Moving through Midlife | Habit Stack & Movement Snacks for Midlife Moms, Parenting in Midlife | Fitness over 40

Ep 69: Prepping Meals as a Busy Mom with Kristy of Klean Eating

September 19, 2022 Courtney McManus
Moving through Midlife | Habit Stack & Movement Snacks for Midlife Moms, Parenting in Midlife | Fitness over 40
Ep 69: Prepping Meals as a Busy Mom with Kristy of Klean Eating
Moving through Midlife
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Show Notes Transcript

If you struggle to prep your meals for the week than you will want to listen in on this episode as I speak with Kristy of Klean Eating with Kristy as she helps you to take a simpler approach to dinnertime, provides you with some quick and easy lunches, and gives some great ideas on how to get your children involved and learning healthier habits and life skills. 

Introduce yourself and explain what you do

-Meal prepping sounds great in concept, but what can we do as busy moms to ensure that we meal prep in our home?  Tips for barriers that are common with moms.

-I noticed you have some tips on appliances we can use to speed up meal prep, what are some of your favorites?

-Any recommendations for those of us mom’s who are at home during the day and want a quick and healthy lunch?

-Tell us about your Programs and how we can learn more from you.

Kristy of Klean Eating with Kristy:
With 18+ years of experience in meal prepping, I think it's safe to say that it has become a HUGE part of my life! 

I am so incredibly passionate about dedicating myself to helping other moms like me increase their confidence and reduce stress in their own lives. I want to provide women with strategies and tools so they can spend time with their families; doing things they love instead of stressing over what they will be making for dinner.



Website, https://www.kleaneatingwithkristy.com 
IG: https://www.instagram.com/kleaneatingwithkristy/

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Welcome to raising healthy humans, a podcast created for busy moms where you can easily find information on health and wellness for your family. Enjoy experts who share tips on how to raise children through each phase of life. Gather current information on nutrition and wellness. And listen to Courtney, a health coach, movement specialist and founder of formfit, an active and supportive community where she helps busy moms move more on raising healthy humans podcast. Courtney shares her personal life experiences, training, knowledge and conversations with other health and wellness experts. So you can raise healthy humans. If you are one who struggles to prep your meals for the week, then you will want to listen in on this episode as I speak with Christie of clean eating with Christie, as she helps you to take a simpler approach to dinner time. She provides you with some quick and easy lunches and give some great ideas on how to get your children involved and learning healthier habits and life skills. I enjoyed my conversation with her and I hope you do as well. Hi, Christy, how are you? I am doing so well. How are you? I am good. All right. So can you tell me what exactly you do? And how you started with what you do with the meal planning and everything? Yeah, absolutely. So I what I do now is I am a kitchen confidence coach. And so what that means is I have the amazing opportunity to help women it started out being moms. But I've realized that moms is such a term that can be like for anyone, especially nowadays. So it's women who struggle in the kitchen. Not necessarily like what I'm not a chef, and I'm not like you know, anything like that. But what I do is I do real meals, I do real simple meals, I do basic meals. And what I love to do my zone of genius is taking your original comfort meals that you love to eat and transpose those into healthier options for you. And then as well finding ways to prepare those so that you're not always cooking at the last minute. Yep, so you can kind of have something in your back pocket. But what that does is because we're constantly thinking about, like, how can I make healthy meals, what can I do, right, and it's like this constant thing in our mind. So what I love to do is just take that like overall of meal planning and meal, prepping, and just simplify it and really just break it down to the basics. And like, I love to eat, I will always love to eat. And I think that is kind of what got me into this is that I love to eat so much. But I also learned in my own health journey of losing 60 pounds, I can eat and I can enjoy food and food can bring me joy, without restricting. And without all the overwhelm and the stress of well, I can only have this today. And then I can have this right. So it's like a balance. And so I I kind of bring all of that into the kitchen. And I just help women understand the simplicity of it once we kind of just break it down, and we bring it into the kitchen. And because I'm a mom myself, I have a 23 year old and a nine year old. So two opposite ends of the spectrum. But I have learned a heck of a lot in between those 15 years. And so I'd love to bring family into the kitchen too. So that's that's another piece of what I do is not only creating healthy meals, but also bringing your family and so they get to enjoy it as well. Okay, perfect. So I am definitely a meal planner. I plan my meals out for the week. I follow that I am not a meal prepper I find meal prepping very difficult. Time consuming on the front end, especially when I don't want to work on the weekends. Yes. Oh, what do you take? Because I know there are other moms just like me who are. So tell me what do you usually recommend for moms like myself? Yeah. And so I think you know, that's really two interesting points because one of the things that we fall into is we are searching either Pinterest or Instagram nowadays, right? Because Instagram has like a whole thing and when you search meal prep it really It doesn't does justice because it gives you like rows and rows and rows of the black containers, everything is prepped exactly the same. And then it's usually the hashtag like Sunday meal prep, right. And like, as moms and even just as busy people, like we don't want to spend all of that time. And so what I love to do, again, it all comes down to food and just the enjoyment of food, because I don't ever want any of my clients, any of the women that I work with to feel dread, or like food is a chore, because then we don't get to enjoy, really, what is in the food. And so what I love to do is I love to bring fun to my meal prepping and meal planning, as well. And that is in a variety of different ways, because prepping does not have to be just rice, broccoli, and grilled chicken every single week. Right? Right, right. So what I do is I, I use creative ways that are still simple. So one of the things that I will do is I will do salads in a jar to prep. And so while you have one thing out to make the salad, right, if you're gonna make one salad, you can really make four or five, because everything is the same, you might just swap a couple ingredients. But what I love about the salads in the jar is that it's colorful, and it's pretty, and it makes you want to eat it, as opposed to just kind of like in a tupperware. And something else that I do actually I'm teaching a class this afternoon is I teach freezer meal classes. And so that is a chunk of time, it's I call it front loading, right, we're going to spend three hours together this afternoon. But what that does is that gives 10 meals that the women can use however they want in the next you know, however long and so that allows them to do prepping without necessarily, it's the same thing because it's 10 different meals, you know, and then there's just different ways to do that. So I like to bring in different ideas like that. And then there's obviously you know, the prepping. But even though some of the prepping can be like, I know, we think of prepping like creating one whole meal and then moving on some of the prepping like when you talk about meal planning for your weekend sticking to that plan, if you planned tacos on a Tuesday night, and when you come back from the grocery store, and you've gotten your ingredients for the tacos, you could make it brown your taco meat that night or grout, you know the ground beef or ground turkey, whatever it is that you're using, and store that in a Tupperware container for Tuesday night when you're going to use it. And what that does is that eliminates then like a couple steps already, so you've saved time that night too. So depending on the lifestyle, and depending on how much time you have, you know, that's where we can kind of like, talk about the prepping, but if you're planning that's a huge piece of it because you already know in the back of your mind what you're doing and then you can take little snippets of that and just pull that together too or just chop your vegetables right chop your peppers for your fajitas as well so there's different different prepping methods that are not just one and done in the box. Okay, yeah, and I've seen that where some people say like if you're cutting one onion, you might as well just cut two onions and throw the second onion so that it's there for later. Right. Oh, that makes sense to me. Do you have recommendations because I've also seen a lot of people and I think I saw you as well with the Instant Pot but cooking up your chicken and then storing it. I just does that make you nervous? I don't like re I do not like the taste of reheated chicken. Okay, I don't know why. I was gonna say is this a thing? And if it is a thing Tell me how to get over this. I don't know I I don't know. Is there like a way like you could read reheat it differently to make it taste? I mean so one of the first of all the Instant Pot is my is my jam. I moved from a slow cooker to an instant pot tried and airfryer did not like it so I am I will use the Instant Pot all the time now but one of the things that I like to do is make a recipe called salsa chicken. It is so incredibly easy and all it is is just taking chicken breasts I don't even cut them and I've started doing it not with the red salsa but with the salsa bear days. So the the green salsa Okay, throw it in the in some pocket for 15 minutes. 15 and 15 Okay and then shred it. Okay. And then what that does is it it sauce, so it's not dried out. And what I do with that is I usually, um, because I work from home, so I'm, you know, trying to figure out lunches at home, I will cook a batch of that for myself. And then I will use that different ways throughout the week. So on top of salads, I'll make it in wraps. You know, I'll even put it in like eggs, you know, in the morning, so extra protein there. But when you cook it in a sauce like that, it's easier to heat up and then it doesn't get dry and boring. I think that's the, that's the big piece is like when it's repeated several times, then there's no, then there's taste gross. as well. You know, the other thing is rotisserie chicken. This is another thing where I say if I'm buying one rotisserie chicken, I will usually buy two, the first one will be for whatever meal I'm making that night. The second one I will use it and I will shred it and keep it in the freezer for later. Because the rotisserie chicken unless you make it at home, but that's the convenience of you know, running to the store real quick and buying artistry chicken. First of all, somebody else has made it but second of all, it's cooked in its own juices, right so it's moist, and that one when you shred it and keep it in a freezer bag, when you open it up and reuse it, then it will also be a little bit softer and easier to use. But anytime I reuse something like that, I will always put it in like one of my daughter's favorites is a chicken pot pie. Okay, with mashed potatoes on the top of it instead of the crust. So I will reuse it kind of like in a sauce and I'll add some broth to it just kind of pointed it out. Because yes, warmed up chicken is gross. Even grilled chicken like if you if you make a salad and then you know you're warming it up the next day. So that's why like dressing or, you know, even just like a squeeze of lemon juice on top of it, you know can really brighten it up. But I'm a big fan of cooking in very simple sauces. So that it can retain its own cut and dried out. Okay. So you mentioned the Insta pot is one of your favorites. Do you have other appliances that you usually recommend for moms to get to kind of speed up the process. So I mean, slow cookers are amazing. I think everybody probably has a slow cooker in their cabinet. One of the one of the things that I'm very cautious with in recommending gadgets, if not getting too many, because I like to simplify everything in the kitchen. And once you start opening your mind and your door up into like all of these gadgets, what happens is you don't use them, you'll close them up and put them in a way in the cabinet. Or every time you pass them on the counter, you'll start to like cycle in your head and be like, oh my goodness, I need to like use that airfryer or like whatever it is. So I really like to simplify it just with one. One really gadget and that you know, between the three of them the slow cooker, the Instant Pot or the airfryer usually are the three and I like to you know, depending again, on your lifestyle, like if you're busy and you've got things going on slow cookers and insulin pots are great. air fryers they serve well. And a lot of people use them really, really well. For me, I was in a because I do a lot of roasting vegetables and things like that it was very time consuming for me because the basket isn't big enough for me, I like to use the two racks in my oven at once. If I'm going to have the oven on, everything gets loaded in there. And so the airfryer wasn't enough for me, but I have women who it's just them and you know their significant other or you know one child and it's okay for them. So I think it just really depends on what you can do and also to just timewise right like slow cookers, they'll cook all day instant pots. The key with the Instant Pot too is that you don't have to completely defrost your meal before putting it in. So if you've got something in the freezer, you can partially cook it like partially frozen and then it cooks the entire thing because it just like sucks it all up like with that pressure cooker. So that's what I love. Because especially if you're somebody that is habitually like oh my goodness, I prep to take the meat out. Like what am I going to do? That's where the Instant Pot comes in. Because you can just throw a thing a sauce on it and you're good to go. Is there a recommendation for like, if that does happen? Do you usually put a sauce with it or is there like because I'll usually put chicken stock in but I never know how much to add. Yeah Water wise I know they say like, you need to have some water in there to create the pressure and the steam. But I never know how much is there, it's usually about a cup. And then one of the things you just want to make sure is that like it's tight all the way so that the steam doesn't evaporate because then then it gets on then it will send a signal that like it's burning. You know, if there's not enough liquid on there, it just kind of sits there. But the good thing is it stops it's not going to blow up but it's yeah, it's usually a cup. And the slow the so the the difference between the slow cooker needs and part two is the Instant Pot you do have to add liquid to the slow cooker you don't because it will sit and it will cook in its juices. The entire for six, eight hours, whatever that is the Instant Pot. It doesn't do that. So whatever meat you're cooking, you definitely have to make sure that there is some liquid in there. So the slow if you're transposing a recipe, you know if you get to that point then the slow cooker you're pretty good with like just putting the chicken in there and it will cook in some pot. About a cup of liquid in there. Okay, excellent. You had mentioned like taking that chicken earlier from your Insta pot and putting it in things for lunch. Do you have ideas because that's I'm pretty good personally with meal planning my my dinner. We eat very similar breakfast. Oh, you know time and time again. But it's lunch. I struggle with lunches and I feel like a lot of moms do especially those of us that are home working from home or stay at home moms lunch becomes really difficult. Yeah, it does. And even if you're going out and you're working outside the home, it's always a idea of like, what am I going to take for lunch. So I mean lunches the simple solution can be like you kind of take whatever you're having for dinner, take that leftover and then move that into lunch, right? That can be boring though if you you know if you don't want to do that. So I mean one of my I love a salad but I love to put tons of things in my salads like for me salad is never just lettuce, cucumbers and tomatoes. There's always something else in there. I think that our brains respond really well to different textures and different crunches and different like what does that you know once we get used to eating them so seeds and beans and chicken you know pretty much there's no rule for solids. That's the thing I love. It's like a blank canvas right there's no rule for salads, you get to use whatever you want. However, that can also get boring too. And so I what I love because this you can kind of mix and match and take with what you want and then you can also if you have littles at home you can also kind of do something like this for them but it's almost like an adult Lunchable you know, and like the bento boxes that you get at Starbucks which has the got the protein and the cheese and the eggs and you know the crackers and all of that you can do that at home and you can make that yourself and then you get to take little bits of what you have. And all of your flavors so you can do sweet and savory and crunchy and you know all of those things and you can make a really awesome plate. That is really fun for you again, right it's the visual, it's the you know what is on that plate those flavors that you love and so I love to do something like that. Just because it kind of breaks up my week and then I will also do one for my daughter as well I call them snack trays for her. Okay, and she loves them I use a muffin tin for her. And for the little ones that also allows their brain to be like oh these are like little cup size right so it's perfect finger food for them and then it becomes more appealing to them. Something else too that I love to do is like half a pepper like a sweet pepper or hollow out a tomato and use that with tuna salad with leftover shredded chicken with egg salad with you know anything you chili even you can put chili in there. Again, just a different version of what you're eating but you're getting away from the gluten you're getting away from the dairy or the the bread that sometimes we have like on the sandwiches and we're giving ourselves a burst of color we're giving ourselves an extra serving of vegetables which we don't get enough and fiber right right definitely don't get enough fiber during the day. So sometimes even thinking outside the box like that, like if you have on your meal plan tuna salad, let's say for lunch. What how can I I use that, like, what is something different than I can do with that? Or even using cucumbers instead of crackers to scoop it up? You know, just like, and once you start to get used to that, and once you start to like, ask yourself questions like, okay, how can I really bring in more vegetables? Like if that's one of your goals, right? How can I do that in my meals this week, you'd be surprised at what really kind of pops out for you. But making it fun, like, food should never be boring. It should always be exciting and fun. And I think a lot of times we miss that as busy women, we just, we're constantly going and we forget that we get to enjoy our food. Well, and I think it gets difficult because people are trying to be healthy. And it just that, when we start thinking that way, we I feel like because of how things have occurred over time, people it has a negative connotation, unfortunately, I mean, I think I believe that we can make delicious food healthy. And I think that you've kind of made that clear as well, with how you can take a favorite recipe and clean it up for people clean it up. I don't mean, you know what I mean? Just give them different options. Healthy. Right? Yeah. Well, you know, and it's interesting that you say that, because I think as soon as you put healthy in something, people automatically think restriction, or they think diet, right? Because that's, that's the era that we grew up in. And even myself, I'm having kind of a mindset shift with myself even and how I'm eating and what I'm eating. And I think the bottom line, we always have to go back into ourselves and say, Okay, what do I want for me? What are my goals for myself? And for my family who kind of have to cut out all that noise? What do I want for myself and my family? And then we get to say, Okay, this is food that I'm having for lunch, therefore, this is lunch food, right? And it can be an omelet, it can be whatever, right? I think we we as women, we have to learn how to speak up for ourselves and have confidence in the choices that we're making, and not make excuses for it. Because it makes us feel good, right? When we eat good food. And when we eat healthy food, quote, unquote. It makes us feel good. And that's how we want to feel. So it we don't have to justify it to anybody else. But I know that that can be very difficult when, you know, when you're talking about healthy but, you know, it really comes down to Yeah, like, what do I want? What are my goals? And I want to keep my family healthy. That's usually what it comes down to. I want to keep my family healthy. So how can I do that? Right, and then move move into that space. But yeah, it's a hard word. I know I didn't It's It's so difficult with where we are in a society as well, is you've got to be very careful with how you say certain things. So hopefully, everyone knows that we're here for just providing people the opportunity to live more fulfilling lives. Yes, yeah. And food can fulfill you it can satisfy you, it doesn't have to, you know, be something that is something you think about all the time and a chore and you get to enjoy it. I think that's, we've we haven't done that right? So we get to enjoy it and we get to find the links. Okay, so the other problem that many of my moms deal with is these snacks trying to figure out quick, healthy snacks again, for ourselves, our children. This is my struggle. I have two teenage boys, they will eat me out of house and home. They always go for the quick I don't want to say garbage food but your your fast. Your carbs. But you know the quick carbs, the processed carbs, that type of thing. Do you have recommendations for things that we can provide our children snack wise that especially for those growing boys that we can help build them up? Yeah. So this isn't I mean, this is so common and even in my house, right? Even though I teach this and my office is my kitchen, we still fall into these traps. So I think you know, we have to kind of get out of the mindset that snacks are in bags and oxes right. And so for me, one of the things that I really like to do is to have like fresh fruit and vegetables on hand. I know that's boring. And I know that does not even substitute a bag of Doritos. You know, like, if my daughter wants to read those and I say have an apple, she's gonna look at me like I've 10 There's no substitution for that, right? However, what we can do is we can make sure that we have different options in the house. And also to, I think it is very, very important for us as women to model to our families, the proper way to eat and the proper way to snack, they watch us. And it can't be just mommy's food, and then this is the regular food, right? It's like, across the board, if it's good enough for me, then it's good enough for you to eat. And so I recommend, and I'm sure you do as well, but having protein every time you eat, because the protein is really what is going to keep you full and satisfied. And then you get to have those other things. Okay, right. So like having hard boiled eggs, I will do a dozen of those for the week and have them accessible in the fridge ready to go. nut butter is not a substitute for protein. But you know, it can be an option. So not to use that as like a main source of protein, but like bananas with some almond butter on it, and some chocolate chips. That is so much fun. It takes time to make though, right, it's easier to open a bag of pretzels than it is to do that. But again, kind of teaching, you know, different snacks, as well to like even wraps. So with lunch meat and with cheese, you know, or, you know, and just put those in a wrap. Those are good too, we forget that we can have those things. And for little ones, you can cut them up into little slices like pinwheels and put a little toothpick in it. And then they can eat that. Which burrito for your fun factor in especially for younger ones and more colors, you know, because they can see. So yeah, for sure that one's great. And then as you know, so then for the big boys, right, you throw throw a tortilla under it, and they get a little bit more sustenance to that. But one of the other things too, that I really like to do is bring my youngest into the snack situation. So she wants a snack. I won't just say okay, here's a snack, I will ask her what she wants. But then b now she knows how to how to do things herself. So like the bananas, you know, with with the nut butter, she can put that on there. Raspberries with chocolate chips in them. That is such a fun snack. And they love to put the chocolate chips in them. And you're kind of getting a little bit of both, right, you're getting the fruit and then you're getting the sweetness, the mini chocolate chips. You know, so I think things like that we forget like we're like we go up and down the snack aisle, thinking that's what's for snacks, right? But we forget like even apples with honey. That's a really great, it's sweet. What they want is they want the sweetness. Uh huh. From those snacks, and we forget that we can still do that in a natural way. Right? You know, so I think just kind of like bringing it back. And in doing that, even like a sprinkle of cinnamon on top of the on top of the apples like, just, I just break it down, like go simple. We always go up and down the fruit aisle first and the vegetables. You know, snap peas are really great, too. They've got a crunch. So there's, you know, but again, there's balance. And there's, you know, you have to have in your house, what you want them to eat for snacks. If you're going to buy the Kraft dinner, if you're going to buy the, you know, the pretzels. And this is hard. It's hard for me to hear too, right? If I buy that they're going to eat it. Right. And I think one of the biggest things that I hear is, Well, they keep going for the pretzels or whatever. And then I have to say, but who's buying that? Right? Right? So if we're the ones buying it and complaining that our children are eating that per snacks, then we have to take a bigger look at ourselves to and then that's when also the family comes in. And we say okay, guys, hey, you know what I'm, these are the snacks that I'm going to buy this week. And then we're going to try these other options to write and have a conversation because our kids once they get to be even two years old, they can understand choices. But again, that's feeling empowered and confident enough to be able to talk to them and say these are better for you than these Here's the reason why. Right? Well, and I, I think it's key what you mentioned with bringing them in, because as you were saying that I was thinking how, you know, when my, my children are a little bit older now, so they're getting grabbing their own things. But if I had maybe taken more time when they were younger, and not just create a plate for them, I mean, my my kids are involved in the kitchen, but they're not involved in the process of, we want to make sure that there's a protein, there's a fruit or vegetable, you know, that's not something I was saying to them as I was creating their plate or them helping me so that if your children are younger, really start having them think about let's you know, yes, you could have the apple boat, what protein could we have with that Apple to kind of round out the meal so that that becomes something that they immediately think about when they go get their snacks is? Yeah, not just grabbing the pretzels. But if I'm going to grab the pretzels, I should probably grab, you know, some cheese with it or some meat with the to kind of roast them hummus. Yeah, exactly. Like yeah, yep. And you know, what's interesting is, so my oldest is 23, my youngest is nine, my oldest, she was like, I raised her because that was my heavier time, I raised her on chicken nuggets, and we like McDonald's, you know, fast food, all all those things. And she still eats like that to this day, because that's how her taste buds have been, even though I started and, you know, tried to bring her the other way. But what's interesting is, she knows my little one and how I've raised her in the kitchen from the very beginning how she eats. So she will she knows and this is so interesting for me, she knows that when she's watching my little one, what Mommy would want her to eat. And so she will create this amazing lunch that like falls right in line with everything that we do. And then she will turn around and like, come back in the house with like Mcdonald's chicken nuggets and french fries. And I'm like, Oh my God, you're killing me. But you know, like for her, she knows that she knows how my little one eats. And she also knows to like, she doesn't necessarily respond to that. And like that. But it's just so interesting to me how she's watched me raise her. And even though she eats different, she will fall in line. And she knows what to do. She just hasn't like 100% Embrace that herself yet. You know, and fingers crossed, you still will. But it's just interesting. Because when they watch you and when they she's watched me through the entire process, she gets it. And she can model that just not for herself. Yes. Right. But they can. And that's the important thing, right? When we're modeling and when we're explaining and when we're teaching them, they can do those things. And they can follow through with those. I think we forget that they're so smart, they can do that. And I think there's a little bit and I think you mentioned this as well, or you implied it with your daughter, my son is now old enough to drive and he is he's taken full advantage of the things you know, we did. Not that we were restrictive in this house. But I did try to make sure that they were eating healthier things. But he is on a full blown. I'm buying soda. I'm buying fast food, I'm stopping at the cookie shop and buying cookies. And the other day he said something about how he was getting sick. And he's like, I feel like I'm getting sick so much this year. Ha ha and I was like, Wow. Let's look at what we've been eating. Like there is a correlation between the amount of sugar that you're eating and your immune system and your health. And, you know, I just put it out there. I didn't say stop eating it. I mean, I may have said that but um, but I'm trying to allow for him to learn. How do you feel when you're eating these foods? You're getting sick more often, you know, so leaving it up to them. Your your daughter's still buying those things. And I think at some point, we kind of have to just let that go. But I do think that what we have taught them or what she's seeing with the younger daughter is sinking in. And will Yeah, yeah. And she's stubborn, right so she won't do it in front of me per se because then Bobby's right but along that line my little one last week. I think she she had said in the morning when she woke up she goes Mommy, she goes, I'm gonna start eating healthier this week. And I was like, Okay, why? You know, like, okay, totally, let's talk about this. And you know, she's just been having a lot of ice because like, it's so summer treats, it's the summer playdates, and those things are happening. And so she made that flip herself because she could tell. And so that I think when they are following that, and you're presenting them with those options, they get to think through that. And it's important for us to have those conversations with them too. And do that, but there's just there's, we have to eat every day. Right? Like it's not an option. Right, right. We have to eat and so it just really does. There's tons of conversations and, and things that can be held around the dinner table, but even just the life skills and like how do you survive when you're out on your own? And what are you going to buy to make yourself so that you aren't fixed? You can go to work, you know, all of these things? Right? Right. Yeah. Okay, so you had mentioned earlier as well about the freezer meals, and I noticed you had something on your website about freezer, is it freezer meal planning is that like a program that you offer or so I actually I started in the summer time, I have a the freezer meals class, we do those monthly, okay. And so anybody, anybody can join, the recipes are rotated monthly, so you're not making the same things over again, I do also have a freezer meal collection. And so that's for the woman who can't commit to the three hour time still wants to go ahead and prep and prepare the freezer meals. It's like, they get all of the things in the freezer meals, just not me live. So the replays and the recipes and ebooks. So I've got a couple options. Because everybody learns differently. Some people weren't really well on their own, some people need that step by step guide. And so I wanted to be able to provide both options, because I feel like prepping is just something that if you can get something done, you will feel so much better and relieved. So I've got both options on there as well as you know, other other things too. But yeah, those are my those are my new ones. And I'm excited about them, because it just I love to help women be able to take a deep breath, like for 10 a meal that my for 10 meals. You don't have to think about and you can space those out. You could use them, you know, for three months, they're good for three months, or you could use them all at once, depending on depending on what it is. So your meal plan to three hours. That's making 10 meals. Yes. So it's okay. It's prepping. It's prepping them not cooking them. Right, right. Right. Right. Okay. Yes. Yeah. Took Yeah, he then pushed into the freezer and then Gotcha. Okay. Yep. Yeah, and it's 10 meals. Sometimes it's like, you know, two and a half, sometimes it's three hours, but it really is. I joke about I'm like, Okay, everybody got their water, everybody got their stuff, because we're just gonna go. And it's really very intense. But it is the coolest thing. Because then truly, and I, because I've done so many future Mail classes this summer. I have relied on those this summer. But it's so great. Like, last night, I had chicken chili. And I went down to the freezer at two o'clock, I took it out that in my instant pot, just to kind of defrost it for a little bit. And then I put it on at 430. And I mashed some potatoes and called it a day late. It's beautiful. And you know, especially for the school year coming up. So what I have some women doing is they actually have their 10 days circled on the calendar that they are going to use the freezer meals because those are the back to school nights. Those are like the sports nights, so they don't have to think about them and just think about it, then that's 10 meals. And how many hours right? Are you spending, right? So three hours condensed? To give you 10 meals you would be spending way more than three hours in the kitchen plus grocery shopping. Plus, you know all of those other things. So yeah, it's and it's only once right once a month we do it. We don't do it every Sunday for three hours because that defeats the purpose. So it's one but it's really cool because it's just it's different. Different options, different, different ideas, and then just kind of like taking a deep breath when you find yourself saying what am I going to have for dinner tonight? You can be like, oh wait, I've got meals in the freezer. I'm just gonna go grab one of them. Know that that's perfect because things do get busy. During the week, especially with well, school children, you know, you've got the open house that you didn't realize was happening. Yeah, or Yeah, like yesterday, I actually I had a friend who had an emergency and she was like, Can I drop my little one off? I was the Absolutely. And then that just like I couldn't go through, I mean, not that I couldn't. But right now, it just kind of like, throws things off. So it's nice to have those in the back pocket when you need them to use. So just it's just another way to just make things easier. It's a commitment, though. And it was interesting, because I had somebody who was messaging me as she was going grocery shopping, because they I provide this the grocery list, like itemized down to like everything. And it was stressful for her because she doesn't like to cook. And so this, this is a way for her to be able to cook into prep, but also to it's interesting, right when we're not used to doing it. And when we haven't done it for so long, that stress factor that comes in and so just walking her through kind of each step and like okay, just take a deep breath, like you've got this one afternoon that you get to do this, and then you kind of get to relax, breaking it down into like little pieces. For her. I think that can be kind of the idea too. And if we relive that every single day, because we're thinking about what we're making for dinner. It's exhausting. Yes, yes. Really is though. Yeah. So it's fun. It's fun, I love to do it. And I'm videos are my like, the live videos are fun for me, because that's where I get to just really kind of bring everybody into the kitchen and just make it fun and relaxing. And it's not just kind of like walk them through each step. So it's not as stressful, right? Perfect. Yeah. Can you give us one thing for the listeners that they could implement this week to help them make meal time? Easier? Yeah, absolutely. So I actually did a little bit of content on that, I think this week. But one of the things that I had talked about was bringing your family into the kitchen so that it is easier and less stressful and less whining, right? Because that can create like, such a big like, oh my gosh, bringing your family in, but choose one meal that you want to bring your family into. A lot of times, even with the prepping and the planning, we think we have to do like 567 meals, break it down as small as you can and just pick one meal and ask your family what meal they want. First of all, to start with, ask your family, what do they want, and it can't be takeout or you know, anything like that, what do you want Mommy to make, and then ask them what they would like to do in that meal. So break it down into, you know, chopping the chopping the vegetables, helping ground the beef, obviously, make it age appropriate. And then select a time where you can all be in the kitchen together and make this meal together. And give yourself grace when it's happening. Because if it hasn't happened yet, you know, and this is your first time, you might get a little bit overwhelmed, but just give yourself grace. And then also to enjoy the moment because this is what you want. You want your family to have a buy in with the meals that you're making, so that they feel happy and proud about the meals right? And then they want to eat it. So this can be your step into this piece of it. And if it goes really well the more obviously the more times you practice it right? It goes better, but ask them next week, then the same thing, what meal do you want, and then give them a task. And what we're doing in that moment is we're spending time with them, which we always say we never have time with our family, right? So we're spending time with them. But then you as your as a mom are also teaching them life skills that you know, you want to teach them. So we are doing so much in that small half hour window that we can feel proud of ourselves for and then we can involve our family with as well. So I would say yeah, just pick one meal that you really want to make with your family. Not on a stressful night. Don't pick the back to school night, because that's not going to be the best night. So maybe a weekend or something like that where you can spend time together. But I think that's a really cool way to start. And then your family gets to be part of that as well. That's perfect. Thank you. Can you tell us where we can find you? Any? I know you already mentioned some of the programs but if there's anything additional you want to let us know. Here's Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Thank you and So my Instagram is like the best way. That's where I feel like I'm, I'm more so it's clean eating with crispy and it's clean with the K and crispy with the K. So just cleaning the lip Kristiana Instagram and my website is the same, it's clean eating with christie.com. All of my monthly events are on there. You can email me on there if you have any questions about anything, but really everything. Everything is up there and Instagram. Perfect. Excellent. Thank you so much for taking time out of your day. Oh, thank you so much for having me. This was fun. I love to talk about foods that this is awesome. Thank you for taking time out of your day to listen to our podcast. I hope you found this information valuable, and hope that you can immediately use some of the information that was provided, make sure to check out the show notes for all of the links that we discussed today. As a mom myself, I understand that at times you can feel alone and are looking for a sense of community. It is my goal to help bring moms together to find each other to help support one another and also help raise healthy humans. That is why I've created a Facebook group. It is free for you to join and you can go to moms raising healthy humans. I also have upgraded our membership portal for you. If you are interested, I now have three tiers because I want to make sure that everybody is moving more no matter where you are. So the first one if you happen to like our weekly movement snacks, you're going to want to join our first tear, it's $5 a month and you will have a daily movement exercise that you can do. If you want to move even more, you might want to try one of our other memberships, where we go even deeper, and you can join us for live zoom classes. Remember, it is my goal to help bring moms together in a healthy and supportive community. And I feel like that's what I'm doing with the form set community. So head to form CIT, s o r n s i t online.com. To see our new website and to learn more