Chris: you know, we're just across the hall from him right now. And, he's a little fussy right now. you know, w with his oxygen on to get him cleared to take it off, we have to. I do like this overnight. Oh. To study. And he's doing that again tonight. So this is his third time. And last time he was really close to passing. So fingers crossed that he passes this time. So He does not like having that sensor on his foot though. if he's crying, that would be why. Phil: Poor little Chris: Yeah. I don't know. The whole oxygen Phil: He's so cute. Has he kept all his hair. Chris: Oh yeah, no. It's like. crazy long. None of it has fallen out. So kind of hoping it all stays still. Phil: Well, somebody had a baby. Chris: It wasn't me. My wife did. That wasn't pregnant. She was, I don't know why. I don't know. I don't know what you guys, how you guys approached that. That was just one of the things where I was like, Oh, are you guys pregnant? No. No. Do I look pregnant to you Phil: I don't know if I ever gave it enough thought. Chris: I don't know, minor, minor pet peeve, I guess, is what that developed into. But, yeah, we did. We've got a little kit out, so it's still in the lack of schedules, sleepless nights. Some days are fantastic and others you're barely scraping by mode. But it's good. He is absolutely adorable. Phil: congrats, man. I'm really happy for you. Chris: Thanks. So thanks. Phil: well, you've had a baby. You've launched a podcast. You Built a deck or you're building a deck? Chris: It's about halfway finished. Phil: what can't this guy do? Chris: Get my child asleep Phil: No. Chris: now, he, he, he falls asleep so quick if you're holding him, just not upon him as though he's he's in that phase. which is a normal, I love it, honestly. Like there's nothing better than just falling asleep on my chest. It's my favorite thing in the world. Phil: for real. Chris: hopefully I don't sound too tired Phil: and this episode was your idea. So I thought let's roll with it because I'm kind of ready for you to teach me how to do some meal planning. Chris: So here's the thing as it was my idea, because wanted to figure out how to do this better the whole, like where to begin thing has always been a little bit of struggle a few of her podcasts so far have really kind of focused on taking down some of those mental road blocks that we've had, who is that I had that the thing is that kind of caught me up and then they caused me to feel a little bit lost and not sure what to do next. I definitely think that the whole concept and process of. Of not just full on meal planning, but also okay, I'm making dinner on Thursday. what am I going to make? Yeah, no, I need to go to the store probably to get some ingredients, but, how do I pick a recipe and, Cause obviously I need to pick a recipe before I know what ingredients I'm going to get. So, I think, I think there's a couple of levels, but one of those first steps is the it's just, how do you put together a meal, concept and then, like taking that a step further too, if you can play on one meal, you can plan several. So you can plan, Three meals in a week or, you know, I don't know if we wants to mention some of the listeners feedback that we've gotten, but, there's a dad who has kind of newly found himself in a situation where he has to cook for his kids a lot. And, I think some of our listeners might span that gamut from, okay. I'm I'm just going to start diving into this. This is something I want to do and I want to try out, so I'm going to pick one meal and that's where I can start to the dad. That's like, I got to figure out how to feed these kids for, this whole weekend, while they're here or this whole week, I think that that's kind of foundational place that I was thinking of starting. And it's not something that I'm even good at now. , honestly, full-blown like, I'm going to play in three meals this week and that's still not happening. I think I'm still a little bit more in the phase of if I'm making one meal, what is that going to be? I think part of it's like finding your comfort zone and I think there are a lot of things that go into that. but I'm definitely more in that phase and I think. We're in very different space and a lot of other generations where I think back to like how my mom approached things and encouraged generation, maybe the generation before, and maybe the generation before that they had like these recipe books or catalogs that were passed down. So they had this nice, easy, like repository of ideas that they could go to. Phil: Yeah, it was like a Rolodex. It was like a Rolodex full of recipes. Chris: it could be that, or I think at one point, like, I think my, my grandmother had this box that had recipes on three by five cards so since we don't necessarily have that, unless your mom passed that on to you, Phil: Yeah, we, we do have one of those and it is helpful. There's some really great recipes in there. However, I think my default is to do some meal planning, actually at the grocery store, which is a really flawed approach, but sometimes I just have to be there to draw inspiration. Chris: yeah. Phil: You know, just like walk down the aisles or walk through the produce. And then inspiration just kind of comes to me. It's not always great inspiration, but I'm kind of a visual guy. So I almost would just have to see it to imagine it. But . That's often a flawed approach. And I think that's definitely a place that I want to get better for me growing up. You know, we had spaghetti one night a week. I mean, I don't think there was a week where we didn't have spaghetti and it was the same spaghetti, uh, red meat sauce. aldente cause. Aldente is cool. We often had hamburgers once a week, orange pork shops, oddly enough. But, yeah, there was kind of a, a regimen of the same recipes every single week. And they were really good recipes. They were, they were enjoyable. I mean, I looked forward to having spaghetti every Tuesday night But for whatever reason, I think that's kind of changed for us. I mean, like we'll, we'll often do some of the same recipes or the same themes each week. Like Friday night is kind of our pizza night pizza and a movie it's fun for the kids. Fun for each other. It's easy. It's a good way to cap off the week. Chris: even just going back to your, comment about walking down the aisle and, and figuring out kind of based on what you're seeing, I dunno if that's it. A philosophy approach, maybe that's just like advanced mode honestly, like a lot of times Molly does the same thing. Like she might have a meal plan put together, but then she's going to adjust that on the fly based on what's on sale, And, It's an interesting way to kind of bring in some variety to what we're having, because maybe, you know, one day it's the chicken thighs over planning on having, or scallops or something will be on sale. And so we get something different. Phil: that's my wife's favorite food by the way, scallops. Chris: They're one of mine, scallops and muscles. Phil: Yeah. Oh my gosh. And we have some amazing scallops here on the East coast, which they're probably even flooded from the West coast. So it wouldn't surprise me at all because the world is flat, but, I'm kidding. You know, getting ready. Chris: I don't know. I feel these days. You never quite know. You never quite Phil: No, you know, you're a death cab for cutie fan. Right. Chris: yes. It's been a while since I'm Muslim, but yeah. definitely. Phil: you know that lyric, I wished the world is flat. Like the old days where we could travel just by folding a map. I love that lyric. I love that song. Very good travel. Just my folding. Um, uh, That's getting cut. You have to cut that. If you don't cut that, I'm going to cut that Chris: We'll just go ahead and we'll, we'll toss that in the close Phil: boy. I think it'll just be the clothes people be like, what is this? What do they do? Chris: I Phil: One boy. Chris: we do. so so I think it's, honestly great that you're at a place where you can kind of on the fly, change things up and to me it feels like you have. Made enough meals to be able to walk down the aisle and say, Oh, there's this ingredient. And you can go back into that mental Rolodex that you have and say I can like snag this recipe and, that ingredient will fit. So, I don't know if it's necessarily like entirely a bad thing. It might not be the most, efficient or whatever, but I think it definitely like speaks to some familiarity with cooking. Phil: okay. I think the way my mind works is I want to have a protein, not because it's some like rubric out there that says you have to have a protein with a meal, but I just, I just really like meat. Can I say, so if I'm going to have like a chicken thigh or chicken breast or whatever, then I really like to couple that with some sort of filler, maybe that's rice. but I think for me, I like to maybe try to be a little bit adventurous. So instead of just doing rice, maybe I'll do couscous but then there's a piece of me that likes to have. Kind of like everything just thrown in together into a meal, like the sheet pan and we do sheet pan all the time. Uh, so if you're familiar with sheet pan, you basically take, well, you can really do whatever you want, but we'll often do a meat. It could be chicken thigh, or it could be summer sausage, which is amazing. It could be shrimp or whatever. It doesn't matter. and you trap a bunch of vegetables, say bell peppers, onions, cucumbers, zucchini, whatever. Probably not cucumber. That actually weird. I think I meant to say squash and. Chris: roasted cucumber is one of my favorites, Phil. Phil: Cherry tomato, whatever sweet potato, delicious chop, all those up. Throw them on a baking tray and throw it in the oven 350 degrees, 20 minutes, or until your vegetables are soft to your liking It's amazing. A bunch of seasonings and olive oil and all that fun stuff too. or we'll do like, some sort of Asian dish, which is often kind of together, if that's a word. Yeah. We do a lot of bowls as well. So I guess I'm trying to get at is that, I don't know if I. Really put a, put too much thought into it I think when I was growing up. There is this idea that you had to have a protein with a vegetable with maybe some sort of starch or I don't know, maybe a fruit, but basically just cover all the major food groups of the pyramid. And I don't know if I'm doing it right or wrong, but full disclosure. I think a lot of my meal planning is less about making sure I'm covering all the bases and more about whether or not I really like the meal. If there's something I like, I'm going to make it again. And I think it's just a matter of writing down some of those things that I enjoy or just keeping, like you said, that mental Rolodex of what some of those favorite recipes are, and thank God for history search history, because find a recipe that I absolutely love and then have no idea how to make it Chris: yeah, I don't know if that was like a generational thing, Phil. but we were very much the same way I think I'm, my mother still probably thinks in on largely some of those same terms. Like you kind of have to cover all of the basic food groups, in one meal also, we would routinely have fruit salad or something along with everything else. kinda my, bachelor years were as far away from that, as you could get, I think, and then, I don't think it was until I was married that I. I saw like a different way of doing it. like it being okay to, as, as you're saying, simplify it down to just a couple items. Like you don't have to have a meal with three sides. like oftentimes we'll have some, some type of protein and a vegetable, what you guys are calling sheet pans. We'll, we'll do the same thing. We'll just, roast some type of vegetables with it, with a meat all on, on like a baking sheet. We'll definitely often do chicken that way. Or like a sausage, one of our summer things is broths with a roasted fennel, altogether. but that can be totally at like a meat and a vegetable. I don't know if there's, I think there's anything wrong with that. And my wife working in a bakery bread is always plentiful. So maybe it's three things a meat, a vegetable, and some bread. Phil: but like every meal doesn't have to be Thanksgiving Chris: No. And honestly, I definitely think that makes it harder when you're trying to plan that many more things to make. Phil: yeah. And I often wonder if maybe sometimes we think, well, we're not a good cooker. I'm not a good cook because every meal isn't Thanksgiving. if we do anything with this podcast, it should be this encouragement to say, you are a good cook. You're doing everything right. doesn't always have to be Thanksgiving. In fact, it should only be Thanksgiving on Thanksgiving, you know? Chris: Honestly, sometimes just getting a meal on the table is success enough? I think. Phil: Yeah. Taking something that you believe in and saying, Hey, I made this for you. Do you want to enjoy it with me? I mean, my kids love that. Chris: even just kind of thinking back to your comments about your child. looking at it. I get mine. we, we didn't always have crazy, a lot meals. Like it wasn't always giving is, as you would say, my mom did cook with a lot of variety. She always wanted us to have these new things, but I did always look forward to some of my favorites it always felt like special in those things were made again. So I think kids especially are okay with simplicity they're also. More than okay. With repeat meals. one of, one of the things that I would think of in terms of, and trying to get your own process down is finding the recipes that, that you like in your kids, like, and. Keeping those in some type of I don't know if a mental Rolodex is going to work for everybody, but a note file on your phone. if you found that recipe online, just keep a link to that recipe. Don't be afraid to, go back to it. there's something interesting when you make it. The same thing over and over, you start to refine that meal, that, that process, weird as it sounds for me, that's scrambled eggs. And I think we can do a whole entire episode on scrambled eggs, but I've been super fascinated with how. different it turns out depending on and the subtle things that you do in the prep. that's a dish that I think offers like a lot of. A lot of refinement opportunities. so I think it's, it's totally fine to have some of those go tos. And, I know I asked you fill how you go about finding recipes and, you're kind of at a little bit more advanced place than I think I am. Phil: don't say that because I'm not. Chris: where, for me. Isaiah still becomes like a little bit of a struggle. It's like, I can think early in the week that, you know, I want to make something. I just don't know what, and then I get stuck, So honestly me bringing this up as a topic was as much for my own benefit as anything else I think, Phil: Okay. Well, for us, my wife and my children, we will often do. Breakfast for dinner one night a week, because we think it's super fun. You mentioned the eggs. There are so many different ways you can make scrambled eggs. You can throw paprika on the eggs. You can top them with tribes. You can put some sour cream in the eggs as you're whisking them together. Obviously you can put some milk in there half and half we'll often do crepes for dinner with those, or maybe just waffles or pancakes or something, but breakfast for dinner is like totally a thing for us. And so that's like for sure, top of the list, like we have to, we have to do breakfast for dinner, like one night a week and then pizza one night a week because pizza is amazing. A ULA pizza, right? Chris: I enjoy pizza. So I enjoy pizza. Yes. Phil: Like you're human, Chris: Yeah, Yeah. Most days today. Phil: there's a, Chris: don't know. I don't know. So it was a rough day, but most days Phil: sounds like you need a pizza. Chris: a pizza and a glass of wine. Also, I'm getting old. So I'm starting to experience heartburn. Was that combo, still feel, I actually think that the breakfast idea is pretty fantastic because. breakfast it feels attainable. you have a slightly more limited set of options. kind of like we've talked about in some of these like creative endeavors, Sometimes you just need some boundaries to work within. And when the sky's, the limit is really hard to figure out what to do. I know with my job and everything that really holds true. There's this idea that I keep coming back to that creativity flourishes within boundaries breakfast provides a lot of boundaries. You, you do kind of have a little bit more of that limited set of options. So you can do some type of egg. You can do toast was that you could do avocado toast, pancakes, waffles, a hash of some sort maybe, or like a scramble. w we'll do that, like a, a little breakfast ramble would just go through whatever we have in the fridge. And does the mags and that becomes a meal. but that's actually like a really, really great place to start because you can get your arms around that. then you can also begin to get creative with that and start to dive into looking up recipes. I was thinking about it as today. A little bit. It's really easy for me. Like with this deck that I'm melding to dive into the research process on that like thinking about guardrails and how I want to design those, but when it comes to picking a meal, sometimes I still draw a blank. It's like, Oh, I don't even know what to search for. It's like, you don't have those boundaries set. So starting with breakfast, starting with a known thing, a meal that, you know, you like, and then finding some recipes for that meal that you really enjoy to me, that feels like a great place to start. Phil: There's this idea that you and I have talked about in the past. this idea of the sandbox, and you can go to the beach, which I live next to the beach, love the beach, and it can be really difficult sometimes to build a sand castle directly on the beach. But if you've got a sandbox and you have these parameters, It can be so much easier even though the sand hasn't necessarily changed, or the amount of sand required for the sand castle hasn't necessarily changed. But just when you're kind of given these parameters, it's, it's sometimes just easier because it allows your brain to quantify what you need to accomplish the task. but. if you love a meal, say breakfast and you know, you love it. And your whole family loves it then run with that. Chris: start with what, you know, and. Be okay with refining that. when you start to feel like you have that down, you're going to have more, space and inspiration to branch out creatively. and I think even going back, one of the things that was a struggle for me was, you know, you type something into Google and there's so many options, so many results, It wasn't until I found like a few sites that I knew I liked, for whatever reason I liked the recipes that I could find there. And we'll, we'll put a list of some great resources like that in the notes. but for me, especially early on, it was sites like, Epicurious was one that I went to a lot, Phil: I love. Epicurious Chris: uh, food, 52 that New York times, cooking section, Phil: him. Chris: I know my wife loves the splendid table but again, in a way that's kinda similar to the finding your meals vein. Sometimes it's just finding a state or two, narrowing it down to just a couple that you're going to look at, is going to help a lot as well, because if you have a couple of sites that you're going to, and you're checking, you'll see new recipes pop up and, some of those are probably gonna end up sounding good to you. And that could be that spark of creativity and adventurousness that, You might need to start to branch out from those tried and true recipes. Phil: Okay. I have a challenge for you, Chris, and all of you, two or three listeners that might be tuning into this podcast. Open up a cookbook or find one of those websites like you're talking about, and then just blindly select recipe and make it for your family. And just do it. I mean, it's probably not going to be published on their website or their cookbook, if it's not a good recipe, just go for it. One thing, my wife and I like to do is we'll go to a restaurant and we'll have the server order for us. And it's really fun. It's funny because the server will be like, well, what do you like? You're like, that's not what I said. Just go in order for me. Okay. Well, is there anything you don't like, like, no, just go ahead and order for us. I mean, if it's on the menu, it's probably going to be good. It's only backfired maybe about a dozen times or so. Once we went to this French restaurant in Charleston called and it was amazing, but, that was the first time I ever had four Gras. I loved it. Ours is served with an apricot jam over toast, and I thought it was great, but we got the appetizer and we didn't know what it was. It looked a little bit funny. So we ate it. And we ate all of it because, well, we didn't want to offend, and then I Googled it. if you go to a restaurant and just have the. Wait, staff order for you, it can be super adventurous and you might fall in love with something like fall Gras. Chris: Yeah, no, I think there's something there's something great about forcing yourself outside of your comfort zone and. I don't know why it kind of reminds me of that Julia child movie. Phil: Julie and Julia. Chris: yeah. I think that's a fantastic idea that we just open our favorite or our wife's favorite cookbook. Or we, we find one of those food blog resources pick a recipe. And that's what we make this next week. Phil: It's a fun challenge. And if you find yourself making flog Gras, Don't stop. Just keep going and then enjoy it. Chris: yeah, so if you do pick a meal outside of your comfort zone and go ahead and make it this week. Definitely. Send us your thoughts send us a picture, whether you're tagging us on Instagram or emailing it to us. Cause I'm sure we have an email address somewhere Phil: We actually do have an email address. you can email us at hello at dad's kitchen, co.com. I know he say every single week, but truly we want to hear from you guys. We want to hear some of your fun, funny, and disastrous stories about stuff that you made and your family absolutely hated. And who knows? We might just feature it also for what it's worth. If you've been kind of following along with the schedule, we do come out with new studio episodes every single Thursday, but every other Tuesday we have these and the kitchen episodes. Or Chris and I attempt a recipe and we kind of dialogue it and we need some ideas on what recipes we could be making in the kitchen. So send us an email. Hello? At dad's kitchen co.com or reach out to us on the Insta or Facebook at dad's kitchen co and give us some ideas. What recipes should we make in the kitchen? Chris: yeah. I feel like really liked the idea about it. Not just being about us, but, more of a community and yeah, we joke about only having two less winners, but we have maybe four, maybe Phil: Cause we listened to the show to right. Chris: but no, we actually have heard back from a couple of people and it's, it's honestly great to hear that. There are some of you out there that are connecting with, with where we're at in this and are kind of wanting to, jump in there with us as we try and figure some of these things out a little bit better for ourselves. So we really do appreciate all of your feedback. it means a lot to us and, look forward to hearing more and seeing what all of you guys are making Phil: Solidarity brother. Chris: Phil. Phil: Thanks, Chris, this was fun. yeah, you make it worth my while. That's for sure.