Meal Planning + More with Allison Schaaf, Founder of PrepDish

00:00:02
Speaker 1: Hi.

00:00:03
Speaker 2: This is Laura Vandercamp. I'm a mother of five, an author, journalist, and speaker.

00:00:08
Speaker 3: And this is Sarah hart Hunger. I'm a mother of three, a practicing physician and blogger. On the side, we are two working parents who love our careers and our families.

00:00:17
Speaker 2: Welcome to best of both worlds. Here we talk about how real women manage work, family, and time for fun. From figuring out childcare to mapping out long term career goals. We want you to get the most out of life. Welcome to best of both worlds. This is Laura. This episode is airing in most likely mid to late September. Sarah is going to be interviewing Allison from Preptish. Allison is a longtime friend of our podcasts, and Sarah has been following Preptish for quite a while. Now it's the service that will you tell us, Sarah, what does it do for you?

00:00:52
Speaker 4: Yeah? So, I was interested in Preptish for many years.

00:00:56
Speaker 3: I heard about it on other podcasts, but I admittedly didn't start using it until Alice had reached out to me to sponsor Best Laid Plans.

00:01:03
Speaker 4: So she does. They are a Best Laid Plan sponsor. But now I am.

00:01:08
Speaker 3: I think in my third year of using Preptish, and I use it like I wou'd say seventy percent of the time for our weekly meal planning because it is weekly meal planning that I do not have to do. So like they send you in your email a whole shopping list and like this is what's for dinner, and they tend to be like I don't want to say, like health conscious, but like thet more whole foods based, like not a lot of processed ingredients, simple recipes, and very strategic, like you'll make a sauce that is used in two fairly different dishes two days apart, so that it like saves time.

00:01:42
Speaker 4: Our nanny does.

00:01:43
Speaker 3: A lot of the prepping of our preptice, so she's used to how the system works. But if she's away for a week, then I usually do it on Sunday, And I'm like, this is it's like actually making life easier versus like making a bunch of fancy stuff that takes like eight hours and then you put it in the freezer and have to thought out. This is like it's thought through in a very efficiency minded way. So anyway, I love Preptish. I love working with Allison. She started her company I think before she had kids, and it has grown and done well and she's the head of this thriving small business. So when she reached out to me, I thought it would be really fun to have her on to talk both about her business building but also about the concept of preptish and meal planning in general.

00:02:22
Speaker 2: Yeah, because this is I mean, of all the questions we get, I think the two questions we get most often is like, should I have a third kid? And then I need to plan my meals for the week. Like these are like the two pain points that people write into us about. And so yeah, we get a whole lot of interest in meal planning, especially in September with new routines things like that people trying to think through if you know they're trying to get family dinners on the table, or even just feed people in shifts, if you know you're trying to feed yourself at lunch, if you don't want to just rely on restaurant food all the time, or you know, if you're trying to eat in a more sort of whole foodsish way, whatever it is that you are trying to do that a lot of people are thinking about it, especially at this time of year, you particularly, I mean, so preptish is mostly for dinner, but you're thinking about your lunches more these days too, right, Sarah.

00:03:11
Speaker 1: Yes.

00:03:11
Speaker 3: My like prompt was like, is there anything you want to change about your meal planning game? And I'm like, I need to figure out lunch because I don't know. I think it's just because it's the start of the school year and everything's been more hectic, but also something I used to take for lunch. I'm not going to like disparage a food item, but like I just decided it didn't like agree with me, and so I'm like, I need a new like standard lunch.

00:03:30
Speaker 4: I need a system.

00:03:31
Speaker 3: So I just I feel like I need to do lunch planning, and I think I might just come up with like the world's easiest lunch template, like selid from Trader Joe's, with like some kind of protein that's already pre made for Monday, and then like something hard boiled egg based on what.

00:03:45
Speaker 4: I don't know.

00:03:45
Speaker 3: I just need to like routinize it rather than every day be like this is a new problem I've never had before.

00:03:52
Speaker 2: When I go out, I had to do lunch before what is this? The world is new and I am facing it for the first time.

00:03:59
Speaker 4: Yeah, and I don't.

00:04:00
Speaker 3: I mean, I have no problem with like delivery, but I just find like the quality is never that great and like I never know if it's gonna come or if it's gonna come and be like Luke, like I just I'm sort of over it.

00:04:10
Speaker 1: Yeah.

00:04:11
Speaker 2: No, it's like it doesn't come until you're back with your patients or something ridiculous, and then you can't really eat it. And yeah, no it's not gonna work.

00:04:18
Speaker 1: Yeah.

00:04:19
Speaker 2: I kind of want to get better about my breakfast and lunch game. I would like to eat slightly more I don't know, vegetable slash protein based stuff for those meals. And if we have the stuff in the house then I can. It's just if we don't have the stuff in the house, then I'm not I'm gonna eat whatever is there. So this is complicated by the fact that I'm usually not doing the grocery shopping like my husband does, and I can't necessarily articulate what I want him to get unless I think it through ahead of time, but I usually don't because it's just all complicated. So either I need to make like a quick grocery shopping trip at one point during the week where I basically just only shop for me or else. I need to think it through and go with a list for whoever is grocery shopping and do that all.

00:05:11
Speaker 4: It easier to think it through and go with a list.

00:05:13
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, then you don't have to go to this, then I don't have to go. I don't know. I mean it's yeah. We do basic stuff, you know, like rotations. There's a limited number of meals my kids will eat. So if I am trying to have all of us sort of eat the same stuff, it's going to be more limited than if it's just me eating. But it is just me eating at lunch. So if I could figure out something, you know, for like three days, make it for one day, and then eat it for three days, that would probably be great. I could do that and find lunch more exciting. So maybe that's on my goal for the list. And you want to do more bake goods, you're going to bake No, that's my fantasy, So that's your fantasy.

00:05:51
Speaker 4: Okay.

00:05:51
Speaker 3: In my fantasy world, I make some big good on the weekend that we eat all week, but then I wrote, the real world tends to not resemble this world, so I just buy a Trader Joe's banana bread and a day.

00:06:01
Speaker 2: So Ruth has actually started doing a lot of baking, so I'm gonna more encourage this, and she's missing it, and we're recording this while we're still at the beach, Like I miss baking.

00:06:10
Speaker 4: I'm like, okay, so.

00:06:11
Speaker 2: Maybe she'll start making a banana bread on the weekend.

00:06:13
Speaker 4: And we're Cameron because he's like my omelet chef he makes for there.

00:06:16
Speaker 2: Yeah he might like it, you know, think about like what he would like to make, and then next thing you know, you've got big goods all week and it's not fancy.

00:06:23
Speaker 3: All right, when it disclosed before we start the episode, just in case anyone's like, is this a sponsored episode?

00:06:30
Speaker 1: It is not.

00:06:31
Speaker 3: So this was just we thought it would be great. I like Allison, she does sponsor ads on Best Laid Plans, But this is just us thinking she would be fun to have on.

00:06:39
Speaker 2: Yeah, sounds good. All right, here's Sarah with Allison.

00:06:43
Speaker 3: Well, I am here with Alison Shaw, who I have actually spoken to and worked with a little bit before, because she is the founder of Preptish a company which does happen to be one of Bestlaid Plans sponsors, but also as a company that I use on a regular basis. So Alison is also a listener of Best of Both Worlds, which is not something I realized, but I'm super excited to hear a little bit more about that. And Allison, go ahead and tell our listeners who you are, a little bit about your business and maybe a little bit about your current situation in life with your kids.

00:07:16
Speaker 1: Oh my goodness. So my name is Alison Schoff. I'm the founder of Preptish. I founded that company over ten years ago. So way pre kids. Currently I have a four and a half year old and an almost three year old, so and yeah, so that's where I'm at right now.

00:07:38
Speaker 3: That can be saying a lot in a very few words, a four and a half year old and an almost three year old is that is a time definitely can be a very challenging time for me. That was slightly better than the like one and a half and a three year old. So maybe you've gotten somewhere, but still a lot of child feel like.

00:07:52
Speaker 1: We're actually at a good stage. It's kind of yay. I feel like it's like the past month has been like this window, you know how there's like windows or it's like okay, everything's like good because they're really playing together a lot, and even independently playing together. Like if I'm with them, I can actually let them go and do their little imaginative play and I can you know, get dinner going, for example. And they're really good on their own right now, so it's really nice.

00:08:16
Speaker 4: That is amazing.

00:08:18
Speaker 3: So first I want to start a little bit about from the beginning, like how did practice get started, including how did you?

00:08:26
Speaker 1: Like?

00:08:26
Speaker 3: This was a while ago and I almost feel like the idea of like women starting an online business is more common now, but you were kind of a trailblazer.

00:08:34
Speaker 4: So tell us a little bit about kind of the backstory.

00:08:38
Speaker 1: Well, I went to culinary school and I'm also a dietitian, and I started out as a personal chef, so I was going into people's homes and cooking for them and it was a great job, like I actually really loved it. But when I looked into the future, I knew I wanted a family, and I just didn't see that as like a sustainable career for the rest of my life. And also in working with the clients. You know, I was able to max out of maybe six people a week, and that was a lot, So you know, I just didn't see a way to reach a lot of people either. But in doing that process of going in and cooking for people in their homes, I created this process. Right, Like, I was very systemized, and I was very incentivized to be as quick as possible but still have the food be you know, really healthy and tasty and all of that. So as I was doing this, I saw this opportunity to take what I was doing and document that and then get it out to the masses. And so that's exactly what I did. I actually created Preptish while I was still personal chefing because I could kind of write out my recipes and I had a real live audience to test the recipes with. And even though I didn't have kids, a lot of my clients did. And so I just saw this as something that you know, busy moms could really use. And it really came full circle because then, you know, eventually I went on to have my own kids, and now it's like I use the meal plans but in a way that like I need them worse In the past yes, I use them. I created the recipes. I thought it was a great concept, but now it's something that personally in my life like I have to have. So it's really cool that I'm now like using this product that I created years ago.

00:10:13
Speaker 4: That is awesome.

00:10:14
Speaker 3: You're like, wow, it really does work, thank goodness, And I can vouch for that as well.

00:10:20
Speaker 4: Well. As your business has grown.

00:10:22
Speaker 3: And you ended up having kids kind of in the middle of that process, did that change anything about how you've decided to run your business. This is a kind of sensitive best of both worlds questions, not that we're looking for a specific answer, but what have you found regarding childcare? And yeah, just take us a little bit through that journey of when you first realized that you were going to have a baby, but you were already running kind of a successful business on your own. Actually I said, but but I should have said, and you are already running a successful business on your own.

00:10:52
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's been a really interesting journey for sure. One because so our path to having a family was an easy one. I actually so I have a little side project that is now officially a nonprofit called Miscarriage Hope Desk. But I ran into the issue of having not just one miscarriage, but multiple miscarriages and led us on the path to you know, adoption and then eventually a biological sun And so that's a whole side project that I started, you know, in the past few years as well. And so I felt like even before we had kids, there was a lot that was going into my fertility and so with Preptish, one of the big things that changed was delegating, you know, finding a team that helped me to you know, in the beginning, like I said, I was a personal chef. I was creating Preptish, I was working a lot of hours, but I was also single and on my own. And then as the years have gone by, I've definitely cut back the amount of hours. I've tried to really figure out what are the tasks that I needed for and it's been so cool to bring on a team that also you know, a lot of actually think now everyone on the team is also a busy mom and uses Preptish, and so to have them be able to have a career that they're passionate about as well, and we can all work on it together versus just me on my own. So that's been a big transition and then figuring out childcare. I will say best of both worlds has actually been a really important resource to find that, you know, I feel like you can't overdo childcare, you know, like I am a big fan of all the childcare hours and all the support, even if that just means that way I can have a little more one on one time with one of the kids, And that's something that I definitely have learned through listening to y'all's podcast. And we have found that the best fit for us is working with O pairs. So we actually currently are in between O pairs, so there's like been about a month gap, but over the past four and a half years, we've worked with several pairs. If you ever want to do an entire episode on interviewing O pairs and working with them, I could probably answer a lot of questions. We've had some really amazing ones and then a few that weren't a fit, but overall it's really been the best fit for us.

00:13:08
Speaker 4: That is awesome.

00:13:09
Speaker 3: Actually, we did at one point do a interview with someone who worked at an O pair agency, which is really interesting, but we haven't revisited O pairs in a while, so not that I want to totally sidestep the stuff I want to talk to you about meal planning. Could you just give a little bit more detail about how it's been, how it works, how do you set hours, What do you like about it?

00:13:28
Speaker 1: Well, I'll start with what I love about it is the flexibility of the hours. We live in the country. So when our first was born, we started out with a nanny, but sometimes she wouldn't be right on time, which I would understand. You know, it's a drive to get here and they would hit traffic. And then you know, even since then, we'll sometimes work with babysitters and it's just the reliability of getting someone here is tricky, and when we've got work calls or such. You know, you reliabilities Keith when it comes to childcare. So with the open they it's an exchange program. They live in your home, but our house has a nice setup where her room is. It's attached to the house, but she actually has to exit our home to get to her room, so she definitely has privacy, and then we have privacy as well, which works out I think for both parties. There's a total of forty five childcare hours a week. You do have some restrictions and that you can only do, you know, ten hours a day, and they have to have one weekend off a month, and you know, certain things you have to kind of abide by. But once you figure out the scheduling and the rhythm, it really and it's also very flexible and that you can split those hours up however you wish, right like if I, especially with a baby, if they take a two hour nap in the afternoon, she can take a break in the afternoon, which often works good for the O pair as well because she go go back to room, maybe call her family. You know, I can add Saturday mornings on the schedule, I can do date nights and you know that's just really I think hard to come by with that, just unlimited flexibility. And yeah, it's just been a really great fit for us.

00:15:05
Speaker 4: Awesome, Well, thank you.

00:15:06
Speaker 3: That was an unexpected bonus bonus tip session during this episode.

00:15:10
Speaker 1: I should mention is I think people don't mention that it's actually very affordable too. I think people think, oh, it's someone that's like living in home with you and this you know, it's totally out of the budget, but you know, you are paying for their living expenses, but when you compare it to like a full time nanny, it's often more affordable. And so I think I always encourage people to just check it out and see if it might be a fit. Because I have a lot of friends and now have bo pairs. Let's just say that.

00:15:35
Speaker 4: That is awesome.

00:15:36
Speaker 3: All right, So I do want to talk a little bit about meal planning. We're going to take a quick break, but I know a lot of our listeners came here to absorb all of your wisdom on this topic, so we will go back in just a couple of minutes to talk about that. All right, we are back, and Allison shop is a business owner, a mother. Sounds like she has really good systems, but one of the things that she is truly a master at is the art of planning meals in a very efficient way.

00:16:16
Speaker 4: Tell us all your secrets.

00:16:19
Speaker 1: Well, I always say, again, like having that background of like looking at meals through two lenses, right, Like I want the food to be healthy but also tasty, like and I always say kind of chef lens first of making sure it's tasty, especially with kiddos, you want people to actually be eating the food that you're preparing. But the key to getting healthy food on the table is to number one, have a plan. I always say the worst time to figure out what you're going to eat is like five or six o'clock at night, when you've gone through the day, you're maybe in this decision fatigue mode and then trying to figure out what you're going to eat. So even if it's just like you know, spending Friday afternoon looking at the upcoming week and jotting down some notes, having a plan of what's for dinner each night, like that step right there is huge. So I think that's kind of just like the first baseline, like at least have some sort of plan, and then from there I like to take things a step further and add in a meal prep component where you're actually, you know, doing some chopping and mixing up some marinades and doing all of that kind of heavy lifting up front. So then that way, when it gets to meal time, it's just like, not only are there no decisions, but it's really easy. It's just kind of like doing the finishing touches and getting the meal on the table.

00:17:30
Speaker 3: I feel like a huge piece of what makes your system very efficient is the batching aspect. Because that's not something I mean I always knew about like leftovers, but somehow you're able to repurpose things. So give listeners some examples of how you use batching and I guess repurposing of things.

00:17:51
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm a big fan of batching. That was something that I found even with my you know, personal chef clients. I was visiting them once a week, so basically what I was doing for them was a meal prep, right, Like, I was prepping their meals, but I would always encourage them to not have me actually cook their food, so that way they weren't eating leftovers. Right, So I was doing the chopping of the vegetables. And even just if you start with that right, just at the beginning of the week, chop all of your vegetables, it's going to be more efficient. You're only pulling out your cutting board once instead of every single night. And so you know, maybe if you do it once at the being in the week, it's twenty minutes of chopping, and if you do it every single night, it's five or ten minutes. So it's just like over time, you're really going to save a lot of time just on those little tasks. And then we take things a step further by looking at ways where we can kind of batch even ingredients and dishes. So for example, maybe using a marinade on two different dishes, or even using a marinad for meat and one dish and then reusing that, or you know, doubling it and using the other half as a dressing, like it's a salad dressing or something. So I don't want it to be feeling like you're eating the same thing, So using the same ingredients in the same kind of process but not having it be a repeat or feel like you're eating the same thing and keeping it really fresh. So that's something for sure. And then yeah, I mean just the whole concept of batching it just as such a game changer in terms of saving time, and it's something that I use not just in my cooking, but I'm always looking for areas of my life where I can batch different tasks to make them more efficient.

00:19:26
Speaker 4: I love it.

00:19:26
Speaker 3: Yeah, the marinate a cela addressing thing. I've seen that a lot, and it works really well because actually something will take on very different dimensions when used in those two different ways, so you really don't feel like you're eating the same thing, but you only had to put it together one time, and it really doesn't take any longer to make a double or triple batch of certain things than it would to make just a single. So for me, that's been very, very helpful and probably one of.

00:19:49
Speaker 1: My life Like another way of doing that is just like doubling. So say you're making a soup or a lasagna, making double of that and sticking half in the freezer, so then that way you know you're having it this week and then maybe in a month, you pull it out on a night where you know, pull it out a morning when you've got a busy night and it feels like a fresh new dish because you only you had it a month ago. And same thing when you're making double the amount of soup, it doesn't take double the amount of time.

00:20:13
Speaker 3: I saw a recent hack regarding this then I don't remember where it may have been the Lazy Genius podcast, but I have to share it, which is that if you do a double batch, go to your planner or whatever digital calendar you use, and actually write on a future date when you're going to use that other half, like maybe it's in a month. Because I tend to be somebody who makes stuff, puts it in the freezer, and then forgets about it forever. But if it's like on your planner that like, oh, I've already meal planned Wednesday and it's already there, I mean, like it's so obvious, but I never thought to do that, and I'm totally going to do that.

00:20:44
Speaker 4: So for anyone, I.

00:20:45
Speaker 1: Love that idea. Yeah, we do freezer challenges and I don't even know that we have that in there, So I'm totally taking that back and going to use that tip of like put it on the calendar. I just always know that I have something in my freezer because I just make sure there's always something in there. But putting it on the calendar would be really smart, and then it would be really exciting to look at your calendar and be like, oh my goodness, I already have my meal already for this day.

00:21:08
Speaker 2: Yes.

00:21:09
Speaker 4: How about kitchen tools?

00:21:11
Speaker 3: Do you have any like absolute favorite gadgets or tools or on the flip side, well, I don't want to like bash anything, but anything you feel like people talk about a lot but might be a little overrated.

00:21:24
Speaker 1: Yeah, both, So I am a fan of not overdoing it on the kitchen gadgets, I don't like a lot of clutter. I don't like a lot of things on my countertop. So I always try and especially you know, just with preptish. I always like, yes, there's people that have been with us for years, but we always have new people coming on and I don't want to overwhelm them with like, oh, you need this fancy tool or equipment. The number one thing that I always say is just a really good chef's knife and a really like a nice cutting board for doing some chopping. If you want to eat healthy, that's going to include some vegetables, it's at some point going to include some chopping. I mean it is good nowadays you can get a lot more pre chopped veggies, but I you know, there is going to be some chopping involved. So I think a really good chef's knife too often. So I also used to do cooking lessons in home for people back when I was doing more of the chef work, and I would find that people would be using like a little pary knife or maybe like one of those little glass decorative cutting boards, and it's really hard to be quick and efficient if you don't have like a really good knife. So that's always my top one and then from there, you know. And so one that I don't use but I know everyone else in my team does is the air fryer. I know people are a huge fan of it, and I did, gosh, this is like a big rabbit hole. I got one at one point. One of my issues too with the air fryers is it's really hard to find ones that don't have the nonstick coating, which I try and avoid. And I have a really good oven with a really good broil feature, so I don't know. For me, I don't need it a lot. I think people definitely use preptish and still use their air fryer. Same thing with the instant I actually do use the instant pop more, but none of our recipes are specific where you have to have it. But for me, it's like sometimes I can sneak away in the afternoon stick something in the instant pot and have it be ready for dinner. So and I like it better than the crop pot because I feel like I'm not always as good at like doing the meal like first thing in the morning, but in the afternoon I am, So the instant Pot's kind of good for my timing, I guess, But yeah, and then I mean from there, oh, for meal prep. The other really big one is just really good containers. So having some nice like storage containers, I prefer glass for multiple reasons. I also think it helps keep the food fresher longer, but you know, investing in some of those upfront can help as well. Yeah, overall, I don't think there's like a lot of really fancy equipment that's needed.

00:23:48
Speaker 3: That's probably one of the things I like about your system because we do use it and I don't have anything.

00:23:53
Speaker 4: I don't have an air fight. I don't. I also don't. I mean, I have a food processor.

00:23:56
Speaker 3: We do have a blender, but that's like it's kind of the stent and I kind of like not having to worry about like fancy stuff on the countertop, like an air fryer or.

00:24:07
Speaker 4: Even an instant pot. Don't hate me, I don't have no I agree.

00:24:11
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm glad to hear that you've gotten by just fine. Like that's our goal. We don't want people to feel like they have to rush out and buy all this stuff that then they're not going to use, you know. I think again, cooking's it's really the basics.

00:24:23
Speaker 4: I will say, good Dutch Oven very helpful. Love that anyway.

00:24:27
Speaker 3: Okay, so kids, let's get to this, because a lot of people are like, that sounds wonderful. I would love chef inspired meals, and my kids are going to be very hesitant. That's not necessarily as much been my experience, because I do have kids that tend to be fairly adventurous eaters, at least two out of the three of them. And then I know my hack is usually to just sort of leave certain little components plane and also have a very boring, easy alternative, which is usually carrots and hummus. If someone is like outright rejecting an but you tell listeners like, what would you advise people who really want to get their prep system going, either yours or another type of thing, but struggle with kids who have limited interest in trying new things.

00:25:14
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, of course we hear this a lot, and we're actually in the process of putting together we did a Picky Eater challenge and now we're going to have an ongoing product that people can buy to help with this. But we are always looking for ways to help and a lot of different kind of tools and tricks that you can use. One is I think it's important to each kid. First of all, there's no like quote unquote kid food right, Like one kid's going to really love broccoli and the other kid might really love asparagus, So it's really hard to put together like, oh, here's the kid friendly vegetables, you know. I think part of it's knowing your kid. And one thing I do suggest is if there is a meal that you're looking at and you're like, there's nothing on here that is like familiar for my child, then maybe add something that you know that they like, for example, like some rice, like having that as a side dish, so that way it's not all new. You don't want to overwhelm them with too much new stuff. And I also even my kids are great eaters, but I often do what you said is, which is like, you know, not compiling it all right, like not mixing it all together so they can kind of pick and choose what they want. And then also just looking at it is like, hey, here's this opportunity to introduce our family to a lot of different foods. I like to remind people that often takes several introductions. So I always say like, oh, my kids are great eaters, but like that doesn't mean we don't have a meal where one kid will refuse to eat anything, right, And that's okay. And I always look at kids, especially like the younger ones, it's not like we tend to regulate our food over a twenty four hour period. Kids regulate their food intake and their calories really over like a week long period. So just because they have a whole entire day where they don't eat a lot, they're not going to starve like they're really good. They regulate their calories, but it's not that twenty four hour period. It's usually like a week long period. So I even have to find myself reminding myself of that because I will have days where I can't keep up with my kids, like they're eating so much food, and then a few days later they won't touch something that I know they love. And I also think it's just really important too to not have a lot of comments on that and just leave it to them, because again, they are very good at regulating and letting them just kind of explore and consume in their own time. And I found that actually probably the number one tip and dealing with kids is just letting them stay in their lane and I stay in mind and don't even pay attention to it. I mean, you might be surprised how much they try when you kind of remove yourself from the situation.

00:27:45
Speaker 4: That is awesome.

00:27:46
Speaker 3: How about meal planning for non dinner meals, Like, what if someone has their dinner game really locked down, but breakfast is like a new challenge every day, or they're tired of eating the same things for lunch. Our resources are mostly dinner focused, at least, I have to admit I have not delved into anything beyond dinner in the Preptish realm. But I don't know what would you say for people struggling more with those other meal times.

00:28:12
Speaker 1: Well, I can tackle them kind of one by one. So for lunch, one thing I suggest is if people are using Preptish for their dinners, just doubling up their dinner and then using those leftovers for lunch. That's what we do usually at our house is I'm just like making double for dinner and then whatever is leftover using that for lunch. Or sometimes instead of having it exactly the same way, I'll make it into a salad. So if I've had like chicken and asparagus and rice, and I'll chop up the chicken and asparagus and put it on a salad. So just kind of like reusing those dinner items for lunch, or you know, finding something again that you could batch, like maybe doing some sort of roast and then you know, having tacos or you could even do like you know, tacos one day and like a Mexican bowl the next day and a salad the next So kind of like get that concept of making one item and reusing it in multiple ways. And then for breakfast. Breakfast is one that I tend to repeat. You know, it depends on how much you know variety you want, but I do think it's okay to repeat dishes and so figuring out. But for me, it's more like I have my go tos that I repeat over the course of a month. But like day to day, I'm not doing the same thing every day, and I do try and plan out, like if we're doing oatmeal, like I'll soak it overnight, and I find that if I start things the night before that helps so I'm not scrambling that morning. So I do try and plant out the breakfast. I think that's really helpful to just not wake up and be like, oh my gosh, when am I going to feed these kids when they're asking that they're hungry, Like, I already know what I'm feeding them when I wake up, So I find that really helpful as well. And then on our Preptish plans, so the super Fast is just dinners, but we do have two of the Paleol gluten free do include a new breakfast item each week and new salad each week, so there is some variety on those as well.

00:30:03
Speaker 4: I am a super fast die.

00:30:05
Speaker 1: Hard all the way.

00:30:07
Speaker 4: I use that very frequently, so and I'm like, why not why a venture beyond super fast?

00:30:12
Speaker 1: I like fast.

00:30:13
Speaker 4: So we don't have specific dietary restrictions at our house, so that works really really well for us.

00:30:18
Speaker 3: Favorite easy host meal. So if you have people coming over, I mean we haven't talked to many about like specific dishes, but like, what is your go to I'm having a group of people over, I.

00:30:29
Speaker 4: Want to keep things really easy. This is what I'm making, you.

00:30:32
Speaker 1: Know, Honestly, sometimes I just do what I'm going to be doing for dinner in a way. And I hear this a lot from Preptish subscribers. They'll just use, you know, their prep dish meal their meals that are on there, and some people really like the fact that, like if they do have unexpected oh, someone's going to come over, they can just you know, use that. One thing that I really like, so we just had it the other night. We haven't had it in a while, is so this keep budget in mind. But Chiley and Sea Bass, if you want something that feels like super fancy, it is a little pricier, but it's so easy because you don't have to do anything other than add salt. So that's one that I really like to pull out. Sometimes we do a lot of grilling when we entertain just because it's usually like we're outside and things like that. But it also one that I go back to a lot is like a mustard chicken, just like the grainy mustard and like either a honey mustard or a maple mustard like dressing because I feel like that's just everyone kind of likes that. And then some vegetables and a salad and I don't know, I really don't stress about making it anything different than what we're eating on a day to day basis.

00:31:37
Speaker 4: Love it.

00:31:38
Speaker 3: And last question, advice you would give to someone looking to start a business. So as a veteran, someone who grew this kind of from scratch and out of your own talents, if someone was like, I'm really good at XYZ, I don't know, how would you tell them to start and what advice might you provide? Oh, my goodness, And it's a really broad question, but maybe your favorite tiest of advice.

00:32:02
Speaker 1: I know there's so much because you know, when I started, like you said it was it was so long ago. And I think one is like kind of really figuring out what it is that you want to do, and you know, you said, oh, I'm really passionate about this thing, And is it that you're really passionate about that thing, like maybe it's like making cakes for example, or is it are you passionate about running a business? Because for me now, like yes, I'm really passionate about meal planning, but I don't like I'm not doing all of the even the recipe testing anymore. Like really, my role right now is running a business. So kind of figuring out before you jump in, is like what's your end goal and is it just doing that thing that you love or is it like starting a business and running a business and what's the best way to do what you're wanting to do, you know, like, do that thing that you want that you love, and is it starting a business, because I think sometimes people think because I love this thing, I should make it a business. But maybe it's like you should do it either as a hobby or do it as your work, but not a business that you run, because running a business requires a lot more than just doing that thing. If that makes sense.

00:33:07
Speaker 3: That does make sense, Okay, So make sure you look at the bigger picture of what your role might look like, especially as things scale, rather than having the tunnel vision of like, well, this is what I'm doing today, I'm making meal plans.

00:33:18
Speaker 4: Totally makes sense.

00:33:19
Speaker 3: Well, this would not be a best of both Worlds episode without Love of the Week. And I was so excited that you were like, of course, I know I listened, so that made me super happy. But I will do mine first, even though you're prepared. I'm super into after my runs drinking a huge thing of element te and ice. I struggle with migraines and I don't think this is like the magic bullet, but I do feel like it's somewhat helpful. And I really dislike the taste of a lot of powdered beverages. But for some reason, I actually like this. It's extremely salty, so some people actually think it's disgusting, but I actually like it so Element the citrus flavor.

00:33:57
Speaker 1: I love Element. And I'm gonna say one thing I just started doing, so I'll sometimes do they just like the salty water and drink it cold. But I have started using the chocolate one, which at first I thought was really gross. But I'll add a little bit of milk. Just bear with me. One of my friends really likes it too. But you use the chocolate element, add a splash of milk and either over eyes and it tastes like chocolate milk, or you serve it hot with a splash of milk and it tastes like a hot cocoa. So I'll do that a lot of times. Is like my wine down drink at night, and it's really good. It sounds a little strange, but so.

00:34:32
Speaker 4: Good, super interesting.

00:34:33
Speaker 3: Not what I'm gonna want after an eighty degree run, but maybe I'll have to try it over the winter. That is awesome. That was an unexpected tip. Warm Element with a splash of milk.

00:34:42
Speaker 4: All right, what is your love of the week?

00:34:43
Speaker 1: Other than that, Yes, we are going through a Homer innovation that has, as they always do, taken a little longer than we would like. But we just had some new wallpaper that was put up. It's actually not what's behind me. But I'm a big fan of fun wallpaper and it has birds on it and it's really cool and it's just exciting to when the more visible pieces of a renovation are up. I think that's always fun and exciting. So fun wallpaper, I love it.

00:35:12
Speaker 3: And yes, you have to wait such a long time in a renovation to get to like the fun part, but then it must be very rewarding. And I say that as someone who's done very few renovations, but I bet it's going to look amazing.

00:35:23
Speaker 4: Well, thank you Allison so much. This has been so much fun.

00:35:26
Speaker 3: I'm already like hmm, I want to cook again, like get motivated just talking to you. So tell listeners where they can find you. And again, this is a non sponsored episode. Everyone like, I really respect Allison's wisdom around meal planning. But she does have a product that you can check out, so I'm gonna let her tell you all about that.

00:35:45
Speaker 1: So you can find me at Preptish on in all of the places, and we did set up if you want to try preptish for two weeks, it's just preptish dot com slash best of And because I did mention it earlier, I also have the nonprofit Miscarriage Hope, so I know that probably touches some of your listeners, so you can check that out if that's relevant as well.

00:36:06
Speaker 4: Awesome, Alison, thank you so much for coming on.

00:36:09
Speaker 1: Thank you for having me.

00:36:11
Speaker 2: Well we are back, thanks to Sarah for that great interview with Alison from preptish about meal planning and building a small business and all those good things. So we have a question from a listener who is hoping that we can settle a debate between her and her husband. This is always tricky ground to navigate. She says, does swimmer and towels used at an indoor pool need to be washed after every use? So her husband and son swim every weekend. I'm trying to get out of washing the suits and barely use towels every time. She says, I think my husband was conditioned by his upbringing, where his mom would wash absolutely everything after just one use. She doesn't think this is.

00:36:49
Speaker 3: Necessary, so what do we think, so, Sarah, do you have thoughts? Okay, Well, first of all, I don't know if an indoor pool is different than outdoor pools, because we like never go to indoor pools. It's like not very common here. But when we do go to the pool, we do.

00:37:08
Speaker 4: Wash the suits and the towels after each use.

00:37:11
Speaker 3: In fact, we do things that are not advised, like throw all the bathing suits and the towels into the laundry and the dryer at once, and they seem to survive.

00:37:20
Speaker 2: So even after when this was like your own.

00:37:22
Speaker 4: Pool, would you do that?

00:37:24
Speaker 1: Yeah?

00:37:24
Speaker 4: Really yep, really.

00:37:26
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean I don't even have anywhere good to like hang them to dry, and things mill do like in ten seconds here. Yeah, so it just makes the most sense. Literally, we would sometimes tell the kids to basically like strip and just throw their stuff in the wash and it's like an automatic thing you do after you go swimming, as you throw everything in the laundry. Yeah, I knew it wasn't the answer she wanted, and I'm.

00:37:45
Speaker 2: Going to give for a different answer. I'm gonna give for two answers that I hope she'll like more, which is like, no, I mean I don't know if there's any difference between an indoor and outdoor I mean maybe if you're like, oh gross outvite or side, but we'll get to that. So for our outdoor pool in our own house, no, we get out, like hang the suits or towels in a bathroom and then reuse them like the next time you go in and wash them on occasion. But it doesn't seem to be causing any problems for anyone yet. But people have different preferences. People have different levels of cleanliness that they like or you know, just things that they are used to. And so if your husband wants them washed after every use, he should just wash them, Like I don't even understand why this involves you, Like if he is the one swimming and with your son and they're swimming with the suits and the towels, like, he goes and washes them and then they're washed, and it's not even something that you have to fight about. So I think that he can do this and then he can do whatever preference he wants, whatever frequency. He can wash them twice after every time he goes swimming.

00:38:50
Speaker 3: For I did note in my comment that I am the third most common laundry doer in our household after our nanny, who is number one by a lot, and then Josh was number two, beating me by a lot.

00:39:03
Speaker 4: So there's my answer as well.

00:39:06
Speaker 2: I mean, I agree that I don't think doing the laundry is that difficult, especially with like modern washers and dryers and if you you know, just throw something in quick and move it over and then people sort it as they need. But like, again, you don't need to do this, Like, why is he having you do the laundry that he's creating and expecting you to do it on a certain timeline. It just doesn't even make sense, all right. Well, Sarah has been talking with Alison of Prep Dish in this episode. We will be back next week with more on making work and life fit together.

00:39:37
Speaker 4: Thanks for listening.

00:39:38
Speaker 3: You can find me Sarah at the shoebox dot com or at the Underscore Shoebox on Instagram, and you can.

00:39:45
Speaker 5: Find me Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. This has been the best of both Worlds podcasts. Please join us next time for more on making work and life work together.

00:40:00
Speaker 1: Use