297. Breaking Free from Diet Culture: Joyful Rhythms for Nourishing Meals | Jillian Margaret Wellness

Summary

Podcast Summary: Simple Farmhouse Life - Episode 297 Title: Breaking Free from Diet Culture: Joyful Rhythms for Nourishing Meals | Jillian Margaret Wellness
Host: Lisa Bass
Guest: Jillian Margaret
Release Date: July 8, 2025

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1. Introduction to the Episode

In Episode 297 of the Simple Farmhouse Life podcast, host Lisa Bass welcomes Jillian Margaret from Jillian Margaret Wellness to discuss "Breaking Free from Diet Culture" and establishing joyful rhythms for nourishing meals. This episode delves into the detrimental effects of diet culture and offers practical strategies for fostering a healthier, more enjoyable relationship with food.

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2. Jillian's Personal Journey: From Diet Culture to Nourishing Meals

Jillian begins by sharing her transformative journey with food and nutrition. Growing up as a "junk food junkie," her family's early experiences with her older sibling's Crohn's disease introduced her to elimination diets and juicing at a young age (03:14). This upbringing led to an unhealthy obsession with calorie counting during her teenage years and college, where she struggled with restrictive eating habits:

Jillian (04:37): "I spent years trying to eat 1200 calories... It was definitely not enough calories for somebody who was very active and who was still developing and growing."

Her awakening began with a shift in perspective inspired by cookbooks and the Food Network, which helped her appreciate food as a source of joy rather than restriction. This realization motivated her to host dinner parties, fostering a newfound love for cooking from scratch.

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3. The Impact of Diet Culture on Family and Food Joy

Jillian and co-host Margaret discuss how diet culture instills guilt around food, disconnecting people from the inherent joy of eating. Jillian reflects on her personal epiphany:

Jillian (06:30): "I can make anything. Like, if I want cinnamon rolls, I can make cinnamon rolls, and I can eat cinnamon rolls."

Margaret adds that societal pressures often remove the pleasure from food, making celebrations feel restrictive rather than joyful:

Margaret (11:06): "We've learned to not want to associate celebration and joy with food."

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4. Simplifying Nutrition: Practical Meal Planning Tips

Jillian offers actionable advice to simplify healthy eating, emphasizing the importance of meal planning and understanding the basics of nutrition.

a. Emphasizing Real, Homemade Food

She underscores the significance of preparing meals from whole, unprocessed ingredients:

Jillian (29:54): "If you're eating a lot of processed foods... single ingredients from the grocery store and combining them into different meals at home, that's like the best place to start."

b. Balanced Meals: Protein, Carbs, and Fats

Jillian advocates for balanced plates, focusing on the essential macronutrients:

• Protein: Prioritizing animal proteins for their complete and bioavailable nature.
• Carbohydrates: Emphasizing staples like potatoes and rice for their affordability and nutrient density.
• Fats: Incorporating healthy fats to support hormonal health.

Jillian (31:00): "Our meals need to have a protein. We focus on animal protein because it's the most complete."

c. Seasonal Produce and Budget Considerations

Highlighting the benefits of using seasonal fruits and vegetables not only ensures freshness but also aligns with budget constraints:

Jillian (25:00): "Look for what's on sale. If it's growing during this time, it's very abundant right now."

d. Creative Sauces to Enhance Flavor

To prevent meals from becoming monotonous, Jillian suggests making simple homemade sauces:

Jillian (40:44): "I have a yogurt sauce... It's so easy to use and can change the whole vibe of the meal."

She shares various easy-to-make sauces that add flavor without added complexity or cost.

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5. Addressing Picky Eating and Family Dynamics

Jillian discusses strategies for managing picky eaters, emphasizing consistency and the importance of not using dessert as a mere reward:

Jillian (16:21): "We always have to eat the meat or we do not get the dessert."

Margaret concurs, sharing her experiences and reinforcing the notion that dessert should complement, not replace, balanced meals.

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6. Managing Meal Prep Without Overwhelm

The conversation shifts to practical rhythms that facilitate daily cooking without exhausting time and energy:

• Meal Planning: Jillian stresses the importance of planning meals weekly to reduce daily stress.
• Batch Cooking and Leftovers: Preparing double portions to utilize leftovers for lunches.
• Prep Ahead: Simple preps like marinating meats or chopping vegetables in the morning to streamline evening cooking.

Jillian (50:11): "I meal plan every single week without fail. It removes so much of the stress for me personally."

Margaret adds that leveraging simple techniques like using an instant pot or slow cooker can make meal preparation more manageable.

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7. Promoting Jillian’s Resources and Platforms

Jillian introduces her offerings designed to support families in creating balanced and enjoyable meals:

• Instagram Presence: For daily inspiration and meal ideas.
• Simple Seasons Membership: A monthly subscription providing meal plans and recipes tailored to each season, including six dinners and four additional recipes each month.

Jillian (62:46): "With Simple Seasons, I simplify the idea of balanced meals that also taste good and fit the season."

Listeners are encouraged to visit her Instagram and website, Jillian Margaret Wellness, for more resources and to join her membership program.

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8. Conclusion

The episode concludes with Jillian and Margaret reiterating the importance of finding joy in cooking and eating, free from the constraints of diet culture. They emphasize that with thoughtful planning and a focus on real, homemade foods, families can enjoy nourishing and satisfying meals without feeling overwhelmed.

Margaret (65:33): "It's really simple. None of it's time-consuming. It just needed time itself."

Listeners are encouraged to apply these rhythms and tips to transform their relationship with food, fostering a household where meals are both joyful and nourishing.

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Notable Quotes:

• Jillian (04:37): "I spent years trying to eat 1200 calories... It was definitely not enough calories for somebody who was very active and who was still developing and growing."

• Margaret (11:06): "We've learned to not want to associate celebration and joy with food."

• Jillian (31:00): "Our meals need to have a protein. We focus on animal protein because it's the most complete."

• Jillian (40:44): "I have a yogurt sauce... It's so easy to use and can change the whole vibe of the meal."

• Jillian (50:11): "I meal plan every single week without fail. It removes so much of the stress for me personally."

• Margaret (65:33): "It's really simple. None of it's time-consuming. It just needed time itself."

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For more insights and resources, visit Jillian Margaret Wellness and follow her on Instagram @jillianmargaretwellness. Discover her Simple Seasons membership to access tailored meal plans and recipes that make healthy, joyful eating effortless.

Transcript

[Lisa]

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[Jillian]

Are missing a lot of maybe they're thinking of all of those technical things of do I have my protein? Do I have my carb? Do I have my fat? I think we're missing like what are you craving? What sounds good, what makes sense for the weather outside and for the season that you're in? I think people kind of have turned that part of their intuition off because cravings have this connotation that they're bad. You're going to be craving bad things, so if you're craving it, it must be bad for you, you know.

[Lisa]

My name is Lisa, mother of eight and creator of the blog and YouTube channel Farmhouse on Boone. On this podcast I like to talk about simplifying your life so you can live out your priorities.

[Margaret]

I help you learn how to cook.

[Lisa]

From scratch and decorate on a budget through this podcast and my courses Simple Sourdough and the Simple Sewing Series.

[Margaret]

I also help people reach their goals.

[Lisa]

From home through my business course YouTube Success Academy. I will leave links to these resources in the show notes in description box below. Now let's get show.

[Margaret]

Welcome back to the Simple Farmhouse Life Podcast. Today we're going to be talking about simplifying healthy eating with rhythms a lot of you may know. Jillian Margaret Wellness from Instagram and the meal plans that she shares to Simplify eating healthy, making it a rhythm that fits into your everyday schedule when you're trying to get three healthy meals on the table every day. She has you covered, and I think that she shares tons of great tips, many that I took from her Instagram and from this interview. So let's dive in. Welcome on to the show, Jillian. We are going to discuss a topic that a lot of people have a lot of trouble with. There's a lot of confusion on the Internet surrounding what is nourishing food. I think it's been over complicated quite a bit from when I first got married. So I got married and started having babies almost 17 years ago is when I had my first baby. And it felt very simple, like just get whole foods and cook with them. You know, get like just the basics and cook with them. And then now it's. There's so much more information. So let's start first by telling everyone about your Instagram and your mission and what you share.

[Jillian]

So basically, I've pretty much always been obsessed with food. It's been like, what am I eating next is basically what I've thought about ever since I was a kid. And I kind of had a weird coming to the whole nutrition world. I was such a junk food junkie when I was a kid, and my older sibling actually had Crohn's disease, which is an inflammatory disease. And so we had to be really careful about the food that we had in the house because it very much affected how he felt. And so we were very early on the whole elimination diets and juicing and all of that kind of stuff. Probably when I was eight years old, I think is when we started. So then I would go to my friends houses and eat peanut butter out of the jar in their pantry and raid their cabinets for, you know, brownie mixes and their freezers for ice cream just because I just loved eating and sweets and all of that. So by the time I was in high school, of course, it kind of morphed into thinking, which I feel like was probably about when you were getting married and having kids and all of that, because I've been married for about 13 years, so this was a little bit before that. And food became all about how little of it can I eat. Didn't matter how it made me feel or how healthy it was. Healthy was how few calories did it have.

[Margaret]

Right? Calories. Absolutely.

[Jillian]

Yes.

[Margaret]

Well, that was the whole culture there at that time.

[Jillian]

Totally. It was how little of it can I eat so that I can be as small as humanly Possible. And also, it wasn't about the ingredients. It was about. You maybe read the labels, but it was how many calories.

[Margaret]

Calories, Fat.

[Jillian]

Yeah, totally. So I spent years trying to eat 1200 calories, which I'm six feet tall.

[Margaret]

So I am 1200 calories then.

[Jillian]

Yeah. And I was 18 years old trying to do this. I remember my freshman year of college, reading the labels and adding up all the calories and reading Shape magazine and all of these and just trying to eat as little as possible, feeling terrible, and ending up, you know, eating an entire box of Chips Ahoy that night. Because obviously, I'm growing. I need just to support my frame, I need at least 2,500 calories. And so it was definitely not enough calories for somebody who was very active and who was still developing and growing. And I think that for a while, that was just kind of what food was about. I was thinking about what I wanted to eat, what I shouldn't eat, and then I just. I don't really know what shifted. I really started loving cookbooks and watching Food Network. That was like the advent of Food Network and all that. And I just loved watching people cook. And I remember thinking, for something that tastes so delicious and brings so much joy, why am I trying to minimize how much of that I get to enjoy? It was kind of that paradigm shift of, what if food wasn't something that I tried to ration, but it was something that I really relished and enjoyed? So. And then I started throwing these dinner parties for my friends, and I really discovered a love of cooking. And then I remember reading Nourishing Traditions, which I know that you're familiar with, that the Weston A. Price Sally Fallon book, and thinking, now, this is how we're supposed to eat. This is real food cooked in the home with quality ingredients. And it was kind of like a little bit of everything, not too much of anything. You can enjoy your food. You can make homemade ice cream, and you can eat it and enjoy it. You know, you didn't have to count how many scoops you had. And I just kind of discovered this epiphany of I can make anything. Like, if I want cinnamon rolls, I can make cinnamon rolls, and I can eat cinnamon rolls. And growing up, my family was not a cooking family. We had five meals. We rotated through. It was. Cooking was drudgery. It was a chore. I remember begging my mom to buy the Duncan Hines, like, muffin mixes and boxed brownie mixes, and I would make those after school, and I didn't know that you could make those things from scratch. It was like, oh, they come from a box. You mix the powder with the oil and the egg and you mix it together and you bake it. And that's how you make brownies. And so it was almost like this discovery. It was like magic. I didn't know that it could be like that. And by then I was living on my own and I just had so much fun in the kitchen. And then I kind of took a detour into veganism. And I can't even remember why I did that. I think it was just the trend and it was just that kind of. Also, I was a broke, 20 something person and I was like, oh, my gosh, I can eat for a week for $35 because I don't have to buy meat or eggs or yogurt. Exactly. And I still had a very whole food. I was not eating junk food, vegan food. I was making everything from scratch. I was eating my weight in sweet potatoes and homemade hummus and almond butter and dried fruit. And then I started rapidly losing weight. My hair started falling out. I wasn't ovulating anymore. I went to the doctor and she was like, you haven't ovulated in years and you're probably not going to be able to conceive naturally. And that was a big wake up call for me because my cycle had never been regular. I always had digestive problems. And it was almost like this full circle moment for me where I was like, I need to get back to the basics and stop following all the trends and just doing what people say you should do to be healthy. And actually what makes me feel healthy, what this person says is going to make me feel good. So I signed up for a holistic nutrition program and got certified as a holistic nutritionist. And I was so excited with everything I learned. And I started taking on clients and I realized if I can't teach them how to actually go in their kitchen and make this food, I can tell them how many grams of vitamin C is in a strawberry. But if it's, you know, that's so reductionist. If I can't actually teach them how to go to the grocery store, pick out their food, bring it home, and actually make a meal from it. And I feel like there is such this missing link in our generation because a lot of our mothers weren't doing that. And so we didn't see that model for us. And it's so confusing. And I think people who want to cook, they think, well, I go on Pinterest And I pick seven meals for dinner, and I buy all the ingredients. That is. It's like, that's so difficult. That's so much more complicated than each. And I know you're not big on meal planning, and I love how you guys. It's so holistic, how you're like, what do we have in the freezer? What do I have thought out? What's growing from the garden? And I do think it's. It's almost a personality thing where it's kind of like you are more comfortable flying by the seat of your pants on that, whereas I'll ruminate on it all day long. And I think that's why meal planning really was such a. Just a game changer for me, because I didn't have to think about it, and I knew we would have nourishing food on the table, especially once we started having kids and all that. So that was a really roundabout way of saying. I eventually signed up for culinary school because I thought, well, I need to be able to teach people how to cook this and make it taste good, because telling them the nutrition facts of food and how much of what nutrients they should be getting isn't really getting to the root of what the problem is in many people's homes. I've always had a heart for family nutrition, and especially encouraging and just inspiring moms, specifically because so much of that load falls on us, and there's so many people trying to tell us what we need to be eating and what our families need to be eating. And I think it's just kind of like we want to pull our hair out, you know? Yeah. So that's just kind of like the roundabout way of why I do what I do and why I am so passionate about really distilling it down to the simplest, simplest, simplest form and helping people find joy in actually, actually eating food and cooking food and getting to think about food again, not have it overwhelming.

[Margaret]

Yeah, well, because back when it was very trendy to just like, healthy meant less calories, that's when there was 100 calorie packs. I don't know. Are those still a thing? Like, I'm sure they're kid like my. My mom, you know, like, that was just what it was. Like, that was what health was. And we didn't have all the information that we have now. And so people just kind of, you know, took that, and that's how you lose weight. It was like the Weight Watchers, the point system. I think at that time, there so much guilt with food that we Learn to not want to associate celebration and joy with food. Like, I remember thinking, isn't it weird how all of our celebrations revolve around food? And then I've come full circle to where I'm like, of course they do. Like, we are meant to enjoy good food. That's. That's how God made it. And so there was just, you know, all that guilt. I think a lot of us have that from just the culture that we grew up in. If you were. I don't know, I can say for me, I was born in the 80s, but I don't know, you know, what it was like after that. But it's been like, it was like that, and then now people are coming back around.

[Jillian]

Well, and you remember at family gatherings, whatever aunt was on a diet, or if it was your mom or your grandmother, and they would say, oh, no, I'm trying to be good. I'm trying to be good. I'm not gonna eat that.

[Margaret]

And you're like, actually, be good.

[Jillian]

There is no good or bad. Like, does it make you a better person because you don't eat that slice of. You know, and that. I mean, still to this day, every time I have two daughters, and every time I hear somebody say that, I'm like, God, cover their ears. Don't let them hear that. Because I don't.

[Margaret]

I don't think people say that as much anymore, but I remember that. Like, I thought about that.

[Jillian]

Yeah.

[Margaret]

But, yes, absolutely. When I was a kid, that is something the adults would say. Another thing, like, when I was a kid that I noticed is adult women didn't really get the dessert. Like, they. If you were at a birthday party, the parents would just pass. Like, you know, they just wouldn't get it. And now, like, me and my sisters and my friends, I guess it's generational and it's cultural, but, like, we absolutely have a slice of cake.

[Jillian]

100%. I want it, too. You're like, I worked hard on that.

[Margaret]

Yeah.

[Jillian]

I wanted to also enjoy that.

[Margaret]

Yeah. It's just. I guess they had so much guilt surrounding food that it was like, okay, but if I eat that, then I'll have to, you know, pay for it later, maybe by, like, running or eating less of something that they enjoyed more. And I don't feel like we run that same. Same calculus in our heads these days, which is really great. I mean, maybe. Maybe a lot of people still have a lot of that remaining from when they were children.

[Jillian]

Yeah. I think it probably depends on what you're around growing up. And if You've ever struggled with weight loss or. You know, I feel like. And I don't know if you ever get this, but I post a lot of Day of Eating reels on my Instagram, where I'll show everything we eat in a day. And the first thing I get is people say, you must be in the kitchen all day.

[Margaret]

Oh, yeah, right.

[Jillian]

You know, I'm like, well, you know, eating is one of the, like, three or four things that we have to do to survive. So is it so bad?

[Margaret]

That's exactly.

[Jillian]

Like, I'm not cooking all day. I run a business. I homeschool my children. You know, I have hobbies, and I like to be active, and I like to be outside. So I'm not cooking all day, but it does take up a part of my day. And the second thing I always hear is, oh, I would weigh 300 pounds if people say that to me.

[Margaret]

If I made that much bread, I would weigh 300 pounds. And I'm like, you really don't know what your metabolism will do if you've been starving yourself for so long.

[Jillian]

Totally. And I always say, if I was eating all of this at a restaurant or if I was buying prepackaged versions of all of these things and I was not eating proper portion sizes, maybe I would struggle with weight gain. And I do think that there's this real disconnect of all food is created equal, but it's really not. I think, you know, a sourdough cinnamon roll that you've made in your own kitchen is going to be a lot different than a Cinnabon cinnamon roll, you know, but it does make me so sad when people look at a totally normal amount of food that is delicious, and it's the food that I'm craving. It's the food my family wants to eat. It's, you know, things that I'm craving in the season. And they think, oh, there's no way I could ever eat that. And I want to be like, yes, you can. I promise. You can. I promise. This is what your body is. Is really craving, you know, and. And I want people to just feel that freedom and that joy of feeding themselves and their families and to feel.

[Margaret]

Satisfied when you're done eating, not to think, oh, I wish I could have eaten that. Like a longing, you know, I remember in my college years, like, you know, I was in the culture of be good, all that. I graduated college in 07, and I remember thinking, like, I always feel like I want more, and I don't feel like that. Like, that Was that was just because of the way that I was eating. And, and I wasn't. I wasn't like tiny person. Like, I'm not, you know, it's not like I was so skinny, but I just like felt like I needed to limit myself. And then I always felt like I could always eat more. And that's not true. Like, now I eat dessert and I'm full. Like, I'm done. I'm not wanting and desiring.

[Jillian]

When I started letting myself eat dessert every day, I was shocked because, yes, I was the kid. Like, I would eat so much cake that I would make myself feel sick because I didn't know when the next slice of cake was coming, you know? So I was like, I better make this worth it.

[Margaret]

Yeah, maybe that's. Yeah.

[Jillian]

And so when I finally decided one, once I had kids, I didn't want to create this, like, morality around food. I wanted food to be joyful. I wanted it to be nourishing.

[Margaret]

Right.

[Jillian]

I want it to be thought of as fuel for your body and you want to eat the right amount of it. You don't want to eat too much, but you also don't want to eat too little, but. But also you just want to enjoy it. You want, you know, you just want to feel joy at family meals and joy when we get to homemade ice cream together. And I was just so shocked when I started. We just started eating dessert every night, which was one of our tools to use with picky eating, which I know a lot of people struggle with that with their kids today. We just always made it a rule we always have dessert.

[Margaret]

You try, like, wait, like people, some people are coming out of this still? Like, they, I don't know, like, they might still be locked in to like what it was like, maybe in 07. I don't know.

[Jillian]

Yes.

[Margaret]

But like, wait, what? Like, yeah, I still every day feel a little bit guilty about that. And like you said, like, I never really thought about that was picky eating. But I make things that people on YouTube probably think there's no way her kids are actually eating that. And honestly, I can get them to eat pretty much anything. And if one of the kids decides they don't want to. Right. Is that what you don't get dessert? Because that's what I do get dessert.

[Jillian]

I mean, it's kind of like, well, if you choose, we treat dessert as the cherry on top. Oh my gosh, I'm so excited. But it's not to fill your belly. I have a 9 year old son and he's like is always hungry, he's always eating. He's probably going to be 7ft tall. Like he is just ravenous all the time. So he'll regularly eat a whole plate of food just as much as I do. And then I'll say, mommy, is there any more food? And so, and we do a lot of leftovers, so we usually don't have more of whatever we've made for the meal. But I'm like, okay, eat a banana. You know, get some whatever I have in the fridge, like have a glass of milk. And then because I want, I don't want dessert to be what fills his belly.

[Margaret]

Yes.

[Jillian]

But it is that cherry on top that if you try everything on your plate, we have a two bite rule. You take two bites of everything because you know, one day, you know, a three year old will say, I love strawberries. The next day they say, I hate strawberries. The day after that, if you're like, well, you don't like strawberries now, you don't have to eat them. They will probably like strawberries again if you just say, no, you need to take two bites, you know. And so we just have a two bite rule. And it's just a well known thing if you choose not to take two bites of everything. And we do stress protein in our house because it's kind of, it's not hard to get your kids to eat carbs. It's not hard to get your kids.

[Margaret]

To eat fat dessert.

[Jillian]

It's that protein. Exactly. So we're just, we kind of, we give appropriate portion sizes on their plates and we do kind of have an understanding. If you could please just finish your protein 1. That's the most expensive thing on the plate. We don't want to waste that.

[Margaret]

Yes.

[Jillian]

An animal had to sacrifice his life for us to eat that. A farmer had to work really hard to grow that. We had to work hard to buy that. Mommy worked hard to prepare that. So let's respect that and just eat it. It's not always going to be our favorite. And of course, if they're gagging or I have one child who can't stand shredded meat, which is a travesty because it's like my favorite.

[Margaret]

It's so easy to make too.

[Jillian]

I know.

[Margaret]

And it's like a rock solid tender.

[Jillian]

Yeah, I know. But I have one wonderful child who just can't stand the texture. And she actually does gag. So we found ways, if I put it in a tortilla or on a bun for her, she can do it. And that's another thing I'm not. This is what I made. You will eat it like this?

[Margaret]

Yeah. There's always options. Like with all my meals, there's always options. I will agree with you. I'm the same. Like, just the other day we had one of my daughters made peach crisp for dessert. And my son, the three year old, which is, he's like the only one that ever will be a problem. Really?

[Jillian]

Yeah. Three year old is such. I always tell people, I'm like, just wait.

[Margaret]

Yeah, just wait. Like, because they all are picky at three. Not all, but like mine all were picky at three. Everyone.

[Jillian]

And it's not even about the food. It's about, wait. I have autonomy.

[Margaret]

Yeah, it's probably that. But I was like, well, you're not gonna have peach crisp if you don't eat your meat. Like, I don't really care if you eat your mashed potatoes or the green beans, but like, you, you have to eat the meat. He didn't eat the meat. He didn't get the peach crisp.

[Jillian]

But does that happen often?

[Margaret]

No, it doesn't. He'll. He usually eats. He always eats.

[Jillian]

I was gonna say, I think I can count on one hand the amount of time that's happened in my house when a kid.

[Margaret]

That's why I brought it up, because it was a memorable thing. Like, he always, he always will eat it. And I don't want to say, like, you know, because I think people will say, well, aren't you then making the dessert like a reward? Not really. It's just that I, I know that if I start allowing that, that they'll just fill up on dessert. And the problem with always having dessert is when a kid starts thinking, oh, I'll just get full at dessert, then that's what they're going to eat. And so I'm like, no, we do have to eat the meat or we do not get the dessert.

[Jillian]

Hundred percent. And I think, isn't dessert kind of a reward? I mean.

[Margaret]

Yeah. Is that wrong? Like, okay, so I'm still coming from this.

[Jillian]

Like, I know.

[Margaret]

Should we make it all about a celebration? What are we supposed to think? Because I, this is how I do it. But I, I just like anticipate the, the questions in the comments, you know, And I'm gonna be like, wait, is there's not supposed to be. I don't know if it is or isn't.

[Jillian]

I know.

[Margaret]

All I know is if you don't eat your meat or your protein, whatever the protein is on that meal, if.

[Jillian]

It'S Eggs or whatever.

[Margaret]

Eggs, whatever you. And, yeah, and yeah, you just simply can't be filling up exclusively on dessert.

[Jillian]

So. Yeah, and I think that my background in nutrition has helped with that, because I can understand fundamentally, what does a human body need to thrive? Is there bio individuality? I mean, that's like that big. The big buzzword, bio individuality. Like, we all thrive with different diets and different. Yes. But also we were all created with the same bodies, and there is a fundamental foundation of what our body needs to thrive. Now, within that, of course, there's going to be a lot of nuance. And, you know, there are some foods that are really good for you that maybe you're not going to prefer, maybe you don't digest as well, but there's always going to be some sort of substitution within that same category, if that makes sense.

[Margaret]

Yeah.

[Jillian]

And so I think just understanding one. Protein is the building block of your muscles, your immune system, and fats are how your hormones run, and carbs is the fuel for your body. It's how your muscles have energy to do what it does and how your brain has energy to work also. And so I understand we do need all of those. And then when you think about the other aspect of how food grows and how food is processed and where food comes from, this is what I always think. Sugar is, like, really, really hard to make, or maple syrup, even. I have one child who just would drink MAPL syrup out of the jar. And we read so many books. I know. I'm like, yeah, we would all do that if we could, you know, but think. I'm like, what if you were the person that had to harvest that maple syrup? We couldn't just buy the organic jug of maple syrup at Costco for $20, which is insanely inexpensive when you think about how much labor goes in to making maple syrup. And so of course, we homeschool, so we read so many books. And not that you have to homeschool to read a lot of books, but that's just what we do all day, is we read and we read so, so many books about maple syrup, how you make maple syrup. And I'm from Florida. We live in Tennessee right now, so we don't really have a whole lot of firsthand experience with tapping maple trees and how you make maple syrup. But even we read another book called Strawberry Girl, which was adorable. It was about a girl growing up during the Depression in Florida, and they grow cane sugar, and they go through the whole process of how they make cane sugar or the little house in the Prairie series, how they talk about how they make maple syrup. And our kids were like, wait, how much maple SAP does it take to make one cup of maple syrup? And I'm like, yeah, it's like 20 gallons of SAP to make like one cup of maple syrup. So do you think that we should be eating one cup of it at a time? If in nature it's not that abundant? And so that's a cue to me, if it's not that abundant or if it's very labor intensive to harvest in nature, maybe we should be eating it in smaller quantities. And so for dessert, when they're mostly sweeter or even of seasonal fruits, like, seasonal fruits are very abundant during the summer. And so it makes sense that we would fill up with more of those during the summer, but they're not so abundant during the winter. And so it makes sense that we would not eat as much of them in the winter. Just. Just kind of those, like, when you understand where food comes from and how it's grown and how it's harvested, it. It does inform kind of how it should fit into your diet. I don't know if that made sense, how I explained that, but, yeah, no, it does.

[Margaret]

And I think for a lot of people, even budget will dictate that. Like, if you go try to buy strawberries in the middle of winter, that's not the best decision on your budget. Whereas, you know, they're a lot more abundant during the summer.

[Jillian]

I know a lot of people will say, I don't know what. Because I always say, you know, seasonal fruits and vegetables is like a main part of how we make our plates. I kind of have like a rubric or a structure that I follow when I plan our meals. And seasonal fruits and veg is always one of the main tenets of what goes on our plate. People always say, well, how do I know it's in season? And I'm like, look for what's on sale. Because right now, I just went to the grocery store this morning and organic cherries were on sale. Organic strawberries were on sale. Organic grapes were on sale. Like, things that are growing during this time that are very abundant right now. Peaches were on sale. I think I'm thinking those are the things that are growing right now. You know, you're not going to have something that doesn't grow during that season beyond sale. So I think even if you're not as in tune with all of that, if you don't read Little House on the Prairie and know when things grow or how things are made. I think just seeing how much something costs or what's on sale during a certain time is going to tell you if it's in season, if it's something that's really abundant in nature, things like that. Whereas like potatoes or carrots, those are great. I feel like staples, diet staples for people to load up on because they're very inexpensive, very nutrient dense cart, calorie dense. You don't have to eat a lot of them to get a lot of energy from them. Just things like that, which I know that budget is such a huge concern for people nowadays, so we can talk more about that too. But yeah, I think it is just interesting when you really start to learn the roots of foods and talking about dessert being a reward. It kind of is a reward because it's very difficult to harvest sweet things in nature when you're not processing them in factories, you know.

[Margaret]

Yeah, yeah.

[Jillian]

So you're not wrong, Lisa. I do think I will back you up for this.

[Lisa]

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[Lisa]

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[Margaret]

Now and then those newborn phases kind of blur together.

[Lisa]

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[Margaret]

You mentioned like in season fruits that you also focus on protein. There's so much noise, confusion, different opinions out there. How can we simplify nutrition?

[Jillian]

So I think one are you eating real food made in the home? I think that's like the first place to start. If you're eating a lot of processed foods that you might buy from the grocery store, things that you don't actually have to, you can heat it up. You don't have to put the ingredients together, but single ingredients. If you're buying single ingredients from the grocery store and combining them into different meals at home, that's like the best place to start. And then I think after that you want to focus on am I making balanced meals? And so this is where the whole protein, carb and fat confusion I think gets in there. And I think also people who talk about it might even be confused. I remember reading some things somewhere where somebody was saying that peanut butter was a great source of protein. And I just wanted to be like, no, there's nothing wrong with peanut butter. I love peanut butter.

[Margaret]

But it's incomplete, right? Like it has to be paired with butter.

[Jillian]

It is incomplete, but if you actually look at the breakdown of the nutrients, it's way higher in fat fat than it is in protein. So it's a good source of fat. It might not be the most nourishing fat. Saturated fats are the most nutrient dense, they have the most vitamins and minerals in them. But it's a great source of fat and it's delicious. And if you crave it and you love it, it's okay to eat it. But I don't want people eating scoops of it thinking, oh, I'm getting so much protein. Because you're really maybe getting 2 grams of protein for every 9, 10 grams of fat. And so. And this is the thing that gets really tricky because people are like, well, I don't know what's a good protein and what's a bad protein and what's got fat in it and what's, you know, all of that stuff, I think, can get really, really confusing, especially when you go on Instagram or whatever your social media platform of choice is, and it's just like you're bombarded with, this is what I ate in a day. This is how I got this much protein. This is, you know, how I lose two pounds a week while still eating. You know, there's just so many. It's like overwhelming. I think anytime I feel, like, stressed out and overwhelmed, I'm like, I need a social media break. Because it's just so much information coming at us that we can't. One, we don't have time to process it, and two, we don't have time to verify if it's even true information or something that's even helpful to us before it's, like, shoved in our faces, you know?

[Margaret]

Yeah. And I think sometimes we think we're going to solve the information overload problem with more information. Like, I'm feeling really overwhelmed. Let's see what people are saying about this.

[Jillian]

I know. And then you're like, I have 17 more questions now than I did when I even started. And I think maybe I need to go by tahini or just something totally random that you would never even think that you needed. Exactly. Yes, exactly. And I totally get that. And I think just. Yeah. Going back to those basics of real food made in your home, am I getting a good balance? So what our rule usually is is our meals. When I meal plan, it needs to have a protein. And we do prioritize animal protein because it's just the most complete. It's the most bioavailable, easily digested. So bioavailable basically just means your body can use it the most easily. So do beans have protein? Yes, they absolutely do. They actually have more carbohydrates than protein and they're incomplete protein. And your body has to work hard, harder to actually use that protein for what it needs to use it for. So that's why we focus on animal proteins. Really high quality animal protein. And I think that people think, oh, there's no way I could get 120 grams of protein in a day. And they get really overwhelmed by that. But if you're eating animal protein at every meal and you're having one or two snacks throughout the day, you're probably a lot closer than you think you are. And so that just comes back to that whole balanced plate idea. So I always aim for a palm sized portion of protein, which just has always worked really well for me. I try to get 4 or 5 grams of ounces of protein at every meal. And this works for me because this is about 4 or 5 ounces. You're a smaller human being than I am. Your palm is probably smaller than me. And that works great because you probably need less protein than I do. So it's a good rule of thumb for how much protein you should be having on your plate. And then I always try to have a fist size portion of carbohydrate. So if that's rice, sweet potato, potato pasta, it should be about the same volume as your size of your fist. And then the rest of the plate I can fill out with seasonal fruit and veg. And I always make a sauce because I think whenever people say eating at home is boring, it's because they're not seasoning their food as much and they're not making sauces to put on it. I think that's when you think about restaurants food, it's always got a lot of seasoning and it almost always comes with a sauce. And if you're making those sauces at home, they're going to be a lot healthier for you, a lot more nutritious, and they're not going to be loaded with, you know, unnecessary oils and all that kind of stuff. So that's kind of how I go through planning our plate. And it makes it really simple. When I'm thinking, okay, what are we gonna have for dinner this week? Well, I have pork shoulder in the freezer, so we'll have pork shoulder on Friday because I can put it in a slow cooker. And then I think, okay, what protein or what carb do we want to have with that and what vegetables can we have with that? And then that meal is done. And so I think one that works for meal planning, but two, that works for just simplifying what do I actually feed my family? Because that there is such a mental load, especially on moms, of, oh, I have to come up with all the meals to feed my family, but I also have to make them all Homemade. Because that's the right thing to do. That's what we do these days. Yeah, exactly. You're like, can't just buy Stouffer's lasagna anymore. And you know, lasagna is great. It is very labor intensive. I maybe make lasagna two times a year, you know.

[Margaret]

Yeah, it is a. It is a more labor intensive, but it's delicious.

[Jillian]

And maybe a more celebration when you want to put more time into it. But I ate lasagna once a week growing up. I had no idea because it was a frozen lasagna. I was just like, oh, you can eat lasagna once a week. People don't eat homemade lasagna once a week for a reason. You know, they're mostly eating like what you're talking about a pot roast that you can put in the instant pot. Especially in the summertime. I feel like I want to be at the pool every day or I want to be out enjoying and it's kind of that thing. It's just so much easier to put something in the instant pot and then come home and make tacos with it or, you know, barbecue beef sandwiches or just things like it doesn't have to be Pinterest pretty to be nourishing and delicious and get food on the table, you know. And I think what I think people are missing a lot of, maybe they're thinking of all of those technical things of, do I have my protein, do I have my carb, do I have my fat? I think we're missing like, what are you craving? What sounds good, what makes sense for the weather outside and for the season that you're in. And I think people kind of have turned that part of their intuition off because cravings have this connotation that they're bad. You're going to be craving bad things. So if you're craving, must be bad for you. I crave watermelon in the summertime. I crave burgers. I crave really simple tacos and just lots of fruit and lots of beverages. Those are not bad things. And so I lean into that when I'm doing my meal planning and when I'm trying to decide what we're going to eat for the week. And I asked my family, what are you craving this week? What sounds really good? And I think that there's so much value in that that we've kind of turned off. We're thinking, well, what is so and so influencer eating this week? What superfood do I need to fit into my diet this week? How am I going to XYZ fill out this whole. How am I going to get enough protein? How am I going to get my enough fiber? I feel like fiber is a big one right now, too, that people are kind of not blowing out of proportion because fiber is totally important. But I think if you're eating a balanced, varied diet, you're probably getting enough fiber. Yeah. Instead of, like, stressing out about counting grams of fiber in all the foods that you eat kind of thing.

[Margaret]

So, yeah, that's just. That's just so much. I remember back when we were. There was, like, a time when we were doing the GAPS diet, and I was thinking it was. It's really so easy to just take ingredients and make food, like whole ingredients and make food. I have no trouble with that. Like, that's actually not something that burdens me because there's actually really less difficult ways to do it. Like you were saying, you know, you could do lasagna. Or like, the other day, my husband's like, hey, I'm gonna invite my parents and grandparents over for lunch. And, you know, we had church that morning, so we're gonna be getting home right when it was lunchtime. Literally. Take two frozen roasts out of the freezer, rock salad, put them in the instant pot at like, 8am by noon, they are so tender. Fall apart. Little mashed potatoes. Like, that's just not hard. That's not something that's.

[Jillian]

It's not.

[Margaret]

You know, it would have been probably harder to go to the store and grab a couple of pizzas and some, you know, ingredients for salad. That would have been a harder task than what I had there. And I completely lost my train of thought of where I was going with that.

[Jillian]

I think my scatteredness is wearing off on you.

[Margaret]

No, no, I. I definitely had something. Something that I was going for with that. But, yeah, you can really take the same end goal. Oh, I remember I was basically just saying that at one time we were doing the GAPS diet, and I was thinking, man, just having to just cook from scratch with real food ingredients and simplifying it to where that's the parameter, and you're adding in just some parameters of meat or not meat, but a protein and a carb. Honestly, that does just make it really simple. It makes it to where it doesn't sound so not doable anymore.

[Jillian]

And I think it comes more naturally to people than they think. Cause would you want to eat just an entire plate of pork chops? Probably doesn't really sound appetizing. Would you want to eat Think about.

[Margaret]

Like, do I want to carb? Like, of course. You want to have diced potatoes, something.

[Jillian]

And the thing that you.

[Margaret]

Rice with that.

[Jillian]

Yeah. That you imagine going with it probably is the thing that's supposed to go with it. Exactly. It's not as complicated as it's made out to be. For sure.

[Margaret]

It's really not. Okay. So I wanted to ask you about the sauces, because I'm intrigued by that. And I have a younger sister, and she's. We always. You know, we're talking about our meals and everything, and she makes sauces all the time for everything. And I was like, wait, what was that like? Tell me again how you made that sauce. Like, I couldn't even tell you the names of them because she's. She's always thinking about that. And I do think it adds a little, you know, extra something. If people are feeling like their meals are getting really boring with just having protein carb veggie, maybe they're making the same protein carb veggie over and over, and they're like, how can I mix this up?

[Jillian]

Up?

[Margaret]

What are some of the examples?

[Jillian]

So I have kind of two, maybe three kind of versions of sauces that I make. So one is a yogurt sauce. I love a yogurt sauce. It's like. It's my favorite one. So I almost always put garlic in it. So I'll just put. And I just put it all in, like, a weck jar, like a mason jar. I'll put. Fill it half with yogurt, and then I'll grate a clove of garlic in there. So boom. Like, even just. That is delicious. With a pinch of salt. So if I'm kind of. I can go one direction, and I could put, like, lemon juice and some chopped cilantro or parsley in there. Delicious. I could put it all in the blender, and I could blend it all up with lime juice and maybe. Or maybe lemon juice and dill or something. And then you have, like, a dill kind of sauce to go on there. And it's all green, you know, and it changes whether you chop the herbs and you put it in there or if you put it all in the blender. Half the time, I put it in the blender because it's just a lot easier to just do that and then pour it in a jar afterwards. And so that's my favorite. And then I recently did one for one of the issues of the meal plan subscription that I have, and it was kind of like a Caesar, and I Did garlic and parmesan with a little bit of lemon juice, a little bit of salt in Greek yogurt. And it was. I mean, I was, like, eating it with a spoon out of the jar. It was so good. And so, yeah, just some simple grilled meat with some even grilled vegetables or just rice or something. And you could just like, pour that sauce over. It changes the whole vibe of the meal. That really would.

[Margaret]

Yeah, it really does.

[Jillian]

Yes. So. And I just. I prefer creamier sauces, but I don't want to be eating heavy cream all the time. And so yogurt is just one of those really easy things to use. But you could also do, like an olive oil base with vinegar and herbs or garlic or even like a honey mustard. Just mix honey and mustard together, you know, something so simple like that. Or even like a hot honey. You know, just sauce and honey. Just any of that kind of stuff to just kind of what sounds like it would go good on this? And you can kind of really, if you have the basics. And I always say I buy boring groceries because I make. I make the magic in my kitchen. Like, I don't buy the jars of sauces, but I'm like, if I've got olive oil and red wine vinegar and, you know, some seasonings and some Greek yogurt in the fridge, and even maybe some half and half or heavy cream, like, you can make almost every single sauce that you would want to without having to buy those expensive jars because, you know, the healthy ones are really expensive. And then you use some, and then it's in there for two months, and you're like, is this still good? Do I throw it away? And you don't want to throw it away, but then it's like all crusty around the edges, and you're like, I don't really want to eat this anymore. Yeah. You know, and it just like. Like is like the graveyard of sauces in your refrigerator. So, yes, we buy the boring groceries and then we make them interesting in our kitchen, you know?

[Margaret]

Yeah, yeah, that's totally. I buy the same things over and over again. And then you can mix it up with herbs and with, you know, lemon juice and olive oil and vinegars. Like you were saying, what are some sauces that you do more in the wintertime? I imagine it's a little different when you don't have herbs. Maybe it's still the yogurt.

[Jillian]

Yeah. But, yeah, so something that I use a lot in the winter is horseradish.

[Margaret]

Okay.

[Jillian]

So the little jars of prepared horseradish I will mix that with maybe, like, half mayo, half yogurt, and just that with a pinch of salt is good on everything. Roasted vegetables, it's even good. Drizzle it on like a baked potato or it's really good with steak or even just like, a shredded beef or something. The horseradish, it livens everything up. So I'm always thinking about how to brighten things, and I think this is my culinary. More aspect of, okay, how do we have all the flavors on the plate? How do we make an interesting meal? And it's one of those things. You eat a meal and you think, man, this tastes so good. Why does my food ever taste like this?

[Margaret]

It's just those little things, isn't it?

[Jillian]

It's just those little things. So the horserad is just kind of. Because most of the stuff. Stuff in winter is very cooked. You know, you're braising your meats, you're roasting your gravies, and. Yeah, totally. You're not really having that pop of flavor. So anytime I can get lemon juice or horseradish in a sauce in the winter time just livens the whole thing up. And it's my favorite. We pretty much have a jar of horseradish aioli in our free fridge at all time during the winter time.

[Margaret]

Okay. I think my food might be missing a sauce because, like, you were saying, like, so many times, just because the easiest thing to do, any meal is just meat and carb. Whatever meat that is that I have thawed out or I can get out of the freezer that can thaw it in a few hours, however that's going to work. But then. And you impart a lot of flavor. Like, if you have chicken breasts, for example, you get the cast iron skillet really hot with some butter, lots of salt. You know, it gets its color. Maybe you deglaze the pan with a little wine. There's a lot of flavor there. And then you serve it with either mashed potatoes or diced potatoes or rice. But then, like, a sauce. I think I'm always just putting herbs on top. Not so much a sauce, but I like the.

[Jillian]

Which is. With. Yeah. Which. The herbs gives that freshness, too. Yeah, but the sauce doesn't really give, like the. Yeah, like the. It's almost that, like, creamy. I don't know where you just want to drag your fork through the plate.

[Lisa]

I love sauce.

[Margaret]

Like, I really do. I love sauce.

[Jillian]

Who doesn't? I mean, sauce is delicious, you know?

[Margaret]

Yeah.

[Jillian]

Yeah, it's delicious. Yeah. And I think that once you just start throwing things in a jar together and you're like, oh, maybe a little bit of whatever. Sour cream with hot sauce and a squeeze of lime juice. Yes, delicious.

[Margaret]

You're just making this stuff up because you can. You can totally. Yeah. There's certain. Like, you've mentioned several ingredients, but maybe only like 10. And then you mix and match those ingredients throughout the year. Maybe throw in an herb that you have or. Yeah, like that. It actually is simple.

[Jillian]

Yes. Well, and I think that if you. Not that I'm making all of these sauces every week, and maybe I'll make one or two and then kind of find ways to put it on different meals throughout the week, you know what I mean? And so it's not like you have to make a bespoke sauce for every single meal, but just kind of having them in your back pocket and it really helps me use up. I don't have an herb garden in our house right now. And so we do have some growing back there, like sage and rosemary, like the really hardy ones. Yeah, they come back. Yeah. Yes, exactly. So those are, like, monstrous. Like, they are taking over our entire garden bed right now. But of course, I would love to have, like, a basil plant and a cilantro and parsley and dill and chives and all of those kind of soft herbs that make for really good sauces. So what I do instead is I'll just buy one bunch of. One of them every week, and I just wrap it in paper towel and I put it in the fridge, and then I just find ways to use that herb all throughout the week. Yeah, yeah. And then the next week, I'll buy a different kind and I'll use that one all week long. So that kind of helps to mix it up for me as well.

[Margaret]

Right.

[Jillian]

And it really just. I think if you aim to use up what you have in your fridge and you understand how to substitute ingredients like cilantro can be replaced with parsley, can be replaced with dill, you know, and that works not just for herbs, but for lots of different things. And I think people get really overwhelmed, like, how am I going to learn all of that? And it's one of those things. Cooking is the thing that you learn by doing it and think. People think I have to learn before I do it. But no.

[Margaret]

Oh, yeah, right.

[Jillian]

Like, you gotta. I'm sorry, you just gotta do it and it's gotta be a little bit hard and a little bit like, oh, I totally messed that up. I mean, I've been cooking for 15 plus years regularly. And I still burn things and I still mess things up. And, yeah, you know, I'm. I'm a recipe. It's. My job is I write recipes and I create recipes, and still I'll try something. And I'm like, we gotta eat it, guys. I'm sorry. Like, I'm sorry.

[Margaret]

Yeah, we always have to eat it. People are like, I'll get comments on my blog like, oh, this I messed this up. Or usually I get blamed. This recipe is terrible. And so therefore I had to waste this many ingredients. I'm like, you just don't waste it. You. You find a way to use it. Like, why would you waste literally anything? Like, I don't care how bad it was. You cut it up, toast it, make it into breadcrumbs. Like, we're not wasting.

[Jillian]

Yeah, for bread. Like, yeah, people get flat loaves of bread. I'm like, slice that belly, toast it and blend it up for breadcrumbs, baby.

[Margaret]

Where's your creativity?

[Jillian]

I know. I'm like, we do not waste.

[Margaret]

We do not have done that. No, that was a.

[Jillian]

That was a bad call for us.

[Margaret]

A lot of times, like, very, very, very rarely is something so irredeemable that I.

[Jillian]

It goes in the garbage. I agree. I don't think I could probably. Unless it's, like, burnt to a crisp. I think that's the only time that that happens. When it's like, black, burnt. Then I'm like, we don't need those carcinogens in our body. You know, like, that kind of thing.

[Margaret]

Yeah, that might be a good yes.

[Jillian]

And I like, lament the fact that I have to throw it away, but ye like meat. If meat is kind of tough or something, I'm like, chop it up and put it on nachos. Like, we're going with this. You know, we can make it work. You add cheese and carbs to anything, it's going to taste pretty good. So.

[Margaret]

Absolutely. Or like, reheating, like, say you made chicken breasts and you have to reheat it. Chop that up, put it in with some broth or some water.

[Jillian]

Yeah.

[Margaret]

Don't just, like, put it back on the cast iron skillet and try to, you know, it's going to be tough. So, like. Yeah, these are the little things that you learn as you go.

[Jillian]

Exactly. Yep.

[Margaret]

Okay, so real quick, I do want to ask you a bit about the rhythms. I mean, we kind of have mentioned a lot of them, honestly. But if you have anything more to share about the rhythms you have that make it possible to get three homemade meals on the table every day without spending your entire life in the kitchen. Like, people on Instagram think that.

[Jillian]

Yes, yes. Which, yeah, not my entire life. Maybe only like a third of my life, but definitely lots of time.

[Margaret]

Like, I'm not gonna lie.

[Jillian]

Yeah. I mean, our living space is 800 square feet, and I feel like a third of that is our kitchen. So we are in our kitchen all day long so that, you know, it's easy for me to stand up and just make a batch of muffins or something because I'm already in the room, so it's not so hard. And genuinely, I enjoy cooking, so.

[Margaret]

Same. Same.

[Jillian]

Yeah. And I feel I constantly thank God. I'm like, thank you for allowing me to enjoy cooking so much, because some people really don't.

[Margaret]

I'm like, man, that would be such a bummer.

[Jillian]

And I did. Like, some of my dearest friends are like, I just. Just can't get myself to like it. And I'm like, well, do you at least like the end result? Because that makes it more worth it. Um, but yeah, some of my rhythms is I. I meal plan every single week without fail. Because for me, just going into the week knowing I have a plan, it just removes so much of the stress for me personally. Um, also, I like to make sure that we're eating food we actually like. And so if I wait to think about dinner until 4pm we're prob. Probably gonna have chicken and pasta every single night for dinner.

[Margaret]

That's fair. That is one thing that can happen when you're not meal planning. I, I do feel like I can, like, mix things up and switch it up, but there are, There's a lot more probably repetition when you're not meal.

[Jillian]

Planning, which that is kind of. My second thing with meal planning is I have two binders that people always ask what my favorite cookbook is. And I say, it's my family. It's my binder that I have all of my random printed out recipes, and I call it my family favorite favorites collection. Because when I, you know, you said, I don't. You don't meal plan. But for me, even somebody whose job it is to write meal plans, I can sit down on a Saturday and be like, what does my family like to eat? Again, I don't, I don't under. How. What.

[Margaret]

You know, always forgetting things. Like, I'll go back and watch an old YouTube video. And I'm like, oh, yeah, we used.

[Jillian]

To love that wedding. Yes.

[Margaret]

So much.

[Jillian]

And you go through seasons, you know, One, like, actual seasons. There are meals that we make so much in wintertime that I'm never going to make during the summer, and I might forget about them come the next winter. And so it's helpful for me to have a binder with just. And I have the actual recipes in there, because when I do my meal plan, I also make my grocery list. And so that's helpful for me because I look at my meal plan, and I think, okay, if most of them, I know what ingredients I'm going to need. But if it's maybe a recipe I don't make so often, I can look at the recipe, go down it and say, okay, I need cilantro, but I have parsley in the fridge right now, so I'm not going to buy the cilantro. And I can go through each ingredient. So you don't get to that day thinking, oh, man, we're supposed to have this for dinner, but I don't have the ingredients for it. We'll just eat out, or we'll eat frozen pizza or whatever it is that. Ours is always chipotle. We have a chipotle five minutes from our house right now.

[Margaret]

Oh, that'd be dangerous. We have nothing good.

[Jillian]

Nothing. Well, we're actually. We're building a house out in the country right now. And so I keep saying we're not gonna be able to just pick up chipotle when I forget to thaw the chicken out. Okay. So I'm trying to get better about that. And we don't really do it very often, but I always have the family favorites there because I can flip through it and be like, oh, yeah, we love these meatballs, or, oh, yeah, we love this. And so it's easy for me to plug that into my meal plan. I always, always plan for snacks and treats. So when you have dessert every night.

[Margaret]

Usually do that when they're doing a meal plan.

[Jillian]

Yes. And I have a meal plan printable that I print out for myself every single week. And I put it in my binder, and I feel it fill out the snacks. And I feel even if the snacks is like yogurt and strawberries, I will put it on there. Because when it comes time for my kids to walk into the kitchen and say, mom, what's for a snack? And I'm in the middle of doing something else, I know I have three snacks that I know that I'm gonna have in the fridge, and we can just eat those. So usually I make sure one of them is something that requires zero prep. So this Might be, yeah, like hard boiled eggs and slices of watermelon. Or it could be like chocolate milk that maybe I made or I can whip together or like a smoothie that I can just make really quickly right there for them. But I always do one or two. I call them snack and treat preps because I always like to have snacks and treats in the house. So about once or twice a week, I'll make either a batch of homemade ice cream or a batch of cookie dough that I'll scoop into balls and put in a Ziploc bag in the fridge. So we can bake fresh cookies whenever we need. How I say need? Whenever we need. And then I'll always make a double batch of muffins and then I'll freeze half of them and keep half of them out on the counter. So we always have homemade snacks and treats just there. It's not something I ever buy at the grocery store because again, we buy boring groceries, which is how we can not. I mean, even buying boring groceries at the grocery store nowadays, when I look at my receipt, I'm like, like, how does it cost that much? Like, you know, yeah, it is, it's. It's stat. And I know that inflation is hitting everybody very, very hard right now. And I wish I could say it's going to get better, but, you know, once inflation happens, it doesn't normally deflate. So this might just be the new cost of groceries. And I get it. It's demoralizing. And it's like, you know, you just are like, we didn't even buy anything fun and we still went over, we.

[Margaret]

Had boring groceries and it was still.

[Jillian]

Expensive and I still have cook it all, you know, and I get how that can be. You know, you get home from the grocery store and you put it all in there and you're like, there's still nothing to eat because I actually have to cook it all now.

[Margaret]

You have to actually prepare the stuff.

[Jillian]

Yeah, exactly. So. And that feels better when you feel like, man, I save so much money on groceries, but when you're spending double what you're used to spending, it can be kind of demoralizing. So, yeah, taking those like snacks and dessert things just off the grocery list altogether, I can make that decision. But if I don't have a plan and I don't prepare for those things, they're going to come right back on the grocery list, you know, because we want to eat snacks and we want to have treats in the house, and so I have to like, prepare for those. So that's Part of my rhythm once a week is I just make a batch of stuff like that just to have on hand, and so I know they're there and I don't have to worry about it. Another rhythm that I have is I always do something for dinner before lunch. So whether when I'm cleaning up breakfast or when I'm heating, because we always eat leftovers for lunch. That's another thing that's just a part of our rhythm. We double dinner and we always eat leftovers for lunch. So that's just. And that's why I always say, you can't get seconds, because we're like, we need that for lunch tomorrow. You can't have seconds. Sorry. Go eat a banana and a glass of milk.

[Margaret]

Eat a banana.

[Jillian]

Exactly.

[Margaret]

Dessert.

[Jillian]

Exactly. So we always have leftovers. And so when I'm heating up leftovers, a lot of times I can get halfway done with dinner by the time that's happening because I don't prep dinner. I don't like batch cook dinner. I'm not that person that cooks all of my meals on a Sunday so that I don't have to cook the rest of the week. It doesn't. Yeah, yeah. Doesn't really work for me. And then I'll get to Thursday and I'm like, I don't really want to eat them. Kind of boring. Yeah, exactly. So I cook dinner fresh every day, but that doesn't mean that I'm cooking a full meal at five o' clock every day. You know, when I'm cleaning breakfast, like all the dishes up from breakfast, I might do little things like feed my sourdough starter and then like marinate the chicken breasts. I can do that right then. And then when I'm heating up leftovers for lunch, I can mix a yogurt sauce up and chop up a cucumber salad and put those in the fridge. And then by the time 4 o' clock comes around, I think, well, all I have to do is chop up the sweet potatoes and put those in the oven. And then we can just grill the marinated chicken breasts. They're all prepared and seasoned. I already have the sauce, I already have the cucumber salad. And so it feels like somebody did the cooking for me, even though that somebody was me. I'm not having to do it at 5 o' clock when really all I want to do is sit on the porch. You know, I don't. My energy goes way. And I think you have to know yourself, too. I have way more energy in the morning. And so I would rather get it out of the way, kind of do that. And then, because if I had, if it's 4:30 and I haven't started dinner, it's not good. Like, I am just like, I go downhill fast.

[Margaret]

I always say, too, it's not, not a lot of the cooking I do. It's not time consuming. It just needed time itself. So, like you said, the chicken's better if it's been marinating. If I, in the morning, decide to start up a batch of sourdough hamburger buns, especially right now with it being really warm in the kitchen, I can have them by dinner time if I start them in the morning. So making sourdough hamburger buns wasn't a hard thing to do, but I just did have to do something in the morning for that to be possible for dinner time. And so, yeah, none of it's time consuming. It's just like putting all the pieces in place that make it happen seamlessly requires a diligence, but it doesn't necessarily require, like, you in the kitchen all day spending a bunch of time. It just takes a little prep ahead.

[Jillian]

Of time, using your time effectively. And that's where having a plan for me helps. Because I think, okay, we're gonna have this for dinner today. So that means if I, I, you know, put this roast in the instant pot when I'm doing breakfast dishes, then that's done. I don't have to worry about that. I can chop up the sweet potato or even just like if you have baked sweet potato, you know, you just kind of have, like, way you have a plan. And so you're like, I'm already in the kitchen. What can I be doing right now to make my life easier in three hours? And so I'm constantly thinking, what can I be doing right now to make my life easier?

[Margaret]

Yes.

[Jillian]

And I think just, yes, the rhythm is going to be different for everybody. But for me, it's feeding my sourdough starter. When I am doing my breakfast dishes, it's right next to my sink, I can just pull it down and it's just one more dish in the sink that I wash with breakfast. And then I know if I'm going to make a dough or do something later in the day, my starter is fed, I don't have to worry about it. And that's just part of my rhythm. And so I think it's going to be different for everybody. And maybe for people, their mornings are really hectic. But maybe doing dinner, cleaning up after dinner the night before might be A good time to have a couple things done for dinner the next day or whatever it is, you know. So I think it's going to be different for everybody.

[Margaret]

Yeah, yeah. It all depends on your schedule and your personality because like, I have a similar rhythm to you. It's just that in the morning I don't know what I'm making that night, but it's usually me thinking, what should we make tonight? You know, oh, we could do this. So I'll get some sourdough buns going or I'll get this out of the freezer or I'll chop up this. Like I can kind of think of it on the fly in the morning, but still the same rhythm as you thinking about dinner well before dinner makes it to where it's actually really easy to throw together. So many great tips. I feel like we could talk for ages about this. Let the listeners know where they can find you, where you, they can get your meal plans and kind of what you offer there.

[Jillian]

Okay. So I am mostly on Instagram. It's the only social platform that I have chosen to undertake at this time. Even though I love YouTube. I love watching your YouTube videos. Videos. I just, YouTube is such a beautiful format. I feel like for, I don't know, maybe one day I'll have one of those. But in the meantime, it would be.

[Margaret]

Fun to see how you do all this on a long form video.

[Jillian]

That's. I do often feel frustrated with the short form on Instagram, especially because it gets shorter and shorter.

[Margaret]

I feel like every year the attention span grows smaller and smaller.

[Jillian]

Change your video frame every one second. And I'm like, ah, that's. Yeah, you know, just editing it. I'm like, this is giving me a hair headache. So.

[Margaret]

Yeah.

[Jillian]

But I do, I love being on Instagram because I feel like I just like messaging with. I just like talking to people and.

[Margaret]

I like hearing more social.

[Jillian]

Exactly. Than YouTube. I think for sure it is.

[Margaret]

Oh, absolutely.

[Jillian]

Yes. I like doing that and I just really like posting to stories because it's so fun to just pop on. And it just feels more like documenting rather than creating all of this like very, you know, time consuming content that you're not really sure you know, is even gonna see the right people. So. But I am on Instagra. But also I do have a monthly membership that is called Simple Seasons. And it's basically everything I'm talking about kind of just ideas for meals. I always have six dinners and then four other recipes. So it's usually like a baked good of some Sort. Or like, I think this month I might have like, a popsicle recipe or just like the fun kind of treats and snacks. Snacks kind of things that fit each month. And then, of course, the six dinner ones. And I always try to vary them so that people don't have to think, okay, what fish? Because that's another thing that's, you know, important is to kind of vary your diet. And I do think we get stuck in just eating chicken breasts all the time or just ground beef all the time.

[Margaret]

Ooh, that's guilty.

[Jillian]

I totally get that. And if it weren't something that I did for Simple Seasons, I could see how that would be. Yeah.

[Margaret]

Yeah.

[Jillian]

You know, it'd be easy to go months without eating salmon, and then you're kind of like, man, we should probably eat more fish. You know, and you're thinking, there's always something that you should be doing. And so that's kind of what I'm trying to do with Simple Seasons is simplify this whole idea of balanced meals that also taste good, that fit the season. Sound good to eat during that month. But then we test every single. These are the recipes I am making at dinner time for my family. The photos literally are like, I take the photo right before my kid's hand goes into the frame. Like, I don't have a team. This is like me and my husband. This is.

[Margaret]

Yeah, this is. So this is your YouTube channel, just.

[Jillian]

Exactly. Yeah. Via a PDF. And so it's like, if we have a rule, at least two of our three kids have to eat it and like it or it doesn't go in the issue. So these are like, kid tested. And I don't have angel children. You know, they have their preferences and they don't like everything, but they finish everything because we train them to do that. But yeah, so that's just. It's really, really fun for me to create, and it has pushed me a lot. But also, I'm always thinking, how can I simplify this? If I use two bowls in this recipe, can I figure out a way to only use one bowl? If I'm using two pans, can I use one pan? Because again, these are the recipes that I am making at 4:30 or maybe at 8:30 in the morning, I'm always thinking, how can I simplify this? Instead of using 10 ingredients, can I use eight? Because that's just the reality of cooking for a family. So, yes, that's called Simple Seasons, and that's. That's. You can find it through my Instagram or on my Website, which I'm pretty sure you'll have in the show notes.

[Margaret]

Yes, it'll all be linked by Jillian Margaret Wellness.

[Jillian]

Correct.

[Margaret]

That's where they can go on Instagram if they're just wanting to pop over to Instagram right now and start getting inspiration from you. Because if you're lacking for meal ideas, as you can tell from this interview, you have a lot of them. So that's just a really great place to start.

[Jillian]

Yes. And you better start making those sauces, Lisa.

[Margaret]

Okay, I, I will. I love the idea. I've been thinking about it. When my sister talks about. I can't even think of the names of them, but she does stuff like, you know, get. Get kimchi and get this hot Japanese sauce, and then, you know, like, it's, it's delicious. But she only has. She has her husband and she has one daughter, so she's still in the. Like, I can, you know, it's, it's, it's like, it's not this mass quantity where I'm like, okay, I gotta get a lot of food on the table. You know, like, we're just kind of like bulk prepping what we can. And I like your idea. Like, I love her ideas too, but I, I really need it to be very simple.

[Jillian]

Yes, just like what you have in the fridge, what would taste good right now. And what do I have? Absolutely.

[Margaret]

Yes, exactly. Which is how I roll generally. So, yes, I get that. Awesome. Well, thank you so much. As you mentioned, it'll all be linked down in the description box below. Head over to Jillian Margaret Wellness as well. And thank you so much, Jillian, for joining us.

[Jillian]

Thank you. It was so fun.

[Lisa]

Thanks as always, for listening to the Simple Farmhouse Life podcast.

[Margaret]

My husband Luke and I and our eight kids work together side by side.

[Lisa]

On our little homestead and use our.

[Margaret]

Blog, podcast and YouTube channel to reach.

[Lisa]

Other homemakers, home cooks and homesteaders with.

[Margaret]

Practical recipes and daily family life.

[Lisa]

For everyday sourdough recipes, make sure to check out our blog, farmassomboon.com and to.

[Margaret]

Dig deeper, we do also offer a course called Simple Sourdough over at Bitvit Ly Farmhouses. That's all one word. Bit Ly Farmhouse Sourdough Course. If you're looking to learn how we.

[Lisa]

Earn an income online, check out my.

[Margaret]

YouTube course at Bit Ly Farmhouse YouTube course. All one word.

[Jillian]

It.