#636 Batch Cooking Basics: Reclaim Your Time and Energy in the Kitchen

#636 Batch Cooking Basics: Reclaim Your Time and Energy in the Kitchen

by | Sep 24, 2024 | Clutter Free, Clutter Free For Life, Clutter Free Home, Clutter Free Podcast, Home, Mental Load, Podcast | 0 comments

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636 – Batch Cooking Basics:

Reclaim Your Time and Energy in the Kitchen

Ever feel like you’re running on empty, but your family still expects dinner on the table?

This episode of Clutter Free Academy is for you!

In part one of a two-part series, Kathi Lipp and Tonya Kubo tackle the common challenge of meal planning and preparation when energy levels are low. Drawing from her personal experiences and upcoming book “Sabbath Soup,” Kathi shares valuable strategies for creating nutritious meals without exhausting oneself.

Listeners will discover:

  • The importance of pre-planning meals to avoid unhealthy quick fixes
  • Strategies for breaking down meal prep tasks throughout the week
  • Utilizing technology and services for efficient grocery shopping
  • Energy-saving techniques for food preparation

Kathi and Tonya’s relatable anecdotes and practical tips make this episode a must-listen for anyone struggling to balance healthy eating with limited energy.

Preorder Sabbath Soup here and receive your free download bonus Sabbath Soup Shortcuts. The preorder bonus ends October 8, 2024.

Click here to be notified when part two in this series is released!

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Sabbath Soup: Weekly Menus and Rhythms to Make Space for a Day of Rest

Kathi Lipp gives readers an easy-to-follow process for meal planning and prep, so that they can enjoy a full day each week of real rest and refreshment.

Could you use a break from cooking (and everything else) once a week? Not only is rest vital for your mind and body, it’s good for your soul too. God designed us to enter into Sabbath rest one day per week, but as you know, meals still need to be made. Your family still needs to be fed.

Sabbath Soup includes convenient, seasonal meal plans that take the guesswork out of shopping and cooking. More than just a collection of delicious recipes—including main dishes, breads, breakfasts, desserts, salads, sides, and yes, soups—this is your guide to establishing a weekly rhythm and routine of meal planning and prep that allows you to have a true day off.

Do something good for your soul and experience the peace that comes with a full day dedicated to spending time with God, family, and friends. Savor your Sabbath as you proudly proclaim, “Soup’s on!”

Preorder your copy of Sabbath Soup: Weekly Menus and Rhythms to Make Space for a Day of Rest here. Preorder offer ends October 8, 2024.

Links Mentioned:

Preorder Sabbath Soup here and receive your bonus down Sabbath Soup Shortcuts. Preorder bonus ends October 8, 2024

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Clutter Free Resources:

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What are your top three energy-saving tips for meal preparation?

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Meet Our Guest 

 

Tonya Kubo

Tonya Kubo is the illustrious and fearless leader of Kathi Lipp’s Clutter Free Academy Facebook group and the Clutter Free for Life membership program. A speaker and writer, Tonya makes her home in the heart of California with her husband, Brian, their two spirited daughters, and one very tolerant cat. Visit her at www.tonyakubo.com.

 

Tonya Kubo Picture
Transcript

Well, hey friends, welcome to Clutter -Free Academy, where our goal is to help you take small, doable steps to live every day with less clutter and more life. Today, we’re diving into a topic that’s close to my heart, how to manage meals when you’re low on energy. This is actually part one of a two -part episode because we had so much to talk about. In this first part, Tonya and I will be talking about the challenges of cooking when you’re tired, when you’re overwhelmed, when you’re stressed.

and I’ll share some strategies from my new book, Sabbath Soup. We’ll cover meal planning, energy saving kitchen hacks, and how to make the most of those days where you have not enough energy to do all that needs to be done. So let’s get started.

 

Well, hey friends, welcome to Clutter-Free Academy, where our goal is to help you take small, doable steps to live every day with less clutter and more life. And Tonya and I are back, better than ever, yay! Well, we’re very high energy, but.

 

Tonya Kubo (00:25.094)

Yay!

 

Kathi (00:30.176)

That’s not always the case. As we discussed last week, it has been, well, definitely, I don’t know that, well, how I want to say this. Your family has been very low energy because of lots of illness. We’re wondering now if Roger just has long COVID because this guy cannot get on top of it. We are eating healthy, he’s out there working out.

 

Tonya Kubo (00:50.772)

Mmm.

 

Kathi (00:58.24)

I don’t even know if I’ve told you this, Tonya. We have dug a trail around our property so that we can go on walks. Yes, it really is nice. But yeah, we just can’t get Roger feeling good. so, and I was down and out over the weekend. And here’s the thing. You may not.

 

Tonya Kubo (01:08.374)

how nice!

 

Kathi (01:25.822)

We do not have the physical location where we can do DoorDash. most people, when I did DoorDash one time when I was at my mom’s house, Tonya, I was aghast at how much it costs.

 

Tonya Kubo (01:30.632)

Mm -hmm.

 

Tonya Kubo (01:42.024)

yeah, no, it is not affordable. Well, not for us. I mean, it depends on where you live though, right? Because I have friends who, you know, drive big vehicles and stuff and they swear that they save the money in gas.

 

Kathi (01:45.163)

And here’s

 

Kathi (01:56.706)

We have a big vehicle. We’ve got about the biggest vehicle you could have. That’s some interesting math. I don’t understand it. I’m not calling your friends liars or dumb, whoo. Yeah. We have not had a lot of energy around here. And I think that this is something that as people get older,

 

Tonya Kubo (02:07.726)

Yeah

 

Kathi (02:24.354)

You know, we all want to say hey, we’re gonna always have the same amount of energy I used to be low energy because I had all the kids now I’m lower energy. I just think because the ravages of time and so I do know like I’ve learned I have to balance my energy like in the morning and into you know, I morning until lunch I am good to go then I have my afternoon dip

 

Tonya Kubo (02:31.507)

Right.

 

Tonya Kubo (02:42.494)

Mm

 

Kathi (02:51.074)

and then I’m really good until about 630 and at 630 I’m done. Like I’m not, I’m not, I was gonna say I’m not laying in bed. I am lying in bed, but I’m still working. I’m doing, working on like social media and things like that. But I don’t know. How about you? Where are your energy peaks and valleys?

 

Tonya Kubo (03:11.988)

Yeah, well, I mean, for me, I have the most energy from like 4 am to noon. Like hands down, 4 a.m. to noon. Four o ‘clock is an evil, evil time, Kathi. Why do people want to meet with me between the hours of two and four pm Like it’s just, that it is not my favorite. They don’t, they obviously don’t. The world is not built around me.

 

Kathi (03:21.581)

Sure.

 

Kathi (03:33.794)

They don’t love you. Yeah, obviously.

 

Well, and here’s the thing, your children want things from you during those hours.

 

Tonya Kubo (03:44.688)

Right? You feel my pain. Yeah. And, and I would say for a lot of people, know, weekends are a high energy time. It’s, it’s not a high-energy time for me, but I do my best. am somebody. And this is where I think you and me are a little bit different. I do better in a single marathon.

 

Kathi (03:46.878)

It’s just wrong. Yeah. Yes, absolutely.

 

Kathi (04:00.439)

Yeah.

 

Tonya Kubo (04:10.868)

than I do in breaking things up into say 30-minute chunks throughout the day.

 

Kathi (04:11.926)

Hmm.

 

Kathi (04:15.584)

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It depends on what I’m working on. But yeah, I like to be able to quit a task when I run out of energy. So yeah, we, you know, as many of you know, I have a book coming out October 8th, it’s Sabbath Soup. And I didn’t really write this with in mind with, you know, three different people when you’re low on time, when you’re low on money, and when you’re low on energy.

 

Tonya Kubo (04:24.143)

Yeah

 

Tonya Kubo (04:44.99)

Mm -hmm.

 

Kathi (04:45.33)

Now, all three at the same time is hard. Like I get it. That is super, super hard. And I’ve been in that place where when I was a single mom, there wasn’t a lot of money. I was working full-time. And when I was done for the day, I wanted to be done for the day and it just wasn’t an option. So for all my single moms out there, I no longer feel your pain, but I remember your pain very, very deeply. And

 

Tonya Kubo (04:53.843)

Mm -hmm.

 

Kathi (05:14.696)

Tonya is currently a single mom because her husband is sick on the couch but I just think that there are times when we have to say you know because all the articles I ever read are about when you’re prepping food You know how to save time how to save money But I think there has to be this third option of when you just don’t have the energy When you need to take care of your future self But how do you do that when your current self?

 

Tonya Kubo (05:37.341)

Mm -hmm.

 

Kathi (05:44.47)

doesn’t have a ton of energy. And so we’re gonna talk about that. Tonya is interviewing me because it’s my book, but Tonya of course is going to add her own brilliance into this. So let’s talk about it, Tonya.

 

Tonya Kubo (05:46.11)

Mm -hmm.

 

Tonya Kubo (05:58.08)

Yeah, so Kathi, one of the things that I get very stabby about, because as you know, I was raised by a single mom. And so I was raised by a single mom. Money was super, super tight. I now as an adult, when I read all of these ideas, right, of, you know, like how to feed your family of 20 on $200 from Costco, totally exaggerating there.

 

Kathi (06:05.643)

Right.

 

Kathi (06:22.238)

Yeah. Right.

 

Tonya Kubo (06:25.012)

I get frustrated because when I look at these meal plans, when I look at these ideas that are in these articles, it’s like they think that if you don’t have a lot of money, you somehow have 32 hour days, right? Like you’ve got time to go and buy wheat, wheat berries that you then toast and grind yourself to make your own bread. And

 

Kathi (06:45.204)

Right, right.

 

Tonya Kubo (06:49.0)

What I appreciate about Sabbath Soup, and even when you were talking about the concept of the book, is that you don’t do that nasty thing where you assume having less in one area, whether it’s time, energy, or money, means you have an unlimited supply in the other area.

 

Kathi (07:05.154)

Yeah. Yeah. I don’t know if I’ve ever told you about a book I read probably 10 years ago. It’s called On a Dollar a Day. And it was this couple who, you know, we talk about stunt memoir and that’s really what this was. But they both, he was a school teacher or no, she was a school teacher. He worked in some kind of program for the disadvantaged.

 

Tonya Kubo (07:10.664)

Mm -hmm.

 

Tonya Kubo (07:18.728)

Mm -hmm.

 

Kathi (07:34.646)

and disadvantaged youth, I believe. And they were talking about what it looked like to live on what the California welfare system gave to people. And I know a lot about this. My mom was a social worker, and it’s so true. And it’s not like this as much anymore, but…

 

Tonya Kubo (07:51.443)

Mm

 

Kathi (08:00.674)

in order to get your benefit, it took almost an entire day where you’re not earning money to go apply, do the paper, all that kind of stuff. And I just know that for a lot of us, we are lacking sometimes in all three. And I don’t know that, this book does not have all the answers. Let’s be 100 % honest.

 

Tonya Kubo (08:06.28)

Mm -hmm.

 

Tonya Kubo (08:19.272)

Mm -hmm.

 

Kathi (08:27.75)

And if you are lacking financially, you and I are big believers in go find a food program because thousands of pounds of food get tossed out every day in the state of California. Let’s get that to some humans, shall we? And then if you don’t have time, it’s okay to go to Costco.

 

Tonya Kubo (08:30.792)

Mm -hmm.

 

Tonya Kubo (08:36.466)

Right.

 

Tonya Kubo (08:42.824)

Mm -hmm.

 

Kathi (08:54.036)

and get some prepackaged meals. It’s okay to get the rotisserie chicken. But I’m also gonna give you some ideas on how to stretch that rotisserie chicken. If you don’t have the energy, say like you’re a senior citizen, there are programs for senior citizens for prepared meals. Have somebody, if you can’t do it, have somebody check those things out. But if you’re in that place where you’re like, I do enjoy cooking, or I want to cook because I wanna control the ingredients that are going in my recipes, or I don’t wanna have to leave the house all the time for this kind of stuff. Or I actually like my cooking. I enjoy the type of cooking I do. I just wanna give some easy ideas for people who maybe don’t have a ton of energy to be able to cook. And yeah.

 

Tonya Kubo (09:49.242)

Mm-hmm. Well, Kathi, I’m sorry. mean, based on your experience, how have you seen a lack of energy impact eating habits? Because that’s the piece where, you know, I’m just going to go grab something quick. I’m just going to go grab something quick. And I hear this from people all the time, you know, a week’s worth of just grabbing something quick oftentimes is not making us feel our best.

 

Kathi (10:07.009)

Right.

 

Kathi (10:16.034)

No, it’s not. And you know, you know, I have struggled with obesity. I was born at 10 pounds. Let’s be clear. I’ve struggled with obesity my entire life. Not saying that a 10-pound baby is obese, but you know, it I come from a long line of people who struggle with obesity. And, you know, I know that if I don’t have if I’m not pre-planning, then what I’m doing is

 

Tonya Kubo (10:41.492)

Mm -hmm.

 

Kathi (10:45.34)

sometimes the energy comes in deciding, especially in the moment. And so if we’re trying to decide in the moment, the easy things to grab are the pizzas, the easy things to grab are the fast food. hear me loud and clear. I like some fast food. Like I can get down on a Taco Bell taco that that is, you know, I enjoy Chick-fil-A -A every once in a while.

 

Tonya Kubo (10:48.82)

Mm -hmm.

 

Tonya Kubo (11:05.437)

Mm -hmm.

 

Tonya Kubo (11:09.395)

Yeah.

 

Kathi (11:15.17)

A McDonald’s Diet Coke is about as close to bliss as I could get. But I know that in order for me to feel good, in order for me to have energy, I can’t be doing those on a regular basis. And let me be honest, know, Tonya, I have a couple of disadvantages. I still have extra weight on me, which, you know, I’m working with and on, but it’s still a reality.

 

I have a short tendon in my foot, which doesn’t sound like it would be a big deal. But if I stand for any length of time, my right ankle just hurts. And I still have a little bit of a back issue, which is mostly cleared up with losing some weight. But if I’m standing for long periods of time, it does not. So I really have to think about my energy management when it comes to everything I’m doing.

 

Tonya Kubo (12:09.502)

Mm

 

Kathi (12:13.416)

This is part of it. And so our food impacts how we feel. If we’re doing that, you know, frozen pizza, the frozen French bread pizza, by the way, which we keep on hand, and we probably have once a week and really enjoy it. It’s the days when it’s Roger’s turn to cook lunch. And because I’ve got an extra meeting and anything that’s too complicated in the kitchen, he could do it. We had him.

 

Tonya Kubo (12:25.716)

Mm -hmm.

 

Kathi (12:42.176)

do some very complicated things when I burned my arm recently, but let’s just say it does not bring him joy. So, it’s okay to have the, go back to kind of those comfort foods, but you can’t do it on a regular basis if energy is an issue for you.

 

Tonya Kubo (12:48.66)

Mm -hmm.

 

Tonya Kubo (12:57.662)

Mm -hmm.

 

Right, okay. So what do you think, since Sabbath Soup is a book that really is focused on weekly meal plans and meal planning, what do you think are some things, because I can imagine that if energy is a challenge, that could sound daunting. So I’m wondering in your mind, you know, what should somebody consider when it comes to planning meals for low-energy weeks?

 

Kathi (13:18.881)

Yeah.

 

Kathi (13:26.516)

Yeah, so I like to break it up. So, you know, on Mondays, I’m going to make the plan for what I’m going to cook and I’m going to do an inventory and kind of see what we already have. And by the way, you know, if past me had some leftover chicken, chopped it up, put it in the freezer. What a gift, right? Because that’s chicken I do not have to cook. So I’m going to look for those kind of things when I’m having a low energy week and plan my meals around that.

 

Tonya Kubo (13:47.454)

Mm -hmm.

 

Kathi (13:56.448)

Tuesday I’m gonna create my shopping list Just like okay. Here are the things that I want to cook, but I don’t have on hand, And Tuesday for low energy. Can I just tell you if you live near a Sam’s Club? That is my favorite thing in the world because I place my order on Tuesday and I go pick it up on Wednesday or if I’m going into town on Tuesday, I place it on Monday whatever but I I don’t have if I’m having a low energy week

 

Tonya Kubo (14:10.142)

Mm -hmm.

 

Tonya Kubo (14:19.828)

Mm

 

Kathi (14:25.832)

I don’t even have to go inside the store. It’s all there waiting for me. And if you’re like, well, nice for you, Kathi, I don’t have a Sam’s Club. Like there are no Sam’s Club in the Bay Area. That’s okay. Target, you can do the same thing with and it’s free. You can do the same thing with where we are like a Rayleigh’s or a Safeway. A lot of places have where you can pick those up. Now both Safeway and Rayleigh’s have a charge, but if you’re low,

 

Tonya Kubo (14:28.852)

you

 

Kathi (14:55.1)

on energy, that’s a great energy-saving idea. Thursday, this is where I save my energy because the hardest part of cooking for me is all the chopping. that, that’s the thing that just kills me, right? That and dishes. So on Thursday, what I’m going to do is I’m going to get out my food processor and I’m going to chop anything that needs to be chopped. And if you’re like, that sounds like too much.

 

Tonya Kubo (15:07.774)

Hmm.

 

Mm -hmm.

 

Kathi (15:24.126)

I get it, friend, go to Trader Joe’s and get their mirepoix or you know, which has the carrots and onions and celery already chopped up. Buy the bagged salad, do what you need to do. But if you’re like, no, the money’s the other thing I’m trying to save, then that bag of carrots is so much cheaper than buying chopped carrots. Let’s just do that. Unless there’s a great sale, know, do what you need to do. But I’m gonna get everything out.

 

Tonya Kubo (15:44.852)

Mm -hmm.

 

Kathi (15:53.442)

One thing that I’ve done, Tonya, that may seem silly, but I don’t care, is I have an extension cord that runs to my kitchen table. Okay? So I’m gonna wash all my vegetables at the same time, and then I’m gonna sit down at my kitchen table with all my little containers, and I’m gonna chop all my vegetables, and I’m gonna put them into the containers, and I’m gonna chop them, and I’m gonna do all that while I’m sitting down. Yes.

 

Tonya Kubo (15:56.094)

Mm -hmm.

 

Okay.

 

Tonya Kubo (16:07.742)

Mm

 

Tonya Kubo (16:21.224)

Right, and let me clarify though, because you mentioned extension cord and then chopping vegetables, some people may not connect the dots. It’s because you use a food processor to help you do that.

 

Kathi (16:28.47)

Sorry. Right, right, sorry. Key, key point. You are so smart. So yes, so I am going to, I’m going to chop all those with my food processor. I’m only washing the food processor once. I may wipe it out every once in while, but I’m only washing it once. And then that is all ready for assembly day on Friday, which is beautiful.

 

Tonya Kubo (16:33.282)

haha

 

Kathi (16:56.35)

Another thing that I feel like is really, really key is I am not rushing myself on cook day. So I’m putting things into a slow cooker. Like it can cook all day. It can be doing what it needs to do. Food is marinating. Like it’s a slow process. It’s the slow food movement. Another thing, if you struggle with something like I do with my ankle,

 

One of the things I’ve done is I’ve got a standing mat that I’ve put in my kitchen. So those are so nice. And it makes such a big difference with energy. Another thing is we don’t wear shoes in our house just because we’ve got a lot of outdoors outside. But we have bears.

 

Tonya Kubo (17:32.702)

Those are so nice.

 

Tonya Kubo (17:43.988)

Mm

 

You have bears that have to go potty somewhere.

 

Kathi (17:51.498)

Yeah, and this morning there were turkeys that were not letting moose go outside to go to the bathroom. So she just stood there and barked and then Roger came down and is like, what is the drama? I said, it’s turkeys. And he said, you’re just going to have to deal with it moose. And I said, the turkeys are eating our grapes. And he says, not today. They’re not. And so Roger runs out there, shoes them all away. And Roger, I mean, moose was able to go outside. But you know, I don’t even know what I was saying.

 

Tonya Kubo (17:56.468)

Waaaah

 

Tonya Kubo (18:09.812)

No.

 

Tonya Kubo (18:17.256)

Yes.

 

Kathi (18:21.366)

But it thinking in batches is to plan. Like I cook all of my hard boiled eggs for the week in one batch. I cook all of those type of, you know, I’m trying to do all of my dishes in one thing, you know, one load. I’m doing all of my chopping in one load, thinking about it like that, breaking it down throughout the week so you don’t have to worry.

 

Tonya Kubo (18:31.122)

Hmm.

 

Tonya Kubo (18:40.691)

Mm -hmm.

 

Kathi (18:50.782)

You’ve already got the food cooked. It’s a beautiful, beautiful concept.

 

Well, that’s all we have time for this first part of our discussion on meal planning when you’re low on energy. But don’t worry, we have even more great tips and ideas coming up in part two. In our next episode, we’ll dive into some specific meal ideas, how to involve family in the cooking process, and I’ll share some of my favorite go -to recipes for low energy days. You won’t wanna miss it. Thanks for listening to Clutter -Free Academy. I’m Kathi Lipp. Now.

 

Go create the clutter -free life you’ve always wanted to live.

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#635 Batch Cooking Basics: The Sabbath Soup Way of Saving Money on Meal Prep

#635 Batch Cooking Basics: The Sabbath Soup Way of Saving Money on Meal Prep

by | Sep 17, 2024 | Clutter Free, Clutter Free For Life, Clutter Free Home, Clutter Free Podcast, Home, Mental Load, Podcast | 0 comments

Listen Now

635 – Batch Cooking Basics:

The Sabbath Soup Way of Saving Money on Meal Prep

Have you ever had those moments where you’re staring into the fridge at 5 PM, wondering what on earth you’re going to feed your family?

Well, friend, We’ve got some good news for you!

In this episode of Clutter Free Academy, Kathi Lipp and Tonya Kubo discuss the concept of Sabbath cooking and how it can save both time and money. They explain the benefits of meal planning and batch cooking, emphasizing how these techniques can reduce food waste and lower grocery bills. Kathi also discusses her upcoming book, “Sabbath Soup,” which provides a comprehensive guide to this cooking method.

Listeners will discover:

  • How to use ingredients you already have on hand
  • Batch cooking techniques for soups, salads, and casseroles
  • Tips for proper food storage and freezing
  • The financial benefits of cooking ahead and reducing food waste

Kathi shares personal anecdotes about her experiences with budget-friendly cooking and offers practical advice for listeners looking to implement Sabbath cooking in their own homes. Plus, here’s the Zucchini Boat recipe Kathi raved about in this episode!

Stuffed Italian Zucchini Boats with Italian Sausage

Preparation Time: 20 minutes  Cooking Time: 35 minutes

Ingredients:

  • 4 medium zucchini
  • 1 lb. Italian sausage
  • 1 large onion, chopped
  • 3 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 can (15 oz) diced tomatoes
  • 1 teaspoon dried basil
  • 1 teaspoon dried oregano
  • Salt and pepper, to taste
  • 2 cups mozzarella cheese, shredded
  • 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • Directions:
  1. Preheat your oven to 375°F and lightly grease a baking sheet or dish.
  2. Cut each zucchini in half lengthwise and use a spoon or melon baller to hollow out the centers, leaving about a 1/4 inch thick zucchini “boat”. Place the zucchini on the baking sheet.
  3. In a large skillet, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. Add the Italian sausage and cook until browned and no longer pink, breaking it up with a wooden spoon as it cooks. Remove the sausage from the skillet and set it aside.
  4. In the same skillet, add the chopped onion and minced garlic, cooking until the onion is translucent.
  5. Add the diced tomatoes, basil, oregano, and a pinch of salt and pepper. Stir well and cook for a few more minutes.
  6. Add back the sausage and cook for another 2-3 minutes until everything is well combined.
  7. Spoon the sausage mixture into each zucchini boat, pressing it down and filling to the top.
  8. Top each zucchini boat with a generous amount of mozzarella and Parmesan cheese.
  9. Bake in the preheated oven for 25-30 minutes, or until the cheese is melted and bubbly and the zucchini is tender.
  10. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for a few minutes before serving.

Did you miss #634 Time Saving Strategies For Busy Cooks: Sabbath Soup Secrets? Listen in now.

Preorder Sabbath Soup here and receive your free download bonus Sabbath Soup Shortcuts. The preorder bonus ends October 8, 2024.

Click here to be notified when the next episode is released.

Also, stay up to date and sign up here to receive our newsletter.

 

Sabbath Soup: Weekly Menus and Rhythms to Make Space for a Day of Rest

Kathi Lipp gives readers an easy-to-follow process for meal planning and prep, so that they can enjoy a full day each week of real rest and refreshment.

Could you use a break from cooking (and everything else) once a week? Not only is rest vital for your mind and body, it’s good for your soul too. God designed us to enter into Sabbath rest one day per week, but as you know, meals still need to be made. Your family still needs to be fed.

Sabbath Soup includes convenient, seasonal meal plans that take the guesswork out of shopping and cooking. More than just a collection of delicious recipes—including main dishes, breads, breakfasts, desserts, salads, sides, and yes, soups—this is your guide to establishing a weekly rhythm and routine of meal planning and prep that allows you to have a true day off.

Do something good for your soul and experience the peace that comes with a full day dedicated to spending time with God, family, and friends. Savor your Sabbath as you proudly proclaim, “Soup’s on!”

Preorder your copy of Sabbath Soup: Weekly Menus and Rhythms to Make Space for a Day of Rest here. Preorder offer ends October 8, 2024.

Links Mentioned:

Snapware Pyrex 18-piece Glass Food Storage Set

Souper Cubes

Tonya’s newest podcast:

The Business You Really Want on Apple Podcasts

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Meet Our Guest 

 

Tonya Kubo

Tonya Kubo is the illustrious and fearless leader of Kathi Lipp’s Clutter Free Academy Facebook group and the Clutter Free for Life membership program. A speaker and writer, Tonya makes her home in the heart of California with her husband, Brian, their two spirited daughters, and one very tolerant cat. Visit her at www.tonyakubo.com.

 

Tonya Kubo Picture
Transcript
Kathi (00:00.354)

Well, hey friends, welcome to Clutter -Free Academy, where our goal is to help you take small, doable steps to live every day with less clutter and more life. And I am here with Tonya, who, it’s been a rough week at the Kubo house.

Tonya Kubo (00:28.866)

hahahahah

Kathi (00:30.86)

friend. Monday night I saw on social media that you had canceled an event and I’m like well somebody died because Tonya never cancels events and you had a major illness which fortunately recovered quickly and now Brian Kubo is on the DL.

Tonya Kubo (00:53.905)

Yes, but he is totally like he’s got some next level stuff. I was not contagious. I did not get him sick.

Kathi (00:58.9)

gosh.

Kathi (01:02.844)

Okay, well that’s yes that is very important and even though I’ve been sick this week I have not seen Brian so it’s not my fault but it is kind of funny that we are talking about cooking on this episode when you are not allowed to do that in your home.

Tonya Kubo (01:16.977)

No, only because the smell of anything makes him wretch all over the place. And I don’t want to it up anymore, Kathi. I’ll be honest. I’m not that great of a person, actually. I don’t want to clean up vomit. I’m good.

Kathi (01:21.086)

Okay. Yeah. Yeah, I understand. It was the one thing my mom said it like not in their marriage vows, but before they got married. And my dad, let’s just say my dad was not a hands on dad, but he knew he knew that was his job. Anyway, we’ll move off of vomit. This show is going to require it. Yes.

Tonya Kubo (01:34.014)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (01:41.237)

And talk about food!

Kathi (01:49.696)

This show is going to require a trigger warning. So how did you end up feeding the kids last night?

Tonya Kubo (01:55.351)

Panera delivery.

Kathi (01:56.77)

Yes. So here’s what I want to talk about because the you ate cheese and crackers, the kids ate Panera. And I think when we think about saving money when it comes to cooking, we think, OK, austerity. We’re just not we’re not going to do any so. Or if if we don’t do that, then we’re going to order Panera. Like there are 10 ,000 variations in between.

Tonya Kubo (02:03.807)

Yup.

Tonya Kubo (02:15.541)

Mm

Tonya Kubo (02:21.897)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (02:26.856)

Right.

Kathi (02:27.05)

And that’s what I wanna talk about today. So we are turning the tables. Tonya is interviewing me because we’re talking about my book, Sabbath Soup, because I wrote it with the concept, some people don’t have the time to cook. We talked about that last week. Some people just are on such a tight budget that cooking for an entire week feels impossible. And then some people just don’t have the energy.

And lots of people have a combination of the two. So I wanted to give ideas for everybody who was in this situation. So Tonya, I’m gonna turn it over to you.

Tonya Kubo (03:04.507)

Yeah, well, so I think we have to start off and I feel like I start every episode about the book this way, but like I think I need you for the benefit of our listeners to explain what you mean when you’re talking about Sabbath cooking.

Kathi (03:17.175)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (03:21.826)

Yeah, so in Jewish households, is just what, or you know, I wouldn’t say conservative, observant, thank you, thank you. That is the exact word that I would have never gotten to. That there is a 24 hour period where you’re not cooking. Now, I am not religious about this. Look at the double entendre there.

Tonya Kubo (03:31.431)

observant.

Tonya Kubo (03:49.139)

Yeah

Kathi (03:50.498)

Double meaning but what I’m trying to I believe in a Sabbath. I really am at the conclusion Tonya Good spiritual health is good mental health that there is nothing that is a spiritual practice that is anti-mental health and I lived for so many years going 24 -7 and Never truly having a break because even if I said hey guys

Tonya Kubo (04:02.751)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (04:09.545)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (04:19.732)

we’re going to stay at home today, we’re going to watch movies, we’re going to read books, people still wanted to eat. And even can we just also say, and I probably should have saved this for the energy one, but even if you’re ordering food out, there is mental stuff that goes with that. Trying to get, you know, find a place. Of course, I’m coming back to my favorite quote of Abby’s ever, you know, during, during the pandemic.

Tonya Kubo (04:25.449)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (04:38.645)

Mm

Tonya Kubo (04:46.407)

Yeah.

Kathi (04:48.802)

I want to go to a restaurant. I want to eat something that mom’s not eating. I want to eat something that dad’s not eating. And Roger’s like, I feel that so deeply. And I understand. Roger is probably more appreciative of somebody cooking for him than Abby is. Because for Abby, that’s just expected. Of course, you’re going to cook, Mom. But.

Tonya Kubo (05:05.641)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (05:09.311)

Duh.

Kathi (05:11.618)

There is a factor to all of this. And if you’re on a budget ordering out for food, well, it could be great for a once in a while treat, is probably cannot be your go -to solution. And so Sabbath says for 24 hours I’m not cooking, but I’m still eating. I’m still indulging.

Tonya Kubo (05:16.01)

Mm

Tonya Kubo (05:27.859)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (05:36.034)

in things that I love. I’m still enjoying food. I am enjoying rest. I’m enjoying connection. I’m thankful for what has been served in the life I have. But we pull back for those 24 hours without a list of to-dos to really connect with those around us and connect with God.

Tonya Kubo (05:59.815)

Okay. So I think then, because I have the benefit of seeing inside the book. I don’t have a copy of the book. I just want to point out to everybody, I don’t get copies of the book any earlier than anybody else does. Okay. There’s certain things that the publisher does not give you special privileges to, but I was going to say, no, you have a copy of some other book that has your cover taped to it or hot glued to it or however it is they make that work.

Kathi (06:17.66)

Right, and I don’t even have a copy of the book. Let’s be clear.

Kathi (06:26.59)

Yes. It’s. It is beautiful and the book inside. Hey, I got a free cookbook. I love it.

Tonya Kubo (06:28.831)

but it looks like a copy of the book and it is beautiful. I was gonna say, yeah, you have a free cookbook, it doesn’t have to be yours. So I know that the book is organized into a series of weekly meal plans. So I want you to help us understand how meal planning and this week-by-week cooking idea ties into your perspective on Sabbath.

Kathi (06:38.572)

Yes.

Kathi (06:43.926)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (06:56.83)

Yeah, so I will just speak for myself. If I don’t have a plan, every meal is an emergency. Especially when we tend to have kind of the same breakfast every morning. We tend to have very similar lunches. But dinner, I try to have some variety. I try to do some different things. And if I don’t have a plan, then

Tonya Kubo (07:11.56)

you

Kathi (07:22.258)

What ends up happening? You know that frozen pizza you have in there for emergencies? That’s a monday night’s meal like if I don’t have a plan That is my first go -to because roger always wants to make sure i’m not stressed And so his thing is like why don’t we just do the frozen pizza? But here’s the thing that like we were just talking about hey Tonya Do we need to delay some things and you said that’s just kicking the can down the? the road and it’s

Tonya Kubo (07:28.659)

Yeah

Tonya Kubo (07:47.049)

Mm Down the road, yeah?

Kathi (07:48.648)

It’s, you know, because Tuesday’s coming and we need to eat something on Tuesday. So I like to have a plan for a couple of different reasons. One, if I plan out my meals in advance, I can do it one of two ways. I can plan the meals, know the ingredients I need and look for those on sale. Or what I tend to do is say, okay, here’s what we have an abundance of at the house.

Tonya Kubo (07:51.209)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (08:15.902)

Let’s meal plan around that. How can that fit into something? And so, but I would say if if meal planning is new for you, I would just take a a week’s worth of meals from the book or from, know, you can get them other places if you want to and do that because it is going to be less expensive than you trying to come up with a new meal every day. It’s going to be it’s going to be less expensive than that one.

Tonya Kubo (08:29.779)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (08:44.852)

Wednesday night when you get super frustrated and you just say I Can’t decide let’s go out to dinner. So this is when we’re when you meal plan on Monday Yeah, you shop on Tuesday or Wednesday you start prepping on Thursday you cook on Friday or Saturday and then you don’t have to worry about meals for the rest of the week and I I’ve been very purposeful in these meal plans to say

Tonya Kubo (08:50.933)

Mm

Kathi (09:12.268)

hey, that thing you’re cooking for your big Saturday night dinner, you’re gonna use those leftovers on Monday. That big pot of soup that you’re reheating on Sunday after church, that’s Tuesday night’s meal as well. So if you have enough people in your family, you may have to double on some of these recipes, but for the most part, you are going to be strategic in what you’re doing. you know, I like…

I’ve put some really budget stretching recipes into the book so that you are, you’re good to go. Like these are things that are often on sale. You may have in your freezer or in your pantry.

Tonya:

Okay. So this sounds great, but what I’d like to do is just recap sort of this money-saving aspect, because I think you and me talk about this so often, Kathi, that it all makes sense in our heads, but I’m not sure it would make sense to a first-time listener. Right? So,

Kathi (11:24.886)

Perfect.

Kathi (11:28.556)

Perfect.

Kathi (11:45.855)

Right, let’s do it.

Tonya Kubo (11:48.789)

Part of the money saving aspect is when you’re meal planning, you’re also looking at your calendar to see what’s going on. Like, are you really eating at home five days a week? Are you eating at home seven? And you’re only shopping for what you actually need. And then because you, and I love this about your meal plans, because there’s this idea of leftovers on purpose, making the big meal on this night and using some of those leftovers a couple nights later, then you’re minimizing food waste, which…

Kathi (11:56.81)

Mm -hmm. Right.

Tonya Kubo (12:18.119)

You know I’ve looked this up, Kathi, because I’m really passionate about this, but that is like the number one cause of overspending in food costs in the US is the amount of food waste. It’s like billions of dollars in the US every year just goes to a landfill.

Kathi (12:21.376)

Yes.

Kathi (12:32.418)

Tonya can we talk about that because I don’t know that I’ve really thought about it this way before but I think many of us have fallen into the Costco syndrome where we are buying in bulk things that we do not consume in bulk and

Tonya Kubo (12:44.999)

yeah.

Tonya Kubo (12:48.511)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (12:52.295)

yeah, Brian will tell you all the time. It’s so much cheaper to buy English muffins at Costco and throw one package away than it is to just buy the number of packages week to week from the grocery store that we would use. Now to listeners, I know you can phrase English muffins. That’s not the point of the example. It’s just, that’s what he always says. It’s like, we could buy this and throw half of it away for less money than it would cost to buy just what we needed from a different store.

Kathi (13:13.002)

Yes, yes, right.

Kathi (13:21.692)

Mm -hmm. Yes. Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (13:22.089)

But there is a cost, right, to throwing away food. And I think that that is one of those points that when you really have to watch your budget or when you’re choosing to watch your budget, you can’t lose sight of using up what you have on hand is so valuable. But Kathi, you know, I always talk about how even communism sounds like a lovely thing in theory. It’s in practice where it kind of falls apart. So.

Kathi (13:33.452)

Mm

Kathi (13:46.024)

Hahaha!

Yes!

Tonya Kubo (13:51.667)

Tell me how to prevent the practice of Sabbath soup and week to week meal planning. How do we prevent that from falling apart in practice?

Kathi (14:00.896)

Yeah, so first of all, you may not need to do this kind of cooking every single week. That is okay. You may say, hey, I don’t want to roast a chicken. I think buying a Costco chicken is a perfectly valid option. I think where we fall apart so often is in the extremes. Like if you don’t plan for your whole week,

Tonya Kubo (14:14.717)

Mm

Tonya Kubo (14:25.375)

Hmm.

Kathi (14:30.506)

you’re gonna fall apart. Now, let me be honest with you. I plan for the whole week, almost every week, but also within that week, I have things like, hey, this is where I’m gonna do a Trader Joe’s meal. Or this is the night we’re going out. I think that it’s really important that balance, extreme balance is important.

Tonya Kubo (14:56.297)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (14:58.484)

that there, like you said, there are some weeks where it doesn’t make sense. But can I tell you all the times that it does make sense to cook ahead? We just went on an RV trip. We took all of our meals to San Jose. And we knew we were gonna be eating out at certain points with certain friends and things like that. But I cooked all the meals for our week ahead of time, froze some of them, put some of them in the fridge.

Tonya Kubo (15:11.861)

Mm

Tonya Kubo (15:24.595)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (15:28.378)

We spent hardly any unplanned money because we knew exactly what we were doing. are our bill has gone down considerably since we’ve been implementing this system because like today, Tony, you know, it has been a hectic week around here. Roger is not feeling his best. He’s feeling better than Brian. I will assure you of that. But like, you know what?

Tonya Kubo (15:39.605)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (15:53.948)

Yeah.

Kathi (15:58.018)

And here’s the other thing that threw me off. I had defrosted some chili and we were using that for taco salad and I got downstairs, I’m like, I was looking through the fridge, where’s the chili? And Roger’s like, yeah, I was extra hungry. And I’m like, well, I’m super glad you enjoyed that. So I could go to the freezer and I pulled out some chicken stew that I had frozen. Like, there’s no panic.

Tonya Kubo (16:14.708)

you

Yeah.

Tonya Kubo (16:24.223)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (16:27.756)

There’s no, no, we now need to go to Taco Bell or something like that. If we go to Taco Bell, it’s because we want to go to Taco Bell. And so I think that it’s really what you’re doing is in one day, you’re cooking about the equivalent of three dinners. You’re cooking a big soup. You’ve got a big like, you know, something like a casserole or an enchilada casserole or something like that.

Tonya Kubo (16:48.297)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (16:57.632)

And then you’re also cooking like a meat and potatoes or a meat and rice or a meat, you know, something like that. So there are these three big meals that are going to last you for about six days. or, you know, five days plus you’re gonna have some left over, whatever it is. And then you’re regaining not just time, but energy and money.

Tonya Kubo (17:05.397)

Mm

Tonya Kubo (17:16.725)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (17:25.494)

because that is not going to waste. You have a plan for the leftovers instead of them just being in the fridge, growing green penicillin. That’s not what we want. So that’s how, if you’re buying all the groceries up front, but then you’re using most of the groceries. And if you have some groceries leftover, like if you have some asparagus leftover or you have some heavy cream, you can freeze that.

Tonya Kubo (17:44.639)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (17:55.124)

You can throw that into a salad. You can be creative with those leftovers, but you’re using up most of what you’ve bought.

Tonya Kubo (18:04.191)

Got it. Okay, so you’ve talked about making a big pot of this or a big batch of that a few times. So could you share like what are some batch cooking techniques that you feel work really well or maybe lend themselves really well to Sabbath cooking?

Kathi (18:08.31)

Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm. Yeah.

Kathi (18:22.732)

So for sure soup like soup is my go -to soup. I will make every single week I make it on Friday or Saturday put it in the fridge and then reheat it on Sunday for after church like part of this Tonya that saves money time and energy is You’re not saying what are we gonna have after church this Sunday? No, you’re having soup. You’re having soup. It’s easy It’s done. You just add some bread and maybe a salad and you’re good to go

Tonya Kubo (18:26.343)

Okay.

Tonya Kubo (18:44.426)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (18:52.672)

So I feel like that is a really good thing. Another thing that is interesting for batch, which people may not think about, are salads. So on Thursday, when I’m cutting up like all the mushrooms, all the onions, that kind of stuff, I’m doing that in big batches. And I’m using those onions, not just in salads, but I’m using them in the soup that we’re making or the casserole. And then,

Tonya Kubo (19:01.429)

You

Kathi (19:17.498)

I am cutting up a bunch of romaine lettuce. That’s the lettuce we happen to like in our house. And I am washing it and I’m laying it out so that it dries. That’s the key for it not to turn brown. And I’m storing it with a paper towel. So if you’re looking to save money, cutting up your own romaine lettuce is cheaper than doing say like a bag salad. It’s cheaper than all of that kind of stuff.

Tonya Kubo (19:28.405)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (19:45.314)

Another thing that I feel like really lends itself, so anything you can do in a crock pot lends itself to this. Casseroles are great. You know, and when I say casseroles, people are like, casserole. Okay, lasagna is a casserole friend. You know, I love to do like a broccoli, cheese, chicken and rice bake. That’s a beautiful thing. Enchiladas can be done as a casserole.

Tonya Kubo (20:00.574)

Right.

Tonya Kubo (20:07.209)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (20:13.226)

You know, anything where it’s a big pan of things that you know your family will love. And so we do a lot of that type. And then you can think about this as well. Ingredients are great for batch cooking. So Tonya, we’ve talked about this before. You have a bunch of ingredients. What are you gonna make that into?

Tonya Kubo (20:16.403)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (20:35.647)

Yeah, I make fried rice. Always.

Kathi (20:36.674)

Yep, I may make another batch of soup. I may make a stir fry. Like right now our garden is bursting with zucchini. We are zucchini 24 seven around here. And so, you know, we have a lot of ingredients on hand. Like we have a lot of mushrooms right now. We have a lot of onions. We’ve got some, you know, we’ve bought on sale.

Tonya Kubo (20:44.693)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (21:06.272)

ground sausage. So we’re doing a lot of zucchini boats and we’re but you don’t here’s the beautiful thing when it comes to saving money. Yes, I’ve given you recipes unless it’s something you’re baking, you know, like a pastry or something like that. Recipes are suggestions. So if I wanted to make a zucchini boat and if you don’t know what that is, I’ll attach a recipe to here and I didn’t have ground sausage.

Tonya Kubo (21:21.172)

Mm

Tonya Kubo (21:24.511)

right.

Kathi (21:34.516)

I would do that with ground beef and a ton of garlic and onions and mushrooms. And if I really love Roger bell peppers, even though I think they’re disgusting, and we would juice it up in a different way. Just recently, I made my macaroni and cheese, which is a great recipe from the book. And we didn’t have the right kind of cheese, quote unquote. We didn’t have Gruyere.

Tonya Kubo (21:47.167)

Ha

Tonya Kubo (21:50.773)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (22:03.54)

And so we had this port wine cheese and we did that. It was delicious. consider that when you’re trying to save money, consider recipes suggestions. And that’s when you use the frozen pizza. When you’ve made a recipe and you’re like, well, that did not turn out. OK, that’s fine. You have a frozen pizza. Nobody’s going to die. But you may discover something great along the way.

Tonya Kubo (22:19.516)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (22:33.663)

Got it, okay, that’s really helpful. So we’ve talked about what recipes lend themselves really well to cooking in batches or how batch cooking can work out really well. We’ve talked about the money saving aspects. Talk to me about storage.

Kathi (22:51.002)

Yeah, okay, so let me talk about soup because I There there’s a four -step process. Okay, so with soup first of all when I make a pot of soup I let it cool down and I put the whole pot in the fridge. That’s just what I do because Here’s the beautiful thing on Sunday when I come home from church I’m just gonna pull that pot out and put it straight on the the the burner

Tonya Kubo (22:54.761)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (23:17.417)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (23:17.684)

Like it’s a one pot meal. Now before I do that, if it’s just me and Roger, I’m gonna pull some of that stuff out because I know I don’t wanna reheat it like seven times. It does take some of the moisture out. So with a soup, and this is really with almost any kind of food, let it cool down completely, okay? Just before you pack it away, let it cool down completely. While you’re eating it, let it cool down completely. It’s fine. And then,

Tonya Kubo (23:25.257)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (23:45.204)

Choose your containers. I will tell you I’m loving They’re from Costco and I’ll put them in the comments. They’re just clear containers With a clear top. I’m sorry. I should have looked this up before we did this that snap into place but They are the perfect size There there there’s like a long casserole size. There’s more of like

Tonya Kubo (24:07.967)

Hmm.

Kathi (24:13.802)

I’ve chopped up an onion, let me put that in the container. There’s, I have a little bit of sauce. And then I don’t wanna waste these carrots, I’ll use them on tomorrow’s salad. Those are the four sizes. Yeah, I’m very scientific about this. But once it’s cooled down, you can put it into a container like that. The other thing I have that I really like, they’re called Souper Containers, S -O -U -P -E -R. And I will also put

Tonya Kubo (24:26.291)

Right. I like this.

Kathi (24:43.616)

those in the notes. But those are just a rubber container that are have a square divot that are perfect for a block of soup. And they have a lid that goes on top of it. That’s what I pulled out today when I found out we didn’t have any more chili. And so we’re having chicken stew for lunch. It’s perfect. It’s easy. It’s good to go. So you know, think about the containers. If you’re really struggling with your

Tonya Kubo (24:54.453)

you

Kathi (25:13.236)

your space. Maybe you only have one fridge and you’ve got a large family. It’s okay to freeze things in ziplock bags. It’s not the most economical, but can you reuse ziplock bags? Maybe you used a ziplock bag to store some green onions. That maybe can be used to do a soup. I always freeze things laying down on a cookie sheet.

Tonya Kubo (25:41.823)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (25:42.41)

so that when you’re storing them in your freezer, they either store flat, they store flat. So you can either store them laying down or up. And make sure you label them with the date because you think you know what that soup is. Can I tell you once it’s frozen? You don’t know what that’s stupid. label and freeze it. so,

Tonya Kubo (26:02.803)

It’s hard to tell.

Kathi (26:08.756)

Sometimes when I’m just looking for something to eat, I’ll just flip through. It’s like a card stack of frozen stuff. And that’s how I freeze like my extra limit. That’s another thing is before how can you make sure that things don’t go to waste? Like somebody gave me a bag of lemons off their tree. And that was awesome. You know, we did lemonade and we did lemon and RST and I did lemon bars. And then I was like, I am lemon doubt.

Tonya Kubo (26:14.101)

Mm

Tonya Kubo (26:37.877)

you

Kathi (26:37.94)

So we just got our juicer out and we juiced all the lemons and we froze that lemon juice and we used it all winter long. It was wonderful. Do the same thing with half and half. Do the same thing with heavy cream. I store it like a cup at a time because I want it pre -measured and I’ll put that in the Ziploc bag and store it like that. So it’s about really making use of everything you have in your house.

Tonya Kubo (26:57.461)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (27:07.253)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (27:07.522)

Use your freezer and your pantry. Clean. The other thing that is great about the once a week cooking process is on Monday, I’m in there like cleaning out my fridge, like saying, what do we have? we could have that on a salad tomorrow. that needs to be eaten today. You know, we are not, we are not wasting money in this house.

Tonya Kubo (27:28.863)

Right.

Tonya Kubo (27:32.741)

Okay, well I’m so glad you brought up the fridge cleaning example because, you know, we’ve talked a lot about financial benefits, but it sounds like fridge cleaning, for instance. There are other advantages to stop cooking. So what would those be?

Kathi (27:46.038)

Yeah, so I think one you get to rest. I think that’s the most important thing. Two, you get to use up what you’ve already bought. The cheapest food you will ever acquire is the food you already have. And I know that sounds like a simple idea, but you know, if it works for you to say, hey, I like this whole week’s plan, except I’ve got a lot of ground beef.

I think I’m going to do spaghetti instead of, you know, this rice dish that Kathi had in there. Please, again, these are ideas. They are not, you’re not going to throw off the system. I want you to use what you have. We all go through lean times. Now, we all have different economic situations. You know, for Roger and I, we are trying to save money right now.

because as you know, Tonya, we’ve made some big investments in our business. And one of the ways that we can control costs is by how much we eat out and what we buy at the grocery store. It’s not that we’re trying to live paycheck to paycheck, but dude, I’ve been there. I have lived that life. I have lived the life where I don’t have, you I’ve got $50 to get us

Tonya Kubo (28:45.098)

Mm

Kathi (29:13.058)

I was a single mom, you know, I have $50 to get us through the end of the month and I need to make this stretch. So I know, I know how, I think it’s really important for us to have the skills to say, this is how I can shop on the cheap, cook on the cheap. You may not need to do it, but it’s like, it’s like, it’s like a CPR class. I pray I never have to use it.

Tonya Kubo (29:15.349)

Mm

Tonya Kubo (29:41.034)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (29:41.622)

but I’m so glad I’ve got those skills.

Tonya Kubo (29:45.091)

my gosh, this is so good. I’m so glad you have those skills too, because that allows you to transfer them to the rest of us. So Kathi, can you just recap for our listeners the main ways, like what are the actionable tips from this episode? How can Sabbath cooking save them money?

Kathi (29:50.685)

Yes, that’s what we want, right?

Kathi (30:03.223)

Yeah.

Yeah, so, you know, taking a Sabbath from cooking isn’t just about rest. It’s a secret weapon for your wallet. It really is. There are some weeks where you’re going to need to plan better because finances are tight. And so I want you to have the skills to do that. There are going to be other times where you can be a little bit more extravagant. You can buy the fancy chocolate. You can get the good cut of meat. But let’s…

Let’s take them one at a time. One, plan your meals. If you do nothing else, if you do nothing else, plan your meals. Because if you plan your meals for a week, you say this is what we’re going to eat Saturday night through, you know, Friday, you know, Friday night, you are already going to save money. Take inventory of what you have on hand. Use what you already have.

So you’re not just buying fresh ingredients on top of fresh ingredients on top of fresh ingredients. I don’t want you to do that. I also don’t want you to be spending money on meat when you have that in your freezer, when it’s a lean week. So take an inventory of what you have. Prep yourself. So there are times when I am really running out of time where I will buy pre -chopped vegetables. But we all know that chopping your own vegetables saves you money.

Tonya Kubo (31:06.143)

Mm

Tonya Kubo (31:31.753)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (31:31.818)

So if you can plan like on Thursday, I’m gonna chop all the vegetables and I’m going to pack them away. I’m gonna store them in a way that they’re gonna be great for a while to come. You I do this with strawberries. Like one of the things I do is I will wash and cut strawberries and then I let them completely dry and I put them in mason jars and they last forever. It’s crazy how long they last when if I don’t do that,

Tonya Kubo (31:58.505)

Hmm.

Kathi (32:00.578)

if they just sit in their original container, sometimes it’s three days. I don’t understand strawberries, I really don’t. But I do this with cucumbers. You know, we are big cucumber eaters around here. And so to be able to cut that, you are 10 times more likely to use cut mushrooms than you are mushrooms that are whole. Like just set aside some time to cut.

Tonya Kubo (32:07.509)

You

Tonya Kubo (32:14.805)

Mm

Tonya Kubo (32:26.367)

Mmm.

Kathi (32:29.972)

and then cook. Once you’ve cooked it, you’re not going to not eat it. You’re not gonna say, let’s just chuck it and go to Pizza Hut. No, you’re not gonna do that because you’ve already cooked it. You know how moms always say we have food at the house? Well, lots of times when my mom said that, that we had ingredients at the house. We didn’t have food, we had ingredients. But now you have food at the house. And that’s what I want to help you save money.

Tonya Kubo (32:50.965)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (32:57.366)

to not feel deprived. I think that’s a big thing too. When we are tied on budgets, we don’t wanna feel deprived and there is not a week’s worth of recipes in here that will make you feel deprived.

Tonya Kubo (33:00.255)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (33:10.014)

Nice. Okay, tell us how we can learn more about Sabbath cooking in your book.

Kathi (33:15.168)

Yeah, we’re gonna drop a link in there and we’re gonna give you, if you pre-order the book, because the book doesn’t come out until October 8th, if you pre-order the book, you are going to get a week’s worth of menus and some other ideas and samples and recipes and fun things. So you will get that automatically emailed to you so you can get started right away. So we’ll drop the link into our show notes so you can grab that right away. But the book is available, on Amazon.

Barnes & Noble, your favorite Christian retailer, like anywhere you want, you can buy the book.

Tonya Kubo (33:51.641)

Awesome. Well, thank you so much, Kathi. I have had fun switching roles where I get to ask all the questions and I just appreciate you walking us through these steps that I know for you are habitual at this point, but for many of us, it’s like brand new information.

Kathi (34:09.354)

Well, and thank you for asking me because you’re right. I have the curse of knowledge and so to be able to share this in a new fresh way is so great. So Tonya, thank you for hosting. Thank you for being amazing. And friends, thank you for being here. You’ve been listening to Clutter free Academy. I’m Kathi Lipp. Now, go create the clutter-free life you always wanted to live.

More Posts 

#633 From Overwhelmed to Organized: A Step-by-Step Guide to Clutter-Free Meal Planning

#633 From Overwhelmed to Organized: A Step-by-Step Guide to Clutter-Free Meal Planning

by | Sep 3, 2024 | Clutter Free, Clutter Free For Life, Clutter Free Home, Clutter Free Podcast, Home, Mental Load, Podcast | 0 comments

Listen Now

633 – From Overwhelmed to Organized: A Step-by-Step Guide to Clutter-Free Meal Planning

Hey there, friend! Are you tired of feeling like a short-order cook seven days a week?

In this episode of Clutterfree Academy, host Kathi Lipp and co-host Tonya Kubo dive into the revolutionary concept of “Sabbath Soup,” as featured in Kathi’s upcoming book. Kathi emphasizes starting small, such as preparing one soup for Sunday, and gradually building up to a full week of planned meals. She also addresses common challenges like limited kitchen space and adapting the system for different family sizes and dietary needs.

Listeners will discover:

  • The importance of planning and protecting Sabbath rest
  • Tips for organizing the kitchen for efficient meal prep
  • Strategies for reducing cooking time and streamlining the “big cook day”
  • How to involve family members in the meal-planning process

Kathi and Tonya discuss the mental and emotional benefits of having a structured meal planning system, including reduced stress, more quality time with family, and true rest on the Sabbath. As mentioned by Kathi in the episode, here’s a picture of her clipboard and basket organizational tip for meal prepping. 

Preorder Sabbath Soup here and receive your free download bonus Sabbath Soup Shortcuts. The preorder bonus ends October 8, 2024.

Click here to be notified when the next episode is released.

Also, stay up to date and sign up here to receive our newsletter.

 

Sabbath Soup: Weekly Menus and Rhythms to Make Space for a Day of Rest

Kathi Lipp gives readers an easy-to-follow process for meal planning and prep, so that they can enjoy a full day each week of real rest and refreshment.

Could you use a break from cooking (and everything else) once a week? Not only is rest vital for your mind and body, it’s good for your soul too. God designed us to enter into Sabbath rest one day per week, but as you know, meals still need to be made. Your family still needs to be fed.

Sabbath Soup includes convenient, seasonal meal plans that take the guesswork out of shopping and cooking. More than just a collection of delicious recipes—including main dishes, breads, breakfasts, desserts, salads, sides, and yes, soups—this is your guide to establishing a weekly rhythm and routine of meal planning and prep that allows you to have a true day off.

Do something good for your soul and experience the peace that comes with a full day dedicated to spending time with God, family, and friends. Savor your Sabbath as you proudly proclaim, “Soup’s on!”

Preorder your copy of Sabbath Soup: Weekly Menus and Rhythms to Make Space for a Day of Rest here. Preorder offer ends October 8, 2024.

Links Mentioned:

www.Tonyakubo.com

Tonya’s newest podcast:

The Business You Really Want on Apple Podcasts

The Business You Really Want on Spotify

 

 

 

 

Clutter Free Resources:

Preorder Sabbath Soup here and receive your bonus down Sabbath Soup Shortcuts. Preorder bonus ends October 8, 2024

Learn more about Clutter Free for Life

Join our Clutter Free Academy Facebook Group

 

Do you have some tips for getting the whole family involved in the meal-planning process?

Share in the comments!

Let’s stay connected

To share your thoughts:

  • Leave a note in the comment section below.
  • Leave an honest review on iTunes. Your ratings and reviews really help and I read each one.

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Meet Our Guest 

 

Tonya Kubo

Tonya Kubo is the illustrious and fearless leader of Kathi Lipp’s Clutter Free Academy Facebook group and the Clutter Free for Life membership program. A speaker and writer, Tonya makes her home in the heart of California with her husband, Brian, their two spirited daughters, and one very tolerant cat. Visit her at www.tonyakubo.com.

 

Tonya Kubo Picture
Transcript

Kathi (00:01.424)

Hey friends, welcome to Clutterfree Academy where our goal is to help you take small doable steps to live every day with less clutter and more life. And sitting here with me is now officially, officially the co -host of Clutterfree Academy. Why did it take us so long? Why, why, why? It is Tonya Kubo. Hey, Tonya.

Tonya Kubo (00:23.696)

Hey Kathi, I don’t know why I just got all excited and got like warm fuzzies. This is so fun.

Kathi (00:26.786)

Yes. It’s well and you’re the co-host of two podcasts. So you’ve officially joined the crazy club. What’s your what’s your other podcast? Just so people know.

Tonya Kubo (00:34.28)

You

Tonya Kubo (00:39.47)

It’s called the business you really want and has absolutely nothing to do with clutter.

 

Kathi (00:45.224)

But you know what? A lot of our cluttery people are business moguls. So there is going to be a cross-section. So yay.

 

Tonya Kubo (00:50.47)

You try?

 

There is, there is. And you know what? I just find creatives tend to be cluttery, right? We have so many ideas, so many interests. So yeah, it totally makes sense for there to be overlap.

 

Kathi (00:59.514)

Yep, it’s so true.

 

Yep.

Kathi (01:06.436)

Well, and today we’re going to be talking about another aspect of my business because for the last time in the foreseeable future, I have a book coming out, which in the foreseeable future is I, know, there’ve been a number of books and like Kathi needs a break now and this book is all about having a break, which so this makes a lot of sense, right?

Tonya Kubo (01:18.6)

It is not the last time, Kathi. It is not the last.

 

Tonya Kubo (01:32.134)

Right, right.

 

Kathi (01:36.04)

So in October, I have a book coming out it’s called Sabbath Soup and it’s all about creating weekly rhythms and routines and of course, I want my cluttery people to have the first inside scoop because Let’s be honest Tonya. I wrote this for us Yeah, yes Well because I don’t know about anybody well, I do know about some of you, but I’ll just speak for myself

 

Tonya Kubo (01:55.366)

Right. Thank you. Thank you. I needed it. Okay.

 

Kathi (02:05.254)

The fact that dinner comes around every single night is the most annoying thing in the world. Like, didn’t I just do that and you want me to do it again tomorrow? Are you insane? And I do really well with a routine. And I do really well with batching tasks. I hate doing the little, you know, mic, I don’t know.

 

Tonya Kubo (02:20.915)

Hmm.

 

Kathi (02:31.034)

The idea of cooking a new unique dinner every single night just makes me absolutely insane. And so I have been working on this book. mean, this book has been a thing for a couple of years now and I’m, I’m not going to lie. I’m very, very excited about it. And, so we just wanted to take this podcast to really talk through the process that I feel like

 

Tonya Kubo (02:38.174)

Mm -hmm.

 

Kathi (02:59.944)

is built especially for cluttery people. It’s about doing one kind of task each day so that you can feed your family and or yourself or your roommates or whoever it is, but also so that you can actually have a break on Sabbath, whatever that Sabbath may be, know, Saturday, Sunday, we happen to celebrate from sundown.

 

Tonya Kubo (03:03.07)

Mm

 

Kathi (03:26.084)

on Saturday to sundown on Sunday. And that is a lovely rhythm for Roger and I, the people, and I cook for a couple of extra people. I cook for my mom, I cook for our neighbor, but that to me has just worked out to be a great rhythm for Sabbath. Tonya, when do you tend to celebrate your Sabbath?

 

Tonya Kubo (03:49.02)

you are so cute, Kathi Lipp. I’m still working on the rest part. Well, I mean, right? Like you said, you wrote the book for us. And what I’m really excited about talking about today in the process that you’ve mapped out is we gave a sneak peek about this to our Clutterfree for Life members earlier this year. So, know.

 

Kathi (03:54.596)

Okay, okay, yes, right.

 

Kathi (04:14.118)

Yes. Yes.

 

Tonya Kubo (04:16.796)

We got to kind of run it by them and see how the cluttery people feel about this idea of Sabbath. And I’m just gonna be really blunt and admit the fact that so many of us, because of our cluttery ways, we don’t feel like we deserve the rest, right? And the Sabbath feels like something we have to earn. And I, you know,

 

Kathi (04:22.982)

Yes.

 

Kathi (04:38.136)

Mm -hmm, it’s so true.

 

Kathi (04:43.484)

Yes.

 

Tonya Kubo (04:45.786)

I know we’re going to talk a little bit about the routine because I think that’s so important for people to wrap their brains around. But I would love actually to just kick us off and talk about that. Talk to me as the person who oftentimes still works seven days a week. Like, talk about Sabbath as an earned reward versus Sabbath as you believe we are intended to experience it.

 

Kathi (04:58.916)

Yes. So.

 

Kathi (05:11.026)

So I believe that Sabbath doesn’t need to be earned. In fact, it would be like receiving a gift and saying, how much do I owe you for that?

 

So I get the feeling that I need to get everything done before I can take a Sabbath. I understand that feeling desperately. And also, can I just say, and I don’t mean this to denigrate who we are, but if you’re an American listening to this, it’s a very American way of thinking. Like I have to earn my rest. I have to complete everything.

 

Tonya Kubo (05:32.51)

Mm

 

Tonya Kubo (05:51.528)

Mm

 

Kathi (05:56.808)

on my to -do list in order for that to happen. And can I just say, Tonya and I are in very different stages of life. Your life is very 24 -7. You have kids who want your attention 24 -7. They have lots of activity. 100%, I get it. And let me say, when I needed this the most was when I had kids at home.

 

Tonya Kubo (06:13.746)

Mm -hmm.

 

Kathi (06:25.286)

You know, and that’s when we really started to drill in on some of these Sabbath routines saying, because I don’t believe that Sam Sabbath needs to be earned. But for people like you and me, Tonya, who did not grow up necessarily with the idea of Sabbath, a Sabbath cannot be earned, but it must be planned. And yeah.

 

Tonya Kubo (06:45.96)

Mm -hmm.

 

Tonya Kubo (06:53.478)

Right. And what you’re helping me to kind of think about really on the fly here is planned and protected. I mean, isn’t that really what the book’s about too?

 

Kathi (07:02.728)

Yes. Yes, yes, it really is. So planned and protected to say we are going to be intentional. Now, Tonya, I don’t think you can go from zero to 70. I think, you know, the first step is to say, guys, I’m cooking lunch on Saturday that we will eat on Sunday. Or I’m ordering lunch on Sunday. You know, whatever that

 

Tonya Kubo (07:24.382)

Mm

 

Tonya Kubo (07:29.928)

Mm -hmm. Yeah.

 

Kathi (07:32.46)

is. It’s the, it’s the, because here’s what I believe. It’s very easy for everybody else in the house to have a Sabbath except for mom. I are your, yeah. Are your kids really like working and planning ahead for the week on Sunday? I don’t think so. You know, and I know Brian is a partner with you when it comes to things, but for many of us,

 

Tonya Kubo (07:43.664)

Exactly.

 

Tonya Kubo (07:51.428)

No.

 

Mm -hmm.

 

Kathi (08:00.942)

the mental load and like the most basic of the mental loads, especially on the weekend is feeding the people. And so if that falls to you, then there is no break. And here, here’s the other thing I know. If we do not respect the rhythms that have been established for us, the rest is going to come one way or another.

 

Tonya Kubo (08:13.694)

Mm

 

Mm

 

Tonya Kubo (08:23.144)

Mm -hmm.

 

Kathi (08:28.378)

It’s either going to come by choice or by breakdown.

 

Tonya Kubo (08:31.886)

Right. I was going to say, and the alternative is not necessarily one we want.

 

Kathi (08:36.4)

Right exactly. So I would love if sabbath is like, ha ha ha isn’t that funny? Can you start by saying? What would Sunday look like if I didn’t have to prep? lunch What and here’s what I mean about prep Even if you’re not the one doing the cooking You’re still the one probably doing the running

 

Tonya Kubo (08:52.072)

Mm -hmm.

 

Tonya Kubo (09:00.232)

Mm

 

Kathi (09:04.23)

or the grabbing or the deciding, or this kid doesn’t wanna have chicken fingers and this kid desperately wants to. But if there’s a plan to pre-decide what is for lunch, and then the next thing is to pre-decide what is for dinner, and then to pre-decide what is for breakfast, that can take, it’s enough to make

 

Tonya Kubo (09:06.622)

Mm

 

Tonya Kubo (09:12.296)

Right.

 

Tonya Kubo (09:16.658)

Mm

 

Kathi (09:33.316)

that Sabbath day feels special, to feel different, to take some of the hustle out of the day. that’s, Tonya, I have a dream. And my dream for the Kubos is to have a day where mom doesn’t have to make those kind of decisions. Maybe you make the kind of decisions, do I take an hour nap or an hour and a half nap?

 

Tonya Kubo (09:36.871)

Right.

 

Kathi (10:00.04)

Do I watch a movie with my kids? Or do I just say, go do you? I’m going to read a book. Or do we decide as a family that we’re going to go do an outing? We’re going to go take a drive? It lays open some possibilities. Those are the kinds of decisions I want you to make.

 

Tonya Kubo (10:09.48)

Yeah.

 

Tonya Kubo (10:22.886)

I love that. that makes it’s funny is because you know, Brian likes to say that I am the executive function for the entire household. And I, I love that he recognizes that. And I hate that that is a reality for so many, right? And who, who don’t have that acknowledged. And so I appreciate the purpose of the book. I appreciate the dream. I definitely, Kathi, just want to say thank you for you.

 

Kathi (10:30.674)

That’s exhausting.

 

Yes.

 

Kathi (10:39.952)

Yeah. Yeah.

 

Tonya Kubo (10:52.2)

kind of laying out a customized gentle approach because now I’m going to ask you the really hard question, Kathi, which is thank you for the gentle approach that applies to the Kubos, but what is your routine like at this phase of life living on a mountain in the middle of nowhere in a house that tries to kill you quite frequently?

 

Kathi (10:59.933)

Yeah.

 

Kathi (11:03.386)

Yes.

 

Kathi (11:08.474)

Yes. Yes. So here’s what I’m going to do. We’re going to take a quick break. We’re going to pay some bills. We’re going to come back and I will tell you what our routine looks like with the inclusion of Sabbath soup because it changes everything. It really, really does. So we’re going to go back, go away, come right back, and let’s talk about our routine.

 

Okay friends, we are back and Tonya asked me what does our routine look like? So our routine is very different than when we lived in the heart of Silicon Valley, but I really wrote this for the people who are doing that kind of life, but it also works for my kind of life. So is it okay if I just kind of break down what we do each day? okay, so this really is a six-day plan and I know that sounds

 

Tonya Kubo (11:57.468)

Yes, please.

 

Kathi (12:03.162)

It’s a five or six-day plan. on Monday, I am preparing for next week’s meals. And you may say, okay, that’s very type A of you, Kathi. No, it is very type G of me. I don’t want the constant stress of what are we going to eat tonight? And so for me, who only really goes into town once a week, which is

 

Tonya Kubo (12:25.672)

Mm -hmm.

 

Kathi (12:32.338)

by the way, a gift to me. There’s a lot of pre-planning that goes into it. And you’re like, well, I don’t have to plan that hard because I can go to the supermarket seven days a week if I want to. But why would you want to? That’s my question. Why would you want to do that? So Monday, I start with meal planning. So I might do a little inventory, like are there things that we need to use up? Are there things we’re running low on?

 

Tonya Kubo (12:34.888)

Mm

 

Kathi (13:01.8)

and then I plan out meals accordingly. I also take a look at what do we have coming up that week. Like this weekend, we have a double blammo. We’ve got our kids coming to visit, but also I’m going to a 30-year-old’s birthday party. So, you know, there’s this double whammy in the best way possible that.

 

Tonya Kubo (13:17.03)

Yay!

 

Tonya Kubo (13:25.918)

Mm

 

Kathi (13:28.612)

Not only did I need to prepare a meal for the birthday party, not a meal, an appetizer, but we also have kids coming who have dietary restrictions. So I take a look at all of that and I plan our meals. and in the coming weeks, Tonya, you and I are going to be talking about, okay, how do I plan these meals if I’m running, if I don’t have a lot of time? Like, how do I plan these meals if we’re on a tight budget? Those things.

 

So we’re gonna get to all of those. please, if you are not a subscriber to this podcast, hit that subscribe button because we’re going to unlock all the secrets. For everybody who’s listening, we want to make this easy for you. Okay, so Monday is planning day. Tuesday is I clean out my fridge. Now, Wednesday also happens to be garbage day, which we are taking much, yes, it really does help a lot. But that’s also when I make my shopping.

 

Tonya Kubo (13:56.284)

Mm

 

Tonya Kubo (14:08.563)

Yes.

 

Tonya Kubo (14:20.915)

That’s helpful.

 

Tonya Kubo (14:26.088)

Mm

 

Kathi (14:26.564)

So I will make my shopping list on Tuesday. And here’s the beautiful thing. I order a lot of our groceries from Sam’s Club or from another supermarket that we have here in California called Rayleigh’s or Safeway, one of the others, depending on where we’re going to run our errands. So I will put that order in the night before because Wednesday is typically when we would go to town.

 

Tonya Kubo (14:48.094)

Hmm.

 

Tonya Kubo (14:52.846)

Mm

 

Kathi (14:52.936)

Things have changed since I wrote the book and now we go to town on Tuesday So I’m doing a lot of things on Tuesday But for the plan of the book if your shopping day is Wednesday, that’s gonna work out really really well for you. So Wednesday, I’m gonna go pick everything up and I pick up everything that we need for our cooking sessions I pick up anything that we’re running low on like cereal or milk that kind of thing but

 

Tonya Kubo (15:01.031)

Yes.

 

Tonya Kubo (15:09.96)

Mm

 

Kathi (15:19.194)

It’s all waiting for me. And can I just tell you, if you’re not already a Sam’s Club fan, I actually was interviewed for an article about how much I love Sam’s Club, because I really do. They load it into the back of your car. Do you have a Sam’s Club near you, Tonya? No, I’m sad for you. moving on for those less fortunate.

 

Tonya Kubo (15:30.107)

you

 

Tonya Kubo (15:37.35)

how nice.

 

Not really, no.

 

Kathi (15:46.106)

And you know, we go to Costco every once in a while too, but Sam’s Club is my ride or die. So Thursday is really prep day for me. So Thursday is when I get out the Cuisinart, I’m chopping all of the veggies, I wash, spin, chop. I do that for salad ingredients, all of that kind of stuff. It helps me not feel so overwhelmed on cooking day.

 

Tonya Kubo (16:14.162)

Mm

 

Kathi (16:14.606)

And I might even do things like saute the hamburger meat or something like that to start prepping my meals. And then depending on my schedule, Friday or Saturday is cooking day. And it helps me so much to have that plan already laid out. I know what I’m gonna do.

 

Tonya Kubo (16:22.238)

Mm

 

Kathi (16:41.232)

I try to be as organized as I possibly can, but that Monday through Friday routine never varies. Things come up every once in a while, I may need to do the cooking, mean the shopping and the prepping on one day. Sometimes I’ll need to do that, but, and sometimes I like to work ahead. Like if I’m doing cookies, I may do the cookie dough on Thursday, because that’s an easy thing to do.

 

But it makes it so much easier. I’m prepared. I know where we’re going to eat for the rest of the week. It makes it a breeze.

 

Tonya Kubo (17:21.854)

Okay, so it sounds like it’s really organized. It sounds like it’s fairly easy for you to sort of switch things up as they need to be if your day into town changes. So how does this benefit your Sabbath, your day of rest?

 

Kathi (17:33.424)

Mm -hmm. Yeah.

 

Kathi (17:41.052)

Because I don’t do anything on Sunday except for reheat. Right, right.

 

Tonya Kubo (17:44.52)

Okay, but you have to like explain this whole do nothing thing. That’s hard for Tonya Kubo to understand.

 

Kathi (17:51.17)

Yeah, so I almost every single week make a big pot of soup for us to have after church on Sunday. And I so that’s one of the main meals I’ll cook. So that is I do that on Sunday. I also prep our breakfast for before church. So if I’m going to do say like French toast, what I’ll do is I’ll have all the ingredients there.

 

Tonya Kubo (18:00.744)

Mm

 

Kathi (18:20.996)

It’s already decided what I’m doing, right? The bacon is defrosted. The bread is already set out. If I get ambitious, I might even whip up the eggs and milk and cinnamon and nutmeg to dip the bread in. The fruit is already chopped.

 

Tonya Kubo (18:24.414)

Got it.

 

Tonya Kubo (18:29.096)

Mm -hmm.

 

Tonya Kubo (18:45.31)

Mm

 

Tonya Kubo (18:49.79)

Got it.

 

Kathi (18:50.756)

The dinner that I’m doing Sunday night is going to be usually some kind of casserole or something like that. Also, Saturday night is like our main meal. So like I might do a roast chicken or I might do a ham or soup because I’m going to take those ingredients, that chicken and whatever we don’t eat on Saturday night, that becomes part of Monday night’s dinner or Tuesday night’s dinner. It’s leftovers on purpose.

 

Tonya Kubo (19:16.904)

Mm

 

Kathi (19:20.622)

So I am making all my decisions earlier in the week. So Sunday, it’s just like, I need to put the enchilada casserole in the oven. Bam, it’s done. It’s not that I need to cook or prepare the enchilada casserole. No, I just need to put it in the oven. It’s a beautiful, beautiful thing.

 

Tonya Kubo (19:32.744)

Done.

 

Tonya Kubo (19:40.006)

Right. Yeah. And so I, you know, in the book you talk about your big cook day. So I’m going to be honest when, when you talk about it, I know you have explained it to me privately and I want you to explain to listeners because every time it comes up, like my default thought is I have to cook from like six in the morning until nine at night. So

 

Kathi (19:45.702)

Mm -hmm. Right.

 

Kathi (19:51.74)

Yeah.

 

Okay. Yes.

 

Kathi (20:05.242)

I would never do that, that sounds terrible.

 

Tonya Kubo (20:07.793)

Right, so tell me, tell me about the big cook day. How does that work?

 

Kathi (20:10.586)

Okay, so remember we’ve prepped everything on Thursday as far can we all agree that chopping all the vegetables is usually the worst part of all of it?

 

Tonya Kubo (20:21.086)

100 % 100 % zero notes. Yes.

 

Kathi (20:24.398)

Yes, yes. So that’s why like on Thursday, I’m pulling because I don’t know about you. Like my food processor, I never want to pull it out because it’s kind of a pain in the butt to clean. But if I’m chopping all the onions and I’m chopping all the carrots and I’m chopping all the mushrooms and I’m chopping all the celery, and I’m chopping all the pepper, you know, here’s the thing, I’m just going to wipe it out between chops. And I’m only washing it once.

 

Tonya Kubo (20:36.839)

Yes!

 

Kathi (20:51.784)

By the way, can I tell you the best part of this plan? I hate to do dishes. It’s it’s it’s my kryptonite you know, who doesn’t mind doing dishes is mr. Roger and So I do all the cooking he does all the cleaning now sometimes he’ll help me prep Especially if we’re snowed in or something like that, but I I don’t I pretty much don’t touch a dish But even if I had to I’d rather do the bulk of dishes on one day

 

Tonya Kubo (20:55.326)

Please.

 

Tonya Kubo (21:11.666)

Mm -hmm.

 

Kathi (21:22.148)

than all throughout the week because it really does cut down on our dishwashing throughout the week. But okay, so I have learned things about doing this big cook since writing the book. Like, my goodness. Okay. I think you are. So I used to just say, okay, I’m going to work on this recipe. Then I’m going to work on this recipe. So a couple of things I’ve done.

 

Tonya Kubo (21:24.006)

you

 

Tonya Kubo (21:36.67)

Tell me. Because I feel like I’m getting inside information along with everybody else.

 

Kathi (21:49.668)

And Tonya, I will get pictures of this so we can put it in the net. One thing I do for each recipe that I’m preparing, I have a plastic basket. And the on Thursday, I put all the things I can in that basket for that recipe. and this is really important. For each recipe, I have a clipboard that I have either photocopied the recipe.

 

Tonya Kubo (22:18.27)

Mm

 

Kathi (22:18.492)

because you’re allowed to do that if you own the book. You can photocopy that recipe and I’ll put it on that clipboard or print it out, however you’re gonna do it. And I clip that onto the clipboard. I put that clipboard in the basket. So when I’m going and gathering all the ingredients, all the ingredients are in the basket, except for we’re not putting raw chicken in the basket on Thursday. yes.

 

Tonya Kubo (22:26.056)

Mm -hmm.

 

Tonya Kubo (22:43.282)

I appreciate that clarification.

 

Kathi (22:45.53)

We you know, we’re putting things in there like the can of salsa the jar of tomatoes the loaf of bread the the peaches, know, whatever that is so everything’s going in that basket because I feel like So much of the cooking experience is going around and finding all the stuff so

 

Tonya Kubo (22:56.797)

Mm -hmm.

 

Tonya Kubo (23:08.462)

my gosh, that’s the 6 a to 9 p thing. It’s racing back and forth on your kitchen.

 

Kathi (23:11.18)

Yes, yes. Right, so all the spices are going in there. And somebody said, well, what if you’re using the same ingredient in a bunch of different things? So you put like the salt and pepper, I put that in the basket I’m preparing first. And then I’ll just put the salt and pepper into the next basket. The other.

 

Tonya Kubo (23:29.278)

Okay, that makes sense. I could figure that out all by myself, Kathi. I could.

 

Kathi (23:33.776)

Yes, I you know, but you know, sometimes people we we both have people in our lives, Tonya, they’re newer neurodivergent, right? They’re neuro spicy. And until you tell them exactly what to do, you know, they don’t want to do things wrong. And I appreciate what not wanting to do things wrong. So we’re going to help out our friends that and it’s not just neuro spicy people. It’s all of us who sometimes just we need to be taken by the hand.

 

Tonya Kubo (23:36.862)

Mm

 

Tonya Kubo (23:43.058)

Mm -hmm. Yep.

 

Tonya Kubo (23:56.382)

Mm -hmm.

 

Kathi (24:03.214)

Another thing that I’ve learned since writing the book is I have two sets of measuring cups. I have two sets of measuring spoons, one for wet and one for dry. And that and then a bunch of measure glass measuring cups and a set of bowls, one for wet and one for dry. And that has made a huge difference to me. And

 

Tonya Kubo (24:03.39)

Mm

 

Tonya Kubo (24:21.309)

Mm -hmm.

 

Kathi (24:31.256)

I’ve learned that since writing the book because I just always did what I always did and then I really challenged myself. How can I make this easier? How can I cut the time down? And I feel like I went from cooking for about maybe four hours on the weekends to closer to two or three. Yeah, so I think.

 

That does not include doing all the dishes. Can we just say you’re gonna have to do dishes for a while? But you’re doing them all in one day instead of everything else. So I will put some pictures of how I do the baskets with the clipboards, but game changer, absolute game changer.

 

Tonya Kubo (25:14.864)

Okay. Okay. So I’ve been at your house before. You have more counter space than I do, but I wouldn’t say you have a ton of counter space. So where are you setting all of this up?

 

Kathi (25:18.715)

Yes.

 

No, I don’t.

 

Okay, so a couple of things. I’m doing it on my kitchen table for the most part. Having an extension cord has really helped out with being able to move things around. And also, I spent some time in my kitchen really thinking about how I’m using my space. And we actually just bought a kitchen island on wheels.

 

Tonya Kubo (25:31.483)

Okay.

 

Tonya Kubo (25:39.634)

Mm -hmm.

 

Tonya Kubo (25:54.269)

Kathi (25:54.96)

Have I not shown this to you yet?

 

Tonya Kubo (25:56.644)

No, I do not. I have no knowledge of this. Is your life changed?

 

Kathi (26:00.6)

Tonya, my bright blue kitchen island is everything. Because not only is it gorgeous and it gives me more prep space, it has cabinets underneath where I can store everything I’m using for this process.

 

Tonya Kubo (26:10.302)

Whoa.

 

Tonya Kubo (26:21.766)

You know we Clegary people love a good cabinet.

 

Kathi (26:24.376)

And this is a great cabinet. I’m like, Tonya, this is going to make you weep openly. I have not filled up this entire thing.

 

Yeah, it’s kind of beautiful. So I would encourage you, you may not think you have the space for something. And when I say I rethought my space, can we just be honest? My friend, Tenille, came to my house and helped me rethink my space. And she said, yeah, she says, I think you should have a kitchen island. And I said, where? And she showed me how and we had to move my kitchen table about eight times.

 

Tonya Kubo (26:46.376)

Mm -hmm.

 

Tonya Kubo (26:51.87)

Tenille is so good at that.

 

Kathi (27:03.88)

and we finally dialed it in. And you know, we sometimes have big groups to our house. So I needed to be able to put the leaves in the kitchen table. But really 90 % of this is set up on my kitchen table. so having that extension cord has been a game changer because I can leave my mixer set up over there. I can, if I want to, I can cook in my air fryer on my kitchen table.

 

Tonya Kubo (27:06.366)

Mmm.

 

Tonya Kubo (27:22.27)

Mm

 

Kathi (27:33.0)

We’re making it work. It’s kind of a beautiful thing.

 

Tonya Kubo (27:38.664)

That sounds so efficient.

 

Kathi (27:42.022)

Mm -hmm.

 

Tonya Kubo (27:43.408)

How long? mean, like, how much? I feel like this is like a life’s work. Like, this is your opus.

 

Kathi (27:48.474)

I, yes, I do feel that deeply. Yeah.

 

Tonya Kubo (27:52.51)

So how long did it take you to sort all this out?

 

Kathi (27:57.668)

So this has been in phases for sure. I think you remember me talking about six chicks freeze and fix. My cooking club that I did, especially when my kids were younger, where we would each make three meals, six of us, each of us would make three meals, but we’d make six family size portions of it. And then we’d swap it all together. So I learned a lot by doing that. And then when it was just me and Roger,

 

I said, I don’t need to plan anymore. And then I got really mad at Roger for wanting dinner on a regular basis. And I’m like, well, maybe I need to rethink these things. And I got really mad when everybody could relax on Sundays except for me, because people still needed to eat. But I also didn’t want to spend a ton of money going out for every meal, right? And so this, I feel like this is my master’s.

 

Tonya Kubo (28:57.448)

Mm -hmm.

 

Kathi (28:57.8)

and cooking and planning, but the gift is not becoming a professional. The gift is getting a day off a week. And it’s made me, it’s made me very, so I feel like people who have never really in a real way experienced a Sabbath are actually gonna have a transition time if they start to do this.

 

Tonya Kubo (29:06.738)

Yeah.

 

Kathi (29:25.112)

I don’t say dive in with I’m just gonna lay around all day Sunday, like transition in small ways. to put, I think it’s really important to not have a big old day just kind of looming out there in front of you, but to say, and to dream about if my family had the time, what would we do with it?

 

And I think that that’s a really beautiful way of approaching it. And let me also say this, like this Sunday, I’m gonna cook on Sunday, but let me explain why. It’s because my stepson Jeremy is coming. And every time he comes up here, we try to perfect our ravioli recipe. And so we’re going to enjoy our time cooking, but we don’t have to cook.

 

Tonya Kubo (30:11.382)

Aww.

 

Kathi (30:18.076)

the rest of the time here because it’s already planned out. I already know that on Saturday we’re having salmon and we’re having potato salad and asparagus. I already know that. We’re gonna cook some of that on Saturday night because we wanna have it on the barbecue and Roger loves to barbecue. But the ingredients are already bought. I have no stress about it because it’s already happening. It’s a gift.

 

Tonya Kubo (30:46.078)

That is such excellent advice. mean, you’ve talked about starting small. You’ve talked and you’ve given us a great plan of how we can do that. You’ve talked about, you know, just how we can make this manageable, how we can maximize our space. I really appreciate how thoughtful this is. I feel like I’m not going to say this is better than getting the book because the book is what has the recipes. This just has a detail of the process. But I feel like

 

Kathi (31:11.814)

Yeah. Yeah.

 

Tonya Kubo (31:14.876)

This episode is such a great compliment to the book. Any final thoughts for us? Anything else we need to know after listening to this whole process laid out?

 

Kathi (31:21.295)

Yeah.

 

Kathi (31:26.192)

So I love what you said about starting small. And so I would really encourage you, if you do nothing else, can you cook a pot of soup on Friday or Saturday to have on Sunday? So the reason it’s called Sabbath soup, and there are a million different kinds of recipes in here. Yes, it’s not just soup recipes. Like there are so many bangers in there.

 

Tonya Kubo (31:49.03)

I was gonna say, you have to tell them it’s not just soup recipes.

 

Kathi (31:55.686)

the macaroni and cheese, the roasted chicken, like there’s so many great recipes. But here’s why I think soup is such an excellent Sabbath meal. Because it’s usually a one pot meal. I’m gonna cook it on Friday or Saturday. I’m gonna let it cool down. I’m just gonna stick that entire pot in the refrigerator. And then I’m going to pull it out when I am ready to cook it.

 

You can buy a loaf of bread at the supermarket. You can buy a bag salad to put with it. You’re done. That is you have already checked off one meal. And by the way, if if you don’t have leftovers from soup, what are we even doing here? And there are some bigger families who are going to have to have double some of these recipes. But we love to have that soup on Tuesday night. So we’re going to have it.

 

Tonya Kubo (32:43.858)

Yeah.

 

Kathi (32:50.564)

on sat on Sunday after church and then we’re gonna have it again on Tuesday night. And if it’s chili, we may put it on top of a potato, we’re gonna figure something else out with it. But sometimes because it’s just the two of us and we’re feeding our neighbor and my mom, sometimes it has enough for eight that I just freeze some of that and that’s fast food for another week. And like I have so many blocks of soup and I just feel like they’re little

 

bags of gold in my freezer. It makes me so happy because all I have to do is pull it out the night before Let it defrost and i’m ready for lunch the next day. So I would say start small Find a recipe you love if you don’t get the book. It’s okay Find a recipe you already love that you already make i’m going to tell you all the ways to prepare for your cook day are

 

between this podcast and the book are there. And I think so much of the mental break that so many of us are looking for is somebody just laying out the plan. And I feel like I’ve done that for you. I’ve done the research, the hard work, the ideas. You can adjust a lot of these recipes for your family’s dietary needs or their preferences.

 

You’ll notice there are not a lot of green peppers in the book because I think they’re disgusting. It’s my own prejudice, but you can put them into your family meals. I will not be discouraged. Yes, yes. So Tonya, you are not a Sabbath person. So I’m going to turn the tables on you. what, what, is there something you think you can grab onto here?

 

Tonya Kubo (34:21.658)

All you want, right?

 

Tonya Kubo (34:29.48)

Okay.

 

Tonya Kubo (34:34.526)

Well, yes, I mean, as you know, we’re recording this the week before school starts. And we have a whole new thing with kids in different schools. We haven’t had that before. And it’s about 50 minute drive between schools we mapped out. And so I’ve actually really been leaning in. I don’t have the full book, right? But I have like a little sampler of it and I’ve been really leaning into the process and I am actually fortunate.

 

Kathi (34:39.131)

Yes, yes.

 

Kathi (34:44.52)

Kathi (34:49.66)

Mm -hmm.

 

Kathi (34:55.783)

Yeah.

 

Tonya Kubo (35:03.422)

maybe even more fortunate than you, Kathi, because I have a Brian who quite honestly is very similar to Mr. Roger. But I also have a Lily who is 14 and is very excited about taking on some of the cooking for the family. And so I have a partner. You know, I have more than one partner in my house to do this, but we’ve already been talking about like implementing the book. And so for us, it’s really going to be about starting with

 

Kathi (35:07.26)

Yes.

 

Right.

 

Yes

 

Kathi (35:23.452)

Yeah.

 

Tonya Kubo (35:32.722)

getting used to having a plan to soup a week, then the next step is going to be cutting down on our grocery store trips. Because Brian likes to go to the store every day on the way home from work. And so then it’s going to be about what does it look like if we only go to the store once a week? And I feel like the plan is going to come together with those two things. Everything else is really going to fall into place for us.

 

Kathi (35:43.728)

Yeah. Yes. Yeah.

 

Kathi (35:54.716)

Yeah.

 

my goodness, I just love it. And guys, we are going to put information about how to get the book. Right now it would be a pre -order, but there is a gift if you pre -order the book. It’s a sampler. I don’t know, how else would you describe it, Tonya? Is it? Yes. Yes, okay. Okay.

 

Tonya Kubo (36:15.474)

That’s what I call it, it’s a sampler. That’s what I have, right? Because I’ve pre -ordered the book. So I have the sampler. I love it. You know, people think I get all this stuff for free. I buy this stuff, folks. I buy it.

 

Kathi (36:25.392)

Okay guys, I offer to her for free But yeah, just so you know, I know because she’s amazing and I do that for people I support too Because I want them to have that sale. I want them to know that I’m in it and I want the pre -order Bonuses, so we’re gonna put all the information in there because the sampler will get you started That’s what I want for you. The sampler will get you started

 

Tonya Kubo (36:28.862)

But I still buy it!

 

What’s in it?

 

Tonya Kubo (36:39.902)

Mm -hmm. Yeah.

 

Tonya Kubo (36:49.275)

Yes.

 

Kathi (36:53.576)

So we’re gonna give you all that pre-order information. You can get it at any of your favorite retailers Tonya I feel like this podcast episode is the best companion we could have done to Sabbath soup. I’m so excited Thank you so much for being excited with me and we’re gonna have to we’re gonna have to find out what Lily’s favorite recipes are We’re gonna need we’re gonna need a report back from her on that. Okay

 

Tonya Kubo (37:07.996)

I think so too.

 

Tonya Kubo (37:20.178)

We will do it in the name of research for you, Kathi.

 

Kathi (37:22.18)

Okay, I love it. Well, friends, you’ve been listening to the Clutterfree Podcast. I’m Kathi Lipp. Now go create the clutter-free life you’ve always wanted to live.

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