S18: E13: How I'm Cooking These Days Artwork

Old Fashioned On Purpose

Have you felt it? Something is rippling through humanity at this moment. It's a stirring... a longing... a remembering. A sense that we are more capable than we’ve been led to believe. We want to feel alive, not sedated.. but we've lost our way. We've traded a life intertwined with nature for asphalt and artificial lights. We've swapped natural movement for a sedentary existence. We've given up food from the earth in favor of food from the factory. We've sacrificed our traditional skillsets for apps and gadgets. But while our overdose on modernity may have made us sick, there is an antidote. Join best-selling author and mentor, Jill Winger, each week as she digs into a different facet of the old-fashioned on purpose lifestyle.

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Old Fashioned On Purpose

S18: E13: How I'm Cooking These Days

April 06, 2026 • Jill Winger • Season 18 • Episode 13

0:00 | 28:23

In this podcast episode, I’m sharing details on how I’m cooking these days. I'll explain why rigid recipes and traditional meal plans just don’t work well for our full, ever-changing family life. We’ll talk about the strategies and principles I lean on instead, including how to make peace with a more flexible approach to food, and why giving yourself permission to experiment can be so freeing.

I’m also diving into the art of using leftovers creatively, wasting less, and building meals from what you already have on hand. Let's chat about how to start cooking with more confidence, less stress, and a whole lot more real life in mind.

Podcast Episode Highlights:

Life changes but I'm still passionate about food (it's just different now)
The meal planning problem
Strategy #1: Ingredient baseline
Strategy #2: Not a recipe, but a category
Strategy #3: Flexibility and leftovers
Strategy #4: Figure out what needs to be used ASAP
Principle #1: How to use frameworks
Principle #2: Keep the building blocks on hand
Principle #3: You can repeat things
Principle #4: Make room for imperfect meals
Practical example that I recently did
Give yourself permission to play and experiment

Resources Mentioned in This Podcast Episode:

Learn more about Meal Craft here: https://mealcraftmethod.com/

--> Use the code PODCAST for a $15 off discount on Meal Craft

Learn more about Azure Standard here: https://www.azurestandard.com/?a_aid=ANnu0O8ySU
Helpful blog posts on building up your pantry: https://www.theprairiehomestead.com/2021/10/how-to-store-and-use-bulk-pantry-goods.html and https://www.theprairiehomestead.com/2021/09/how-to-store-a-years-worth-of-food-for-your-family-without-waste-and-overwhelm.html

OTHER HELPFUL RESOURCES FOR YOUR HOMESTEAD:

Sign up for weekly musings from my homestead: https://jillwinger.substack.com/
Get my free homesteading tutorials & recipes here: www.theprairiehomestead.com
Jill on Instagram: @jill.winger
Jill on Facebook: http://facebook.com/theprairiehomestead
Apply to be a guest on the Old-Fashioned on Purpose podcast: https://www.theprairiehomestead.com/podcast-guest-application

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