[SPEAKER_01]: Hi I'm Megan and I'm Sarah.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're two women in our 40s who live in different states and have a lot of different interests between us.
[SPEAKER_00]: On this show we talk about all the midlife lady leisure pursuits we're enjoying at the stage of life like travel, hobbies, food, wellness, style and more.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm excited today to chat about the food we prepare for ourselves.
[SPEAKER_01]: When our self is the only mouth to feed, but first, today's episode is brought to you by our exclusive season sponsor and a longtime partner of ours, Vionic Shoes.
[SPEAKER_01]: Megan, I am so glad I found Vionic many years ago.
[SPEAKER_01]: Let's just say in my early mid-life lady era,
[SPEAKER_01]: because now that I've been wearing them for so long, I just refuse to accept shoes that aren't comfortable and supportive.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because of Vionic, I know that you can look fashion forward without being uncomfortable no matter the season, no matter the occasion.
[SPEAKER_01]: My latest pair of Vionic shoes are the Carmella Strapby Slide Sandal, which as of this recording, it looks like they're on sale.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, go check those out.
[SPEAKER_00]: Use the promo code midlifeatvionicshoes.com for 15% off that's a one-time use only and check out the special page we've got set up where you can see our favorite vionic styles.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can look for that in the show notes for this episode.
[SPEAKER_01]: Thanks again to Vionic for sponsoring this episode, and let's dive right into talking about what we eat when it's just us.
[SPEAKER_01]: So to set the stage here, I still have three kids living at home and much of my meal planning and my shopping and my cooking, it does still revolve around the family table sort of.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, I've got to keep breakfast and lunch and snacks stuff around for the teenagers.
[SPEAKER_01]: But Megan, there's like a shift in the air.
[SPEAKER_01]: I know you know this because you're always a few years ahead of where I am.
[SPEAKER_01]: I can feel the shift happening.
[SPEAKER_01]: My husband travels a lot for work.
[SPEAKER_01]: So he's gone a lot.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then with three teenagers, they have different schedules.
[SPEAKER_01]: They eat differently.
[SPEAKER_01]: They have different preferences.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like I'm definitely still feeding them and shopping for them.
[SPEAKER_01]: But the shift that has happened has opened up times where I am actually thinking, wait,
[SPEAKER_01]: what do I want to make, what do I want to eat?
[SPEAKER_01]: And so over the last couple of years, I've gotten better about like leaning into that and not being, not being afraid or feeling self-indulgent about cooking and preparing food that's really just for me.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I would love to hear, I know you're ahead of me on this, so I know you know what I'm talking about.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh yeah, but the shift happens like slowly and
[SPEAKER_00]: Uh, it's not linear, like everything else, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like, you'll be in that stage for a while where you're, um, it's cutting back.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're not doing as much cooking.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then like, for me, I just don't fell off a cliff.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like it happened.
[SPEAKER_00]: And part of it is because, um, Clara is just is in a different stage of life right now.
[SPEAKER_00]: First of all, the two kids that are living with me right now are Clara and Owen.
[SPEAKER_00]: Both of them are working jobs where they are literally being paid in food.
[SPEAKER_00]: right now.
[SPEAKER_00]: They both get shift meals.
[SPEAKER_00]: So and then Owen was really into this whole like workout diet thing where he was bulking and blah blah blah.
[SPEAKER_00]: So he had like his own food and his own fridge for a while.
[SPEAKER_00]: I and then Eric also is really busy with work and Eric will eat literally anything I put in front of him.
[SPEAKER_00]: So what it's kind of looking like right now is that I'm doing a lot more
[SPEAKER_00]: just for my own personal fun and satisfaction and fulfillment baking and cooking.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I actually do a lot of high intensity kitchen processes so like I make yogurt from scratch.
[SPEAKER_00]: I make baked oatmeal at least weekly.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'll simmer a big pot of dried beans.
[SPEAKER_00]: I bake sour dough a couple times a week.
[SPEAKER_00]: I make soup.
[SPEAKER_00]: I can.
[SPEAKER_00]: I preserve, you know, I do all these things, but what I'm not doing is cooking week night meals.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I'm like in my night like okay everyone come to the table at 630 this is what we're having like you're not at all maybe I've got like maybe I simmered a huge pot of beans and then like I personally scoop some out.
[SPEAKER_00]: and mixed them with like some beef that I, you know, browned and made myself like a little pot of something, you know, put an egg on top or whatever.
[SPEAKER_00]: And anybody is welcome to that food, but I'm not like preparing it 90% of the time at this moment.
[SPEAKER_00]: I am not preparing weak name yields.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's a really weird shift.
[SPEAKER_00]: It feels like it happened very quickly.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think I'll probably get back to it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like next year when Clara's back to a normal schedule and maybe Owen is over whatever eating stuff he's got going on right now, then maybe we'll start doing a couple nights a week sit down meal again, but we're just not right now.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so what I'm finding is almost all of my meals are just me and they're really, really repetitive.
[SPEAKER_00]: They're cheap.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm just eating very inexpensively right now and I'm eating really plant-based right now, which is not intentional.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not like I'm going out of my way not to eat meat, but I just don't bother to cook a lot of it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: When it's just me.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, I think it's one thing I think is kind of fun about it is that I actually have a lot of fun within the constraints of a very repetitive way of eating, like mixing it up just a little bit, but it's looking
[SPEAKER_00]: at the moment.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, at where...
[SPEAKER_01]: as occurring to me as you're talking is it's same same but it is based on the things that you like to prepare and like to eat.
[SPEAKER_01]: So it would be different if it was the same same like peanut butter and jelly crusts that your kids were leaving right?
[SPEAKER_01]: Like that's not a fulfilling same same or it's like the same takeout three times a week because you don't have time or bandwidth.
[SPEAKER_01]: So it is same same but it's like it's intentionally chosen.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, like you, you are choosing the ingredients that sound good to make and to prepare and so then you don't mind eating them over and over again.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I also think really quick that like, there's some pressure or maybe some perceived pressure going into maybe this like empty nest transition that suddenly we're going to become like gourmet cooks and we're just going to get really inventive and maybe for some of us as the opposite, maybe for some of us like we've been cooking for a long time for other people and I'm not right now that is not
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not a priority, or I'll go out to dinner when I want something really different, or I'll find other ways of injecting novelty into my life.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I feel like I think I probably had that misconception that I was going to be struck by this culinary...
[SPEAKER_01]: Well because you have time and creativity in front of you and you would think one would think I mean I know my parents are an example of my mom Just says like I think I cooked all the dinners that I ever wanted to cook like she doesn't it's not a source of creativity and like retirement Exploration for her but my dad became interested in cooking as he transitioned into retiring so they have like a completely different
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, set up an orientation around cooking and food, then they would have as mid, you know, midlife working adults.
[SPEAKER_01]: So yeah, it doesn't, it doesn't necessarily go the way you think.
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, well, we're going to go back and forth and share some examples of the, the, the food or the types of meals that we make when it's just us.
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, and I'll just share that because I am earlier to this, like, or I'm still in that transition phase.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, it is still feels novel to me that I could think.
[SPEAKER_01]: what do I want to eat?
[SPEAKER_01]: And then not just go grab it quickly at a drive through because that's different.
[SPEAKER_01]: But then I could actually take the time and the care and the good ingredients to make that thing for myself.
[SPEAKER_01]: So if you're not there yet, like this is still feels very new to me and really like indulgent in the best way, not in a negative connotation, but
[SPEAKER_01]: really like a like a act of self care.
[SPEAKER_01]: Um so I'll throw out the first example of what I make myself when it's just me and I want to really treat myself and that is a really good sandwich.
[SPEAKER_01]: I love a good sandwich.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like I'm thinking of like
[SPEAKER_01]: a bistro cafe sandwich where the bread is like Chabata or Fancacha.
[SPEAKER_01]: Some really good bread.
[SPEAKER_01]: Often for me, it's like some kind of Pesto cheese, most advancedibles like that kind of flavor profile.
[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe wither without chicken, but
[SPEAKER_01]: like you, I can easily go without meat if I'm if the flavors are all there.
[SPEAKER_01]: So a particular favorite sandwich of mine that I've noticed here in Santa Barbara, a lot of restaurants have is some version of a roasted vegetable sandwich on either like a chabata or facacha, usually with like a pesto spread, and
[SPEAKER_01]: And then maybe a cheese, like goat cheese, or maybe a mozzarella, and the roasted vegetables would be like red roasted bread, pepper, maybe zucchini, maybe an eggplant situation, or a portobella, you can picture this, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: It's like, it's very juicy because the roasted vegetables have some, it feels very delicious to me.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, they're very comforting.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I will order that sandwich anywhere I am, and I finally thought, wait,
[SPEAKER_01]: I know how to write that.
[SPEAKER_00]: I can do all of these things.
[SPEAKER_01]: So pretty recently I put on I actually put this on our family meal plan as what we were having for dinner and I can't remember I think the kids were doing their own thing because I think it was only Brian who ate this, but I was like, no, this is what I bought and I shopped.
[SPEAKER_01]: I shopped for this sandwich and I roasted.
[SPEAKER_01]: Portobello mushrooms, red bell pepper, probably onions, maybe I think zucchini too.
[SPEAKER_01]: Quite a few different vegetables, like slice them thin, roasted them with olive oil and really good salt.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then I bought goat cheese, I bought a good bread, and I had a pesto artichoke spread that was from a jar.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, it would be amazing to make to make yourself a spread.
[SPEAKER_01]: and it was so good.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's just one example, but I will also make myself a really good sandwich, probably two or three times a week, just with maybe with simpler ingredients.
[SPEAKER_01]: If we have some chicken breast in the fridge, a really good cheese, I have a toaster oven, so I will kind of like toast
[SPEAKER_01]: toast it enough to crisp up the bread and melt the cheese and then like avocado or good tomatoes in the summer um and no one else is eating I'm like making the perfect sandwich just for me and it's one of my favorite it's kind of hot it's like kind of a lot of work because you got to slice and you got to like there's multiple ingredients that have to be prepared at once but I love I love a good sandwich okay so I have two things to add to this one is that on my birthday
[SPEAKER_00]: My birthday hasn't happened yet.
[SPEAKER_01]: I was like, I almost didn't do like, oh my gosh, what?
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm like, I don't, I forget your birthday.
[SPEAKER_00]: Mother's Day, Mother's Day, Mother's Day.
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, I, um, asked my kids to make me a great sandwich.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was like we were all kind of coming and going.
[SPEAKER_00]: The kids had overlapping work schedules.
[SPEAKER_00]: And there was like an hour where we were all going to be together.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I didn't want to go out to eat really.
[SPEAKER_00]: They just felt stressful.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I just said, I want you guys to make me an amazing sandwich.
[SPEAKER_00]: And they toasted the bread.
[SPEAKER_00]: Everything else about it was just a normal turkey sandwich, really.
[SPEAKER_00]: But they toasted the bread, and I was like, oh my gosh, you guys.
[SPEAKER_00]: This sandwich is so good because the bread is toasted.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I thought, how silly that I don't do this more often.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, you know, um, so anyway, I do know like when I'll be sitting there thinking I wonder what's for dinner I think to myself and then I'll think I could just make a sandwich and toast the bread and that would make it feel Elevated I also a couple of times recently have had a you know Claire is still adjusting to the stew stage of life That we're in and one of those adjustments is that she'll say what's for dinner and I'll say hmm
[SPEAKER_00]: I wanted her.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a mystery.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, like, well, if you go in the fridge, I'm sure you're going to find lots of things that you could assemble into a dinner.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's always food, so have at it.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I do think that those really good sandwiches are kind of now her go to and it's like it is in a way empowering, I guess, to know that you can always make yourself something delicious and it could just be a sandwich.
[SPEAKER_01]: sandwiches are I mean to me underrated at like even at a restaurant like I just love a good sandwich.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: Um okay so the first one I'll mention is Greek yogurt because I make this myself pretty much weekly so there's always some in the fridge and it's high protein and it's a great base for a lot of other things so I eat a lot like every single day I have Greek yogurt and I'll either
[SPEAKER_00]: the homemade granola that you and I love to make or if I don't have any of that, you know, ready to go at that moment or I want something different, I'll do like pecans, pecans, pecans, chia seeds, I'll do berries if they're in season or if they're not, I'll do raisins or currents.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I want to talk about currents really quick in a minute, I'll do flacks, I'll do honey, like I just loaded up and basically make it.
[SPEAKER_00]: a meal and the funny thing is one day Clara walked in and I was doing that and she said, oh, I want to do that.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so she has her own version and she puts chocolate chips and cinnamon in hers.
[SPEAKER_00]: So sometimes if it's one of those mom was for dinner and I'm like, hmm, I wonder.
[SPEAKER_00]: We ended up both having our own
[SPEAKER_00]: like yogurt purples yeah which is great um currents okay I have never really kept currents in my house but I bought some I accidentally bought quite a quantity at Christmas because I bought them from this place right by a food in bulk and I didn't realize I was buying like I don't know five pounds of currents or something eight million yeah and I was I bought them specifically to make this like holiday bread
[SPEAKER_00]: And of course, that used up all of a cup and then I had all these currents and at first I didn't think I was really going to like them in baked goods or in or in yogurt because they're small and they're not quite as sweet as a raisin, but now I sort of love them more than raisins.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, well, do you remember how much I hate raisins like their raisins and olives are like you do things for yeah, but I can do currents.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I don't I've never bought them, but if they are in a scone or a Salad sometimes like try to or just or just fresh dried currents is what I'm talking about.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, yeah, I think you can I think they could be fresh, but
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, um, I was thinking of the dried.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's something because they're so tiny that's actually that's their um, that's the upside for me That's what moves them out of raisin territory.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, the funny thing is now when I bite into a raisin It's almost like too juicy and there's too much going on and it's like small and chewy with a little tiny bit of sweetness so
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm team current now.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, now I'll have to look.
[SPEAKER_01]: I've never even seen where I could buy them and I'm such a pathological a voider of raisins that I've never thought Like yeah, but I do like dried cranberries also.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'll do dry cranberries.
[SPEAKER_01]: So it's weird that I can be raised in adjacent that all sounds delicious Do you have a subject post about how you make your yogurt because this other we can't make this episode two hours long
[SPEAKER_00]: But I can't, but I'm going to write one because I'm actually working interestingly while you and I were playing this episode, I was already working on a post about my current pantry life and like how cooking for myself looks right now.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I will have that done by the time this goes live and I'll definitely include the Greek yogurt instructions because I've been doing this successfully for two years now.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I think it's great.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: I also have been doing more, um, I've been buying kefir actually and rotating between like cottage cheese or kefir or Greek yogurt.
[SPEAKER_01]: Not all in the same bowl, both.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I've been, I don't know, it's like midlife lady style.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, so I've been doing much more bowls of this nature too, and you're inspiring me with the flacks and the currents.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's so many things.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, well speaking of one bowl, that's my next sort of category, and this is, this is more of a type of cooking process, not necessarily one recipe, but I was realizing that when I cook for myself, it's very satisfying to put a lot of work upfront into maybe a grain salad like we've discussed, maybe a soup or a chili, a really healthy like veg forward, being forward,
[SPEAKER_01]: Soup or chili where I'm spending half a day Chopping and Prepping and lots of like kind of fussy.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm getting fussy with one recipe and then I eat it For four days right and for maybe two meals a day four days straight.
[SPEAKER_01]: I just did this yesterday A recipe crossed my New York Times cooking.
[SPEAKER_01]: It came to my inbox or something
[SPEAKER_01]: it's a broccoli.
[SPEAKER_01]: They call it a spoon salad, which I think is another way of saying green salad.
[SPEAKER_01]: So it's quinoa and broccoli are the two main things and then, you know, all the usual, all the usual character show up.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's a, there's a, there's a nut.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's something sweet.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's kind of like a honey mustard vinaigrette and it's a chilled broccoli salad.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I made this yesterday and I will be so happy eating it for multiple meals a day, three or four days straight, Brian's out of town.
[SPEAKER_01]: So that's more of just like an approach.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not a specific type of food or recipe, but I'm curious.
[SPEAKER_01]: It sounds like you do something similar.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, Sarah, you know you are a lady after my own heart with this one because there really is something about that, like I said earlier, the high intensity kitchen process that I'm doing, but they're not tied to, like, I have to have dinner on the table tonight.
[SPEAKER_00]: They're tied to routine and pleasure and sensory exploration.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: That feeling of being able to immerse yourself in something for hours and hours.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was very hard to do when we had young kids and now we can and so I I do that's like for me.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's the big pot of beans that I stem you on the stove or And then kind of find multiple different ways to eat it might not be like I made one big thing and then I'm gonna eat literally that thing
[SPEAKER_00]: it might be I made one big base and now I'm going to like iterate on it but it's the same idea.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's the same thing I make that baked oatmeal.
[SPEAKER_00]: I make it every single week now and I make it different every time because I use whatever berries are in season or whatever fruit I feel like having and sometimes I season it differently and then we will eat that every single day for a week.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I almost get to like I like to make it.
[SPEAKER_00]: I like to assemble it on Saturday nights and then bake it on Sunday morning.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's just part of the routine.
[SPEAKER_00]: It doesn't always work out that way but
[SPEAKER_00]: So I'll even try to like portion it out so that it lasts until exactly Saturday.
[SPEAKER_01]: I love it.
[SPEAKER_00]: So that like we start every Sunday with a fresh one and I just kid kind of a ridiculous amount of satisfaction out of that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, well, this is a really easy one and requires very little prep, but I got to say a scrambled egg or an over medium egg.
[SPEAKER_00]: I almost always make two.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know why one egg never feels like enough that three is too many.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't make omelets.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't do anything fancy.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't necessarily even, like sometimes I'll put veggies in the scrambled, but often it's just literally a scrambled egg with toasted sourdough and jam.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I make the toast the toast.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like I make sure I butter it immediately so that the butter is like running out and the jam is all like Buttered up and it's so simple, but it's so good and right now I am a wash and eggs So it makes a lot of sense that that would be a major part of my protein situation yeah and Like I could eat that every single day and I do actually I do eat that every single day
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, well, I have a question about the jam and the eggs because I also love to over easy eggs.
[SPEAKER_01]: I love a crispy toast.
[SPEAKER_01]: I know you make your own sourdough.
[SPEAKER_01]: So this is good bread that you're talking about, but if you are putting jam on your toast, is the toast staying very separate from the eggs?
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, I always feel like I either want my eggs and toast to co-mingle, like a little runny egg on the buttered toast.
[SPEAKER_01]: Or I want jam on toast, which is a sweeter thing.
[SPEAKER_01]: the three are not going to come together.
[SPEAKER_01]: So what's happening on your plate?
[SPEAKER_00]: So if I were doing over medium egg, often what I'll do is jam one of the pieces of toast and not the other one.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's what I do too.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, that's my solution.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I can dip.
[SPEAKER_00]: If it's scrambled, I just make sure they're separated on the plate after there's not likely to be sometimes a little edge of my egg might go into this jam and that's I'm not going to freak out about it.
[SPEAKER_00]: But no, I'm not trying to mix them.
[SPEAKER_00]: They are separate, flavor sensations that I'm trying to have.
[SPEAKER_00]: The experiences are separate.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it's more for me that I like both so much that sometimes it feels like choosing.
[SPEAKER_01]: I love a buttered toast with a good jam.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's a great.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's an afternoon snack for me sometimes, like with my coffee.
[SPEAKER_01]: If I have good bread around, but I also love the very savory, like a runny egg with buttered toast.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so it's more like choosing choosing which pleasure.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I also sometimes do the thing where I have jam one piece of toast and you want it.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's your dessert.
[SPEAKER_00]: Exactly.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, well, this one is also not going to blow any minds, but I think it's with the kids call girl dinner, and that is like basically a shark cuter, like making my own shark cutery board, but doing it with love and attention to myself, not just pulling like sliced cheese out of the fridge and standing up and shoving it in my face with a few crackers, but like actually thinking
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, what's my protein?
[SPEAKER_01]: What's the sweet?
[SPEAKER_01]: This works particularly well if we have recently hosted a gathering, which we do sometimes we have like family over for dinner or we host something.
[SPEAKER_01]: So if we have some interesting cheeses in the cheese drawer and then some interesting crackers, sometimes like a hummus, maybe we already have some veggies cut up, but if not like I'll slice some cucumbers and red bell pepper.
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, and then this is a lunch I will do a lot, like, you know, just an assortment of good cheese and crackers, good veggies and dips, maybe nuts or almonds.
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, and first of all, I think it's a really nutrition, like, forward, healthy, weight, meat, and it's so satisfying to me.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, it's such a yummy, plate of food, and it's so in the opposite direction of like,
[SPEAKER_01]: Meet starts fetch.
[SPEAKER_01]: Do you know what I mean?
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, and there's a reason girl girl dinner is a stereo type that we're made fun of for because it's really a truth and I I
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not super precious about what I consider to be worthwhile in this regard like nothing you are super precious, but it doesn't even have to be good.
[SPEAKER_00]: Cheese, I usually have at least some decent cheese in the fridge.
[SPEAKER_00]: I need to get that extra sharp cheddar by, is it Cabot, Cabo?
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like, yeah, not in the...
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not in the craft singles section, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, it's in the artist and she's not really like super artists and she's, but I find that to be a very acceptable and like versatile Cheddar just to kind of have with a variety of things.
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, I find slice and apple really thin and then have like little thin slices of that.
[SPEAKER_00]: and then have like some cashews or some almonds and then maybe like a little honey or preserves and then like some kind of a good cracker to me, that's dinner.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh yeah, and I my choices are not much more elevated than that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe we've like had something interesting in the fridge from something else, but yeah, no, that sounds delicious.
[SPEAKER_01]: I can't remember are you a salami like you're a meat person?
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, you're going to talk about prosciutto and I am.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't want to jump ahead, but I am not.
[SPEAKER_01]: Otherwise, that would make a lot of sense.
[SPEAKER_01]: Sometimes we might have some deli turkey that I would take a couple slices of stuff, but I'm just not a,
[SPEAKER_01]: Care for the sick kids really like it.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I often have like a little bit of you know a slummy or a pursuit of leftover I also think having some hummus in the fridge or Like an artichoke dip or it what's the Greek one called?
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, so Ziki to Ziki.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, that kind of sauce like something like that just to have to pull out for something like that Can add a little a little element of interest
[SPEAKER_01]: I agree, and I have been meaning to get back to making our own hummus because we were doing it for a while and it lasts way longer.
[SPEAKER_01]: The store-bought hummus that I get from Trader Joe's is really good, but it goes bad really fast and it drives me crazy to just, you know, have it grows mold in the fridge and then I got to throw it out.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, when we were making our own, it would last, first of all, taste it.
[SPEAKER_01]: so good.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it would last forever.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I've got to get back.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's, I've got to work that back in my rotation.
[SPEAKER_00]: I will hold you accountable.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, I'll ask you every day about it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, well, one of my favorite dinners for one.
[SPEAKER_00]: And this is going way back to like early mom hour days where we talked about sides.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I talked about roasted sweet potatoes and Brussels sprouts being out of my very favorite.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, vegetable dishes and I've decided it's also sort of the perfect dinner for one because if I do a medium sweet potato and like maybe about a cup of Brussels sprouts depending on how big they are either have recorded and I roast it.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's about two meals if I serve it with something else.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah
[SPEAKER_00]: like I would probably fill up a bowl with it and sometimes I might put it over like black rice or I might put it over some kind of like a quinoa or something like that or a couscous or I might
[SPEAKER_00]: put a poached egg on top or like an over medium egg on top.
[SPEAKER_00]: So it's very versatile, but it's also really good on its own and I used to do it with bacon and then recently started roasting it up with prosciutto, which I actually think is better.
[SPEAKER_00]: So the prosciutto thing happened because we had, I want to say it was after Christmas.
[SPEAKER_00]: I must have bought
[SPEAKER_00]: I overbought and I think it was because I had all the kids here and I must have been for like Christmas Eve maybe I was doing a big spread And I went to Aldi and I bought a ridiculous number of those little clamp not even clamshells are like the little yeah
[SPEAKER_00]: plastic field.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I bought way too many of them.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then realize they last forever.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's cured.
[SPEAKER_00]: So they last a really long time in the fridge.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: But still, they must be dealt with.
[SPEAKER_00]: And one day I thought, well, what am I going to do?
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't feel like just sitting here and eating this for shootout.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe I could cook it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe I could do something like that.
[SPEAKER_00]: So now what I do is I roast the sweet potatoes and the Brussels sprouts for however long.
[SPEAKER_00]: And this is the kind of thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't even really pay attention to how long they're in anymore.
[SPEAKER_00]: Just keep an eye on them.
[SPEAKER_00]: and then sort of when they look like they're starting to get close-ish, I like tear up the prosciutto into just or like I kind of roll it and then I cut it but you ended tearing too because it kind of sticks.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then I just sort of spread it all over the top and put it back in for like five minutes.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it gets fascinated by this sort of like melton sizzle a little bit a little bit But it gets kind of crispy like it's sort of like bacon bacon and Jason it's it's leaner than bacon So there's not as much sizzling, you know, but it's also feels like I can get the result I want more easily than I can with bacon.
[SPEAKER_00]: I feel like bacon.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's it's a little sensitive like I want it
[SPEAKER_00]: The way I perfectly want it and the prosciutto I just feel like I'd eat it raw, so It's fine, but it's even better if I give it a couple of minutes in the oven and then I just toss it all together And it gets out of the delicious.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like the perfect Salty sweet bite.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, that sounds really good.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, and I do like prosciutto and I finally made my way through all the leftover Christmas prosciutto It took a while, but I'm eating this probably about once a week now.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I got there
[SPEAKER_01]: That sounds really delicious.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: Do you feel like there's, I mean, we're recording this in summer.
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, do you feel like there's a summer equivalent to the sweet potatoes and Brussels sprouts?
[SPEAKER_01]: I sometimes feel like they feel so fall wintery to me and I find...
[SPEAKER_01]: But maybe they're just always good.
[SPEAKER_00]: Are what they are, I guess.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, I think that like there's that part of me that feels like right now I should be really leaning in on cold vegetable salads and First of all, in Michigan, like we're still having some really cool weather.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't even know if you feel hot yet.
[SPEAKER_01]: We don't have like, I don't feel like it's tomatoes yet.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so there's not like what I would see locally if I was literally looking for what's in season.
[SPEAKER_00]: It would be things like asparagus, berries, um, I mean, even asparagus is kind of now on its way out.
[SPEAKER_00]: Some other things are coming in, but I guess my point is like,
[SPEAKER_00]: as a workhorse meal.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't feel like it's ever out of season.
[SPEAKER_00]: No, sweet potatoes last forever, too.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, in storage.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I'm probably actually literally still going through some ones that I bought months ago.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, still in the same way.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I don't know, like, I'm just a little bit, I personally am a little bit less,
[SPEAKER_00]: I eat seasonally for sure because I eat what's in season, but like I'm not as concerned with the presentation feeling summary, if that makes sense.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, yeah, salad or dashpot show or something, I just kind of eat whatever.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think I'm like 50, 50, because I live in a place that doesn't have as obvious a seasonal change outside.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think it feels good to observe certain seasonal eating practices, because otherwise we're tethered.
[SPEAKER_00]: You could get anything you want anytime you want.
[SPEAKER_00]: too.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
[SPEAKER_00]: And yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: And things are better.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, as we know, things are better in season.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I've tried to pay a little more attention to seasonality, but I also agree with you, even in, in, live off the land days, people would have been storing their sprouts and their potatoes in the cellar and eating them all year round.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, and like things like, okay.
[SPEAKER_00]: So the answer, like the currently in season answer to that would be maybe new potatoes, but those don't taste like a sweet potato, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: So I last week made a salad that had asparagus, spears and little, you know, the little potatoes and a couple of other things, and it was delicious, but it was not that, it was not that specific meal that I sometimes get a craving for.
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe something like maybe something like my beloved sweet potato Brussels sprout, because I don't think Brussels sprouts are in season right now, either.
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe that's more like a workhorse that I can return to again and again.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then it's not the stuff I'm experimenting with, but that's like in a different category.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I think since.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well this as all food episodes do made me inspired and a little hungry and I always love talking about food and this was fun to approach it as a feeding just ourselves long, long times since the days where we were talking about how to feed a bunch of little kids.
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, okay, everyone, just a reminder that you can find our expanded episode story with photos and links on Substack at midlifeladyleisurepresuits.substack.com, and that is also where you'll find the special page we've set up with some of our favorite vionic styles.
[SPEAKER_01]: Use the promo code midlife at vionicshoes.com for 15% off.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thanks for being here, everyone.
[SPEAKER_00]: We'll talk to you soon.