and you can't put your finger on it and it's delicate and lovely and just so nice. nice. Absolutely. Yep. Are there spices that you've mentioned turmeric? Are there spices that you sort of lean into in your cooking that you feel like really take basic things up a notch? My favorite spice of all time is cumin. And I know it's not an Arabic spice, but we actually have cumin varieties that are Middle Eastern. So there's, I think there's some that are more like Mexican varieties and there's some that are more Middle Eastern. And so our cumin actually tastes a little bit different.

And it's just the way it's ground from the actual whole like cumin itself. the flavor is just phenomenal. So that's my favorite spice of all time, and I've thrown it on everything. And the other ones that are more Middle Eastern-specific, I would say, are Sumat or Sumac, which is basically, it's kind of like a lemony, dark, warm type of spice.

And the other one is Zatar, which is made with like sesame seeds and sumac. And it kind of tastes like oregano, I would say, as well. And what do you use those? What do you use sumach? Well, actually, could you give me like your favorite example of using each one of those three? Yeah. So, cumin, I like to add cumin.

My mom has this philosophy that cumin helps to like, actually it's not even a philosophy. I think it's medicinal, you know, so cumin is actually really good for bloating. So I like to add cumin to anything that can give you a bloat. So chickpeas, lentils, burgl, bulgol, bulg, anything that kind of is heavy on the stomach, I like to add cumin to it. So if there's a rescue with chickies, most likely I have cumin on there as well. So I like to add a little And do you notice a difference when you have cumin in those types of recipes? It might be psychological, but I do. You know, and so I don't know. And this is something that my mom grew up like, oh, always add cumin to like heavy, heavy dishes. And so that's what I always did. Yeah. And so with

sumac, it has a more lemony flavor. So I like adding it to dressings whenever possible. I throw it on Patush dressing is like my favorite way to use cement, but I also will add it to dishes that you would add like lemon zest to. So for example, if you're doing some kind of a chicken dish or some kind of like a meat dish, you want to add that lemon zest to it. It goes really well with that. And then the third one is Zathar, which has a little bit of stumat in there, but also has sesame seeds and fresh oregano. And it has this, that's just more versatile, I feel. You can throw that on anything. And I like, I like adding that the most to bread. So any kind of like pizza or any kind of dough,

throwing that on there is just phenomenal. And we actually have a recipe called mena-ish, menaceesh. And it's basically that Zahkar mixed with olive oil on bread. And so it's just a very simple like breakfasty flat bread with the Zatatat in there. But those, I always have those on hand. And then obviously like seven spice and, you know, there's other spices like that. Seven spices in all of my stews. It's made up of seven different spices like paprika and cumin and cardamon and all of those.

So I actually am writing a post all about like Lebanese spices because I'm like, oh, there's two. No, it's three. I also like this one. I also like this one. And before I know it, there's actually, there's probably like 10 that I love and use. And so I'm actually putting together a blog post all about this. Like, what are the 10 spices and how do I use them? So great question.

Yeah. So you can check out Yumna's blog probably by the time. this goes out hopefully and get a whole post about spices. I love spices so much because I do think they can take very simple meals and make them extraordinary. So and I think particularly learning about how different cultures use spices can up level your cooking so quickly. Absolutely.

Yeah. Are there any time saving hacks you have? I know you have to get anybody who has kids. I'm like, how do you do anything? Because I just feel like it seems so time consuming to have any children. at all. So I'm curious to you meal prep. How do you make healthy eating accessible and quick? I, you know, there's a few things that I like to do. One of them is I like to buy in bulk and prep in bulk whenever possible. So if I'm making oatmeal, I will go ahead and make oatmeal for,

you know, I'll go ahead and make like a baked oatmeal for everyone. And instead of like making oatmeal in the microwave, for example, I'll go ahead and make a big pot of oatmeal that's going to have and it's going to be enough for the rest of us with, you know, 12 servings of oatmeal, for example. So buy it in bulk and then prepare it in bulk, I think is a really good tip for any moms or anybody who's just really busy. Another thing, obviously, freezer meals are just wonderful. It's so time-consuming to prepare something twice. So when I make lasagna, I make two of them.

When I make stews, I make another one, have all this stuff kind of ready. You can dump it in a pot or throw it in the oven. So that's a really good, handy. Yeah, that's genius. Yeah. And then I would also say just having a well-stocked pantry is so crucial. So I always have pasta. I always have pasta. I always have tuna. I always have chickpeas. And so I feel like by having some good grains, some good protein, you can easily kind of throw meals together. And there's these like pantry wonders that can take any small meal and just elevate that. And I've already talked about my spices that I take that can really elevate a meal. But some of the other ones I like are, for example, sunride tomato. I feel like you can, if you throw those in a chicken burger, like in a bland chicken burger, it's phenomenal. If you grind them up and throw them in a pasta sauce, it just takes it to another level. So you can take, you know, packaged pasta sauce, your favorite variety.

You can blend it or even not even blend it. Just throw in some of the sunride tomatoes. And all of a sudden, you feel like you're having gourmet pasta from a restaurant. It's like a little umami bomb. It's just like straight, savory, so good. That's genius. I'm going to try that for. I use it in like pastos.

I always keep a jar on hand to make a pesto, especially when it's olive oil packed because you can, it's like everything in it that you already need. But I've never thought about using it to elevate other dishes. And that's genius. Oh, yeah. And that's one of my little favorite hacks. And so I always just love,

I always have a jar of that because, you know, and I really love Mediterranean flavor. So it's so Mediterranean as is. And so I'm constantly throwing it in things. And it just takes it. And then everyone's always like, what is that flavor? Sundret tomato. It's always some nice tomatoes.

Do you have any other, you said pantry wonders, is that your go-to main one? Or do you have any other ones that are like that? That's a big one for me. And, you know, olives are just like, olives are the same for me as well just because they're shelf stable and, you know, it's so easy to just have so many of them on hand. And so with olives, it's, again, that like salty, like amazing flavor that's so unique. But sometimes it can be overpowering. So I like having olives and just purring them into things.

Like if I'm making dips, for example, I'll add that to it. I also like chopping them up to add to soups and stews because it gives it that salty flavor without having to add too much salt. So olives are another really big one for me that I love. I love that. That's genius too. All right. So this series is all about getting people to be really excited about eating healthy

and being like, it's not boring. It's so fun. So I would love to just end on what is your favorite vegetable and how what's your favorite way to prepare it? Like how would you wow somebody with this vegetable and make them just fall in love with it as much as you're in love with it? Oh, man.

I love so many vegetables. Like which one is my favorite? Let's see. I mean, I think zucchini is like so versatile. And even though by itself, I feel like it could be kind of bland, I feel like it's so versatile and can get you to eat more vegetables

with a high water content without even really feeling it. So one of my favorite ways to eat it is to actually use a wide peeler, just peel it up so it's like noodly like, and then throwing it with pastas, like a zoodle, for example, but also throwing it in sandwiches, throwing it, even roasting it just makes it nice and delicate and super flavorful. So I think zucchini is so versatile and it's just adapts to whatever that you're doing. But I think one that stands on its own that I absolutely love is mushrooms and just saute them, salt and pepper, high heat.

That's it. Just so simple, so perfect. I love mushrooms. But yeah. So I had to pick two. It's okay. I forgive you. If people wanted to check out your recipes, find your spices post, where can they find you on the internet?

I am feel good foodie everywhere, except on Pinterest, feel good foodie one, because I arrived a little bit too late, I think. But I am everywhere I feel good foodie, and you can also Google Feel Good Foodie to check out all the recipes I have on my website. Some really cool posts for being a mom, getting dinner on the table quickly, like little dinner hacks on the table, stuff like that. I'm such a believer in making home cooking quick and easy and accessible. And whatever I can do to help, I'm like, here, let me share everything I've learned because I've learned over the year. Amazing. Well, I feel like you've already shared so much genius with us today. So I'm sure everybody will go and check that out.

And I so appreciate you taking the time to share your wisdom with us. Thank you so much, Liz. This was super fun. And thank you again for having me on. You're listening to the Healthier Together podcast. The mattress that you sleep on is one of the highest exposures that you have. Like if it's off gassing, you're breathing that in for basically a third of your life. And most conventional mattresses are loaded with synthetic foams, flame retardants,

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All right, Julia, thank you so much for taking the time to join me on the podcast today. Thank you so much for having me. I'm really excited to talk with you, Liz. Okay, I feel a little silly asking you to introduce yourself because I feel like you're just such a icon in the food world. But can you please, for anybody who's unfamiliar with you or your work, can you just tell us a little bit about who you are and what you do? Of course. And that's very kind. But yes, I'm happy to introduce myself in case anyone doesn't know. My name is Julia Tertian. I am a cookbook author. I am a home cook who writes recipes for. other home cooks. What else can I tell you? I have a podcast, just like yours, but maybe a little different, but probably a lot of overlap. Yeah, I would say those are the big things. Do you have a cooking style or philosophy that you adhere to? I mean, I guess I do. I don't know if I have exact words for it. I think my, I think the type of food I make is honestly healthy comfort food. I think

that's totally the right, you know, words for it. And I thank my wife, Grace, for telling that to me, because for a really long time, I had a hard time describing the food I cook because I love to cook food from so many different parts of the world, inspired and influenced by so many different people. And I've never known how to just sum it up really quickly. As you can hear now, I'm just talking and talking. And one day, Grace was like, Julia, you make healthy comfort food. That's what you make. I was like, okay, cool. So I guess that's my, you know, what I cook, but my philosophy around it, I think that, I don't know, I go back to just home cooking. I am very much a home cook who writes for other home cooks as I guess I introduce myself. You know, I'm not a restaurant chef. I'm not a TV chef. I'm not a caterer. I'm not any of these other things, which are all wonderful things. That's just not who I am. And I am someone who believes. in the value of cooking at home, who sees the labor of what goes into that, who wants to just honor it. And I guess for me, it comes down to that daily home cooking is relentless.

And therefore, I think that we can all just afford to be a little bit easier on ourselves. And remember, at the end of the day, like, we're just making dinner. You know, it's not every meal we eat has to be, like, the best meal. ever. And I just really like simple food. And I think simple food is often undervalued. Because I just think we live in a culture and society that everyone's trying to constantly impress everyone else or one up everyone else. And I just am not that interested in that. Like, I just want like a baked potato. Totally fair. And we'll get into some of your healthy cooking, like time saving hacks and all of that. But I'd love to break down.

to sit on the word healthy for a second. Because I know when I wrote my cookbook, I struggled immensely with how I was defining the word healthy for myself. And I'm really curious how you're, when you say healthy comfort food, what do you mean by the word healthy? Yeah, I am really happy to talk about this with you especially because I know this is something you've been very thoughtful about.

And maybe I can offer my, you know, thoughts here. And I would just really honestly love to hear yours too. also because, I mean, I have your book and I know what you wrote and I'm just wondering, because for me, the meaning of this word evolves and changes constantly. So I'm just curious if that's true for you. Anyway, to answer your question, I am just thrilled and delighted and really proud that I wrote a book of healthy recipes that have nothing to do with weight loss. You know, I don't equate the word healthy with skinny. And for me, how I define healthy is very much about my relationship to food, like a 360-degree relationship. It's my relationship to cooking and my relationship to eating.

And it's very much my relationship to my body. And, you know, like any other relationship in my life that I value, I want my healthy relationship to food to be a really positive one, one that has zero judgment, one that's very supportive. of very understanding, very flexible. You know, it's not about any rules or restrictions or deprivation. You know, it's, there's no limits on it. It's very much like this limitless relationship is the one I aim for. So, yeah, I would say that's how I define healthy. And in terms of like the logistics of the recipes in my book and basically just what I

cook and eat at home all the time, what my wife and I cook and eat at home all the time, it's really simple stuff, you know, because I think a big part of healthy cooking and eating is simplicity and like the ease of making it because if you have to wash a million dishes and go to like four different stores to get ingredients and spend a lot of money on ingredients, like to me that's not easy and that's not sustainable. You know, I want healthy cooking and eating to be something that feels really accessible. Yeah. And, you know, we eat lots of vegetables and grains and all those things everyone, you know, talks about. And I also am just not afraid of like fat or flavor in any of my recipes. And yeah, it's like really satisfying,

simple, you know, happy, fun food. I also love that you don't define healthy in relationship to weight loss. And that's a huge part of my dietary philosophy in general. But I'm curious how you define healthy in terms of bodies in general, both in terms of, I know that you're you've talked about diet culture and how that's impacted your your approach to cooking. But I also think it's interesting that your wife, who you've mentioned a few times, has type 1 diabetes, I believe, right? Yeah. And so she has, I mean, the way that having a disease like that would make you approach food,

I imagine, would affect it. So I'm curious both in terms of your image of your body, but also in how you need your body to run and feel how that approaches your dietary philosophy. Yeah, sure. For me these days, it's about how my body walks instead of running. I know you didn't mean it like that. It's just funny to me because that's actually been a big part of this for me because I used to run a lot and I had like chronic knee injuries. And one day I was just like, your body does not like this. You do not really enjoy this. Like you're doing this because you feel like you should be doing it. And it gave me like the sense of satisfaction.

that felt very toxic. And so I just stopped running and now my knee doesn't hurt and I'm able to do all these other things. It's so funny that like I do think sometimes it can feel like a little bit of this very obvious. Like it hurts what I run. Maybe I shouldn't run. But we're so loathe to give ourselves these very simple, graceful with ourselves solutions. Totally.

Totally. And I again, I know that's not what you meant. I just felt like that was worth mentioning like, you know, for this conversation more than any other. But yeah, in terms of kind of healthy and what that means for grace, my wife, who lives with type 1, what it means for me, you know, I will tell you exactly what it means for us. But I will say, I think it's a good reminder that I think it's for all of us to define for ourselves. Like what's healthy for grace and her body living with type 1 is different than mine because I don't have type 1 and it's different from other people's. So I think one size does not fit all. I don't think one type of, I don't know, like type of cuisine or preparation, like works for everyone.

So I definitely encourage like a very personal definition. So within our household, yes, a lot of it has to do with her having type one and to make something very complicated, like oversimplified. If anyone just doesn't know, because I didn't know for a long time. But type 1 and type 2, diabetes are very different. And you can get either at different points in your life. And Grace was diagnosed with type 1 as an adult. And basically, if you have type 1, again, I'm oversimplifying something. But you have to act as your own pancreas.

Your pancreas no longer provides insulin. So you have to provide it, you know, on your own. And that means grace is doing the work of an organ. you know, all day, every day. And she once heard someone describe it as like a full-time job that you never applied for. I think that's really accurate. And essentially, again, oversimplifying, I'm not a doctor. But essentially, every time any of us consume food, our body is produce insulin to help, you know, manage that food breaking down your body and digestion and, you know, energy and all these things.

And when your body's not doing that automatically, you have to kind of figure it out on your own. And it meant that when Grace was first diagnosed, we adopted like an incredibly low carbohydrate diet. One that I like to say was low carb high quality. And, you know, it wasn't necessarily required and it's not the diet that Grace follows anymore or that I follow with her anymore. But at that time, it felt like the healthiest. decision we could make as a family. It meant that while Grace was learning this new language, this new way of living of, you know, living with type one and managing all of this on her own, it felt like cutting out that variable of, you know, higher amounts of carbohydrates just made

things a little simpler at a time when things felt the opposite of simple, you know, and they felt honestly really scary and frightening. Like she was really sick and we didn't know what was wrong and it was frightening. And, you know, I think when anything feels out of control, I think any place you can feel some sense of control can be really helpful. And for us, that was in her kitchen. And, you know, it meant that I was trying to figure out what are the things that my wife loves to eat the most and like, what are low carb ways I can make these things so she can have that satisfaction and the comfort of her favorite foods without it impacting her body in a way that's going to make the stressful situation more stressful. So that's when I started making things like a

recipe that's in the book that I just called Grace's chicken cutlets or chicken cutlets for Grace. I can't remember. I get like carried away with my titles. Basically, they're really delicious chicken cutlets that are actually like, I think, a lot easier and easier to clean up afterwards than traditional chicken cutlets. And they're just coated with like almond meal and they've got like a little mustard and mayo instead of eggs. So it's just like, extra flavor. And you just bake them and they're delicious and they're simple to make and grace loves them. And, you know, that's the kind of recipe that we continue to make to this day because they're easy and they're good and we like them. So even though her dietary needs have changed,

I think even though the needs of her, you know, family unit have changed, you know, some of those things have stuck around because they're, you know, we like them. But we have flexibility with all this And, you know, just because, you know, eating super low carb for a while was helpful, it, you know, it didn't feel like the way either of us wanted to eat forever. And luckily, we didn't, you know, have to. I think sometimes these kinds of restrictions are, you know, for reasons like an allergy or something else where, you know, it's going to be really damaging if you eat something. But I think, you know, being flexible at this kind of thing has taught me a lot about just having, again, like a very supportive relationship with food and making it just work for you and your needs. And what about you and your body? What's your relationship with your body at this point? So I used to have, I used to have very disordered eating. I used to restrict a lot of what I ate. I used to obsessively count and track everything I ate. I was on and off of Weight Watchers for like close to 15 years. and I follow the framework of intuitive eating.

I try to follow the framework of intuitive eating, I should say, which is basically for me been a lesson in just getting more in touch with my body and not being so disembodied from my body, not thinking a chart or any kind of calculator could keep track of things better than my body could. So I tried to be really in touch with what my body is telling me. It talks to me all the time. It is constantly communicating. I just wasn't listening for a really long time.

You know, like the running thing. Like my knee was injured for years. Years. And, you know, I would ice it and stretch and all these things. And, you know, then I just stopped doing the thing that hurt it. And now I can do so many other things. So, you know, I listened to my body and it responded really kindly. And in terms of specifically the things I eat, I mean, I eat such a range of things.

And I think a lot of what I eat has to do with where we live, which isn't to say I eat like only local food, because for me that would mean I would never again have like a lemon or a banana. And, you know, I really like those things. So, you know, we live in a pretty rural area. We live near a lot of farms. I'm actually going to be working at a vegetable farm for the rest of this year. starting like next week. I need a break from like making books. I've just done it for a long time. So I am just like really just personally very invested in the farms in our area. So we belong to like tons of CSAs. So we're always like working our way through lots of vegetables. And I love vegetables. I love cooking them. I love eating them. We also eat. I don't know. We eat a lot of chicken and eggs because those are things Grace really likes and she doesn't eat any like red meat or pork and I don't really ever crave them so I don't eat them but if I do crave them I feel like once

a year I crave a hamburger and I'm like okay I'm going to make an awesome burger like we eat a good amount of fish and stuff and you know we also eat like plenty of snacks and I don't know we eat like a range of foods I don't restrict anything and the only thing I have been sort of changing my relationship to a little bit and restricting just at the moment is, and I hate to say this because I love this thing so much, but it is coffee because I'm, again, trying to listen to my body. And it, I think, has been telling me that coffee and I don't get along as well as I really thought we did. Does it stoke anxiety for you or is it something else? Oh my God. It stokes anxiety. I get like sweaty. And, but I like love it. Like it's, you know,

I love coffee ice cream. I love coffee flavored anything. Like I just, I love coffee so much. But yeah, it makes me, and I'm already an anxious person, like more anxious. It just like makes me physically like uncomfortable sometimes. So I'm like trying to figure that out, but I'm trying to be very, um, just like easygoing about it. And also, yeah, to again, just be really honest, like, cutting anything out of my diet, you know, is very triggering for me. Like, and so I'm trying to go about this in a way I never have before, which is just with a lot of compassion for myself. So, yeah. Do you think intuitive eating is like a muscle that you flex? Like, do you think the first day you start it, you're like, you're like, I'm going to listen to my body. And your body's like,

45 Kit Katz. But if you keep doing it, your body, you can like tune into like, hmm, this coffee's making me feel a little weird or like I actually do think I want some leafy greens right now. I recently had the opportunity to interview Evelyn Tribbley, who is one of the like founders of intuitive eating and like literally wrote the book on it. And she and I were sort of talking about this and she was saying like if you have restricted things, you know, with your body, if you've had any disordered eating or an eating disorder of any kind. When you begin to heal that relationship, again, for me, healthy is about my relationship to food and eating. And if that hasn't been like a positive relationship and it requires healing as, you know, mine has, when you begin to heal it,

there is like a very, very like normal, natural, like expected thing that essentially you've been like holding your breath for so many years. And when you come up to take. some air, you know, you're going to take a huge gasp of breath. And as Evelyn said, like, no one is like, wow, you're so addicted to air or you have no control around air. And so I think if you've restricted anything, if you've had limitations for yourself or someone put those limitations on you, you know, if you're breaking away from those, I think it can be super common to then have, you know, like a huge appetite or whatever, like, whatever. Like, whatever. Like, would be the opposite of what you've been doing. And I think, again, to just have like a lot of

compassion and be like, oh, yeah, because I, like, haven't been feeding myself enough. Like, I'm hungry. And over time, again, I can really only speak for my own experience, but over time, one of the most interesting outcomes for me personally of, you know, really trying to apply the intuitive eating framework just to my life is how much it's changed my life in ways that have nothing to do with food. So because I used to be on Weight Watchers and stuff like that, I had like eroded the trust I had with myself. I felt like what you just said, like 45 kick cats or something, I felt like, well, if I, if I'm not counting the points for this and figuring out how much I need to move my body to compensate for this or whatever, whatever it was, you know, I cannot be trusted. I'm going to eat

145 Kit Katz and also like okay if I did that like I don't think the world would end I probably wouldn't feel great you know and maybe next time wouldn't want that many I don't know but to just take away the sort of shock of that and the I don't know judgment around that so that's been huge for me but also in doing that to learn over time like I'm very trustworthy like I can trust my I can trust myself as much as other people in my life trust me. That has been huge for me to learn. Like, I used to think I couldn't keep ice cream in my house because I would be out of control. And all I would eat would be ice cream. And my freezer is full of different types of ice cream now. And I have however much I want, whenever I want. And sometimes that's, you know, a scoop. And sometimes that's more than that. And sometimes it's none. And sometimes I'm just not in the mood. And at a different point in my life, would have thought a freezer full of ice cream, it would be all I could think about. Like, I couldn't do

anything until I ate all of that. And, you know, that's very, I feel like I'm just, I don't know, I feel very sensitive about, I don't feel sensitive about sharing any of this, but I feel sensitive about how this might land with some people. And I just hope to not be like triggering anyone with this. I just think it's valuable to be like honest about my experiences because I, I think a thing that helped me heal this relationship so much was hearing other people's experiences. So I just want to be sort of mindful of that. But yeah, I've learned to trust myself more and just honestly, yeah, have like more compassion for myself.

I love the idea of trusting yourself as much as other people trust you. I think that's like a very powerful. That'll probably be the thing when I interview you in like four more years. I'm like, do you remember that this thing you said four years ago and you're like, Liz, you need to get new things to think about. You cook a lot of vegan and vegetarian dishes. A number of the dishes in the book are vegan and vegetarian, even though as far as I can tell you,

don't really subscribe to any specific dietary philosophy. So could you just tell us a little bit of kind of your cooking secrets to making balanced dishes that taste good without animal protein? Sure, yeah. You know, I include those all in the book because those are things I eat all the time, even though I don't, you know, what you said. I don't subscribe to any particular, you know, label of eating or whatever, and I eat such a range of different things. But basically because I just love all my farmers so much, like, I do just eat a lot of

vegetables and I just love them. I also have a lot of vegans and vegetarians in my life, and I really, really hate the feeling of anyone feeling, like, left out of a meal, like anyone feeling like they're getting something different. Like, I just wanted there to be a lot of, you know, inclusivity in my book. Like, I didn't want anyone to feel left out. So that's sort of why those are there. And then your actual question was, how do I make these things and make them like satisfying? Yeah. How do you like, when you're approaching constructing a vegan or vegetarian dish, what are you thinking about to make it taste really good without protein? Yeah. Animal protein. I am thinking mostly about sauce and like condiments. I feel like

like the difference between like a bowl of, you know, like a grain bowl or something. Like, I feel like the difference between something that feels kind of almost like clinical and something that feels like craveable is usually some kind of sauce or condiment like spooned on top. So I think a really good example of this. There's a recipe. There's a whole chapter of one pot vegan meals in in the book. And one of those, something I make all the time. And it's, this pot of like stewed chickpeas with peppers and zucchini. This again comes back to the farmers because it's something I make often in the summer. We actually started making it at like the place where we do volunteering in our community,

where we like cook for people in our community. And we get donations of like crates and crates of zucchini because where we live in the summer, I don't know if anyone listening has ever grown zucchini, but like once it starts, it like does not stop. And like you can't like pay someone to take it. So we were always trying to figure out ways to make like quick, easy, healthy meals with with lots of it. So the result was this meal, these stewed chickpeas with all the zucchini.

It has some like tomato paste and lots of garlic, you know, for some extra flavor. But you serve it over whatever you want, like rice or pasta or quinoa or like toast or whatever, a roasted sweet potato, or just on its own, doesn't matter. But then you drizzle this little bit of sauce on it. And I make the sauce out of like vegan mayo. I use veganase. You could use regular mayo if you're not vegan. You could use anything creamy, like if you're not vegan, sour cream, whatever.

But I find veganase works beautifully. And then I just add some fresh lemon juice and chopped parsley and salt to it. That's it. Four ingredients. Lemon, parsley, salt, something creamy. This is a mixture I put on so many things all the time. And it just takes this bowl of like chickpeas and vegetables. which is already good.

Like there's nothing wrong with that. But that little spoonful of sauce that took like no real extra time or effort to make. Like you could leave the parsley out if you don't want to chop something. It's fine. Like I just think it kind of looks nice. It makes it taste sort of fresh. But it's not going to be the end of the world if you leave it out. It's so good.

I can't tell you like what a difference it makes. And I feel like it's like, I don't know, think about just like a piece of dry toast with nothing on it versus a piece of dry toast with anything on it. you know, peanut butter, cream cheese, jam, whatever. Like, it's such a difference. So I feel like that little topping makes a big difference. And you can get so much flavor with different condiments and stuff. So whether it's a sauce like that, you make yourself or it's just your favorite hot sauce or like an awesome chutney that you bought or whatever. Like putting that little topping on, I feel like is really worth it.

That's actually one of my favorite ways to meal prep because I don't really meal prep. But I'll make a sauce at the beginning of the week and then I'll use that sauce. throughout the week. Like I'll make a fresh blended, usually some sort of green sauce with like jalapeno and herbs. And then I'll put it on different meals. And it doesn't feel like I'm eating the same thing. But it makes it feel easy to make different dishes throughout the week. Totally.

I am so with you on that. And if this sounds like, I don't know, a helpful tip kind of thing, like I just agree with you. And I also approach kind of meal prep in that way because the idea of meal planning honestly stresses me out so much. And it feels like the opposite of an. intuitive eating to me because I am just trying to be aware of like what I'm feeling in the moment. So if on Sunday I'm planning what I'm going to eat for lunch or dinner on Thursday, like that feels like too planned to me. But I love doing things like what you said, making some,

you know, delicious sauce or dressing, putting it in a jar in the fridge. And then knowing, you know, I can cut up some stuff for a salad and put it on or I can roast a chicken and use it as like a little sauce or I can stir it into cooked rice to make it, you know, more exciting. Like, it can be all these different things. And I'll also make things like big batches of things that are really simple, like, you know, a pot of rice, like a pot of just like greens, maybe just with garlic or nothing on them, but they're already like cleaned and cooked. And then I can throw it into an omelette or a sandwich or whatever. Like, so I feel like having those components ready to go, but you can like make them feel more exciting in the moment, but without all the work of, like, cleaning the vegetable,

roasting the vegetable. Like, I find that to be a very supportive thing to do. I love that. Speaking of hot tips, I'm obsessed with your list and your cookbooks. I feel like it's the Julia Tertian cookbook staple. They're just like so fun. So for people who are unfamiliar, you have like, I think in this one, you have like seven things you learn private shepping that home cooks can use for their things. And they're just these like, and I think you had like seven ways to use a can of beans in another cookbook. Can you. Can you. you share just a few of the most pragmatic tips from those sections? Yeah, at the back of each book, there's seven lists and each one has seven items on it. So I think of it in each book is like,

you know, nearly 50 extra ideas, kind of like the bonus content section. And I love writing these sections. So some of the greatest hits from these lists. I guess, I don't know, the list in Simply Julia are the ones most fresh in my mind. And you mentioned the one about seven things I learned from being a private chef. You know, one of the things on that list that I just think is really practical is to always be thinking of your future self. So kind of like we were just talking about like not necessarily meal planning, but sort of just, you know, prepping that you can do earlier in the week. Like if you're making something, always make a double batch of it. And But just so you can have that extra in the fridge.

Like think about your future self and what, you know, might be useful to her. You know, that's definitely something I learned from being a private chef, like always just being prepared. And, you know, if I was going to turn on the oven anyway, why not just throw a bunch of stuff in there? And, you know, another thing on that list that is not so practical, but it's more like emotional was, you know, working as a private chef put me, you know, up close and sense. with incredibly wealthy people, people who, you know, had the means to hire someone to cook their meals. And that experience taught me so many things, including that like, yeah, money can make a big difference in people's lives. But it doesn't make any life free of, like, challenge or pain or anything like that. And those years of doing that work honestly helped me kind of reevaluate my relationship

with money and kind of like with capitalism. And that's been really helpful for me to just figure out, how do I measure my success? And I try not to do it by my income or the number of books I sell or stuff like that. I try to think about like, what was the, you know, quality of our conversation, like, in doing something like this. And even though my Wi-Fi quality is terrible, I am really enjoying talking to you. And that feels valuable.

Do you have any like hot pragmatic tips for saving money on eating well? Oh, sure. I mean, I think that is a big thing that like meals that have less animal products have going for them. Like, yes, they're better for the environment and tend to be better for your health and, you know, all these things get debated. But I think both those things are pretty true. They're also more affordable. Like you can cook a lot more. food, just like more quantity when you're not buying things like, you know, chicken and beef and

fish and stuff like that. I also am a huge, huge advocate of and believer in using your freezer because I think what happens with a lot of people who are excited about, I don't know, shopping at the farmer's market or just trying to eat lots of vegetables and stuff, I think a big thing that happens is you bring home these bags of things, you put them in your fridge, And then a week later, you're throwing out, like, kind of gross-looking things that have gotten a little moldy or maybe more than a week. I feel like vegetables last longer than people think. But, you know, I think there's a lot of, like, basically throwing money in the trash can because you didn't get to it. And I think frozen produce is wonderful.

I use frozen vegetables and frozen fruit and so many of my recipes and just in my kitchen in general. Like, my freezer is full of ice cream and vegetables. And I think it means that it's not going to spoil. It's not going to go bad. And you're not going to throw out the money you spent on it. So whether you're buying things that already come from like the freezer section or you're buying fresh things and freezing them yourself, I think that is a really smart thing to do. And it also means that you're more likely, or at least I'm more likely, to use them because frozen produce is already, you know, cleaned. and usually blanched or, you know, par cooked in some way.

So, you know, something I do often is pull out either like, you know, a purchased frozen thing of, like, greens, like spinach or kale or something. Or I freeze those things on my own a lot. And I can tell you exactly how I do them. But I pull those things out all the time and I put it like in a pan, like a frying pan with like frozen because I haven't remembered to take it out before because I'm just being honest. And I'll put the like frozen block of greens into like a skillet. I'll put like a little water and then like a little olive oil or butter and some salt. And I just like basically turn the heat on and try to get it to like defrost and cook at the same time. And like sometimes I'll put like some minced fresh garlic or even like garlic powder.

And I'll just have like really good quick like totally fine, you know, greens ready to go. And I didn't have to sit there with, you know, filling the sink with water and washing off the dirt and all that. stuff. So I think it's definitely easier on your wallet, but it also just makes it like easier to make, which I think is great. 100%. I'm a, have you tried freezing your garlic yet? Like you can chop it and then freeze it and then you don't even have to do the mincing anymore. I'm such a fan. And I basically feel like, whether it's greens or garlic, I do this all the time where I will just take like an hour on like a Sunday afternoon or something or, you know, I'm a freelancer. So it could be any.

time. But I will take time when I don't have to rush and I'm not trying, I'm not hungry. I'm not trying to like get dinner done. No one is coming over. Like it's just a free hour. And I will peel like six heads of garlic. And I will put all those garlic clothes in my food processor, chop them, put a little olive oil and like freeze it like in this paste. Like I'll spread it out on like a piece of parchment paper. And then when it's frozen, I cut it up into like little cubes and I put them in container in my freezer. And I don't have to chop garlic for like months. It's a literal game changer because nobody likes chopping garlic and everybody loves the flavor of garlic. Exactly. Exactly. I am like such a fan of this. I'm so glad you are too. And I'll do the same with like greens.

Like I will, you know, when they're a ton of them like from the farm and stuff like I'll buy a bunch when they're like at their best like way more than Grace and I could ever eat like in one sitting. and I'll clean them all, I'll blanch them all. I set up like, you know, like a station in my kitchen. And I put them all like on sheet pans to cool down. And then I squeeze out all the moisture. And then I put them like in Ziploc bags or someone I know puts them like in a muffin tin and freezes them. So you have like these little pucks of greens.

So it's like, you know exactly how much if that's helpful. But whatever. Like I'll do that. And it becomes this very, whether it's the garlic or the greens or whatever. it is. Like to me, spending like an hour or two in the kitchen doing that kind of thing, like you're cooking, you know, you're preparing food, but you're not like making a meal. I find that when I have the time to do it, I'm listening to music. Like, it's very relaxing. It's very like meditative. It's like this repetitive thing. I get kind of lost in it. Like,

I love that when I have the time for it. And I also love that it makes, you know, all the cooking that will come out of that so much easier. So that's your freezer. Can you walk us through just a few things you keep on hand in your pantry. And I also love knowing what are what's in people's spice cabinets to do those like quick, easy meals. Yeah. I mean, there's so many things in our pantry,

but I'll tell you just five off the top of my head. So are we talking refrigerator or cupboard or either? Just things you always have like those like I always have a can of chickpeas so that I can make a quick dinner. Yeah. We always have chickpeas. We always have eggs. We always have tortillas, either corn tortillas.

either corn tortillas or flour tortillas because basically anything can be a taco or a cassidia. And I always want to eat either of those things. We always have just a big range of different condiments. And as I mentioned, I put them like on everything. And we usually always have rice. We eat a lot of rice. I love rice. And then spices off the top of my head, the five spices, like counting salt and pepper or an addition?

No, not counting salt and pepper. Okay, just checking. Okay, I already mentioned it once, I believe. So I am just going to put in a vote for garlic powder. I use it all the time. I think it's so good. And I think people like to say it's not good. And I just think it's great.

Well, and I think it's fun. Like, it's important to realize it's not supposed to taste like garlic. Like, it's a different ingredient. Exactly. Yeah, exactly. Yes, I'm in good company here. I use pimentone, like smoked paprika all the time. And I think that actually, to go back to an earlier question about like cooking food without animal products that just has a lot of flavor.

Like I use pimentone and so many vegetarian and vegan recipes because it adds like that smoky, almost meaty quality without any smoke or meat. You know, it's just smoked paprika and it's so good. I use dried oregano all the time. I love it. Again, like garlic powder, it's different than fresh oregano and it serves a different purpose. And I just love it. I basically want everything to taste like pizza. So I put garlic powder and dried oregano on everything.

What else do I use? I have two more and I want to be smart about these. I mean, I use a ton of cumin and so many different recipes. I love it. And other spice. I mean, I have so much. many. I'm trying to think. You know what I love and I think is very underrated is allspice? Allspice is such a wonderful spice. And I have always thought of it as like a baking spice,

like something you put in, you know, like holiday baked goods. Like anything you want to have like a pumpkin spice latte vibe. Like, but it is used, especially like throughout the Middle East and stuff, it's used in so much savory cooking, like different stews and meat dishes and stuff. And stuff and I have learned about that and just how much I love it in things like I use it in my Swedish meatball recipe. I use it in my borsh recipe. It's so good. So yeah, all spice is going to be number five. So what is what do you think it adds to a dish? I think that it adds kind of like the way cinnamon or nutmeg, um, a similar thing that they add, which is I think just a warmth. Like I think there's, I don't know, different sort of categories of spices.

I think there's like spicy spices like different chilies and stuff. And I think there's a lot of warm spices like cinnamon and all spice and clove. And I think we tend to associate those with baking. But I think they're really wonderful and savory cooking too. I love that. Okay. And the last question, because this is all about getting people excited about healthy cooking. And for me, that means vegetables at its core.

So what is your favorite? vegetable and how do you prepare it so that it tastes incredibly delicious? Oh gosh, this is a very hard thing to choose because I love so many different vegetables. Like really, really love them. I would say something I discovered in writing Simply Julia was I knew I loved carrots. Like I knew that. Like there's always carrots, you know, in our kitchen. Like I can add that to my list. But I kind of didn't realize how much I love carrots until I realize how many recipes I wrote that are just for carrots or, have carrots in them.

Like there's carrots and so many recipes in the book. So I'm going to go with that, the humble carrot. And what's my favorite way to make them? Oh my gosh. So many different ways, clearly. But there's a recipe for, I just called it a matchstick carrot salad because you just cut the carrots into match sticks, which to me is like a very relaxing thing to do. And I talk about that in the book.

But you could cut the carrots however you want. You could cut them into coins and call it like your copper penny salad, which I always think is really adorable. But it's just a salad of just carrots. And it's got a really simple little dressing of like lemon, olive oil, a tiny bit of honey. That could also be maple syrup if you want, some salt, a little chili if you want. And that's it. It's so good. And these carrots go well with everything.

Like anything you can think of, a scoop of this kind of carrot salad next to it is. just going to make it crunchy and bright and colorful. And I just love that recipe. It's like so simple. I thought like, should I even include this? But it's become one that I just make all the time. I love that. I'm going to go try that.

I actually have a bag of carrots that I need to use up in my fridge. I feel like you and everyone. Literally everybody is like, oh, I need like two carrots for a recipe. I'll go buy that mega bag at the store. And then you have to work your way through them. So that sounds phenomenal. Well, this was so wonderful and so powerful. and so packed with wonderful information. If people wanted to follow along with you, can you tell us a little bit about your book maybe? And then where on the internet people could follow you or find your journey.

Sure. And just thank you so much for having me. I have followed your work also for a long time. And it's just really nice to be able to talk about some of this stuff with you. So I really appreciate it. And yes, my new book, it's called Simply Julia. It is 110 easy recipes for healthy comfort food. It's available wherever books are. sold. And if you go to my website, which is JuliaTertion.com, you can go to a link to Oblong Books, which is my local bookseller. And you can order like a signed or personalized copy if you want and support a really, really awesome, you know, generations old local business. And yes, I have a podcast, keep calm and cook on. You can also get to that on my website. And my Instagram handle is at Tertian, which is just my last name. Awesome. Well, thank you so much. Thank you so much. This was just a joy. So thank you, Liz. I hope you loved this episode of Healthy Cooking Secrets. I hope you learned so much. I had a little

notepad out as I was editing this to write down all the things that I wanted to try out in my own kitchen. So I hope that you felt the same. I would love to hear from you what you thought about this episode, what little kitchen tricks or tips or dinners you're going to make. So definitely tag me on Instagram. I'm at Liz Moody and then tag whatever guests you learned that little piece of wisdom from. I'm sure they would love, love, love to hear. I would love to hear from you any future guests that you would love to see on healthy cooking secrets. I would also so appreciate if there was somebody that you thought would benefit from the

information in this episode. If you would shoot it over to them, send them a link. Let's get healthier together. And of course, if you love the episode, I always appreciate a rating a review on whatever review platform you use. It's completely free to you. It's one of the best ways to help out the content creators that you enjoy and love. I try to take, you know, one day a month to do that for the content creators that I really love

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