Latest / Everyday Ancestral with James Barry / Feeding My Family Real Food Felt Impossible—But This Ancestral Shift Fixed Everything | Allison Schaaf

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Feeding My Family Real Food Felt Impossible—But This Ancestral Shift Fixed Everything | Allison Schaaf · Everyday Ancestral with James Barry

• 0:00
  Well, come to everyday ancestral. I'm your host James Berry. How many times have you heard
• 0:06
  me talk about the importance of meal planning? It's one of the most underrated, underused
• 0:14
  health tools. I recommended all the time, whether it's on this show or when I'm guessing
• 0:20
  on other shows, I can't believe I'm finally getting to actually talk to someone that has
• 0:25
  made meal prepping their business. Allison Shoff is the founder and CEO of Preptish. It's
• 0:33
  a meal planning service that helps busy individuals and family save time while enjoying healthy,
• 0:38
  stress-free meals. And Allison is a trained chef and she's a dietitian. So she has the
• 0:46
  background. She's doing the work for you. And I'm very excited she shares her tips, her
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  tools that she uses in the kitchen. And she also is someone who's struggled to have kids
• 0:58
  and it's finally now has four kids during this episode might be five by the time it airs. She
• 1:04
  had quite a journey getting to be a mom and she shares that as well, which I found very moving.
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  Please enjoy this episode of Everyday Ancestral with today's guest, Allison Shoff.
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  You are practicing and built a company around one of the, I think, one of the most underrated
• 1:26
  life hacks, which is meal prep. I really, I'm always on podcast telling people this is the one
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  underused tool that really makes some of the biggest difference. Before we go into specifically
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  that business, I loved to better understand what actually got you into going down the path of
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  becoming a chef and studying nutrition. Yeah, it's interesting. Growing up, I was always involved
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  in sports. I think also my mom wasn't that into cooking. So I think that kind of got me into
• 2:00
  cooking. I can remember on Sundays she wouldn't want to have lunch right after church. So I started
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  kind of taking on that role just because I was hungry and I'm like, okay, let's, so I kind of
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  took over in high school doing part of the cooking just, I guess, practically. But I did have
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  some grandmothers. Both my grandmothers are wonderful cooks. So I think I was always inspired by them
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  and just had an interest with being in the in the kitchen. Gosh, even in was junior high, I created
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  a catering company actually making cookies. So maybe not the helpiest, but I remember selling them
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  to my dad for his board meetings. And it's kind of a double win for me because not only did my dad
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  pay for the ingredients, but then he also paid for whatever price I put on the price list.
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  That's so great. And were you an only child or did you have siblings?
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  No, I had two younger sisters. So I was the oldest child. So I think also, you know, kind of
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  liked to help out in that sense too. But yeah, I got inspired to go on to culinary school.
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  I found a great program that combined culinary and nutrition. And I guess for me,
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  I've just never quite understood how either of those can stand alone. If you're going to go into
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  culinary arts and spend all this time cooking, wouldn't you want it to be something that's going
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  to nourish your body and make you feel better? Not just in taste, yes, but also in like how your
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  body feels. And then, you know, same thing with nutrition. How can you talk about nutrition without
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  knowing how to cook? No one's going to long-term fall in nutrition advice unless it tastes good.
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  To me, it's just like the two fields can't be separated, but they often are, you know,
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  I always kind of went down that path, but also had this like entrepreneurial streak to me always.
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  Like I was always creating businesses when I was little and knew that I was going to kind of set
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  out on my own path as well, but just had the interest in that culinary and nutrition piece. So
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  that's how old you go to. Johnson and Wales, it's a one of the main culinary schools,
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  but yeah, it gave you the requirements to go on and become a dietician. I had to go,
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  I went to Tufts, then for grad school, and they had a nutrition communications degree,
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  which was nice because I, again, I knew I wanted to do a different path. And so I think having
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  that communications piece just kind of gave me a better background to set off and be more creative
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  in what I did. Yeah, that's fantastic. I went to a program in New York that also fused nutrition
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  with culinary skills. It's always been the same thing as what you said, too. It's like,
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  why are those separated, but yet they really are. No, I did internships at some famous spas,
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  and I remember going in like, oh, this is going to be so great. These chefs are going to be so
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  into it. And I always would find there are one or two in the kitchen that were. They were into it.
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  But for most of the people, even at a health spot, it was just a job. Like, they were a chef,
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  and it was a job. And yeah, maybe there were some requirements they needed to follow, so they did,
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  but they didn't have that passion. And I was surprised that the lack, I guess I was just expecting
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  so much more. And you got to cook for you mentioned a rock star. Do you get to share who that is
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  at this point? Oh, gosh. I don't know. Probably not. I've never shared before. I don't think they
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  would mind since it's been so many years, but I lost touch. But yes, it was a famous drummer,
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  and oh, gosh, him and his wife were so sweet. And it was funny because they would be on the road.
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  And then he would get back and he would always be so grateful. He was one of my most grateful
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  clients, I think, because after being on the road and all that, he was just excited to get back
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  to some nice, healthy home cooking and very down to earth. And I think, you know, with my personal
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  chef services, I wouldn't be there physically cooking the food. I'd more do the meal prep.
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  And they liked that. Like, I kind of would set them up, but then they would have these like
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  home cooked meals as a wife would prepare. What sort of diet did you fall into right out of
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  a culinary school? And then what did you fall into prior to starting the business? Because I
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  know your business actually was gluten free. You were doing, you were doing gluten free and
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  paleo, right? But did you get out of the stool already doing that? No, I actually, myself was
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  not doing any of that. But when I got into cooking for clients, having that dietitian background
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  definitely set me apart from other personal chefs. So I really leaned heavily into that.
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  I started working with a lot of functional medicine doctors. And through that work, I saw how
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  important, you know, a paleo diet or an autoimmune protocol, especially like short term could be
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  to getting people on the path to health. So that kind of got me inspired to do more of the dietary
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  things. But then I think it was like halfway through the personal chef journey. My sister removed
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  gluten from her diet because she was getting just terribly sick. This was years before it was
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  so mainstream. And she got better almost immediately. And it took a few years, but a few years later,
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  I did an elimination diet. Just I really didn't have a specific issue that I had recognized or
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  anything. But when I removed gluten from my diet, I think it's for 30 days. When I tried to bring
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  it back in, it was just very clear that gluten did not agree with my body. And over kind of the
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  next year, I started, it was actually my husband now, we were dating. And he came back home with me
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  and looked at all these photos. And he's like, that doesn't look like you. And I'd never put it together,
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  but eating gluten versus not eating gluten now, listen, like very different. There was a puffiness
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  to my face so much so that he almost didn't recognize me. So yeah, that's really powerful. So
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  just in case some people don't know what an elimination diet is, do you want to just share what
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  you removed from your diet? So when you're doing elimination diet, the idea is, you know,
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  you kind of illuminate a bunch of items that might be causing inflammation or if you have a specific
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  issue. And then keeping them out for a set amount of time, usually about 30 days. And then reintroducing
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  like one at a time over a period, I do recommend it's something that's really helpful to do with
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  a dietitian or a functional medicine doctor practitioner of some sort just to kind of help
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  die you through it. Because I didn't have an exact issue, I don't know that I followed a
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  very specific protocol. I mean, I think I did like no sugar, no gluten, no dairy, no grains. I
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  think I did, you know, sort of like a paleo type diet. I don't know if I did full autoimmune
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  protocol or not. I can't remember. It's been so long ago, but I just, I know that they're only
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  one that had the huge impact on me was the gluten. And I had done some sort of blood test back then,
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  there were a bunch of blood tests that people could do. So you have quite the story around conceiving
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  and trying to conceive, which inspired you to start a website. Would you want to just share
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  what that website is so people can go and check out your story? I'll preface that it's primarily
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  around miscarriages, but really powerful essays that you wrote just about your experiences.
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  What website can they go to learn and check that out? Yes, miscarriagehoekdesk.org.
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  And it outlines my journey to building my family. And yeah, we kind of went into it. My husband and I
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  just not expecting any sort of issues. You know, I thought we were both healthy. I mean, we were
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  and gosh, we just started running into this issue of we had I had one miscarriage and then another
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  and it just kind of kept going on. And in total, I had six losses. After you've had a few,
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  it's kind of like you're more likely. It's statistically to continue having them. But each one
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  was just still so shocking and so unexpected. And I felt like I was quote-unquote doing all
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  the right things. And man, it was a very quite the journey. That's kind of where I was going
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  is that so many times, people in the field, particularly who are helping other people get healthy,
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  who understand nutrition or you do. You think you're doing the right things. How could this be
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  happening to you? So I imagine it was almost it felt almost like you were drowning even more,
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  you know, because it's like I should know I should be able to fix this. And yet as your journey
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  showed, it wasn't always just about the nutrition clearly. I can't even sit here today and say that
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  I know for sure, you know, it was this, this, and this. You know, that's the struggle to infertility.
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  There's so many things that can be impacting it and a 50-50 thing, right? Like there's an
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  egg and a sperm of both are contributing 50%. So there's so many things that can be going on.
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  I did figure out I have an autoimmune condition, like a blood clotting disorder. So I was on blood
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  thinners for most of my pregnancies, but still went on to have miscarriages even on the many of the
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  pregnancies where I was on blood thinners. So I do think there were, you know, additional things
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  that were going on as well. And when people go to the side and learn more about you, what you wrote,
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  the learn you did adopt a child initially, and then birth another child, and then did you just
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  adopt your recent two children? Yes. So in total, we have three adoptions and one biological. So
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  for yeah, that's so powerful. But I'm just curious, does your journey with getting pregnant and
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  then adopting? Has that shifted how you eat as a family and as individuals?
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  Gosh, you know, the biggest way that it's shifted how I eat, I think in some ways with the
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  fertility stuff, I actually learned to well, now sort of loosen up because while I was going
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  through it, I was just so concerned that it was something dire related because that's where my
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  head goes. So I think in some ways I've maybe loosened up a little bit on that side of things.
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  I mean, the biggest thing for me now that we have kids is I just feel so strongly about the
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  power of like sitting down for a family meal and that yes, the food being, you know, healthy and
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  whole foods based and all these things is important, but just as important as that we all sit down
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  and that were calm when we eat. And sometimes I do look back and be like, well, was I like eating
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  in front of my computer? So was I eating the right things but in the wrong way, you know, like,
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  it's so powerful now to sit down and, you know, with four kids, it's not always like calm, but,
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  you know, to sit down and take a deep breath. And sometimes my ordering will say that I was relaxed.
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  And I'm like, oh my goodness, like this is what it is, right? Is sitting down and enjoying a meal
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  with each other and connecting. And I think that's kind of the power in food and why food is
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  nutritious is not just the nutrients it's providing, but it's the connection.
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  Yeah, the how, right? Not only now how it's prepared, but how you how you eat it.
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  So many families though, they struggle with the time and decision fatigue around meals.
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  And I know that's why you built your company, but do you have, I don't know, what's your approach
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  to brain like the simplicity without sacrificing nourishment?
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  I think it's one realizing like at the core, a healthy meal doesn't need to be fancy.
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  And in fact, the fancier I try and get, my kids may or may not push back a little bit,
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  but the simpler meals they don't push back on. So, you know, like a salt and pepper chicken drumstick,
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  like always a winner, you know, and that's salt and pepper. I would love to have every meal be a
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  little more gourmet, but sometimes the simple ones go over just as well. And you know, usually
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  wanting to mix up the flavor combinations and do fancier sauces. That's more for me.
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  Starting there with a simple meal, that's just like a great place to start because if you start
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  trying to do too much, it makes it too easy to fall off and like be like unmotivated to do it.
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  You've talked about food is medicine. And I think very much you exemplify that as during your
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  journey of trying to get pregnant and through that whole process. But what do you think modern
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  parents are overlooking with current, you know, modern diets versus ancestral diets?
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  I don't know how to say this is like in a nice way, but thinking what they're doing is just,
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  it's been normalized, right? Like a snack comes out of a package. My kids do not eat any snacks
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  that come out of like a little tiny package. If you just start there to me, that's like the simple
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  place to just like give them a piece of fruit, chop up a vegetable. Those are our two options for snacks
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  in our house. Like we don't have anything that comes from a package. And there's nothing
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  inconvenient about eating a piece of fruit, right? Like an apple, an orange, a banana. Those are
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  convenience foods too. So I think part of it's just like shifting your mindset a little bit around
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  like what's convenient. And like even if we're in the car, like we can still take fruit, like we don't
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  need these packaged items. So I think part of it's just taking a step back and realizing like how
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  far away we've come from what we should be eating. Yeah, absolutely. And I love that you were like,
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  you're not saying you have to make everything from scratch. It's like because I think that's
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  that's a trap everyone gets into, right? They think, oh, I have to, I have to be like a homestead
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  and I have to make everything for scratch. But I've got, you know, a business, I've got a
• 14:46
  husband, I've got kids and I'm just stressed out. But you're just trying to simplify and say like, no,
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  no, just cut up some cheese, have some fruit, cut up some vegetables, you know, keep it simple.
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  Yeah, I see people, you know, they'll want to create these like healthy muffins and healthy cookies
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  and they add shredded vegetables. And I'm like, that's fine. And that's fun. And if you want to get
• 15:06
  your kids in the kitchen, do it's great. But let's just start with the basics of, yeah, slicing some
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  cheese and some fruit and there's your snack. It's like you kind of go overboard in the other direction
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  and it's like kind of missing a point. Do you think like becoming a parent has actually simplified
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  your process of eating and how you look at food? It's added a little more structure. So my husband
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  and I were always good about coming together and he's also not sure and works from home. So we
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  were always good at usually breakfast and dinner coming together and eating. With kids, it's a lot
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  more okay. I especially have one and it's like if we do not eat dinner at five o'clock, he is like
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  going downhill. So, you know, the timing, there's no flexibility on timing anymore. Yeah, I mean,
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  we always did start with the family meals, but now I really try and get in there and sit down.
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  You know, even if I can sit down with them for lunch. And then also there are gone the days of
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  like, you know, sometimes if you're like, oh, we're just going to kind of, you know, not do a full
• 16:03
  meal tonight, but now I really do try and have something. Although I will say every now and then
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  I'll do like once a month on Sundays, like a snack board where it's just kind of like chopped up
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  different things, whatever's left in the fridge. And it's funny that that's like my kids favorite
• 16:17
  meal the week. It is interesting. No, it's like I because even as a parent, I found that I'm just like
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  to your point, I don't, I'm not cooking his minute gourmet, food meals anymore. I'm just kind of
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  like following kind of formulas. It's like it needs a protein, it needs a veg, it needs some kind
• 16:32
  of like starch or something. If that's what we're eating. And I'm just like, build it that way.
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  Are your kids? I know the oldest is six, you said, right? And then it goes down in age from there,
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  but are you dealing with picky eating yet? And if so, how are you coping with that?
• 16:50
  I definitely see it. It's interesting because from what I've observed with my kids, I don't have
• 16:55
  any true like what you, I would call picky eaters by any means. I've noticed when it happens,
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  it's more like a developmental change of like, I want to be able to like say this and have you listen.
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  Like, oh, I don't want this tonight. And I'm like, he's had that like several times before. And so
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  I'm just like, okay, for my one that says it, it's usually not like a true. I don't like this.
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  It's more like, I want to be able to have this opinion and you listen to it. The one thing I have
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  changed is like, if I'm going to do a pasta dish or like something where everything's mixed together,
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  I will sometimes separate out the ingredients because I find it's a little easier for them when
• 17:30
  like the ingredients are separate. So that's the one thing I have changed or like maybe the sauces
• 17:35
  on the side. You know, like if I have it, to make sure you don't smother everything with it,
• 17:39
  I put it on the side. But yeah, I've really tried from the beginning, you know, to always,
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  you know, just introduce them to everything early and often and really work on my language
• 17:50
  around meal times and how we introduce foods. And of course, having them involved in the kitchen and
• 17:55
  man, that makes a big difference. Do you have any tips for people of how they can like, let's say
• 18:00
  they are struggling to kind of get the family together or to establish routine dinners? Do you
• 18:07
  have any tips for how someone might go around and start to co-create that in their family?
• 18:12
  Yeah, gosh, so much one having a plan for the week is good because you can step back kind of
• 18:17
  know what you're going to have each night. So at least because if you're going into it frazzled,
• 18:21
  it's going to make it that much harder. Like you need to be able to go into meal time. This is
• 18:25
  what we're having and at this time and that way you've already set the tone for like, we're not
• 18:31
  going to ask questions about this. Like this is what's happening. But yeah, the more you can get them
• 18:35
  involved, the better. I like to know kind of the meals that work. Like there might be a meal where
• 18:40
  you're just like, oh, tonight I'm like so tight on time and it's going to be frustrating. But
• 18:45
  as much as possible, I get my kids in there and give them tasks and let them help out. And it just
• 18:51
  gets everyone on board with kind of the whole cycle of diving into meal time. And gosh, so much so
• 18:57
  my six-year-old recently came to me and told me he was going to make every meal for me. And if I
• 19:01
  wanted to sleep while he cooked, I could. So he can tell when I prioritize. It's like if you want
• 19:06
  to sleep, I can cook. He's already like from now on, every meal, I just need to sleep at every
• 19:11
  like every dinner preparation time. I mean, that's hilarious, but he's already exhibiting, you know,
• 19:17
  how you talked about yourself when you were younger. How yeah, like I'm going to start taking over
• 19:21
  the cooking. He's exhibiting those characteristics. Yeah, we've had Deb talk about that because he'll
• 19:26
  want to just like come up with something new to create on his own and I'm like, okay, we can do
• 19:31
  this and I'm told in my view and said, you know, you remind me of me. But and this is great, but we
• 19:35
  can't just, you know, tend this before dinner create a whole new dish. I'm like, if you want to
• 19:39
  create some list, meet at the beginning of the day and decide like when and where and how it's
• 19:43
  going to work. So we have a garden this year and that's been really good because they'll go into
• 19:47
  the garden. They love to pick things out of there. And then if an herb came from the garden,
• 19:51
  all of a sudden they want to try it. But if it just shows up on the replay, they're like, I'm not
• 19:54
  touching this. Oh, okay. So help maybe establishing some kind of garden, whether it's an urban one or
• 20:00
  in the back, and really helping them to see the food growing. You're finding that inspires them
• 20:06
  to actually eat it too. Well, the other day I brought in his zucchini from the garden and before
• 20:11
  he could even say anything, my four year old was peeling it. And we cut it up and sauteed it.
• 20:16
  And I'm telling you, I don't usually peel my zucchini. I don't know why I don't peel my zucchini.
• 20:20
  It was so much better peeled. I enjoyed, you know, the sauteed. I think roasted it's fine. But
• 20:25
  sauteed zucchini. That's my new hack courtesy of my four year old. Peel your zucchini. He's
• 20:30
  before you saute them. Do you have any rituals around the table? Do you do prayer or do you have any
• 20:36
  like I know you sent your oldest to a Waldorf school? Do you do any Waldorf songs or anything
• 20:41
  like that? Yep. So we do a prayer before and sometimes it's like it's in doing argument. But
• 20:47
  you know, who gets to say the prayer? Everyone joins in. We have some of the Waldorf
• 20:52
  ones that we do and then we're Christians. We sometimes will do. We're Christian one.
• 20:56
  One thing they do at Waldorf, it's the teachers that serve. But of course, now he comes home
• 21:01
  and he wants to serve. So we sometimes will have dinners where the kids will serve and they love
• 21:07
  that. But again, we kind of have to, we can't do it every meal because it's a process. But it's
• 21:12
  so funny watching them imitate what they've learned, you know, because everyone has to say seated
• 21:16
  and then he gets to call everyone to come up one by one and he serves them and then they have to
• 21:21
  we have to like light our candle if we want seconds and we'll serve seconds for us.
• 21:28
  Now I want to talk a bit about your company but before we go into what people would
• 21:33
  experiment with their company, if someone's not using your company, how would you recommend they
• 21:38
  get started with meal planning? Like what can they use just at the right house or what steps would
• 21:46
  you recommend they take with what they already have? The number one thing is just, and I know it
• 21:52
  kind of sounds redundant, but like have a plan, you know, but and do it in advance, right? Like either
• 21:58
  Friday afternoon or Saturday morning, look at your calendar for the week, jot down an idea of what
• 22:03
  you're going to have for dinner each night and you can do all the meals, but dinners usually the
• 22:08
  one to start with. It's just having an idea of what you're going to have for dinner each night
• 22:13
  will get you on the right track. Even if it changes, at least that sets you up to one,
• 22:18
  be able to write a grocery list, buy the groceries, and then when you get to that time of day,
• 22:24
  if it's already right now, it's just like having that one less thing to think about makes a huge
• 22:28
  difference because if you're sitting there at five o'clock, I mean this is the biggest I think
• 22:32
  hiccup to healthy eating is at five o'clock being like, oh my goodness, what are we going to eat?
• 22:37
  That's the hardest time to try and think of something healthy, you know, and that's the easiest time
• 22:42
  to try and to decide, oh, maybe we'll just like door dash, you know, or whatever it is. So
• 22:47
  the more you can have that plan and have some intentionality of how the week is going to go,
• 22:53
  the more likely you're at least going to stick to it, a portion of it.
• 22:57
  So let's walk them through what they could do. So if they're maybe starting that process on
• 23:03
  a Friday, what do you recommend they do? Are they looking at whatever cookbooks they have or they
• 23:08
  what's their thought process you recommend they have? Yeah, I'll tell you some of the things we think
• 23:12
  about when we create our meal plans. First, you know, again, the calendar. So write out how many
• 23:17
  meals you may be surprised like, oh, we have three events next week. I'm not going to buy, you know,
• 23:22
  like we're not even eating at home or we're eating at, you know, family's house this night, whatever it
• 23:26
  is. So make sure you know how many meals you actually need. So you're planning for the right number.
• 23:31
  So start with the calendar. Then from there, I look at it as protein, carb, vegetable,
• 23:38
  and the carb can be a vegetable as well, just kind of depends. So that's kind of the like
• 23:43
  first thing I think about. I like to switch up my proteins throughout the week. So, you know, beef,
• 23:48
  a seafood, and then from there you can like chicken, pour kind of whatever it is, but kind of
• 23:53
  switch things up. Although some puns I'll do something like, you know, a big roast at the beginning
• 23:57
  of the week and then use those leftovers. So once you kind of look at it, are there places where
• 24:02
  you can do things like that? Like can I double up on my chicken thighs and the next night have them
• 24:08
  on a salad and the first night just have them like a different way, you know, so figuring out that
• 24:12
  or same thing with like sauces. I'll do that a lot. Like, okay, I'm going to make a chimichurri and
• 24:17
  have it over salmon on Monday. And again, with flank steak on Wednesday. So it feels like a different
• 24:22
  meal, but making chimichurri like a double batch of chimichurri doesn't take that much longer. So,
• 24:28
  you know, just really looking at the weeks, you can have this more holistic view of like what you're
• 24:33
  going to have. And in terms of yeah, finding the recipes, we have a recipe creator and meal plan
• 24:39
  editor. She's also a chef and dietitian by background. Her background is more Mediterranean
• 24:44
  diet, but we will brainstorm and we actually look at our meals like three months at a time. So we'll
• 24:50
  plan three months at a time just to make sure we get the right variety of not only flavors, but
• 24:55
  just ingredients. And are they seasonal? There's a lot of little like nuances that you can add to it.
• 25:01
  But again, in the beginning, maybe it's like, okay, what are the four recipes that are really easy
• 25:07
  for me that aren't going to make me stumble at five o'clock, but I know my family's going to
• 25:12
  eat and start there, you know, start with the really basic ones. And then as you get into it,
• 25:16
  then you can add on in more of the nuances. And maybe this week we'll try a pesto sauce or
• 25:20
  something. Do you find that there's a time frame for repetition? Do people really need a different,
• 25:29
  you know, meal plan 30 days of the month? Or do you find it's like it's actually practical to just
• 25:36
  have like seven and just keep repeating that seven or mixing, matching that seven. What do you
• 25:41
  recommend? I find this is a personal preference. And I haven't quite figured it out. I mean,
• 25:46
  there's, you know, I've heard some people say, I won't even eat leftovers. We wouldn't eat lunch if
• 25:50
  we didn't have leftovers. Like lunch is always leftovers. But then there's other people and it's like,
• 25:54
  okay, Tuesdays always tacos and Wednesdays always stir for it and Friday's always this. And it's
• 25:59
  like, you know, maybe they vary the ingredients. And I'm like, I don't know that doesn't sound
• 26:03
  all bad. But I personally like a little more variety. And I enjoy, and I also think are you
• 26:09
  will live to eat kind of person or an eat to live kind of person that can make a difference.
• 26:14
  I really enjoy, you know, trying out new foods and there's something to be said, even with the
• 26:20
  nutrition aspect of like having a variety of flavors and incorporating a variety of different
• 26:25
  foods is going to be, you know, helpful from that aspect. But yeah, in terms of what's the right
• 26:31
  balance, I think it's figuring out your family and like it, who has the strong preference? You
• 26:36
  know, sometimes there's one spouse that like really wants more variety. And sometimes there's
• 26:40
  people honestly that prefer less variety. You know, they'd rather kind of have the same thing every
• 26:45
  week. And so it's just figuring out where you guys are as a family. So we kind of laid out a lot
• 26:51
  of a lot of different things people have to think about when they're on their own. So what is prep
• 26:56
  dish provide for people? You know, if you want variety, we can help. We do try and keep in mind that
• 27:03
  when subscribers are hitting us, some might be brand new or some of them with us for years. So
• 27:08
  we, you know, are always doing try and true in terms of like ingredients are approachable, I
• 27:13
  should say. But we provide meal plans each week. So we're giving a grocery list meal prep
• 27:19
  instructions and then night of instructions. So basically taking that meal planning process,
• 27:23
  I talked about earlier, but having it be done for you, like, hey, if you want, you know,
• 27:28
  someone to plan out, nutritionally balanced meals with a variety of flavors that we feed our own
• 27:34
  families and just kind of hand you the instructions, then you know, that's basically what we provide.
• 27:39
  And are people picking the diet that they want or are they all fitting a specific diet?
• 27:46
  So we have four different options to choose from. So one is paleo, one is gluten free,
• 27:53
  and then there's a low carb one and a super fast, which is just family friendly, but like really,
• 27:59
  so actually our goal with that is one hour of meal prep or less to get you prepped for the week
• 28:04
  in terms of your meals. Just out of curiosity, do you find one is more popular than the other?
• 28:10
  Like, how are most people eating these days? So super fast is the most popular. We do yearly surveys
• 28:16
  and because I've wondered that, I'm like, okay, is it time to like cut one of them out? Because I think
• 28:21
  and some people switch between them. I know for sure there's some of that, but like 60%
• 28:25
  use super fast, but the other three, it's split so evenly. So I can't really drop any of them
• 28:30
  because they're all being used, you know, and especially the paleo one, I've tried to figure out
• 28:36
  if it's if I need to change the name on that or anything, but I think for the people that are
• 28:41
  looking for, you know, they need green free for, you know, some sort of health reason,
• 28:46
  then they kind of know to look for that term, even though it's not the same, you know, in terms
• 28:52
  of trendiness or whatever as it was back when I started several years ago. And you, it sounds like
• 28:58
  you do incorporate seasons into the meal plan and correct? Yes, yeah, for sure. And even like
• 29:04
  things like in the summer will incorporate some grilled items always with the option to use your
• 29:08
  stove, the winter or they'll be like some hardy stews. I mean, we're not going to do that in July.
• 29:14
  You know, we'll bring in more tomatoes in the summer and squash in the fall. And yeah,
• 29:18
  we're definitely like watching the seasons. And even over the holidays, we'll be like, oh,
• 29:22
  and here two of the plans will give dessert options. And so we'll maybe do something like,
• 29:27
  oh, if you'd want to bring something to a Christmas party, here's a flourless chocolate cake
• 29:31
  you can make. So we're really kind of keeping an eye on the seasons. But you're focusing mostly on
• 29:36
  dinner, correct? Yeah, yeah. So dinner, the gluten-free and paleo are both set up where there's one
• 29:43
  salad that you make for the week. I really love having just one side salad I do for the whole
• 29:47
  week. And then there's a snack, breakfast and dessert. But the way those work, everything's numbered.
• 29:53
  So if people want to make that, they can. But if not, they can just kind of ignore that number
• 29:57
  when they're going through the process. Oh, see, but you are supporting people through their
• 30:01
  whole day of meals. If they want, yeah. Ah, that's great. I'm curious. Do ancestral foods have any
• 30:08
  place in your meal plans or have you built any into them? What would the ancestral foods ear?
• 30:14
  Well, like any more whole animal parts. So like organ meats or even like bone broths or anything
• 30:20
  like that? Not as much. I include them in my diet. So I'm a big fan of bone broth and I make it a
• 30:26
  few times a month. And I do talk about that a lot. And like, okay, if you want to do it, here's
• 30:32
  how you do it. So when it comes up on a recipe, though, you know, we just call for broth and they
• 30:37
  can decide if they want to do store bought organ meats. I don't know that we've done as much with
• 30:43
  we talk about some of the, you know, using more whole foods or like even things come up like,
• 30:49
  hey, I bought a whole cow. How can I swap this? And so we have those discussions with people that
• 30:55
  more like to the side versus like is the main thing. I would love to incorporate some of that
• 31:00
  stuff. I think maybe that's not quite where my audience is though. How granular do you get
• 31:06
  around preparation? Like do you recommend people, you know, soak things? Do you go to that extent?
• 31:13
  So a lot of that stuff again, we're kind of like in the area of like we'll have either like
• 31:17
  blog posts or podcast episodes where we'll talk about like, hey, here's the like preparation and
• 31:22
  all that. But then on the meal plans, it's like, okay, if you want to get it done quickly, you know,
• 31:26
  here's how you do it as well. So we've kind of had to find that balance of making it approachable.
• 31:31
  Like I said, for the new customers, but then in people who have been with us for a while and I
• 31:35
  know people on our Facebook group, like maybe they belong to like a farm thing and they get something
• 31:40
  and they're looking for a substitution and stuff like that. So we try and support them wherever
• 31:45
  they're at on that side of things. Yeah, imagine most people that are coming to you are just look
• 31:50
  are really looking for time time hacks, right? Like things that will speed up the process and make it
• 31:56
  easy. To that point, actually, do you have any kind of prep tricks that you can impart?
• 32:02
  I think one that gets back to that intentionality, when you are sitting down and like looking at
• 32:07
  your week and planning it, and when you're looking at recipes, see, are there some ways that I can
• 32:12
  make this week easier for me. So again, like making that big roast and using it for a few things,
• 32:18
  making a sauce and making it once. Like if you want to experiment something new and some new flavors,
• 32:24
  don't do like three different sauces for that week. Do the same one for that way from the next
• 32:29
  week try a new one. Batching your vegetable chopping is like one of my best hacks because there's
• 32:35
  just something about opening your fridge and having that onion already be chopped at dinner time,
• 32:40
  but just makes dinner that much easier. I can chop an onion in like, I don't know, under two minutes,
• 32:46
  but it's so nice to just toss the pre-chop done, you know, it's kind of like that, you know, how they
• 32:53
  start at the cake mixes. People are more likely to make a cake when all they have to do is add
• 32:58
  three ingredients versus ten. So I think if you can set yourself up to have dinner be a little
• 33:03
  easier by doing all of your chopping and advance, then you're going to enjoy it and be more likely
• 33:08
  to make it a habit. Any preservation tips like so when people bring in their groceries, are you
• 33:14
  proponent of do they take it out of the plastic bags? Like how do you recommend they store it in
• 33:19
  their refrigerator? It depends a lot on like per produce. So this is another thing that you're
• 33:24
  creating your own meal plans. When we're doing ours, we are specifically looking at like, okay, day four
• 33:30
  or five, what are you going to have versus day one? So that is something we do take into account of
• 33:35
  like, okay, is that, you know, salad really going to be good on that day? No, let's move it to this day
• 33:41
  and let's save the thing that has like carrots in it for the last day. Same thing like if you're
• 33:46
  getting some fish, not going to have that on day three. Fish is always like our first one just,
• 33:51
  you know, to try and account for that. And chopping the vegetables, most vegetables do pretty well.
• 33:56
  There's a few exceptions of things that don't last as long. We have gone back and forth on this and
• 34:02
  like done some experiments. We've talked about doing just this full blown like your long experiment
• 34:07
  of chopping and seeing how long they last because it's just the problem is it varies a lot because
• 34:12
  you don't know if you're going to a grocery store. I could buy a carrot that's two weeks older than
• 34:17
  the carrot that you buy or same thing like I get a head of broccoli and it's already like not looking
• 34:23
  great where someone else gets a broccoli and it lasts two more weeks in their fridge. So I can have
• 34:28
  some generalizations, but you don't know the produce that you're buying how old it is unless you're
• 34:32
  picking it out of your garden. Should they store certain produce specifically like should a
• 34:38
  paragus be stored in a glass of water? How about herbs? Do you have any recommendations on those?
• 34:44
  Herbs, I do like to store just in a cup of water like standing up. I find that that helps.
• 34:50
  All the others I don't really have a lot of strict guidelines on, trim their things. Potatoes,
• 34:55
  I don't usually cut in advance, those turn brown. I mean those are not good meal prep things.
• 34:59
  The things you can do with potatoes, bake some potatoes and then, you know, use them later.
• 35:04
  Salad, I always even just as simple as like flipping it so it's upside down. It lasts longer.
• 35:09
  Obviously drain it first of the water right before you do that. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 35:13
  But that's smart. Yeah, because you don't want to do the part that's been sitting is going to
• 35:18
  release more water and or turn brown faster. Yeah, that's a really good tip. Any tips for
• 35:24
  when people are cutting onions like so they don't get the teary eyes.
• 35:29
  The thing I found the works best, stick it in the fridge before you chop it, at least an hour
• 35:33
  before you chop it and that helps to reduce it. I'm a big cryer with onions. Like I really
• 35:39
  struggle. I don't know what that gene or chemical is, but whatever it is, I've got it.
• 35:43
  Get out the stored, you know, emotions whenever you're cutting the onions. What about cookware wise?
• 35:49
  Are you a stainless steel girl or cast iron? What's your favorite cookware?
• 35:56
  Those two. I do cast iron and stainless steel. Well, this is controversial, but not into the
• 36:02
  air fryer's. There's not one that has great materials. Actually, I did buy one. It's like made
• 36:07
  of glass, but it didn't really work that well. Any appliances that you think are non-negotiable?
• 36:13
  I think having at least a high in blender or food processor, both is great, but you need to have
• 36:19
  at least one of those to make like sauces and stuff. So my biggest thing in terms of what you need
• 36:25
  to have a chef's knife, a really good chef's knife is probably going to cost you at least $100,
• 36:29
  $80 to $100. Then a really good cutting board as well. It needs to be a decent size and not
• 36:37
  plastic or glass. It can be made of bamboo or wood of some sort, but no glass or plastic for the
• 36:44
  cutting boards and a big size. Do you wear an apron when you're cooking or do you not wear an apron?
• 36:50
  I should wear an apron. I do not. Every now and then I do. If I'm doing a big baking session or
• 36:55
  Thanksgiving days, sometimes they'll put one on if I know. Depending on what I'm wearing on all
• 37:00
  that sort of, maybe if I'm hosting people, then I'll wear one, but not usually.
• 37:04
  Yeah, I'm notorious for not wearing them. Then of course, when my clothes get stained.
• 37:09
  I know that oil stains are the worst. That's where I'm like, I should wear one because when you
• 37:12
  get a little oil stains on your shirt, those are really hard to get out.
• 37:15
  Yeah, but you know one thing that helps. This is a crazy tip, but you actually use dawn
• 37:22
  dish soap because it's designed to help pull oil. Yeah. So you actually put it on the oil spot
• 37:29
  and then you rub it in and then put it in your washer and it usually will come out just like it does
• 37:36
  on your cookware, isn't it? I need to. I have a few shirts that I'm having mine this.
• 37:41
  Yeah. So I always get to ask these questions. And rarely do I get to ask someone else these
• 37:46
  culinary tips. What do you listen to when you're cooking or do you listen to anything?
• 37:50
  I used to, but now my kids are always in the kitchen with me. So I listen more to podcasts and stuff.
• 37:56
  And I also find in the mornings I like listening to music, so Saturday morning breakfast I do.
• 38:01
  I think the afternoon because I'm so tapped out, I prefer more quiet, but conversation with my kids,
• 38:08
  like I've learned now, kind of like four to five is time to spend with my kids. So I've started
• 38:13
  to view it as that. I think for me in the past I was like, oh, I need to make dinner at this time.
• 38:18
  And then it was like me making dinner and then wanting my attention. So now I'm like, okay,
• 38:23
  I know I can get dinner prepared in this time frame, but I've really shifted my mindset of like,
• 38:28
  this is me spending time with my kids. And we just happen to get dinner made like together.
• 38:33
  So and that's helped a lot with my patients.
• 38:35
  Yes, that's such a good one. I went through that as well. When I had that other kind of get it done
• 38:41
  mindset, I would get so frustrated. And yet that was exactly the wrong thing to do because you want
• 38:48
  your kids to be to your point earlier. You want your kids to be involved with the cooking. You want
• 38:52
  them to be curious about these things. And once I changed my mindset of like, no, this is quality
• 38:57
  time. And this is just what we're doing with that time. It was so much healthier for me mindset wise.
• 39:03
  So that's really encouraging that you felt that too. Yeah. And I've learned to just really pause and
• 39:08
  be like, when I try and like tell them they can't do something in the kitchen and be like, but why not
• 39:13
  before I say no to something. And I've been amazed at how capable they are of doing things.
• 39:20
  You know, my six year old, he's on the stove cooking eggs by himself. He does things in the oven
• 39:25
  by himself. My four year old is like really good with a night. And both of them can like chop a sweet
• 39:30
  potato. And it's a little terrifying at first, but you know, I've monitored them enough and
• 39:35
  watched them enough. I'm confident in their skills. They're confident in their skills. And
• 39:40
  yeah, they're just capable of a lot more than I think I initially would have thought. And just
• 39:45
  by biting my tongue and sitting back and being patient, it's like, oh, wow, they can actually
• 39:51
  help out. Well, you mentioned that you're going to be entering homeschooling next year for the kids.
• 39:58
  And I'm curious, how are you preparing, you know, to run your business to still be a mom
• 40:04
  before a kid and then to homeschool. I'm assuming are you going to be running the homeschool as
• 40:09
  your husband? So I'm going to be running the homeschool. We've always worked with Ocairs. So we do
• 40:15
  have some some help in the house. So we have age wise, it's six for the four year olds, almost five.
• 40:23
  And then an 18 month old and a two month old. So being able to have someone else that's focusing
• 40:29
  on the two little ones is going to be helpful. And then I can do the homeschooling. And then the
• 40:33
  thing that I found, because even this year when the boys had school four days a week, when they were
• 40:39
  home, they're actually quite helpful. You know, like with the little ones, you know, it's like they
• 40:44
  can entertain the 18 month old in a way that like if they're not home, you don't have that. So
• 40:50
  I'm really excited to see us just kind of come together as a family and like function as a whole.
• 40:55
  But yeah, I mean, we have the child care too. So when I work, like I'm very separate from them,
• 40:59
  I try not to work as much in front of them. It's like, okay, I'm going to leave the room and go
• 41:04
  and have my work time and then like come back. You know, of course, like if it's something in the
• 41:09
  kitchen or you know, there's certain things. But for the most part, it's a separate task.
• 41:13
  Well, I wish you well with it. It's it's not easy running a business and being a parent. So
• 41:18
  could host to you for choosing this path. I'm excited to hear how it goes for you at homeschooling as
• 41:23
  well. I so admire the the effort and the decision because I really I believe very firmly
• 41:30
  after having not homeschooled and after having a household of two parents that are entrepreneurs
• 41:36
  that I really do believe having one parent actually run the household and kind of be present with
• 41:43
  the kids and the family and helping to build that that safe space in the home is more powerful
• 41:51
  and more important than I think we give it credit for. I feel like that's been our downfall
• 41:56
  bit. It's because we've been so focused on our businesses sometimes and our kids would see us
• 42:00
  working and they would think, well, you're always working, not knowing of course that well,
• 42:05
  this is how all parents that have jobs are doing it. You just see them. And so it's confused them
• 42:11
  over the years and it's we've had to really do a lot of repair work around that and kind of like
• 42:16
  reclarifying what work is and how good they have it that we're actually around all the time and
• 42:23
  because we both work from home as well. But I do wish that one of us could have homeschooled or
• 42:29
  just really been in charge of the business, the home business instead of always focusing outside
• 42:37
  of the home. Yeah, no, it's so much to figure out, you know, this. I've tried to read a lot of
• 42:44
  books since having kids on that whole thing and because it is, it's like your home is this whole
• 42:49
  business that needs to run. There's this whole like home management. I even had someone on my podcast
• 42:55
  and she has I think 11 kids in homeschooled. It's so much like systems. So it's like, okay, what
• 43:00
  systems do we need to have into place? What are the rhythms? What are, you know, how do we run?
• 43:05
  And going back to the meal plan thing, it's like you've just got to be intentional with that.
• 43:08
  Like if you don't like something, you've got to figure it wise and not working and then go back
• 43:11
  and figure out the solution. But so much of that can be figured out. You just have to give yourself
• 43:16
  self the space and kind to do it. Yeah, well, I'm excited to hear how it goes for you. I mean,
• 43:21
  I clearly you're not going to just be doing that. You'll also be running your business, but it
• 43:25
  sounds like you're going to do like a, you know, an off split, you know, something like a 70,
• 43:30
  30 or 60, 40 or something, right? Like you're going to. Yeah, no, I've been very intentional with
• 43:35
  the business is more like, you know, kind of 20 hours a week or less depending on what we're
• 43:39
  going through. And I have a great team behind me of people at Prept Issue have been with me for
• 43:44
  years. And that's the culture that I've created is like everyone on the team is a mom. So, you know,
• 43:51
  we all value that. We all know that like, you know, families first and we're all passionate about
• 43:56
  Prept Issue. Like we feed our families these meals and and they'll have older kids. So it's nice.
• 44:00
  They can kind of help guide me because here I'm in look little little little ones.
• 44:07
  Thank you so much for joining me and for sharing your guests with our audience. We're going to have
• 44:12
  links to Prept Issue. How can people kind of learn more about you on socials and whatnot?
• 44:19
  Yeah. So at Prept Issue on Instagram, I have a podcast meal prep Monday. You're going to be a guest
• 44:26
  on there. So you can go check out that episode. And then we have a two week free trial set up
• 44:31
  prepdisch.com. I think it's prepdisch.com slash ancestral. So they can go there. I'll make sure
• 44:37
  that's set up in that community show knows, but that's a good way to try out the meal plans.
• 44:41
  I even say after listening to this, if you want to just kind of see our system for two weeks and
• 44:45
  try it out. I hope everyone does. I really do because like I said, I feel like meal planning is
• 44:51
  one of the most underrated and underused tools, but it truly does move the needle the most in my
• 44:58
  judgment. Having that plan, knowing when and how the meals are going to get done. Not only is that
• 45:06
  keep you from eating out, which is not the healthiest choice, but also like you pointed out earlier,
• 45:12
  it creates a regularity so that the focus suddenly is less on what are we eating tonight and it's
• 45:17
  more on okay, this is what we're eating. This is the time we're eating and now we get to focus on
• 45:21
  each other. So if anything, I would offer that prepdisch helps families be with each other.
• 45:28
  That's what I've come to believe as well as like, yes, I want to have nutritious meals and
• 45:32
  taste meals and all, but what I care about the most that I'm giving people is sitting down and
• 45:37
  having that connection with your family and that is healthy. Yes, nutritious healthy, but also
• 45:45
  emotional and all of these other pieces that it takes to be holistically healthy.
• 45:51
  Yeah, that's wonderful. Well, thank you and thank you everyone for listening or watching.
• 45:57
  If you like this episode, please leave a comment. It really does help us know what is resonating with
• 46:03
  you and if you should so like to, please share with someone else and maybe leave a rating. These are
• 46:11
  the ways to communicate with us what you enjoy and we will keep doing that. So stay curious.
• 46:18
  Thank you so much for joining me on everyday ancestral. If you enjoyed this episode, hit
• 46:24
  subscribe so you don't miss the next one. You could find the show notes, links and resources
• 46:30
  mentioned at eatpluck.com. That's E-A-T-P-L-U-C-K dot com. And hey, if you know someone who'd
• 46:40
  get something out of this, share it with them too. Stay curious, live well and keep it ancestral.