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Meal planning and meal prep come up again and again as one of the top time management challenges professional working women face on the personal side of life—and it makes sense. Between picking recipes, building grocery lists, shopping, and then actually making the meals, it’s a lot—and it happens every single week.
In this episode, I’m joined by Allison Schaaf, a registered dietitian, trained chef, and the founder of Prep Dish, a meal planning service designed to reduce the time and mental load that come with feeding yourself and your family. If you’ve ever wished for an option that hits the middle ground between a full meal kit delivery and figuring it all out on your own, this might be it.
In this conversation, we dig into:
- why meal planning is such a universal time management pain point, especially for working parents
- how to simplify and systematize it so it’s not something you reinvent every week
- practical strategies for tackling both meal planning and prep in realistic ways (especially if cooking isn’t your thing)
- different ways to involve your kids so they’re more likely to actually eat the food you make
- the behind-the-scenes of Prep Dish and how it helps people reduce the invisible workload that comes with meals—without going all the way to fully outsourced kits
- how to use your calendar to support and protect your meal planning time
- and how Allison built this company after working as a personal chef and seeing what worked in real life
Whether you love cooking and just want to lighten the lift—or you’re trying to get through dinner without a meltdown (yours or someone else’s)—this conversation offers great ideas and an option you may not have known existed.
Allison also shares a generous free trial of Prep Dish just for Bright Method listeners. To grab it, go to prepdish.com/bright.
Below is a transcript of the episode. Enjoy!
Other links you might enjoy:
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Full transcript:
Kelly Nolan: [00:00:00] Welcome to the Bright Method Podcast, where we’ll discuss practical time management strategies designed for the professional working woman. I’m Kelly Nolan, a former patent litigator who now works with women to set up the bright method in their lives. The Bright Method is a realistic time management system that helps you manage it all personally and professionally. Let’s get you falling asleep, proud of what you got done today, and calm about what’s on tap tomorrow. All right, let’s dig in.
Hey. Hey. All right, so today we’re gonna talk about meal planning and prepping. Now it is one of the top time management challenges I hear about on the personal side. It’s just one of those things that. Takes a lot of time to figure out recipes, figure out grocery, lets order the food, or go shopping for the food and then actually make the meals themselves.
And it has this annoying way of happening every single week and every single day. And so it’s just a big time management challenge that I think a lot of people experience. Not [00:01:00] everybody, some people love it, but for a lot of us, including myself, it is a big time management pain point. That’s very understandable.
Now in past episodes like episode 29, I’ve talked about ways to outsource, including a lot of like meal related options. There was one option that I was not as familiar with until Allison Shaw reached out to me with this middle ground option where you get recipes and grocery lists for the week delivered to you, you know, just online in your email, and then you take it from there and do the executing to actually make the meals.
It takes a ton of the mental load out of this, and a lot of the time as well in terms of picking the recipes, coming up with the grocery list, all that kind of stuff. It’s all done for you and you get to run with it. Today I’m really excited to have Allison with us here today to talk about meal prep in general, and then also explain more about her company prep dish and how it, as I said, reduces that mental load and helps people just get to spend more of their time and energy [00:02:00] creating and then enjoying the meals.
A bit more about Allison. She is the founder and CEO of Prep Dish, a meal planning service that helps busy individuals and families save time while enjoying healthy stress-free meals. As a registered dietician and trained chef, Allison combines her expertise in nutrition and culinary arts to create practical, delicious meal plans designed for real life with a passion for simplifying mealtime.
She has helped thousands of subscribers reclaim their evenings and enjoy mealtime beyond prep dish. Allison is also the founder of the nonprofit Miscarriage Hope Desk. A resource for women navigating miscarriage and recurrent pregnancy loss. Through this platform. She offers support, education, and community for those on their fertility journey.
Allison and her husband have four kids and enjoy living in the Texas Hill country with their chickens, goats, cats, and bees. I’m so excited for you to get to listen to this conversation. Let’s get to it. Well, thank you so much, Allison, for being here. Do you mind just [00:03:00] introducing yourself and letting us know, you know, how did you get into running a company that’s really aimed to help?
People manage that meal prep stuff that comes up every day. We always try and manage
Allison Schaaf: well.
Hi. Thank you for having me. I’m Alison Haw. I am the founder of Prep Dish. And gosh, you know, I started Prep Dish 12 years ago. I was working as a personal chef helping people one-on-one to, I mean, basically doing all of their meal prep for them.
And as I was doing that, I realized. I had this like system, right? Like I was trying to get in and out of clients’ homes as quickly as possible and had this really cool system. And as I maxed out at my client load, I thought, Hmm, I wonder if it was like right when people were starting to like go online and like, you know, the passive income.
And I was like, I. Thinking, you know, even lifestyle too. I was like, well, I wanna have a family someday and how can I get this out to more people? Is there a way to like [00:04:00] do this in a different way? Is there like a one to many model? And I started creating it. Like as I was cooking for people, I was jotting down notes, okay, what am I doing here?
Like, what are my hacks to get in and out of the grocery store? How do I make this fast? Because I was really only spending. When I actually went into their homes, I was spending about two hours doing their meal prep for the week. So I was like, people can do this. And I had clients that would ask me, they’re like, well, can you eventually teach me to do this so I don’t have to have you long-term?
And so I kind of was like, aha. And so I, I did that. I wrote out the recipes. I wrote out my system and prep Dish was born, and that was 12 plus years ago. And at the time I was single, but I really had the busy mom in mind. Fast forward now 2025. I have four kids and I’m telling you, dinner does not get on the table unless I am following one of my meal plans.
So it’s really cool that it’s come full circle and it’s now something I rely on on a weekly basis. I love [00:05:00] this, I love this and I’m really
Kelly Nolan: looking forward today kind of thinking about, just talking about like meal planning in general. But then I also wanna dig into what prep dish is because I love like highlighting what different options are out there.
I think half the battle is, you know, we’re so busy we don’t have time to always like understand what our options are. And so I wanna dig into that with you before we dig into prep Dish. As you think of that busy mom, but just any busy person who’s just tight on time when it comes to meal planning, are there any tips that you’ve seen work well for that person?
On the general, like meal planning side of things?
Allison Schaaf: Yeah. This is gonna sound overly simplistic, but I think if you think, just really kind of take it to heart. So the number one key to eating healthy is to have a plan. And what I mean by that is having some intention don’t, like when are you thinking about your meals?
Is it, I. Five o’clock and it’s dinnertime. Is it that afternoon? Ideally, you’re thinking about it kind of like once a week. [00:06:00] You wanna take a step back and be thinking about it on a weekly basis. That way you’re doing the grocery shopping once a week and you’re putting intention behind it. You’re coming up with a plan.
And you’re coming up with a plan when you’re in a head space to make good choices, right? I don’t know about you, but by five 30 I’m not in the head space to make like a good choice of what we should have for dinner. It’s like, okay, maybe I’ll call in takeout. So yeah, I really do think that that is the key piece there is just taking a step back and having it be something that you’re planning ahead of time.
And that can look a lot of different ways, but that really is the step that needs to happen first and foremost.
Kelly Nolan: I love that, that you, ’cause I’ve listened to you speak on other podcasts and I think one of the things you talk about that I really resonated with was you don’t have like one view of what meal planning is like.
You look at it on this day, you always have to plan a full week at that time, like I think I. What compelled me to your messaging is also, you know, in different seasons of life it can look different For different people, it can look different. [00:07:00] And so I’ve heard you talk about, you know, it could be once a week, but you know, if you’re also meal planning at two different times and just cooking for the next three days of the week.
Yes. And then maybe a one night off of takeout or whatever you wanna do. That resonates so much with me on that side of things. ’cause yeah, different seasons call for different things and different amounts of time. We can give it at each sitting. I.
Allison Schaaf: Yeah, and I think anytime someone’s feeling frustrated with their mealtime, it’s time to take a step back and reevaluate maybe what you were doing two years ago just doesn’t work right now.
You know? Are the kids in sports or do you not have kids in the house right now? Like are is someone on a special diet? Whatever it is, things are gonna change. And so it’s important. If you are feeling frustration at mealtime, it means, hey, time to take a step back and reevaluate. How can I make it work for me right now in this season of life?
’cause it will change over time.
Kelly Nolan: Awesome, awesome. And then I’ve also heard you talk, which is definitely my like love language is when you decide what the cadence looks like and the amount [00:08:00] of time is obviously using your calendar to protect that time and obviously be flexible with it, move it around as life shakes out.
But having that default reminder planned is so valuable. I gotta say much smaller scale. People who listen to my podcast know that I am not a good cook. It’s like that my number, which like never been good at it. But even candidly, even if. If it’s the weekend, I’m pretty sure we’re gonna do some takeout or something easy.
Mm-hmm. Is even just having a calendar reminder at two o’clock every day to be like, what are we doing tonight is so much easier than getting to five o’clock. And so just taking my mini wins with that and making it bigger. I can totally see the value in all of this. Before we turn to prep Dish, are there any other tips that you like talking about that you’ve seen work well for people on the meal planning front?
Allison Schaaf: I think sometimes, and we can get into this more with the prep dish piece, but so the meal planning and having that meal plan laid out in advance is helpful. There is another layer that can help, depending on [00:09:00] your rhythm and what your life looks like, but doing some meal prep ahead of time for the week at a minimum.
This can just be chopping your vegetables so that way each night you’re not having to pull out your cutting board and chop vegetables, but just having a piece of your meal already done. Can really just help the night be less hectic. It can be maybe mixing up a marinade. Like a balsamic marinade that you use one night for your chicken as a marinade, and then two nights later you use it as a salad dressing.
So doing a few things like that in advance can really help you feel more confident going into dinnertime and just like, again, I’m trying to get away from that hectic feeling and having dinner feel more calm and confident and like, Hey, I know what I’m doing. And just a different feeling going into the mealtime.
And that meal prep just really helps with that time of day.
Kelly Nolan: And I think that’s smart ’cause it’s kinda goes back to what you were talking about. You know, thinking about what time are you in the right head space. Like if it’s a Sunday [00:10:00] afternoon and I have to chop a lot and I can turn on a fun podcast or music and just chop away, that’s easier for me than when, if it’s five o’clock at night and I have to chop a lot of stuff, I’m like.
That’s when I, the produce goes bad and I do something else because I’m like, I just, that chopping produce is such a hurdle to getting to the rest of it that I’m like, I’m just, I’m not gonna do it.
Allison Schaaf: So I know, and it’s so funny ’cause I’ll like time myself, I’m like, that task took five minutes. But it’s just like that five minutes feels so much more precious at the end of the day than it does like you to have a Sunday afternoon when you can do it in a relaxed manner.
Kelly Nolan: No, I think that’s awesome. And I’ve also heard you talk about, and this really resonated with me because as I said, I’ve never been a good cook. Then I had my first daughter and I really started trying to like make all these healthy meals and food to expose her to things and have her eat healthy. And candidly it was such a demoralizing let down when I’d spend such limited, you know, my limited, limited free time when she was snapping cooking something, then she wouldn’t eat it.
And I was just like, [00:11:00] this is not setting me up for success. So I’m curious what your thoughts are and how you approach, obviously with prep Dish, but then. How you approach people who are also cooking for kids. What if they refuse to eat the meal, whether you make it through prep dish or they’re on their own.
Do you have any tips about that for those who have kids when it comes to just like kind of motivating to do meal prep or handling the meals that you’ve prepared when you have kids who are like, I’m not that into this.
Allison Schaaf: Yeah. I think as much as possible, and I know this is coming from someone, you know, I went to culinary school.
I’m all about being in the kitchen. Like that’s my thing. I. But the more you can get the kids involved, the better. Yeah. That way it doesn’t have to be this thing that mom does like again, while the kid’s napping. Maybe it’s something, and this can take some practice and patience, but you know, have the kid there with you get one of those little learning towers, like I have my kids in those things from the time they can stand and have them.
Even when they’re a toddler, maybe it’s not [00:12:00] giving, you know, you can give them vegetable to brush, but maybe it’s just giving them a kitchen tool. But they’re there, they’re experiencing it, they’re with you. And then as they get older, they can peel that carrot and then even a little bit older, they can help chop or they can turn the blender on, you know, just find, you know, appropriate tasks for them.
And the beauty is when you do that and they’re exposed to these ingredients and these foods in the kitchen, then by the time you get to the table, they’ve already seen it and it’s not gonna feel new and they’re gonna be more likely. I. To try it so. Whatever the age of the kids, it’s never too late to do that, right?
Yeah. Even if you have a teenager, like great, perfect time, get them in. But the more you can have them in the kitchen with you and have it be a family activity and maybe you, you know, you break it up and it’s like, okay, I haven’t done this before, so I do 15 minutes with the kids and then the rest is, you know, believe me, sometimes I like a meal prep session where it’s just me, but the kids being involved, it really helps a lot.
So that would be my number one thing is just getting them in the kitchen with you.
Kelly Nolan: That really hammers [00:13:00] home and articulate something that somewhere in my brain I knew, but I didn’t fully have it. You know, real like it wasn’t a full realization because when my husband is home, he does cook and he always involves our oldest at least, and she does eat far more of the meal after that when she’s been involved.
And also she was part of like picking out what the vegetables are gonna be and things like that. Mm-hmm. When she has that. Involvement. She does eat more of it. And I don’t know if it’s ’cause because she saw how it was made and she’s more invested and it’s, she was nibbling on it as they made it and things like that.
But that is a really good thing to emphasize because I’ve seen it play out even if we weren’t intentionally doing it that way. And then there are also the other benefits. I don’t, have you read the book Hunt Gather Parent by chance? I’m familiar with that one. I have not read
Allison Schaaf: it, but I
Kelly Nolan: am
Allison Schaaf: familiar with
Kelly Nolan: the concept behind it.
Yes. Well. I really enjoy it. It’s honestly one of the only parenting books I have like gotten into, but they talk [00:14:00] about involving your kids and then just like fostering that just natural desire that kids have to be involved and contribute and not being like shoo them out of the kitchen all the time, obviously sometimes is fine, but like all the time to really foster that natural tendency of kids to wanna help.
And so you get that like. Double benefit there if you like, keep them included.
Allison Schaaf: You can, and it’s amazing how fast they can do things independently. I have a 6-year-old that will go into the kitchen and make scrambled eggs from start to finish on his own because we’ve been doing it since like he was cracking an egg at 18 months.
And so now he can go in and actually contribute and it’s really cool to see how fast that can happen when you kind of train them from early on.
Kelly Nolan: Yeah. You’re making me realize that I think I’ve sold myself short a little bit. Like my 7-year-old, I don’t know if she could do it start to finish, but she loves scrambling the eggs.
Mm-hmm. And you know, at seven, and even at six we were giving her, you know, a real pairing knife and cutting ends off green beans and supervising. But she can do it. And then [00:15:00] she’s far more excited about it. And I think that’s probably half the reason she loves green beans is she gets to do that.
Allison Schaaf: Yeah. And I think you’re gonna have to watch the child ’cause So my oldest doesn’t use as much the knife, but then my 4-year-old.
He’s been chopping with me since he was young, so he can get a big chef’s knife and cut things, but Wow. And I’m okay with that because he’s been doing it with me for so long. Yeah, and that’s been his, he’s had a real interest in that. And so I’ve nurtured that. And the other day I was like, oh wow, I actually gave him this task and it contributed and it saved me time.
So it can happen really quickly and you’ll just learn what they’re more, and you know, they kind of have their own interests, so you just kind of help nurture that.
Kelly Nolan: I love that. Well, thank you for sharing. This is. I know it’s not as relevant maybe to every person listening, but definitely good food for thought for me and our, our own family.
So I appreciate it. Um, I do wanna dig into prep Dish itself because I just, as I said, I just like educating people and exposing people to the different options that are out there. I think that a lot of people are really [00:16:00] familiar with like kind of the Blue Apron model, where the food comes with the recipes and all that kind of stuff.
Your model is really different. Do you mind just explaining what it is overall and then I’ll probably have some questions as well?
Allison Schaaf: Yeah, I’ll kind of try and do it, like paint a picture of a visual person. So with Prep Dish, there are three pieces. One is. I’ll go into more detail, but one is the grocery list.
The second is what we call prep day, and the third is what we call Dish Day. So with the grocery list, it’s, here’s a list of items that you need to purchase to make these. We have four different plans. They’re all a little different, but about like five dinners. And, you know, buy these things and you’ll have everything you need for the dinners.
The nice thing is, is you can go in, if you want three dinners, you can remove ingredients. If you need to double things, you can, if you need to do swaps, if you want organic or not organic, you can make it your own. The other thing that we’ve just added is we have little Instacart links in there. So [00:17:00] if you just want your grocery cart filled with the ingredients, you can click one button and you have a grocery cart that already has everything in it.
Just look at it, you know, again, make it your own and then hit. Deliver and it’ll be at your door within sometimes a day. So again, just taking all of the tips we can to make that grocery shopping piece just so easy. The Instacart thing really helped me ’cause even though I was already ordering groceries online, it was weird how.
I think it’s because it was a weekend task for me. And anything that is a task when I have the kids, it’s like overwhelming. And even though it was, it was like I would time it, it was 20 to 30 minutes, but I ended up putting it off. And now that we have those Instacart links, I’m no longer putting it off.
That’s awesome. So
Kelly Nolan: that’s to
Allison Schaaf: me a lot. Yeah. And then the prep day, this one, technically it is optional. We have some people that don’t do this and it’s fine. You can still just make the recipe each night. But the prep day is what I was saying earlier about. Finding some time upfront to do some tasks that’ll save you time.
So we’ve pulled out those tasks that will save you time. Like, Hey, if you just chop these four vegetables and mix up [00:18:00] these two sauces on say, a Sunday afternoon, or sometimes I’ll even just tack it on like Monday while I’m making dinner. I’ll just go into the kitchen a little bit earlier and do the prep work so that I’m kinda like.
Doing the tasks I need to set me up for the next few nights.
Kelly Nolan: Oh, very cool. And
Allison Schaaf: there’s just some efficiencies there, right? Like we said, you’re not pulling out your cutting board every night. You’re not have, you know, it’s kinda like, and then it’s so nice when you get to the dinner where you have your ingredients ready to go.
And I’ve tried like the B blue aprons and the meal, uh, kits, and you know, even with those, you’re having to chop with this. It’s like you’ve already done all of it. You’d really just have to throw it in a pan. And so it’s just like eliminates any thinking that’s needed that night. And that brings me to the dish day instructions.
And that’s like, okay, what do you need to do to get dinner on the table? And it’s so nice to. Get to that dinner time and pull it up and be like, okay, here’s the five things I need to do. It’s very manageable. It’s already like laid out for me. Just trying to get that mealtime to be as thoughtless as possible.
Yeah. So you can really enjoy it and go into dinner and have it be, you know, [00:19:00] my ultimate goal is to get to this dinner where you’re able to connect, have it be quality time. Nourishing food that’s made with love and to me it’s almost the act of getting everyone together and connecting over the dinner table is almost more important than the food.
Yeah,
Kelly Nolan: I love that. Do you mind running through your different food plans briefly? Just ’cause I think it helps people understand you have kind of different tracks, I think.
Allison Schaaf: Yep. So we have one plan that’s gluten-free. I’m personally gluten-free, so when we started them it was like, okay, they have to be gluten-free.
So I’m creating all the recipes. And then we have one that’s paleo. So this also kind of goes back to those personal chef days. I’m also a dietician by background, so a lot of the clients I had were working with a functional medicine doctor working on health issues, and I would see that they would have a lot of improvements.
Um, a grain-free diet, and all of the plans are whole foods, nothing processed, and just all those nourishing foods that I saw my [00:20:00] clients do so well on. So yeah, the paleo plan is one of them. The other one is a low carb plan, and then the fourth one is, we call it super fast. This is just family friendly meals, quick and easy on the table.
You know, just really easy. These are the ones that I’m going to each week. They’re not technically gluten-free, but we always give the swaps of like, here’s what you have to do to make them gluten-free. Same thing with dairy. We usually always make that optional. Just, you know, ’cause we know we have some dairy free folks.
Yeah. So, yeah.
Kelly Nolan: Awesome. And I know that it can vary a little bit in here, so. I’m just, my brain goes to like, how long do people tend to spend on prep day? And then how long do people tend to spend on Dish Day? As you said, I know you could tack it on and it could be a little bit fluid here, but just roughly what do you aim for on those?
Allison Schaaf: So the super fast, our promises that it’s an hour or less of prep. The other ones, I would say one to two hours and then. On the actual [00:21:00] night of, I mean, 20 to 30 minutes. It kind of depends. Like sometimes, you know, you have to preheat the oven, right? So there’s like maybe a longer length, but in terms of actually getting it in 20 minutes, and this is with the kids running around and things going on, that’s awesome.
That’s awesome.
Kelly Nolan: I just think this is really, I did not know, and maybe people listening did, but I did not fully appreciate that there were options of essentially having like. The meal planning recipes, grocery lists, pretty much done for you. And then you do have to execute the cooking. But it’s such a great middle ground option of, with some of this outsourcing and probably a lot healthier because it’s not prepackaged and all, you know what’s going into the salad dressings or the marinades mm-hmm.
And things like that in a different way. So I. That’s just all awesome. And what are some of the favorite things you hear from people using Prep Dish? That like are their favorite parts?
Allison Schaaf: Yeah, I mean, all sorts of things. I love hearing that, you know, we’re [00:22:00] exposing people to new foods. Sometimes people will say, you know, even though they have, well, you know, we hear a lot about picky eaters, but we hear picky kids, but also husbands that don’t, that maybe are not as adventurous eaters.
And we’ll hear that Maybe we can expand horizons a bit. I think sometimes too, when it’s like. They, you know, they present as a prep dish recipe and it’s kind of like, there’s a different attitude that goes into how they serve it. So I think it opens people up to eating it. And maybe it’s like, oh, my kid ate salmon for the first time.
And you know, I love hearing things like that. And then, you know, just the time piece, the fact that I can save people time, but still have them creating these really healthy, tasty foods. I mean, there’s nothing better than that, right? ’cause I know how precious our time is, and. If I can give that back to where you are having a little more family time, a little more connectedness at the end of the day, to me, that’s everything.
Kelly Nolan: I also love this from a sharing the load standpoint that I can imagine some couples, I do find like a [00:23:00] lot of partners want to carry the load more. They just don’t always know how, and I’m not saying that that’s right or wrong, but. I am a realist and it is what it is and this is a cool way potentially to maybe share the weekend prep and then give someone a recipe and have them make dinner tonight.
That’s not just always you, but then you’re not the one planning all the meals and doing all the legwork for the groceries in the same way. I know you kind of are, but like as the person, but. We have lightened that load and so that’s a really cool element of this that I could see facilitating, sharing.
Allison Schaaf: Yeah, it’s all written out too, so it’s very easy. Like, oh gosh, I’m gonna be late getting home. The meal’s already written out. The instructions are, there’s no downloading of your brain. It’s already written out. Yeah. And there’s so many different pieces to split that up. It can even be, Hey, I have a nanny and the kid naps for two hours.
Have them do the meal prep. Yeah. Um, you know, on Monday afternoon while the kid’s napping. Or even if you have a babysitter that comes over and it’s kind of finding those people that are [00:24:00] interested. I’ve had some that are really into it and others that aren’t. Yeah. But when you do, that can help And yeah.
Splitting it up between the couple, or you have a family member that’s coming to visit, it’s really easy to just say, Hey, here’s this piece, and it’s already written out. So, so, so smart. It really does help with the delegation and the splitting up.
Kelly Nolan: Awesome. And one final thing that came to mind as we were talking that I’ve heard you say on a different podcast was, um.
Kind of the built in accountability of ordering the groceries. I thought this was really smart, is like figuring out when you’re most motivated during your week. Yes. And you have the grocery list and order the groceries for let’s say like Sunday morning and then Sunday morning news like, well now I gotta do it.
All these groceries right here. So I thought that was like really cool way to like build in the accountability so you’re not, you know, if you’re doing it on Sunday morning, you’re kinda like, do I wanna spend my day doing this? Maybe I won’t do it. And that was a nice way to build that in.
Allison Schaaf: Yeah. You know, I’ve been thinking a lot, you know, for the past, what, 12 plus years of like, okay.
You know, I, I give these people like, here are all the tools you need [00:25:00] to make your dinnertime dreams happen. And like, what is the sticking point? You know, like how do we create this habit and what are the holdups. Sometimes it’s not this big thing. It’s not doing the prep day. It’s like, oh, I actually have to order the groceries.
I need to have them still sitting in on the counter. I need to just sit my knife out to remind me. I walk by like, what are those little triggers? And that’s why I say a lot of times I will do it at the same time that I’m already preparing a meal. So then it’s like, Hey, I’m making lunch on Sunday. I do some prep while I’m making lunch, and then while I clean up, maybe my husband’s cleaning up and I’m still like getting the week ready and it doesn’t even feel like it’s an added thing.
I’m just kind of tacking it on something that’s already going on. So just kind of figuring out those things. But yeah, once you’ve already done either the grocery shopping or the meal prep, like once you’ve done the meal prep, you’re golden. Like you’re not gonna. On Wednesday night, be like, maybe I’ll order in takeout.
You have those carrots, you chopped them, you have that dressing, you made it no way you wanna order it. You’re gonna be like, guys, I’m not [00:26:00] eating out tonight because I already have this meal that I put all this effort into. So it actually, once you get past the first few steps, it does the opposite thing of like, you really don’t wanna eat out ’cause you’ve put in the time and effort and you have it there waiting for you.
Kelly Nolan: And another thing you’ve said, I know I keep, I’m like dragging in all these things I’ve heard you say while I stalk your other podcast episodes is. The beauty of also, and you mentioned it earlier in this episode of doubling up and I just wanna hammer at home of doubling a recipe and making two, you know, times the size of it when you’re making dinner so that you’re just boxing up or Tupperware up part of it for, you know, lunch or dinner the next day, or dinner in a couple days.
I just think that is such a smart, it sounds so silly, but it’s like one of those easy things you’re like, if you’re cooking already, if you’re making all this stuff already. Just having more of it made so that you can do it again. I mean, I, I’ve been eating the same breakfast for like, I don’t know, seven years.
Not that I wanna do that every day for dinner necessarily, but like [00:27:00] doubling up with it every now and then is not bad. I feel like in some ways I watch my parents cook, they make such more simple meals, and there’s such pressure, I don’t know why we put it on ourselves that everything has to be so fancy and like new every night.
And I just think there’s such beauty in like. Let’s, you know, lower expectations a bit, double things up, make it easy on ourselves a bit.
Allison Schaaf: Yeah, no, for sure. And because it is like, what is the time consuming piece that’s happening with the meals? And a lot of times it’s just like coming up with the idea then like doing it.
But like the doing it, it’s not, you know, if you’re making say, a pesto. That it doesn’t take that much longer to like double or even triple it. It doesn’t really take any much more time. And so just finding out places where you can do that and then setting yourself up to have this little like bonus meal or bonus side, like later on.
There’s so many places where you can do that. And especially when you get into the family realm of having like more people and more mouths to feed, the more you can increase quantity the [00:28:00] better.
Kelly Nolan: Yeah. Yeah. Well, thank you so much. I really appreciate you coming on and. Sharing general tips and sharing more about prep dish.
I just think it’s such a great idea and just such a brilliant way to take some of the pain points out of the time. You know, it’s a time such meal prep and everything’s such a time consuming thing that to alleviate a big part of that is so, so significant. So thank you so much. Um, if people wanna learn more about you and try out prep Dish, what should they do?
Allison Schaaf: So I set up a two week free trial for your listeners. It’s Prep dish.com/bright. So if they go there, they can try it out for 14 days even. I always say, if nothing else, just see what the system’s like and then you can decide, you know, if you wanna do your own, then that’s fine, but kind of see the tips and hacks that I’ve built into the meal plan.
So try that out. There I am at Prep Dish on Instagram. I also have a podcast called Meal Prep Monday. So you can. Go really deep into things like habits and meal prep and then off topic and all [00:29:00] sorts of things.
Kelly Nolan: Well, awesome. Thank you so much, and thank you for that generous offer. I think that a lot of people will take you up on it and including me, so I’m excited about that.
Awesome. So thank you so much. I really appreciate you being here. And to the woman listening at home, thank you for being here as well, and I’ll catch you in the next one.
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