301. How to Eat Healthy When You're Busy and Broke with Carleigh Bodrug

22:20Financial Feminist Host:So walk me through how we would build a system, right? We talked about meal prep. I know that's part of it, but like, why is a system going to beat trying harder every single time? A system should become passive. I think it's that book where we talk about habit building, that you need to repeat things week after week or day after day to actually build them into your life. And this is no different when we're talking about cooking and meal planning. So if you're starting from scratch, say you're in a rut and you've been eating out and you're hitting the drive through every day and not feeling good about yourself, start from blank.

22:54So I always recommend that people set a day where they go grocery shopping and they do a little bit of meal prep. So this needs to be your hopefully have one day or one afternoon off in a week. So that would mean hitting the grocery store, shopping your fridge and pantry first, making a meal plan on a piece of paper, heading to the grocery store, getting home and prepping a few elements. And when I say making a meal plan, you want to be a little more strategic about this. So I often talk to people about making sure that the recipes that they're going to make and, you know, go on a blog, go on Pinterest, Google, whatever kind of food you like, and make sure that they have overlapping ingredients.

23:32So maybe, you know, you're having a chickpea curry this week and then you're going to have something that chickpea curry has bell peppers in it. So maybe on Tuesday, you're going to have a roasted red pepper pasta sauce that is going to really save you money and make sure that you're not wasting ingredients. So once you shop, you're going to prep those ingredients and then get into forward momentum. Fall in love with cooking. I always love turning on a podcast like the financial feminist. Thank you. They say habit stacking, right? So if you're not a big fan of cooking, pair it with something that you really look forward to in the day.

24:09Maybe it's listening to a podcast, turning on a reality TV show, if you can see your TV from your kitchen, and getting into kind of, like you said, a meditative state of cooking. And I think it's really fun and a great opportunity to share food. So whether you're in a relationship or you're single, having a friend over and making it kind of an experience like that is fantastic. And, you know, we're not talking about a gourmet dinner every night. We're not trying to achieve restaurant quality in our homes. We're just trying to feed our bodies, make it taste good, make it somewhat healthy. So make sure the stakes are low and get into the rhythm of it.

24:47And also make sure that you're building in, like if you're going from zero to 100, that you're building in a couple of days a week where you are going to get takeout or you are going to, you know, go to a restaurant with friends. And the last thing I want to say on this as well is I'm a big fan of grocery delivery. If you can afford it, it is a bit more expensive. But if that's kind of the barrier, again, you can't see yourself. Maybe you have a couple of kids and you're like, oh, my goodness, I cannot imagine heading to the grocery store today. Yes, it might cost a little more, but so does gas these days.

25:20So get your groceries delivered. And that's going to save you time because time is money.

25:25Financial Feminist Host:Yeah. Okay. So exactly what Carly was saying about systems. This is what you need for your money. Just the same way that you need a system for your food and for meal prep and for cooking. You also need a system with a clear order of operations that replaces feeling like you need willpower and feeling like you need shame in order to achieve your goals with structure. This is where the a hundred K club comes in. We have so many resources in the a hundred K club that have helped people not only reach their 100K, but save money, pay off debt, boost their credit scores, and just feel better about their money narratives.

25:59Financial Feminist Host:For less than$100, you get exclusive videos shot by me. You get a community. You get so many incredible resources that we have put together for the first time all in one place. You can go to herfirst100k.com slash FFpod to get more information. And again, it's just$97. All right, back to the episode. I love the idea too of, this is something I especially did in my early twenties when I wasn't making as much money as, you know, people would invite me out to eat and I'd be like, Oh, I already went out to eat once this week. I can't afford to do it again. Come over and I'll cook for you. Or we would cook together.

26:32Financial Feminist Host:And that became like the experience. And I think that that is a great way that we can make cooking actually the date night or the date with friends, as opposed to, again, we're going out to a bar and then we're going out to a restaurant and suddenly$150 are gone. It's just like if we can have that same experience of, you know, being with the people that we love and being social, but in our own homes, I think it's just, it's something that I still do with friends. It's so helpful, both for budget, but also just for having that shared experience. I want to talk about this for a second, because I feel like social media has ruined hosting in a way.

27:11I feel like when I was, I feel like when I was a kid, it is such a chore now it is like, have a welcome

27:17Financial Feminist Host:drink and also have like, like the most perfect table you've ever seen. And if that gives you joy, great. And I'm also like, no, you're going to come over on a whim. I just did this with a friend the other day. It was like, I'm making a salad kit. It's a pre-made salad kit. I'm doing some chicken in the air fryer. Come on over. This is what I'm making. Yeah. When I was a kid, you know, my parents would have friends dropping in. They would come, everybody can have a plate. They wouldn't worry about their house being perfectly clean. And I don't know what psychologically, and I can't think that it's just me, but like, if somebody's coming over, I'm like, get the broom.

27:54We're going to make it look like nobody lives here. And it's toxic.

27:59Financial Feminist Host:Get the good napkins. Get the good napkins and the silverware. I'm hoping we are going to have a resurgence of just what you said. You have a salad kit and you're like, come on over because why is going out to eat$150 every time? We can't, we cannot afford it. So I think additionally, it's all, there's also something just so nice about sharing a meal in someone's home. So I think it's a beautiful thing rather than going out all the time and thinking about the cost of that, thinking about even starting like a little dinner club with your friends. That's not crazy. It is a great way to start cooking at home and also practicing the skill of cooking.

28:40Financial Feminist Host:And if you get joy out of like really fancy hosting, amazing. Totally. Also take some of the pressure off on a normal Tuesday. Don't feel like I can't have them over unless I've perfectly structured my table. Like you can have both. I agree. So you have this new book out and I'm so excited about it. It's literally called Quickies, which is the cutest title. And you wrote it, of course, during one of the busiest times, I think, of your whole life. What did that teach you about time that you maybe didn't understand when you had more of it? Honestly, so the idea of Quickies came when after my mother had passed.

29:17So my mom had a long journey with cancer, really, really horrible. And I was deep in grief. Suddenly for the first time of my life, I really didn't feel like cooking. I was like, oh, and the whole process of her journey had really burnt me out as well. So the idea was kind of born from that. I knew I wanted to start trying for a family soon. And I knew that these times in my life, the season of my life where I had all the time in the world to spend in the kitchen and enjoying that was kind of coming to a close. And I really began to understand some of the pressures, whether it be grief, work, having a kid, being pregnant, what that felt like when you really just from a survival aspect needed to fuel yourself with good food.

30:08So that's how Quickies was born. And we decided when we were recipe testing for this book that we were going to time everything because I did not want to put out a recipe book, you know, that was like, this is a 20 minute recipe. And then really it's going to take you like 45 minutes.

30:25Financial Feminist Host:That's so common by the way, like we talked about this last time, but my partner has learned to cook and I will say he is slower than I think most people are, which is fine. But a, you know, 45 minute recipe takes a normal person, I think an hour and 15, which is frustrating enough, but he'll take him two hours. And so it's so frustrating when you sit down and you're like, I have a half hour. Oh, great. It says half hour. And you're here for like an hour and a half. And you're like, how did this happen? Suddenly all your time is gone. Exactly. And I did not want to put out something where I'm promising that.

30:58And then that, what you said is the result. So my sister and I worked on the recipes and she's really good at keeping me honest. So we would like start a timer and test everything. And, you know, these are the recipes since we've had the book, I have been living off of this thing. And my husband as well, I'll sometimes take Wes up for his afternoon nap. And when I come down, Jesse will have made one of the recipes from quickies. And he's like, it's so quick. I'm like, thank goodness. So they're born out of this like really authentic, busy season of life. They are not, you know, a five-star spread that you're going to serve at Christmas, but they serve a purpose.

31:35They are super high in fiber, which is extremely important to me. My dad's a colon cancer survivor and fiber is a really important element. We see colon cancer cases rising in young people. So they're high in fiber. They're entirely plant-based. If you're not plant-based, I guarantee that you can love them or you can swap in, you know, your meat if you would like. And they're easy and they're freaking quick. So I'm just excited. I guess the greatest part about putting out a book is seeing it in people's hands and it helping people. So I'm excited to see like that moment.

32:13Financial Feminist Host:I am on a health journey right now. I have been working with a coach over the last six months and I truly, truly think that factor is making all the difference for me. My stamina has increased. I'm sleeping better. I just absolutely love these meals because they are not frozen. They are fresh. They are different. Factor meals are ready in two minutes and require no prep and no cleanup. So they are perfect for me on a lunch or dinner when I'm right in the middle of work and I've been back to back meetings and I need something good and nutritious. And Factor makes chef crafted, dietician designed, ready to eat meals.

32:51Financial Feminist Host:So you don't have to choose between real food and convenience. Head to factormeals.com slash food 50 off and use code food 50 off to get 50 % off and one free breakfast item per box for one year while supplies last until October 31st, 2026. That's code food 50 off at factor meals.com food 50 off at factor meals.com. See website for more details. One of the most overwhelming parts about being a business owner is the admin. Oh my gosh, the payroll, the HR, they're the things that you don't realize you're going to have to do when you first start a business. The things that are often overlooked. But as soon as you realize you have to do them, you're like, can't somebody just make this easier?

33:32Financial Feminist Host:Cue Gusto. When you run a small business, you're not just doing the job. You're also the hiring manager and the payroll department and the benefits team. But Gusto takes a few of those off your plate quickly and seamlessly. Gusto is online payroll and benefits software built for small businesses. It's all-in-one, remote-friendly, and incredibly easy to use. So you can pay, hire, onboard, and support your team from anywhere. And fun fact, we have been using Gusto for years now, and I can't tell you how much easier it makes all of our lives at Her First 100K. Try Gusto today at gusto.com slash ffpod and get three months free when you run your first payroll.

34:06Financial Feminist Host:That's three months of free payroll at gusto.com slash ffpod. One more time, gusto.com slash ffpod.

34:19Financial Feminist Host:so when you're thinking about quickies when you were formulating these recipes what are the things that make it quick like obviously everybody needs to buy the book we need to do the recipes but like what did you realize what were the kind of hacks or the things that made a recipe quicker than a normal recipe so i've been become a huge fan of something called a dump dinner, which, you know, is a really unattractive name for a really beautiful concept, which is you throw everything either into a casserole dish in a pan and then either throw it in the oven or on the stovetop. So we have a whole chapter dedicated to this in the book and it's called dump and bake, not dump dinners.

34:59The publisher wouldn't let me do that, but regardless of that. So I look at speed as two different things. To me, there's like really quick 50 minute recipes. We made one today. It's like a stovetop curry ramen noodle. Ramen noodles cook up really quick. So it's truly 15 minutes. You're using frozen edamame. So that speeds it up. I often in these recipes cut out something like chopping garlic and we'll use ground garlic instead. So cutting up those elements where you're spending a lot of, you know, hands on time chopping. But then there's the other element here where I'm a big fan of a recipe that you do all of the work that takes about like five, 10 minutes.

35:38And then the stove does the work. So a recipe could be 60 minutes, but in reality, it took like five minutes of hands on time, which is like really valuable. Now as a parent, I do not have time to be, you know, chopping, simmering, stirring. So a lot of the recipes are just pop in the oven. And then we also have a lot of meal prep recipes, because I think this is another aspect of the time thing. We have a great, it's a chickpea flour-based breakfast sandwich. It's kind of like, think of an egg McMuffin, a plant-based spin on that. And we make a whole sheet pan of it. And we have sun-dried tomatoes, spinach in it.

36:14And then you can freeze these breakfast sandwiches. So you're getting time back during the week. So there's all these different elements that kind of flow into what I believe can be considered a quick recipe.

36:25Financial Feminist Host:I mean, I do this so much and it's helped my life. I mean, I even just mentioned the salad kit. I probably eat two to three a week with my partner and we just literally put chicken nuggets. Like I get them at Costco. They're like the chicken chunks. I put them in the air fryer. I put the salad kit in a huge bowl. It's the most unattractive bowl. It's like a mixing bowl. And I wait my 10 minutes for my chicken to be done. And then it's dinner. And then we literally just have two forks and we pass the bowl back and forth. I love that. And like, that's, that's what we do so many nights when I can't be bothered, when I can't be asked.

36:58Financial Feminist Host:And it's like, it's great. And it's the same thing when I do cook of, yeah, finding certain things that are going to be cheap at the grocery store, but are going to make a bigger impact. So yeah, a lot of canned goods and thinking about like, what can I mix that's frozen or canned and fresh? And that's just so helpful in terms of your budget, but also in terms of how quickly you're, you're cooking and getting it done. Your chicken nugget salad reminds me of this chapter I have in the book. It's called safer sanity suppers. And it's exactly the concept that you're talking about. So it's taking store-bought meals.

37:31So say mac and cheese, a pack of mac and cheese or a frozen pizza or something like a taco kit and showing how you can boost it up with nutrition. So we do this at least once a week, we buy a taco kit from the store. And then instead of ground beef, we take a thing of tofu, crumble it up with my hands, add the taco seasoning pack, throw it in the oven and serve that up. And I think, you know, if you have meals like that, that you can rely on instead of calling Uber Eats, I think it's a fabulous way to save money and probably eat more nutrition because at the end of the day, eating a meal in is always, almost always going to be healthier than eating out.

38:11Financial Feminist Host:I think one of the reasons that first that I love following you and love your content, but that this first episode you came on and did was such a success is that I think you take a very practical view of food. It's not pretentious at all. And I really, really appreciate that. So how do we decouple like our need for perfection, even in the kitchen, when people are already struggling to eat healthy? It's realizing that perfection is impossible. And the pursuit of perfection is the enemy of good. So what I mean by that, I know we've talked about this gym analogy a couple of times, but I used to think, you know, to have the body and the life I wanted, I needed to be in the gym five to six days a week, at least an hour each session.

38:59Well, now in this busy season of my life, I just got to make it there. You know, if I do three days, three days a week, I'm like, perfect. That's fantastic. So I think it's just lowering the bar and being realistic with ourselves and understanding that the more consistent we can be, the better it is. But if you, I don't know if we like the term fall off the wagon, don't look at that as, you know, a failure, just get back on. We all are going to have times in busy seasons in our life where we're relying on takeout more, where we're going to restaurants more, maybe spending more money, fueling our bodies with food that we maybe don't feel good about.

39:39Just try and get back on because being consistent, you know, 70 to 80 % of the time is going to be way more effective from both a financial and a health perspective than being perfect. And then being like, I can't do this because basically no one can. Nobody, nobody's perfect. I, as a cookbook author, I'm, I'm having the taco kit every week. So that right there, you know?

40:04Financial Feminist Host:And I think you have to have those kinds of fail safes for when it is just like, I do not have a second tonight. It's just not happening. And you have to give yourself that option because it is so easy to order DoorDash. It is so easy to, you know, go get takeout. And again, we're not victimizing or, you know, demonizing those, but I think it is a level of like, if you are trying to save money, this is one of the easiest ways to save money. It just is. It's, it's so much easier. This is something I want to talk about too is I think a lot of people, and this might be also a product of Instagram, is that people think when they're trying to eat more at home or eat healthier, that they need to be making all of these different food and different gourmet meals every night of the week.

40:53We really cycle through, and it sounds like you're the same, you know, the same four or five dishes every single week, we might change up the protein or change up the herbs that we're putting on top. And that's really great thing for gut diversity. However, you need to come up with your staple meals so that when you're in those moments, you can just whip things together. And these are often going to be inspired by your favorite restaurant menus. Maybe you love like a chicken salad. So you have now you're kind of like, yeah, exactly. Now you have your chicken Caesar salad that you, you know, you can whip up and there's no barrier to that for us.

41:30We're making pasta or taco kit and some kind of curry every single week. And when you know that it just gets so much easier, like anything, once you're kind of into the rhythm and you know your safe meals that you love, I promise you guys cooking at home can be so joyous in like second nature rather than feeling like a real grind.

41:55Financial Feminist Host:everybody needs a website in 2026 i think it's one of the most important tools in your arsenal but you especially need one that is beautiful and functional and easy to find maybe you're a business owner maybe you're a freelancer and maybe you're someone who just needs a place where all of their work can live especially when you're applying for jobs or getting new clients we did our first ever website with squarespace and it is still the platform that we recommend the best part about Squarespace is you can do a bunch of stuff inside of it. So yeah, it's a website tool, but you can also send emails.

42:24Financial Feminist Host:You can sell content. You have your analytic tools all in one so you don't have to pay for a million different platforms. And when my partner needed a website to launch his business, this is where we turned. I literally helped him set up his Squarespace and we had his beautiful website all done in a weekend. Head on over to squarespace.com for a free trial. And when you're ready to launch, Use offer code FFpod to save 10 % off your first purchase of a website or domain. I'm trying to simplify my life. I make a lot of decisions in my everyday life. And I want to look cute without having to spend hours curating my wardrobe.

43:00Financial Feminist Host:And for years, Quince has been my go-to place. They are doing signature pieces in a really great way. That signature white t-shirt, the beautiful jeans, their cashmere sweaters that are 100 % cashmere and just$50. And the cool thing about Quince is they're priced 50 % to 80 % less. So you are saving money and you're looking chic as hell. And it's also not just apparel. I bought my living room couch from Quince. They have bedding and bath and kitchen essentials and yeah, furniture. Find the fall pieces you'll reach foremost at Quince. Download the Quince app for app exclusive offers or go to quince.com slash FFpod.

43:39Financial Feminist Host:Get free shipping on your order and 365 day returns now available in Canada and the UK too. That's Q-U-I N-C-E dot com slash F-F pod.

43:53Financial Feminist Host:I can't talk to you without talking about food waste and thinking more strategically about reusing food. It was mostly the focus of your last cookbook, but I I think especially even since we chatted last, groceries, I think, are probably sometimes double in the past year, two years. So how can we think more strategically about the scraps or the things that we would normally throw away? How can we reuse those and get the most out of them? Listen, we throw out up to 40 % of our food. And when you think about that from a grocery bill perspective, I think the last statistic on this was so many years ago when they said the average American family wastes around$1 ,800 worth of food.

44:37I have to think it's probably double. Oh, it's gotta be more than that.

44:40Financial Feminist Host:Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Given the way the grocery prices have skyrocketed. So when we're going to talk about food waste, number one, it's being more mindful about the food that we're buying, doing all of these things that we've talked about in this episode, the meal planning, developing a shopping list, thinking more, okay, I'm going to buy the cut up watermelon rather than the full watermelon because I'm actually prepping your food, prepping your food as soon as it gets in the house. Yeah. Frozen fruits and veg. If you're a single person, you know, we all buy that well-intentioned box of spinach and then it's kind of sitting in the back of the fridge, looking at us like eat me.

45:14And then it wilts and you know, so that's number one. And that is like the low hanging fruit here because we want to slash our grocery bills. Like it is insane out there. Number two, we throw out so much food that we can be eating. So I often use the example of broccoli here, the stems, like if you're paying for broccoli by weight, the stem is, you know, the heaviest part and we're paying for that. And then we're all throwing it away and it's absolutely delicious. So you can just shave off the outer woody edge and then chop it up, throw it into a stir fry, grate it up, put it into pasta, blend it up, make a pesto.

45:50It's fantastic. It's kind of adjacent to asparagus. The other things that are coming to mind radish tops and beet tops. You know, you buy, maybe you're a fan of beets or maybe you juice or something like that. If you throw out your beet tops, they make fabulous salad greens, or you can even make beet chips, radish tops, the same. I love to use, people are always wowed at the aquafaba, which is the liquid in a can of chickpeas. So if you have, if you're a big chickpea eater, I'm a huge fan of canned chickpeas. I want to, I want to be the person who makes like my beans every week, but I am not. So I am a canned chickpea girl and you can just keep that liquid.

46:28It's fabulous for breading things. So we'll often take tofu and use it as like an egg white replacement, but you can also make desserts for it. So you can foam it like you would meringue. It's the coolest thing and add melted chocolate and it makes a delicious chocolate mousse. So those are a few of the ones that people are always wowed at and can implement into their lives really effortlessly. But I just challenge people to start thinking about things that you often throw away and maybe potentially you could be using it.

46:56Financial Feminist Host:I always take any veggie scraps. They go in a huge Ziploc bag. They go in my freezer. And then when the Ziploc bag is full, I make veggie broth. Exactly. We just posted a video on that in, uh, Rachel Ray coined the term so many years ago on her 30 minute meals, the garbage bowl. So if you have a garbage bowl, yeah, this is a great way also to like reduce some, some of that mesh during prep, which I think is a lot of the reason people hate cooking. is put out a bowl when you're chopping things up, add your onion tops, your garlic peels, your carrot greens or the end of the carrot and do just what you said.

47:32Plop them in a Ziploc bag. When that's full, you just add it to a pot with water about three inches above, simmer it away for a couple of hours and you have your own free vegetable broth from those scraps. So they've given you new life.

47:46Financial Feminist Host:The thing I hear about cooking is the same thing I hear about money, which is I'm bad at this. I'm bad at cooking or I'm bad at money. How do we view this as just a teachable skill? This is something you can learn. I don't think anybody's bad at cooking. First of all, I want to give a little plug for plant-based cooking because I don't know about you, but when I was trying to cook with meat so many years ago, I've been vegan now for 10 years. The thought of undercooking chicken terrified me, overcooking steak plant-based cooking. If you want to start somewhere, the stakes are low. You can always fix something.

48:23That's so true. If you make a stew that's a full of plants and it's a little bit salty, add a little more coconut milk or broth or the opposite problem, add a little salt. Like nothing's going to make you sick. Well, we've got the poop. That's the ironic. We have the poop parasite going around as we record this, but, but, but yeah, you're not, I think there is such an

48:45Financial Feminist Host:intimidation of yeah am I cooking my steak properly am I cooking my pork properly like I definitely I am a meat eater get yourself a thermometer that's like the easiest thing but yeah the intimidation factor immediately gets cut in half I think if you're not having to deal with any of that and this is something that you don't have to be good off off the hop choose something that really inspires you follow it step by step I always say when anybody's learning cooking one really good place to start is by cutting up and setting out all of your ingredients first, which is traditionally known as mise en place, but it makes the actual sequence of cooking go a lot easier.

49:22So say you have, you know, a roasted red pepper pasta or something, you get out all of those components before you actually make the dish. It's going to make things go a lot better. And then, you know, if the worst case scenario, the dish doesn't end up good, you move on and you eat something else. Like the stakes are not high, less, a lot less high than with money. What do you say about people who are intimidated by, by money?

49:49Financial Feminist Host:I say it's a learned skill. And I say that, you know, the belief that you're bad with money has been ingrained in you because we view it as our self-worth. It's like, I should just be magically good at this. But like, you didn't come out of the womb speaking Italian or playing the tuba. Like if you want to speak a new language, if you want to learn a new instrument, if you want to learn how to cook, you have to learn. You have to teach yourself. You have to follow people and go to cooking classes. And the way I learned, and we talked about this last time, it's like I dated a lot of people who are really, really good at cooking.

50:20Financial Feminist Host:Like that was it. I dated a couple of people who were actual chefs and I just watched them cook. And that's how my partner's learning from me is he watches me cook. And we also watch so much fucking Food Network. And it's like, that's the easiest way, I think, is you just start immersing yourself the same way you'd learn a language as it's like, okay, I'm going to go take classes and I'm going to try to speak to people who speak fluent. French or fluent Italian. And like, you're just going to surround yourself and you're going to start picking things up. I would also say like, yes, the cookbooks are so great.

50:48Financial Feminist Host:And also people are food writers. Like, you know, I have finally read Anthony Bourdain this year and there is something so it's gonna make me teary, but that's a whole other thing. It's like, I listened to his audio books and there's something so gratifying about one hearing his love of food. It's just so great. But also I have learned things about food and about cooking from just hearing this very you know, real experience of this person living their life. And I think that there's ways to learn about the skill you're trying to learn without like sitting down and like writing an essay about it.

51:21Financial Feminist Host:Like you can make learning about cooking or anything else money as fun as learning about something that you think you would enjoy. You will learn to love it after, you know, hearing people who are so excited about it. Even this episode, right? Every time I talk to you, I'm like, oh, God, I love food. I love cooking. I love her cookbooks. It's just like you get the passion from somebody else, you know? Yeah. And at some point, you just got to get in there and do the thing. And I'm sure you agree with like investing, right? Like you've got to at some point just do the thing. And over time, you're going to get better and better.

51:55So I hope I hope this episode inspires people to get in the kitchen because that would just be so cool.

52:00Financial Feminist Host:Speaking of that, do you want to do a speed round really quick? I have so many questions. Rapid fire. Okay. These always make me nervous, but let's do it. They're all going to be easily answerable, hopefully. Okay. Fastest way to get a real dinner on the table when you got zero energy? Dump and bake. 100%. I actually, no, I need to change my answer. Not dump and bake. That's the fastest prep. Like I can get a dump and bake if I'm throwing things into a casserole dish done in five minutes flat, but one pan. So we have a ton of one pan dinners, but I literally just made one with ramen noodles and a whole bunch of veggies, frozen veggies.

52:35and it came together in probably 15 minutes.

52:37Financial Feminist Host:One thing to prep on a Sunday that saved you all week. Sauce. So we love something called cashew cream. It's blending cashews, lemon juice, water, and salt. And we add this as a base of like Caesar dressing, drizzle on grain bowls, add to pasta sauce to make them creamy. So I think sauce is a really good element that removes a barrier to making food delicious. Yeah, that's probably a salad. Yeah, a salad dressing too, right? You can do a bunch of things with that. That sounds so good. I'm realizing I'm hungry. I gotta go eat lunch after this. Okay. Um, the move for a vegetable that's about to go bad tomorrow.

53:09Financial Feminist Host:Freeze it. I would say freeze it unless you're, you're going to eat it right now. And right then a lot of vegetables are freezer and fabulous for smoothies. So I freeze, you know, something like kale and make a great green smoothie the next week. I also say cauliflower. I love cauliflower. It's always the one that seems to go bad on me. I'm making it like that same night. It's like quick roast in the air fryer and I can just eat it. I literally have a head of cauliflower that I need to cook today. And that's what I'm probably going to do is roast it. Also cauliflower pasta, like mixing it in with pasta.

53:41Financial Feminist Host:I love doing that. So good. Your hack for real flavor when you have no time to build it. Lemon juice and fresh herbs. So if a meal is ever feeling flat at the end, I love to add a squeeze of lemon and I'm a huge fan of cilantro. So it's a very, you know, Some people hate it. Some people love it. It tastes soapy. It tastes soapy to me, which is genetic. You know, okay. This is the weirdest thing. People will think I'm lying when I say this. I used to have the soap gene. I don't know what has happened. You don't anymore? No. I don't know if I just kept eating enough. Maybe it's your pregnancy. I don't know.

54:14I love it now. Because I heard that does change your taste buds.

54:16Financial Feminist Host:Interesting. I will eat it. It just tastes soapy to me. It used to. I know exactly what you mean. Yeah. So weirdest thing. Maybe you can adjust it. but a fresh herbs going to make punch something up. But whenever something's tasting flat in it, a lot of people under salt their meals. So that was just going to say it's probably under salted too. Yeah. Yeah. If you don't know how to salt your food and I would say anybody listening who doesn't know actually how to cook, you don't know how to salt your food. You need to watch the food network. You need to see what they do or watch your videos. You can see like you are not using enough salt and no salt's not bad for you.

54:49Financial Feminist Host:Salt's under salted food is bad for you. I am so passionate about this. It's so important to me. I agree completely. I think I already know the answer to this, but a pantry staple, you'd never be caught without beans, canned beans. We have them always. And there's such a healthy, you know, eat more beans. I swear I'm not working for big bean co, but you want, you can do so many things like throw drain a can of chickpeas and throw them into a salad and you've made it a meal. So, and finally a cleanup shortcut that actually keeps you sane? The garbage bowl. I recommend that Rachel Ray, not my idea, but you've got to put out a bowl when you're doing your prep, because when you have like, you know, your scraps everywhere, it makes for a very overwhelming experience.

55:34So concentrate them and then save them.

55:37Financial Feminist Host:So my final question to you for a woman listening, who's just really struggling in the kitchen right now, she feels too tired, too broke. There's too much going on. What is the one thing you want her to stop believing about herself and about her ability to cook? I want you to start believing that you can nourish your body and that you can make an investment in yourself by learning the skill of cooking, even just one day a week, take one day a week and cook a home cooked meal, open up a cookbook, open up a page from Pinterest or your favorite blogger and try a new recipe because week after week, if you do that, I promise you that you're going to be nourishing your body.

56:19You're going to learn a wonderful new skill. And that's Monday is going to turn into, you know, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. So that that's what I would hope.

56:27Financial Feminist Host:I am so excited for this cookbook. Plug away my friend, where can people find it? It's called plant you quickies. You can find it anywhere books are sold. We're big fans of supporting local bookstores. If you have one and you can find plant you where I'm no doubt going going to be talking about this book and any of your favorite social platforms like Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Facebook. It's just plant Y-O-U and that's me. Amazing. Thank you. Thanks for coming back. So much fun. Thank you so much for having me.

57:02Financial Feminist Host:Fall has never looked or tasted this good. Sweet Greens fall harvest menu is back with seasonal favorites dressed to impress and made to be devoured. Warm roasted sweet potatoes, crisp apples, maple glazed Brussels, and crave worthy flavors in the autumn harvest bowl, maple glazed salmon plate, and roasted bacon Brussels side. The season's most desirable menu has returned to Sweetgreen, featuring fall's best dressed. Make your move. Order on the Sweetgreen app. Afternoon glare totally ruined my watch party for the big game. That's when my buddy recommended blinds.com with custom window treatments made to fit your style space and budget customers who shop at blinds.com experienced overwhelming satisfaction side effects may include a fuller deeper night's sleep and the sudden urge to host the watch party again blinds.com isn't a medication but it can improve how you feel about your home visit blinds.com to order your free samples today