From the Grocery Aisles to Gourmet Smiles with a Mom of Six

Ever wondered how a home chef can transform from a culinary beginner to a kitchen ninja while raising a small army of kids? Cue Stephanie, our amazing guest this week on Sweet Tea and Tacos, who's serving up her story of mastering the stovetop with six children in tow. From the bustling aisles of grocery stores to the trenches of meal prep, she's dishing out her strategies for keeping everyone's bellies and hearts full. Discover how Stephanie's kitchen became a hub of creativity, efficiency, and sheer culinary delight, regardless of the day's chaos.

As we sit around the kitchen table, we're stirred by Stephanie's tales of cultivating adventurous eaters and creating unforgettable mealtime moments. Whether it's implementing the "one bite rule" or finding that sweet spot between a child's favorite dishes and the brave new world of Brussels sprouts, this episode is a smorgasbord of heartwarming stories and practical advice. And let's not forget the butter—oh, the butter! Join us for an episode peppered with laughter, sprinkled with wisdom, and overflowing with tips for bringing your family together in the heart of the home—the kitchen.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:04

Hi, thanks for joining Sweet Tea and Tacos for this week. I'm Dave.

Speaker 2: 0:08

And I'm Jim.

Speaker 1: 0:10

And this week we're talking about cooking for families, cooking with a family, cooking. If you've got kids, like you know, there's a lot of different reasons why you'd want to do that. There's, you know, the health reasons, the economic reasons and that experience of just cooking and having the home cooked meals. And we have older teens, so it's kind of different than when we were younger, with the younger kids, and so we thought, you know what? Let's bring in our friend, stephanie, and she's got a great perspective because of where she is in life with her kids. So let's welcome Stephanie.

Speaker 2: 0:47

Hi everyone. Hey Stephanie, hey Stephanie Welcome.

Speaker 3: 0:52

Well, I'm so glad to be here today. You can't see, but I am sipping on some sweet tea, as we conversely.

Speaker 1: 0:59

There you go. Yeah, we haven't made any today, we made some yesterday. But so, yeah, stephanie, tell us. Start off. Let's talk a little bit about your cooking journey and kind of how you started cooking first.

Speaker 3: 1:16

My cooking journey starts with when I got married. Actually, I was not a cook. My mom was not a cook. The closest thing I ever had to a home cooked meal was a buffet line at Shoney's, so there was not much cooking going on at my house, so I didn't learn much from her. Like God lover, she's great, but she just didn't cook. But my grandmother cooked and I saw her cooking when I would go over to her house and so that just I remember the smells coming out of her kitchen and like the simmering and the gas stove and baking cookies and all of the things that were going on as she was cooking. And so that's where it started. And then I didn't start actually cooking until I got married and my mother-in-law gave me a cookbook of all the recipes that she liked to cook at that time, and so I was like, well, what better way to my husband's heart than the food that he knows about cooking.

Speaker 1: 2:24

There you go.

Speaker 3: 2:24

That's where it got started, Well cool.

Speaker 1: 2:29

How did you know when you guys started having kids? How did that change things for you? How did that continue?

Speaker 3: 2:39

When we started having kids, I actually started to make baby food for my first daughter because I had all the time in the world at that time, and so that was fun, just being able to research a little bit of ingredients that went together that were more on the fruity side and more of the maybe ingredients even that I wasn't even used to. So that was fun. But then we kept on having kids and kept on having kids, because now so yeah, just as a disclaimer, how many kids do you have?

Speaker 1: 3:12

and kind of the A range.

Speaker 3: 3:14

We have six children and they range from the age of 12 years old all the way down to four months old.

Speaker 1: 3:23

at the time, Four months old yeah.

Speaker 3: 3:27

So we have two girls and then four boys.

Speaker 1: 3:30

So yeah, so that's why that's one of the reasons we asked them to join us. If there's somebody who you know who can cook and has six kids at that age group, we thought, you know, stephanie probably gives us some really good insights on how to do that.

Speaker 2: 3:42

And also nobody has any excuse, because if you can do it, nobody can. Well, thank you very much. It's the baby of your, you know.

Speaker 3: 3:52

You're sweet, I do. I love to cook, though I have fully embraced it and you know, just having more kids that has it has changed. Having kids, I don't get to maybe be quite as elaborate. Or I used to make spaghetti sauce from scratch and now I like from the can, and it's not from cans, from the plastic bottle.

Speaker 1: 4:16

But like you said we were talking to the other day, that's one of those time savers just like look, okay, I've got to figure out some efficiencies somewhere and hey, this is a decent sauce, it's good prize, no problem, I got eight people to feed, so you know right, um, this is kind of funny.

Speaker 3: 4:33

A side note that when talking about prices of food, I do have to pay attention to that a lot about what prices are, because when we can easily go through um food just very quickly, but um, I used to show, I used to. When I had more time I used to shop like three different stores and it was like my, like super bargain.

Speaker 2: 4:54

I went through.

Speaker 3: 4:59

Kroger's got the meat, kroger's got the cheese. I'm gonna go to Walmart hit the toilet paper.

Speaker 1: 5:05

Yeah, there used to be a place around here, a drug store that's no longer. That got bought up as other people and she used to go in there and like they would pay her to leave. That was. My joke is that she would do so well with the coupons and it's like, yeah, I made 20 bucks.

Speaker 3: 5:22

Nice, that's fun, but yeah, so um, we, we have changed our menu and changed our convenience and the um, that sort of thing over the years.

Speaker 2: 5:33

Well, okay, so kind of along those lines, talk to us about how you shop, like, how often do y'all go? Do you go to regular grocery stores, do you use these kind of warehouse type places, or you know what works the best for y'all?

Speaker 3: 5:53

We really shop three main different places. So we do do the wholesale shopping and I do the grocery store and I do the box store that I like. I also do the fresh, like the open market market type.

Speaker 3: 6:13

Generally I get my meat from one place that I really like. I just feel like the meat tastes better there, and then I get my fresh vegetables at a certain place and then I go and I'll get kind of like the, the fill in, like the, the things in the cans and the bottles and that sort of thing. I might get that from another place. So just the, wherever the price point hits or whatever I'm feeling like for the day and how much I want to travel around town. But we have our, we have a checklist and usually I put the first letter of the place that I feel like you should get that place. If Brandon's going shopping, he knows, okay, I need to get cheese from this place and I am brand specific on some things.

Speaker 1: 6:58

I haven't wavered, yeah but yeah, I think we're that way too.

Speaker 3: 7:01

But I really do mostly buy in bulk to try to minimize as many shopping trips as possible. And then when I do buy in bulk, when I'm buying meat or anything like that, I try to cook it in bulk as well, and then I freeze it after I've cooked it, so I can just pull it from the refrigerator and then go from there.

Speaker 1: 7:22

When you freeze it, do you freeze it like in, like small, like what sizes? Do you freeze it all in one batch?

Speaker 3: 7:28

Do you freeze the smaller amounts or yeah, break it into the serving sizes that we use for our meals so that might look a little different for you guys. Absolutely Generally about, I just get the freezer, freezer bags for convenience and put them in that, so I can just peel it out and I do it about two pounds, I guess, in each little bag, so okay, I was just gonna say I think that's a great idea.

Speaker 2: 7:57

I've really never thought about doing that with meat. You know cooking.

Speaker 1: 8:02

The closest thing we'll get to that is is like, the same time I'll get a rotisserie chicken. So if we're making something with chicken in it, maybe a chicken quick, we'll do a quick chicken pie or a quick whatever, and I'll use a rotisserie chicken and I usually, you know, we, we break that down into you know, white and dark meat and then leftover pieces and usually that goes to the dog like skins and all that rigmar and then but yeah, no, we haven't really like cooked a whole batch of chicken and we do that. That's a good idea.

Speaker 3: 8:31

Yeah, I like to grill it, I like to go ahead and shred it, just kind of go ahead and have it. Yeah, I mean detailed prep, not just like cook more. And some meals I like dark meat and some meals I like white meat and just keep it mixed up.

Speaker 1: 8:45

So as far as the types of things you're cooking, you know, one of the things we have is you kind of have stereotypical family food and that's kind of I think maybe people think back on the casserole or pot roasts or you know just, you know pot and meat sauce, which is good, but you know that's, you know what do y'all kind of do? Stereotypical food. Or I kind of think you're you as somebody that maybe cooks things that you wouldn't think are stereotypical for kid food.

Speaker 3: 9:13

Yeah, definitely I enjoy casserole every now and then, but generally I am a I like to keep my pantry kind of its own grocery store, so I feel like I can just go shop at my own little mini grocery store in the pantry and then go pick from what I want and just kind of whip together a meal. The other day I had we had ramen bowls and so I made some like it was the 10 cent pack of ramen people of that and then. But I added the veggies and I did some fish to that and it turned out really good and my kids generally enjoy what I make. So the one meal that they haven't enjoyed and they let me know it was oatmeal I got completely slammed about it.

Speaker 1: 10:04

Yeah, that's kind of a, I think, a theme here too. There's not a bunch of. I mean, maybe once we can pull it off. But you know, you try to pull out that other oatmeal packet on a school day and they just like, nope, not gonna do it.

Speaker 3: 10:20

Yeah, I think. I think generally my meals are based maybe in a cream sauce or just the tomato sauce, like a spaghetti, what you would think of as a spaghetti sauce or that sort of thing too.

Speaker 1: 10:34

We had the one bite rule, you know.

Speaker 2: 10:37

Yeah, that was actually something that our pediatrician put in. Oh yeah, definitely. He said you know, make them at least taste one bite. You know they can't get dismissed from the table unless they at least try it.

Speaker 1: 10:51

So so how do you do that with your kids?

Speaker 3: 10:55

So I'm a blanket. You must eat. You must eat what's on your plates or you'll go hungry. I'm not very wavering in that because I also know that what my kids have eaten in the past and I do try to cook to their palate.

Speaker 1: 11:13

But Right, that's the other thing you're saying. You're telling me the other day is like look, son, I know what you like, I will cook it. This is trust me.

Speaker 3: 11:21

Yeah, yeah, my son. He tried to tell me that he didn't want to eat this rum and ball and I was like son, you are gonna have to just believe that I can make good food. You tell me all the time that this was the best meal you've ever had. You just need to believe me and try this. And he ended up helping it. He had never eaten the salmon before.

Speaker 1: 11:40

That's cool, that's good. And how old is he? He?

Speaker 3: 11:44

is eight.

Speaker 1: 11:46

He was great. Yeah, that's good.

Speaker 2: 11:48

I mean, I know our kids have never eaten ramen anything.

Speaker 3: 11:54

No, I was gonna say along those same lines is that I just always present them with different kinds of food. So like if we're having Brussels sprouts or if we're having french fries I know he's gonna love french fries but like, if I never present a child with different foods, then they're absolutely never gonna eat it.

Speaker 1: 12:13

But if I present some food, yeah, our kids actually love Brussels sprouts and I have. You know that I think that's a very polarizing vegetable. If there is one, you get a lot of people. I don't have Brussels sprouts, I hate them, but you know our kids love them and you know they've never had an issue with that.

Speaker 3: 12:28

You have to know how to cook them.

Speaker 2: 12:29

That is true. They like the way David cooks them, but she doesn't the exact same way, I'll do the exact same way, but they say oh, daddy's tastes better, but you don't put enough love into it. When we first got married before we had kids. We were like, Okay, we're never gonna cut the crust off of bread for saying our kids are not gonna, you know, eat dinosaur shaped chicken nuggets and all this. You do have to make some.

Speaker 1: 13:06

We went through some phases, yeah.

Speaker 2: 13:09

One of our children in particular is is a lot more. He was a lot more carb sort of centric. But you know, I would say overall they, they have pretty pretty, very taste. I mean, when we go to restaurants they're like wanting to order the lamb rack and stuff.

Speaker 1: 13:25

Yeah, oh, yeah. So like when we I have to save up to take our daughter to sushi because she will break us. So it's like I want one of all these things. You know. It's like you know I have no idea.

Speaker 2: 13:41

That's a good problem, yeah.

Speaker 1: 13:42

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 13:43

Let me ask you this, stephanie you mentioned, you know, pre-cooking the chicken and meat and things like that. Do you go ahead and ever make like whole meals I mean like it would probably be more like past rolls and things like lasagna. But I mean, do you kind of just say I'm going to take a day and do a bunch of cooking and you know kind of batch, cook and freeze it, or do you just kind of take it more day by day?

Speaker 3: 14:14

I usually take it more day by day. I am a stay-at-home mom so I kind of have that more of a luxury of being able to start cooking whenever I need to start cooking in the day and so freezing. I might have had a phase where I did that and it was a lot more past rolly things, but I also really like I just enjoy cooking. So cooking is kind of my five o'clock drive home because I get to transition from the day into the evening and I kind of my zone and where I can go and the kids are entertaining themselves at that point and so, yes, I have done some of that, but I'm more of a and because we just have to make so much.

Speaker 1: 15:04

If I was to, I would really spend all day making all of that, I think the most that we do is we'll do, for instance, we do a lot of soups and we'll do a soup or a chili, especially in the wintertime where we'll cook that on a Monday, have that Tuesday and do something else Wednesday, and especially during the school year where the kids are going 90 to nothing. That saves us that day in the kitchen on Tuesday.

Speaker 2: 15:30

Yeah, we rarely get to the point where we ever can.

Speaker 1: 15:34

Yeah we can't get, we can't just cook and freeze anything. No, we don't get any further ahead than that.

Speaker 2: 15:38

We don't really have a previous day no.

Speaker 3: 15:42

Nice.

Speaker 1: 15:43

So what about your kids? Do they help you in the kitchen? How do you include them?

Speaker 3: 15:53

That's a great question. I really started to include them in my cooking when I make chicken and dumplings and so I make the dumplings from scratch and I would have extra or just separate some of that dough and they would just start playing with it and mold it and playing with it like Play Doh. So that's been fun. But my oldest daughter she really likes to bake and now I really like to cook and I feel like there's a difference between cooking and baking.

Speaker 3: 16:27

I am not a baker, I'm just not. I don't have that. I like the ingredients. You can just play with and put it in the kitchen. Measuring and following directions to the tea is not high, it's not money.

Speaker 1: 16:42

No, it's not.

Speaker 3: 16:44

But my daughter she's the oldest one and she really does enjoy following it to the tea because she knows exactly what she's supposed to do and she can level off the flour and bake some cookies. So she's made several cakes and brownies from the brownie mix and bake cookies a lot, so she has fun with it it's cool We've enjoyed.

Speaker 1: 17:10

It's interesting, it's neat to see them have that success. When they get in there Then they serve it and people like it and they get really proud of what they've done and it's accomplishment and empowerment.

Speaker 3: 17:27

And they all know how to make their own fried egg.

Speaker 1: 17:29

There you go. Everybody's different right they can be, self-sufficient in the mornings.

Speaker 3: 17:35

Yes, because I don't want to make all of everybody their own egg in the morning. Well, that's good. I think we need to try.

Speaker 1: 17:41

We just need a couple more pans, because Jennifer likes hers at a certain point and Helen likes hers at a certain point, so I never can get them just right in the same pan.

Speaker 3: 17:51

So that's the best, exactly.

Speaker 2: 17:54

This kind of ties into what David and I were talking about on a recent podcast that we did about Mother's Day. We mentioned certain things that we remembered our mother's cooking that were kind of our favorites. So what do you think your kids might remember years from now or when they come home for holidays and things? What will they say hey, mom, will you please make some? So do they have some favorites?

Speaker 3: 18:23

Interesting. Yes, they really like my cream sauce, like pasta cream sauce.

Speaker 3: 18:34

So I make a whipping cream garlic, yeah, and just put that over some chicken and even like that can kind of play over into my daughter's favorite potato soup, because I always put some whipping cream in there. So it's like the heavy whipping cream is probably going to be something that either they regret knowing about, because they gain five pounds every time they put that in their basket, or they're going to love it because they're going to be like mom, mom needs to be there.

Speaker 1: 19:05

Yeah, we've got a lot of butter in our fridge. Oh, a lot of butter. We use a lot of butter.

Speaker 2: 19:09

Yeah, we probably need to transition to more.

Speaker 1: 19:12

No, no, we use a lot of that too, so cool. Well, thank you for joining us, stephanie. We really appreciate it.

Speaker 3: 19:21

Oh, it was a blast. Thanks so much for having me.

Speaker 1: 19:24

We hope the listeners have enjoyed it and got something out of that and maybe you learned a thing or two about how to help be a little more efficient in their kitchen and cook with kids and bring them in. And you know, you can still do it even when you have six kids or two. You know so well, cool. Well, thank you very much again. Oh, you're welcome. I'm Dave and I'm Jim and Stephanie. Bye, everyone, Bye.