#634 Time-Saving Strategies for Busy Cooks: Sabbath Soup Secrets
634 – Time-Saving Strategies for Busy Cooks:
Sabbath Soup Secrets
Hey there, busy friends!
Have you ever wished for a true day of rest from cooking?
In this episode of Clutter-Free Academy, Kathi Lipp and co-host Tonya Kubo dive into time-saving strategies for meal planning and preparation. Kathi introduces her upcoming book, “Sabbath Soup: Weekly Menus and Rhythms to Make Space for a Day of Rest,” and shares insights on how to manage meals when time is in short supply. They share real-life ideas for streamlining kitchen routines, including tips for freezing ingredients, using kitchen gadgets efficiently, and repurposing leftovers creatively.
Listeners will discover:
- The concept of “loop meals” or “leftovers on purpose”
- The benefits of batch cooking and prepping ingredients in advance
- Using AI tools like Claude to assist with meal planning
- The value of pre-made meals and “catering by Costco” during busy times
Kathi and Tonya share personal anecdotes and practical advice for getting delicious meals to your table without losing your sanity. Trust me, your future self will thank you!
Did you miss #633 From Overwhelmed to Organized: A Step-by-Step Guide to Clutter-Free Meal Planning? Listen in now.
Preorder Sabbath Soup here and receive your free download bonus Sabbath Soup Shortcuts. The preorder bonus ends October 8, 2024.
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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.
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Meet Our Guest
Tonya Kubo
Transcript
Kathi (00:00.903)
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 here with me is my co-host of Clutter -Free Academy, it’s Tonya Kubo. Hey, Tonya. So we are in the midst of talking all things food prep. And we’ve been talking about my book that’s coming out, Sabbath Soup, weekly menus and rhythms to make space for a day of rest.
Tonya Kubo (00:14.602)
Hey KathI!
Tonya Kubo (00:20.873)
Yes!
Kathi (00:30.367)
I don’t even know if I’ve shown you this, but look how pretty she is. This is just a mock-up. You know, the inside is somebody else’s cookbook completely.
Tonya Kubo (00:43.328)
You know.
Kathi (00:44.413)
You would never know, but I think she’s so pretty. It makes me so happy. The bowl of soup on the front makes me super happy. And you know what I loved about doing that? We actually went to a hunting lodge. No, no, no, it wasn’t a hunting lodge. It was a vineyard lodge. Like I guess they have had hunters stay there before. And we did all the photography for that. And we cooked a bunch of my recipes and
Tonya Kubo (00:58.624)
Mmm.
Kathi (01:13.021)
the whole crew was like, when do we get to eat these? And we finally got to eat. And they were all like, this is amazing. my goodness. It made me so happy. Because you know, I cook all these recipes and I think they’re amazing. But then to unleash them on the general public, it’s nice. Let’s just say it’s nice to have confirmation that it worked out, right? So I want to talk about, I made this book.
Tonya Kubo (01:26.72)
Mm -hmm.
Tonya Kubo (01:35.424)
Right, exactly.
Kathi (01:42.591)
for people who were short on time, short on money, and short on energy. And so I wanted to talk about like, okay, which of those three are you the shortest on?
Tonya Kubo (01:47.392)
Mm
Tonya Kubo (01:53.994)
Cool. I would say time.
Kathi (01:57.599)
Okay, okay, so this episode is for you. Yay. For me, it’s probably energy just because, you know, I don’t know, you know, it’s, I maybe I’m getting a little bit older. I put my energy into a lot of different things. But you have, you have a 14 year old and how old is Miss Abby? 10, that’s what I was gonna guess that but I’m always terrible at guessing children’s ages.
Tonya Kubo (02:00.745)
Yay!
Tonya Kubo (02:21.162)
Ten.
Kathi (02:26.623)
You know, I at my niece I’d be like she’s 12 right? No, she’s 16. Kathi. Okay. Yeah, great Super involved in so You’re at a place where yeah, you’re going into 15, you know between Band camp and you know the different classes your kids take and doctor’s appointments and just your own business there’s there’s not a lot of time so What where?
Tonya Kubo (02:31.424)
No.
Tonya Kubo (02:46.378)
My heart.
Tonya Kubo (02:53.408)
There’s not.
Kathi (02:55.805)
Where do you feel like the challenge with time comes with meal planning most?
Tonya Kubo (03:01.19)
Well, I think for us, when it comes to meal planning, I, part of it is, is that when I worked in an office environment, I would spend my Friday lunch break planning meals for the next week. And at home, I don’t get the formal breaks that I used to get when I was in an office.
Kathi (03:12.229)
Mm -hmm. Mmm.
Kathi (03:18.863)
Right. Yes, yes, that makes a big difference, doesn’t it?
Tonya Kubo (03:24.516)
It does. And so part of it is, is setting aside the time. It’s protecting the time when I’ve set it aside and getting in the headspace. As you know, that transition time with your brain, like just takes a lot. And so those three things always make it feel harder and more time consuming than it should have to be.
Kathi (03:32.095)
Mm -hmm.
Kathi (03:39.207)
It does.
Kathi (03:45.649)
Yeah, well, and I think about, you know, when you’re planning for just a couple days in advance, that’s really tough. And you were planning away from home, which I mean, was great. But also, you didn’t necessarily know what was in the fridge. And as we’ve discussed on this podcast in the past, Mr. Kubo likes to stop by the store. So you may not know what has recently come to your house. Yes, yes, yes. So
Tonya Kubo (03:55.509)
Mm
Tonya Kubo (04:10.416)
Exactly.
Kathi (04:13.375)
I do want to talk about time -saving strategies both with planning but also part of the reason that this is called Sabbath soup is because we are planning for you to take a Sabbath we want you to and we’re gonna work the Kubo’s up from having absolutely no Sabbath to something of a Sabbath to someday having a Sabbath and We’re gonna see this transformation
Tonya Kubo (04:25.896)
Mm
Tonya Kubo (04:38.334)
Yes!
Kathi (04:41.395)
So I want to talk about some time saving strategies and I want you to leap in here too because Tonya, you’ve learned a lot. So I think one thing that I think we really need to talk about is keeping it simple. It’s very fun to try elaborate recipes because you want to try something really, really specific. But I think there’s also a place for
Tonya Kubo (04:57.888)
Mm
Kathi (05:09.735)
What’s easy and done, right? What do we do that we can just do really, really quickly? And one of the things that I’ve learned also is to have the resources on hand to make meal prep easy. So one of the things that I do is I have a set of dry,
Measuring spoons and measuring cups and a set of wet measuring spoons and measuring cups. I have a set of dry Mixing bowls and a set of wet mixing bowls that has been For me that keeps it so I don’t have to clean up all the time now, of course If I am preparing like a meatloaf and I’ve got raw meat in the bowl. I am NOT reusing that bowl. So let’s
Let’s just start off with the assumption that we all have some common sense and that I’m using common sense Because we often have people who will write into the podcast assuming that I don’t know that Robbie can kill you But I I very much know that so we’re just gonna use the common sense that we can I also so what’s your favorite time -saving meal Tonya?
Tonya Kubo (06:05.684)
Mm -hmm. Yes.
Tonya Kubo (06:16.576)
Mm
Kathi (06:29.599)
Because I think having some chili, why is it time saving for you?
Tonya Kubo (06:30.112)
Chili. Chili.
Well, cause my chili recipe uses the Instant Pot or I use a crock pot sometimes. You know, I use an Instant Pot for both functions, but you know, my chili recipe is just opening a bunch of cans and dumping it. And what I have started doing, and I think I got this tip from you, is I actually go to a local butcher to buy ground meat. And so I buy it five pounds at a time.
Kathi (06:39.389)
Yeah.
Kathi (06:43.461)
Mm -hmm. Yeah
Kathi (06:50.952)
Yeah.
Tonya Kubo (07:02.408)
And then when I bring it home, I just cook all of it up and then I portion it out. You know, so five portions. So that’s already done it in the freezer so I can just throw that in with all the rest of my ingredients, plug it in, set it for its time. Done.
Kathi (07:02.417)
Ooh.
Kathi (07:05.87)
-huh. Nice.
Kathi (07:13.415)
Yeah.
Kathi (07:19.419)
Okay, so you bring up such a good point here that is now I do my ground beef I’ll put I’ll do it with the First I’ll saute some onions and then I’ll throw that and garlic and do that because that’s how I like to use my ground beef I also now do that with sausage crumble sausage And shredded chicken, but I will also say sam’s club has a shredded chicken. That’s out of this world It’s a smoked shredded chicken
Tonya Kubo (07:30.89)
Mm -hmm.
Tonya Kubo (07:39.776)
Mmm.
Tonya Kubo (07:49.053)
Yum.
Kathi (07:49.947)
Yeah, that’s amazing. But to have those packets of pre -cooked meat ready to go to add into your chili, to add into your spaghetti sauce, to add into your soup, genius, genius, genius. And yeah, so I think it’s interesting. There are two ways to define time-saving. So time-saving can be, okay, I’m going to do this real quick because I’m home and we need something quick for dinner.
Tonya Kubo (07:53.802)
Mm -hmm.
Kathi (08:20.103)
which is a totally valid way of cooking. Then there’s another way, which is just how you described your chili, which is you throw all the ingredients in there. It takes you five minutes to throw together. However, it may cook all day. And that’s, to me, those are both time -saving. They are used in different ways, but they both count as time-saving to me. And so I love having those kinds of go -to meals.
Tonya Kubo (08:35.146)
Mm
Kathi (08:49.757)
So I want to tell you a few of my other favorite go -to meals that can hit some of those things. So one of them is just a pasta. Last night, I had made pasta sauce a couple of weeks ago, and I made too much. I froze part of it because I had had some ground sausage, some marinara sauce, some onions and mushrooms, all that kind of stuff. And instead of
Tonya Kubo (08:53.407)
Mm -hmm.
Tonya Kubo (09:05.866)
Mm -hmm.
Kathi (09:18.239)
putting the leftovers into the fridge where let’s just be clear, leftovers go to die. I said, you know what, I’m going, this is what’s called a loop meal, leftovers on purpose. So I packaged that up, it in the freezer. Last night I made, I boiled up some just elbow macaroni and we had that with.
Tonya Kubo (09:40.618)
Mm -hmm.
Kathi (09:43.995)
That marinara sauce rogers like this is my favorite meal I’m like good because it’s super easy and then I made a whole box of that macaroni Pasta because I’m gonna turn that into mac and cheese and so like, know, we’re doing those left So like we’re doing a cycle of meals So first I cooked too much marinara and I made that with the pasta which I cook too much of the pasta which I’m gonna make into the macaroni and cheese
Tonya Kubo (09:49.61)
Yes.
Tonya Kubo (10:02.186)
Mm
Kathi (10:11.431)
I’m gonna shred too much cheese. I will make that into something else when I make the macaroni and cheese. It’s the circle of life, baby. Another really great time -saving meal for me, and I think this is one that Lily may dig. So I’m just gonna, it’s the sheet pan meals. Has she ever cooked a sheet pan meal?
Tonya Kubo (10:17.664)
Thank you.
Yes.
Tonya Kubo (10:35.441)
well, I have, right? So she’s watched me do it, but yeah, she has not made one of her own.
Kathi (10:37.072)
Okay. Yes.
I think some sheet pan fajitas would be right up that kid’s alley. I don’t know. think she might, you slice everything, toss with seasoning, and bake on a sheet pan. And I love parchment paper. It’s the one thing at Costco I don’t care for. Their paper is good, but just the size of it, it’s too big for things.
Tonya Kubo (10:46.892)
I think you’re right. No, you’re right.
Tonya Kubo (10:58.496)
Mm -hmm.
Tonya Kubo (11:10.418)
It’s too unwieldy, yeah.
Kathi (11:11.999)
Yes, have I told you my favorite sheet pan? What am I trying to say? What do you parchment paper tip? Have I told you my favorite parchment paper tip? Okay, so you cut out your parchment paper and then you crinkle it all up and spread it out again. So it doesn’t all. Yes, I why did it take me 10 years to figure that out? But God bless.
Tonya Kubo (11:25.084)
No, you have not told me your favorite parchment paper tip.
Tonya Kubo (11:34.178)
So it doesn’t curl up? Nice!
You know what? We used parchment paper two days ago and you know what I did, Kathi? I grabbed cans out of the pantry and just put one can in every corner. So like the moment you’re telling me you crinkle it up, I’m like, that would make it lay flat, wouldn’t it? That would be easier than lugging out four cans from the cabinet.
Kathi (11:48.351)
okay.
Kathi (11:54.619)
Yes, yes.
Kathi (11:59.555)
I do it every time I bake cookies now, every time I do everything. Okay, here’s another fun one. A Greek salad with rotisserie chicken. you’re just doing, so there are two ways to do a Greek salad. You can do like the lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, feta, but also another way I love to do it is just the sliced cucumbers and do that in with some tomatoes and throw some chicken in there, do some feta.
Tonya Kubo (12:04.081)
love it.
Kathi (12:29.255)
and put some either Italian dressing or Greek dressing on it. Chef’s kiss, chef’s kiss. And quesadillas, another favorite way and those do great in an air fryer or just in a pan. Tuna avocado boats, have you ever done something like this?
Tonya Kubo (12:32.53)
Mm -hmm.
Yum.
Tonya Kubo (12:39.872)
Mm
Tonya Kubo (12:50.384)
Yes, but not for years because you know the price of avocados around here is a little bit silly. But yes, tuna avocado boats and chicken salad avocado boats are really good.
Kathi (12:55.281)
Yeah, yes it is.
I was just going to say this would be an easy one to do a chicken salad with. And so think about that when you’re roasting a chicken, like for Roger and I, we’re not going to eat all of that roasted chicken. What are you going to make with the leftovers? That is a time saver because if you get that roasted chicken out, you’re chopping it up, you’re eating that for dinner at night. And then at the same time, you’re making a chicken salad so you can have that for lunch the next day or dinner the next day.
Tonya Kubo (13:03.441)
And I’m loose.
Tonya Kubo (13:12.16)
Mm -hmm.
Kathi (13:29.735)
How many times can you have leftovers on purpose when you’re just doing that the next day? And then I love a good wrap, you know, so taking some leftover chicken or maybe some hummus or some pre-cut vegetables and just, you know, putting it on a tortilla or a wrap or whatever you use to roll. It’s a great no-cook meal.
Tonya Kubo (13:36.02)
Yeah.
Tonya Kubo (13:55.114)
Mm -hmm.
Kathi (13:57.469)
So they’re great for busy days when you know that tomorrow is going to be busy cook tonight and have that as a leftover so I also want you to save time with your cooking routine so Tonya I’m gonna give you a minute to think about what is your favorite time -saving tip for when you’re prepping for things okay so I want you to think about that but I’m gonna tell you my favorite thing
is to cut your veggies for the week. So on one day, for me it’s Thursdays, I’m pulling out my Cuisinart, whatever your food processor is, and I am cutting all of my carrots at the same time. I’m precutting all of my onions, both white or yellow, whatever you want, and then also purple. Like all of that is happening on the same day.
I am cutting up as much as I possibly can in one day. So I only have to clean out the food processor once. So what are you going to do? I also love to use Alexa for reminders and kind of, you know, doing out my day. The other thing I love, and then I’m gonna come to your tip, is to say, hey Claude, here are all my recipes.
What should I do in what order? So if you don’t know what I’m talking about, Claude is AI, you could also use chat GBT. What can I prep the day before and what can I cook the day of? What order should I do that in? I think that that, and Claude is right 90 % of the time, sometimes you have to look at it and say, really, is that what I wanna do? But to get an order, so you’re not having to decide on the day of cooking what you’re gonna do.
Tonya Kubo (15:40.884)
Mm -hmm.
Tonya Kubo (15:49.844)
Mm -hmm.
Kathi (15:50.407)
Okay, so Tonya what’s your favorite time-saving cooking tip?
Tonya Kubo (15:55.09)
Okay, so for cooking, mean, I think your point, I think is the ultimate truth, which is it’s the prep that takes the most time. It’s the chopping and all the things. So for me, some things that I have just discovered over the years, if I’m making recipes where I need shredded cheese, freezing the blocks of cheese in advance, because frozen cheese actually shreds easier and faster.
Kathi (16:06.408)
Yes.
Tonya Kubo (16:24.382)
than cheese from the fridge. You don’t have the moisture, all of that. So that’s one, it’s just super easy. We also keep our ginger root, because we do a lot of Asian cooking. So our ginger root is in the freezer because if you grate it, you don’t need to peel it. The peel just kind of like melts away. So that’s one that we do. And then we have started doing a lot more like minced garlic with like ice cubes or oil.
Kathi (16:26.469)
Yeah, yeah. Right.
Kathi (16:34.899)
Mm -hmm. Yeah.
Kathi (16:41.269)
nice. cool.
Tonya Kubo (16:53.246)
like with water or oil and freezing those and making little like flavor bricks. Those are the things. And then for me, the big one is I make my own bone broth. So anytime I cook a roasted chicken, cook a chicken, have bones, I throw that all in the Instant Pot and just water and some seasonings and let that cook. It makes a very neutral broth. It’s not like the broth you buy at the store, but having that frozen in ice cube trays, that makes it super fast to make soup, super easy.
Kathi (16:53.288)
Yeah.
Kathi (17:03.593)
Okay?
Tonya Kubo (17:22.814)
to make, even if I wanna make ramen and just have it be a little heartier using the homemade stuff, all of that, and dried mushrooms. My family loves mushrooms a lot. So dried mushrooms kick up the flavor and things.
Kathi (17:27.579)
Yeah.
Kathi (17:33.585)
Yes.
And Costco has the big thing of dried mushrooms. If, yeah, yeah.
Tonya Kubo (17:39.742)
That’s where we buy ours. And we just started buying freeze-dried green onions. And we bought them online. Brian had seen them at Costco, but they were doing that thing where, you know, they’re not going to order any more. Because, you know, it’s like, you can regrow your green onions. We’ve talked about that before on the show. But, sometimes you just need a tablespoon of green onions. You don’t need the whole batch.
Kathi (17:45.433)
interesting, where do you get those?
Kathi (17:54.161)
Right, right.
Kathi (17:58.397)
Yeah. Yeah.
Kathi (18:06.151)
It’s so true. Yes.
Tonya Kubo (18:07.322)
And so popping those, just a tablespoon of those, again, a lot of times it’s for our ramen, but it just makes everything so much more fun. It’s great for the kids, right? Like I’m not just giving them some noodles and some like broth with MSG. It’s homemade broth, the noodles, and then a little bit of green onion, a little bit of dried mushroom. And they feel like it’s fancy. Of course, Lily will add a soft-boiled egg because she’s a little bit extra.
Kathi (18:12.137)
Yeah.
Kathi (18:22.163)
Yes.
Kathi (18:33.809)
Yes, we love Lily’s extraness. Yes.
Tonya Kubo (18:36.37)
Yes, but those are all things that we do for saving time and yet at the same time not feeling like we’re deprived.
Kathi (18:44.487)
Yeah, and so let me just say something here that’s really important that I should have started this whole thing with. If you need to buy all your food for a week because it’s that kind of week, you know, let’s just be honest. The week of October 8th, when I am going to be promoting, you know, Sabbath soup and how to cook for a week, all of my groceries, all of my meals will probably be
Prepare like it will be the Costco chicken. It will be the pasta that’s already cooked like there is no shame in that yes, I love that yes, and there
Tonya Kubo (19:13.344)
Mm
Tonya Kubo (19:19.39)
Yeah. No, we call it catering by Costco at our house. Right. Or like the Costco. You’ve done this before with a book launch where you get like the Costco size meat and cheese tray, you know, and then you just have that in the fridge and you’ve got that with crackers for like homemade charcuterie, that with bread for sandwiches. It’s really about survival. What makes the most sense? I mean, to your point, you talked about the chopping.
Kathi (19:34.203)
Yes, yes.
Kathi (19:38.429)
Yes. Yes. Yeah.
Kathi (19:46.674)
Yes.
Tonya Kubo (19:48.788)
Kathi, there’s been times when like the whole house gets hit with the flu. I just run and I buy the pre -chopped carrots, celery and onions so that I can just come home. I mean, it’s…
Kathi (19:52.638)
Yeah.
Kathi (19:57.503)
You’re better than me. You’re better than me. I would just like, I would find somebody it would be Door Job Dash Mountain Edition. which, which let’s be clear. It’s my friend Susie. Susie would show up with a giant pot of soup. Yes. But you know, sometimes it’s like, okay, so I’m getting two Costco chickens. And so the first day we’re just going to eat it right off the bone.
Tonya Kubo (20:08.146)
Yeah
Tonya Kubo (20:11.92)
Right. Suzie totally would. She’s like that.
Kathi (20:24.723)
The next day we’re gonna roll that up in a tortilla. The next day we’re going to do it into a chicken salad. Like that, if that’s what your version of home cooking is, God be with you. Absolutely, friend. And we even have a week in Sabbath soup where it’s like you’re just buying all the food and you’re putting it together in new and interesting ways because sometimes that’s how we survive. Okay, guys, we are…
Tonya Kubo (20:27.636)
Mm -hmm.
Tonya Kubo (20:35.018)
Mm -hmm.
Tonya Kubo (20:46.367)
Mm -hmm.
Kathi (20:54.003)
We’re going to be showing up here all month talking about how to get dinner on the table when you don’t have time, money or energy. And so next week, come back because we’re going to talk about when you’re on a budget, baby. Sometimes that’s just what you need to do. guys, clutter-free. Excuse me. Sabbath soup. Can you tell that I’m in a mode? Right. So so so and then I just called it Sabbath soap. Yeah.
Tonya Kubo (21:16.0)
It’s all good.
Kathi (21:23.551)
I hope you use soap on Sabbath. Sabbath soup is now available for pre-order. And I’m going to suggest that all my cluttery friends, one, listen to the episode before this because we had such great tips about getting you started with Sabbath soup. But also if you pre-order it, you get our quick start guide. And it’s gonna have some recipes you can try before the book comes out.
Tonya Kubo (21:48.576)
Mm -hmm.
Kathi (21:49.055)
It’s going to have some tips and tricks and things that you’re gonna want to know so we have the link in there You can get it from any of your favorite retailers Barnes and Noble, Amazon, Christian books calm like wherever you love to buy books you can find it and So we’re going to list that in the show notes Tonya. Thanks for being on today
Tonya Kubo (22:12.0)
Thank you for having me.
Kathi (22:13.777)
And friends, thank you for being here. And if you have ideas of how to save time with your cooking, we would love for you to share those in the show notes because we may feature those on a future episode. You’ve been listening to Clutter -Free Academy. I’m Kathi Lipp. Now go create the clutter-free life you were always intended to live.
