Meal Prepping for Busy Families

 In this enlightening episode of Blasphemous Nutrition, Aimee sits down with Allison Schaaf, the culinary wizard behind Prep Dish, as they delve into practical strategies for busy families and individuals looking to simplify their meal planning process. This episode is packed with actionable advice, from leveraging meal prep to conquer the chaos of weekly food preparation to incorporating kid-friendly recipes that don’t skimp on nutrition. Allison shares her professional journey from personal chef to meal planning maven and offers a fresh perspective on how to make healthy eating effortlessly fit into your busy schedule. Tune in for a serving of motivation and a dash of culinary wisdom that will revolutionize the way you think about mealtime!

Guest Bio:
Allison is the founder of Prep Dish, a meal planning service helping busy families get healthy, tasty meals on the table! Her background as a chef and dietitian help her craft meal plans that are equal parts delicious and tasty. As a mom of 3 little boys, she knows that her recipes also need to be quick & easy!

Allison lives outside of Austin Texas with her husband and 3 boys. They have chickens, goats, cats and bees! Allison is also the founder of the nonprofit, Miscarriage Hope Desk and is the host of the weekly podcast, Meal Prep Mondays.

Key Takeaways:

• Meal planning and preparation can help individuals and families eat healthy and delicious meals while saving time and reducing stress.
• Having a clear why and commitment to meal planning is essential for long-term success.
• Involving children in the meal preparation process can help expand their palate and create a sense of ownership and pride in their food choices.
• Batching tasks, such as chopping vegetables or making sauces, can significantly streamline the meal preparation process.
• Utilizing the freezer as a resource for storing pre-prepared meals or ingredients can save time.

Notable Quotes:

• "Once you figure out why you're doing it and become committed to it, then you can make time for it." - Allison Schaaf
• "Figuring out ways to incorporate the kind of meal that you want to have but also make it become a part of your regular rhythm and habit is key." - Allison Schaaf
• "Having that time and the sacred space of mealtime is so important for connecting as a family." - Allison Schaaf

Resources:
Prep Dish Free 2 Week Meal Plan (Gluten-free, Paleo, Low-Carb Options)
Meal Prep Monday Podcast
Work with Aimee

Find Research Citations and Transcript at Blasphemous Nutrition on Substack

Work with Aimee

Photography by: Dai Ross Photography

Podcast Cover Art: Lilly Kate Creative

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Transcript

0:00

Hey Rebels, welcome to Blasphemous Nutrition. Consider this podcast your pantry full of clarity, perspective, and the nuance needed to counter the superficial health advice so freely given on the internet. I'm Aimee, the unapologetically candid host of Blasphemous Nutrition and a double degreed nutritionist with 20 years experience. I'm here to share a more nuanced take. On living and eating well to sustain and recover your health. If you've found most health advice to be so generic as to be meaningless, We're so extreme that it's unrealistic, and you don't mind the occasional F bomb. You've come to the right place. From dissecting the latest nutrition trends to breaking down published research and sharing my own clinical experiences, I'm on a mission to foster clarity amidst all the confusion and empower you to have the health you need to live a life you love. Now let's get started. Do you struggle with prepping meals to get you through the week being able to eat the way that you want to. In today's episode I interview Alison Schoff of prep dish. Who, um, what I listened to this interview as I was editing it, I realized I sound very much like the little fan girl. Speaking to her. But it probably is not an overstatement to call myself that I have personally used prep dish in my household. Off and on for the last. Five going on six years. Gosh. No, it's been longer than that. And it has been. Such an incredible help when life gets chaotic and hectic enough that. I struggled to keep all the pieces moving in that forward momentum that I need to do on a regular basis to feel my best. What I love about Prep Dish that is different from other meal plans is how well organized. The system that Alison has created is. The way it is laid out. It is very easy to prep. Some that perhaps not all of the meals in a given week. It's really easy to like get to the grocery store and look at the list of things that you need to buy. On the printout and then realize, oh, I want to make a substitution there this item on the shopping list. Isn't something that's going to work for my family. You can very easily, very quickly see what meal that ingredient goes in so that you can make an appropriate substitution or decide to omit it entirely because you realize it isn't actually a core component. Of that meal, which is something that no other meal plan I've ever come across has. Figured out. And Prep Dish is incredibly effective, incredibly straightforward. The meals are kid-friendly, but also give you an opportunity to expand your child's palette, which is something that we talk about in this episode. And I really genuinely can't say enough about prep, dish as a. Valuable tool to have available for those times when you're really struggling to keep it all together in the kitchen. So in this episode, we talk about feeding families, young children. How to make all of this work when you are extremely busy and how to begin utilizing meal prepping in your life. If that's something that you're not accustomed to, or haven't yet quite figured out, I really appreciate all of the Allison's' wisdom that she has gleaned. From her years working as a professional personal chef and the now being the mother of three boys. If you want more tips from Alison, be sure to listen to her podcast meal prep Monday, wherever you listen to podcasts. And if you feel so inspired by this episode, be sure to check out the two week trial run of Prep Dish. The link is in the show notes. This is a free trial for you to give it a shot and see why I am such a fan girl. All right onto the show., You

Aimee 4:27

Alison Schaaf. Welcome to Blasphemous Nutrition.

Allison 4:31

Hi, thank you for having me. I'm excited for our conversation today.

Aimee 4:35

I am super excited to have you on as well. I've been, I've been a huge fan of prep dish since, well, since I was in grad school, actually. And I had a, four year old at home and just being able to effectively outsource thinking about meals was such a game changer for me. I've loved using prep dish periodically throughout my life when things get super hectic and, it's a client favorite whenever I recommend. them. So it's, it's really exciting to have you here and get a chance to know you and talk a little bit about some of your tried and true tips to making it all work when so many of us feel stretched so thin and so busy, but we're really committed. To eating healthy meals.

Allison 5:28

Well, I can certainly touch on that. I've had quite a few weeks the past few weeks. So

Aimee 5:33

dive right in and let us know what's been going on.

Allison 5:39

Oh my goodness. Well, so I have three kids at home, a five year old, a three year old and a four month old, all boys. And, um, we've always worked with au pairs cause I've, I have practice of worked and, If anyone's not familiar, a pair sort of like a nanny, but they come from another country and help out and, it's a wonderful experience, but we've sometimes had gaps and we recently went through a little bit of a gap and it happened to coincide with my husband, taking a week long work trip to Singapore. Oh

Aimee 6:08

my goodness.

Allison 6:10

I had to,, figure out here and there and, but it all came together and it all worked out and we still ate. we actually ate prep dish meals. I still did my prep dish meal plans and we survived.

Aimee 6:22

All right. I give me the play by play.

Allison 6:26

How did you

Aimee 6:26

make this all happen?

Allison 6:29

Yeah, so the older to go to school Monday through Thursday. So they're in school kind of part time. So that's helpful. And then, the baby does nap. I swear he when I'm with him, though, he takes shorter naps because he and I try to be flattered. I'm like, he just wants to hang out with me. but for the moms who like, say they work from home and still watch their kids, like, I, I don't know how they do that. I think it's the best thing to do. have always, had help in some form to help me work while also like, I don't know. I don't try and do the, watch my kids and work at the same time. That's really hard for me to do. Um, so, and I did, I had some babysitters that came in, um, on a few days that helped out. So

Aimee 7:09

you were able to cobble babysitters and, and

Allison 7:13

piece it all, piece it all together. Yeah. And. you know, meals and meals specifically, so I do, so we live in the country and are not close to a grocery store and I've actually been doing grocery delivery on a regular basis for the past kind of few years, ever since they've had it out here. Just that's the phase that I'm in right now. I just. I just feel like that's easier. As much as I used to love going to the grocery store right now, that's one of those hacks that I use is I do my grocery order and that makes that part easier. And, the meal plans are like a grocery list and prep instruction and all that, but it's nice because I can pull up the grocery list and. make the order that way and I try and always get that order in a few days in advance before you know we're ready for our next round of meals. they're supposed to cover about a week. I find sometimes with my family we end up doing two kind of prep days a week. Just, you know, my husband and I both work from home. We're eating a lot of dinners for dinner and like we're eating all of our meals at home, and three days a week, the boys are all eating, all of their meals at home.

Aimee 8:15

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I found breaking it up into two prep days to be very helpful for me as well. in part, because I, If I spend,, all my whole Sunday in the kitchen prepping, I ended up getting very angry, even if it's, you know, even if I'm able to do it in you know, three hours or so still, I feel like, no, this is the, this is the day I want to enjoy myself. So I usually do a little bit of prep on Sunday and then a little bit of prep on Wednesday. And it also keeps the veggies, you know, nice and fresh and stuff as well.

Allison 8:50

The thing that I always like to do is I like to do the prep right before, like leading up to a meal. So say like Saturday dinner or Sunday lunch, whatever it is. And so that way in my mind, I'm like, well, I'm already making a meal and I'm just doing some extra work. And at the end of it, I have one meal ready to go. And then I've also prepped myself for the next day few days. So that's a lot of times how I mindset shifted to like, Oh, I'm just And I'm just making my meal and happen to be doing a little extra work while, you know, especially if it's a meal that, you know, some meals do take an hour to make. So like within that hour, I'm getting all my veggies chopped for the week. So that's

Aimee 9:27

a great idea. I love that idea. are any of the two older boys, picky eaters?

Allison 9:33

So they are not, and I know in part we just lucked out, but I do like to think I, played a part in that. Um, you know, did baby lead weaning, did never, have never bought a chicken nugget or macaroni and cheese or anything like that. We've always just, I make the same meals I've made for the past 10 years. I'm, like, rotating new flavors and stuff. Like, I still eat the same way and they just eat the same thing. There hasn't been an option to not do that. And, they'll go through phases where it's oh, I don't like that. And I'll just say, okay, then, you know, don't eat that. But there's always something on their plate that they'll eat. And I find a lot of times what'll happen is if it's something new at dinner, they'll say, I don't like that. And I think they just, in part, just want to be, be heard. So I say, okay. And then we'll serve usually the same thing at lunch the next day. And I found a lot of times by lunch the next day, they'll be eating it. And even sometimes by the end of the meal, like they'll start by saying, I don't like that. And I say, okay. But then I look over, by the time the meal's done, they've eaten it. So I think sometimes they just want to have the, authority to have an opinion. But, yeah, they've, they're very good eaters. I also get them very involved in the kitchen. So I went to culinary school and, I've always envisioned having kids that love to be in the kitchen. And, they go through phases of wanting to be with me in the kitchen. But right now, the three year old is actually, like, obsessed to it with to a point where he gets in and if he did not prepare the meal, he starts to have a meltdown because he wanted to help prepare the meal, which is hard because sometimes it is leftovers. I'm like, well, no, I, buddy, I didn't, I didn't do anything. Like you didn't miss, you didn't miss anything. He loves to sit this morning. We had plantains at breakfast and. I've tried, like he has his knife and he slices them. And, um, you know, it's very right there with me at the stove, very involved. And I think that also helps a lot with them, not being picky eaters because they're involved throughout the whole process.

Aimee 11:33

Right. They take, they take, some ownership for the meal and that gives them that sense of pride and efficacy and empowerment that, yeah, I think would make one more inclined to participate in eating the meal as well.

Allison 11:47

Yes. And, oh my, I need to, I don't even think I've posted this on social media lately, but we have this thing called a lettuce grow. I don't know if you've seen, it's like this tower that you can grow lettuces in. Yeah. It's amazing. I think it was created by someone. I'm in the Austin area. I think it's like a local person that created these like towers. I think there's different brands too. but once you get it set up, it's a really easy way to grow lettuce. But the thing I found is with the boys, they love it. Cause they know they can sneak by and they almost feel like they're doing something they shouldn't feel like go by and like, I ate some lettuce and I'm like, okay. So they'll just, you know, randomly run up to that tower and eat lettuce, like munch on lettuce throughout the day. And like, when we finish our meals, we'll go out and like, I just ate some lettuce and so that's been a really fun way to get them to eat lettuce.

Aimee 12:32

Yeah, my son went through this vegetable phobic phase when he was about two or three years old. And it was extremely painful for me to witness that and to try and deal with that. And that's when I started, I actually started pureeing vegetables and sneaking them into ground meat, uh, to disguise it and give him a little bit more than, tomato sauce and ketchup was essentially. It and I think baby carrots, everything else was off the table. But when he, when he entered about three, I think was was about the time that he started coming around. And I remember this moment where we were at a at a nursery and he's standing in the rain and he's eating. He's picking some of the lettuce shoots that are being sold and putting them in his mouth. And I was so excited that he was eating lettuce. I was like, I don't care that he's eating these plants in the garden because he's back to eating plants. It's great.

Allison 13:36

Yes, no, it's so good. Like, so the school they go to, they have. Soup once a week, but how they work, each kid brings their own vegetable in. And I've noticed my kids used to not like a lot of times soup, like I would drain it out and I don't know, soup was always a trickier one, especially,, sometimes they don't like everything mixed together and cause they're like, we'll do some, some dishes I have found that if I separate them out into each food item, like separate, like that does help if you do have a picky eater, cause then they don't sometimes like it all mixed together, but soups. Anyway, so each Tuesday they pick a vegetable from their house, they bring it and all the kids contribute a vegetable and they make this soup. And the kids all eat it because they've contributed. And so I think that's another place where, let them decide, you know, find a place for, for example, in the mornings, we always have fruit as our snack in the mornings. And so a lot of times I'll say like, well, you know, what, what fruit do you want to eat? And so when they can be a part of the decision making process and, if you can set the boundaries correctly, where it's not like, well, we're going to have, you know, ice cream every morning for a snack, but like, what fruit would you like to have for your snack today?

Aimee 14:41

Right. Right. Setting the parameters and letting them choose within the parameters.

Allison 14:45

Yes. Yeah.

Aimee 14:48

And for, for those who may or may not be parents, but they're juggling, a complex home life, whether they're caring for aging parents or they're caring for children, or they're caring for both while working full time, aside from kind of splitting up the, The meal prepping and then also having ingredients delivered from the grocery store, if possible, what are some other ways they can save time and as well as cut costs.

Allison 15:20

Yeah, I mean, there's, multiple things. I think first is even just backing up a little bit and figuring out how to, I guess, I want to say, become committed to it, figure out that why of why you're doing it, because I think once you figure out why you're doing it and you become committed to it, then you can make time for it. You know, it's Everyone has like so much going on and I get that, but I think it's figuring out like what in your household do you really care about? What are things that are important to you? And for me, sometimes it even goes beyond like the food and having to be healthy food and all that. It's like sitting down with a meal, sitting down. To dinner as a family, whatever your family might look like, or, inviting people over to me, that's like very important and core to our household. So once I get on board with that, it keeps me, I guess, motivated to like put in the energy to do all of that. And then, getting back to your question of, how to make it easy. So I think just coming up with systems and routines and. You know, figuring out your habits and what you're doing throughout the week and what your meals look like, really taking a step back and figuring out ways to incorporate the kind of meal that you want to have, but also make it become. a part of your regular rhythm and habit, you don't want it to be like, Oh, I'm super motivated today. So I'm going to spend my whole Saturday doing this thing. Well, you're not going to do that every week, right? That's going to fade really fast. So figuring things out, like, okay, can I, you know, I'm already spending an hour Monday night making dinner. Let me just do a few extra things. you know, spending some time Friday afternoon or Saturday morning, like looking at the week ahead, jotting down, What am I going to have for my dinners each night? What do I want them to look like? And then that way you're not making all of those decisions last minute, right? Like you're not heading into dinner being like, Oh, now I have to decide what to eat. And I'm just going to, it's easy to order takeout.

Aimee 17:14

Exactly. Yeah. Because usually at the point that you're starting to think about dinner, one, you're already hungry and two, you've already made so many decisions throughout the day that it's, it's just one more thing you don't, you don't want to have to think about. Yep. So. Yeah, you'll start to your default. That's just human nature.

Allison 17:31

So you have to really think through, how do I get around that? you know, your habits, you know, your patterns. And how do you figure out ways to adjust those and shift those to like, what is your ultimate goal? is your ultimate goal to sit down with your family? Not be like up, like still in the kitchen, but like all sit down and have a meal together. is that your goal? And if so, how can you kind of. shift a little bit of what you're doing to make that happen.

Aimee 17:55

I will admit I do have to trick myself.

Allison 17:58

Yeah, I agree. You have to even if you know you're doing it like that's great.

Aimee 18:05

Yeah, I have to outsmart myself. I have to manipulate myself. I have to like dangle the carrots sometimes to get me to do the thing that I know I need to be doing. Yeah. And I will say, one thing I have noticed just within our family is when the meals are planned out in advance, even if it's just, okay, I know, I know what I'm eating Thursday and Friday. So I need to make sure I go to the grocery store by Tuesday. Knowing what's coming just eases. It just takes so much friction out of my week.

Allison 18:40

There's a mental load for sure.

Aimee 18:41

Exactly. the more, you know, the more people in your family, the more complicated meal planning and cooking becomes, for many people and not having to navigate all of those moving parts on a day to day, it's just such a relief. Yeah.

Allison 19:01

Well, if you've if you've kind of written it down, not your one, you're kind of tricking yourself or putting yourself into like, okay, this is what we're having. But then if you start having questions, like you said, the fail, like the closer it gets to dinnertime, what are we having? And if you don't know, and you're not confident in that choice, people are going to start having opinions. But if you already know. So, maybe you can write it out on Wednesday, here's what we're having each night. It's like, well, this is what we're having. You're not, you know, I'm not asking for input on this. This is like already decided. Like we've, we had, this is the food we have. It's already, and if it's already there and chopped, that's the ultimate trick because it's like, if you've already done the heavy lifting, you're not going to order takeout if you've already put in all this hard work to make it happen up front.

Aimee 19:40

Right, right. Because then what you, all that work you've done spoils in the fridge.

Allison 19:45

Yes. And you don't want that.

Aimee 19:48

There is something very valuable about writing it, writing out the meal plan for the week and putting it on the wall, particularly if you have, grade school children and younger, because there really is something for them psychologically that makes it far more acceptable if you're not telling them, but it's just there. You know, if I tell my son, it's time to take out the compost, that creates a lot more drama than if I tell him to set a timer for 10 minutes to take out the compost and then when the timer comes goes off, it's like, it's no big deal. It's like, okay, it's time to do this thing. Right. Didn't come from mom. It came from the iPad. So it's okay.

Allison 20:35

Well, and I think with kids, like they want to know, it's almost like it helps them feel safe. I know that sounds strange, but if they know that like dinner's already decided and cause if you're at dinnertime trying to figure it out and not sure they pick up on that, right? Like they pick up like, Oh, what are we going to have? And. Then it kind of like, it's a spiral of like this hectic, chaotic dinner time of like, Oh, we don't know what we're going to make. We've got to scramble. We've got to do this. And that, they don't like that feeling either. They like having that safety and security of Oh, this is what we're having for dinner each night. And we, just go for it.

Aimee 21:10

That's a really good point. Yeah. Children do, do often feel more calm and secure if they know what's coming and they know what to expect from their world. I mean, I don't even think that's limited to children. I think to some degree we all,

Allison 21:24

we all like that. Yes. Yeah.

Aimee 21:26

We all like that. Yeah. Allison, what is, is there anything, that we haven't discussed yet that you feel would be especially helpful for people who are new to meal planning, looking to get started with meal planning and feeling a little bit uncertain or overwhelmed at that concept?

Allison 21:47

Yeah, with overwhelm, I think one, going back to the why, um, to just, you know, starting small. It doesn't. And I think just glancing and making a decision on what you're going to eat before mealtime can be a really huge first step, just deciding, this, this is what my meals are going to look like, and maybe it's just deciding I'm going to have, a protein, a vegetable, and Carver, you know, whatever you're, you've decided you want your plates to look like, or, just having that decision made before meal time can be huge. And then from there, there's, ways to go above and beyond that, like batching and, you know, chopping your vegetables in advance and really streamlining it to where it's really efficient. and of course with prep dish, we want to help people do that. Like that's our, our goal is to help people make it really easy and, efficient and not have to think about it. Um, but at the core, I think just having somewhat of a plan for the week is so helpful and a good place to start.

Aimee 22:48

For those who are unfamiliar, what is batching?

Allison 22:52

So batching is doing familiar tasks all together to create, to make it more efficient. So an example would be your laundry, right? You could do your laundry every day. Every day you have some dirty clothes, you could throw them in the laundry. You could do it every three days. You could do it every seven days. I actually will sometimes do laundry once every two weeks, because I don't find that it takes that much more time when I do two weeks worth of laundry. Then if I do three days worth of, this is for my laundry, not my children's children's laundry has to be done more often. So that that's an example of where. It's more efficient to do it less often and do it all together. Now, when you're in the kitchen, there are so many examples where batching saves so much time over the course of a week. And especially a year, if it's something you do regularly. one example is just chopping vegetables. So if every night you pull out a cutting board and a knife. You wash the vegetables and you cut them. Time yourself, say it takes, I don't know, 10 minutes to do all of that. If you just have like one or two vegetables. Or you could, at the beginning of the week, chop all of your vegetables and, wash, wash all the vegetables, chop them, wash the cutting board, all that. And maybe that takes an hour. But if you add up and then like throughout the week you're not doing it, it's just like over time it really is so much more efficient to just, Do it all at once. You already have the cutting board out. You already have your vegetables washed. You're already like in the zone. You can maybe listen to a podcast or, you know, one person said they like watch Netflix. I don't know. I like to just zone out sometimes. I find it's really comforting just to like zone out and have it be quiet. but get all that chopping done. And then each night you're just having to pull out the vegetable and it's already done for you and it makes mealtime a lot easier. there's also things you can do like making a big sauce or a marinade and using it a few times throughout the week, maybe even freezing half of it. Because again, if you're going to be making a pesto, making twice as much pesto doesn't take twice as long. It just takes a, maybe a minute longer because you're just increasing the ingredients. So just figuring out ways where you can, Plump those things together. So that way you're not just scrambling and like doing laundry every day.

Aimee 25:06

Yeah. The freezer is a greatly underutilized resource for meal prepping and planning.

Allison 25:14

Yes, for sure. Cause it's it's just so easy to increase the amount of anything you're making, whether it's like a lasagna or a soup or something like, or broth or whatever it is, just like making extra and then putting that extra in the freezer. we've all had those weeks where you need to pull something out of the freezer and Yeah, like breakfast items are really good. If you do like frittatas or Um egg muffins or any sort of muffin like those are really easy to just pop some in the freezer and save some for a A busy day.

Aimee 25:45

Love it. I love it. Any other additional pro tips as it were, with regards to batching or Eliminating time. I think time is the big

Allison 25:58

time. Time is the tricky one. I think as, as you go through the process, you'll kind of figure out just ways to, to streamline it and do more things together. Kitchen tools, there's a few that really make a difference, like a good chef's knife. makes a big difference taking maybe some sort of class to learn how to chop vegetables. If you're not comfortable chopping vegetables can be huge because if you can double how fast you can chop a vegetable, you're going to, increase your or decrease the amount of time you're spending. So some basic cooking classes, if you're not comfortable, I also know some people will just chop everything in a food processor or something like that. So figuring out like where you feel like you're slowed down and then is there a way to. do that. You can also, have other people in the house help out like, you know, I've already my little five and three year old are in training, but my three year old chops vegetables for me all the time. And, I have to, I, I'm still at the point where I need to watch him and monitor, but I know that time I'm investing now and a few years, he's going to be able to do it on his own. And I'm really going to be able to. Have, these extra sous chefs around me, that can help. So I'm investing some time upfront now to, save myself time in the future. So there's some little tricks like that as well. And, buying pre-chopped, it's kind of a budget thing, but a time and money, figuring out. And that can change week to week or depending on the season. But if you're in a season where. it's just really hectic buying pre chopped vegetables can be a good option. and sometimes, you know, they're not that much more, you know, buying the shredded cabbage or something can be a really, time efficient thing to do. So just figuring out where, where you're struggling and then there's usually a little trick.

Aimee 27:45

I think one thing too, that people often forget is that there is a learning curve with this just like everything else. And when you are starting, it will take longer than you think it will. And maybe that's a situation where you only commit to prepping, two dinners a week or just, A quick lunch for the week till you get some of those habits and those systems in place and then you can expand out. And that's okay, right? start where you're at, expand a little bit, and then expand more as you're capable and have the bandwidth to do so, so that, I love what you said about doing everything one day. That's not realistic for the whole week. It immediately reminded me of, of January where everybody's like, I'm going to get into shape. And then they go to the gym for an hour and a half when they haven't exercised and three to six months and then they can't do anything for a week because they've gone too far and done too much. And this is definitely an area where I see time and time again where people will jump in whole hog. And, download something off the internet and, and commit to, a program or a plan for a specific period of time. And then when that time is over, whether it's 30 days or six weeks or what have you, they're so burned out because they went from nothing to everything.

Allison 29:12

Mm hmm.

Aimee 29:13

That they don't, they, they aren't able to maintain the consistency that is really needed to make long term changes to our health and how we want our families to eat.

Allison 29:28

Yeah, no, and that goes back to that commitment of okay, this is important to me and yeah, not making it. you're going to have to shift it and, and it's going to change over time. Like, you know, every time I add a child or if the kids change school, whatever it is, like the schedule changes constantly. So there's constantly a shifting of like what food you're buying and how much and what days, like some, you know, I feel like every few months, the day I prep on changes, like as good as it is to have, okay. Okay. I always prep on this day that's changed for me several times over and it will continue to change for me like I'm sure once the summer hits and my kids are home, we're going to prep on different days and different amounts of food. it's just going to be different. They continue to eat more. I don't know what to do with three boys. It's like the amount that they can and the baby's not eating yet. So I'm just waiting once. Yeah. It's gonna be so much food.

Aimee 30:23

Those growth spurts are insane. It's just insane how much food they can consume when they are when they're going through a growth spurt.

Allison 30:33

Yes. So I don't know. I think we may be buying a second refrigerator soon

Aimee 30:37

or or some Texas farmland.

Allison 30:44

Well, and we do,, we've started with it. So we have a garden and chickens and bees. And so we're trying to do some of our own food. And that's always, that's been fun and a good way to get the kids involved. Ivan, my oldest, went out to the garden and threw some watermelon seeds out before his dad had a chance to help him. And he goes out every day looking for his watermelon and And he keeps asking me, did you water, did you, did you water the watermelon? I'm like, well, buddy.

Aimee 31:16

Do you know where he tossed them? No.

Allison 31:19

He claims he knows, but I don't even know that he knows.

Aimee 31:22

Yeah. But they're somewhere out there. Are you guys coming in quietly and planting watermelon in a known place so he's not disappointed at the end of the summer?

Allison 31:33

He's gonna have to live with that. Like, this is a good life lesson.

Aimee 31:37

It is a good life lesson, yes. Pay attention to where you plant your seeds. I feel like that is a Kind of a meta lesson. Is there a question that I have not asked you yet that you wished I had? Oh

Allison 31:55

goodness, I don't think so. I feel some of the big things of, you know, figuring out Why this is important to you. and you know, again, the grace piece of it's not going to happen overnight. Um, you'll have to try, but, we're going to be eating the rest of our lives. So to me, if you're going to pick a cause to really figure out how to figure out, this is a really important one, right? Like what you eat plays such a huge role in your energy levels and your health long term. So. It's worthwhile to continue to tweak and streamline and figure out how to continue to do it better.

Aimee 32:33

Definitely. I do want to give you an opportunity to plug Prepdish. And share some of the benefits, that those of us who use it can experience. I mean, I can, I can, I can wax poetic about it, but, but I'd actually love to hear it from you. Like you saw this need and there's plenty of meal plans out there, but what you've done is just different enough. That at least it really works very well for me. So I, I'd love for you to share what people and what users, you know, cause you have this community as well that gives feedback all the time, what people are experiencing when they invest in something like prep dish.

Allison 33:18

Well, thank you for saying all of that. And yeah, I mean, I feel like what, what I've created is now what I have to use at home, which is interesting because when I first created it was 11 years ago, I was single and working as a personal chef. So I saw the need with my clients that I was cooking for, but didn't, I always was making the recipes, but didn't have to do it. It did help. Like I would do prep day because when I got home from cooking all day with personal chef clients, I didn't want to start from scratch to make a meal. So I would do it. But now that I. Have a family, it's like, oh wow. Like I've created something that I have to use every week, or we're just not gonna eat the way I want to eat So it's been really cool to have it come full circle like that and to have created something that, has become such a part of our household. we also have a team of prep, prep dish, and I think we're all basically busy moms. We all use the meal plans. We, when it comes time to test them, we, you know, dish. them out to everyone on the team to try them out. So they've all been tried out, not just at my house, but, we swap them around and, there were, you know, these are the things that we're cooking at home. And, to me, it's just the most efficient system that I've come up with to get healthy, tasty food on the table each night. And our goal really going back to that, it's like, yes, it's the healthy food. Yes. Leading with taste. But also I really want families to be able to sit down and connect at dinner time. And it's really hard to do that. Right? Like you have to be intentional with it. You have to create the space and time and you have to be thinking upfront. You can't just wait until six o'clock and be like, okay, we're all going to sit down. Like you've got to really, this is something that has to be thought about in advance. If you want to make it happen. And that requires a system and that's something people can create on their own. But we've also done the heavy lifting and been like, okay, here's your grocery list. Here's what you need to chop. And then you can sit down and have a lovely meal each night. And hopefully it's one where it's. It's calm and I mean, as calm as it can be depending on your household dynamics. But you know, you can actually sit down too, right? Whoever's preparing the meals. Cause I found too often it's so chaotic that, people like everyone's coming in at different times and all that. And I just think it's so important to sit down to family meals and have the time and space to connect. So the healthy food is part of it. The tasty food is part of it, but a big part of it is. Having that time and the like kind of sacred space of mealtime.

Aimee 35:52

Yeah, that's fantastic. I didn't realize that all of the team had children. So how many kid taste testers do you have approving these meals before they go out?

Allison 36:04

Yeah,, I think the, the core team of us is like four or five of us. And the age ranges of the kids are up to like teenagers. And there are. Some that are pickier eaters than mine are. So, there's all, different, uh, taste preferences that are testing out the meals. So it'd be one, two, three. but they're, like early teens now, so 3, 4, 5, like probably, well, no, if you can't mind like a dozen taste testers, good tasters probably that are going through them. So yeah, our meal plan editor, basically each month you kind of divvies up the meal plans and we each take one and after they've been written, they all get tested once by someone on the team.

Aimee 36:50

That's a solid sample size.

Allison 36:51

Yeah.

Aimee 36:53

my son is also not a picky eater. and he, he will occasionally like look down, you know on a meal. That's a little unfamiliar, but, with all the prep dish, meals, even the fish, the worst, he'll be like, it was okay.

Allison 37:10

Take it. I'll take the win. I feel like the fish is the biggest one that we hear from people when they first start trying prep dish that like, Oh, my kid ate salmon and,, I think there's a few things that go into it. I think one of them is there's also a confidence that comes from the person serving the meals when it's cause in a way they didn't make the choice, so I think it gets served with a different kind of feeling behind it. but you know, there's also different ways. I've never really tried it before. It's just different flavors that have gone into it and stuff. But yeah, we hear a lot that like, Oh my kid ate salmon for the first time. I feel like that's the most common, like first that people talk about with prep.

Aimee 37:44

And it's a huge win. Like getting your kids to eat is a huge win.

Allison 37:49

I mean, yeah. Building that brain health one salmon at a time.

Aimee 37:55

I will say one of the things I've personally experienced too using prep dish is figuring out how to cook certain things that had always been. eluded me. I spent, you know, I spent, um, early adulthood and all of my adolescence as a vegetarian. So there was a lot of animal proteins that I never learned how to cook until I was in my mid twenties yeah, with prep dish, I cooked scallops for the first time and they came out perfectly, which I, I was, I was very

Allison 38:30

Oh my gosh. I wish scallops were not so expensive and we would put them on the menu a lot more because they're so easy and so tasty. My kids love scallops.

Aimee 38:38

Yes, they are fantastic. They're absolutely fantastic, but yeah, a little cost prohibitive. and then finally understood what I needed to do with a pork tenderloin to actually make it taste, moist and juicy and wonderful, which was something, I didn't think could happen. And it really is. The way, the way that everything's written out is, is simple and easy to follow.

Allison 39:03

Mhm. And I've always

Aimee 39:04

really appreciated that about prep dish.

Allison 39:07

Yeah. Well, yeah, thank you. I know, I do like to think that we're kind of Teaching people through having them create it. Over time, even if people are only using the plans for,, a certain period of time when they're done with it, they do have an increased skill level. So that's awesome.

Aimee 39:26

Before we wrap up, I would love for you to share something with our listeners about you personally that is blasphemous.

Allison 39:35

Oh my goodness. I think I remember because I know you asked this beforehand. Um, so I have a glass of wine five to six nights a week.

Aimee 39:47

You have another three boys. Of course you do.

Allison 39:51

I know. I feel like in the, in the nutrition world, like wine has become so controversial and, But yeah, I'm a, I'm a very moderate drinker. Like if I have, I like never have more than two glasses, but I'm a very regular drinker. So

Aimee 40:08

blasphemous. I know. Blasphemy. I mean, honestly, though, with, with nutrition, there isn't much left that isn't. Considered blasphemous in one way or

Allison 40:18

another. Like, I eat eggs, I eat a lot of fat, I eat a lot of meat, like, I eat a lot of meat. Like, a lot of the things that I used to think were blasphemous, but I'm like, the things, I'm like, I feel like the wine still gets, like, a lot of controversy on the internet.

Aimee 40:33

Yeah, for sure. But

Allison 40:36

but I'm also very picky about my wine. If people follow me on Prep Dish, there's um, I drink like a low sugar, low alcohol, like no additive type wine. just like quality of food, I feel like quality of wine makes a big difference.

Aimee 40:49

Definitely, definitely. Alison, thank you so much for spending this time with us. I really appreciate it. And, dropping so many lovely nuggets of wisdom to help us out.

Allison 41:04

Yeah. Thank you for having me and for, you know, supporting prep dish for all of these years, I really appreciate it.

Aimee 41:10

Absolutely happy to.

41:11

If you have found some Nuggets of Wisdom, make sure to subscribe, rate, and share Blasphemous Nutrition with those you care about. As you navigate the labyrinth of health advice out there, remember, health is a journey, not a dietary dictatorship. Stay skeptical, stay daring, and challenge the norms that no longer serve you. If you've got burning questions or want to share your own flavor of rebellion, slide into my DMs. Your stories fuel me, and I love hearing them. Thanks again for tuning in to Blasphemous Nutrition. Until next time, this is Aimee signing off, reminding you that truth is nuanced, and any dish can be made better with a little bit of sass.