Episode 47

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Published on:

10th Jul 2024

#47. Our Everyday Agains: Meal Planning and Prepping | Picky, Picky Eaters and Our Easiest Meal Favorites (Part 2)

We can avoid laundry for awhile. We can put off cleaning. We can let those dishes pile up, but if the kids are hungry they are going to let us know! If meal planning feels more like an unceasing punishment and less like a picnic, listen in as Jen and Steph talk about ways to reduce decisions to make this unavoidable, repetitive task feel less overwhelming! They will also discuss what to do about picky eaters, and list lots of their favorite meal options to keep it simple!

Books, Recipes, and Resources:

Nourished

Deceptively Delicious

Yummy Crate (Kiwi Crate Cooking Kits)

Souper Cubes

Cook the Seasons

Lemon Ricotta Pancakes


Transcript
Stephanie:

They're the joyful agains our children shout on the swings, the

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exhausting agains of cooking and laundry,

and the difficult agains of discipline.

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So much of what we do

as mothers is on repeat.

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So what if we woke up with clarity,

knowing which agains we were called

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to, and went to bed believing we

are faithful in what matters most?

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We believe God's Word is

the key to untangle from the

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confusion and overwhelm we feel.

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Let's look up together to embrace a

motherhood full of freedom and joy.

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Welcome back to the again, podcast.

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I'm your host, Stephanie Hickox.

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And this is brought to you

by entrusted ministries.

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If you are looking to redeem

those mundane, repetitive tasks of

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motherhood, You are in the right place.

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And we believe that the meals

that you cook over and over for

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your children truly matter to God.

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And the more, you know, that

the more joy and freedom

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you'll have in your motherhood.

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We are continuing our

series on our every day.

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Again.

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And how could we not

begin with meal planning?

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You can avoid the laundry, you can

put off the cleaning and you can let

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your dishes pile up in the sink, but

those kids are going to get hungry

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and they're going to let you know.

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For part two of our conversation, Jen

Frackman and I continue to talk about.

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The meal, planning, ideas and

tips we have for picky eaters,

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our most common meal ideas.

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And why we continue.

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To contend

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For mealtime being.

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An important part of family time.

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Keep listening to hear how you

can break bread as a family in

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a way that doesn't break you.

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Jen: It's interesting because we have

a youth group that meets in our home

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and one of the main things that we

do is we make a meal together and it

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was very intentional in doing that.

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But the beauty that I have found is that

when you get boys hands busy, they will

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talk.

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And so as

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they're chopping vegetables

or cutting up those fruit.

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Pieces.

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They're discussing things and

we're talking and they have not

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stopped talking the whole time.

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And I just love that.

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Sometimes it's a little hectic in my

kitchen as we have 12 children cooking

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but

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it's been very sweet to stand

back sometimes and listen to

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the conversations that happen.

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And there's just such a beauty around it.

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I love that, God.

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Mealtime, he didn't need to

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do that, but he,

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there is

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something so holy about taking a meal and

making a meal together and sitting down

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and having quiet time together to eat.

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And sometimes it's not quiet.

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Sometimes it's a very talkative meal, but

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I love that.

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I love

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mealtime, even

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the

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preparation of it.

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It just is such a extension of a way to

show someone love and care And even when

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someone is sick, to be able to bring

a home cooked meal just means so much.

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And not that it has to be,

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but when those

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times come up and you have a freezer

meal already in the freezer that you can

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bring to someone, it's such a blessing.

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Stephanie: For sure.

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you talked about the idea of pickiness,

and we do want to teach our children

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to be grateful and With all of those

options today, sometimes we think

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it is just about what we like, and

that does make it hard as a mom.

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Sometimes, gonna not let

my kids listen to this

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Jen: listen to this episode.

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Stephanie: Sometimes what I do is if

I know I'm serving a vegetable that

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they really don't like, I will make two

vegetables and maybe neither of them are

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really their favorite, but Sometimes I

will say, I want you to eat a vegetable,

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but which one are you going to pick?

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If I put Brussels sprouts and cauliflower

in front of them and they have to pick

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one, it's just helpful to see, because

sometimes it seems they don't like

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any, and you're, no, actually, you will

eat the cauliflower, it's or you'll

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eat the Brussels sprouts if I, roast

them really great and they're crispy.

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But you're not going to eat them if

they're a steamable bag or something, and

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you learn what really matters to them and

we do try to do the no thank you bites.

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I will say sometimes I allow them

one substitution meal per week.

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Jen: Oh,

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I like this.

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Stephanie: this.

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Now, it might seem like a lot to

manage, but I find that for the

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most part, they don't ask for it.

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But I say that this is completely on them.

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It is not my responsibility

to tell you what's for dinner.

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It's not my responsibility

to ask you if you like it.

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It is your responsibility to see I'm

in the kitchen and cooking, and to say

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kindly, Mom, what's for dinner tonight?

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And if you realize, ooh, I'm going to

have a hard time with this one, then

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they say, may I have a substitution?

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And I'll say yes.

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And then they can go make

themselves a different dinner.

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I will not make it for

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Jen: them.

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Do you have parameters on what

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they

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can

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Stephanie: Yes.

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Yes.

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So I mean it, and again, with the food

share, this is going to depend on what

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they're having or what we have available.

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But, maybe they're going to

make themselves scrambled eggs.

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and something.

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And maybe they want part of the

meal, they're just substituting part.

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But I found that because I'm putting the

ownership on them, all of a sudden they're

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like, actually I'd rather keep playing.

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I don't want to make anything.

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Thank you for what you're making mom.

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And it mitigates most of it.

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My oldest, he likes his substitution

and I'm okay with that because

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it's also teaching him to

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Jen: cook.

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Yeah.

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We say fasting is a spiritual discipline.

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You can start early and you can

fast from this meal if you need

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to, but I'm not making another one.

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So we're sitting there, but

yeah, I probably won't let

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my kids hear that option.

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Stephanie: Yeah.

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Um, One year for Christmas, I

used the aunt and uncle money,

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and we got a subscription to,

there's a KiwiCrate cooking

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Jen: Oh, that's cool.

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For

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kids?

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Stephanie: yes.

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And it talks about the science of it.

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We just did it for maybe six months.

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That's how much, it would purchase.

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And it was about leavening agents.

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And another was about like

phytonutrients and how the

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colors have different nutrients.

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And it was so cool to see them learning

and baking these recipes together.

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And they'll give you fun little

kitchen gadgets with it that

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then help you make the meals.

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And then, but there are recipes that

you can keep repeating each time.

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And those have been some of our

funnest memories in the kitchen.

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And I really like learning the

science behind it, because

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Jen: that's really cool.

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Stephanie: these are science experiments.

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Jen: I like that.

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Stephanie: And then I was

researching the other day.

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Honestly, I don't even know how I

came across this, but Leah Huber has

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something called Cook the Seasons.

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And I love the idea of cooking seasonally.

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It's so healthy and makes sense to use

what's going to be at the grocery store

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or at the farmer's market or And it's

a pretty inexpensive program, but she

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will let you click on the vegetable.

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This

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is if Fresh produce is really

important to you and you want a

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lot of vegetables on the plate and

then healthy grains and proteins.

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She says click on the vegetable and

then she provides a bunch of recipes

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for how to cook those vegetables to

do it well she was a food editor

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for a pretty big time magazine.

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And she found that even meal planning when

she had kids was incredibly overwhelming.

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So I felt so respected by that.

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I'm like, thank you for sharing that.

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what her premise is, let She wanted

her daughter and she wanted other kids

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to be excited about vegetables, and

she wanted us to do them well, and

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she is a believer, so that's neat.

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She wrote a book, haven't read

it yet, but it's on my list now,

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about food, faith, and something.

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But.

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So she teaches you, okay, these are

great ways to cook the vegetables so

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that everyone's liking them, and then

you're going to cook extra of that

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vegetable, and then you're going to

add part of it to a reinvention recipe,

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it's called, like later in the week.

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So it's the idea, cooking more

right now that you'll use later.

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So I'm going to grill this asparagus,

but later in the week I'm going

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to add this into this pasta, and I

don't have to start from scratch.

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And it's pretty reasonable.

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I'm just going to try

it for a couple months.

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And she has a meal planning calendar

that you can do, but there's also videos.

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that come with it about teaching your kids

how to love vegetables and some of her

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ideas with that and what she's seen work.

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And she says that the word

ewww actually means new.

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Jen: Ah!

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I'm

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Stephanie: I'm like,

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that's new and I don't know

what I think of it yet.

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And To provide not a ton of

pressure, but to realize that

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children do need a lot of exposure

to certain foods before they like it.

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And to just try to make it well and

try to have them surrounded by it.

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And often they will develop

a taste for these things,

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especially if we start young.

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Jen: develop a taste for these

things, especially if we start young.

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Stephanie: Deficiency.

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Deficiency,

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Jen: thank you.

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All I could think of was density.

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I was like, that's not it.

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Deficiency.

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That it can be a nutrient deficiency.

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And so if some of those nutrients

are put back into the diet,

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that their picky eating goes

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away.

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So there's always

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something to look into there.

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Like, why is this child so picky about

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this?

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Yes.

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And

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is it a way of manipulating

and controlling mom?

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To get what I want.

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I just want

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to eat.

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What I want to eat, when I want to eat

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it.

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Stephanie: I will notice

a huge difference.

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My child that takes fish oil,

there is a huge difference.

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If he's been taking fish oil,

he will be a lot less picky.

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Even about taking the fish oil itself.

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It's if he takes it regularly,

it's not a big deal.

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But all of a sudden, if we lax up on that,

it's Oh, do I really have to take this?

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It's gross.

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And it's made a huge difference.

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Have you ever heard of Deceptively

Delicious, that cookbook?

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That's a fun one written

by Jerry Seinfeld's wife.

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Jen: I remember that.

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Stephanie: And just a way that you can

sneak veggies in all sorts of things.

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Jen: I remember that one.

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I had it for a while and my husband saw it

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Stephanie: it and said,

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Don't do that.

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If

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Jen: If you put vegetables

in, just tell me, but don't

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deceive me and think that I'm

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Stephanie: eating pasta when

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Jen: when I'm really just eating

like cauliflower or cucumbers,

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you I know.

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Stephanie: It's silly, but one of easy,

go to dinners is scrambled eggs and

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then just shredded hash browns, like

sauteed in olive oil or smoothie bowls.

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Jen: yes.

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Stephanie: These are things

that I have the ingredients on

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hand for, it's in the freezer.

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I try to make sure I always have

eggs and in a pinch, If it's just

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not going to work, I can have

dinner on the table in 15 minutes.

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And that one works really well for us.

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Jen: That's great.

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Yep.

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Stephanie: Sometimes nachos, which

I had once at your house and, it's

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gluten free, you just take a bag

of, tortilla chips, put them on a

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pan, brown some ground beef, put the

seasoning in, and then you scatter

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that over the nachos, sprinkle cheese.

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Just bake it for a little bit and then

you can add the toppings, but that

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one's an easy one that you often have

the ingredients for too, I feel like my

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perfectionism is the thing that stands

in the way the most of my meal planning.

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Because I feel like, oh,

it's never good enough.

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Like here, maybe that fit the

budget and everybody liked it,

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but it's not the healthiest meal.

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And just trying to have balance in that.

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And, you find out new information

all the time of Oh, actually

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that's not the healthiest thing.

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Just trying to do the best, but

an absolute crowd favorite at

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my home is Parmesan chicken.

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And it's so simple, because I just

take pasta, and then Costco has

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frozen panko breaded chicken breasts.

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So I will bake those, and then at

the same time, yeah, doing the pasta,

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and then also the marinara sauce.

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And, yeah.

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At the last couple minutes of the chicken

breast baking, I would just throw some,

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like a cheese on, some swiss, or some

mozzarella, and then you just cut the

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chicken breast up, throw them on the

noodles, put broccoli on the side,

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sprinkle some parmesan, and the marinara

on top, and my family loves that meal.

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Or a quick stir fry or even a quiche.

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I found if you know how to make

a quiche, that can be so simple.

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Again, always trying to have eggs and

then you add some fresh veggies in

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and you can keep pie crust frozen.

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So that's when we gravitate towards.

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Talk about what your breakfast

routine looks like with your kids.

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Jen: Breakfast tends to

be a battle in our home.

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I want them to get the protein in,

and so I'm always saying, please

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have at least an egg or a chicken

sausage or something with protein.

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My boys love cereal, and I have

tried to dwindle down buying

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it, but That's just not a

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hill I'm willing to die on yet.

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I'm like, that's something that I'm

just gonna deal with later, I think.

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So I allow them one bowl,

we have like very tiny Ikea

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bowls,

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I'm like

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when

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they were four.

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I allow them that one

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bowl of cereal.

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And we actually have what

we call Friday cereal.

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where they're allowed to have sugar cereal

on Fridays and they're allowed one bowl.

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But the other cereal is very low

sugar, but it is, it's cereal.

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But I still allow them to have it.

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And then I just ask them that they

have some type of protein with it.

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But I often will have sourdough toast

with butter and a couple of eggs

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and maybe some chicken sausage or

something in it quick ISH type meal.

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But I try really hard to get

protein in, especially the

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first, well at, at every meal,

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Stephanie: Huh, yes, but to

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Jen: for some reason, breakfast is just, I

don't know, it's just a hard one for them.

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Stephanie: Sure, if you don't start

out right it's hard to get right

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on Yeah, I think I shared in that.

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episode about, being committed to the

word, I had to realize at one point

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you can give your kids smoothies and

eggs and everything every breakfast

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or you can have time with the Lord.

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And I just felt again, that I'm

going to have to give in to the

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cereal battle for a little while, but

try to make them lower sugar ones.

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But then maybe instead of.

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giving a snack at 10 or 1030, I might

scramble some eggs and that's okay.

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So we're having it then instead and

it just works a little better for us.

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Jen: a good one.

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It is interesting though, because

Being a homeschool family we

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do have the ability to make.

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Bigger meals.

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And

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I said to Eric one time, I

was like, why is our house and

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our kitchen always the area?

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Like, why is

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it always dirty?

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He's

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you're eating so many

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meals at home.

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that's true.

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It's breakfast, snacks, lunch,

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Stephanie: yes.

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We do eat a lot of oatmeal.

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And I need to look up the science

again of it, but there's something

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about sprouting the grain if you soak

it overnight, at least 12 to 24 hours.

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So you, just like how you would

make normal oatmeal, but you put

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it in the water overnight and then

that makes it easier to digest.

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So I will often soak oats and then the

next, morning cook it and add chia seeds

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and hemp hearts and chocolate chips too.

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And, yeah, eggs or sourdough toasts.

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They do like yogurt and

smoothie bowls, I said,

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Jen: we like the chia pudding where you,

I'll do milkadamia and chia seeds and

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then some collagen vanilla protein powder

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Stephanie: Okay.

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Jen: we let that soak

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overnight

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and then in the morning they'll have

that with roasted almonds or dried

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cherries or cinnamon something on top

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and that's pretty filling.

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And good too.

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So I

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Stephanie: I heard, I think Josiah

told me you like tapioca pudding.

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Is that correct?

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Jen: I do.

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Yes.

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Stephanie: I love it too.

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So I, that made me

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Jen: think about, that's funny.

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Stephanie: Some people don't

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Jen: those

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Yes, you're right.

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Stephanie: but I do.

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Overnight oats too, I

think are a really fun one.

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And that one, because you're making

it probably in Mason jars, it's

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really easy to say, okay what

are your mix ins going to be?

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And baked oatmeal.

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I can link a great recipe

on there that often I'll try

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to have a special breakfast.

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Like maybe on Saturday night I will

make a special breakfast for Sunday.

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But I try to make a double portion so that

we have enough to eat on Sunday and Monday

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when we're heading out the door for co op.

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Jen: that's smart.

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Stephanie: So baked oatmeal

is a good one for that.

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Jen: I have a really good

baked French toast that

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uses

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all the ends of the bread.

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My kids don't like the ends.

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I actually like them.

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So I will tend to eat them,

but not as many as what we have

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in

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the bag.

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So all the ends that are loosely

in the bag, I will take that out.

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Put them in the freezer and it and then I

take them and I grind them up and make a

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baked French toast.

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It's really good

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Stephanie: Okay, yum.

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Yes, we definitely have to link that.

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And this is it might seem silly, but

at one point I had a snack routine.

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Because I realized the dinner

question wasn't as stressful

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as the, Can I have a snack?

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Can I have a snack?

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Can I have a snack?

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Yes, I understand you're hungry, but

I'm wanting them to eat healthy things.

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And I have a rule you better

have eaten a fruit or a

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vegetable before you even ask me

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that question.

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So if I hear the pantry door open, like

often even one of my kids will yell out,

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have you had a fruit or vegetable yet?

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But just assigning okay,

Monday we're going to have.

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Popcorn and peppers.

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Tuesday we're gonna have

celery and, and nut butter.

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And then maybe have pistachios

and carrots another day.

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Or apples and Swiss cheese,

or just having that assigned.

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And then also having one of your children

hey, how about you get that ready?

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It doesn't always have to be on us,

but I try to not do as many packaged

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things, another easy breakfast one,

which not everyone may love this, but

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if you have bananas that are going

bad, you can make paleo pancakes.

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So mash up one banana with two eggs

and then, you know, double that.

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So if you're doing six

bananas, twelve eggs.

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So you just really mash

it up well together.

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Butter your skillet or your griddle.

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And then you just, take your ladle, pour

on the batter, and then I do add chocolate

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chips in ours, but that is a really

satisfying, I mean it's high protein,

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it's gluten free, dairy free, and that

is often one that will have bananas going

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bad, and I just use them that way, and

then I will make double for the co op too.

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Jen: I end up taking my bad bananas

and I peel them and put them in a

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baggie and put them in the freezer for

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Stephanie: Yes.

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Jen: But I

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like this idea.

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I'm going to try that.

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You don't put any flour of any sort?

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What about collagen powder?

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Stephanie: I haven't tried

that, but that sounds great.

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Jen: it

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Stephanie: I think you

could do protein powder too.

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They are harder to flip.

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There's an art to it and they're not

going to be your prettiest pancakes.

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Jen: Are they like a

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:

crepe?

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Stephanie: Almost.

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It's between a pancake and a crepe, yes.

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Yeah, they're great.

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It's funny, my kids have learned

Lincoln will always say, if I'm

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making pancakes, and what are in these

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Jen: are in these

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Stephanie: Like,

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What's the trick?

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Jen: These true

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pancakes, mom.

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Stephanie: They order pancakes in the

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Jen: they're like, she's been

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Stephanie: lying to me!

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all my kids like pancakes, but, If

you're going to go for straight,

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just Non healthy regular pancakes,

lemon ricotta pancakes are the most

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amazing pancakes I've ever made.

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We had a bunch of ricotta cheese

from the food show once and I was

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like, what can I make with this?

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:

And they said that in magazines when

they photograph pancakes, they're

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generally ricotta pancakes because

they make them so light and fluffy.

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You whip the egg whites, you add ricotta

cheese, which adds so much protein.

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:

When my son came up, I was like,

what kind of pancakes are these?

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:

What are you putting in?

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I went through all the ingredients, but

then he said, and some extra protein.

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And I was being honest.

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:

And then after he ate it,

I said, did you like it?

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:

He said, yes, I did.

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And I said, okay, that extra protein

was ricotta cheese, just so you know.

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And then he was like I

knew there was a catch.

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Jen: That's, so it's

ricotta not cottage cheese.

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Interesting.

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Stephanie: I'm not a big

ricotta fan, but the texture of

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it, they're light and fluffy.

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I think because of that extra

protein you don't get that tired.

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Jen: Yeah.

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Stephanie: as Nate Bargatze

called it, your loaf of bread

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with syrup feeling afterwards.

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Jen: syrup feeling.

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Stephanie: That was a lot of ideas.

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Yeah.

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So, Hopefully that was

inspiring and not overwhelming.

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Hopefully you saw that sometimes we have.

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a lot of a plan and sometimes we're

winging it and needing to be flexible.

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We would just encourage you to

start out with a plan and then

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you know where you can flex.

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:

That's really worked for both of us.

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If you found.

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:

Hope peace or encouragement

through this podcast.

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:

Would you share it with a friend,

either share this episode, share

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:

the show or go and write a review.

474

:

So other moms can find it too.

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:

Thanks for listening.

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:

We know you're busy, Mama, so

we are truly grateful you joined

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:

us for this episode of Again.

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If you're looking for more information

about building your home on the

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:

foundation of Jesus Christ, head to www.

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:

EntrustedMinistries.

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:

com to learn more about our study for

moms, Entrusted with a Child's Heart.

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:

This scripture saturated study

has blessed families around the

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:

world, and we want it for you, too.

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Before you go, I want to pray

this benediction over you

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:

from 2 Thessalonians 1, 11 12.

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:

We're rooting for you.

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:

To this end, we always pray for you,

that our God may make you worthy of His

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calling, and may fulfill every resolve

for good and every work of faith by

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His power, so that the name of our Lord

Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in

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:

Him, according to the grace of our God.

491

:

And the Lord Jesus Christ.

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:

Amen.

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:

Until we meet again.

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About the Podcast

Again
Biblical Motherhood Untangled
So much of what we do as mothers is on repeat. Join us to redeem this repetition and untangle from the confusion and overwhelm of parenting. We'll follow the Agains in the Bible to focus on the things that matter most. Let's look up together to embrace a motherhood full of freedom and joy! This podcast is sponsored by Entrusted Ministries.

About your host

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Stephanie Hickox

Stephanie has always delighted in God’s Word and in sharing it with others. Whether it is equipping mothers and leaders through Entrusted with a Child’s Heart, inspiring students when teaching at homeschool co-ops or children’s ministry, or homeschooling her own children, Stephanie’s life mission is to encourage others to follow faithfully and joyfully after Jesus—especially if they hold her favorite job title: mom.

Betsy Corning wrote Entrusted with a Child’s Heart in 1999 in response to the needs she saw in families as she and David counseled young parents just a few years behind them. Entrusted has been taught in hundreds of churches nationwide, been translated into several foreign languages, and has made its way around the world. More recently, Betsy received her Masters in Biblical Studies from The Master’s University and is developing a new Bible Study program called Get the Word Out. Her passion for God’s Word, discipleship, and teaching biblical principles as they apply to family life has remained strong to this day. One of the greatest blessings in Betsy’s life are her three grown children, their spouses, and ten grandchildren that keep her constantly in touch with every age and stage.

Jen Freckman Is an incredible wealth of wisdom. She will tell you a natural remedy for just about anything! She is also a voracious reader and she is just overflowing with quotes and guidance that she's encountered through reading and being faithful. She delights in her children and is a devoted mother. She is also an amazingly creative problem solver! Her solutions to manage her home and guide her children are inspiring.

Emily Deyo is such a treasure. She is an incredible encourager and servant-hearted woman. When she has the mic in front of her, so much value comes out! She is a wordsmith and her heart consistently beats for how she can encourage and serve others. She is a truly loving and attentive mother.

Join Betsy, Emily, Jen, and Stephanie as they share the wisdom only Scripture and on-the-job training can provide to help untangle the joyful calling of motherhood.