← The 1000 Hours Outside Podcast
The 1000 Hours Outside Podcast
1KHO 494: Eat Well, Spend Less, Live More | Mandy Klentz, Plandy Mandy
01:01:59
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- [00:01]
Jenny Urch
Imagine raising your children and going through your entire life never having seen a Bible in your own language, never being able to open God's word for comfort, truth or direction. For many around the world, that's reality. But that is changing. CREW has missionaries in nearly every country and they are seeing people come to faith in Jesus in incredible numbers. In Africa, believers are sharing one Bible among entire communities. In Europe, teens are asking for Bibles faster than we can provide them. And in places where Christianity is underground, the gospel is exploding, but access to scripture has not caught up. That's why I love partners partnering with crew. They're working to put Bibles into the hands of those who are desperate for truth. With just 24amonth, you can give three people the gift of God's word every month. And as a thank you, crew will provide 12 meals to those in need. And you'll receive a free copy of my book until the street lights come on. To give, text our H o u r to 71326 or visit give.crew.org hour that's H O u r to 71326 message and data rates may apply US addresses only. Your monthly gift can truly make a massive and eternal impact. Welcome to the 1000 Hours Outside podcast. My name is Jenny Urch. I'm the founder of 1000 Hours Outside and Plandy. Mandy. Mandy. Clint is wel. Is back. Is welcomed back.
- [01:19]
Mandy
I'm so glad that you're here.
- [01:20]
Jenny Urch
It's good to see you again. Thanks for being here.
- [01:22]
Mandy
Thanks for having me back.
- [01:23]
Jenny Urch
I love coming, I love this. So I have to tell you this story. We went on tour and I'm wondering if you say tour or tour.
- [01:31]
Mandy
Tour.
- [01:31]
Jenny Urch
I think, okay, I say tour, but sometimes younger people say tour, my kids say tour. So I don't know if people are going to even understand what I'm talking about. But we went on a tour tour and with this really very crunchy Emily and Jason Morrow and our friends Dustin and Sarah Lally from this Way Home. So we go on this tour and I made like hundreds of muffins.
- [01:52]
Mandy
I love it.
- [01:53]
Jenny Urch
And I was so excited about it and it was so life changing and I just, I'm like the. I had had that bug in my ear from your amazing stuff snack guide. You have all these cooking guides and one of them is snacks. And I just was like, I had one morning, it was like my favorite thing of life and I just had the mini muffin pans and bigger ones and I made chocolate chip and blueberry and it's Just so few ingredients. There's no seed oils. I mean, it's just all stuff that, you know, you can control. And then I froze them. And then every single day, I will bring out a new bag of muffins. And everyone got eaten. And it was like, I don't know. I just felt like such a homemaker. Yes.
- [02:29]
Mandy
It's a huge win. I'm telling you right now. I have multiple dozens in my freezer as we speak. Because they're so easy. I think that's the crazy thing. It's. Muffins are so simple, but they're so easy. Everyone loves them. It's just perfect for. And you can pair things so simply with them, too. Make a full meal. I'm so love that for you.
- [02:48]
Jenny Urch
Yeah. And they thaw so quick. And. And then I just. I felt, like, popular. Is that so dumb? But the kids, like, so we were. We would stay in these, like, bigger home rentals. Right. And so, you know, be like, you know, 10 kids or something. And they. I don't. There is something about. And I guess this is a piece of life that you almost feel like no one talks about. It doesn't. You know, it doesn't really matter, but you're like, there is something that happens in your soul when somebody likes the food you make.
- [03:19]
Mandy
Yes. It's like the biggest compliment you can receive.
- [03:22]
Jenny Urch
Yeah.
- [03:23]
Mandy
I really feel. Maybe not. Maybe not of all time, but when you put pour your time and love into making something and people say, oh, my gosh, this is the best cookie I've ever had. Or, this is so good. What's the recipe? It really is such a huge compliment because you spent time doing it.
- [03:39]
Jenny Urch
Yes, it is. And it just, like, something about it feels really good. So, like, when all of the muffins are gone and I got to go get another bag out, and they thaw so quick, you know, you get them out the night before, you get them out at breakfast, they're ready, you know, to take to the park if you're going in the afternoon. There's something that it does for your soul. And it just made me think, like, you know, you look at all these convenience things, and they seem so convenient, but you completely miss that.
- [04:02]
Mandy
Yeah. Yeah. And honestly, Jenny seekers, out. I don't even defrost mine. I take mine straight out of the freezer, wrap them in a paper towel, and pop those babies in the microwave for 30 seconds. But I hear what you're saying. I do think it's so special. And also, too. I was just listening to your Podcast one of your episodes you just posted, and it was talking about the natural flavors and all of the stuff that's added it into it. And I really think they have us tricked, man, because we feel like we're going and we're buying these things, like, oh, the healthy muffins from Costco. And then you turn the ingredients over and you're like, wait a minute. Why is there 30 ingredients in this muffin that I could have made with five ingredients at home for cheaper, you know?
- [04:45]
Jenny Urch
Yeah. And they. I think they taste better. So let's. Let's give a little bit of a backstory because people. You've been on it before, and if people haven't heard that one, just give a little bit of backstory. A. This is a really cool story that you have. You're wanting to save money. You're wanting to have more money. Really is the whole thing. You're like, we need more money. I think every family's like, we need more money. And you're like, well, we have this. So many people. It's like, we have this steady income. This is. The income that's coming in is not going to go up. So the way to have more money is to save money. And you really start focusing on your grocery bill, which is a really big deal because grocery prices have gone up. We almost didn't die eggs this year because I was like, how.
- [05:22]
Mandy
What?
- [05:23]
Jenny Urch
You know, we have chickens, and they don't lay a ton of eggs, but they lay some, and they're like, you know, green or brown. So I was like, oh, I'm just going to go get a dozen of the white ones. And I was, like, shocked.
- [05:33]
Mandy
Yes. Yeah, I know. It's crazy. You know, this is so wild. We were just in Costco the other day, and we actually don't buy soda anymore. It's one of the things that we gave up. But I passed down the soda aisle and a pack, a Costco pack. So it was a good pack, but still a single pack of soda cans was $18. And I turned to my hus and I said, when we used to buy soda, which was like six, seven years ago, that same case was 999, and it is now almost $18. Stuff has shot up astronomically.
- [06:03]
Jenny Urch
Double. That's double. Yeah. Wow.
- [06:06]
Mandy
It's crazy.
- [06:07]
Jenny Urch
Wow. And so what a great thing that you had already made the change, because then it doesn't feel like, oh, we're not. We're not going to get this anymore. But $20, you know, if you add that up and you buy that every other week for a whole year or you know, and you and all these other things. And so what happened was, is you, you start saving money with your grocery bills and you're able to go do more things.
- [06:27]
Mandy
Yeah, it changed our whole life. Saving money on grocery. Honestly, we were really strapped single income family at the time and we just didn't have the extra money to do the fun things. We were barely scraping by and it felt like that was the one thing in our control that I could really grasp. You know, I was grasping straws, honestly. And it seems so simple, but it changed so much. I wrote down a little note too because you know, people think, oh, saving money on groceries, you're just saving money. But the thing is, is you're not just saving money. It's less stress, it's more fun, it's less debt, it's more adventure. It's being able to stop saying no so often because you can't afford it and being able to say yes, we can splurge here and there. It really does a domino effect into so many areas of your life. And that's not even talking about the healthy factor of it. Like changing your life by eating healthier.
- [07:19]
Jenny Urch
Yes. Okay, so these are the things that we are trying to avoid. And, and this is new for me. Probably in the past six months. I started with dark calories. We already were avoiding aspartame. That was one that was sort of a non negotiable that I learned from my midwife. So sucralose. But I just, you're going to think this is so wild. I just learned this, this one hasn't gone out yet. But this woman named Dr. Kate Shanahan wrote a book called Dark Calories about seed oils and how they're, they just make your body feel wacky. But she also said in her book the Fat Burn Fix, which we just talked about, but it hasn't gone live yet. She said that when you eat anything that tastes sweet, your body releases insulin, even if it's zero calories. And insulin is what builds the fat. And so all of those things that say zero calories so you feel like it's nothing, it's a Coke Zero or some diet thing. It's like if it tastes sweet, your body releases insulin. So that's the aspartame, the sucralose. So we'd already sort of cut that out. We were already knew some about the food dyes but didn't know about the seed oils and the artificial flavors. And that was the Most recent one where I was like, oh, this is in almost everything. And he says it's tricking your brain. So I've always been really drawn to your meal plans because not only are they budget friendly, but they also include none of those things. It's remarkable.
- [08:36]
Mandy
Yeah. I think it's a really big misconception that eating healthy has to be expensive. I think when you're learning how to make things at home, in your own kitchen, it actually is cheaper to. To eat healthier. We get really mixed up when we come to the marketing side of things. Right. Because there are great things that you can buy. Branded items that don't have all of the junk, but they tend to be way more expensive, which is so unfortunate, especially for, you know, families who are on a fixed budget or families who are low income, because that those are just not an option for them, which was me. I fell into that category. Those things weren't an option for me when I started learning how to make all of these things. But when you really sit down and you think, oh, a granola bar. There's actually only about five ingredients in a granola bar and they're really cheap oats at Costco, organic oats at Costco. You can get a huge bag of them for a little amount of money. I think we just need to reshape our thinking into not assuming everything healthy has to cost a lot of money.
- [09:37]
Jenny Urch
And what you do a really good job at doing. Because some people will then say, well, then it takes a lot of time. And I'm time poor. I don't have that excess. But you do a great job of explaining how to do it in batches, how to cook once and eat twice instead of making 10 muffins every single day, which is going to make a mess of your kitchen and take a lot of time. Well, what if you make 100 muffins and you freeze them and then you have enough for the month? So can you talk about that? That's what I really found practical about your meal plans. Your friends were like, you have. You know what you're doing. You figured this out over the course of a decade. You have already figured it out and done the work. Can you please share it with others? Can you talk about the time savings?
- [10:15]
Mandy
Yeah, I mean, the time savings is a huge game changer, I think, especially for people who are in the season of parenthood, which I think is probably most of your listeners, because you know how it is. You're going a million different directions. I have a lot of friends who they Work full time out of the home. So trying to get dinner made before you're getting to baseball practice, that's just not possible. There's not enough hours in the day. So the systems really came at different seasons in my life, depending on what I needed at that moment. So what you're talking about with the muffins, I had babies waking up really young. They were hungry right when they woke up. I'm not a morning person, so I just thought, I'm going to make a ton of these. So I've continued that for 10 years now. And what I do is I pick usually one or two recipes a month, which I know sounds crazy because then we're eating from it almost every day. But I pick those one to two days a month. I typically do it on a breakfast day that we're already going to have that. So it's a Saturday morning, I'm making pancakes. That's what we're eating that morning. And I would have been standing in my kitchen making the pancakes anyways. So now I'm going to make five dozen of those pancakes and then I freeze them. And then throughout the week. My kids actually had them this morning. They go to co op on Thursdays. It's a busy morning and I microwave some pancakes. They're homemade, high protein, no junk ingredients, no seed oils, nothing artificial, and they had a high protein breakfast on the table in less than five minutes. So I just, I fell into almost like a good monotony with these kinds of systems where I just knew when I make something, I'm going to make a lot of it. I'm going to freeze it. I store everything in my freezers. Nothing fancy. Ziploc bags, and they all reheat or defrost. Great.
- [11:54]
Jenny Urch
Yeah. Yes. And you've been doing them for over a decade, so it's like you can trust. It's like what actually works for families. So you have different types. Are you still coming out with one a month?
- [12:04]
Mandy
I am, yeah. I have a lot from the beginning, a lot, obviously, since we talked last year. But since the beginning of the year, I've really been focusing. You know, none of my meal plans have junk ingredients. I want to make sure I say that. But I've been focusing on some other things that I think a lot of people are striving for, like high protein diets, stuff that can be Whole 30 or Paleo friendly. I think sometimes those get tricky for families who have kids. So I've been taking my systems to save time and money and plugging it in so that people can follow a Whole30 diet or a paleo diet and still have it be budget friendly, family friendly and time friendly.
- [12:40]
Jenny Urch
So tell people where they can find them and about how many varieties do you have at this point? Because when I started using yours, I mean, there was like the crackpot one and they're always cute. Like they, they were like themed for the month. You know, it was like a. If it's like a fourth of July, you know, it's like summery. Yeah. And if it's, you know, maybe a soups, you know, so it's like very themed. And what are some of the best sellers and where can people find them?
- [13:03]
Mandy
Yeah. So bestsellers, definitely. My 30 minute meal plan is a really big bestseller. It is what it's called. Every meal in there can be made 30 minutes or less. And you can follow the systems that you were talking about. The cook once, eat twice, which obviously we didn't say on this. People, I'm sure maybe can listen to the other one. But essentially it's only cooking about three nights a week. And you can take three nights a week. Follow my meal plan and you'll be able to feed your family for about six nights a week on a budget. And all those meals in that one are 30 minutes or less. Really popular one since the beginning of the year. My healthy family meal plan, that was a January meal plan. So with everybody's New Year's resolutions, they were trying to follow Whole30 and Paleo diets. I think that's hard to do when you're cooking for kids. And a lot of people end up making two meals because their kids aren't eating whole 30. And I thought that feels like so much time. So what I did was I wrote a meal plan that you can follow Whole30 for yourself and then your kids don't have to follow Whole30. So every recipe that's in there, you can actually make it both ways, very simply. And you're not having to cook two entirely separate meals. So I love that one because it's really flexible for people because you want to sit down and have a family meal still and not have to explain to your kids like, yeah, you're eating Mac and cheese, but I'm eating, you know, cheesed broccoli. So it's just really flexible and lets people have family meals together. That's a very, very popular one. And then my most recent one that people have been loving because it's sports season is my on the go meal plan. Because again, time commitments, Jenny, People are trying to run from work to school pickup to get their kids to sports pract. And so many times you end up in that McDonald's or chick fil A drive thru just because you don't have another option. And I was getting messages from people asking, do I have meal plans that are car friendly like that people can eat in the car. And I really didn't. And so I ended up writing one. So I have an on the go meal plan now. Every recipe that's in there you can take on the go. And I actually give really detailed instructions on like how to transport the meal so that you don't have, you know, big messes. It's nothing complicated. They're all easy and affordable and portable. You can eat them at your kids practice or your kids late night baseball game. Stay on a budget and also not be eating junk from the Chick Fil A drive through.
- [15:21]
Jenny Urch
Yeah, it's like you thought through everything. But the ones I've used, I feel like you thought through everything. This is how you thought. This is how you freeze it. You know, this is what you would need if you want to have it tonight. And then, you know, you. Some people are like, well, I don't like to have the same thing two nights in a row. So you're like, okay, well you could, you know, alternate nights or you could freeze that one and have that one next week. You know, I mean, you just, you've thought through all of it.
- [15:41]
Mandy
Thank you. I, you know, people who send me messages on social media are the most help. I love it so much. Everybody has different families and different needs. And a lot of the features that I've added into these meal plans have come from people messaging me asking things like, do you have a meal plan that my kid could eat in the backseat of my Toyota Corolla on a Wednesday night? I'm like, I don't, but I will now.
- [16:03]
Jenny Urch
Yeah. And obviously if some. Someone's sending it in, it's a thing that a lot of people are dealing with. And just the eating together, whether it's in your Toyota Corolla or it's around the table. I read this book by Leonard Sacks called the Collapse of Parenting. And he said for each successive meal that you like, for each additional. I don't know if successive was the right word. But like each additional meal you have together as a family in the course of a week, like, matters. There's a statistical measure. Like if it's four meals versus five, like each additional one really matters. Like you would think, okay, well, we had four we had six. But he was like, no, it actually matters. Each additional one matters a lot. So to have these meal times together, to have food that people eat and they like your food, I mean, these are the things that you can't. That you can't really put a price tag on. I think that's such a cheesy thing. That's probably the most cheesy thing I've ever said. No, okay.
- [16:50]
Mandy
No, I hear what you're saying. I totally. I agree. 100. And I also think that as much as you can't put a price tag on those moments, you also can kind of put a price tag on them. Because when you're going the alternative route. You know what I mean? I read a statistic recently. I feel like I haven't shut up about it because it just blows my mind.
- [17:10]
Jenny Urch
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- [20:29]
Mandy
The average American family is spending about $6,000 a year eating out. Just eating out. That's not their grocery budget at all. That is, in addition, $6,000 a year. And we've talked about this before and I know you feel the same way because your family also likes to go out and do experiences. My mind just immediately is like, I could do so many weekend getaways for $6,000. I could do so many fun experiences with my kids for $6,000. So you do kind of end up playing the price tag game. Like, okay, I have to really Allot which way I want my dollars to go. Do I want them to go towards that $6,000 of eating out, or do I want to go towards three or four weekend getaways with my kids?
- [21:13]
Jenny Urch
Yeah. I mean, even the $20 for pop. That's what I thought. That was the first thing I thought, what could we do for 20 bucks? I mean, we could get a lot of duck food and feed the ducks. I mean, I don't know. I shouldn't say that. People don't like if you feed wildlife. I need a better example. There's stuff that you can do for 20 bucks. Yeah. Like you could go make a memory for $20. Or it could be free. You just go outside. But $20 for pop. And especially if it adds up over the course of time. And in that Dorito effect book where he talked about artificial flavors, that was one of the ones he focused on because he said it's not the sugar. Like the sugar water was. Would be gross if you just had carbonated water with sugar in it. He said, what is the addictive part are those artificial flavors. And it costs like dense per trillion or. I mean, it doesn't cost the companies hardly anything to give them those different flavors that end up being addictive and trick your brain so that money does. So, yeah, when I said you can't put a price tag on it, I was trying to think like, it can't be measured, but I was just saying that it could be measured. So there's a lot here. Like, it feels good to cook for your family, and it feels good when they like your food. And all of the recipes that I've made that we've done from your cookbooks, everybody has loved them. They've been such a hit for our family. And I love the cook. I told you I'd never even heard of that. Cook once, eat twice.
- [22:29]
Mandy
Yeah, you did. You said that. I think that's so cool. It makes me so happy hearing that your family loves the recipes. That's the intention. Also. Such a crazy feeling, like you're talking about people making muffins and enjoying the muffins. And I have had these moments for the last year where I'm like, wow, there are families around the nation and world that are making these recipes that I've made for my own family for over 10 years, and now their families are getting to enjoy it. So there is just something really special about that.
- [22:56]
Jenny Urch
Yeah. And then it gets passed down, you know, because then that's their muffin recipe that they have in their family. And they pass it down. And in your snack book there's all sorts of snacks, there's a breakfast one. There must be so many options at this point because when we talked last time, I think there was already a lot of options. And you keep adding each month. We didn't say where people can buy them. They're on Etsy.
- [23:16]
Mandy
Yeah, Etsy. And I also have a website now, so you can also go to plandymandy.com and yeah, again, easy. Either way, people have their preference. Some people like to buy from Etsy because it's a well known platform. I think that's great. And some people, you know, would like to go to just a website and check it all out. I have extra free stuff on there too. I actually wrote a grocery budgeting course and that's completely for free on my website. And I go through all of the systems that I use for my family. I really break it down and explain what it is. I talk to people about how they can go through six really basic steps. Like if you're brand new at this, you're trying to save money, you have no idea where to start. I walk you through six steps for starting a successful grocery budget. And yeah, you can go on my website and grab that or you can comment on anything on Instagram the word course and it'll send it to your inbox.
- [24:07]
Jenny Urch
Yeah, so tell us about that. When did that come out?
- [24:10]
Mandy
So I actually taught a class for a friend of mine, her name's Paige. She runs a page called Overcoming Overspending. It's wonderful platform. And she asked me to come teach a class for. She runs like a women's group every month. And so I was like, okay, I'll get back in my PowerPoint days. And I wrote a whole PowerPoint. And then after I presented it, I thought, man, everybody could really benefit just from it being broken down simply. I think we overcomplicate a lot of times. And groceries can feel hard to budget too because we run on autopilot. And so sometimes you just think, man, there's no way I could spend less. I don't know how I could possibly spend less time. And so it's over complicated for people. So I wanted to just really break it down and make it super simple, start to finish. This is exactly what I do every month to make sure I'm staying on budget and help people start from square one.
- [25:00]
Jenny Urch
What are some common mistakes people make with budgeting for meals?
- [25:04]
Mandy
I think people don't meal plan. I think that's the biggest, the biggest Mistake is that people actually don't have a plan. They kind of have this running list in their brain of like, oh, I need bread and milk. And they buy a lot of basic staples, but then they don't actually allot where those staples are specifically going to. So they either don't have enough of something or they have too much of another thing or they run out of time and they're like, oh, I don't even know what I was going to make for dinner tonight. So they end up in the drive through. The biggest budgeting tip that I could give anyone is making sure you have a plan very specific for exactly what you're eating each day. I do it for like an 8 to 10 day stretch of time because it gives you back that freedom of not having to constantly think, what's for dinner, what's for breakfast, what are we having? We're busy. We don't have time to be answering that question every day. Our brains already have, I think it's like 30,000 questions a day that we have in our own brain. There's some statistic for that. It's too many and ain't nobody got time to add on what's for dinner. So the meal plan just really keeps you in check.
- [26:13]
Jenny Urch
I think the thing that's hard about meal plan, we talk about this quite a bit. We actually so in our family, like this is our situation. So I nursed for 15 years in a row and then as I was getting to the end of nursing and our youngest didn't sleep through the night till she was old, you're sort of in that like clingy stage and you're kind of just surviving, so surviving for quite a long time. And then immediately then was into working and working at, you know, quite a bit. And so a lot of times I'm like, Josh, you like, I need you to do the meal plan. So it's a source of contention because. Well, partially because we've just never really gotten to the habit of it. So there wasn't like a good system in place. And also because things change all the time. There's like flux, right? So it's like, well, we were going to be home but then we weren't or we had to run this errand. So talk us through. Like to me though, yours works because if it's freezer, if you know, part of its freezer stuff, then it's like, well, things changed so you just have something extra in the freezer or. But can you speak to that? I think there's a Lot of pushback toward meal planning because of that. Because things are in flux and well, I don't know what I'm going to be doing in 10 days.
- [27:25]
Mandy
Yeah.
- [27:25]
Jenny Urch
And so. But I still think it's the right thing to do.
- [27:28]
Mandy
Yeah. I think, I mean I think you're always going to have that stray hair occasionally where everything goes awry and you genuinely, you don't have many other options and you just end up through the drive thru. I think that is life. I do think that's a very small percentage though of when it truly goes awry. And you have no idea. I think a lot of times we have the expected unpredictable which is so contrary, contradictory. But we kind of know, oh, Mondays are really crazy because I have three kids with different practices and so we know that that's coming but we really don't kind of plan for it. And then it gets there and we're like, oh my gosh, my day, my day just blew up and we kind of knew that was already coming. So with the meal plan, what I love about it for myself is that I try and plan things a little different. Right. Like maybe I'll have two crock pot meals in my week of meals and two recipes I know only take 30 minutes and then I'll have maybe two that are a little more time consuming and make a lot of leftovers. I try to give myself variety in my meal plan so that if something goes awry I can say, oh, that's okay because I have the leftovers from that spaghetti we made the other night and that'll do for tonight. Or if a pop up practice happens and it's the next day, I can say, oh, that's okay, I have that recipe I can just throw in the crock pot before we leave. I think giving yourself almost room for error in what you plan is really.
- [28:50]
Jenny Urch
Important and that's why the meal plan works. Because you have a plan and I don't think anybody probably really follows it 100% right. But because you have a plan, you have things on hand to make meals instead of just to have the staples and so you can mix and match. But it is tricky. I talked to this woman named Kendra. I'm probably going to say her last name wrong. I'm just going to say her name is Kendra and she wrote a book called the Plan. So if you book and look it up, I think it's Adachi. I think I'm wrong and I'm so sorry Kendra, but we were talking about sort of the cognitive. I can't remember what it's called? It's like. It's like executive function. Executive function where in order to meal plan, you really have, like, it's a long process. Like, you have to think about who's going to be home and who's going to be where, and what do we have that night. And so sometimes it's just so overwhelming to take the leap. Have you found. I mean, you've been doing this for over a decade, so, like, at some point it just. It's got to be a little bit more second nature, and it feels kind of easy.
- [29:47]
Mandy
Yeah, I do think. But I also am really transparent in saying that I am a type A person. I really am. And I say that with full transparency because I have so many type B friends, and they are my friends who said, you need to write this down, because not everybody's brain works the way your brain is doing that, and it would be helpful for other people. So I do think that there is something to be said, like the executive functioning, it's just different. Some. You know, there are things that I totally drop the ball on because they're not my jam. And then there's other things as a type A person that I thrive a little more in. So I do think at a certain point, it's kind of knowing your weaknesses. And if you're the person who is very type B, and that is so hard because it is a process, first of all, you have to come up with the ideas to even begin to think about how you're planning it. Then you have to have a dinner for each of those days or half of those days. So there is a lot to it. And I think that's where finding the tools, if that's not how your brain works, then you find the tools that kind of plug in those missing pieces for you, because that's better than not doing it at all. You know, something is better than nothing. So if that means you download someone else's meal plan, you know what, it's going to save you money. You know what I mean? Even though you're maybe spending, like, my meal plans, they're 1299. Some people might argue to say, is that saving me money if I'm buying a plan?
- [31:05]
Jenny Urch
But I would say yes, because Wendy's is Gonna cost you $75, and some of these for one meal, and some of these meals are like $1.89 a person. So in just one meal, you're making the money back, if not more. And then that's gonna last you. I mean, it's a lifetime investment. It's like a, you know, and you could get several of them.
- [31:26]
Mandy
Also the time you, like we said, you know, it's if it's not a money investment, it's a time investment. And so it's like the time you're saving in this is really also making a difference. Right. The groceries are pre shopped for you. That's a big, that's a big hiccup for people, Jenny, is the actual grocery shopping like the making the list of the ingredients that you need and then going to the store. A lot of people have really big mental blocks with that and so that alone is saving you so much time, so much mental load. Then you don't have to even cook every night. You know it really. So to answer your question, has it become easier over the years? Yes. Because it's a habit that you form and this could be a stepping stone for a lot of people to say, oh, this is how she does it. Well that makes sense. That's really easy. And then they could completely do it on their own. But if you're not there and you're working full time and you have multiple kids and you're juggling 15 schedules and you just don't have the mental capacity for that right now. You don't need it because it's pretty plug and play. You can attest to that. That.
- [32:27]
Jenny Urch
Yeah, I sure can. I wanted to read this because if you go on the Etsy shop there's so many reviews which is so cool and just all five star review after five star review. And this one is just from this month. It says love how easy everything is. Meals are great. Thank you for less time in the kitchen and more time with family. And this is just what people are saying constantly. The meal plans are the best. They're no brainers. Great idea for suppers. So helpful for busy days. I've tried a number of the recipes. My family has enjoyed them and, and you know, it's just, it's one after the next after the next. But that we did talk about that last time was that you do have the grocery like you can add to cart. I'm so old, Mandy. I don't even do any of that stuff. I'm like technologically way I'm in the stone age but everybody else does it.
- [33:14]
Mandy
No, me too. I was right there with you. This was one of those things that I got as a suggestion from someone else because I'm not tech savvy either. Thank goodness for Google and teaching how to do things. Things but no, they're QR codes. So you can actually use them on a tablet or a phone or a laptop, whatever device. If you're a device person, if you're a tangible person and you want to print them out, then there's just QR codes. So you either click a link and it takes you to a pre built grocery cart and then obviously you can go through and say, well, I don't need the cheese, so take that out. Or I don't need that, take that out. If you're not on the tablet device and you have it tangible, you just scan the QR code and it does the same thing. Opens up up the pre built grocery cart so that all the ingredients that you need are in there. I actually tell people, you know, here's basics that most people have in their kitchen, you don't need to go buy this every week, but here are the ingredients that are not basics that you will need to make the meal. So I really try and make it simple and you know, in the name of us talking about things healthy, I always like to tell people I'm not putting anything in these ingredients that I'm not feeding to my own family. Like these are legitimately they're your meals. Yeah, they're mine. I make all of these meals multiple times before they ever go into a plan. A lot of them are stuff I made for a decade and it's important. I'm, I'm pretty crunchy. I call myself Scrunchie because I leave room for, you know, the occasional thing. Sometimes life happens. Sometimes you want to have an Oreo, one's not gonna kill you, but I'm pretty scrunchy. I have a kid who's like very sensitive to food dyes. Can't have food dyes at all. We try and be very health conscious, so you're not going to find junk ingredients in these. And I think that that's also something that makes it a little different because of course you could go throw together a ten dollar meal with a can of cream of mushroom chicken and like something else that's packed full of processed ingredients and additives, but these aren't that. So you're not compromising on anything and you're still able to stick to a.
- [35:15]
Jenny Urch
Budget and 100% they're not that. It's like every single one you get is trustworthy and you're gonna feel like it's good about feeding that to your family. What is a meal that surprises people that you can eat affordably, like a good meal. You're like, oh, you can have that affordably.
- [35:33]
Mandy
I think a lot. Okay. So I just immediately go to anything with beef. Right. Like chuck roasts. When I write my meal plans, I always break everything down, price per serving. Right. So all of my meals, they're built to be feeding six people. It's a six people serving size. Obviously, if you're electric, less smaller family, you can still eat it. But that's what the serving sizes are portioned out to. And so I think a lot of people assume things like chuck roast because it is more expensive than chicken. But, you know, one of the really popular meals lately has been birria tacos. I have like a knockoff birria recipe. You make it in the crock pot. So popular it exploded on Instagram. And that would be something that would typically be really expensive. Right. If you went out to go buy birria tacos for a family of six.
- [36:19]
Jenny Urch
Six.
- [36:19]
Mandy
That's not a cheap meal.
- [36:20]
Jenny Urch
I don't even know what this is.
- [36:21]
Mandy
Oh, biria.
- [36:22]
Jenny Urch
What? Spell it. I've never done it. Where have I been? I don't know how to do grocery cart. I don't even know. Okay. There's got to be at least one other person that's like me.
- [36:33]
Mandy
Yes, there is. If there's one, there's many. No, birria is. I feel like it kind of just like blew up. Birria tacos, they're queso birria. It's like chuck roast. Traditionally in the Mexican culture, it would be like marinated all day and things like, like guajillo chilies and ancho chilies. My version is not authentic. I want to make sure that I say that. But it tastes real good. And you make it in the crock pot and it's super easy. It just cooks all day. It's so tender and delicious. And then you fold it into tortillas with some melted, like, quesadilla type of cheese. So good and so much cheaper than going. If you buy them at, you know, like taco trucks, it's really expensive. Or you go out to a Mexican restaurant, it's very, very expensive. But you can make dishes like that. Maybe it's not 100% authentic, but it is delicious and it's on a budget. Even when you're buying things like a chuck roast. Because again, when you're following systems, right? Like my cook once, eat twice system, one of the biggest things about it that makes it so budget friendly is you're buying these ingredients, quote unquote, in bulk because you're Making two meals out of those ingredients. And so, you know, you buy the three pack of bell peppers instead of the one pack and that is cheaper and it feels insignificant at the time. But I will tell you that I have a couple meal plans that don't follow the cook once, eat twice just because it doesn't apply to that type of system. Like my on the go meal plan on the go doesn't you need it to not be cook once, eat twice. It doesn't make sense. And they're not as cheap as if you're using the system for cook once, eat twice. So the systems really do add up to saving you a lot of money.
- [38:18]
Jenny Urch
The other thing that's cool about it too is it really helps facilitate hospitality. So if you're the type of person. So once we had our fourth kid, someone said to me, you're never going to get invited anywhere again. So because it's hard, it's like people get really overwhelmed to have company over. And especially if you're having a company that's got a bunch of kids. And so it's like, well, you've got the cook one once, eat twice, or you can cook once if you're having a party. So these are actually really great recipes for gatherings.
- [38:47]
Mandy
Yes, I use it also. We travel a lot with friends. We have really good friends from California that meet us a lot of places. And then we go around in our camper trailer with groups of friends, too. And I. I'm planning Mandy. And so I always plan the food for everybody. Every time we have a really good couple friend, I won't say their names because I don't want to, like, you know, blast them. But every time, they're always like, there's no way you did it for this cheap. I will grocery shop for the whole group. And then I just split it. And I have everybody venmo me their share of the groceries for the whole group. And every time they're like, there's no way you're. We owe you more money. There's no way you're doing it for this cheap. Like, no, it really is because you're buying for a big crowd.
- [39:29]
Jenny Urch
Wow, that's a big deal. Okay. Also, this can make you friends.
- [39:32]
Mandy
Yes.
- [39:33]
Jenny Urch
Everybody wants a friend that they can just venmo the money to.
- [39:37]
Mandy
This is a friend maker. There was a TikTok the other day. It was so funny. It was these two guys going on vacation and it goes back and forth between the two. And the one guy says, my name's Cameron, and I booked the flights. And then the other friend pops on and he's like, my name is Nasser. And then he's like, my name is Cameron and I made all the restaurant reservations. And then the other guy pops on, he's like, my name is Nasser. And they just keep going back. And it's like this one friend planned the whole thing, booked everything, and the other friend's just there along for the ride. I'm like, grab a meal plan and you get to be Cameron and you'll have a bunch of Nasser friends.
- [40:12]
Jenny Urch
That's so great. It's so true. And that can be a really hard thing to figure out. And like you said, you can just go on so many more trips if the food is a negligible cost because you are going to eat anyway. And then it just allows you to have so much more freedom.
- [40:29]
Mandy
I'm Orek, son of Chief Janek. I'm the co son or heir of Pahar. Nothing of consequence will ever happen here.
- [40:38]
Jenny Urch
An event of great consequence has just occurred. I am Lord Saffron. My kingdom's expansion is like a wildfire.
- [40:47]
Mandy
Saffron has gotten his hands on some Galda stone.
- [40:50]
Jenny Urch
A stone of unrivaled value and power. Jesus Film Project and Family Life present.
- [40:58]
Mandy
A full cast audio production of an.
- [41:01]
Jenny Urch
Ancient tale reimagined There is much your father keeps from you, young Kosan.
- [41:06]
Mandy
That's a lie.
- [41:06]
Jenny Urch
Where is the Chief Janek of old? He probably told you it's just a common gem. You shouldn't be playing with Daddy's things.
- [41:15]
Mandy
Look out Horik.
- [41:23]
Jenny Urch
The Road to K Luma Wow. Exciting. That was the trailer for the Road to K Luma, a five episode fantasy audio adventure designed for the whole family, inspired by one of Jesus's great parables. If you're looking for engaging screen free entertainment for the summer, this is for you. I am personally really excited about this because these are relatable and fun characters. The storytelling is incredibly immersive and it offers the ability to hear a parable in a whole new way. This would be a perfect thing to listen to as a family this summer. Summer as you head out on any road trip adventures together to listen, learn more or access discussion guides and other bonus content, click the link in the description. Sometimes I look at my kids and wonder what their future will be like and then I snap out of it when one of them yells that they're starving or asks me do we really have to go on another hike? Anyway, you want your kids and your spouse's future to be financially secure just in case something unforeseen happens to you too. And with life insurance through Select Quote, a customized affordable policy can do just that. They've been helping families just like yours for nearly 40 years. Over 2 million customers and they've placed more than $700 billion in coverage. This isn't a one size fits all service. Select Quote works with trusted insurance carriers to help find the right policy for your needs at a price that fits your budget. It only takes about 15 minutes to connect with a licensed insurance agent who will walk you through your options. No pressure, just real help. Some policies even cost less than a dollar a day day and if you're in good health, you could qualify for same day coverage with no medical exam. Get the right life insurance for your family for less@SelectQuote.com 1000 hours go to SelectQuote.com 1000 hours today to get started. That's SelectQuote.com 1000 hours as a mom who spends a lot of time outdoors with my kids, I've seen my fair share of skin, knees and mystery rashes. That's why I always keep active Skin Repair on hand. It is a game changer. This all natural non toxic solution helps repair and heal damaged skin skin and it works by mimicking your body's own immune response. So whether it's a scraped elbow, a bug bite or too much sun after a long hike, Active skin repair helps soothe irritation, reduce inflammation and support healing safely even for sensitive skin. But here's what I really love. They care about the planet too. As a member of 1% for the planet, active skin repair donates 1% of all sales to environmental initiatives like the Conservation alliance and Sea Trees, helping protect wildlands and restore marine ecosystems. They're even certified climate and plastic neutral. So when you care for your family's health, you're also helping care for the Earth. Visit activeskinrepair.com to learn more about active skin repair and their commitment to 1% for the planet and use GO1000 hours to save 20% on all active skin repair products. And so for people who get bored with leftovers, you just give lots of ideas of how of what you can do with that cook once, eat twice system. It also works really well for I am always panicked now. I'm out of the stage right now but I think I'll be back into it when like people start having grandkids. That's how old I am. I'm out of the stage of taking people meals because it like happens when everyone's having babies. I'm like in that middle section where it's probably going to be like, soon my friends are going to be having surgeries because we're old and grandkids. That's what we're getting close to. So for the moment, I've got, like, a little bit of reprieve. But I was always panicked to the panic to the nth degree if I have to take a meal. So this is another great thing. If it's cook once, eat twice, you could literally make it and you're gonna eat and you take one to a friend.
- [44:58]
Mandy
Yeah, no, it's great. Like, it's so great. There's so many things. I always think of people who have elderly parents too, you know, because a lot of people are hitting that stage where their parents are becoming elderly. They're not quite able to cook themselves meals all the time. So this is great for that too. People who are single. I have had so many people say, I don't have kids. Would this meal plan work for me? Or it' just me and my husband with this meal plan work. And I'm like, yes, because you basically can use it meal prep style. One recipe in here is 6 servings. So if you made the recipe for the week, you would have six days of that as lunch or six days of that as dinner, which there's a lot of people who are in the younger generations who are single. And meal prep is very popular because, again, they're also trying to save money even though they don't have kids yet. So it's kind of a solution with so many different uses.
- [45:49]
Jenny Urch
Yeah. So like, you could cook potentially, if you were. If, let's say it was for you and one other person or you're cooking for your parents or something. It's like you could do the whole first week of the month, you cook. So the first week of May, you cook, the first week of June, you cook. And then the rest of the weeks you don't cook.
- [46:06]
Mandy
Yeah, yeah. For the. For people who are single or. Yeah, 100%. And it really. I'm like such a statistic person. I don't know why my brain is this way. Numbers interest me so much. I think because I see the larger impact of stuff. So I always encourage people to do this. And this is one of the tips in my grocery budgeting course. Go on the USDA website. I don't know if I told. I don't think I told you this last time. So the USDA has an awesome thing on their website where they actually put monthly averages out for what People are spending on groceries, so they do it every month, and they take the new averages, and it's basically a report, like a data report that says what people are spending on groceries. I always tell people, go there and compare. Like, are you spending more than that? Are you spending less than that? I just looked at it earlier today because I just did my grocery shopping, and I compare what I spend on groceries every week for people on Instagram. So when you go on there, it actually breaks it down to family size and gender and age, everything. You could plug in your exact family. Like, my family, we have a family of five with me and my husband. I have a son and a daughter between 9 and 11, and then I have a son who's 7. And it breaks it down by age for how much the average American family is spending. So this week for the month of April, the average American family is spending $284 for a week of food. I just grocery shopped for eight days, so more than a week, and I only spent $188. So if you. If you compare, I saved $165 in one week by using budget meal plans.
- [47:46]
Jenny Urch
All right, well, I want you to do it one more time. So, okay, first of all, where do we find it? On the USD.
- [47:51]
Mandy
Okay, so the usda. Let me pull. Let me give you the app, you guys.
- [47:56]
Jenny Urch
We're doing it in real time. I want to look at my family in real time.
- [47:59]
Mandy
So if you go to the Google USDA grocery averages, this is somebody's job. Yeah. And also, like, what a helpful tool, because a lot of people have no idea where to start, Jenny. Like, they're not even sure. Like, are they spending too much? They don't know. So when you do that, the USDA Food and Nutrition Service service, it's the actual government website. It should pop up and it'll say, USDA food plans, monthly cost of food reports.
- [48:29]
Jenny Urch
Okay, found it.
- [48:30]
Mandy
Okay. And then if you scroll down, you'll see April 2025.
- [48:34]
Jenny Urch
Yep.
- [48:35]
Mandy
It's that first link. USDA food plans cost of food report. This one's for March.
- [48:42]
Jenny Urch
Yeah.
- [48:42]
Mandy
So it's like. Like a month behind. And then when you open it up, it actually breaks it down for you. So do you see? Isn't that so cool? So for. If you're listening, it breaks it down by age and sex groups. So children. It gives you ages 1, 2 to 3, 4 to 5, 6 to 8, and it breaks down the average weekly cost and the average monthly cost, and they give you a reference at the very bottom it says reference family and it tells you what the breakdown of that family of four averages and what the average family spent for last year month.
- [49:15]
Jenny Urch
Okay, this is a fascinating. Well, there's a couple things that are fascinating. First of all, it's interesting to look at. Like, okay, if you have a one year old versus a teen.
- [49:26]
Mandy
Yeah.
- [49:26]
Jenny Urch
You know, if you have a one year old versus a male teen, it's triple.
- [49:30]
Mandy
Yeah.
- [49:30]
Jenny Urch
So it's something to be aware of. Like it costs $25 a week to feed a one year old, but $75 a week to feed a 15 year old, you know, teen boy.
- [49:38]
Mandy
Right.
- [49:39]
Jenny Urch
So that's interesting. It's also interesting that when you hit 51, then it gets a little cheaper. Yeah. And even cheaper at 71. This is interesting.
- [49:53]
Mandy
It's really. So I use it all the time because I really like to track. I really like to be very transparent with people on the Internet about exactly what I'm spending. So like post my receipts, post what I'm doing, how many days, what it's buying. And so I use this every month. Month for myself just so that I can share with people. Like I think a lot of times people don't grasp what a big impact grocery budgeting can be. But a tool like this is so helpful because you can say, whoa, $165. I mean when you multiply that in a whole month, that's oh, that's over $650. That's a lot of money.
- [50:30]
Jenny Urch
Yes. Okay, so go through yours one more time. So you said what you according to the usda, you went through these different things. I'm like in the process of adding mine up right now. O like, and I'm trying to do it and I'm like trying to listen to you and also be like, how many kids do I have and how old are they?
- [50:47]
Mandy
Yes.
- [50:48]
Jenny Urch
Yeah. Yeah. So, so okay, yours was in, it was supposed to be 200 something.
- [50:53]
Mandy
$284 for seven days. Because it's for the week. For seven days of food.
- [50:59]
Jenny Urch
Yeah.
- [50:59]
Mandy
But this week I shop because I shop for either eight or 10 days. So I kind of have to do like a little bit of conversion in there. But for eight days for my family, it was only $188 dollars. So if you compare the two, like at a seven day rate, I saved 165 bucks on one grocery shopping trip.
- [51:20]
Jenny Urch
That's a lot.
- [51:21]
Mandy
One trip. Yes, that's a lot.
- [51:23]
Jenny Urch
Because if you're 50, you know, if you're 50 to 52 trips in a year, I mean, yeah. That's thousands of dollars.
- [51:28]
Mandy
Yeah.
- [51:29]
Jenny Urch
That you're saving.
- [51:30]
Mandy
And that doesn't include the $6,000 a year, Jenny, that people are spending on eating out.
- [51:36]
Jenny Urch
Yeah. So you're. You're 12 to $15,000 of savings for a family of five.
- [51:40]
Mandy
Yeah. So look, I'm. I'm a compounding numbers girl. So if you were to take just. Obviously, every week's a little different. I don't always save that much. Sometimes they save more, sometimes they save a little less. But just for the sake of calculations, if I did the same thing every week for the whole year, I would save $7,920 by using budget meal plans.
- [52:02]
Jenny Urch
And they only are 1299.
- [52:04]
Mandy
Yeah. And that doesn't include the money that you're saving eating out. Right. Like my family, because we have budget meal plans like this, we really do rarely eat out. That started when we were young parents and we just couldn't afford to eat out. But then as time has gone on, you know, you really start to. They always say kids don't understand the value of a dollar. I think that's very true. Even into, like, young adulthood, that you don't totally grasp it it until you don't have it, and then it becomes really, really, really fast. So after really struggling as young parents, we kind of realized, whoa, like, maybe we can afford to go out and eat three nights a week now, but we don't want to because that is so much more money. So with my meal plans, it's six nights a week. And the average American family, I believe. I just read. I just did math on this one, too, because I said I'm a numbers girl. I want to say it was like the average American family spending about $115 each week, week eating out. Like, if you break the $6,000 down, that's on multiple meals. So if you were even to just cut it back down to eating out one night a week, you're gonna save, you know, thousands of more. You're over $10,000 a year in savings right there.
- [53:14]
Jenny Urch
Unbelievable. Mine ended up to 444.30, which is interesting because this is another thing that has, like, always been something that I struggle with a little bit. Like, you go, and you're like, this single amount is a lot, right? You're like, that's a lot of money. So then you don't spend it, but you spend $75. It seems cheaper, Right. But that's only one dinner. So it's. This is good. I think it's good to have these numbers in your mind, because then you don't feel. It makes you feel, like, a little bit more normal. Growing up, my dad. I would go shopping with my dad on Saturdays. He liked to go on Saturdays. And we would go to Meijer. That's the store in Michigan that's got a lot of groceries. And he would try and keep it to a hundred dollars. Well, this is, like, obviously decades ago, but even still, sometimes I have that number in my mind. Like, a hundred dollars is a good amount to spend on groceries. And then if it's 440, you're like, I shouldn't get it. And then you end up just eating out and. But that adds up over time.
- [54:10]
Mandy
It does. And I think you're not. I mean, they say, like, 70% of American households right now are financially unhealthy. Like. Like most people. It's really. People aren't alone in that. I think a lot of times people think, oh, it's just me. I doing something wrong. I can't afford it. It's like, no, Right now, most people. Most people are struggling financially. Most people feel like they don't have enough money to really get the growth, you know, to just throw whatever they want in the cart. People are not doing that because food has gotten so expensive. Like the cans of soda.
- [54:41]
Jenny Urch
Yeah. This just makes me think, like, someday I'm going to feel really rich when all my kids move out.
- [54:50]
Mandy
What is it? What's the 71 and up we're at.
- [54:54]
Jenny Urch
I, like, got my numbers down and was like, well, one of them, 16 and a half. So I'm gonna be able to cross that one off the list here. They're gonna. They're gonna fall like dominoes here, and this number is gonna go down. We're like, at the.
- [55:07]
Mandy
I think we're gonna be sad. I know you're gonna say, I wish I was still spending $440 a week on groceries. That's how motherhood is.
- [55:15]
Jenny Urch
It is. It's interesting, too, because I feel like we're probably at the pinnacle. Like, it's something that if I had more time, I could figure out, like, at what point I would going to have the most teenagers and teenage boys. And it's probably, like, right now. So then I just know that down the road, well, I'm like, well, I'm gonna.
- [55:31]
Mandy
And, like, you would be a great example. So occasionally I have gotten people. You know, most of the time, in my experience, people are actually very nice on the Internet. But. And I have to say that because I think it's important to find the silver linings. Occasionally though, I do get comments from people who I think they just comment really quick without kind of like thinking it through. And so I've had people over the last year who have said like, well, you must be feeding teenage boys. And I'm like, well, I'm not. I'm not feeding teenage boys right now. But our grocery bills wouldn't be the same even if I wasn't using a grocery budget. Like, you're still going to spend more on groceries whether you use the grocery budget or not. If you use the grocery budget though, even with your teenage boys, what if you saved $50? If you save $50 and I save $50, you're still spending more on groceries than I am, but you'd be saving $50 of your own money, you know, so tools like that I think are really eye opening for people because you can just compare to yourself and you're not trying to compare the different circumstances of other people's lives.
- [56:34]
Jenny Urch
And according to this USDA thing, it's really not that much more. It's definitely a lot. From like a one year old to a teenage boy. Right? You're triple, but like, you know, from like a 12 year old to a 14 year old, you're talking 10 more dollars a week or 15 more dollars a week.
- [56:49]
Mandy
Yeah, yeah.
- [56:50]
Jenny Urch
So that's interesting. It is more, but it's not maybe, maybe as much more as you would think it would be.
- [56:55]
Mandy
Yeah, it's great.
- [56:56]
Jenny Urch
It's gradual.
- [56:58]
Mandy
Yes, I agree. 100. I think though, this is where it gets kind of tricky. Okay. So I have people ask me a lot like, well what, why wouldn't I just get the. I can't think of Green Chef or you know, the pre made kids that come to your door. People will say, well, why wouldn't I just get that? Because then I don't even have to grocery shop. And I think we get tricked a little bit sometimes because quantity matters. Matters like the amount that you're getting for what you're spending matters. So. Oh, factor.
- [57:25]
Jenny Urch
That's.
- [57:25]
Mandy
I've never tried these, by the way, so this is not me bashing any of these brands. I'm sure they're wonderful. But I do think that the quantity that you get right when you're feeding a teenage boy, they're throwing down one of those little factor meals. That's, that's not feeding.
- [57:38]
Jenny Urch
They're gonna want to eat six, right? Yeah.
- [57:41]
Mandy
And so then you're really not saving money or like you ate it and you're still hungry or you ate it and there's nothing for lunch tomorrow.
- [57:47]
Jenny Urch
Tomorrow.
- [57:47]
Mandy
Versus like when you're doing homemade meals. I don't want to say my way because I didn't create making homemade meals. But like the meals that I'm writing into these plans, these are big portioned meals. Like, these are filling adult, six serving sizes, big filling meals. And so it's again, more bang for your buck is honestly what it comes down to is like, how where do you want to spend your money and how much are you trying to get out of your money? Because if you're cooking it at home, you're getting so much more out of your money than just a dollar or two. You know, you're getting no additives, no natural flavors, high quality food, high protein food. That's a, that's a big one right now is, I think people are realizing we're really not getting enough protein in our diets. Protein can be really hard to get in the average American diet. And it can also be a pricier thing, especially when we're trying to do like protein bars. Those are expensive home food. Most of my meals in my plans, and I say most, I do have a specific high protein plan, but even outside of that, most of my meals are like 30 grams of protein per serving. So. And that's, that's not striving necessarily to have high protein. That's just what you get when you use real food ingredients in your food.
- [59:04]
Jenny Urch
And one of the things that this Dr. Kate Shanahan says in this fat burn fix, because she's talking about, about how we're all sort of metabolic, not all, but a lot of people are metabolically sick, basically. And what she's saying is that it's coming from snacking and that every time you snack, your body's releasing insulin, even if it's zero calories. Right? That's the whole thing about the anything you eat sweet, if it tastes sweet, your body releases insulin. And so her whole thing is to try your best to have a filling, satisfying meal the best that you can so that maybe you're snacking at least a little bit less. And that's the same message as those artificial flavors. Because the artificial flavors, what he said is your brain is tricked. Like your brain is trying to figure out, like, what is this? What is this? So it's like wanting more and more and more. Cause it can't quite figure out because, you know, it's just a flavor. It doesn't have the right nutrition elements. And so you're not Ever completely satisfied. And that's leading to overeating. So those two things combined really, really would help your health. These are wonderful.
- [60:04]
Mandy
And the overeating leads to overspending ultimately, like snacks. I'm not a huge snacker myself. My kids would be if we didn't kind of reel that in a few years ago. And I think that, you know, kids want to snack all the time because a lot of snacks are quite literally just puffed air. There's not anything to it. So, of course, you know, you have one snack, you have five snacks because the first snack didn't fill you up to begin with, because they're all just puffed air with a bunch of additives in it. And it's not real food versus. Versus. You make a snack at home and it's a dense snack, and then you're actually full. So you've saved money because you made the snack homemade. You've also given yourself higher quality ingredients. You're eating less because the food that you are eating is high quality and filling and actually has nutrients in it. So all around, I think kind of bringing it back to, I don't want to say old school, but a little bit old school of like, we can make these things at home. We do have to learn systems to make it plausible with our time and our schedule, but it is possible to do it. And two, I was just listening right before we got on to your podcast, and I forget who it was with. He was just talking about. You're gonna know. He was talking about the natural flavors, how food used to taste better.
- [61:17]
Jenny Urch
Yeah. His name is Mark Schatzer. In the book is the Dorito effect. And it's wonderful.
- [61:20]
Mandy
Yes, yes. Such a good pot. I loved that episode and I loved how he was talking about older people are always saying that food doesn't taste the same. And it's. It is so true. Because also homemade food, you can make food that still t good homemade. It's obviously not going to be quite the same because our actual ingredients are different. But I think the same thing applies when you talk about eating food that's coming from a bag versus eating food that you made with ingredients at home or eating the food even from a takeout place like Boston Market. I don't know if they have that in Michigan. Do they have that up there?
- [61:53]
Jenny Urch
Yeah.
- [61:54]
Mandy
Homestyle food. Right. But it's not home style food, is not actually that food. And once you start making the real food food, your body starts craving the real food. You start feeling like, oh, I actually enjoy these flavors it really does change your palate. And it happens pretty fast, I think.
- [62:12]
Jenny Urch
I think so too. I made homemade bagels on Easter, which is, I don't. It's four ingredients or something. And the kids just, they always ask me to make them. And it's always so easy once I get going. I was telling my husband, Josh, I'm like, I'm always overwhelmed, but once I get going, I'm like, it's so easy. And our youngest daughter, she talked about them all, all day. She was like, you should sell these bagels. These are the best bagels I've ever had. And, you know, it's just one of those things. And you just, you could so easily freeze them. And it's, you know, five or six ingredients and you know what's going in your kid's body. So I just wholeheartedly recommend all of your meal plans. I can't believe they're only 13. It's wonderful. There's so many that you can choose from and it will change your life. It will help with all of these types of things that we're dealing with, which is trying to reduce additives and diet size and eat cleaner and cut your grocery bill so that you can have more time and adventure. More Plandy Mandy, you can find her dancing all over the Internet. Thank you so much for being here.
- [63:06]
Mandy
Thank you so much for having me. It's always so much fun.
- [63:11]
Jenny Urch
How do you make an Airbnb a vrbo? Picture a vacation rental with a host. The host is dragging your family on a tour of the kitchen, the bathroom, the upstairs bathroom, the downstairs bed, bedroom, and the TV room, which, surprise, is where you can watch tv. Now imagine there's no host giving you a tour because there's never any hosts at all, ever. Voila.
- [63:33]
Mandy
You've got yourself a vrbo.
- [63:34]
Jenny Urch
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