Feeling a little burned out on making dinner these days? Me too.

That’s why I’m so excited to have Cassy Joy Garcia from Fed & Fit here!

You may know, Cassy Joy as the founder, editor in chief and nutrition consultant at Fed & Fit and author of several books.

She’s giving us a peek behind her new book, Cook Once Dinner Fix, plus the framework you can use (whether you buy the book or not).

You won’t wanna miss her tips for reusing leftovers in new & exciting ways.

Listen in if you’re ready to make meal prep simple, take it out of the 4-hours on Sunday category and make it a more effortless part of your life!

here’s a glance at this episode

  • [10:25] Learn what Cassy Joy’s “dinner series” strategy is and how you can use it to simplify dinner prep.
  • [13:01] How to pivot away from the 4-hour meal prep and deal with being in a cooking rut.
  • [16:22] Get the Cook Once Dinner Fix framework (principles you can use even if you don’t get the book).
  • [19:01] Cassy Joy walks you through a chicken dinner series from her cookbook: how to prep barbecue chicken casserole and turn leftovers into delicious baked chicken chimichangas.
  • [23:02] Cassy Joy walks you through a vegetarian dinner series from her cookbook: how to prep enchilada stuffed zucchini boats and turn leftovers into delicious vegetarian chili with vegan cornbread.
  • [27:24] How to deal with resistance around leftovers & make them more exciting.
  • [28:13] Understanding how decision fatigue shows up in meal planning & how to offload that extra thinking from your day.

more episodes on meal planning

cassy joy garcia headshot on pink background with podcast title

read the transcript

You’re listening to the feel good effect. If you’re looking for a cook once dinner fix, we’ve got you covered. Let’s make it happen. 

Radically simple and ridiculously doable. The feel good effect will help you redefine wellness on your terms. Hi, I’m your host, Robyn Conley Downs. And I believe that wellness isn’t about achieving another set of impossible standards, but instead finding what works for you. Drawing from cutting edge science on mindfulness, habit and behavior change – this podcast offers a collection of small mindset shifts that allow for more calm, clarity, and joy in everyday life. And allows you to embrace the idea that gentle is the new perfect. I invite you to listen in. As we cut through the clutter and find the small shifts that create huge changes in your life. Less striving, more ease. It’s time to feel good. 

Well, Hey, feel good fam. I am so glad you’re here. We have Cassy Joy Garcia on the show today. She’s talking about the cook once dinner fix ,is going to take save you time, mental energy. She’s giving you the framework that’s in her upcoming book that you can use, whether you get the book or not. And this episode is part of our one minute meal prep capsule. So a little capsule mini series to help you really just make meal prep simple, take it out of the four hour on Sunday category and make it part of your life. So, uh, this is part one of the one minute meal prep capsule. I’m so excited to bring it to you. Now, if you don’t know Cassy Joy yet, I love to introduce you to her. She is the founder, editor in chief and nutrition consultant at Fed and Fit and author of several books, including this brand new one. 

We’re talking about today, cook once dinner fix. So in this episode, we’re talking about how to make a meal prep work for you, not have it be an hour long tour, um, how to reuse leftovers and a really fun and exciting way, and really getting into the details of her book. So I hope you love this one. I hope you share it with someone. And as a reminder, if you want to keep the show here, we took a little break and there’s many reasons for it. I think if you consume free content and you do it in a way that you never take the time to leave her a positive review, it’s really difficult for those of us on the set and that put so much time, effort, money into creating things for free. So if you want to keep the show here, leave a positive review on any app that you’re listening on and let us know that you liked the show and that you want it to stay around. 

Okay. Really excited about this capsule on one minute meal prep. Here we go with Cassy joy, Cassy, thank you so much for coming on the show today, 

Robin, thank you for having me. This is going to be great. 

I’m excited to talk. And I was telling you before we jumped on, I don’t know how we don’t know each other, but this is such a fun way to connect because you and your team just brings so many practical solutions to people to feel really good. The show is called the feel good effect and that’s what we’re trying to do. So I’m so thrilled to be able to bring, you know, what you’re doing to our audience. So can you tell us where to talk about this book today, this new book, but it’s not your first book. So can you tell us about your previous books and how those kind of brought you to this particular book that you just are coming out with now? 

Yes, I would love to. So I, this summer celebrated to my ten-year anniversary of fed and fit, and I know it’s a little humbling to say that word, that number out loud. I can’t believe I’ve been doing this for that long because it still feels so fresh and exciting to be really honest with you. I get to problem solve in the kitchen. That’s how I view myself as a problem solver. And that’s just always really exciting to show up every day and think about that. And early on in my career, I was it was purely a blog fed if it was just a personal blog and I don’t mean to belittle it, but it was more centered around sharing my story, my lessons learned, and with the hope that it might somebody else could learn from them, you know, and I find that when it came to health and wellness and I really get a new lease on life in my early twenties, when I tweaked a few of my lifestyle habits and I reduced a lot of inflammation going on in my body, I won’t bore you with the whole story, but I found that I tend to take the windy road to a lesson, the longer Windier road, and I circle back and I try things again, and then I eventually get there. 

And I just kept thinking that I think I, I live through lessons in that way because I think that I’m supposed to share them. And so that was really my perspective for so long. And now the season of life that I’m in fed and fit naturally follows as so many personal blogs to follow the season of life that somebody is in has evolved into more of an online editorial and really just more, how do we make life as easy as possible on folks? You know, who just want to, for example, just get dinner on the table at the end of the day that they feel great about, right? That doesn’t leave them feeling exhausted or drained and they’re on budget, right? And it’s working within time constraints that they actually have. And so now I get to do that and I get to problem solve in that way with a team of people that I work with here at fed and fit. And it’s just, it’s a real uh not to sound too cheesy, but it’s a dream come true to work, be able to do this work. 

I love that. And I love that you call yourself a problem solver before anything else before even like recipe developer, anything, because it’s a different way of viewing content creation and recipe development and cookbooks. So when you say that, if, if you say you’re a problem-solver first, like how does that differentiate you from maybe someone else that writes cookbooks and creates, um, food content online? 

So I think the one thing that definitely makes it different is when we are, I say “we” thinking about the fed and fit team, right? When we’re preparing recipes to publish on the website, we just went through this huge planning activity, planning out our content calendar and about to have our third baby. And so part of that is building my maternity leave and planning content for the three months after baby’s here. And when we plan content for the website, for example, it’s through the lens of not just how do we publish another recipe or a soup recipe. Let’s publish a soup recipe in December, right? That’s not necessarily solving a problem. It’s how can we publish a soup recipe that really might solve a problem for somebody? And so we think of it through the lens of, well, we want it to be delicious. We want it to be really easy on them, really straightforward. 

Um, they probably are gonna want to know some freezer tips. Can they freeze the leftovers? They’ll probably want to know how do we reheat these leftovers afterwards. They might want to know how do I tweak this with what I’ve got on hand. And so thinking about that, putting ourselves in the reader’s shoes, because we are the reader, you know, we’re kind of the first reader and when we’re building these things, like what will be a helpful resource for us. And so whether it’s that simple on, in terms of a recipe that publishes in a one-off article on fed and fit.com to our weekly email that goes out on Fridays, you know, instead of just sending somebody an update on a Friday with here’s, what you missed on the website, and there’s nothing wrong with that. I did that for years and years and our readers. 

I think we’re excited to get that new content, but we thought what would make this even more helpful for somebody? And so we started putting together meal plans for the week for folks every Friday in our newsletter and say, here’s what you can make all week long. And here are ways you can make those meals even easier on you by weaving together some of these key ingredients. And so that’s kind of how I think that we’ve really differentiated ourselves in this world. And then the books are just, I mean, it’s like my love language is how can I take this and elevate it and create something that I just don’t want. I buy cookbooks. Like they’re just entirely going out of style. So I understand the love of cookbooks and I, and I’m so glad that so many people write them, but if I’m going to write a cookbook and put my professional stamp on it, it needs to be a really useful tool for somebody. And I, while I love a coffee table book, my hope for these books is that someone really uses them because they’re like, wow, this gave me margin back. This gave me mental energy, physical energy time, and a little bit more flexibility in my budget. 

And it’s so well done. I have to tell my audience that like, if you want a real food, whole life cook book, you should just buy this one. It’s like a book I would have written if I had, I mean, you’re so talented. And the way that you’ve built your team is so admirable as well, that you’re not just, trying to do it all on your own, but I can so see that it’s written, like you said, I collect cookbooks more than shoes, more than anything. It’s my biggest problem. And I love them all. I love chef written cookbooks. I love coffee table cookbooks, but this one’s so practical. And you can tell it’s written by someone or a team of people who are problem solvers, because every page it’s like how to freeze it, how to make it dairy free, how to, you know, every question that someone’s going to have, you’ve already walked in those shoes and also been building this community online. So you’ve been answering those questions you can think ahead, right. And say like, here’s what you need to know to have that margin of time. And that margin of, I think energy is the most important, important thing that we’re looking for these days.  

Absolutely. Well, thank you so much. That’s a very high compliment. 

Well, and I know how much work goes into it too. It’s like every possible variation. And, um, you have all these dairy-free substitutions, but we haven’t even talked about the main concept. So what is dinner series? What’s the concept? 

Okay. So a dinner series is a cook once dinner fix is composed of 60 dinner series. And a dinner series is a pair of full meals, two full dinners that work really well together. And they compliment one another by way of essentially a kitchen hack. All right. So how do we make this even easier? So we can span it across two meals. And so there’s 120 full meals in the book that are also separated by chapters. So there’s the poultry chapter, beef, pork, seafood, and vegetarian. And so what I did, and this is actually how I cook in my own home. And when I was thinking about cook once dinner fix and in conceptualizing it, it was this perfect marriage. If you will, between a solution that I had already been using and lean it leaning into and had found to be very useful in my own home. 

And I thought, oh my gosh, this is what folks are asking for. You know, they’re asking for, but I don’t want to prep day. I don’t want a meal prep, or I don’t want to have to make a fresh dinner every single night, you know, and then spend 45 minutes making it seven minutes, eating it as least that’s how long dinner lasts in my house right now. And then, you know, and then another 45 minutes cleaning up. That’s exhausting. It was exhausting. And so this was the answer to that. And so for example, what we do is the part of the meal that tends to take the most amount of time and energy is the protein, whether that’s an animal-based protein or a vegetable veggie based protein. Right? And so what I say, well, what we can do is while you’re already preparing a protein for your first meal, let’s double it. It’s not a whole lot. It’s very, very little extra work to just make some extra protein. And then you prepare this really lovely, straightforward, very simple meal for meal one. And then that extra protein we save when you’re ready for meal. Number two, let’s say it’s two days later. If it was chicken. Now it’s two days later, we’re ready for chicken. Again, you use it already roasted chicken and you assemble it into an entirely different and fresh and delicious dish. 

Yes. I love it so much. Okay. So I didn’t tell you this. Also, my brain is we, it’s our first day of school here today. Um, oh my goodness. That’s my day. It’s a big day. It’s been 18 months or 19 since she’s been in school in person. So I, my brain is moving very slowly, but I meant to tell you before we started that this is part of a capsule series. We’re doing that. I call it one minute meal prep because I find similarly that there’s a lot of people that don’t want to do the whole like four hour meal prep on Sunday that works for some people. It does not work for others. And so what they think is I can’t meal prep, or they feel like a failure, or they like do it once and it’s not fun. So they never do it again. 

And what I like to tell them, it’s like, there’s lots of ways to meal prep. So this is one, that’s one, there’s multiple versions. But the idea of one minute meal prep is exactly what you just talked about, which is how much extra time does it take you to double the protein? Not that much, if nothing, and that you mentioned a key thing as well. Like it’s the cleanup. I think it’s not even the time to do it. It’s the cleanup. So if you’re, if you’re making a mess, make the mess, double the protein, then you don’t have to clean up as much as the next site. So what you’ve done is really show people how to do that. Like in all these different proteins and with really interesting ideas, cause I’ve heard, are you hearing this from people lately that they feel like they’re in a food rut and a cooking rut? Yes, 

Absolutely. 

And it’s like, okay, well I have this chicken, but what are we going to do? We’re going to eat chicken again. 

Yeah, exactly. You can. And I think that that’s exactly it is by taking what, in my prior book, we had a, that three hour prep day on the weekend was a part of how those meals came together. And it’s just what you were saying is that folks weren’t really interested in that in time investment on its own. And so what we’re doing is we’re creatively incorporating prep during mealtime. And so when you’re done, let’s say you’re done washing all the dishes for meal one. I don’t know if you’ve ever felt this way, but after I’ve done that on a one-off dinner, meaning that we’ve, we’ve eaten the whole thing, we’ve eaten all of it. There’s nothing else left over to show it. I think, woof, that was a lot for, for one meal. If, you know, and this way you’re able to finish it and think, okay, that that was an effort, but also I’ve got something extra to show for it. And how great does that feel? You have almost accidentally, it was on purpose, but it almost feels like a happy accident that now you’ve prepped you’ve meal prepped for your next meal. Yes. 

So brilliant. So good. I’m I’m, I’m very excited about this. Okay. I get excited about these things, but you know what I, and you’ve said this already, this is our, this is what makes up our lives. Like it’s not just meal prep. It’s how we, how we eat, how we nourish ourselves, how we use our time, how we use our energy. And we can find simple ways that aren’t going to, and like your, your passbook that did the meal prep on the weekend. That’s still going to work for some people. But for those who don’t, I can’t, I know it sounds arbitrary sometimes to talk about these things, but I think it’s like the fabric of what we do with our days. Right. So that’s why I get excited about it. And you don’t, I mean, I totally am going to hype this book, but if you don’t get the book, you can still use this framework. Right. Absolutely. In your own life, like you don’t need to special recipes, like you’ve already said it, but can you just summarize one more time if someone’s like, is this, is there more to it? I don’t think so. But it’s like, just summarize what is the plan? If you don’t get the book, how can you do this? 

So if you don’t get the book, what you, some principles that you can adapt from this that I want you to lean into is whenever you’re making your next meal. So let’s say for example, spaghetti spaghetti sauce with, um, with like some sort of ground meat or something is something that we make in our home very often. And I would think I’m going to brown, extra meat for this meat sauce and spoon it out of the pan and save it for later and then make the red sauce that I had planned on for separate tonight that I’m going to serve with the spaghetti for our kiddos. Right. And so I think that what I want you to think about is next time you’re planning your meals and you’re planning your week is to think, look, look at the meals that you’ve got planned to think, okay, where can I double the amount of food that I’m making of a component? 

And then use that in a meal going forward. It doesn’t have to be the protein. It could be. Let’s say if one night you’re having, uh, gosh, you’re baking potatoes or fries. I was going to say potato fries, nobody calls them that you’re baking French fries in your oven. Okay. You’ve chopped them up. Or maybe you’ve got frozen and you’re putting them in the oven while the oven is on stick in those sweet potatoes that you think you might want to enjoy later in the week for another meal. And then they’re already cooked. And then you’re already, you’re not having to think, oh gosh, I have to start those sweet potatoes because we’re going to have dinner in an hour. I need to start them now. Right. Does not something that you have to think about because they’re already cooked and they’re in the refrigerator. All you need to do is just get them up to temperature. And so anytime you’re planning your meals throughout the week, start looking at some of the connect, the dots that you can draw between your meals and say, okay, this component, if I make a little extra of this, I can use it in this meal and so on and so forth. 

Um, you have just blown some people’s minds with that. It’s so simple and so doable and so game changing. But I love the book because it has that about the framework and the concepts, but it also has some really fun, exciting things that actually make me want to cook. And I even me, I’m like a recipe developer. I do not I’m over it right now, myself last year and a half. Um, and I was looking through this like, oh, I want to make this, I want to make this. So can we talk, can we break down the idea again, like really specifically with like maybe two examples from the book, a chicken and then a vegetarian. And I just happened to open to the barbecue chicken casserole and the let’s see, oh 

Yes. The chimichangas yes the baked. 

Yeah. Yeah. That’d be chicken chimichangas. So can you walk us through how you would go from chicken to barbecue, chicken and casserole to a chicken chimichanga 

Okay. So this is actually the first dinner series in the book and it is a delicious one. I’m actually going to make it a really, really soon in my own home. 

I was like, this sounds so good. I’m hungry right now. 

Oh, I’m so glad this dinner series. It doesn’t really good job of showcasing. I think the flavor variation that I really like to weave into the book, but it’s, so we have a barbecue chicken casserole with sweet potato for meal one and meal. Two is these are these baked chicken chimichangas with beans and a saw. And so the main component that’s woven between these two is shredded chicken. And so what I have you do the recipe calls for chicken breast or chicken tenders. I say, grab whatever is on sale or what you have on hand. It doesn’t really matter. And you’re going to cook those down until they’re nice and soft. And shreddable, I walk you through exactly how to do that. And then once you have this four pounds of shredded chicken, it’s a very basic protein. We’re going to split it in half. 

All right. And one half, we’re going to toss with some delicious barbecue sauce and while, and this is a part of the prep for this first meal, but we’re going to layer that on top. When I think of casseroles, a lot of people, when they think of casseroles, they think of essentially something white and creamy and gravy based might have a mushroom or two in it. And when I think of casseroles, I believe like two layer casseroles is really healthful, uh, nutrition forward ingredients. So this one is mashed sweet potatoes on the bottom, a layer of what I call lemony kale. And it may not sound very enticing if you are unfamiliar with kale and this flavor combo. But I tell you what, like even my three year old will gobble this stuff up and then the barbecue sauce, shredded chicken goes on top of that drizzle some more on that, bake it. 

So these flavors can come together and come to the same temperature. And then we garnish it with some purple onion. And then when you’re ready for shredded chicken again, throughout your week, we pull out the book again and we make these chicken chimichangas. And so I say, grab your favorite tortillas. If you’re a gluten-free, there’s some really great flour kind of gluten-free tortillas out there. And if you’re not then grab your favorite ones. And we’re going to toss that shredded chicken with some delicious Mexican style spices, some cheese, and roll it up in these tortillas, brush a little butter on it. That’s really key. And that allows us to bake it. And then we put them on this sheet pan and bake it in the oven until they’re crispy. And they are so delicious. And while that’s baking whip up this really quick zesty slaw, cabbage slaw, and a really quick, uh, cream sauce, and it is just such a fun, fun dinner. And while your family might think, if you’re serving multiple people at home, they might think, wow, another fabulous dinner that you have, the secret that actually these chimichangas came together so fast because you already prepped that shredded chicken. 

Yes. And that was such a, I love that example. And I love that you put kale in there because that’s a, like a very familiar flavor profile, right? The barbecue chicken and the sweet potatoes and adding that kale, like you’re getting some greens, but probably in a way that most people are not going to even mind eating. Right? Like I get a lot of requests like, well, how do I make this palatable for maybe a kid or a partner? And you’re keeping that in mind here with this, with this, uh, framework as well. 

I hope so. Yes, that does. That’s the key is I think that recipes, dishes, dinners, they should work for you, not against you in an ideal world. And so that’s how I tried to build all of these recipes. And I would encourage you when you’re planning your own meals for your home is to. There’s a temptation to want to tackle a lot and to challenge yourself day after day after day and your family members try new things every single day. But I think there’s also something to be said for leaning on recipes that you, that you know, they’re going to enjoy and leaning on dishes that are going to be really fun for you to create and fun to watch your family just gobble up. 

Absolutely. Yes. It’s not that fun to spend the time to prepare something, clean it up, and then nobody wants to eat it. There’s only so much we can do about that, but you’ve certainly helped us tee it up for a lot of success. So let’s do a vegetarian. Okay. Do you have a favorite vegetarian? 

So I have several, let me I’m flipping down. Let’s flip it, flip it. Okay. Gosh, it is really challenging to pick a favorite in here. I’m going to go, I’m going to choose these enchilada stuffed zucchini boats, this dinner series, it’s dinner series number 50. Uh, so if you get the book by chance, there’s a number of these inner series. It’s a really easy way to tell your friends which number you’re liking and this dinner series is it revolves around the featured component is our beans, okay, black beans. And there’s a lot of other fabulous ingredients in the vegetarian chapter. We make falafel dough in one, uh, we lean on lentils for some others. And this one focuses on black beans because I think that when we’re talking about approachable, vegetarian dishes, something that folks or an ingredient that folks are really comfortable with, I think this is a really great one. 

And so what we do is take zucchini and hollow them out. So you, you cut them in half and scoop out the seeds. And the main component that’s woven between these two dishes are black beans. Like I said, and you can either make your own black beans from dried beans, or you can lean on canned. I support you entirely the direction you want to go. And what we do is toss those beans in an enchilada sauce. Again, I would make your own, I would not. I’m sorry. I, you can make your own and I’ve got you covered, but I would by store by there’s some really great enchilada sauces out there, and I want this to be easy on you. So toss it with those beans and you spoon that into the cut side up zucchini boats, that you’ve now hollowed out. 

Drizzle a little cheese on there. If you want a dairy free cheese, if you prefer, and then pop that in the oven and bake it for just the right amount of time. And this is a recipe that I played with a lot, because I’m sure you’ve had zucchini, that’s undercooked or overcooked, and it’s kind of tricky to get the right texture. And so make sure that it’s going to be just right and delicious. And then we drizzle it with a crema sauce and then avocado and some cilantro on top of that. And it’s just really fresh and vibrant and beautiful and filling. And then when you’re ready for the next meal, we get to make possibly one of my favorite recipes in the entire book. It is this vegetarian chili and I served it with this vegan corn bread. So the book, these dinners, they’re not just single recipes. 

I wanted to make sure that when you’re making this main component, you feel like you’re able to plate an entire meal for your family and that everything has been thought through. And so this vegetarian chili with the cornbread, that’s why these two recipes are together because it kind of helps check that box. I wanted to help do the thinking for you a little bit, essentially, if that’s why you’re leaning on this book, you’re leaning on it because you want the easy button when it comes to planning and providing folks with side dishes was really important to me. So this chili is a mixture of the beans that we have already prepared, but also some red lentils. And those will help thicken this chili a little bit and also add a little bit more in a slightly different protein content to it. Um, but it is really delicious, little smokey, a little, just a little touch of heat, and then garnish it with a good amount of avocado and cilantro. And I tell you that corn bread is some of the best corn bread I’ve ever had. Um, and so I think that’s a really fun example and the chili becomes an activity of just assembling, you know, because again, the beans are either already prepared or you already have them on hand. 

Yes. And I think this is another amazing solution for people who have a little bit of a resistance around leftovers, whether it’s their own resistance or a partner’s resistance. And I get that, like, it’s not that exciting to eat the exact same thing from the night before over and over again. But this really does not feel like you’re just eating leftovers. 

Right? Exactly it doesn’t. And I’m my family. Weren’t, they’re not really big on leftovers. And so that’s something that I’ve had to work around. And again, problem solve around is how do I take advantage of the idea of a leftover right? Where it’s like, oh, we’re just going to now eat a few more slices of that casserole that we made yesterday. How do I take that idea, but adapted into an entirely different meal? 

Which I, and the thinking part, I, I feel like people underestimate sometimes, or I guess they don’t give themselves credit for the amount of cognitive functioning executive function it takes to think through all these things. So that really stood out to me. When you said, like, “I’m saving you the thinking” that we don’t underestimate how much that thinking can take out of us in a week. And it circles back to where I see people like beating themselves up because they say like, I’m not good at meal planning, or I’m not good at meal prep and I never can do it. And I’m like, well, actually it’s not the easiest thing to do to like, think about all of these decisions and how things go together. So being able to take some of that, thinking out some of that executive function out for people and kind of lay it out, is a really powerful thing I think.

I think it is, you know, and uh decision fatigue is something that I’m really fascinated by, and that is exactly what this comes into play. And I, and I know it because I’ve lived that life so many times over and over again is you get to the end of the day, you’ve planned all these things and then you’re right. This is challenging. It’s challenging to think about how do I plan out this, this, these, what are the meals that I’m going to prepare this week in a way that touches all these buckets, right? It’s going to be nutrition forward. It’s not going to take me a bunch of time. It is going to be budget friendly. My family’s going to like it. I can acquire, I can weave these ingredients across the spectrum. It is a lot of effort. And then when you get to the end of the day or the end of the week, you’re spent it’s to the point where my husband will ask me, you know, where do you want to go to dinner on our date night? And I’m like, I literally could not tell you if I wanted to. You need to decide I’m all out. 

I write about, I have a whole chapter about decision fatigue in my, in my book. And the average person’s makes 267 decisions about food per day. That’s not even accounting for like a parent or a caregiver. So that goes up. And I always say that on my birthday, all I want is to not make a decision, like, just decide where we’re going to go to dinner. 

That’s exactly. It 

Don’t make me decide, just do it. And this, you just did so much of that work for us in this book. Is there anything about the book that we didn’t cover? I feel like we got, we got in there, but was there, is there anything I missed? 

No, I think that’s great. I think you touched on it all 

And you pretty much said this already, but I’d love to ask authors this. Like, what is your biggest hope for this book? 

My biggest hope for this book is that it is something that becomes a surprising, well used resource for you. You know, I think that my hope is that, uh, folks are drawn in because the food looks delicious and the concept sounds interesting, but my hope is that once they try a meal or two, they think, oh, wow, wow, this is helpful. This isn’t just delicious. And I’m excited to be able to cook from this book, but this is actually really helpful. And it’s making a difference in my life. It’s made, it’s, I’m able to offload some of those decisions. I’m able to have more margin in my life. 

Yeah, I think, I mean, it hasn’t come out yet, but I can pretty much guarantee you that it’s going to be what happens for people with this book. Um, and again, like there’s the gluten-free variations, there’s the dairy free variations. So it’s very friendly for that. Like whatever kind of eating style that you or your family may be following. It also has nutrition information. So you’ve really covered all the bases. Where can people find the book? 

They can find it really everywhere that, uh, books are sold. So, uh, Barnes and noble, Amazon, oh gosh. Uh, Walmart, I think, has it indie bound if you like to support small bookstores, so you pick your favorite and, um, and I’m just so excited to see it out in the world. And please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have questions about it. 

And on that note, where can people find you? Cause I’ve been enjoying tuning into your stories because you’ve been really demoing what this looks like. And it’s really great to see it in the book, but it’s fun to be able to watch you do it as well. So where can people connect with you or find you and your team? 

Oh, yes, we are on the worldwide web, over at fedandfit.com. That’s where we have, gosh, I think 1200+ free recipes there for you and all kinds of wellness content. And then I’m probably the most active on Instagram. Like you said, over on the page @fedandfit. And I am busy working on demonstrating this concept because I know it can be challenging, right. To really understand how this might work together or how you might adapt some of these ideas and use them in your own recipes in your own life. And so hopefully showing them and demonstrating them and saving those to highlight is really helpful and instructional, 

And I’m always like you get it, mama. I’m not a big fan of the, like, if I can do it, you can do it. Cause I don’t think that really has enough compassion for like what other people might be going through. But I will say like, you’re, you’re talking the talk and walking the walk and doing this with a lot of responsibilities with children and baby on the way and all those things. And so it’s not so hard that you, you can’t do it in the life that you have right now, which is pretty full. 

It is, it is really full. And you know, it’s an effort, it’s an effort to make dinner, but I am it I’m so grateful that I did it right. It’s I’m still going to have to chop a couple things or open a can, right. Or get out a dish and dirty it and then wash it later. But I have found that if there’s a way to do that, that’s easier on me. Um, that’s a little bit more straightforward. I’m all the more grateful for it. And I’m able to just roll into dinner time and sit down with my family and really be present in that moment. Right. And connect with my family over dinner versus feeling exhausted and drained from the day. But not to say that there isn’t room for takeout and all that. I’m all for it when you need it. 

When you need it. Well, thank you so much for your work in this book and for coming on the show today. 

Thank you so much, Robyn. 

That was Cassy Joy Garcia, author of cook once dinner fix and fedandfit.com. If you loved this episode, go ahead and tag her. She’s @fedandfit and I’m @realfoodwholelife on Instagram. We love to see what you’re up to and see your cook once dinner fix in action. As always, I want to thank you so much for listening, for being part of this conversation about what it really means to be healthy. And this feel-good movement can tell next time here’s to feeling good. 

This post contains affiliate links

Share this Post