Show Me The Baby
Short and sweet tips on parenting, health and wellness, organization, leadership and life skills from a mother and small business owner who wants to help others navigate life's challenges.
Show Me The Baby
Episode 34: Simple Cooking
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My youngest dear daughter joins me to chat about simple cooking. A few steps and a few ingredients doesn't mean the meal isn't tasty and healthy too. While there are more complicated recipes, at the end of a busy day, a healthy meal with limited steps is the answer.
To learn more about me and to purchase my book that outlines all the topics I share about parenting, organization, wellness, leadership, and life skills, visit www.kristynlee.com
Well I made me a podcast.
SPEAKER_02I'm invested by how was made for it. Welcome to the Show Me the Baby podcast. This is your host, Kristen Lee. I am here to share and expand on topics outlined in my book, Show Me the Baby. Short and sweet tips on parenting, wellness, organization, leadership, and life skills. Why show me the baby? My lifelong friend and mentor never had the patience for lengthy explanations. His mantra was don't tell me about the birth, show me the baby. What I am sharing are brief to-the-point lessons that I have learned, advice that I was given, or information gathered from others. I want to share my experiences to assist you in navigating parenting and life. The episodes are based on some of the subjects covered in my book and are unscripted, sometimes going in a direction that wasn't planned, but I think makes them more interesting. My goal is to expand on each theme, keeping in the Show Me the Baby way in 15 minutes or less. For a complete list of all the topics I discuss, you can purchase my book, ShowMeTheBaby, at Amazon.com. For more information about me and a link to purchase, go to my website, Kristenlee.com.
SPEAKER_00That's K-R-I-S-T-Y-N-L-E-E.com.
SPEAKER_02Hello, this is Kristen Lee, and this is the Show Me the Baby podcast. Today, um, my youngest daughter is joining me for another topic, and we're doing something, she said, do something lighthearted, nothing heavy today. So especially it's a workday, and at the end of a workday, I know it is not. Sometimes your brain can't take a heavy topic, correct, Hayden? Yes, yes. Hence the hence the light-heartedness. Lightheartedness. And she is doing this remotely all the other times she has been in the studio, but today it just worked out um that she is uh coming on remotely, not many miles from my podcast studio, but um I think you're enjoying being outside in the sunshine and the dogs and the horses, so it's a good place to podcast.
SPEAKER_01Oh yes, very peaceful.
SPEAKER_02Very peaceful. So today's topic is from the book, simple cooking. Um, I wrote the little uh again, most everything in the book is pretty short, but I talked about um just the complications of cooking. And for me, when something is a long recipe with lots of steps, I tend not to do it. But Hayden, I will say, I know you tend to do recipes with more steps than I do. So let's talk about how do you feel about simple cooking and life and fitting it all in because you are a not only a dog mom and horse mom, but you're working full-time and cooking is just another thing to add to your day.
SPEAKER_01It is indeed. But I also love cooking, as you mentioned in your book about yourself. Um, but I agree. I do not like coming home after a long day and having something super difficult to make. I think also personally for me, staring at a recipe makes cooking not nearly as fun as just putting something together.
SPEAKER_02But I find too, once I think you're this way. I don't want to assume you're this way. But once I if it's a new recipe, new recipes can be for me overwhelming, even if just they're with a few steps because you have to stare at the recipe or stare at your phone or stare at your iPad. But once you've done it a few times and it becomes, you know, you know the recipe, then it's easy. I think that's that's a hurdle you have to get over too. But anything with I'm not doing anything with 20 steps, I'll tell you that. I don't know how you feel.
SPEAKER_01And then you well, you read that a recipe that's that complicated, it just is overwhelming. And I'm like, Yeah, I think I'd rather do something I already know.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. And I and I think that I have been uh I've obviously been cooking longer than you because I'm older than you, but I feel if if if recipes, and I'm going backwards, if recipes are too complicated, I don't think I would cook as much. And I think for new people new to cooking, and you can be older and new to cooking, um, and it doesn't mean you have, you know, you have to be a young person, but I know plenty of people who grew up and were in households where, you know, there was no cooking done. No, that things were, you know, it was a lot of fast, really fast, quick food. I mean, and it wasn't technically cooking, but warming things up, you know, or making macaroni, you know, making macaroni and cheese, making hot dogs, making and it and probably it was because it was so quick and and the families, you know, came f you know, they were people, you know, the pa parents were working, the caregivers givers were working, or the kids are making food themselves as they get older. So it's a lot of quick fix stuff. But e you know, if you're new to cooking, I think starting out, and even if you're not new, just if you don't if you're not a if you don't want to be in the kitchen for hours and hours, simple cooking can be really good, in my opinion.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and I think it's important to find the balance because I was just talking uh to someone about this the other day, but it's a full-time job. If you're wanting to cook everything from scratch, like it is a full-time job. It's it really isn't possible. And I mean, every ingredient, cheese, butter, you know, everything you would use. Every ingredient if it's made from something, if it's not just a core natural ingredient. And I would love to live in a society where that was the norm and we could eat like that, we'd probably have a lot less disease. But being able to be satisfied with making dinner meals every day that aren't completely fast food, but you know, they're never gonna be every single ingredient made from scratch. So you have to you have to accept you're not making your own cheese. Is that what you're telling me? I'm not. I'm not making my own cheese, and I'd love to make my own bread every day, but that's also not happening.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. And and you're right. And I think this is a lot of life. It's it's figuring out what works, you know, healthy choice. I mean, I'm I, you know, I'm I'm health and good making good choices for your health is important to me. But you there are also some gives. I mean, you you have to decide, yes, you're not. I mean, and and there are people who do make their own cheese and make their own butter, and and I it would have to be I envy them. I envy those people, but it would have to, you know, be somebody, it's probably somebody who isn't in addition. I mean, that's part of their job. Maybe that's their job to do that. And and yeah, you know, the barefoot Contessa, I mean, I don't know if she makes her own cheese, but but I know she she's a um a chef, and I I have her books, and a lot of the recipes are are you know great, but often for me personally they're they can be too complicated and over the top, but but there are some simple ones too.
SPEAKER_01But Oh, and I think there's also a place in a time for complicated recipes, you know. Like if you have the time to and the patience, then it's can be fun. But when you're on a time crunch and you're just trying to get dinner out.
SPEAKER_02Get get dinner in, yeah, then I have a question going back to your childhood. Do you remember on weeknights, especially um when weeknights during I mean, and I work through the summer too, but weeknights, especially like during busy times where where you were at practice or you had a game. Do you remember? Do you look back and think having family meals together was stressful, or did you enjoy it?
SPEAKER_01I I mean, I think overall it was definitely a positive. Um, obviously we don't know what the negative is. If we didn't have dinner together every night, I don't know what that would be like. So I can't compare it, but I'm assuming it probably would not be great. It would just be, you know, us isolating in our rooms. Yeah. Um and I think the only reason I thought it was stressful is because I could see how stressed you were. But um I was fine. I was just happy and homemade dinner.
SPEAKER_02Well, and I do look back thinking, I I I it was so important, and I've said this in a previous podcast, it was so important for me for us to come together at the end of the night, even if it was late, which sometimes it was 8:30 or 9, but we sat together, and if if it was just a f you know, 15, 20 minutes, and everybody kind of had that time to decompress, and we sat down and had a meal together, and it wasn't a gourmet meal, sometimes, yes, it was often, you know, I I would do pasta with a red sauce or you know, and throw some whatever sausage in it, and and I always try to do a a salad or, you know, something else, but but I think too what you're saying about a time and a place, you do make complicated recipes because I heard about a cake you made that somebody was raving about, and that seemed like a complicated recipe to me, but maybe Oh, and you know the funny thing is it was one of the easiest desserts I've ever made in my life. Really? Yeah. But it was I mean, it sounds I did not eat it, I I was not offered it, but you made it, you made it for your grandparents, and I heard from my dad how uh over the top it was, as he said. So it was simple, but still obviously weary.
SPEAKER_01Simple. It was just packed with sugar. So that's probably why I liked it.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Again, in in you said it, there's a time and a place for complicated if you want to go to complicated. I made a cake for your birthdays.
SPEAKER_01Let's talk about that. The chocolate cake. Oh, I was well, the chocolate cake, but the ice cream cake was a big one.
SPEAKER_02But the ice cream cake was easy. Really, in the big picture, it was way easier than I thought it was gonna be. Yeah, because it was, you know, I used pre-made ice cream for the ice cream cake, but there was a cake that my friend Valerie gave me the recipe for, which I will not remember the name of the cake, but it had a lot of steps in it. And I made it during COVID because there was time. So that recipe to me was complicated. It was delicious, but because it was during the time when, you know, you were home, you know, everybody was home. We weren't doing as much. Um I mean, I was still working, but yeah, but I had the opportunity, and it was a one, it would, but I haven't made it since. You probably don't remember, but it was a it was a chocolate cake.
SPEAKER_01I remember it was a really good chocolate cake.
SPEAKER_02It was a really good and it was and that was worth it. That was worth it. But I think, yes, the time and the place, and for me, and when I wrote the chapter in the book, it was simple cooking to me, makes me not as anxious. And I enjoy cooking. Do you are is cooking for you cathartic a little bit when the timing is right?
SPEAKER_01Oh, absolutely. And that's a it goes back on everything we've talked about. I really do enjoy cooking when I'm not in a rush, or you know, if it's a recipe from memory, then I it is fun as well.
SPEAKER_02And even at the end of the day, on the days that I, again, when I was making family meals and I was stressed, and it wasn't every day, but there, yes, there were certain days. It was more about the timing, you know, getting home from from, you know, being at a line, I just keep using volleyball because those were the memory, those are the memories I have. It was volleyball games coming home. And it was when we had a an you know, a home, you had a home game, a home match or whatever it's called. And I would, I I already had a plan, but I never was much of a crock pot cook cooker. I know people cook in the crock pot, but um I know you do you do you still do crock pot stuff certain days?
SPEAKER_01I go through phases and it is really nice, but I feel like it's nice to make chicken. Like if you have want to use chicken at night, I remember you used to use rotisserie chicken a lot, but I'll just when I get home from work, put chicken in the crock pot. And then by the time I get home from the horse barn, then I can make whatever recipe that uses chicken and it's already cooked.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. And I think it also depends on timing when you leave. Like I feel like if I s I don't often get home until later, so I can't, I'm not gonna leave chicken in the crock pot for like eight or ten hours. That's the other problem.
SPEAKER_01You have to have the right timing. Yeah. Yeah, I use it on and off. You definitely should use it sometimes though, because it is nice.
SPEAKER_02And I feel like it's more of a winter thing too. Like crock pot.
SPEAKER_01I say that too.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02And I grill, and you know, gr in the summer, grilling out is it you once you learn, if you don't know, I mean a lot of people grill, but once you get the knack for grilling and the timing, grilling can be so easy. Because it doesn't take much if you're a meat eater to throw chicken or steak or hamburgers or whatever on the grill, and that can be really good with just other things.
SPEAKER_01But my favorite, one of my favorites, and it's Owen's favorite too, is your grilled chicken.
SPEAKER_02I know. And I don't even know you've said that, but I I'm thinking I don't even know what I what I how I do it, but something, yeah. It's some kind of sauce. But I don't make the sauce. It's a it is a pre-made sauce that is um has good things in it, so it's not no high fructose corn syrup. I look at labels for that labels. I don't and I don't want to buy anything or use anything with high fructose corn syrup. I can taste it. I can taste if I get something with high fructose corn syrup, I can taste it. But but yeah, I hope I passed on my love for cooking, because I feel like you have that. Because to me, cooking equates love. And with my, you know, my grandmother to to her, cooking was love, sharing her cooking. You know, she would take food and deliver it places um because to her that was helpful and showing love. So I feel like my family dinners and my cooking was my love for you, showing love in the way through cooking.
SPEAKER_01Yes, I definitely agree.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_02Will you try different recipes? Like, are you an experimenter of recipes? Like, will you will you think, oh, that tonight's night I'm gonna try something new?
SPEAKER_01It just depends. Um, I guess if I see a TikTok or something on Facebook and it looks easy enough and I have everything for it, I will, but usually I just do rounds of different recipes that I rotate that you rotate.
SPEAKER_02I feel like I rotate recipes a lot, and I think it's probably the ease of it. And then also I probably get in a rut. I think if you cook a lot, you do get in a rut. But but some things can inspire you, and you got inspired. Um, I asked you to go to a store, a local store, and buy me some whole wheat flour because I wanted to make bread because it was inspired by my friend who's found a good bread recipe. I have not done the bread recipe because I think from start to end it's four hours. So I have yet to have four hours where I can tend to a loaf of bread. But when you went to get buy me the whole wheat flour, you bought yeast for me, and then you bought yeast for yourself, which inspired something.
SPEAKER_01Yes, I did get quite a hefty burn out of it, but oh you did. I successfully made a homemade pizza and it was actually pretty good.
SPEAKER_02And was this the first homemade pizza you've ever made?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I've made um I've made homemade cinnamon rolls before, just in terms of like homemade dough and a couple other things, but it was the first time I think I've specifically made dough for pizza.
SPEAKER_02And and that was inspired by that was inspired by you just buying the yeast. Is that how it happened?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, probably. I've been wanting to make homemade bread of some sort, and I haven't had yeast for a while, and then when I got it, I'm like, oh, there's so many things I can try. Um, because actually I got a bunch of different flour from the bulk store. Oh. So I had cake I have cake flour and I have um double zero, like, I don't know, some type of flour. That's what I use the pizza for.
SPEAKER_02So in buying something at the grocery inspired you to to try other things. So I think that's also a way, you know, to get inspired. I was inspired by my my friend who was making bread, which then trickled to you because I asked you to go buy me because because the store where I needed you to go is closer to where you work than where I work. Not that anything is that far where we live, but just can out of convenience. So yeah. So her her her inspiring me, I inspired you by having you go get the things at the store.
SPEAKER_01A whole chain of events.
SPEAKER_02It how it happens, how it happens. Well, um, I think this episode was good and hopefully it will inspire both people who enjoy cooking and you know, may want to look at simple recipes just for the w for the reason of ease, and they are still good when it's simple. And and then going to a a more intense, complicated recipe when time permits, because that also provides, you know, fun, can can provide fun and and something really good at the end.
SPEAKER_01Me too.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Yeah. Well, thank you for joining me on another episode. And this hopefully this was light and didn't didn't create any more stress at the end of your day.
SPEAKER_01It will um inspire me for cooking dinner in about an hour. So thank you.
SPEAKER_02Well, remember, simple cooking makes life easier. It does. It does. And it's still good. Simple cooking doesn't mean bad, it just means don't make it too complicated if you don't want it to be. True? Amen. Amen. Amen. Thanks for joining me, and I hope your dinner tonight is delicious. Thank you for having me. Bye. Bye. Thank you for listening to the Show Me the Baby podcast. And I hope you join me again for another episode. My book, Show Me the Baby, is available at Amazon.com. To learn more about me and a link to order, visit my website, Kristen Lee dot com.
SPEAKER_00That's K-R-I-S-T-Y-N-L-E-E.com.