Cooking with Food Blogger Amy Nash [Ep. 11]

Lisa: 0:03

Welcome to Eat Well, Think Well, Live Well; the podcast for women who want to lose weight, but are tired of counting and calculating all the food. I'm your host, Lisa Salsbury. I'm a certified health and weight loss coach and life coach, and most importantly a recovered chronic dieter. I'll teach you to figure out why you are eating when you aren't hungry, instead of worrying so much about what you are eating. Hey, welcome back to the podcast. I am excited today because I've got an interview that I recorded a couple of weeks ago with Amy Nash. She's the food blogger behind house of Nash eats. And if you haven't ever been on. That food blog you will be in for a treat. She has some great series on her website, like American eats. So you can find recipes from each state across the nation. So that's really fun. We talk about some of her greatest tips for getting your food to taste like restaurant food and just getting dinner on the table. So we've got some great things in store for you. One thing I noticed as I was listening back to it is that I didn't jump in with my favorite tip. So I'm going to give you a bat right now ahead of time. my best tip for getting your food to taste a little bit better, these things that we make at home that we wonder why doesn't it taste like restaurant food? And that is to properly season And when chefs are talking about seasoning, they actually mean salt. And sometimes I'll add pepper, but primarily they're talking about salt. So when we are making things from scratch from And not using pre-packaged items. The sodium content is little to none. So there is no seasoning. In fresh vegetables and fresh meats. And you need to add that. There's no need to add as much salt as is in packaged foods. But properly seasoning your food by seasoning the water that things are cooking in. If you're steaming or boiling, like for grains or pastas. Vegetables that are being steamed. Definitely. Those needs salts. As well as your baked goods. And for sure, don't forget to salt your meats. Not only is this going to help with tenderizing, but no amount of salt added at the table. Well make up for a lack of seasoning while your food is cooking so that is my little tip but let's jump into this interview so you can hear from someone that cooks for a living Hey everyone. I'm so excited to have Amy Nash with us here. She's the food blogger behind House of Nash Eats, and we're just gonna have her do a little introduction of herself before we jump into our topic.

Amy: 2:47

Hi everybody, and Lisa, thank you so much for having me on your podcast. Um, yeah, I am a food blogger, a recipe developer, and a food photographer, and I've had my site for six years now and it's been really an amazing journey, sharing recipes and, and getting into that world and it's. Something that I'm really passionate about and I really, really love food.

Lisa: 3:10

Awesome. I do too. And you're a mom also.

Amy: 3:15

Yeah, I'm a mom. I have two daughters. They are eight and 11 and they are great, and my husband and I live in the Bay Area in California.

Lisa: 3:25

Nice. Not too far from me. Perfect. Well, I invited Amy on because I think cooking at home is one of those things that can make a really big difference in your health journey. And the reason is because, It is sometimes difficult to find the things that we definitely wanna eat at restaurants, right? Sometimes we can, but when we're eating at restaurants day in and day out, it can be difficult to stay on plan. So cooking at home is one of those things that I find most of my clients tend to shift. They want to cook more at home, but they don't really know how to do it, and they. One of my most common comments is it just doesn't taste as good. So I thought it would be fun to have someone who's basically a professional come on and help us find some of those things that can make a really big difference in how our at home food can taste. What would be some of your biggest tips on that?

Amy: 4:24

Okay, so I love this question and I have a whole bunch of ideas. Um, So the, just so you know, like I'm a, I'm a home cook. I'm not a professionally trained chef, but I've done a lot of research and obviously this is my job. So one of the biggest differences for me in getting food to taste just as good, if not better than at restaurants, is to use a meat thermometer anytime I'm cooking protein, I use a meat thermometer because it takes away the guesswork of when is this chicken done? And if you ever suffer dry chicken breasts, it's probably because it's being overcooked cuz you're not using a meat thermometer and a fairly inexpensive tool to just always have in your kitchen lets you know you just stick it in and once it reaches 165 degrees, that chicken rest is done and pull it off of the heat.

Lisa: 5:18

Okay. That is amazing. I would not have thought of that. It's something I do, but I didn't really think of it as something I would do all the time because I only do it when I'm like grilling. So would you do it like when you are, I think the most common place I have dry chicken is when I'm stir frying and they're tiny pieces. Do you try and temp those pieces as well?

Amy: 5:38

So no, if there are tiny little cut up pieces of chicken, I don't use the meat thermometer on those, but if I'm doing like a pan sead or pan fried chicken, or if I'm roasting chicken in the oven. Or it's in like some other sort of dish like that, or like pork chops in a pan or a steak in a pan, or anything along those lines. I'll use the meat thermometer for those. that makes a a huge difference because that's what they use at restaurants to make sure that a steak is cooked exactly the way the customer wants it is they're just going off of temperature. So definitely use a meat thermometer. And then the other trick that a lot of home cooks don't realize is that when you take your meat off of a grill or a pan or anything, it's going to continue to rise in temperature by about three to five degrees. So if you're aiming for a temperature of say, 165 degrees, you probably wanna pull your meat around 162 degrees and it will finish rising on the plate to that 165 from the residual heat.

Lisa: 6:46

Even like chicken breast. I always do that with steak, but I worry about chicken.

Amy: 6:50

Yeah, no, it, even with chicken, it's just a, it's just the, um, temperature of the pan and the outside of the chicken continues to cook it through. It's not like as soon as you remove it from the heat source, the inside stops cooking like that, that heat from the outside keeps going through to the center of the meat. So yeah, pork chops and chicken and pork chops, especially like I bring up, cuz those are the ones that I always struggled with. Really hard to cook. Most people cook them in a pan and they're super dry. Yeah. And so that's, that's something that really, really makes a big difference. Pork tender, loin, anything like that. Um, your meat thermometer, it'll totally change the taste.

Lisa: 7:32

So on that note on pork, I feel like the cooking temperature on pork has actually, the advice has changed over the years. Is that true? Because I think my mom used to cook it to a much higher temperature than what we're kind of like allowed to at this point.

Amy: 7:47

That's right. So there are new guidelines from the, I believe it's the FDA that puts out those guidelines and they have, um, decreased the temperature of pork to where it's safe to. Cook your pork too, I believe. Don't quote me cuz I'm not looking it up, but I believe it's 140 degrees Fahrenheit. Um, so you can actually have a tiny bit of pink in the center of your pork chop or your pork tender loin. And that's totally okay with pork Now. And the reason for that change, from what I understand is the way that meat is processed these days compared to how it used to be, you used to have to cook it a. Farther along to make it safe and kill things, but it's so much safer the way it's produced and processed today that we can cook it to these lower temperatures. It's these much juicier and more moist, and it's totally safe to eat. So yes, check those new, new guidelines because I'm pretty sure it's 140 degrees for pork.

Lisa: 8:47

That's good to know. Cuz I have to say, I don't make pork chops really ever, because I'm always worried they'll be dry.

Amy: 8:53

Yeah, it's one of my favorite things.

Lisa: 8:56

Oh really? Okay. I'll look on your website and see which pork chop recipe gonna try next. What's your favorite one?

Amy: 9:03

um, my husband's grandma made these creamy apricot pork chops that have, um, apricots in them with like a creamy sauce, and they're amazing. They're probably my favorite pork chop or even just a, you know, pan-seared salt and pepper pork chop. But when you cook it the right way, it's fantastic.

Lisa: 9:21

Okay, awesome. Um, any, any other tips on this one?

Amy: 9:26

Yeah, so the other tips that I would say to make your food taste just as good as restaurants is to use fresh herbs. They add so, so much flavor, and I know there's definitely a convenience factor of using dried herbs. But when you use fresh herbs, the food will just taste so much better and it's white. When you go to a restaurant and you're tasting the food and you're like, Oh, this tastes so good. How does this taste better than than home? It's because they're using fresh rosemary, fresh basal. Fresh cilantro, fresh regno, and it makes a big difference. It can get a little pricey. Some things that work really well for always having those fresh herbs on hand, which that's the, are key to it. Like I don't wanna go to the grocery store to get fresh herbs when I don't have them, but we planted the rosemary bush in our garden and I am not a gardener. But those things grow no matter what you do. And then I always have rosemary, um,

Lisa: 10:22

Cuz Rosemary's like an evergreen, right? It grows all the time. Yeah.

Amy: 10:26

does. And so you just go outside and you snip off some Rose Mary and chop it up a little bit, add so much flavor. Um, if you do, like, if you are a garner, you can grow basil plants, which are pretty easy to grow. You can grow other herbs or regno time and use those in all of your food. Any, anything that calls for dried herbs. You can use fresh herbs and usually the, the rule of thumb is if it calls for a teaspoon of dried rosemary. You would use a tablespoon of fresh rosemary. That's how I always approach it, and it adds a ton of flavor to your.

Lisa: 11:05

I, I have to say I love fresh herbs and if you follow me on Instagram, you can, You've probably seen me cut basil this summer cause I'm always like just a little bit and it's like enormous because my basil has gone crazy. So I've made several batches of pesto and I've got chives and parsley and I, I planted lavender also cuz my daughter loves lavender lemonade. It got shaded out, so it's really tiny. I have no lavender, but for the other herbs. Yeah, totally agree. So good.

Amy: 11:34

And then my last tip was going to be to eat seasonally focus on seasonal foods, because there's a reason that our, ancestors always did this, and it was because that was what was available. And these days you can get pretty much anything in any season. But it doesn't usually taste as good if you're eating out of season, and that's because those foods are being imported from somewhere else. They're not peak picked. At the peak of freshness. When you're eating seasonally, not only is the flavor better because it's the peak of flavor and freshness and the time of year, but it can also be cheaper because those foods are often like really? Widely available at Farmer's market to net grocery stores, and so the price is usually lower.

Lisa: 12:20

Mm-hmm. Awesome. Uh, I do struggle with that in the winter because I much prefer a salad with cucumbers and tomatoes. But come January, there's just no good tomatoes in the store, so finding a good salad I like to have in the winter is a little bit harder for me.

Amy: 12:37

Yeah, so a great idea for that is to still focus on like seasonal options instead of like tomatoes and cucumbers. Look at things like perim and pomegranates and citrus because citrus, oranges and grapefruit all come into season during the winter. So chop up some grapefruit or some persimmon and throw those in your salad. They give kind of that juicy, um, bright flavor that a tomato would give. But it's seasonal and it changes things up and it keeps it fresh and it tastes so, so good.

Lisa: 13:10

That is, that's such a good idea. I've never put a persimmon in salad. Okay, well, we'll, I'll try it this winter.

Amy: 13:17

I salad if you need recipe, Lisa.

Lisa: 13:22

Perfect. We know where to go. So sometimes we want some help though from the grocery store, right? So if we're making food from home, but we're not quite all the way to from scratch cooking, what is worth it to like get a little help from the store, Maybe like shortcuts or what's worth, like, what's worth it to get the shortcut from as opposed to make it homem.

Amy: 13:49

So for sure there's lots of great options at the grocery store to make it easier and it's going to depend on the cook. For me personally, I. Don't often make homemade marinara sauce. I love the Raos brand marinara sauce, and so I always have that on hand so I can just easily throw it in and make, uh, like some sort of like casserole or spaghetti or things like that, Whereas other people have no problem making a quick marinara sauce from scratch. That's, and I do that sometimes too, but it's one of those things, I always have re's marinara in my pantry. Because I know that helps me get dinner on the table.

Lisa: 14:29

I've, I think I've seen that one at Costco. Is that where you get it?

Amy: 14:32

Yeah, Costco sells it. Any grocery store sells it. It just happens to be the brand that I really like. that takes just like homemade to me. But other great options would be, to have some seasoning rubs or other that you can buy because you can just throw fish or. Beef or chicken in with a marinade or grab a rub and just rub your meat. And that's going to add a ton of flavor to a dish and really speed up the process because then you can just quickly pan fry it or throw it on the grill or put it in an air fryer. And all you have to do at that point is just add a veggie on your side or a salad or. Or some like crusty bread to go with it and you've got dinner ready. So those are kind of my favorite approaches or to really focus on like the rubs and the marinades and have those on hand.

Lisa: 15:25

Hmm. That makes a lot of sense because sometimes having a well stock spice drawer is not for everyone. I love all the different spices, but I have a few like combination rubs, and they do make it so much easier, so you're not having to get out 16 different spices to make something like that.

Amy: 15:43

Yeah, and you can make your own rubs. If you find rubs that you really love, you can pull out your spice pantry and make your own versions of rubs and keep those on hand too. And that way you've got them ready to go for when you need them and you're busy, but you can prep them in a time when you've got some more time.

Lisa: 16:02

Okay. Perfect. So rubs, marinara sauce. Any anything else you'd like to definitely keep on hand?

Amy: 16:11

So there are some great actually freezer options. I usually have a bag of, what are they called? Um, Chicken nuggets. Sorry. chicken nuggets in the freezer. Again, I have another particular brand. I'm kind of particular about things, and I don't like the kid's dinosaur ones, but there's a brand that Costco carries called Bear, b a r e, and I love those chicken nuggets. And I cook them in my air fryer, and it's really a different experience from cooking them in the oven because they crisp up and they're just, there's. They're really, really good. And that's an easy way for me to get something on the table that we can either just eat them straight as they are, we can throw them in a salad. They're just really versatile for me.

Lisa: 16:54

Yeah, I ha I put 'em on like, I call it a crispy chicken salad. And my daughter was like, This is a chicken nugget. I'm like, No, no, no. It's crispy chicken salad And she was like, This is amazing. She was amazed that I put chicken nuggets on salad.

Amy: 17:09

I mean, it's the best.

Lisa: 17:11

Yeah, those, I really like those too. Those bare chicken nuggets from Costco. if you're Costco does not have those. You should definitely put in a request because they're really good. I don't know if any other stores, is that common? Like does, is there a good alternative at like Trader Joe's or Whole Foods, something like that? I don't know.

Amy: 17:29

I'm, I'm sure that there are. And so it's the, the point is if there are some freezer items that work really well for your family, those are great to have on hand because they can really speed up the process and they take away the like stress of. I don't have something like, I don't have raw chicken breasts ready to go. Like if you love fish sticks, if you have like a coconut shrimp that you love from Trader Joe's, or I'll buy like Trader Joe's gnocchi, and that's, it's like a frozen gnocchi at Trader Joe's and that's fantastic. so yeah, have some items in your freezer that by just adding a few additional things to it, you can make a, a semi-homemade.

Lisa: 18:10

Perfect. Thank you. These are great. So, I find I'm gonna switch gears a little bit because. Making dinner for families. A lot of my audience are moms. They tend to be primarily in charge of cooking the dinner for the family. I know that's a little bit stereotypical. Some men love to cook and that's awesome. Maybe you share the responsibility, but we tend to eat as moms. Are breakfast and lunch a little bit separate from our dinner? This is where I find my clients really struggle is lunch. They're like, I just don't know what to eat for lunch. My most common suggestion, honestly, is leftovers because if you liked it for dinner, like just have it again. But aside from that, what do you, what are your kind of go to meals for lunch for yourself when the kids are at school or for moms that work away from home? Things that they can pack.

Amy: 19:02

So I love leftovers too. I really do. And the funny thing is, I'm kind of the only one in the family who does love leftovers, so I usually get to eat those. But I mean there's definitely times when we don't have leftovers and some of my favorite things to eat or. I mean, it's a really great opportunity to kind of be creative and eat flavors or things that maybe not everybody else will eat. I love things that are a little more. Charcuterie board, like snacky, kind of, not snacky lunches, but like that kind of thing. So I'll pull out some dried salami and have some chopped vegetables, like, chopped, cucumber and have like a dip that can go with it, like some hummus or tzatzki sauce or maybe a little bit of cheese to go with it. Roasted almonds. I, I like to make myself like a little char recruitery plate with some crackers and chips or things like that, and I just think that feels very bougie and fun and makes me feel like I'm pampering myself and it's great. So that's one of my favorite lunches to do.

Lisa: 20:08

Yeah. I love that idea. Any others?

Amy: 20:12

Yeah, absolutely. So I'll do like an easy, lunch recipe is like a dip. I have this, I call it my Trader Joe's dip. I think they published it in one of their magazines like years and years ago, but they have precooked lentils. So it's just three ingredients. It's precooked. Trader Joe's lentils, and then Trader Joe's makes a brush, sheta sauce, and then feta cheese, and you just stir all three of those together and it doesn't look super pretty, but I serve it on like cucumbers or with chips or crackers as like a dipping sauce, and it's super delicious. It takes. So fresh and bright from the bruscetta and the cheese, and it's really filling and satisfying because of those lentils. That's one of my favorite meals that I can put that together in like five minutes. It's ready for the whole week.

Lisa: 20:59

So it saves well,

Amy: 21:01

Yeah, it saves well, even my kids like it and so I'll put it in their lunches. I'll do things like, um, chicken salad that I can make and have it on hand for a few days, like four days, and I'll just eat that, you know, and use it to make my kids' lunches, but, I can assemble my lunch when I'm ready to eat. And so recipes like that, that, um, something that's really satisfying to me but tastes fresh is what I tend to do for lunch.

Lisa: 21:31

Awesome. So speaking of being the mom, it is sometimes I, you know, we used to walk into the kitchen at five 30 and be like, Oh, oh, I am the mom. I'm the one that has to make dinner. It was before I was really like a planner. So how would you say is the best way to get dinner on the table as a working mom? It's probably a little different for you since cooking is your work, but for those of us that are, doing other work, and I'm sure you're not eating the, you know, you're testing brownies for the day, that's probably not what you're serving for dinner So it's not always, it doesn't always correlate for you. I'm.

Amy: 22:10

Yeah, that's absolutely true. And often I find by the time I get done with my day of work and I've made cookies and brownies and whatever, cuz I do post a lot of desserts on my site. I don't wanna cook a real. Like a real quote unquote dinner. So it's actually really great to have a few different approaches. So one of my favorite approaches is to use a cooking tool that makes it really easy and fast to get dinner on the table. And for me it's a small kitchen appliance. And I personally love using the air fryer. I use that all the time. I don't know how familiar you are with air fryers or your, your listeners will be, but

Lisa: 22:49

I'm pretty sure I bought the one that you recommend by the way.

Amy: 22:53

I mean, that, that thing is fantastic and I, I hardly even need recipes for it. I tend to use it for salmon and asparagus, and I'll throw those in at the same time and they'll cook in under 10 minutes and it's done and ready to go. Or on busy nights like that, all just do something like I'll do. Shrimp or salmon as my protein because both of those cook really fast, whether it's in the air fryer or just on the stove top. They cook in like 10 minutes and then it's done. And I can just use a bagged salad from the grocery store or Costco and a loaf of crusty bread that I picked up from Trader Joe's, and I'll just do that for dinner. So those are like really fast dinners for. If I've got things on hand, another option that I honestly use, and people are always surprised when they see this as a food blogger, but I like the meal service. Subscription options, like, Hello Fresh and Blue Apron, and I mean, there's a dozen or more. There's, there are so many and they can be kind of expensive, but I've had some really great meals from them and they're really good options. So, If I know that I'm going to have a busy week, I will sign up to have one of those boxes delivered. I don't have them delivered every week. I'll just sign up and I'll know the next week I'm going to have a couple of meals with everything that I need already planned out for me. Cuz I don't mind cooking it. I just don't wanna plan it. And they kind of take away that stress of planning it. And then it's just there. And frankly, many of those are so easy and they have the step by step instructions that I'll just tell my husband who can cook. But usually I handle it. I'll just tell him, Listen, I am running kids to soccer and ice skating and piano tonight. You've gotta make this and he's totally. Perfectly capable of it. And we found that, you know, I've cooked for the majority of our marriage, but he actually really enjoys it when he's got that as an option. And he feels pretty proud of himself, in what he creates by doing that. So that might be a great way to get your partner involved in the kitchen, and maybe they'll enjoy it and it will take off some of your burden too.

Lisa: 25:10

That's such a great idea. Even for people that cook a lot, the, those meal services can really make a difference in, in time. And when we're talking about the cost of it, if you compare it with having to get takeout, it's definitely gonna be less than that. So if your choices are, I really don't have time to cook, so it's gonna be takeout or meal delivery service, it's definitely gonna be cheap.

Amy: 25:33

Yeah, for for sure. By the time you factor in, like the time it takes to go sit down at a restaurant and pay a tip to a server, and the cost of just ordering the food there too, or having it delivered, yeah, it actually ends up being. Fairly comparable, I would say. Um, and then another tip I would have is think about what you do like to order at restaurants and then look for a copycat recipe online, because there are so many blogs, mine included, where I have done copycat recipes of some of my favorite restaurant meals. And that can really help with the meal planning. When you realize, you know, I can. Lemon Chicken pca just like they have at Cheesecake Factory. And I can make it just as good in way, way, way less time than it would take to go to the restaurant. I can make that dish in 20 minutes and it's.

Lisa: 26:27

That's impressive. That's really impressive, All right. Any, any other appliance tips? I do have an air fryer. I, I like it. I haven't used it a ton lately. I got it when we were starting our kitchen remodel and since I didn't have an oven, our stove. Used it a lot and now I've kind of backed off using it, but What, what other appliances do you feel like are pretty essential for getting dinner on the table? Fast.

Amy: 26:53

So this is definitely another personal preference situation. Um, I know there are some people who absolutely love and swear by their slow cooker. That's honestly not my favorite appliance, but, It, it works and it's great because you can put things in in the morning and have it done by the evening. Um, the Instant Pot is a great option. That's one that I really do love. It's probably my second favorite after the air fryer, and I didn't think I would like the air fryer and I resisted for a really long time, but I really do love that appliance. And then another one that I think people forget about is the grill. And. especially if you live somewhere where you can grill year round. Like I know we're pretty fortunately said that

Lisa: 27:36

Yeah. We both live in California so we can grow year round.

Amy: 27:41

Yeah, that's true. So I used the grill as much as I can, but the air fryer can act just like a grill. So I will do hand. I did this summer when it was like 115 degrees outside. I did hamburgers in our air fryer instead. Outside on the grill and they tasted just as good. I don't think anybody even noticed it. Yep. Nobody even noticed a difference. And I didn't have to go outside and stand in 115 degree weather to grill hamburgers. I just made them in the air fryer and cleanup was easy. It was. It was fantastic.

Lisa: 28:15

You're like, I don't know if I'll ever grill hamburgers again.

Amy: 28:19

Exactly. Exactly. So yeah, that's a, that's a great option is to use an air fry, kind of like a grill. And if you haven't bought an air fry and you're thinking about it, that's kind of the way I explain it to people is it's kind of like a grill. It like cooks fast and anything you would make on the grill, you can pretty much make in the air fryer.

Lisa: 28:40

I did not ever think of that because it's true. Even though we can grill year round, sometimes it's like the heat of the summer when we actually don't wanna grill. Which is funny cuz you think, oh, it's just a summer appliance. But sometimes I, I hate grilling myself. I always make my husband do it and he's like, Really? It's 110 and then you want me to stand in front of the grill? So, I love food, obviously. There's so much. I love to talk about food, honestly. I think in another life I should have been a food blogger, but it's the photography that really, um, kind of stopped me on that. your photography is so gorgeous and I think one of those questions that a lot of people have for food bloggers, I see this actually pretty often on Instagram, like in the comments, is how do you stay so thin and eat all this great food and. we were talking earlier, before we started recording about eating all of these great things that we cook and how do we do that and still maintain our health? What were some of your tips on that?

Amy: 29:39

I mean, it can be a challenge as a food blogger when I'm making a lot of different dishes and like some days I'll make just tons of desserts and I love dessert, and I really firmly believe that you can eat what a. You want as long as you're eating it in moderation and being thoughtful and intentional about what you're eating. Um, for me, if I'm going to make something that I will invite friends over or I'll share it with neighbors or I'll send. If I'm making big batches of desserts, I'll send them in to work with my husband. So that way I never restrict myself from having what I'm making. I eat everything that's on my site. Which it can be a lot of comfort food, which is. Historically considered, like heavier food or, or things that other people might not consider healthy, but I believe it's all healthy and it's all great food to eat. So I tend to use the strategies of sharing it with friends and with others. I will freeze. Things that we're not going to eat right then if I don't need to eat at all right, then I can freeze it in portions. And that's another great lunch solution for moms is if I've got portioned in the freezer, something that, that I really love, I can just pull that out and I've got my portion ready to go. Or I'll send it into the office with my husband if it's something like a dessert. Another approach is we'll invite friends over for Sunday dinner, and that's a great opportunity to make something that I might not want to eat a ton of, but it's something that if we have people around and we're sharing it and it's a great social environment and experience and I get to enjoy the food that I want, I'm never sacrificing. What I want to eat and the flavors and the tastes and, and the foods that when we eat in moderation, it's totally fine to eat those, those things. And so that's kind of like my approach to it and, and how I do it.

Lisa: 31:39

Mm-hmm. Yeah, definitely. Eating and moderation is basically what I teach with paying attention to your hunger scale. And I talk about how we're rarely comfortable in our bodies when we're overeating comfort food, but we definitely can include those kinds of things, food that we really love. Which is food that maybe has memories attached to it. Food that our, our moms made, food that's from our heritage. All that could definitely be included in your diet as long as we are paying attention to our bodies and eating it in the amount that is right for us, because there's nothing worse than having something you really love and then feeling terrible afterwards because you ate too much of it.

Amy: 32:22

Right. Nobody should feel guilt over the foods that they eat. I, I really don't love when people talk about food that way because we should enjoy and embrace the foods that we love. And, and recognize the value that they have for, like you said, so many other reasons. The, the emotional and the memories that come up with some of these foods. Those are important to our health and wellbeing too.

Lisa: 32:47

Yeah. I just love thinking about how. Like more of that food, like excess of that food. It's just not gonna feel great in my body. And so I just wanna focus on like how I love this recipe. The last time I made Peach Pie, for example, I focused on how much my dad loved Peach Pie. My dad loved, loved pie. Whenever I make pie, I think of him. But having two slices of pie doesn't make me think of him more. Having one slice of pie is just the right amount. Have that memory feel great and, and mo move on.

Amy: 33:23

I love that. I, and I, I love the way that you talk about that and think about that. That's something that, um, especially during my holidays, I think about a lot. Like my husband's grandma always was famous for her English toffee, and so I make batches of it every year, and we share it with friends and neighbors, and I love to eat. Some pieces of the toffee about would I love to eat an entire batch of the talk and would that make me think about the memories of it more? No. But having that piece of it and that opportunity to make it definitely brings back those great memories and it's a great way of connecting with the people that you care about.

Lisa: 34:01

Yeah, for sure. Anything else that you wanna share with us? Any other wisdom from your years of food blogging and getting dinner on the table?

Amy: 34:10

Yes, actually I had something pop in my mind. Um, I would say try something new and challenge yourself, and one of my favorite. Of doing this is by either going to the farmer's market or the grocery store and walking down the produce aisle and looking for maybe a vegetable that you have not cooked with before, or an herb that you haven't used very much, and just getting it and deciding, Okay, I've gotta figure out how I'm going to use this vegetable. And you might discover a new favorite dish. It might be something that sparks. And new like passion in you to cook more or cook differently or try a different technique. so whether that's. Like trying eggplant. If you've never cooked with eggplant or always thought you hated it, maybe try grilling that eggplant cuz the texture will be different. Or if it's, I mean, whatever it is, a turnip or beets, if you, if you haven't cooked with beets much, grab some beets and try those out. And you might not always have the best results, but you also might find things that you really love. And that's one of the things that I found. When I got into food blogging was that, you know, my mom was a good cook growing up, but she made the same recipes over and over and I started traveling a lot and my husband and I visited a lot of different countries. We've been to six different continents and one thing that I noticed by trying all the food, which is my favorite part about travel, is. There are ingredients and flavors that I just didn't taste growing up in the Midwest, and as I've tried incorporating those into the way that I cook, I may not cook that way all the time, but it brings back memories of those travels and it gives me a lot more experience and confidence as I try to use. New dishes, and there's so many recipes available online at lots of great food blogs where if you just search for an ingredient, What do I make with this ingredient? You'll find so much inspiration out there, whether it's through Google or Pinterest or any other way.

Lisa: 36:20

I'm just like nodding along. I'm like, Yep, yep. I love it. It's perfect. I was wanting to expand the things that we ate for vegetables. I found I was kind of narrowed down to about four or five that I was typically buying, so I was instituting new vegetable of the week and my kids, This was when all my kids were living at home and we decided, We all really love Brel Sprouts. That was our new one that like hit home and we eat those pretty frequently now. But parsnips were a no for everyone. So, but it was fun. I hadn't, I thought I didn't like brussel sprouts from my childhood and same like I considered my mom a good cook, but vegetables, when we were eating in the eighties, tended to be steamed or boiled, and now we tend to grill air fry, roast, and that just adds so much more flavor to a vegetable. So there's, it's a good point about the eggplant because that's actually something I've never tried because my parents didn't like it, but what if I grilled it? They never tried.

Amy: 37:22

Yeah, you might love it that way. And we found that we love, um, and this might be a vegetable that you've had a lot of, but we haven't had much bok choy and bok choy one of my all time favorite veggies. I love that one. So, and that's one that I found by doing this approach. I was like, I've never cooked with this. Let's see what I can do.

Lisa: 37:42

and do you just put that in stir fries or there's specific things you make with it all by itself?

Amy: 37:48

Yeah, so I'll put it in stir fries or I'll just cook it by itself with some garlic in, in a pan, little oil, garlic season it, and we just eat it like that and it's fantastic. It's also really good in soups, so I'll add it to like a soup based like chicken noodle soup. Chop up some bok choy and throw it in there and it's delicious,

Lisa: 38:07

Sounds great. All right, well, thank you so much for your time and for coming on and sharing all of your expertise. Why don't you tell people where they can connect with you or learn more about what you do?

Amy: 38:19

Sure. So I'm online at House of Nash Eats is my blog, and you can find me on all the social media channels, on Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, Facebook, it's House of Nash Eats pretty much across the board.

Lisa: 38:36

Okay, perfect.

Amy: 38:37

and you can sign up for my email newsletter. I send out weekly emails with food, recipe inspiration, dinner ideas, dessert ideas that are geared around seasonal foods and holidays that are coming up. So that's another great way to connect. And if you need some inspiration, that's a good option.

Lisa: 38:55

Perfect. We'll put the link to that so people can, sign up for that email in the show notes. Thanks again, Amy. I'll talk to you another time.

Amy: 39:03

Thanks, Lisa. Bye.

Lisa: 39:08

hey, thanks for listening today. If you're ready to get some personalized coaching from me, I'd encourage you to schedule a free strategy session. Visit www.wellwithlisa.as.me or it's easier just to find that link in the show notes. We'll talk about where you currently are with your weight loss goals. And I'll give you some actionable tools. You can start implementing right away. Before you go, make sure you subscribe to the podcast so you can receive new episodes, right when they're released. And if you're learning something new and enjoying the podcast, I'd love for you to leave me a five star rating and a review. Thanks again for joining me, Lisa Salisbury in this episode of Eat Well, Think Well, Live Well.