The Busy Mom's Guide to Meal Planning + Prep with Kris Dovbniak

Getting healthy dinners on the table as a busy mom can feel overwhelming — but it doesn't have to be.

In this episode, we sit down with trained chef and culinary nutritionist Kris Dovbniak to talk about the real roadblocks moms face in the kitchen, and how a little planning and prep can make the whole week feel more manageable.

Kris and I go way back — and I personally use her Healthy Mama Meals app — so this one feels especially full circle. She brings 15 years of experience as a private chef and cooking instructor to the table, and she's passionate about making healthy cooking feel doable in real life.
 

We dig into everything from building a realistic meal planning routine to finding a prep approach that actually fits your life — plus the mindset shift that makes it all sustainable.

In this episode we cover:
 

• The biggest roadblocks that keep moms from getting healthy dinners on the table
• How to build a weekly meal planning routine that works around kids' schedules and energy levels
• Full meals vs. components vs. a combo approach — and how to find what fits your life
• Basic meals and flavor combos to master first, including sauces as your secret weapon
• Favorite shortcut dinners that still feel like a real meal in busy seasons
• How to stay consistent and get back on track without guilt when life gets in the way

Whether you're a confident home cook looking to streamline your week or someone who never really learned to cook and finds the kitchen intimidating, this episode will give you practical strategies and a fresh perspective on feeding your family well.

Connect With Kris: 

Through her platform Healthy Mama Kris and the Healthy Mama Meals app, she helps busy moms simplify mealtime with practical meal prep strategies, realistic meal planning, and family-friendly real food recipes.

Follow Kris on Instagram: @healthymamakris

Get in touch with us!

Sarah:
Instagram: @simply.well.nourished
Website: www.simplywellnourished.co

Melissa:
Instagram: @rootedrocker
Website: www.rootedwellness.care

Subscribe, leave a rating and review, write a comment and share this episode!

Discover The Energized Life with Sarah Dalton and Melissa Rocker—your go-to podcast for practical nutrition tips, sustainable wellness habits, and daily energy boosts that help you thrive.

Disclaimer:

This podcast is for educational purposes only. We are not medical doctors, and this content is not medical advice. Always consult your qualified healthcare provider before making changes to your diet, lifestyle, supplements, or medical treatment.

© 2025 Sarah Dalton and Melissa Rocker

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:19

So, you guys are in for a treat with this episode. I have my friend Chris Dovniak on the podcast to talk all things meal planning and prep. She is a trained chef, culinary nutritionist, and mom of two who believes healthy cooking should feel doable in real life. Amen to that. Through her platform Healthy Mama Chris and the Healthy Mama Meals app, she helps BusyMom simplify mealtime with practical meal prep strategies, realistic meal planning, and family-friendly real food recipes. All of the things we need, right? So, drawing from her 15 years of experience as a private chef and cooking instructor, Chris shares the tools and kitchen shortcuts that make feeding your family nourishing meals easier and less stressful. Truly, we got into so many good topics, specifically woven throughout all of the conversation was how to make meal planning and meal prep and grocery shopping and all of those things just so much easier and more simple, which is what we're all about here, and actually sustainable. That's a huge one. We talk about how Chris does it and also how it looks in different seasons. I think that's probably one of my biggest takeaways. And you guys know if you've listened to a couple different episodes of the podcast so far, we we always address and talk about our season and knowing your season of life that you're in. Again, whether it's with little kids, big kids, middle kids, like kids, no kids, right? Working, working from home, all the different scenarios that come together to create our season of life and adapting and evolving, letting our systems like meal planning and prep and all of those, the things that we're doing, the routines and the habits, allowing those to evolve right along with us in our season of life. I think that's probably one of the biggest things and the way that I so appreciate how Chris talks about it. Also, it's there's not a right or wrong way. And just kind of thinking about the mindset around it and really approaching getting in the kitchen, making it a lot less intimidating. Uh, so many things. We covered this was an incredible conversation. I didn't want to let her go because it was really great to reconnect. Like I said, we've kind of connected over the years in different ways online. Our paths had crossed. So it was so, so great to talk to Chris. And I am so excited for you guys to listen. And if you haven't already, definitely go check her out on Instagram, her podcast, her app, all of her resources on her website are just incredible. I am a huge fan. They've helped me personally when it comes to meal planning and prep and getting in the kitchen and not being scared to try new things, all of that. So without further ado, enjoy the conversation with Chris Dotmiak. All right. So we have come full circle. First of all, this is a conversation that I, ever since we started the Energize Life podcast, I'm like, we have to have Chris on because she you've been top of my list for again, since we started, because I have loved following you and your evolution, all of the things that you're doing in your business and our paths have crossed over the years in so many different ways. So again, I feel like this is full circle. And I just am so excited to bring you on and introduce you to hopefully a new audience and women. And if they don't know you yet, if you could just give us a little intro of who you are and what you're up to these days.

SPEAKER_02 4:00

Yeah, absolutely. Well, thank you so much for having me, Sarah and Melissa. I am so excited to be here. And like you said, you know, our paths have crossed many times. We've done a bunch together, Sarah. And so I'm really excited to share with you over here on your new podcast. And for anyone who doesn't know me, I'm Chris Dovniak. I'm the founder of Healthy Mama Chris and the Healthy Mama Meals app, and I'm also the host of the Healthy Mama Kitchen podcast. I am a trained chef and also a busy mom of two. I'm a recipe developer, and I help moms make meals and meal planning easier, healthier, and more delicious. In a nutshell, that's really what I do. I've been a professional chef for 15 years now. I've worked as a private chef, I worked in restaurants, I worked at a yacht club, I worked on a boat. Um, but once I had my kids was when I really transitioned to sharing recipes, meal planning, and meal prep strategies online, kind of taking what I learned as a personal and private chef and applying it to real life as a busy mom. Um and that all started when my oldest, who is now 12, was a baby. And then it has evolved as my life has evolved and life has gotten a lot busier. I am a traveling sports mom now. And so I live and breathe the busy mom life. So my favorite thing is to share strategies to make healthy eating easier for other busy moms.

SPEAKER_01 5:22

Chris, that's so amazing. And it's so nice to meet to meet you. And it's true, Sarah was like, we gotta bring her on the podcast first thing when we had put this into development. But yeah, I feel like I think every mom can probably relate to what I'm about to say. I always say, if I were to win the lottery, I would hire a private chef because meals, just the mental load of creating meals for your family that are healthy and delicious is a lot for a busy mom, for any mom, really, or for anybody, for most people. So, you know, hearing that you are doing it and you are making these healthy, delicious meals for your family, and then sharing that with the world, it's like maybe I can't hire a private chef for me, but this is like the next best thing. Right.

SPEAKER_00 6:06

You can learn from one. Yeah, truly. Honestly, that's what I feel like that's what drew me to you in the first place was this truly your expertise in this area, too. Because I think that's a big thing. And we're gonna talk about some of the roadblocks and the obstacles that we face. But I know for me personally, I love you, mom, but I was not taught how to cook, truly. Like I, you know, those basic skills, even. I mean, yes, maybe the basic skills, but the reality of yes, getting dinner on the table and then combining that with having the goals and the intentionality around health and wanting to nourish myself and my family in a specific way, right? To feel good, to have energy, all of those things. So, yes, again, the fact that you are combining all of those things is just truly incredible. And I told my husband this morning, I was like, this is really good timing because yes, I follow Chris. Yes, I I'm in the app, I'm doing all the things. And I am currently feeling super burnt out on meal planning. I'm like, just right now, I'm like, I have to do it again for this week. We're leaving for spring break in a week, and I'm like, can I just like not do it this week? But so there's so many things. Again, this is why what you're doing is so valuable. But before we dive into all of kind of the strategy and your tips, what are some of the things that you see are some of the biggest roadblocks for the women that you're working with?

SPEAKER_02 7:38

Well, there's a couple things, and I think the biggest roadblock I see, having, you know, been in this world for 10 years or so, is the intimidation of meal planning. I think just like what you're saying, like you have all the other things going on with life and you know, just life as a mom, you know, kids' activities, back and forth to school, or if you're a homeschooled parent, we all have full lives as moms. And I don't know anyone who's like, ah, life as a mom is easy breezy. You know, they're we all have full lives. And so the idea that every single week we have to somehow figure out what to feed our families three meals a day, whether or not you have a partner who helps you with the meal planning process, a lot of the moms I work with, that is oftentimes their role. Like they figure out breakfast, lunch, dinner, three meals a day, seven days a week, every single day is or every single week is a lot. It's intimidating. So finding ways to simplify that, especially if you have health goals, that also adds to the intimidation. So I think figuring out strategies to make it easier, to make it simpler, to take some of that load off can make a really big difference. And the other thing that you mentioned, and I was also in this boat years ago before I went to culinary school, is that a lot of people weren't taught how to cook or those basic cooking skills. And if you are intimidated by meal planning in general, but you also don't have a lot of those basic cooking skills and cooking feels hard and stressful. This is actually where my husband is coming from when it comes to meals. He is so great and so willing to help if I ask him to, but he was never really taught how to cook and he's not super confident in the kitchen. So for the parents, the moms, you know, we're we're mostly talking to moms, but who didn't have that, you know, base or don't have that basic knowledge of cooking, it can feel even more intimidating and overwhelming to get those meals on the table. So again, a lot of it is about that simplifying, taking away that barrier of feeling like we need to make super complicated meals to eat healthy meals and to eat meals that are really good. Um, and I also aim to help moms learn some of those basic cooking skills because it doesn't have to be hard or intimidating to just learn things like knife skills or how to peel a sweet potato properly without it taking 10 minutes and you know, cutting your finger with a peeler. Those things seem so simple, but they do make a really big difference. So I think intimidation just with the meal planning process in general and maybe not having some of those basic skills, I think can can just make things feel that much harder. And it doesn't have to be. I promise it doesn't.

SPEAKER_01 10:19

Yes, I love how you speak to that because I think there is so much shame associated with not being able to have those cooking skills. Like we should have just been born with them, and many of us were not, and it's the same with me. When I got married, I didn't know how to cook anything, like anything. I could cook a boxed something. And my husband was like, Well, you better just get in there and start messing stuff up because you're gonna figure it out. And so that's kind of how I got in there and just like started learning how to cook. But it would have been so much better to not have that pressure and that shame on myself of like, I don't know what I'm doing. I'm gonna mess everything up. I'm just trying to figure this out, and at least had some like basic guidance for not cutting yourself with a sweet potato peeler because I've done that. You know, it's like I love how you speak to this, how it's so normal, and we all just have to start and learn these basic skills and get in there, you know, and do it.

SPEAKER_02 11:16

Yeah, we all have to start somewhere, and I like to point that out that I I have been a professional chef for a really long time and I did go to culinary school, but most people haven't. And my mom did not do a whole bunch of cooking growing up, she did not have any of those cooking skills, so I didn't learn anything from I mean, I learned a lot from my mom. But when it came to cooking, I did it, and she knows this, so she's listening. I love you, mom, you've taught me lots, but and we all love them, yes. But when it comes to cooking, she knows she didn't teach me anything because she didn't have that knowledge herself. And so some of us are blessed to come from families where we have like, you know, our grandma who's took us under their wing, you know, in the kitchen from an early age, or our moms are or your mom is Nara Smith or something.

SPEAKER_01 12:00

Right, yes.

SPEAKER_02 12:01

But most people I find are not like that. And so, so yeah, it's it you are not alone if that is you. That was me years ago, too. And you know, I think you guys are are in a similar place too.

SPEAKER_00 12:13

Yeah. Well, I love how you said, I mean, that ultimately that intimidation factor, right? Like, I think we talk, we talk so much about mindset, just everything, like the way that we approach life, the way that we approach our health. So the way that we're approaching meal planning and meal prep, right? Again, it's something, it's just as a mom, and especially with our specific health goals, it's just honestly something that's helped me a lot. The mindset around it and like this is something like just acceptance. Like this is something that I'm I'm choosing to do for my family and and almost not fighting it every single week. Like fighting it is just gets exhausting in and of itself. So it's almost like, you know what? I mean, it it can be a challenge again, like even literally like yesterday and today. I'm like, I gotta do it again. But the reality of just flipping that, of like, I I get to, truly, like I working towards that mentality, right? I get to, and then what we're gonna talk about is making that process so much easier and and removing that resistance as much as possible. So let's just dive right in because again, there's so many things that we want to kind of talk through. I think, and and we will absolutely link your podcast because I love it's so strategic and it's so realistic, like really like actual tips, right? It's not just kind of like these airy, like, oh, you could try this. And it's no, like this is how to cut a sweet potato. Like you said, it's very specific. So I think we could just start with the meal planning, right? So, like, if you kind of think about, and and that's thrown around a lot. Let's what even is specifically, what is meal planning? What does that mean to you? What does that look like? I guess we can even start within your own life and then kind of your process.

SPEAKER_02 14:05

Yeah, sure. So meal planning to me is just doing any sort of planning ahead for your meals for the week. I mean, that's the most simple way to put it, right? But when it comes to my own meal planning, it's evolved over the years. As I have become a busy mom, what looked or what meal planning was to me when it was just me and my husband is way different or was way different than what it is now with two kids, especially two kids who are in sports, like I mentioned. Both of my daughters are in sports and after school activities. So my meal planning has had to evolve in that. So for me, what it looks like is sitting down at the beginning of the week or at the end, typically for me, a Friday morning, which we're recording on a Friday morning now, and I just went and sat in Starbucks for about an hour and a half. And I sat and I planned my meals out for the week. And now it doesn't take me an hour and a half. Sorry. I sat for an hour and a half, but it takes me anywhere from like 10 to 15 minutes a week now to do my meal plan. It is very simple, and I happen to have a resource to make it even simpler for moms. So sometimes, most of the time, I use my own meal planning app. Shameless plug. Um, but what I'll do is I go and I sit down and I open up my meal planning app. It's called Healthy Mama Meals, and I go through, typically, what I go through is my list of my family's favorite recipes. I always start with meals that I know, and I like to say meals rather than recipes because these don't have to be recipes. If there is something that your family loves, like maybe it's Taco Tuesday and you guys make tacos a way that you love, maybe it's maybe you mix up what type of tacos you make every week, but you're like, you know what, my family loves tacos, so we're gonna include that in our meal plan almost every week. Doesn't have to be a recipe, it's just something your family loves, a meal that your family loves. So I'll go through that list of my family's favorites and I'll choose a couple of those meals that I know my family's gonna love. Because I find, especially for moms who are overwhelmed by meal planning, and maybe we'll probably get into this a little bit more later, they might have kids who have food preferences, which most of us do. Having some of those easy wins already in there that, again to the intimidation factor, aren't intimidating for you to make because you've made them before. You're not reinventing the wheel every single day and trying something new every single week. You go in, choose a couple of those recipes. That's what I always do is I choose a couple of our family favorites, plug those into the days of the week that make the most sense that week. So I always have my family's calendar in front of me when I do this. So I know that Wednesdays are crazy for our family because I have two kids going in two different directions and they're not done with activities until seven o'clock at night. So that means by the time I come home, unless I've pre-prepped and have something in the slow cooker ready to go, which I will often do, we're all tired by the time we get home at like 7.15, 7.20, sometimes later these days because traffic has been crazy. And I need something quick and easy, and that's just an easy win. I don't want to deal with kids complaining that night. So that's always gonna be an easy family favorite, a slow cooker meal or some sort of a shortcut where maybe I use something pre-prepped, either something I've meal prepped or something that I've bought from the store because shortcuts work in a healthy life, too. Sometimes we need them just to get those meals on the table. I'm a big proponent of as much home-cooked as you can, but sometimes you need those shortcuts. And so those are the meals that I always plug in first, are a couple of those easy family favorite meals that we know that we already enjoy. And then I go in and I choose. For me, I'm a recipe developer. So usually there's one to two meals a week that's on my list of recipes to create. For a lot of moms, these are recipes they might want to try. So I'm trying to incorporate kind of what I do and then also what somebody as a busy mom might do too, because obviously most of us are not recipe developers. So I will go to my recipes to try list, is what I like to call it. And so some of the some of them are recipes that I'm creating, and some of them are recipes from creators that I love too. I love finding new recipes, the New York Times meal planning app. I've got a great meal planning app, but um the New York Times also has some really great recipe creators on there too. I'm not the only person creating recipes out there. So sometimes we want to try something new and different, and I need some inspiration. So I'll draw from some of those. So typically, I plan for five days during the week. So I plan for five dinners. I'm just referring to dinners now. I'll I'll share what I do with breakfast and lunches as well. It's pretty simple. But when it comes to dinners, I only choose five. So two days are available for me for that kind of wiggle room if something happens and we're like, dinner is just not happening. This meal is not happening. Maybe we pivot to a different meal that I've already planned for the week. I try and do kind of a rough like, this is what we're eating on Monday, this is what we're eating on Tuesday, this is what we're eating on Wednesday, but life happens. So having that little bit of wiggle room is huge because it means that I can shift things around and not feel like I'm wasting food because I had to skip a meal. So having that little bit of wiggle room, and then one of those nights is almost always some sort of leftovers night where I'm like, and I know not everyone loves leftovers, but I'm a fan in our house because it means it's one less day that I have to worry about cooking, right? So one of those days is usually a leftover day, and then one of those days is usually like some sort of a takeout, or maybe I'll do a date night with my husband, or we'll go out as a family. So we always have those seven days covered in one way or another, but I'm again reducing that intimidation by not feeling like I need to plan for all seven days and allowing for a little bit of that wiggle room. So that's my general process when it comes to meal planning. From there, I can make a grocery list and then I can figure out my meal prep plan, which we'll talk about later, I'm sure.

SPEAKER_01 19:58

See, I actually think I think it's good that we actually did define meal planning here because you know, a lot of people do see meal planning differently. Some people think, oh, I need to prep and make everything on Sunday for the week, where that might look like something that you do if you're if you're a bodybuilder or like have like some, you know, weight loss goals or something like that. But this is truly speaking to the mom, to the busy parent, to the person that really does need to get multiple different meals out through the week. You know, I just wanted to pause there because, you know, I think some people immediately turn away from meal planning thinking that everything is going to be done and prepped on one day a week. Yeah, that's overwhelming, right? Like to separate it out. Yeah, I would not do that or couldn't do that right now in this season of my life, you know.

SPEAKER_02 20:52

I like to remind people when they do come to me with that sort of, you know, that sort of mindset that it takes me anywhere from eight to ten hours to cook one of my clients' full week of meals. None of us have time for that unless you are an actual professional private chef and it's your job, and you can afford to hire a private chef to do that for you. That it takes a it takes a long time to prep all of your meals. Now that's breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and snacks, usually for about a family of four, but it takes eight to ten hours. And that is not what I'm talking about here. I'm talking about simply creating a plan so that you go into the week, not ending up five o'clock on a Wednesday going, what's for dinner? What are we gonna do? And then ending up going through the drive-through or, you know, stopping at the store and just picking up whatever you can grab. That's easy. It's having that plan so that your meals throughout the week are easier and you have an idea of what to make for dinner. I can't even tell you how many moms I talk to and they're like, Oh, I think you're at dinner at four o'clock on Tuesday. And I'm like, that sounds so stressful for me. And I can put together a meal pretty fast, but so stressful to figure it out then. So just having some ideas ahead of time, again, it can be as structured or less structured as you want. You can name this is Monday's dinner, this is Tuesday's dinner, this is Wednesday's dinner, or you can just say, okay, these are the five meals I've chosen. And if you are someone, I've you know encountered a lot of people who are like, well, I don't want to know what's for dinner on Wednesday. On Sunday, well, then just write a list of meals you want to try this week, have the recipes by the groceries, and then choose on Wednesday. But at least you have the recipe ready to go, you know how long it's gonna take, and you have those groceries. So yes, it's take the intimidation factor out of it.

SPEAKER_00 22:34

Truly. And and when we're literally talking to the busy mom who, I mean, we're we're planning and we're coordinating and we're texting and we're emailing and we're doing, we're like we are the life coordinators for us and all of our people, right? So this it's like one thing that we can very clearly kind of take off our plate when we do it once, right? And so I love what Melissa said too, like this like separating it out because I truly, I used to, I think I did in my mind kind of lump it all together, even my my weekly planning. I was like, well, I'm gonna plan my meals. I mean, they're in the, I don't know if that's getting too in the weeds, but for me, separating it out and saying, I am literally taking this 20 minutes to do my meal plan for the week. And it feels so liberating. And the time the weeks that I don't do it, it I feel it. And it's every day, like you're saying, it's that stress of like, and again, it's not to say there's like right or wrong. It's literally just helping the moms out there like trying the it this way and seeing if it really does take that weight off your shoulders. And I love how I learned the favorites list from you and just this idea of like when I do try out a recipe, we try out something new. I say, should I add this to the favorites list? Like, that's the question. Like, should I should this go on our list? And it's a yes or a no. And then I know, and then it's I kind of keep adding to it. So I think that's it's like that ongoing list. And then I when you sit down to plan, you're like, okay, like it gets easier and easier, I feel like it really is such a mental load though.

SPEAKER_01 24:13

I mean, the like if you're not taking those minutes to plan it, there's 20 minutes to plan it, it does become something in the back of your head all day, every day. I actually think back to my mom when I was like middle school and stuff. I'd wake up and go into the kitchen for breakfast or whatever, and she'd be talking to my dad and she'd be like, What are we gonna have for dinner tonight? And I'd be like, Why are you talking about dinner? Like it's 8 a.m., you know? And she's like, she was carrying that mental load too. Say bye, you know?

SPEAKER_02 24:41

It's so true.

SPEAKER_00 24:42

Totally. Well, what's funny is the other thing before we move on, because I feel like again, there's so much. I love this conversation, obviously. I get so excited. But it the funny thing is for me, it's my kids asking, what's for dinner in the morning? My kids do too. Eating breakfast, right? They're like, they're the ones. And then so I do kind of I we have a little blackboard, and so I write, you know, and truly, it's five, it's four or five meals I found for me that kind of taking that it's not seven days, and then you get groceries and you waste it. There's so much there. And then I like variety and flexibility, and to be able, like you said, to to little wiggle room. If I don't feel like having salmon tonight, I'm gonna make the chicken. Like, you know, there, so that's where the flexibility comes in for the women who are like, well, yeah, I don't want to feel like it's so restrictive, right? So much goodness. So I know you mentioned breakfast and lunch too. Do you wanna like speak a little bit to that as far as the planning?

SPEAKER_02 25:42

Yeah, so obviously, like I've mentioned, I have two kids. So the breakfast and lunch aspect of things is kind of separated between adults and kids in my house because my husband and I have different needs when it comes to breakfast and lunch than my two kids. And so typically, what our process is when it comes to breakfast and lunch for the kids is I simply ask them, I'm like, what do you guys want for breakfast this week? Typically, I will prep one breakfast item ahead. And again, we can talk about prep later, but I like having something prepped and ready for breakfast for my kids, especially because mornings are naturally hectic. No matter what I do, no matter how many systems I put in place, there's always someone with like a lost shoe or something that they forgot needs to be signed and it has to be signed today, or they can't go to the field trip next week. Not that that happened this morning. There's always something that inevitably comes up in the morning. And so just having that one thing taken out of the equation, especially when it comes to my kids, makes such a world of difference. And my kids happen to not be huge breakfast eaters. They're kind of like my husband. He could take or leave breakfast. I love a good hearty breakfast. I love protein in the morning, and so they're good with like, you know, I will make these double chocolate banana muffins with hidden spinach in it. So they get a little bit of protein, a little bit of protein, a little bit of greens in there. I was talking about protein before, a little bit of greens in there, but it tastes like, you know, a chocolate muffin for breakfast, all real food ingredients, which is great. And I can prep it at the beginning of the week in like 25 minutes, and they have something easy to grab in the morning, and I can just pull them out of the fridge and go, Do you want them warmed or not? And they say yes or no, and I hand it to them and we're done. So I'll ask them, what do you want for breakfast this week? They'll each let me know. Sometimes it aligns, sometimes it doesn't. And because I have two kids, that's that's kind of the way we do it. And those are their options for the week. And that is what they eat all week long. And we always have a backup option in case they're kind of sick of things or they're extra hungry and we run out of what I prepped. So it can be something as simple as we always keep smoothie ingredients on hand. So I can always make my kids a quick smoothie. If they don't want the other things they've chosen, they're like, no, I don't want those muffins, no, I don't want yogurt, whatever it might be. I'm like, all right, I'll make you a quick smoothie. They always know that that's an option. So for my husband and I, we typically like to prep something ahead as well. These days, that is kind of our kind of RMO, is like when we when I'm doing prep, we're like getting breakfast and lunch ready for us is a game changer because again, it's one less thing that we have to think about in the morning as we're getting ready for the day. And so I wish I could say every week, I'm like, I'm asking my husband what he wants for breakfast, but usually I choose what's for breakfast and he just enjoys it and eats it. But typically that is what we do for breakfast, is the kids get a choice, and that's what we do for the whole week, and we just have a backup option. And my husband and I also have the backup option of a smoothie as well. We both like smoothies, so if we run out of whatever we've prepped, then we always have a backup option. Um, and that backup option can be whatever your family enjoys. Maybe it's having, you know, oatmeal ready to go or always having yogurt on hand or something like that. I always recommend, you know, it doesn't necessarily have to be meal prepped, but you have that option or two on hand, and then you always have a backup, so then there's almost never a struggle in the morning. Um, and for lunches for the kids, my kids are pretty simple when it comes to lunches, but our we have kind of a school lunch formula we follow where they get some sort of a mane, a veggie, a fruit, and a snack in their lunch, and that's just kind of what they get. So each week that's what I ask them. I go, okay, what do you guys want for your mane? And I encourage them, I just want it to have some sort of protein in it so it keeps them full. And then what do you guys want for fruit? What do you guys want for veggie? Again, sometimes it aligns, sometimes it doesn't, but it's not that big a deal to buy grapes and strawberries for my kids. And then sometimes part way through the week, my kids are like, actually, I want grapes. Actually, I want strawberries. And I'm like, cool, I've got both. And so those are all ready to go. And again, I typically do a little bit of prep around these, just you know, washing, having them ready to go in the fridge. So in that busy morning time, I can put the kids' lunches together really, really fast. And so that's kind of our general strategy is giving them a couple options and just keeping it at that. Because if we're trying to figure out a brand new breakfast every single morning, I had a phase in my life where I was like, I am gonna be super mom and I'm gonna come up with like a fancy breakfast for my kids every morning, and the pancakes are gonna have smiley faces, and I'm gonna cut the cantaloupe into stars, and I gave that up, and my kids were about a year and a half because I was like, I can't keep up with this. So we simplify it, and that's that's sort of what we do in our house. And every family's a little bit different, but that's how we've simplified things. And I've gotta say, breakfast and lunch are like the least stressful things on my mind when it comes to meal planning because we have these systems in place.

SPEAKER_01 30:32

Oh gosh, that's so relatable about the super mom thing. I was like, Yep, I think we've all mind. We're like that thing. You know, do an American fun and magical. Yeah. Yeah. Totally. Oh gosh, have you guys seen those um those TikToks with the people that are just unhinged with their kids' lunches? Like they're serving like these like lobster tails over ice on their in their kids' lunch boxes. Oh, gosh. Caviar and like all this stuff. I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa.

SPEAKER_02 31:00

Don't let my 12-year-old hear that though, because she is the bougiest eater. She both my kids say every day for one. Yeah, no, but don't tell our other kids get that because she'll be like, I'd like caviar.

SPEAKER_00 31:13

Just me, mom. I love that so much. Oh my goodness. I mean, there's so much. Again, there's like in each of these different things, but I I feel like, again, it's the simplifying and you the word systems, right? It's creating these systems and just replicating that, like in in in different seasons. I know we've always talked a lot about that, just knowing the season we're in. And again, as our kids grow, and honestly, I'm currently in a season which it's it's pretty nice. Like they're very self-sufficient when it comes to like they're getting their own breakfast and they're pretty much making their own lunches. Like, I'm almost like embarrassed. I'm like, I I know, and but the reality is like I am doing the planning, the shopping, the dinners, the and making sure they have all the things for it. Also making sure what they're putting in their lunches is not just a bag of chips and like, you know, a cookie. I'm like, all right, we're gonna, you know, be a little bit more intentional, but it's really cute. My son actually, he's gotten very I feel like that's the other piece of this, right? Is is like a motivate underlying piece of the motivation of just being intentional with this and again, yes, teaching our kids and also showing them kind of these systems and this process because he is now, he's like, Do we have ground beef that I can like make ground beef and put it with some rice with my lunch? Like he's he's a unique animal, he's a his all himself. So, like that's not my daughter's not doing that. But I think I just I don't know. I think it's cool to remember also like why we're doing this, right? To simplify our life and to like teach our kids and because that's what we didn't have.

SPEAKER_01 32:59

That's what we didn't have. Yeah, so like that's a full circle moment right there because we want our kids to feel competent in the kitchen and feel competent in the kitchen. So yeah, I I agree a hundred percent.

SPEAKER_00 33:10

So, Chris, I think I know the answer to this, but just like as we're kind of moving from the planning phase into actually, you know, grocery shopping and meal prepping. Um, are you like physically writing these things down when you sit down to plan? Kind of what does that what are your tools? And literally speaking, because I also use your Healthy Mama Meals app, which is incredible. But I know I need it's like helpful, especially if we're doing kind of thinking through breakfast and lunch too, like seeing it written down somewhere. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 33:40

Actually, you know, it's funny because I have had different iterations of this in my life. And I do have a physical meal planner, which I know you know about. If somebody would rather have that than an app, or a lot of people, I have a lot of moms who use it alongside the app. And it doesn't have to be my meal planner, right? It can be just a notebook that you have. But what I like about, I mean, the meal planner that I have specifically, you have your grocery list right next to your meal plan or your dinner plan, and then there's a space for breakfast and lunch at the bottom. So everything's kind of all in one place. You can go from dinner to all right, these are the ingredients that I need to buy for the week to have that on hand to make dinner easier. So, but typically, to be honest, what I have been doing in my life in the last year or so, just to simplify things, is I start with my family's calendar. I am a physical planner girl through and through. We have everything. We have a Skylight calendar, and so we have everything for our family on the Skylight app because um this is like apparently I'm promoting I they I have no association with them. They're just great. I don't know if you guys know what it is, but it's like a um digital calendar, yeah. So we have one in our kitchen, but then we also have the app. So myself, my husband, and my 12-year-old, we all have phones, so we can see the family's calendar on the app. And so everything in our family goes on that app, but I always start with a physical planner first. So I take my planner out, it has our whole schedule for the week, and I always have the skylight next to me just in case I've missed something. And I plan, like I said, based on, you know, what we have going on during the week. So I will jot things down on my physical calendar as I'm going through my meal planning app. So if I'm gonna be totally honest, that is the process that I do. I take my actual calendar out, I jot things down, and then I put it into, um I'm usually using my Healthy Mama Meals app. Like I check my calendar and then I switch to the Healthy Mama Meals app, and that's where I'm choosing like the majority of my meals from. So there's two options with the Healthy Mama Meals app. I create meal plans for the moms every single week. They're delivered to your inbox and they're in the app every single week. So you can use that as your meal plan or you can use it as inspiration. You can also mix and match the meals. So I might use one week of meals as kind of my template. And then maybe there's one meal where I'm like, you know what, I don't think my family's gonna want that this week because maybe we had it last week, or they haven't been into that ingredient lately. So I'll remove that and add a new recipe to it. And so you can modify it to your heart's content. It'll only modify for you. You can save it, you can reuse meal plans if you want to, but you can also create your own meal plans. So some weeks I'll go with the meal plan that I've created for the app users. Sometimes I'll create my very own meal plan and just drag and drop the meals into it on there. That way, I always have my meals with me on my phone, and it also auto-populates a grocery list. So when I plug the meals in, then I have my grocery list with me, and that's what I take to the grocery store. I literally bring my, well, obviously I have my phone with me, but I open the app while I'm at the store and I check things off as I go, or I'll do online grocery ordering. And if I do that, then I will I funny enough, there is an Instacart integration in the app, which is really cool. It's one of my favorite features, and a lot of the moms use it. Um, but I have not had good success with Instacart in my particular area, so I use DoorDash. Um, would love to have a DoorDash integration, DoorDash. If you are able to make that happen for me, that would be great. So if I do grocery ordering, then I just, you know, I gotta go back and forth and order things that way. But in any case, I read it on my physical calendar, kind of go based on what our schedule is for the week, because our schedule is so crazy and some things are the same every week, a lot of things are different every single week. And then I plug that into my app, um, and that's what I use. For years and years, I used the just the physical planner, but as our schedule has gotten crazier, that's just that is the easiest way to do it for me. But then I have it all on the app, ready to go. Whenever I'm like, what did I decide was for dinner tonight? Then I'll go in. And then it's easy enough too to go like, I don't think we're gonna have time for that tonight. And like I said, go, okay, well, later on in the week I have this shortcut recipe that I planned and I have all the ingredients for. So we'll do that one tonight and we'll just move things around. And I put my breakfast and lunches on there as well. Um, so I have breakfast, lunches, snacks, and dinners in the app. And so I will put that in there when I do my meal planning as well. Typically it's, you know, whatever my husband and I will be having for breakfast and lunch, and then whatever my kids are having for breakfast, I'll plug in there as well. And again, uh if it's a part of the weekly meal plan that I create, then you can just add those things to it. And again, it only populates for you. So, but then you have it in there wherever you go. So those are my basic tools that I that I use these days. I mean, just planner and the app, and I guess the skylight calendar too. Um, but yeah, it it really is a simple system. And I can't stress enough like how easy it has become. I know it's not easy to get into a new routine. I totally recognize that it can be hard to get into a routine, but once you find it, like meal planning is it's nothing for me these days because I've put these systems into place.

SPEAKER_00 39:01

Yeah, I think it's really helpful to just hear, literally, like to hear you walk through how you do it in real life in real time, like and what tools. So, like the more people, you know, that we kind of just hear, oh, okay, so I can take that from it, I can like try this. And then again, you literally create your own system that works for you and your family. And it is sometimes trial and error. It is sometimes right, it's anything that's worth doing, anything that we're not used to or we're starting off doing, you know, it can feel challenging, but that's literally what you're for, what you're here. I'm like, that's why you're here on this planet for us to help simplify it. So let's dive into meal prep. I know we've really, I mean, it's kind of been woven through, but I know this is probably, I feel like the planning piece for me, I've I want to say I kind of have it down. Like I, you know, I switch it up, sometimes I struggle, but the meal prep is where I still feel like I need a lot of like, a lot more clarity. And because I kind of go on the roller coaster, the meal prep roller coaster. Like I'm in and out. I've definitely done the full day meal prep and then don't eat anything I prep because none of it sounds good by Tuesday. Like it's a whole thing. So, where do we start with meal prep?

SPEAKER_02 40:24

Oh man, well, I think the best place to start with meal prep is exactly where you're at. So it is taking a second and going, what does my life look like right now? You're living it every single day, but where are the places where meals feel the most stressful and the hardest for you in this season? Because it's going to evolve season to season. Like with meal planning, the way that I prepped when it was just myself and my husband, or I just had one kiddo, or my kiddos were younger, is different than the way that I prep now. So, my biggest piece of encouragement before I even get into the exact how of meal prep is to it's okay to modify things, just like with meal planning for the season you're in. Just because you start meal prepping like this now doesn't mean it's how you're gonna meal prep forever and lean into those seasons where maybe the meal prep isn't working for you anymore, and find a new way to prep or to plan in a way that works for this season, like you're saying, because that I think is the thing that's gonna make us or help us to actually stick with it. So, what does your general schedule look like now? What does life look like right now? And what feels stressful about getting meals on the table, that is where you can start with your meal prep. And that's the that's the number one place I recommend people start with is whatever meal or meal component feels the hardest for you, that's where I want you to start. So for us, I mentioned breakfast. Breakfast was that one area where I was like, mornings are always stressful. How can we make mornings less stressful? If I prep nothing else, I prep breakfast for my kids. That is the number one thing I do. If I have no time to prep anything else, I prep prep breakfast for my kids because, like I said when I was uh sharing about breakfast, it's one less thing I have to worry about. And I can ask my 12-year-old, like, hey, can you get those muffins out for yourself and your sister? She'll get them out. She'll ask my eight-year-old, do you want it warmed or not? And my eight-year-old will say yes or no. And they have breakfast and I can do whatever else needs to be done that morning. And the same thing, I was finding myself in a season where, you know, I am rushing to get myself out the door. I work outside of the house four days a week now. And I was like, I need breakfast, not some weeks, but every week that I can take with me on the go if I need to. It's great if I can sit down at home and have a nice, relaxing breakfast, but oftentimes I'm packing it up and I'm taking it to work with me and I'm eating it at my desk when I get into work. I work as a marketing coordinator part-time in addition to the work that I do online. And so I needed that. And it has made a world of difference. And so it's this the same for you. It doesn't have to be breakfast, but it's is it lunches? You know, you're having a hard time if you work outside the home, or maybe you don't and you're at home with your kids, but you're finding yourself just eating scraps off of your kids' plates, and you're like, well, I can't find the time during the day in between activities and nap time and whatever to actually make myself a healthy lunch that makes me feel good and energized for the rest of the day. Then maybe just prepping lunch. And that's it. Just prepping lunch, having that be the one thing that you focus on prepping. And I'm talking about prepping full meals here, but we'll we'll get to you, don't ever have to prep full meals. You can do meal prep without prepping a full meal at all. But that's where I want you to start. That's where I want all of the moms. If meal prep feels intimidating, you do not need to spend all day meal prepping. In fact, I encourage moms to not spend all day meal prepping because if you feel like you need to spend three or four or more hours meal prepping, maybe like you, Sarah, maybe you do it once or twice. And then you're like, I'm so sick of this food after Tuesday. Or you're like, I did it and it worked great for the week. And I had meals, I had healthy meals all week. And I felt so good and it was awesome and everything ran smoothly. But then maybe next week you run into something's going on at the weekend and you don't have time to do it. Or you're like, that was so exhausting. I don't want to do that again. There's no way I can do that every week.

SPEAKER_01 44:32

That was me. Yeah. Burned out by trying to just prep everything ahead of time. And now I love that you again take the shame out of it. It doesn't have to look one specific way. It's like so bio-individual. And for me, and this season, even just having the things prep like washed, my veggies and produce just washed is a huge time saver for me because it's those little things or like washed and cut, you know, because then when it's washed and cut up, it's like you can just throw it in and make things on the fly, so to speak. But there is that element of prep there that takes creates that ease with even doing something quickly, you know?

SPEAKER_02 45:11

Yes, a hundred percent. And that's the next place I always recommend people start. So it's like figure out where you're at. Is it breakfast? Is it lunch? If it's dinner, the place that I recommend is not making full meals ahead. Nobody wants to start there because it's so overwhelming. It's simply doing a little bit of prep ahead. My definition of meal prep is doing a little prep ahead to make your meals easier throughout the week. Similar to meal planning, but when it comes to prep. And this can be literally, like you said, Melissa, it can be just washing and storing the the it could just be the produce for, you know, like maybe your kids' lunches for the week. That's something that I always prioritize doing because again, makes those mornings easier because that's the hardest part, that's the hardest time of the day for me. It could be prepping all the produce for your dinners for the week. What I recommend when it comes to, you know, where to start when it comes to prepping ingredients is always start with produce. And if you have some extra time, add a protein into it. Because those are the things that take us the longest when it comes to actually getting dinners on the table are produce and protein. And I mean, I think most of us could use more produce and a lot of us could use more protein, right? Too. So let's simplify it and let's make that part easier and let's just reduce the cooking time in the evening by doing a little bit of that ingredient prep ahead. So washing, chopping, storing those produce items well is just gonna take that one step away at dinner time. And so you're less likely to go, I'm just gonna go grab something, you know, I'm gonna grab Chipotle, or I'm gonna go through the drive-thru or whatever it might be, or, you know, I'm gonna door dash something. Because you're like, well, you know, half of it's already done. Like I already chopped the broccoli. It's not that hard to drizzle some avocado oil and a little bit of sea salt on top, toss it in the oven, and have some delicious roasted broccoli. You've taken that one step out of it. Um, and then maybe you have a little bit more time. And, you know, that might only take you half an hour to prep up those vegetables. But it's one less thing you have to do in the evening, right? So you're reducing that time in the evening, only spending about a half an hour. If you have an hour to prep, maybe add in a little bit of protein prep. Maybe prep some, you know, protein ahead of time. It could be some cross-fed ground beef. It can be some chicken. You can make a pork tenderloin ahead of time, whatever it is. Those proteins are gonna last you up to five days. I don't want to recommend, you know, I've had a lot of experience in in the food world. So please don't be eating the protein that you cook on Sunday, the next Sunday, but they will last you up to five days as long as they're fresh when you go ahead and cook them. And you could use those in multiple in multiple meals. I know not everyone loves pre-prep proteins, but I love at least having something that you could use in one to two meals. It again just simplifies things. There's other things you can prep ahead too. You know, you can prep a sauce ahead of time. If that's something on your meal plan, that is something that you can just kind of take the load off of uh during the week. You can pre-prep grains ahead of time, you know, make a pot of quinoa so that's ready to go at the beginning of the week, if that's something that your family enjoys. So many ways you can go with this, but just starting with that produce, maybe adding a protein, and then just focusing on those ingredients for dinner time can take a lot of the stress away from the actual individual dinners that you're cooking and the intimidation away from the meal prep process because you can do this in an hour or an hour and a half at the beginning of the week. And as you get more experience with doing a little bit of that ingredient prep, then you can add in maybe making a full breakfast ahead of time or making a lunch ahead of time. As you have a little bit more time, you get into a little bit more of a routine. Um, but like I said, you can start with just the ingredient prep, or you can start with just making one full meal, but I don't recommend trying to do everything at once because then you end up in that place of overwhelm, which is what we want to try and avoid.

SPEAKER_00 49:07

Yeah. Oh my gosh. So, so many good nuggets. I was gonna say golden nuggets, but good nuggets, golden nuggets, they're gold. Um no, but I honestly I love it. And again, so like following you on Instagram, listening to your podcast, this is this is what you talk about. So the woman who's listening, who's like, wait, give me more, all the things. That's that's where you know, we'll put everywhere to connect with you. I will say for me, the thing, this is what is interesting. What I've been coming up against is I kept putting meal prep in my calendar as a block. I was like, do it, do it. I never did it. I just never did it. I was like, nope, nope, or I moved it and I kept moving it and I never did it. So finally, what what's working for me in this season is again, it's that experimenting, it's getting curious. And on the days, because same, my you know, with the sports mom like doing all the things. So the evenings, I'm the Uber, I'm the all the things. So, but some days, if there are the evenings where like one or two nights where I am able to, I'm making dinner like I have that hour 4 30 to 5 30, right? Or even right after school, there's like an hour before sports. And so I I find that it's really like there's something freeing about, well, I already have I'm getting the cutting board out, like I'm making this stuff. Everything's already out. So I might as well wash and chop the veggies. Then it's almost like combining that prep with making whatever I am for dinner and then the batch cooking, right? So thinking literally just making an extra pound of chicken, like an extra knowing, and now again, my son wants his protein at his lunch, which is so good, but he's eating so much protein. I'm like, he's eating so much meat. I'm like, how is the meat gone? I have to make more. But yeah, well, begging to them, them to eat it when they're little and then they get a leg.

SPEAKER_01 51:02

We're like, oh my gosh. Well, literally, that's a whole other three boys. I've got oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_02 51:12

So I'm like, Yeah, you can embrace for it when they're teenagers. Yeah, I mean, and that's that's the other strategy that I recommend to moms. You can take that hour or hour and a half at the beginning of the week. That's what tends to work for me. But if that doesn't work or you have a week where you miss that, I actually have this built in to the Healthy Mama Meals email that we do every single week. We recommend things that you can do the night before to get prepped for the next day. So if you're already making dinner, if you're already chopping up some sweet potatoes, and I actually do this really intentionally. These meal plans are not just based on like what I feel like adding together. I really try and be intentional about if you're gonna buy a sweet potato, then you're not gonna buy a sweet potato. You're gonna buy a bag of sweet potatoes and you're gonna use them in multiple meals throughout the week. And then we'll switch it up next week. We're not gonna have sweet potatoes every single week. I mean, I'm not perfect. Sometimes we have sweet potatoes two weeks in a row. I happen to like sweet potatoes, but I try to make it so that you're like, it's both cost efficient and prep efficient, where you're like, you can do this prep at the beginning of the week. There's prep steps associated with every recipe in the app. I know I keep referring to my app, but this doesn't have to be, this is something that you can do with your meal plan is just go through and go, okay, what out of these meals that I've chosen, can I do a little bit of prep ahead for? And so I have there's a whole list in the app where it's like this is all the prep you can do ahead. You don't have to do all of it ahead, but you could, you could do all of that prep ahead. You could cook this chicken, you could cook this beef, you could chop these sweet potatoes, you could chop this broccoli, you could make this sauce, or the night before, when you're already cooking dinner, just chop an extra sweet potato, store it in the fridge, and then tomorrow night, guess what? Dinner's even easier. And like you said, those busy nights where you're like, I really need some extra support, you're creating your own convenience by doing a little bit of that prep ahead.

SPEAKER_01 52:57

Don't apologize about mentioning your app because we one of the reasons that we wanted to have you on is because your app is so amazing. And even if somebody just got the app for a short amount of time, it's really helpful to almost like get into your brain and how you think, because that is essentially what the app, when somebody develops an app, that's their system, that's their way of thinking through something. And so looking at the app and having it is almost training your own internal system to kind of align with yours, which is working very well.

SPEAKER_00 53:30

So thank you. You're the expert. Yes. So oh my gosh, we're I'm like, where's the time going? It's uh I told you I could talk about this for hours. And we literally might have to have you back, you know. I'm after after the moms listen, they're gonna be like, wait, we need more. Do you mentioned shortcut dinners? And I know that like following you on Instagram, that's something that's it's so helpful to just kind of wrap our brains around that. And so again, there is no that's the other thing too, I will say. There is no shortage, quote unquote, of like recipes out there and ideas and things. And but to that point, it can get overwhelming. Like it almost is like analysis paralysis, or like not even that. It's like overwhelm and you just don't do anything. You have too many ideas, too much information, and you just like, well, I don't, I can't plan anything. So I feel like, oh, I just need a protein and this, like this basic meal formula, you know, I feel like that's really helpful. So what if you could speak to that, like your your maybe your favorite shortcut meals?

SPEAKER_02 54:37

Oh gosh, I have so many because like I like I've said, I have we are in such a crazy season of life. This is the first season where I've had two kids and multiple activities at once. And I won't lie, it's been a little overwhelming and it has kind of shaken up the way that we have meal planned because for a and I'm also working outside the home and my husband travels like crazy, and he's sometimes gone for weeks on end. And so it's just me and the girls. And so we've kind of had to find new strategies. I've always incorporated things like shortcut meals and the simple meal formula into the way that I plan meals, but we've had to lean a lot more into those in this super busy season. And so my kind of basic meal formula is just always having some sort of a protein because that's what keeps us full, and then always having some sort of produce in there, and then something to add some flavor to the mix, right? Like we're not just eating chicken breast and broccoli over here, right? We're not bodybuilding. But I mean, maybe some people are bodybuilders, and that's great, but we want to add a little bit of flavor. And so that's literally that's that's like my baseline. We're like, we need some sort of protein, we need some sort of produce, and what kind of flavor are we going for here? And in that, then you know, maybe we add some rice to it and turn it into a bowl. You know, maybe it's something as simple as let's take that chicken and broccoli, okay? Let's take that chicken and broccoli, and maybe we're using some precooked chicken because life is crazy and we don't have time. Maybe we meal prepped the chicken. Maybe we're just going to saute up that chicken. Maybe we're gonna saute up some chicken thighs and we're going to may saute them up in, let's say, some sesame oil. This is off the cuff. This is like me on a night where I actually haven't meal planned, which is very, very rare. But I'm like, all right, we got some broccoli, we've got some chicken thighs. I've always got protein in the freezer because I get my protein delivered. And so I've always got protein in the freezer. So if it's the morning and I'm like, all right, what are we gonna cook for dinner? Maybe we chop up those chicken thighs and we saute them up in some sesame oil until they're almost cooked. Grab some chopped broccoli, maybe you buy the pre-chopped broccoli at the store. It's a little bit more expensive, but if you didn't have time to meal prep, it saves you some time. Add that broccoli to the pan, toss some teriyaki sauce in there. There's some really great teriyaki sauce brands that don't have a bunch of extra added stuff to them, right? Add that teriyaki sauce, put the cover on there. While you're doing all that, you're gonna cook some rice up in the rice cooker. This is me speaking to like a meal that my kids would absolutely love. Broccoli steams up in that teriyaki sauce, add that chicken back to the pan so that it finishes cooking. By the time all that is done, it's probably taking you maybe 10 minutes, maybe 15. You can go ahead and just throw that on top of that rice that's been cooking in the rice cooker, add some sesame seeds on top, maybe some green onions if you have them on hand, and dinner is done. So that is the type of shortcut that I tend to go for is like, all right, here's kind of our basic meal formula, and I'll buy things at the store to support the week that we're going to have. I'm like, all right, maybe I have time to meal prep. And so I'm like, I'm gonna buy a couple things and I'm gonna prep them ahead. Like I said, chop those sweet potatoes, chop up. I keep using broccoli as an example. It's my kids' favorite vegetable. If you can't tell, um so maybe I'm going to pre-prep some protein ahead of time. But on those weeks where I'm like, I don't even know if I have that much time to meal prep, and all I'm gonna prep is like a breakfast for myself and my husband and a breakfast for the kids, then we'll lean into those shortcuts for dinner. Where typically, for me, a shortcut meal is a meal that comes together in about you know less than 25, 30 minutes or so. It still has all of those basic ingredients that I want to nourish my family, but one or more components are pre-made so that it comes together faster. So, like the pre-made teriyaki sauce, for instance. I make a great homemade teriyaki sauce, if I do say so myself, but I don't always have it on hand. And no, it doesn't take a ton of time to mix those ingredients together, but it takes a lot less time to have that great store-bought teriyaki sauce on hand and to just be able to add it to a meal. So maybe we buy the pre-cooked chicken so that cooks up even faster, or like I said, the pre-chopped broccoli. These are things you can do ahead of time yourself by doing a little bit of meal prep, or you can buy those ingredients and still have a really great nourishing meal that comes together really quick. So one or more components are pre-made and you put it together in that really simplified meal formula. So I have a ton of, I actually just did a Trader Joe's, if you have a Trader Joe's in your area, shortcut meal series on Instagram. And it's a carousel where I have the ingredients followed by like a picture of our real life dinners. Like, this is not my professional food photography. This is like, this is what I made for dinner, and I just snapped a picture because we've been in a really busy season and we've leaned into a lot of these. And so over the course of about a month, I snapped all of the meals that we made. And I think I have, don't worry, there's more coming. I think I've come up with like 12 or 15 different meals just based on, you know, the fact that we've had a really busy season. I'm like, what can I grab from the store to make this happen a little bit faster? So it's pre-chopped veggies, it's chicken sausage as our protein because it cooks up really fast because it's already pre-cooked. Or the pre-cooked chicken meatballs from Trader Joe's are great. The brand Amy Lou also has chicken meatballs with really great ingredients. You can get them at Costco or Whole Foods or Sprouts if you have any of those stores nearby. Um, so those are great too. Um, rice, you can do frozen rice, or you can do rice in the rice cooker. Love a rice cooker as a very inexpensive tool to make things happen faster. That's my kids' favorite grain is rice. So we tend to eat that a lot in our house to as a base for bowls. Um, so there's so many different options here, but it's really just like I said, kind of following that basic meal formula, but utilizing things like maybe a sauce or something that's pre-cooked or something that's pre-chopped from the grocery store. Um, and yeah, there's so many different recipes and so many different options out there on the internet. Sometimes we just need to simplify it a little bit and go, all right, let's start with a protein, some produce, and some sort of flavor. And then maybe we put it on top of a base of lettuce and we have salads, or maybe we put it on top of a base of rice or quinoa and we have a bowl type option. Maybe it's a stir fry, maybe it's a soup. There's really easy, my gosh, soup is like one of the easiest foods in the whole world. I know we're kind of getting into spring, but I think sometimes people are intimidated by those like big one-pot meals. And I'm like, start with carrot, celery, and onion. It's so easy. I'm like, I love the instant pot for soups too. If you happen to have an instant pot, start with the saute function, carrot, celery, onion. You can buy it frozen in a bag. You could even use frozen garlic cubes. I am not a fan of jarlic. I will say this a million times over. If you listen to my podcast, you'll hear me. I can't stand garlic, jarred garlic, because it just doesn't have the same as a chef, it does not have the same flavor profile. I jokingly tell people, I mean, I'm joking, but not. Like if you make my meals with garlic, you've ruined it. Um, but like for real, buy the frozen stuff. You can buy the frozen garlic cubes, and if you don't want to mince your own garlic, you still get that garlic flavor. It's much better than the jarred garlic, and they're very inexpensive. You can get them at Trader Joe's, you can get them at most major stores in the frozen section. They just come in little cubes. Pop them into your um pan or whatever you're cooking in. And then from there, you can add chicken, you can add beef, you can add, you know, whatever protein you want to it, add some broth to it, and then add whatever veggies if you want to add some sort of, you know, make it a little bit heartier, add some sort of rice, add some sort of beans, add some sort of pasta, add some orzo. Like you can bulk it up in any way you want. Um, but start with that base of carrot, celery, onion, maybe some garlic, maybe some ginger if you want a little bit of that like Asian feel. And then all you need is a protein, a broth, and some veggies, and you've got some extra veggies. You've got soup, right? So it's about having these kind of basic meal formulas. We have, you know, we love bowls in our house. Having a few of those options on hand, like I mentioned tacos earlier, too, where you're like, okay, what are the basic ingredients that we love for the meals that we enjoy? So, what are the basic things you need for a soup? What are the basic things you need for a bowl? What are the basic things you need for a taco or a wrap or something like that? Just having an understanding of some of those meals that your family likes, you can kind of mix and match those components and choose those shortcut ingredients from the store. And you rely on recipes a lot less. And I say this as a recipe developer who wants you to try my recipes, but I mean, these days, at least twice a week, I'm not cooking a recipe. I'm making something shortcut because that's just the season that we're in. So I think that was a bit of a tangent there, but hopefully that gave some insight into kind of like how we develop those shortcut recipes. And I'm I'm always here to share more. I've got a whole series coming up on my Instagram at Healthy Mama Chris. So you guys can follow along.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:44

You're I will be tuning in for that because that is just kind of my season as well.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:49

Well, it's just sometimes we just need that inspiration, right? Like again, we kind of have like what are the basics, we kind of know we're getting, we have the idea of like what our family likes, like you said. But those I've heard that multiple times from the women we work with, that it is right, this idea, like your and while your recipes are super simple and like you know, you walk through it, but the reality of like having those options kind of also that's I think the skill that we can continue to develop and following somebody like you, learning from you, what are the sauces that go with what what does make it like kind of that Asian feel? What is more like the Mexican like spices and sauces? That's something that's like my next level up. Like I where I can get, I don't know, get good at that, right? Where that I feel like that makes it easy and exciting to get in the kitchen. Like, what am I creating? And like, you know, so I think there's that element to it of kind of making it fun and experimenting and getting curious. Um, but then again, there's the nights where we're like just just feed the family, just get the food on the table. But you're right, Seth.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:57

The more that you cook, whether it's shortcuts or recipes, the more confident you get in the kitchen. And the easier it feels, and coming back to that intimidation point, the less intimidating it feels. Sometimes we just need to get in the kitchen and make something. It doesn't have to be 100% homemade. It does not have to be complicated. It can be my recipe, another recipe you found on the internet somewhere. Just get into the kitchen, commit to getting into the kitchen once this week and cooking something homemade, semi-homemade. Doing that more often, if especially if the cooking for yourself is intimidating, if you've been relying on, you know, pre-made dinners or lots of takeout, or you're in that season and you're trying to get out of that season. Meal prep is not the place to start. The place to start is just getting into the kitchen a couple times a week, even just once a week, and just getting in there and just getting your hands dirty and cooking more. Because the more we do something, the that repetition, the easier it becomes and that intimidation factors just reduce significantly. And then we can build upon those skills and start creating some of our own. It doesn't have to be recipes, but some of our own easy meals, like you said.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:07

Chris, I love that perspective so much. And I know our audience is going to appreciate that perspective as well. It's just starting, and we have officially come full circle.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:18

Yes. Yeah, as we and that's that's the thing. And I was gonna ask like one thing, but I feel like that's a great step. Like the one thing, you know, that we can do just get in the kitchen and and get your I love that, get your hands dirty, just doing something that's like anything in life, right? Yeah, like getting trying the thing, putting ourselves out there, and then building up from there. So I love that so much. Okay, this was incredible, Chris. Thank you so much for your time and your expertise. Again, there's so many resources that you offer. So tell everyone the best place, how they can connect with you and grab all of the things that you offer. Yeah, well, this has been so much fun.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:57

You know, I love talking about this. It's probably pretty obvious that I could talk about this for hours. So, actually, if you want to hear me talk about this more, I do have the Healthy Mama Kitchen podcast. We're on a little bit of a break right now, but I'll be coming back at the beginning of April. I took a little spring break from the podcast. We'll be coming back at the beginning of April and I try to give practical tips on making meals easier, healthier, and more delicious. We talk about meal planning, we talk about meal prep, and sometimes I just go through what my family's been eating and easy shortcut options and things like that, like we talked about today. Um, you can also find me over on Instagram. I'm at healthymamachris. That's Chris with a K K-R-I-S. And I share lots of my meal preps, easy family-friendly recipes over there. That's kind of those are kind of the main things I share. I try and show up in stories and share some of our everyday meals that we're cooking as well. Um, you can find me online on my website. It's just healthymamachris.com, just like on Instagram. I try to keep things simple. And I also have the Healthy Mama Meals app, which is a web app, so you can access it on your phone or on your desktop. So you can find that at healthymamaals.com. And um there's no app in the app store as of now. We would love to make it an app in the app store in the future, but our the feedback that we've gotten from members is that some of our members really like to meal plan on their computer. And if we turn it into an App Store app, then they're not able to do that. So right now you can access it anywhere you have the internet. So on your phone, um, we give you instructions on how to turn it into a shortcut on your phone, so it works exactly like any other app on there. Um, but there you'll find weekly meal plans that I share five meals each week, just like I practice what I preach. Um, so you'll get five new dinners delivered to your inbox every week with prep steps and a grocery list, and it's all customizable, so you can change serving sizes and you can swap recipes out. Anytime you change serving sizes or swap recipes out, it auto-populates the grocery list and changes that for you. You can also add your own recipes and create your own meal plans in there as well. It is the my favorite thing I've ever created. It is my baby, and it starts, you can actually try it for a week free. So you can try it for a week free, and if you love it, it's only five bucks a month. Um, there's also a plus option where you can get access to my healthy mama meal prep mini course and a whole library of resources, PDFs, things like my pantry guide and my kitchen tools guide. Some of those are available for um just regular healthy mama meals users that aren't plus users as well. Um, but I have a bunch of other cooking videos and resources like that in there. And I also do seasonal meal prep classes that are only available for plus members as well. And so that's another option for you there. But if you just want the recipes and the meal plans, it's only five bucks a month. I wanted to make it super, super accessible for the busy mom. So, you know, I don't, I think a lot of moms are intimidated by meal planning and they're like, I don't want to spend like, you know, 20, 40 bucks a month on this app that I might not use. I want you guys to feel like it is something A that you'll use. I tried to make it as user-friendly as possible. My developer Ken is amazing. And there's more features to come in the next year, too. Um, so things, um maybe I shouldn't talk about them now. Maybe I won't talk about them now, but there's more features to come. We'll have you back on. We're still aiming to keep it very, very simple and user-friendly. And anything that we add is only to help make it easier for you to meal plan, not to make things more complicated. So that is, those are the main things. Healthymamachris.com at healthy mamachris, healthy mama meals.com. Um, and I'm just so glad you guys had me. It's you know, it's been a while since I've been on a podcast. I have my own podcast, and this is so much fun. So yeah, this has been great.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:35

We're honored, honored to have you. And if I didn't make it clear, I am a huge fan of the app. I'm in there every week. It's helping me plan my meals. And so I highly recommend it. And it truly is like you do practice what you preach. And it is literally an actual real tool that really works. So thank you. I just had to say that. And yeah, so thank you so much. Again, we I feel like there's still so much. So we might have to have you come back on. Maybe we'll do a little QA and we'll see where this goes. But it's so great to reconnect and thank you so much. Absolutely.