Get ready to unlock the secrets to savvy cooking and smart budgeting with Anne Milneck of Red Stick Spice. We traverse Anne's inspiring leap from culinary aficionado to the proprietor of a gourmet grocery haven, serving up indispensable advice for enhancing your meals without breaking the bank. As food costs rise, our conversation is more timely than ever—packed with tips that will transform your kitchen practices, from reducing waste to creative meal planning that makes every dollar count.
Ever find yourself dismayed by the amount of food that ends up in the trash? Anne and I tackle this head-on, revealing how a 'stock bag' can turn scraps into rich homemade stock and discussing the power of proper food storage and labeling—techniques that not only minimize waste but also maximize flavor and freshness. We also unpack the art of managing bulk purchases, the merits of glass containers, and the glory of a well-utilized sheet pan to make your cooking routine as efficient as it is delicious.
If you're longing to keep your meals exciting without constantly reaching for the takeout menu, we've got you covered. Anne offers up her strategy for themed meals and the importance of a reliable fallback recipe, ensuring you've always got something up your sleeve for those hectic nights. We also step into the Red Stick Spice classroom, where cooking techniques are demystified for novices and food enthusiasts alike, proving that gourmet grocery stores are a treasure trove for anyone eager to learn. With these lessons in your apron pocket, you'll be cooking with confidence, reducing waste, and savoring every bite of your budget-friendly creations.
Welcome to Money Matters, the podcast that focuses on how to use the money you have, make the money you need and save the money you want – brought to you by Neighbors Federal Credit Union.
The information, opinions, and recommendations presented in this Podcast are for general information only and any reliance on the information provided in this Podcast is done at your own risk. This Podcast should not be considered professional advice.
Get ready to unlock the secrets to savvy cooking and smart budgeting with Anne Milneck of Red Stick Spice. We traverse Anne's inspiring leap from culinary aficionado to the proprietor of a gourmet grocery haven, serving up indispensable advice for enhancing your meals without breaking the bank. As food costs rise, our conversation is more timely than ever—packed with tips that will transform your kitchen practices, from reducing waste to creative meal planning that makes every dollar count.
Ever find yourself dismayed by the amount of food that ends up in the trash? Anne and I tackle this head-on, revealing how a 'stock bag' can turn scraps into rich homemade stock and discussing the power of proper food storage and labeling—techniques that not only minimize waste but also maximize flavor and freshness. We also unpack the art of managing bulk purchases, the merits of glass containers, and the glory of a well-utilized sheet pan to make your cooking routine as efficient as it is delicious.
If you're longing to keep your meals exciting without constantly reaching for the takeout menu, we've got you covered. Anne offers up her strategy for themed meals and the importance of a reliable fallback recipe, ensuring you've always got something up your sleeve for those hectic nights. We also step into the Red Stick Spice classroom, where cooking techniques are demystified for novices and food enthusiasts alike, proving that gourmet grocery stores are a treasure trove for anyone eager to learn. With these lessons in your apron pocket, you'll be cooking with confidence, reducing waste, and savoring every bite of your budget-friendly creations.
Welcome to Money Matters, the podcast that focuses on how to use the money you have, make the money you need and save the money you want – brought to you by Neighbors Federal Credit Union.
The information, opinions, and recommendations presented in this Podcast are for general information only and any reliance on the information provided in this Podcast is done at your own risk. This Podcast should not be considered professional advice.
Welcome to Money Matters, the podcast that focuses on how to use the money you have, make the money you need and save the money you want Now here is your host, ms Kim Chapman.
Speaker 2:Welcome to another edition of Money Matters. Do you like to cook? That's okay. Do you have to cook? Because if you do, this is going to be the show for you. We have a real treat today. Joining me is a very special guest, homegrown right here in Baton Rouge Anne Milneck. She is the owner of Red Stick Spice, and so, whether your cooking skills are going to be limited to boiling water or hot dogs, or maybe you're a little bit fancier and you like to do some quiche or beef wellington, I am sure you're going to walk away with some helpful tip today to help cut down on food costs. Welcome, ann hi kim, I'm so excited to be here.
Speaker 2:Thanks for having me I'm excited, and if I and and I have been kind of collaborating over the last couple weeks to do some little videos for social media on how to cut down on food costs, because everything is rising. I mean you're either paying more, getting less you, or basically the price is just going up through the roof, and so, whether that's fast food or groceries, we want to be able to help our consumers, you know, get more bang for their buck. So that's why we have you here, and so I'll just have you just kind of start off by telling us a little bit about you and how you got started in the food industry.
Speaker 1:Sure. So I have always loved to cook and growing up I watched Julia Child on television and told my mom that's what I wanted to be. And in the 80s, when I graduated high school, she wasn't so on board with me going to culinary school. So I went to LSU and then, when I was 40, I mentioned to my husband that I'd always want to go to culinary school and he said that sounds like a good idea. And I went the next day and enrolled and got a degree from Nichols in Thibodeau, louisiana, at the John Foss Culinary Institute.
Speaker 1:So I was a non-traditional student. I was 40 years old, I had children in elementary and middle school and so when I got out of school I figured out pretty quickly. I did some catering on my own and I figured out pretty quickly that restaurant work wasn't going to work for me and I was a customer of Red Stick Spice and I went in one day. I was looking for a job and I and but I went by to get ingredients for making. It was around Thanksgiving and I was making my uncle's rice dressing and I needed ground bay. I remember it very specifically and the owners were there. We had gotten to know each other because I was a customer and they said, do you want to buy our shop? And I said yeah, they were ready to retire and so it keeps me around what I love, which is food, but I don't have the hours and wear and tear on my body that a lot of traditional restaurant chefs experience, which just wasn't a good fit for my family at the time, and so we grew it.
Speaker 1:We've expanded three times. We're looking for a second. We moved location to Mid-City. We're looking for a second. You know, we moved location to Mid-City. We're looking for a second location. So it's just been a great 12 years working in the shop helping home cooks make mealtime better. It's a gourmet grocery store. When you walk in, you're hit by the smell of spices.
Speaker 1:And I would say yeah, the heart and soul of the shop is the spices. We also sell olive oils, infused olive oils, we sell balsamic vinegars, we have a whole line of tea and we teach cooking classes. So a big part of my moving to Mid-City was finding a space where we could build in a teaching kitchen and teach cooking classes, and we've been doing that for six years now.
Speaker 2:And I would say, while we have everybody's interest piqued already, go ahead and shout out what that address is a website. Let's go ahead and get that out so they could have that set as they take notes about everything else you're going to share with us today.
Speaker 1:We are at 660 Jefferson in Mid-City Baton Rouge, so that's the area where Jefferson Highway meets Government Street and the website is redstickspicecom and we have a very robust online presence and it's a really easy shop to shop, whether you come in the shop the brick and mortar or shop online Really easy to shop and lots and lots of local folks shop online and pick up curbside.
Speaker 2:And for those of you listening that may not be aware that there is more than just salt and pepper out there, I tell you your taste buds and your aroma, your nose, your senses are going to be in for a real treat if you decide to stop by there. But let's go ahead and get started. So, like I said, we've been really collaborating, working on trying to provide some tips for our listeners in terms of how can they cut down on cost. So let's dive in and talk about some of the food waste hacks that you can share.
Speaker 1:So one thing that came up pretty quickly when we started doing our videos was that we create a stock bag in our freezer. So I often talk about pantry staples and how important stocking a pantry is, and I think of my freezer as an extension of my pantry. So what we do is, when we are cutting aromatics like onion, garlic, celery, carrot, when we're chopping and cutting, those bits and pieces that would normally go in the trash bin go into a gallon-sized Ziploc bag and stashes in the freezer. It can be just vegetables, it could be vegetable trimmings and you make a vegetable stock with it. Or it can also be trimmings from chicken, so let's say, you don't use the wing tips on the wings of chicken. Or it could be bones left over from a cooked chicken, like a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store. That can go in the stock bag as well. And so our rule of thumb is when we can't zip that bag anymore, it's time to make stock, and that goes in a big Dutch oven. You cover it with cold water, you bring it up to a nice, good, solid simmer just for a minute and then you lower the heat and you bubble it away and you've just made stock from things that would have gone in the trash bin. So that is definitely food waste hack number one. It is in practice in the teaching kitchen. Every single day we're using that stock bag.
Speaker 1:The other food waste hack and it's more about thinking about as you're purchasing. If you purchase things and you throw them away a week later, that's where you need to stop and say why did I have to throw that away? Is it because I wasn't cooking or because I didn't store it properly? So a lot of times it's storage and a lot of times it's produce that gets thrown away. So that would be. My next hack is really wrap, really get to know ways to extend the life of that produce so you're not throwing it away a week later.
Speaker 1:So herbs, things like parsley and cilantro they come in a big bunch at the grocery store. They're usually sub $1 for a bunch of parsley, which is a great deal, unless you're throwing it away five days later. Then it's not a great deal. So you want to treat that like a bouquet of flowers. So we trim the bottom into a glass with water sitting on the shelf of the fridge and we'll refresh that water every few days. Maybe. Trim it again and refresh that water. First of all, it's pretty. You just open up your fridge door and it's pretty. But it will really extend the life of those herbs Lettuce. Get it washed, get it as dry as you possibly can, then wrap it in a damp paper towel and either put it in a zip top bag or put it back in the produce bag. You know that plastic produce bag. You can put it back in there, but you want to get it cleaned and in a damp sort of airtight environment and that will extend it.
Speaker 1:Think about your freezer.
Speaker 1:One of my biggest mistakes I do it all the time, I do it at the shop, I do it at home, I still do it is I'm tired at the end of the meal or putting away the groceries and I'll put it in the freezer and I'll tell my brain you're going to remember what it is and I never will remember what it is.
Speaker 1:At the very least, date it, even if I mean you've got the Sharpie in your hand, go ahead and write chicken gumbo and the date, but at the very least date it, because when everything's dated then you can put the FIFO system in place First in, first out. So you want to be moving those, the older things to the front so that you use them first. The FIFO is what's in place in all commercial kitchens in the refrigerator, in the pantry and the freezer. And you can't do FIFO if you haven't dated it. If you have a mystery Ziploc in your freezer and you don't know the date on it, there's no way to figure out if you, when or if you even should be eating it. So moving those older things to the front so that you use them first is a great habit to get into.
Speaker 2:I tell you, before we started this series, out of all these tips, I think that's the only thing that I was doing before I always dated my, you know, anything I put in the freezer. When I get, you know, raw meat, I'll put it in a smaller bags and date it and move it. But I tell you, some of the tips you're giving are just so practical in terms of, like that stock. We all use, you know, onions, garlic, celery, and I'm one of those people that I like fresh, crisp, hard celery and, of course, you know, after a couple of days it starts to soften it gets kind of rubbery.
Speaker 2:Exactly. I've learned to put it in that cold water. And you know it brings it right back or put it in the stock pot for later, even the leaves. You know things that we throw away. You know for people that like really love saving the earth when I think about all the tons and tons of onion peels and garlic peels and things of that nature that I've thrown away, that I've could have been, that I could have been making stock with. So these are some really good, great tips.
Speaker 1:Thank you. You know food waste tips. I think what mine sound like more than anything is less about food waste tips and more about what do we do on the front end to even prevent food waste, to even prevent that from happening. And those are the kinds of things we like to teach in terms of storage and thinking about how you're storing your food and when you should use it.
Speaker 2:So what are some common mistakes people make when they're trying to cut down on their grocery expenses, and how can they be avoided?
Speaker 1:So I know this happened to me early on when warehouse stores became like a big deal to have a membership at Costco or Sam's. And I still hear people talk about it. A Costco run is really fun, don't get me wrong. I people talk about it. A Costco run is really fun, don't get me wrong, I'm here for it. But if you're not going to use that bargain buy, then it's not a bargain. If you're throwing that away, or if you've bought a large container of, say, spices and it's just sitting in the cabinet for years, that wasn't a bargain. So that would be tip number one or the mistake that I see a lot. But in general, no matter where you're shopping whether it's the grocery store, if you're feeling good about going to the farmer's market, if you're not consuming it and you're throwing it away, it's a waste, it's a waste, it's not a bargain.
Speaker 2:So 20 cucumbers for a dollar.
Speaker 1:Right, it's a waste. It's a waste, it's not a bargain. 20 cucumbers for a dollar, right? So if that whole cucumber is definitely, when you do the math, more economical than going to the salad bar and buying slices of cucumbers, but if you're not going to peel it and cut it and store it properly and eat it, then it does make sense to go get a portion of sliced cucumber from the salad bar to eat with your hummus, right then.
Speaker 1:So a lot of people are down on you know, pre-cut or pre-prepared produce or burgers that are already in the patty. But if that means you're going to consume it and not throw it away, then to me that's a bargain, right. The other part is a lot of really inexpensive food out there in the world is also highly processed food. Now, I'm not a registered dietitian and I don't want to give health advice, but I've personally worked with a dietitian for years and I've learned a little bit about turning that package around and looking at the nutrition facts. So if it doesn't have certain number ratios and I also look at a really long list of ingredients I know that's a highly processed food and In terms of at the cash register it seems like a really good bargain. They're really low in price, but they're also low in nutrition.
Speaker 1:And even nutrition aside, just feeling satisfied, satiety, you know that food doesn't have the nutrition in it to help you feel full, feel full. So how is that a bargain if you've not only fed your body something that's not good for it, but you're also hungry because it's not a filling food, it's not a nutritionally dense food. So those would be sort of the three big ones. That I would talk about is mistakes that I hear people talk about. And you know why should I bother learning how to make a stir fry? I can just get this stir fry for X number of dollars in a frozen bag and my question would be but what's in it and are you going to feel satisfied?
Speaker 2:And you know is it really even saving money at the end, right, right? So when you mentioned earlier in terms of, you know, storing foods, freezing food, things like that, what would be your top recommendations in terms of maybe the most common things that people like to freeze or store in order to get longevity out of it?
Speaker 1:So, in terms of meat going, if you're buying in a big package, as quickly as you can, think about your needs at home, your family size, how you're going to cook. Make sure you're getting that broken down and into those portions as quickly as you can, dated and in the freezer. So that's a really wise buy, as long as you get it broken down and ready for those individual meals. If you're doing that, one of the best investments you can make is in a vacuum sealer. We use one all the time in the teaching kitchen. It is also a space saver in the way you can really flatten things out and get things stacked up in the freezer. So I love talking about our vacuum sealer. My chef in the teaching kitchen, Matt, uses it all the time and it's a great time saver and money saver for us. So that would be number one.
Speaker 1:I talk about zip top bags a lot and I do like them for certain things, but I prefer glass containers for sort of day-to-day movement of leftovers that you're going to consume, not freeze. So you make a lasagna, you have some left. It would be great for lunches the next couple of days. I like glass containers for that Because it's not only a storage container. It's a great microwave container and you can eat right out of it. Container. It's a great microwave container and you can eat right out of it. So I like glass containers and reusing glass jars, like mason jars for storing in the fridge to eat again, and they are the best way to air quote recycle glass. So there's very little glass recycling going on in the world, so reusing glass is actually the smartest way to if you want to feel like you're recycling glass.
Speaker 1:So at our store we sell spices in bulk and so you can buy as much or as little as you need. We sell in weight and so we love seeing people walk in. They walk in with our competitors' glass jars that they've washed and reused to put our spices in. They come in with baby food jars that they're reusing or small little canning jars like jam and jelly jars. That's a great way to think about storage and good for the earth if that's important to you.
Speaker 1:But a great way to think about storage in your kitchen and I love it for ease of reheating and eating. It can be there for kids to heat up after school, for after school snacks, but a great way to portion things out and not put that big casserole dish covered with foil back in the fridge. I feel like often when I do that that's the dish that ends up in the garbage can four days later, Whereas if I portion it and it's labeled dish that ends up in the garbage can four days later, Whereas if I portion it and it's labeled, my husband's more likely to take that portion out, eat it and eat it. So that's one of my favorite tips for storage in the kitchen.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it looks absolutely more inviting when it's already portioned. It seems like it's less work and you know, just have that bag or that jar and you could just throw it in a microwave. So what are some other money-saving kitchen tools that you would recommend for home cooks looking to trim their grocery budget?
Speaker 1:So a sheet pan or multiple sheet pans good quality sheet pans. They need to feel a little bit heavy when you pick them up and you shouldn't be able to take it and twist it and you can twist and warp it.
Speaker 2:I need to throw away my foil pans is what you're saying.
Speaker 1:So a good heavy duty sheet pan will go miles and miles and miles for you in the kitchen. So it's everything from sheet pan suppers that are so popular right now. So definitely for those meals that you want to get on a sheet pan. It's great for reheating, it's great for pizzas. But having a sheet pan in the kitchen is or good. Sheet pans in the kitchen is one of my favorite tools in the kitchen. The other is we love parchment paper, but foil would work as well.
Speaker 1:I find that when it comes to cleanup, that for me and my husband and I watched it all when my kids were at home the wheels would fall off the bus because everyone's tired and annoyed by the evening. And it comes to cleanup and that's when that whole casserole dish gets shoved in the fridge. And so parchment and then cleanup. That's really when everyone loses it. So being able to clean things up quickly knowing I think sometimes the dread of cleaning stops people from cooking at all, and knowing that you can clean up quickly is really, really important, and parchment is one of our favorite tools in the kitchen.
Speaker 1:Then I am not opposed to any of the trendy gadgets out there right now. A lot of people thumb their nose at Instant Pots and things like that. For me and my husband, now that we're empty nesters, the air fryer has just become this thing that I turn to many nights a week and people are like, oh, a chef using an air fryer? But hold on a minute. An air fryer is just simply another heat source. It's just a tiny convection oven.
Speaker 1:Is what it is a really powerful convection oven, and I encourage folks to find that gadget, whether it is a panini press or an instant pot or an air fryer or a crock pot, whatever it is and just lean into it, if that's what gets you there, if that's what gets you to a meal at the end of the day. Folks talk a lot about well, I got one and I don't know how to use it, or I don't like the clutter on the counter. I hear all of that. But now that we're using this air fryer and you know these are nights when I would have just like said you know, ordered food or fix some cereal, you know, and we've got a nice meal because of the air fryer I'm just here to say if you're using a gadget and it's working for you you're doing it right.
Speaker 2:I love my air fryer compared to, like you say, heat turning on the oven. You have electricity costs, then it heats up your kitchen and it's too hot for that in Louisiana. That's one of my favorite gadgets, Absolutely favorite. Yeah, All right. So when people think about reducing costs, especially groceries, you know they think about, oh you know, buying a cheaper product, maybe something that's not as flavorful. So what are some ways that people can reduce grocery costs without sacrificing flavors, sacrificing, you know, the integrity of the meal itself?
Speaker 1:staples right now because they're so, so important to the home cook. Think about the freezer as extension of your pantry. So look at frozen vegetables and frozen fruit. Granted, you can't make a fresh salad out of them, and I'm not saying abandon all fresh produce, but if you're not eating vegetables because of either the cost of those fresh fruits and vegetables or that you know you're going to throw them away, then let's find dishes that work with frozen fruits and vegetables. So, for fruit, it's more than just smoothies. There's so many things you can do with them.
Speaker 2:Yes, we learned that.
Speaker 1:We made a dessert called a creeping cobbler and it was amazing. We also made overnight oats with frozen fruit. So there's a whole lot you can do with frozen fruit and it is just such a bargain and it lasts for a long time in your freezer. Same with frozen vegetables. So you've got so many options with soups and stews and long cooking dishes that use up frozen fruits and vegetables. Then I would turn.
Speaker 1:I talk a lot about beans, kim, but they are such a bargain and they are nutritionally dense and they're so versatile. So just make sure you're buying canned beans, that that's the only ingredient on the ingredient list, or they might have some salt in them, but nothing else in them. And there's so many things you can make with garbanzos. You've got hummus, you know. With garbanzos or chickpeas, you can also roast them and have a great snack. So there's so many things. I say embrace the bean you know like. Get to know all those canned legumes and find ways to cook with them. Buy your spices in small quantities. Again, if you're at the warehouse store your membership warehouse store and you're buying those big canisters of spices, remember a ground spice. You need to move through it within six months.
Speaker 2:I think that's worth saying again.
Speaker 1:Yeah six months with your ground spices, so they don't go bad, but they definitely lose their potency. So it really makes sense to buy in small quantities. A store like mine, you can buy as much or as little as you need. You can bring in a recipe and we will weigh out your half teaspoon teaspoon and sell you just what you need for that recipe. This happens most often in our store at Thanksgiving.
Speaker 1:People come in and they say I make my Aunt Helen's spice cake and I only make it one time of year. And they come in and they buy that teaspoon of cardamom right then and that's it. There's no jar of cardamom in their cabinet. You can have a jar of cardamom in their cabinet. You can have a jar of cardamom in your cabinet as long as you're using it all year long, but they lose their potency after six months. So buying in small quantities really makes sense and that speaks to. So that is called buying in bulk. So people think buying in bulk and they see a big cart coming out of Costco loaded with big you know.
Speaker 2:That's what I would think.
Speaker 1:Right, multi-packs of steaks, and that is buying in bulk. But buying in bulk also means you're going to the bulk aisle or a store like mine which is a bulk store, and you're buying by weight, only what you need, by weight, only what you need. So when you go in a bulk aisle at a grocery store you're probably going to find your nuts, grains, seeds, things like that, things like rice or barley or farro or almonds. It's where you want to be. For those types of ingredients the packaging isn't as pretty and you're packing it up in a bag, but it is such a cost savings to be in that bulk section for those items. And in my store that's the spices, spice blends and salts. You can buy as much or as little as you need and keep only that on hand.
Speaker 2:It really makes sense because I like to cook. Everybody in my family likes to cook, so my spice cabinet is full. However, if I were to leave here and go start plucking out the jars that are over six months, I'd probably be left with salt and pepper.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. So don't throw those jars away. Empty them and wash them and then restock. You can come in the store and say only fill that jar a quarter of the way or only fill that jar halfway, so that you then stock your pantry with things you're going to move through in that six months, rather than doing what you just described of having to purge your whole spice cabinet Exactly.
Speaker 2:So another thing that comes to mind when you think about trying to cut down on food costs people like to meal prep, so what are some tips that you could give about meal prepping that would really make a difference in somebody's budget.
Speaker 1:First of all, meal prep is such a aesthetic right now A lot of photographs of influencers and they open their fridge and their fridge looks perfect. And I get intimidated around that kind of perfection and then my brain goes to well, just don't do it, you know, just skip it, because it'll never look like that. And so I'm here to say that's not what meal prepping looks like and it also doesn't look like all or nothing. Thinking so, meal prep also started to look and sound a whole lot like my entire Sunday is spent planning and making all the meals for the week and getting those loaded in the fridge. And that's where Ann, this lady, is like nope, not going to happen. So I don't like the all or nothing thinking around it.
Speaker 1:For me, something is better than nothing. In a lot of weeks all I prep are my grains. I'll do a pot of rice and maybe I love farro, you could do quinoa, you could do your pasta, you just boil your pasta. So I just like having my grain ready to go, because a lot of the proteins we cook, because it's just me and my husband, I'm just cooking, like two pieces of salmon, two chicken breasts. That'll come together pretty quickly. My grains are done, figure out a vegetable. So that's what works for me and it doesn't mean that's what's going to work for everyone. That's the other part of meal prep I don't love is a lot of folks tell you this is how you should meal prep, and to me, I'm like you should meal prep the way that what you, and more than anything, meal prep, is something you're going to eat and not throw away on Friday. That's the key.
Speaker 2:Exactly that's what I think is a little intimidating. You see somebody meal prep and it's all one dish. You know it's all chicken, chicken, chicken, all quinoa, quinoa, quinoa, and then it's like I might not want that on Wednesday or Thursday, Right.
Speaker 1:And I don't have anything against. Say, you make a lasagna on a Sunday, you know one big thing that's great as long as you eat it. Then I want you to think about. Let's say then that lasagna doesn't get eaten and it needs to go in the freezer. I would really encourage you to freeze it in portions and not put that whole lasagna in the freezer. First of all, thawing a whole or even a half lasagna takes a long time. So freeze it in portions, and then the family has an option.
Speaker 1:Let's say there is someone who wants lasagna for lunch. They could pull it from the freezer and have it ready to go in their container and have it as a portion. Have it as a portion. So I do like talking about freezing, because I can't tell you how many times I have pulled a whole something out. First of all, I didn't date it, so I don't know when I put it in there and the whole thing has to go in the trash and it just didn't make sense for our family. So if you don't feel like cooking when you're meal prepping again, remember something's better than nothing, than chop.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:So peel cucumbers, slice them. Peel carrots, chop them or cut them into carrot sticks. Get those greens stored properly, rinse the fruit, do something, I guarantee you. Then on that Tuesday, when you open the fridge and you see sliced cucumbers, then your brain goes okay.
Speaker 2:That's a win.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm 25% of the way to a salad and then some of the pieces start falling into place. So, again, do something rather than nothing If you feel like meal prep has to look like this perfect event. It doesn't Identify something in your week that works. And a lot of people go to Taco Tuesday. People successfully so many families successfully have Taco Tuesday. Okay, so think about it. Think about. Why does Taco Tuesday work? What is it about Taco Tuesday? Is it because everybody likes tacos? Is it because you put chicken in the crock pot before you leave for work and it's done and eat Like what is it about your Taco Tuesday that works? Now think about what's working and how could you make it work again. How could you take it and say, okay, I'm going to take these aspects of Taco Tuesday that work and now we're going to have sandwich Thursday or waffle Wednesday. A lot of psychologists talk about habit stacking and I don't think that's habit stacking. I think that's more just trying to emulate what works another time in the week. But think about what is working, because something's working in your week and how could you do it again. And that is going to eliminate another night that you might have ordered takeout. The other thing is to identify a fallback meal. Okay, so there are going to be days when the tire is flat, or the meeting ran long, or it's raining and you don't have an umbrella or whatever else might happen Just have a headache. Right Immediately we pick up our phone and we go to the app to order food.
Speaker 1:What if you had a fallback meal that came together almost with your eyes closed? It was just so easy and you always kept those ingredients in the pantry. For me it's a black bean soup Two cans of black beans salsa and I have black bean soup. For me it's black bean soup, two cans of black beans salsa and I have black bean soup. For my daughter it's hummus. It's canned garbanzo. She always has tahini. She has a food processor, she makes hummus. My son it's tacos. It could be meat, but a lot of times it's carrots. He makes a sheet pan carrot taco and he always has the tortillas in the freezer. You know he always has the components for that meal. It's just like standard on his shopping list. What if you had a fallback meal that came together quickly, even when you had a headache, or even when you just got back from the flat tire getting the tire repaired and you could pull that together and I just encourage everybody to think about what would that be and how would you stock your pantry to?
Speaker 2:do that. I am definitely going to steal that idea. I absolutely love it because of course when I see our consumers come in, our members come in with their budgets food is always one of the highest one Meals out. Usually it just kind of blows their brain when they actually look at how much they're spending on meals out. But I get it. I understand you had a flat tire, you have a headache. That's life.
Speaker 1:It's hard.
Speaker 2:It's hard to say no, don't do that. Force yourself to go home and cook. But if you already have that planned out something in your house that's that fallback meal that would actually be something that you could go to quicker and think about it before you drive through McDonald's or pick up something and then you're just increasing your budget. I'm going to have to go figure out what my fallback meal is and that's going to be the question that I'll start asking everybody what is your fallback meal? That's going to be your homework.
Speaker 1:I like that, I really like that, and is it stocked in your pantry at all times? Like not a million ingredients, just what is that meal? But you Like not a million ingredients, just what is that meal. But you just always have it on hand.
Speaker 2:Mine actually was TJR Friday Little Frozen Wings. We won't tell anybody about that. All right. So for someone new to cooking because of course, there's always someone that just wakes up and says, you know, I need to start cooking more. I'm going to be a new spouse and I need to be able to, you know, cook gourmet meals and I need to be able to, you know, cook gourmet meals. For someone new to cooking, or managing their, you know, or managing a new grocery budget where should they start in terms of building a cost-effective pantry or spice collection?
Speaker 1:So for a spice collection, you need to figure out your space first. Figure out where you're going to store them and what that container looks like. So a lot of our spice, we have a lot of spices that are grab-and-go in little zip-top bags and I have so many customers say I had to install a hook in my kitchen to hang all these bags, or I got this particular bin to hang these bags and I mean I hear that. I hear what they're saying. Space matters, when you're going to store things matters. So I would say, figure that out first. Figure out what those containers are. Are they little mason jars? Are they baby food jars? Are they our grab-and-go bags? That's perfectly fine. Then start buying. The next thing I would say is we do have an essential spice set that we sell on the website. It's 11 spices. We've identified 11 spices and if you have these 11 spices in your cabinet.
Speaker 2:Is that KFC?
Speaker 1:recipe. If you have these 11 in your spice cabinet, you can do different combinations of these spices. And you can pull together a Cajun Creole blend. You can pull together a Tex-Mex taco blend. You can pull together a Moroccan, a North African Moroccan blend. You could pull together a Moroccan, a North African Moroccan blend. You could pull together a curry powder.
Speaker 2:All right, can I put you on the spot? Can you name those 11 spices?
Speaker 1:Cumin, coriander, onion, garlic, turmeric, paprika, cayenne. I got to seven Kim.
Speaker 2:And I have six of the seven.
Speaker 1:All that to say those spices, those individual spices, cross cultures. So cumin is used not just in fajitas, cumin is used around the world, paprika is used around the world. So, depending on how you combine them and in what ratios, you end up with a spice blend that leans toward a different part of the world. And with those 11 spices, you can pull together all those spice blends and, trust me, you'll make interesting dishes.
Speaker 2:And this is probably a good time maybe just to talk a little bit about your podcast and where they could go on your website to find those 11 spices, Because I know we have nine parishes in our field of membership and I'd probably fail to say all nine. So give us a little bit of information about where they can find this information and about your podcast.
Speaker 1:So my podcast is called Smidgen and it's on all the podcast apps and each week me and my producer, catherine, just tackle a. It might be a particular spice, or it might be a particular spice, or it might be a style of cooking or one recipe. It's all based on questions we hear in the shop and then I take those questions. I really lean in and take those questions and take them to the podcast and Catherine and I talk about them. They're really fun, they're sub 25 minutes and really easy listen and you're going to walk away with tips for cooking On the website at redstickspicecom. You'll see to walk away with tips for cooking On the website at redstickspicecom. You'll see a tab that says recipes and blog. Click there and then we have over 800 recipes on the website and they all link back to products on the website and will give you great ideas for putting those 11 spices or our spice blends to work in different recipes.
Speaker 1:And I think there's a misconception about my shop that we are it's definitely a specialty gourmet grocery store, but that we're foodies, or that we're food snobs. We're chef run, but it's not. We are very much here. We are home cooks first of all, and we're very much here for the home cook. One of the first things that happened when I bought the shop. It was about day three after I bought the shop and I was on the retail floor helping customers and then she leaned in and she whispered I still make red beans and rice on Mondays. And I thought to myself why are we? Why are we whispering? And that was interesting to me, that her perception was that that that was too sort of lowbrow for what we were doing in the shop. And that's when I went home that night.
Speaker 1:I was talking to my husband and I said we have to rebrand the shop like that is not. I want to talk. I want somebody bring me red beans and rice on Monday first of all. But yes, let's make red beans and rice on Monday and there's there's nothing wrong with that. We are here for the home cook. We can talk to you about what you put in crockpots. I even had a conversation the other day with a guy about his George Foreman grill. I didn't know they existed anymore. We had a great conversation about the chicken he makes in his George Foreman. And so we're here for the home cook, no matter how you're cooking. We just want you to get to weeknight meals, we want you to cook more from whole ingredients.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and so let's talk about that. You know I mentioned, you know some of our listeners may be at the very basics in terms of you know boiling water, and I imagine if you're not very, not very great cook, you waste a lot of money because you're, you know this is not the way it's supposed to be and you're throwing it away. It's nasty, you burned it. But you also do cooking classes. So tell us about those cooking classes. You know who are the cooking classes for. Is it for a gourmet cook? Is it for somebody that has a little bit of culinary skills? Who should come?
Speaker 1:So it's for everyone. So we have everything from zero experience in the kitchen to folks who, you know, really know their way around the kitchen, and it's there for everyone. So we do classes about three nights a week and we teach everything from the basics. We have a class that's called cooking essentials where we teach the you know, braise, bake, broil. You know all the saute, all the basics we teach. Then we have fun sounding classes. You know we have themed classes. So we teach curries, cocktails and cookies and but no matter what the, what the name of the class sounds like, the same thing happens in every class Everyone learns knife skills.
Speaker 1:Every, every recipe, as clever as the might be, is still a recipe we would make at home again. So we never want anybody to go. Well, that was a really cool Game of Thrones cooking class. I'll never make that. That's not going to happen. Even in a themed class, we make sure there are dishes that we would want to make again.
Speaker 1:So you're going to learn the basics of heat management. That is, 90% of the job in the kitchen is managing heat. So we are constantly walking around the island turning up heat, turning down heat, explaining why we did it, explaining what's happening when that skillet starts smoking. Heat management is really important when you should be moving from the stovetop to the oven when we use the broiler. You know, I hardly used my broiler before and now I use it so much more, and now that we teach it in the teaching kitchen. So you're going to learn all the basics of cooking, you're going to get some nice knife skills and you're going to get a packet of about eight recipes anywhere from eight to 10 recipes in every class is taught. You're going to get that packet to take home so that you can make them again.
Speaker 2:And thank you so much. This was a lot of good information. One more time, give us information where our listeners can find Red Stick and find you for some good, good culinary information.
Speaker 1:Our brick-and-mortar store is in Mid-City Baton Rouge at 660 Jefferson, and they can find us online 24-7 at redstickspicecom.
Speaker 2:Well, this has been great. I'm sure everybody listening learned something that they did not know before, and then, if they didn't guess what, we will definitely have you coming back. I mean, spring, summer is going to be here any minute and I know that there are some parents out there trying to figure out my budget. May be great now, but when those hungry kids come home for the summer and I need to be able to cook and prepare three meals a day with the same income, I know that you're going to be able to come back and give us some tips for that.
Speaker 2:So thank you so much for joining us.
Speaker 1:This was great, thank you.
Speaker 2:Today's tip is one that just might put some goodies in your pocket. So run, don't walk to any of neighbor's social media sites. Basically, in celebration of Financial Literacy Month, neighbors Federal Credit Union presents the Seafood and Spice Sweet Steaks. It's your chance to spice up your savings and indulge in some local favorites. Every Monday in April, we're going to be serving up some mouth-watering tips to help you trim your food budget, and we're going to be featuring Chef Ann Milnick from Red Stick and Spice.
Speaker 2:So all you have to do is comment, post and tag neighbors by midnight on the Wednesday of the week to earn your entry to a weekly drawing for gift cards to Red Stick Spice and Tony's Seafood. Two lucky winners will be announced every week live on social media. And that's not all. We're going to have a grand prize winner that we will select at the end of April that can win prizes worth $500, again for Red Stick Spice and Tony's Seafood. So, ready to spice up your savings and indulge in culinary delights? Head on over and check out NeighborsFCUorg for official contest rules and start tagging away.