Latest / The Family Teams Podcast / Ep. 261 | Pandemic Meal Planning

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Ep. 261 | Pandemic Meal Planning · The Family Teams Podcast

• 0:00
  Stepping into the kitchen was one of my favorite things, and I didn't actually care about it at all. I didn't even know how to make toast like five years ago until I started really stepping into this whole mentality of like a family team.
• 0:17
  What's up, guys? Welcome to 5-Minute Fatherhood. So one of the things that we have heard a lot from mothers and wives in this season, Jeff put out an amazing, just a form on, I think, Instagram, and he got hundreds and hundreds of responses. And almost an overwhelming response to the question of, like, what are you guys really wrestling with right now? What do you need right now? Was a lot of people just said menu planning.
• 0:42
  And it was interesting when you actually read some of those responses. A lot of the wives were just, you could tell they felt totally alone when it came to feeding the family three times a day. And it just was, they were getting burnt out. And so Jeff and I have talked about, you know, connecting to your inner chef as a father.
• 0:59
  That's a really good thing to do. Jeff and I are both really into cooking. We both really got into cooking because I think we just really value the table time that our family and the experience of what that does for the family. But in this occasion, you also need just to get really efficient and helpful.
• 1:16
  And I think that sometimes guys just we just get into this divide and conquer kind of mentality where maybe that's just not my thing and that's her thing. And so I'm going to ignore it. And so I just want to give you guys a couple of quick tips like if you were to actually help the family, if this is new to you.
• 1:32
  and you are really watching your wife burn out, cooking a lot of meals, and you're not being super helpful and taking any kind of leadership in that process, what is some way that you can just jump in? So I want to give you guys three quick tips because almost every single person, what these moms said in so many of these posts was just like, I'm running out of ideas, I'm running out of ideas. And so I want to get, Jeff, your ideas. My quick three ideas are,
• 1:59
  Rice bowls, pasta bowls, and breakfast for dinner. These are really low-hanging fruit for a lot of guys who are not excited about the kitchen. Most of us can make rice. If you don't know how to make rice, then you can figure it out in about 90 seconds. And you can get a rice cooker, and that takes like two steps to making rice. Still can't mess it up. Trust me. I know.
• 2:22
  Yeah. A rice bowl is really simple. I mean, you make rice and then you put something on top of it, right? You can put, and that could be whatever you guys, whatever you have, you can put chicken on there and just grill some chicken and bam, you got a meal, you know, put some vegetables, whatever. You can make it so simple. Possible, same thing. You can put macaroni and cheese and throw some...
• 2:44
  you know, ground beef or tuna fish on there or something like that. Something that you, that can take like maybe 10 minutes of your time to make, but can make a hearty, good meal for the family. So they feel full and you can make it, you can dial up the nutrition and all these, these things. And then breakfast, a lot of guys are comfortable making eggs, bacon, pancakes, or whatever. So doing that for, for dinner once in a while is also a huge hit for the family and really easy for a lot of guys, but Jeff, how would you try to walk a dad into like
• 3:14
  getting comfy in the kitchen to try to help help out. I think, I think a couple of things, one, a couple of things, one realize that it's probably one of the most helpful things you can do with, uh, in the family dynamic with your wife. If you are not stepping into that right now, meaning it does, it eases a lot if you're not doing it right now. Like I feel like when I stepped into the kitchen, it felt like it alleviated 10 more things than just the kitchen. It just felt like it took on the balance of the day better, et cetera. Um,
• 3:39
  Another thing is just YouTube the crap out of whatever you want to do. Like, I feel like I have been able to level up the cooking to now where I have a couple meals that I feel like are actually like better than restaurants, not because I'm bragging, but because I've just watched YouTube videos and they tell you how to do it. Right. And you practice it a couple of times.
• 3:54
  So I would say that learn all the tricks, all the ticks. There's amazing food channels out there. I would say get a couple of cast iron pans. I love cast iron. You don't have to if you don't want to. But cast iron is the way to go because you can put it in the oven, put it on the stove, put it on the grill. So basically, like you only need one of those and you can do everything. And then I would say everything that Jeremy said. But I also say, like, if you are a meat eater and if you're not, this one apply.
• 4:13
  But I feel like meat, there's a lot of really easy things to do with meat and a lot of different creative things to do with meat, especially on like a grill or a cast iron type thing. So I just, and that's really easy. I don't, I feel like some people are intimidated by meat, but after a couple of YouTube videos, you realize just like it's science. I put it on for this many minutes, I get to this temperature or whatever, and then boom, it's done. So I would say same thing, but I would say work backwards from the reason why. I think stepping into the kitchen is, was one of my favorite things. And I didn't actually care about it at all. I didn't even know how to make toast like five years ago.
• 4:41
  until I started really stepping into this whole mentality of like a family team. And it became like a byproduct, like this exciting, more creative outlet for me to lean into this kind of way of honoring the table and the kids and involving them and cooking, et cetera. So I would say work backwards from the reason. And if it's the right reason, then I think it kind of just falls into place. And then takes practice. Like we've had so many bad, terrible meals that are burnt, overcooked, taste terrible, because it's a fun learning experiment. And I think if you spend a whole year on it or something, then you kind of develop the practice and get better.
• 5:11
  that's right if you want to do some really masculine cooking just go to youtube and look at gordon ramsey and then just he'll slap you around he's too much he's too much for me when he put the toast between that famous scene where he puts like the bread between the guy's face yeah and just yells at him it's amazing
• 5:28
  Oh, man. He's like a drill sergeant. It's so incredible to watch that guy. All right, guys. So also, if you want to, I'd love to start a conversation around this topic, too, in our Facebook group. So if you guys aren't in our Facebook group, Five Into Fatherhood is a Facebook group where we like to talk about a lot of these topics that are coming up in the video. So it's a free Facebook group. Just join in there.
• 5:47
  and share your favorite recipe. How are you guys figuring out how to level up the kitchen or just be involved and be helpful? But I love what you said, Jeff, about this one little tweak can alleviate 10 other things. You don't know how helpful this can be. So if you completely ignore the kitchen and decided, a lot of guys have avoided because they actually want to defend that boundary that that's her realm. And if you're in chaos right now because of what's happening and that's been
• 6:17
  you