Anita: 0:00

We both work full time, and we homeschool all of our children. So for us and for other busy women out there that just don't have time to do that. I want you to know there is a way to make this work. You know, they asked that question and I started thinking about and I said, You know, I don't spend any more than you're listening to the smarter Healthy Living podcast where we firmly believe that getting healthy should never feel like torture, where your host, Jarrod and Anita Roussel were college sweethearts, and health professionals who help you redefine what getting healthy looks like using a whole food plant based lifestyle. It's time to hear from the experts and learn the best tips and tricks that helped others get beyond the overwhelm, to create a vibrant life they love. If you're sick and tired of being sick, and tired. You're in the right place. So pull up a virtual chair, grab your matcha latte, and let's get started.

Jarrod: 0:54

Well, it is time for another fun filled episode of smarter healthy living.

Anita: 0:58

You got something special planned?

Jarrod: 1:00

Well, I know we've got some great information for this particular episode. I'm

Anita: 1:04

talking about Benfield feel what she got filled,

Jarrod: 1:07

what's fun, filled everyday is filled

Anita: 1:09

every time I just thought you might have some party supplies at all, you know that?

Jarrod: 1:14

usually just spontaneous marry method, Merryman or mirth or something like that. I know. But anyway, welcome to this podcast episode. If you're new welcome. We are thrilled to have you with us. And if this is not your first time, thank you so much for coming back and spending some time with us.

Anita: 1:33

We love hanging out with you. And we want to share with you today, you know, I am in this group. And somebody asked this question this week about how long does it take you to prep meals, because I'm really overwhelmed. Because I'm spending all this time doing food prep to whole eat whole food plant based. And I just want to know, is this normal? Like, how long does it take people. And this is one of the things that lights me up. Because I want people understand how simple this can be. Listen, do not let yourself get overwhelmed with the food prep and all this stuff. When you start thinking about meal planning, your mind goes to, you've got three slots for each day minimum, and you got to put a meal in free slot and you got to fill up 30 days approximately. And then you got to fill up a whole year, or you've got about some meal plan that you don't like the food that's on it. And then you're gonna have these weirdo ingredients that you got to go by. And then you maybe

Jarrod: 2:29

only use just a small portion of it realize I didn't really like that anyway, and it sits in the back of your pantry for five years until you move you carry it to the next house and then realize it's 10 years past you and then you throw it away. Yeah, or that has never happened to promises never know.

Anita: 2:45

Or what if you use it for that one recipe, and it only calls for a portion and you're left with three quarters of the jar of this stuff, you don't know what to do with it and ends up going bad. So you've wasted money wasted your time. And it's frustrating. And I think that's one of the biggest hurdles that people face. Because you come into this, you don't know how to eat it. And you're spending all this time trying to figure it out. And you're getting cookbooks, that the recipes don't taste good, or they take hours to prepare, or you think you've got to do some big meal planning fiasco. That's a all day meal plan because you see people on YouTube doing this right off, prep all my meals and prep it all day long. Well, there's nothing wrong with food prepping. And if you like that, and all your kids are grant and all you want to do spend all day in the kitchen. Great, we've got four kids, we both work full time, and we homeschool all of our children. So for us and for other busy women out there that just don't have time to do that. I want you to know there is a way to make this work. You know, they asked that question and I started thinking about and I said you know I don't spend any more than 30 minutes on average in the kitchen unless I just want to be there and

Jarrod: 3:54

sometimes not even that. I mean sometimes it's five or 10 minutes in preparation. Now of course we're probably using an instant pot for that particular recipe but you throw it in there you put the lid on hit go and

Anita: 4:06

yeah and then and then you add in the NutriBullet or the the Vitamix Vitamix you know a great Blender that's just going to pulverize everything that's huge. It and then if you add in something like I'm not a maybe a Cuisinart, but we don't have a Cuisinart, we have a Breville the sous chef we love the sous chef. So basically it does a lot of the work for you and the cleanup is really quick and easy. And then you've got the cleaner. I'm giving extra tips here but if you've got methods to save you from cleanup, like you're no longer using oil, I want you to wrap your head around that for a minute. I'm not using old anymore my food tastes good and I'm not all sluggish and bogged down because I'm not eating the sluggish bog down food right? my joints are hurting anymore so I can move faster. I can cook faster. I don't have to wipe down everything and get oil off of it often.

Jarrod: 4:53

That is huge.

Anita: 4:54

Oh get off my cabinets and I don't have the meat so there's not the constant worry about salmonella. Yeah, so now, it's just so different that freesia and cleaner

Jarrod: 5:06

kitchen, but we don't ever really feel like we have to disinfect it,

Anita: 5:09

it's not the same, yeah, it's just not the same. So all of those things free up your time make you less stressed. And if you have the right tools and the right things, I mean, I use things that just make cleanup so easy, we're not going to get into all that, because we're sharing with you five specific ways that we had in mind already gave you some extra stuff. I always do that, because I love teaching and showing you this stuff. Because I want you to know and share, I want you to know, this should not be difficult. If it's difficult, then you're on the wrong path, you've got the right tool, you're in the right place, because you're looking for plant based, right? But But you need a system, you need a strategic system that's going to show you how to simply make this work in real life. I'm just saying like this is because

Jarrod: 5:55

that's what you're living. Yeah, real life.

Anita: 5:57

Welcome to your life. How do I make How do you make this work? Well, this is how, number one, you need to know how to stock your pantry, your pantry, what's in there is going to determine a huge portion of what you eat. Okay, if it's there, you're going to eat it. If it's not there, you're not going to eat it. Now, we're not going to get into whether everybody in your household is eating whole food plant based or not. Because in reality, sometimes they're not. And there are ways to deal with that there are but that what we want you to know is get your pantry stocked, right for you at least have those things in there that are going to set you up for success. And there are ways that you can stock it that just will work. It's great. You've got to get the good stuff in there.

Jarrod: 6:40

Well. And if you don't have the right foods there, then you just you don't have what you need to be like a carpenter go into work without a hammer. Yeah, I mean, how are they gonna drive a nail, they don't write the things that they need.

Anita: 6:53

Great point. So you've got to be able to have those tools that you need to sell yourself

Jarrod: 6:58

that you're just there's right foods, right? And, well, we and we want to make this quick. So if you have the right things on hand, and there won't be a lot of things that you use on a regular basis. It's just right there, you just open the door, you grab it, boom, you go.

Anita: 7:13

I mean, it's just it's in my mind, we say it all the time. But plant based joy, you know, what we teach, we call it plant based 2.0. This isn't your typical run of the mill healthy plant base. Because what happens in that is, number one, sometimes unhealthy snack stuffs really taught or kept in there. And it's not, it's not kept out. But what really makes what we teach different is the systems so we help you put into place. But also the other thing is, usually it's just about the recipes. I mean, you're looking at people who teach healthy plant based in its recipe recipe recipe recipe, which is great. We totally believe in recipes. Actually. That's one of the points we're about to get to here. And we believe you've got to have the right ones, because Lord knows us struggled with finding a good source of recipes. I mean, do you remember, like, we would try stuff and it would be bland? And I'd be going something is missing here? I mean, we're all about the flavor. It's got to taste good. Are you that way? Like it really our foods got to taste good. It's got to be quick. And it's got to be easy, but it's got to taste good. Or it's just we all leave disappointed. So

Jarrod: 8:18

well that's where the enjoyment comes from, how you feel, obviously, but at the moment you want it to be an experience, you want it to look good, smell good, taste good. Have your family around, you enjoy the conversation. But what's

Anita: 8:30

gonna happen if it doesn't taste good? You're never gonna want to eat that way. Yeah, it's not gonna last long term. And not only that, if it's not quick, you're not going to want to do it, because you're going to dread the amount of time that you have to spend as well. So we're talking about keeping your pantry stocked, super important got to learn how to do that. that's point number one. Point number two, we're back to what I just said, you need a simple cookbook. We go to recipes that don't have a list of ingredients that you could do jump right with. Yeah, I say that sometimes when we go shopping, because I like to shop and keep things kind of stocked up. And we have a family of six. And so sometimes we'll buy things. And I'm thinking, you know, I hope they start ringing up soon. Because, yeah, it'd be different if there were just two of us. But you don't need recipes that have that long of a list. You don't want recipes that have that kind of thing. You want to be fully stocked and ready for your go twos. But you've got to have a cookbook that just has like I think ours is an average of eight, maybe eight, something, something like that sometimes

Jarrod: 9:36

more and we're not hating on longer recipes, if you love that and you enjoy that experience of being in there and cooking and that whole culinary experience, especially if you're doing it with your family. But again, you want to have in your arsenal. Some quick, easy recipes that are delicious fuel your body. Well, just like Anita says all the time you want foods that love you back. And so

Anita: 9:58

I've got to be quick and go To you need the quick go to recipes that taste great that you can pull into your well put onto your plate really fast, but pull into your arsenal as the meals that you're just gonna recite over and over again. So you need to get your pantry stocked, you got to have that simple cookbook that's go to maybe more than one is good to. But then it's just not about only the recipes, like we just said. So here are the other things you've got to do. Okay, you need to build food formulas, you've got to learn how to do this. These are meals that don't require recipes, I'm talking about things like bowls,

Jarrod: 10:38

just that's one of our favorites.

Anita: 10:39

I mean, there's so many of these, but we're just going to name a few today because I don't want to overwhelm you. And I want you to learn how to make just a couple. When you're first getting started, you've got to start getting your go twos. Once you have a couple, add a few more. So think about things like like we just said the bowls, grain bowls, there are a bazillion different ways you can put those together. I mean, think of all the different grains there are, we're not just talking about rice,

Jarrod: 11:04

I mean much more than just,

Anita: 11:06

there's,

Jarrod: 11:06

well there's different kinds of rice,

Anita: 11:09

there's, there's all kinds of different things that you can use. So look at the different grains, get your base, and then any kind of vegetables. And we love having the same type of potato because think about stick to your ribs, fade potatoes are amazing, all kinds,

Jarrod: 11:27

many times,

Anita: 11:28

right? And then a good sauce or a bit up, get all those herbs on there, go back and listen to our episodes about herbs and sauces. Got to have the flavor or you're not going to enjoy it.

Jarrod: 11:38

And just me thinking right now we could easily make an Asian themed bowl, or we can make a Tex Mex Mexican style ball. You're

Anita: 11:46

leading into one of my next things, I think, right? This is one of our next things we're about to talk about.

Jarrod: 11:51

remember which one was next. But then if I let into it, go with it.

Anita: 11:55

I think you did. So it's building a simple meal plan. Now, I'm not talking about meal plans that would just overwhelm me, you know, you think about meal planning anything? No. I mean, honestly, I'm just going to tell you I almost broke out in hives before we started doing this every time I hear somebody talking about meal plans. I did not want to do meal plans, not a meal planner, girl. Okay, but I'm telling you, this is a different type of meal plan.

Jarrod: 12:24

Well, I think the problem with our potential problem with meal plans could be that you have these 21 for the week, new recipes that you aren't necessarily familiar with. You don't know if you have ingredients? And then you look at it like oh, no, I don't have this. And it said same whole process we were talking about earlier.

Anita: 12:42

But what about if you ordered like a box that was filled with meal plans and the stuff to go in it, it's still you don't know, if you're gonna like the recipes you never tried. You spent all the money. And now you're gonna spend all the time and a lot of times, it's just disappointing. I mean, you leave it disappointed in the end. But all the planning all the prep, and most people are trying to pull it off on their own. And that's also can be very frustrating. But it doesn't have to be it doesn't have to be. So we're going to give you one simple way to pull together meals. This is the first step. Okay. This is just the first step. So what you want to start doing is thinking about themes. This is a very simple way to start your meal plans. So make yourself a set theme for one week. So a lot of people on Mondays they'll do Meatless Monday now for us, that's every day that's every day. So we do meatless Mondays, every month, yours Yeah. So what do you want to do is think of just a theme and it doesn't matter what song What day just write it down,

Jarrod: 13:47

write or start with the types of foods that you like, write that down and then plug those into certain days. So

Anita: 13:53

Didn't you just make chin Mexican food started into this. So let's say Monday's Mexican. Okay, so we can start really general like that. So you know, it's Mexican. So then you just write down one food, whatever you're going to do. Are you going to do taco salad? Is it going to be a burrito? That's it, and then you're on to the next day, we're just talking about the main meal for that day. It's either going to be your lunch or your dinner, whatever your main meal is. All right, so then the next day, maybe it's we don't know, maybe you want to do sandwiches, maybe you want to do this is even more specific, like instead of just American food, maybe you would write those classic American dishes, right? Maybe you would write something specific, like sandwich day. So you're gonna think of just a couple of the different veggie toppings and veggie fillings or sausage sandwich to put on the bread sauces, absolutely type of bread you

Jarrod: 14:43

would want to use

Anita: 14:44

exactly and it's that simple. And so you just jot down your idea for that day. Move on, and then you go back and you just make sure that those are the things that you have in your pantry and when I say your pantry, also your fridge, maybe your freezer, I don't know what you take out of your freezer for a sandwich. Probably not If you know when I say,

Jarrod: 15:02

Well, I don't know Bread, bread so that we do keep that fresh,

Anita: 15:06

you got it, you got it. Exactly. So this is the thing, you can start with it as general as the type of food like Mexican, or you could do on Mondays, that would be your taco day, or it could be burrito day for that week. So you can go a little bit more specific, still not overwhelming. But you know what you're doing? Literally, this could take you 10 minutes, maybe even less, if you just sat there and just brainstormed at all, there's no right or wrong way to do this, I would try to vary the types of foods I have within it. As I look back over the week, I just

Jarrod: 15:40

make sure you're getting a good variety of food types.

Anita: 15:42

Exactly. You nailed it, get a great variety of foods. That's it. So that's how simple that step can be. I mean, meal planning can be that simple. It really does not have to be overwhelming.

Jarrod: 15:53

And I think the beauty of that is that it gives you some sense of direction without locking you into one specific food. Like if you always just do regular spaghetti one night, or you mentioned tacos, always just do a regular, the same exact taco varied up. I mean, you've got soft shell hard shell, you can do black bean tacos, you could do cauliflower tacos. I mean, there's so many different things you had mentioned to not not on in the podcast here, but previously have mentioned raps like a rap Wednesday, right? So many different things. That's kind of like a taco, but so many different ways you could do that.

Anita: 16:31

Absolutely. I mean, you could use a different rap on now. But ever, yes, yeah. So there are a lot of different ways you could do that. And then the next step and meal planning, you want to just nail that down and start doing that to you're comfortable. And then we teach people how to to make weeks. So the first thing you do is you're going to start making your set weeks. And there's a way that you can do that and pull it into months very easily very quickly. So then you've got your set weeks that you pull in two months over the year, and boom, meal planning done. It is really that simple. It's a drag and drop thing that is just really easy to do. So first of all, just think about in general, we don't want to overwhelm you right now we just want you to think about how to do this simple, easy meal planning of categories, categories. That's it, and think of things you want to try. Pull in some new recipes of some very simple things that you want to try and start building those food formulas of things like bowls, how would I do that? or different types of one day could be a salad, eight different types of salads, you can make things like that. Those are your food formulas, right? Got to learn those. So to recap, we're going to get the pantry stocked well. Okay, and then we're going to what was the next one? Do you remember?

Jarrod: 17:53

I do not.

Anita: 17:55

I'm quizzing you.

Jarrod: 17:56

Oh, I'm gonna fail this. I think I'm still stuck on rap Wednesday.

Anita: 18:02

You're hungry now, aren't you? Well, I

Jarrod: 18:04

wasn't before we started. But you're making me a little peckish.

Anita: 18:08

All right. So I'm gonna tell you a simple cookbook recipe, you got to have a cookbook that has easy recipes, great ingredients that you see defined, tastes good on the table quick. That's why I write the kickbacks we we just got frustrated, we couldn't find what we were looking for. And then to build those food formulas, those things that don't require a recipe, you need to have a bunch of those in your back pocket. I mean, really, a lot real life. We're running out the door, we're going, we're going picnicking, we're going to the park, we're going swimming for the summer. It's summertime, you need family time together. And you can have that in the kitchen. That's another way to spend time together, get and save time doing your meals, get kids involved. But seriously,

Jarrod: 18:54

just to give you a peek into a peek through the window in our lives. That's pretty much how she cooks is using the food formulas. She gets something she says Wow, I really liked that I need to put that in the cookbook, you know, then she has to make it about a half dozen times to kind of to fine tune the recipe and picking I am once she gets it recorded. She goes back to food formulas.

Anita: 19:18

And then what do I do if I'm not using food formulas? I open up our cookbook seriously. I use our cookbook all the time. Because those are go to family tried and true favorites. I mean, I perfected those I've worked on them over and over again. they've tested them they've tried them friends and family have tried them and given us the thumbs up. Otherwise they wouldn't be in the cookbook. So what I do, I grab the cookbook if I want to cook a recipe otherwise I'm pulling the food formulas out of my back pocket or we're doing theme night. Because the truth is if you reach the end of your day, it's been a crazy day. It's 5pm and you're going what's for dinner. Now you're stressed which isn't good. For your health, now you don't know what you're making. And so you're frantic trying to figure it out. You're asking your husband, you're asking your kids, and they're saying, well, you're saying, What do you want? And what are they saying? Whatever you want. And you're thinking, well, I asked you because I didn't know I need some input here. Right? So really, this happens. This is reality,

Jarrod: 20:23

saying what you're talking about. I've never done that before in my life.

Anita: 20:29

I know. But you're at a point where you need answers. Well, if you have that little go to sheet, or just those few formulas that you know, in your pantry stocked with the items, you need to create them, right? Or you've got to go to recipes that you know, are easy that you can whip out a batch of whatever it is in 30 minutes, right? Or you can easily throw together a veggie soup or a a sauce to go on pasta to make Fettuccine Alfredo, or what are some other things in the

Jarrod: 20:56

Bolognese sauce? Yeah, the ball in a sauce. We love that too.

Anita: 21:00

I mean, Allah goby. So what do you do you cut up the cauliflower and the potatoes, and you throw them in a sauce and bacon, mix them together, it's done. I mean, these are the kinds of things that we're talking about here. So it's, it's really got to be simple. And you've got to have all the things that you need in your pain tree. But once you get these things set up, you know your food formulas, you've got your go to cookbook, you know how to make it simple how to plan out those general meals for yourself. And then you can go the next level and have your weekly meals, you're not thinking about meal planning anymore. in the traditional sense, it is gone. It's tossed out in the trash, never to come back again. Now, again, like Jared said, If you love to meal prep, and that's your thing, and you want to spend all day and you've got the time, that is awesome, go for it. I'm so proud of you so excited for you do it because there's not really a wrong way to do that. Right? Except if you have the time. There's no wrong way to do that. But what works for people who are really busy are the things we've shared with you today. Put these things into practice, because you can listen to podcast after what do we got now like 90 episodes, this was

Jarrod: 22:15

actually Episode Number 90,

Anita: 22:17

okay, 90 episodes, were 10 away from 100. You can go back and listen to a lot of stuff that's going to help you out. Or you could just build the Bank of information that you have, and nothing will ever change. Today is your day, pick one thing, pick one thing from this podcast that you learned and go and apply it and just wait and see when you get more fruits and vegetables and whole grains and nuts and seeds and luck games in your life. Things will start to change. I'm telling you, we've experienced it. Our clients experience it again and again and we cannot wait to hear from you about how things are changing in your life too. We're thrilled for you can't wait to hear from you take a moment to leave a review before you go. It means a lot to us because it helps others find our episodes and helps them to get started on their journey to healing as well. We look forward to hanging out with you again next time on smarter healthy living.