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Transcript

Kevin: (0:03 - 0:04) Hey Michelle, how are you doing?

Michelle: (0:05 - 0:07) Great Kevin. How are you today?

Kevin: (0:07 - 0:24) I am doing really, really well. So I'm really interested in the topic this week because I think it's going to help me personally. And I don't want to do any spoilers, so I'll let you take it from here. But I'm going to be listening and taking notes.

Michelle: (0:24 - 1:41) Well, I've been getting questions from noobs just about like, even though I think we provide a lot of tips as we go along and we talk about a particular topic, people still continue to get confused about exactly what to buy. Like they know what not to buy, but what to buy. And so I thought I would do an episode on like how you can like look, like reimagine your kitchen and make sure that you're stocking things that help to support, you know, healthier eating and more plant forward eating. And there's a really great resource that I came across in one of my Forks Over Knives magazines. I mean, I have tools for this as well that I give to clients, but I really liked the way that they went through this. And I thought I would just go through it with the listeners because, you know, this is intended to be like super practical, you know, like how do you, how do you now stock your kitchen and, and, you know, do that? You can do that clean out that we talked about in a few different episodes, like if you're going to do a kitchen clean out and get rid of some things. But you know, for sure. Let's talk about, you know, now what goes in your cart.

Kevin: (1:41 - 1:42) Okay.

Michelle: (1:42 - 1:46) No, it sounds good. And maybe some staples that you should have hanging around.

Kevin: (1:46 - 1:47) Yes. That's what I want to hear.

Michelle: (1:48 - 3:05) So I'll just toss, I'll just talk briefly about, you know, what you should think about tossing. Okay. So, so if you have bleached flours, like plain white enriched bread, white pasta, white rice, so get getting rid of the whites, cooking oils, particularly like the, you know, the vegetable cooking oils, seed oils, oily salad dressing, sauces, margarines, things, things like that, that are going to be, you know, hidden sources of high, high, high fats, which are, which are, you know, nine calories per gram. And either reduce or eliminate your dairy products, which we've talked about many times. So cheese, milk, yogurt, butter, consider limiting your eggs, highly refined, any highly refined sweeteners and, you know, meats, poultry, seafood, try to, you know, whittle those down to being a smaller percentage of your diet and then in your plate. And you know, it goes without saying packaged ultra processed foods.

Kevin: (3:06 - 3:06) Yes.

Michelle: (3:07 - 3:26) Right. So once you've cleared away all those processed foods, you may need to kind of look at what do you have left and what's, you know, what is your kitchen look like? Is it well stocked or do you have a lot of gaps and is this stressing you out? And it seems like, it seems like for our listeners, it is stressing them out.

Kevin: (3:26 - 3:30) And we don't want anyone to be stressed. So this is all about reducing your stress.

Michelle: (3:31 - 3:54) Reducing your stress. So I'm just going to go down a list here, right? And then you can you can feel free to chime in whenever you like, Kevin, because I know that you have a lot of great ideas, too. So aluminum free, low sodium baking powder. So if you are a baker and I know you're a baker, like you want to have a baking powder. So just make sure that it's aluminum free and and low sodium if you can.

Kevin: (3:55 - 3:55) Yes.

Michelle: (3:55 - 4:03) You've mentioned this one a lot. Applesauce, unsweetened applesauce can be a staple and a friend.

Kevin: (4:03 - 4:35) I always have a big jar of that, one in my fridge and then one in the pantry because I never, ever, ever want to run out because that's great for replacing. If you're baking both eggs and butter, applesauce is the perfect replacement for either of those two in most recipes, maybe not every single one, but in most recipes because it adds the bulk and it adds the moisture of the fat and the eggs. So it's an amazing ingredient.

Michelle: (4:35 - 5:16) Awesome. Now, if you need something for thickening your sauces, then consider using arrowroot powder or cornstarch. OK, and make sure that you always have assorted canned and or dried beans, black beans, chickpeas, kidney beans, white beans, lentils. So important to get more of these legumes in our diet. And you can batch cook these. You can batch cook them and make sure that you always have some kind of cooked for the week so that you don't have to go like, oh, you know, I'm going to make beans tonight. Just make a batch of beans and incorporate it in a bunch of different ways.

Kevin: (5:16 - 5:52) Or a really great tip is red lentils, because red lentils are so tiny. I can make up an amazing curry or stew in about 15 minutes because they cook so quickly and they're tasty. I actually prefer the taste of red lentils to brown lentils for whatever reason. And they're so, so fast. That and also split green peas. I know they're not legumes there, but they also cook in no time at all.

Michelle: (5:52 - 6:27) Yeah, red lentil does so fast and so yummy. Oh, yes. So canned tomato products are a good staple to have in your pantry. And I know that I'll get a case of diced tomatoes, you know, Costco or wherever, so that we always have them on hand. So like whole, diced or crushed, whatever you're going to use the most of. And you can get seasoned, you can get fire roasted, like they don't have to just be plain, like you get lots of varieties. And having some tomato sauce and tomato paste on hand is great shelf stable for like ever.

Kevin: (6:27 - 6:39) Or an option for the tomato paste, because I find I need just a little bit and opening a full can for it is annoying. There are tubes of tomato paste.

Michelle: (6:40 - 6:41) Oh, yeah. Right.

Kevin: (6:41 - 6:59) Cool. And those are invaluable because you have just a tablespoon. You store them in the fridge. They don't take up much room. And that's what I've unless I know that I'm going to be using a lot because they are a bit more expensive. But they are perfect for just a tablespoon or two without wasting the entire can.

Michelle: (6:59 - 7:22) OK, another one is a flaxseed meal. And because if you like a little bit of flax mixed with water is a brilliant egg replacer. Oh, it's so simple. Yeah. We call it flax egg. Really simple. Yeah. Really simple and really easy to do. And then it doesn't add a taste.

Kevin: (7:23 - 7:23) Right. Right.

Michelle: (7:24 - 10:00) Good to know. And in terms of flours, whole wheat flour, whole wheat pastry flour, oat flour. And it's always a good idea to have some all-purpose flour because there are just some things that you're going to want to make that are going to call for it or you're going to need a blend of them. So you want to try to minimize your use of the AP flour and, you know, focus on the others. But whole wheat pastry flour is brilliant if you're baking. And you can get like white whole wheat flour, too, if you didn't know that it's made with winter wheat. And then if you want your baked stuff to look like lighter, like you don't want it to have that brown whole wheat look. Hot sauces, if you like to use those, such as Tabasco are fine and great to have around. And you can have a lot of fun. There's lots of fun hot sauces with weird, funky names out there. Jarred roasted red peppers is something that we always have. Low sodium vegetable broth. Again, I get that like by the case because I use that instead of oil to sauté, to stir fry, just, you know, in all kinds of cooking recipes. For natural sweeteners, maple syrup, I use all the time, brown rice syrup, fresh dates. Having some dates in the fridge is always a good idea. And pure cane sugar is a reasonable choice as well. Having some nuts and seeds, almonds, raw cashews, because there's raw cashews can help you make anything like a cheese sauce and things like that. You often use raw cashews or I use raw cashews and mix it up with nutritional yeast to make my own like parm, parmesan type product, walnuts, peanuts. And you know, another little sort of pro tip, if you're not going to go through your nuts and seeds super quickly, like if they're going to be something that's going to be hanging around for a while, it's a great idea to put them in an airtight container and store them in the fridge, Kevin, because they do have their natural oils in them and you don't want those oils to go rancid. So like you kind of have to think about it. It's still a food that can go bad, which is why I, I mean, a lot of people go to the bulk barn to get them. I never have for that reason. I'm never quite sure how long they've been hanging around.

Kevin: (10:00 - 10:07) Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. And I've had nuts go rancid before and it's not pleasant.

Michelle: (10:07 - 10:58) It's not pleasant. And then you're, it's a detractor of health instead of promoter of health. And let me see here, popcorn kernels for air popping so that you always have a snack. Oil-free pasta sauces, believe it or not, you can buy pasta sauces that are oil-free. So like have a look again, having a look at the label, soy sauce or low sodium soy sauce, as well as tamari. I love using tamari as a substitute for that. And then having an assortment of vinegars is great. Again, making your own salad dressings and things like that. It's, and just to add, like when you need an acid, you know, if you need to add it to your dish. So apple cider vinegar, and I would recommend getting one that says on the label that with the mother.

Kevin: (10:59 - 11:00) Yeah.

Michelle: (11:00 - 12:45) Rice vinegar, red and white wine vinegars. Because if you're making homemade spaghetti sauces, things like that, they often call for that. And they can make a beautiful difference too in the taste of what you're doing. Unsweetened whole grain cereals. Like if you need to have those quick to grab things on hand and you know, you, you want to have something like shredded wheat or muesli, you know, some good granolas, whatever you can, you know, it says here you can have rice puffs and corn puffs, but they'd be at the bottom of the hierarchy. I would say anything that's puffed, there's not a lot of nutrition left in them, but you know, they can be reasonable if you enjoy those and rather than grabbing something else that's sugary or processed or whatever, they can be a reasonable choice. Whole grain crackers. You want to have crackers on hand, like rye crisp breads, whole wheat crackers, brown rice snaps. I love brown rice snaps. So assorted whole grains. So have on hand, maybe some quinoa, some brown rice, some steel cut or rolled oats, some wheat berries, millet. Those are good choices. And yeah, and just try them, try different ones. And then assorted whole grain pastas and noodles. So instead of the, you know, plain white noodles, choose some whole wheat spaghetti. Maybe try couscous if you've never tried it and Thai style brown rice noodles. And you can have like pastas that are made out of lentils. Those are a good choice.

Kevin: (12:45 - 12:53) There's also Japanese soba noodles, which are made out of buckwheat and they're delicious. And again, cooking in about 30 seconds.

Michelle: (12:54 - 13:33) Yep. Yep. Cool. Okay. So now let's talk about the spice rack. It's really important to have a great spice rack. So these would be the staples that they're suggesting in Forks Over Knives. And I agree with this list. I think this is a great list if you haven't, especially if you've never had anything except, you know, steak spice and Italian seasoning. I'm trying to think of what are the normal ones that people have. And you're like, I don't even know what to buy. So here we go. Basil, bay leaves, black peppercorns, cayenne pepper, and or chipotle chili powder. We use a lot of that.

Kevin: (13:34 - 13:36) Ancho chili powder is also excellent.

Michelle: (13:36 - 13:59) Or if you're spice inhibited, mild chili powder, cilantro, crushed red pepper, curry powder. And you know, there's a whole array of those. Like pick your favorite. There's red curry powder. There's all kinds of curry powders. Dill is great to have on hand. Garlic powder. Garlic powder is preferable to garlic salt.

Kevin: (14:00 - 14:00) Yes.

Michelle: (14:00 - 14:27) Yes. Ground cinnamon. I use a lot of, I use cinnamon in my overnight oats every single day. Ground cumin. Oh my gosh. I love cumin. I use so much cumin. Ground ginger, Italian seasoning, marjoram, whole nutmeg. There are going to be times that your recipe is going to call for nutmeg. Nutritional yeast, which we love. Onion powder, oregano, paprika or smoked paprika is delicious.

Kevin: (14:28 - 14:28) Incredible.

Michelle: (14:30 - 14:57) Parsley, sage, sea salt and turmeric. Like I think that's a really reasonable list, right? As long as you have like some stocked staples and let's say you don't have an onion or you don't, you know, you don't have garlic or whatever and you're like, oh, what do I make? You know, your fridge is running light or your fresh pantry is running light. Then you can always do something as long as you have spices on hand.

Kevin: (14:57 - 14:58) Exactly.

Michelle: (14:59 - 16:52) And so I talked about fresh pantry. So fresh pantry, always on hand if you can. Some garlic, some ginger, some lemons, some limes, onions and shallots, potatoes, sweet potatoes and some tomatoes. You know what we do most often now, Kevin, is we just buy those like the smaller tomatoes, the cherry tomatoes instead of buying big tomatoes. So then we can be very versatile with them and they can, we use them, they're just, there's less barrier to them than having to slice a whole tomato and then figure out what to do with it. Okay, let's go to some freezer staples. Carrots, corn, peas, spinach. You can get often some really cool stir fry blends that are already pre-chopped for you. Artichoke hearts, if you like those. And in terms of fruits, frozen blueberries, cranberries, mixed berries, mangoes, peaches, pineapples, strawberries. For my smoothies, my favorite is, I get this tropical fruit blend, which I absolutely love. And I also always have frozen cherries. So if you're foraying into green smoothies and you're struggling to get enough sweetness, like if you pack it with greens and then you put in your flax or your chia or whatever so that you have your omega-3s in there and then you put the fruit on top. Sometimes I like to use kale. It can still taste quite green, which I like. But if you're a noob and you're trying to get so that you like a healthy smoothie, then I find frozen cherries are the key because you don't need very many.

Kevin: (16:52 - 16:57) I also find, when I've done smoothies, I also find mango works really well.

Michelle: (16:57 - 16:57) Yeah.

Kevin: (16:57 - 17:08) Because again, mango's got a strong, it's very sweet and it's also got a stronger flavor that can overpower some of the flavors that you don't necessarily like from the greens maybe. So mango is also a good choice.

Michelle: (17:09 - 17:22) Mango with banana. So you can buy frozen banana and that's one that you can have in your freezer too. But we often just always have bananas on the counter and then the bananas that we didn't use during the week.

Kevin: (17:22 - 17:23) I throw them in the freezer.

Michelle: (17:23 - 17:25) Yeah. Yeah. We just chop them up and throw them in the freezer.

Kevin: (17:26 - 17:38) Frozen bananas are also another great option for baking as well, along with the applesauce, which we mentioned earlier. Frozen bananas as an egg or oil substitute are amazing.

Michelle: (17:39 - 17:55) Yeah. And you can throw a whole bunch of frozen banana in the blender and make an ice cream. Like if they're frozen, they make ice cream and we throw some cocoa powder in there and other things. And then you can make like chocolate and ice cream. Like it's delicious.

Kevin: (17:55 - 18:07) My son loves to make that with mango. Just frozen mango in a blender, like a powerful blender. And it's basically like a mango sorbet.

Michelle: (18:07 - 18:08) Yeah.

Kevin: (18:08 - 18:10) Delicious. And it's amazing. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So easy.

Michelle: (18:10 - 18:12) And very light and refreshing too.

Kevin: (18:12 - 18:12) Yeah. No. Exactly.

Michelle: (18:14 - 18:16) You're making me want to make my ice cream now.

Kevin: (18:16 - 18:18) I know what I'm doing after this episode.

Michelle: (18:20 - 19:49) So let's talk about refrigerator staples. So condiments, if you enjoy your condiments, then keep at it. Like the mustard, the ketchup, you know, just try to get the best ones that you can find. We always get Dijon. So we always have like a little array of fancy Dijon. Oil-free barbecue sauce is great to have on hand and pure fruit preserves, dips and sauces, oil-free hummus and fresh salsa. But again, you can also just get a can of chickpeas and you can make your own oil-free hummus very easily. But if you're not feeling that, then, you know, just go buy some. Lots of options. Miso paste. Yes. Which we talked about in the last episode. So natural style nut and seed butters. So natural peanut butter, almond butter is my go-to. And tahini is another really great one to have on hand. Because you can make a lot of really great, again, you can add that to make your oil-free salad dressings and things like that. Often put a bit of tahini and things in there, it's delicious. Always having some plant milk. You know, the great thing, if you find the plant milk that you really like, then you can get it in those tetrapod carton thingies.

Kevin: (19:49 - 19:49) Yes.

Michelle: (19:50 - 20:13) They're shelf stable. So here's a little fun fact. Here's a little fun story. So I read this article one time about how when the plant milk industry was trying to take off and they first put them on the shelves, they just sat there. Nobody wanted to buy them. Nobody wanted to buy something called milk off of a shelf.

Kevin: (20:14 - 20:15) Right. Right. Makes sense.

Michelle: (20:15 - 20:26) So they decided to repackage it in a milk carton that looked like a milk carton and put it in the refrigerated section and it started to sell.

Kevin: (20:26 - 20:33) Go figure. Because consumers can be swayed by marketing. It's all about marketing. It's all about meeting the expectations of the consumers.

Michelle: (20:34 - 20:45) Right. So it's totally, totally fine to buy those tetrapaks and they're shelf stable. Then all of a sudden you don't need as much fridge space for it.

Kevin: (20:46 - 20:46) Exactly. Yeah.

Michelle: (20:47 - 20:51) And just open one at a time. I think that's really super cool.

Kevin: (20:51 - 20:52) I do that all the time.

Michelle: (20:53 - 22:20) Tofu in the refrigerator on hand is great. And you know what? You can, it's totally fine to freeze your tofu. So we'll buy like big packages of tofu and toss them in the freezer. The only thing to be aware of is it does, if it's been frozen and thawed, it's a slightly different product than if, you know, you bought it refrigerated and you kept it refrigerated. But you know, for most things that you're doing that you barely even notice this totally. If you're making tofu scrambles or you're air frying your tofu, you're making tofu cubes or tofu steaks out of it. It doesn't matter if it's been frozen. So that's again, something that you can stock and don't have to worry about so much. And then another refrigerator item is whole grain breads, tortillas, corn tortillas. So you know, this was actually a chef tip that I got when I had the tea room that, you know, it's our inclination and maybe it's just the way that I grew up having a breadkeeper on the counters that you stored your bread on the counter. And if you're going through your bread quickly or you're going through a lot of bread, that's fine. But your bread will actually last longer, especially if it's got fewer of these other stabilizing ingredients in it. It's going to stay fresh much longer if you store it in the fridge.

Kevin: (22:20 - 22:21) Oh, for sure. Yeah.

Michelle: (22:22 - 22:29) Yeah, yeah. So, but yeah, tortillas are something we always have on hand. And again, they stay for quite a long time.

Kevin: (22:30 - 22:30) Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Michelle: (22:31 - 22:38) Yeah. So like, so like, that's it. Like, this isn't rocket science, but, you know, like it's...

Kevin: (22:39 - 22:54) It helps if you're, if you're just sort of starting to figure out what you're doing. It makes a whole lot of sense to have this. The one omission that I would add to the spice rack, I didn't hear you say mint.

Michelle: (22:55 - 22:57) No, they didn't have it on there.

Kevin: (22:57 - 23:19) It's just one of those things that can just add a burst of freshness to... You add it just as you're about to serve a soup or even a curry or something. It can just add that little teeny bit of freshness to bring it alive. So, so dried mint, I would say it's just one other thing that I never ever run out of. Awesome. Awesome.

Michelle: (23:19 - 23:20) That's amazing.

Kevin: (23:20 - 23:24) Thank you for sharing this. This is a great article. I love it.

Michelle: (23:24 - 23:51) No problem. Well, thanks. Thanks to the folks from Forks Over Knives. You know, they would also recommend batch cooking at the beginning of the week so that you always have your grain of the week on hand. You have your bean of the week on hand. Yeah. If you're going to mix up your oil-free salad dressing that you're going to have for the week, mix it up. Set yourself up to succeed.

Kevin: (23:52 - 23:53) Yeah, yeah, precisely.

Michelle: (23:53 - 23:59) Then the busyness during the week doesn't derail you from the plan.

Kevin: (24:00 - 24:00) Exactly.

Michelle: (24:01 - 24:13) If you want to incorporate a bit of your favorite meat onto your plate, that's fine. But keep the main thing the main thing. Keep the plants front and center on your plate.

Kevin: (24:13 - 24:15) That's the focus. Exactly, exactly.

Michelle: (24:16 - 24:18) Cool. Well, I hope that's helpful to somebody.

Kevin: (24:19 - 24:25) It's helpful to me, certainly. I have some takeaways here and it's helpful to everyone out there in Noobland.

Michelle: (24:26 - 24:32) I'm sure. You've given me some great tips too, Kevin. You always do. You're such a great experimenter.

Kevin: (24:33 - 24:43) That's the word that I was going to use. I experiment a lot because I think it's fun to do that. I think it's fun to try. It doesn't always work, but that's also half the fun.

Michelle: (24:44 - 25:09) I tend to do it in massive bursts. I'll go through this phase where I'll say, usually happens around the time that I'm going to entertain. I'm going to have family over or something like that. I pull out a bunch of recipes and then I'll want to make six things, but I only need one. But of course, I'll go ahead and I'll make the six things. Of course.

Kevin: (25:09 - 25:17) And have leftovers for weeks. That's kind of the joy of cooking, though. It's fun to experiment.

Michelle: (25:18 - 25:21) It'll be like a bomb went off in my kitchen.

Kevin: (25:21 - 25:25) Well, then there's the cleanup afterwards, but we don't talk about it. That's what spouses are for.

Michelle: (25:25 - 26:25) No, I've learned, though. I've learned this about myself that I have to constantly clean up in the moment. The only time I can't do that, there's this one recipe. Our mutual friend, Michelle, gave me this cookbook. So there's this one recipe for lasagna. I love it. The result is so delicious. And it's a plant-based lasagna. But everything, you make your own tomato sauce first. It's quite a laborious process to make the lasagna. And it's almost like an entire afternoon affair. So I've learned that if I'm going to make that particular recipe, that I'm going to make enough that I make two batches for that amount of investment of effort. There's so many parts to it that my kitchen afterward does look like a bomb.

Kevin: (26:28 - 26:37) But it's so worth it. If there's a lot of steps like that, it's hard to clean as you go. Everyone has their own way of doing it.

Michelle: (26:37 - 26:44) It's worth it, though, when your family says, you haven't made that lasagna in a while. Can you make that like that?

Kevin: (26:44 - 26:49) When they have a favorite. Yeah, exactly. Oh, can you make this? I love this. Yeah, exactly.

Michelle: (26:49 - 26:54) Of course I can. Okay.

Kevin: (26:55 - 27:03) So are we ready for the joke? The joke of the episode? Okay. So similar to last episode, this is another one from my son.

Michelle: (27:03 - 27:05) I love it. Bring it.

Kevin: (27:06 - 27:14) This is very surreal. What's green, fuzzy, has four legs, and will kill you if it falls out of a tree?

Michelle: (27:15 - 27:23) Oh, my gosh. Green, fuzzy, has four legs, and it'll kill you? No idea.

Kevin: (27:24 - 27:43) A pool table. It's surreal grade six humor. Like 11-year-olds. This is like the peak of 11-year-old humor, it seems. Very surreal. Very bizarre.

Michelle: (27:43 - 27:47) He needs to answer the joke. How did the pool table end up in the tree?

Kevin: (27:49 - 27:54) That's a whole other discussion. I don't know about that.

Michelle: (27:55 - 28:04) Oh, my gosh. I love it. I love the innocence of it. That's so funny. I was trying to think of like a mutant grasshopper. Of course.

Kevin: (28:04 - 28:10) I don't know. I heard it. He told me that. And it's like, that's going in the podcast. It's just so bizarre.

Michelle: (28:11 - 28:15) And I can't believe I fell for it because my brain is going like, do grasshoppers have four legs?

Kevin: (28:16 - 28:50) You're trying to figure it out scientifically. It's like, no. The minute I say it's from my son, just throw all reality out the window. You should know that. Well, Michelle, thank you so much. This has been a really great episode and tons of information. I hope everyone found it interesting. If anyone has any follow-up questions, you can, of course, email us at n4noobs at gmail.com. Or you can reach out to us on our Facebook page, Nutrition for Noobs. And until then, eat your greens, but not a pool table.

Michelle: (28:52 - 28:55) And be real, everyone, and keep your pantry real.

Kevin: (28:56 - 28:59) Yes, keep your pantry real with lots of greens.

Michelle: (29:00 - 29:03) Well, hopefully the greens are in the fridge.

Kevin: (29:04 - 29:05) Yeah, well, yeah, yeah.

Michelle: (29:05 - 29:09) I don't know. Okay. Green lentils?

Kevin: (29:09 - 29:10) I don't know.

Michelle: (29:10 - 29:12) Okay. Okay. I'll take the lentils.

Kevin: (29:12 - 29:59) Yeah, yeah, yeah. There we go. This has been Nutrition for Noobs. We hope you're a bit more enlightened about how your fantastic and complicated body works with the food you put into it. If you have a question or a topic you'd like Michelle to discuss, drop us a line at n4noobs@gmail.com. That's the letter N, the number 4, N-O-O-B-S at gmail.com. If you haven't already, you can subscribe to the podcast on whatever your favourite platform might be. Also, please consider leaving a review or telling your friends. That's the best way to spread the word. We'll see you next time with another interesting topic.