Less Chaos, More Protein: Tiffany’s Summer Food Game Plan

Tiffany Sauder: [00:00:00] If one of your least favorite questions of Summer from your kids is Mom, what is there to eat? Then this episode is for you, my family. We are an eat to live kind of a crew, and so over the last 16 years of being a mom and working through these crazy summer seasons. I have come up with a few hacks that make it so that the healthy food is in the foreground and the not so healthy food can be in the background and they can actually decide what to eat even when I'm not there to answer the question.
I am Tiffany Souder, entrepreneur, wife, mom to four girls, and a woman figuring it out just like you. If you're tired of living a life of half to and finally ready to build a life of want to, then you're in the right place. Come on, let's go build your Life of And.
Tiffany Sauder: welcome back to the Life of And podcast part of the IBJ Media Network. I am your host, Tiffany Souder and we're wrapping up the [00:01:00] summer series today
Tiffany Sauder: where we've been. just sharing the things that I've learned over the last 16 summers of being a working mom. I always say, I think summer is the hardest season to be a working parent I've had some bad summers where I feel like I got to the end and I didn't experience any of it.
Tiffany Sauder: I often tell the story that I had a summer where I didn't put a swimsuit on one time, and there were no joke mushrooms growing underneath our patio furniture because we just hadn't been out there. It was like I'd gotten wet and damp and. It was just like a lifeless place, and that was really how Summer felt.
Tiffany Sauder: And so I realized, it's not somebody else's job to give me a really good summer. It's my job to give me a really good summer and to make sure that my family has a really good summer alongside. So that's why we've just kind of done this series and I hope it's been helpful.
Samantha Johnson: we've talked a lot about priorities and priorities for your family and how to, help everyone to have a great summer. So what are your priorities? What are you doing this. Summer.
Samantha Johnson: I.
Tiffany Sauder: so
Tiffany Sauder: I'll go through
Tiffany Sauder: those, but I have [00:02:00] four summer priorities. we recently did kind of a, in real life training on this, priority setting and walked through this summer survival, of kit that we've put together. And one of the questions somebody asked was like, how many priorities should I have?
Tiffany Sauder: And I would say, if you're just getting started on this priorities game, have two. Because you're gonna just naturally make them gigantic. Because that's just who we are as a person. And beginning to see, man, if I write something down, I can get it done. And then maybe next summer, or as you're looking at the first semester going back into school, maybe you pick three but keep it small.
Tiffany Sauder: 'cause the goal is to get it like totally done.
Tiffany Sauder: okay, so what are my priorities? I think this will be my hardest priority to get done and that is to play pickleball 10 times,
Samantha Johnson: I don't play pickleball on the reg, it's on my not now list. Like just life is busy and it's just not super conducive to my kids having so many activities and stuff.
Tiffany Sauder: But I'm like, it's summer, I can do this. I will not get good. That's not my [00:03:00] plan. I just want to like. Have a racket and I think it's fun and it's like social. So
Tiffany Sauder: that's one of my goals. and have a a specific way I want that to come to life. I don't know
Tiffany Sauder: if that's important or not, but that's
Tiffany Sauder: play pickleball 10 times.
Tiffany Sauder: that will be the hardest one. We have quite a bit of travel this summer. but that's my plan. second one is to maintain momentum with my work priorities. what we've been working on, Sam, this is just like a big year. We can't. host this summer because the fall is a big just decision making time for corporate partners and making sure that we feel really prepared, kind of going into a key partner and selling season for us.
Tiffany Sauder: so we just have to stay on top of things so that the fall is super productive.
Tiffany Sauder: and then the agency, I'm not back involved, but. We work primarily with manufacturers. And so all of this tariff uncertainty, has just slowed spending and slowed decision making.
Tiffany Sauder: And so it's, It, been a good year, but it's not been a perfect year. And so again, I feel like I just need to stay really engaged with the [00:04:00] agency this summer. Again, not because they're not doing a great job, but because there's just a lot going on.
Tiffany Sauder: and my other priority is to be fully unplugged for our 20 year anniversary trip. This is 20 years for JR. And I we're going to Europe for like eight or 10 days is pretty long. and so I do think summer is gonna be like a gallop,
Tiffany Sauder: but for that time, that season, I wanna plan well to just be present with him and go do the things.
Tiffany Sauder: and then my fourth priority, is to facilitate 90% completion rate of my family's priorities. That to me means that I have sized, well,
Tiffany Sauder: All of the things that we're trying to get done. The analogy I like to use with the idea of priorities is that each of us as a family member has a puzzle piece, and when we have done a good job of understanding priorities and putting those in the context of our time and money.
Tiffany Sauder: Then all those puzzle pieces fit together and it's like this super cool picture that we all get to create together. That is our summer [00:05:00] when we are like kind of holding those pieces behind our backs and nobody knows who's as big and who's as little and how's it gonna clip together and what's gonna happen.
Tiffany Sauder: And this like, then it's a big mess and we turn out with this kind of disaster of a summer where I just feel reactive the whole time.
Tiffany Sauder: So
Tiffany Sauder: facilitating 90% completion rate is kind of giving me a grade on my planning and really making sure that I, not only I exit with feeling like, dang, that was awesome, but.
Tiffany Sauder: that I facilitated that for our family as well. So those are my four priorities. Play pickleball 10 times. So if you are listening to this and you wanna play pickleball with me,
Samantha Johnson: yeah.
Tiffany Sauder: Message me and I will, we'll try to set it up. I'm not good. That's fine.
Samantha Johnson: Yeah. You have cute clothes for it though.
Tiffany Sauder: I have medium legs, but my clothes are cute, which is not relevant, but I don't know why I needed to say that.
Tiffany Sauder: Okay.
Tiffany Sauder: those are my priorities.
Tiffany Sauder: So,
Samantha Johnson:
Tiffany Sauder: Have you gone through the exercise yet?
Samantha Johnson: I have right now a way too big list. So I need to now go through and [00:06:00] like really figure out what's actually going to be able to happen with two littles. 'cause sometimes I just forget that it's really hard to take two little kids to like the pool even. You know, like everything is a challenge and takes three times as long.
Samantha Johnson: So I know it's not all going to happen. So I need to go back through and like
Samantha Johnson: cut it down.
Tiffany Sauder: 'cause when you really start
Tiffany Sauder: putting it on the calendar,
Tiffany Sauder: that's where I was like, this 10 I'm gonna have to be on it.
Tiffany Sauder: yeah.
Samantha Johnson: Yes.
Tiffany Sauder: it's so stupid. there will be a time I am on the microphone being like, you guys know what I play pickleball competitively. It's probably gonna be 10 years from now, but I, I just want that to be in my life someday. I've never been athletically competitive.
Samantha Johnson: I don't think you have to be athletically competitive to play pickleball though,
Samantha Johnson: so
Tiffany Sauder: But people are,
Samantha Johnson: Yeah, it's true.
Samantha Johnson: people can make anything competitive, I guess, and athletic,
Tiffany Sauder: Are you saying you don't think you have to be
Tiffany Sauder: athletic
Tiffany Sauder: to play pickleball?
Tiffany Sauder: Not
Samantha Johnson: super.
Samantha Johnson: That's why so many people play it. That's probably true. I.
Tiffany Sauder: [00:07:00] so those are my priorities. We're
Tiffany Sauder: gonna work on yours?
Samantha Johnson: Yes. Narrow them
Tiffany Sauder: So the episode
Tiffany Sauder: we're gonna go through. I've said before, we are eat to live family. and so how to make sure that we're ready for our family.
Tiffany Sauder: just tips on how do you keep food easy in the house and how do you get your kids? I'm not militant. Our kids eat good food in. Not good for you food. But I like to empower, I I like to make good food choices easy. And so this is kind of some tips around that. So
Tiffany Sauder: I feel like there's like lots of people on the internet who are giving you like 12 recipes to grill out this summer.
Tiffany Sauder: We're not gonna do that. These are busy working family household tips around food.
Samantha Johnson: Perfect.
Tiffany Sauder: number one, keep fruit and veggies front and center. When you get home from the grocery store, go ahead and you do it or have your kids do it. Wash all that up, get your grapes off the stems, cut your strawberries, wash your berries, and, keep fruit ready and veggies ready to eat.
Tiffany Sauder: And I just recently [00:08:00] got rid of all
Tiffany Sauder: of
Tiffany Sauder: our containers and replace them with these beautiful Rubbermaid glass ones. They're amazing. and so everything in our fridge is in glass.
Samantha Johnson: And
Samantha Johnson: it stacks nicely,
Tiffany Sauder: It's so beautiful. Can we provide a link and show notes to
Tiffany Sauder: these fine people? would be fine
Tiffany Sauder: I
Tiffany Sauder: gave my fridge and our food a glow up of epic proportions with these silly little Rubbermaid things. They're not cheap. I think I ended up getting three sets of them actually, because we're a big leftover family. We chop and cut lots of food. I think I ended up getting three sets.
Tiffany Sauder: Over the course of several weeks, it's like we kind of need one more. but they're amazing. They stack so well. It's like They work so well in the fridge, it's all symmetrical. Like the big one is twice as big as the other two. And then there's ones that are
Tiffany Sauder: like three times. It's like amazing.
Tiffany Sauder: So,
Tiffany Sauder: do
Tiffany Sauder: that
Tiffany Sauder: wash and cut your veggies and make them visible.
Tiffany Sauder: And I'm telling you, the kids will eat them and so will you. It'll be so much easier to eat fresh food.
Tiffany Sauder: I [00:09:00] wanna take a quick moment to thank my partners at Share Your Genius. For the past four years, they have been an incredible part of my journey. Behind the Microphone, share Your Genius is a content and podcast production agency that helps leaders and brands bring their message to life.
Tiffany Sauder: So, whether you're trying to find your voice, develop a content strategy, or get your leader behind a microphone, they're gonna help you make it simple, strategic and impactful.
the other thing
Tiffany Sauder: I will say is, Set it out. If like When I'm making dinner, if I am intentional about like pulling a pile of carrots and some hummus outta the fridge and just put it on the island while I'm cooking, they will just eat that while I'm cooking.
Tiffany Sauder: 'cause they're hungry, they're smelling food and so am I. And it's like, I might eat 12 carrots, but that is way better than me eating like three Hawaiian rolls.
Samantha Johnson: Yes. Or a bag of
Samantha Johnson: chips.
Samantha Johnson: Or a bag of chips.
Tiffany Sauder: or a bag of chips.
Tiffany Sauder: 'cause you're kind of like, I'm hungry. I'm wanting to feel satiated, and so just getting fresh produce out.
Tiffany Sauder: I'm telling you, we go through so much produce. and that's a huge piece of, it. having it out, having it ready, having it look [00:10:00] pretty. Fruit and veggies are already so colorful. half protein prepped. I make a huge crockpot of shredded chicken every single Tuesday. I say I do, my house manager does. But we have a huge crockpot of shredded chicken always on hand. So for wraps and tacos or sandwiches or salads, we're just eating it on bowls over rice, over whatever. and if you wanna make a super decadent, take a half a block of cream cheese and slurp that into a hot crockpot of chicken, and it just bathes in like alfredo yumminess or something.
Tiffany Sauder: I don't know. It just like tastes better. It sticks together. It's got like sets. It's so good. so for us, it's shredded chicken Tuesdays, I always have shredded chicken on the fridge. That way it's easy for me to grab protein and easy for me to make stuff for the kids, or they know how to do that. So easy protein on hand, you can do pork, whatever works for you.
Tiffany Sauder: But shredded chicken is our favorite.
Tiffany Sauder: have a snack agreement. This is, seems stupid, but I tell my kids, if you want a snack, it's one pantry, one fridge, And they all know that. I [00:11:00] don't have to manage it. So if they wanna get something to eat, they naturally walk to the pantry and grab something. But then they also know if I go to the pantry, I have to grab something fresh from the fridge.
Tiffany Sauder: Can be string cheese, cream, be fruits and veggies, whatever it is. But that way I know they're getting something healthy and there's fiber and protein and those kinds of things. other thing to remember is anticipate snack times. our kids' bodies are wired to the school day. They wake up, They eat breakfast, they get to school.
Tiffany Sauder: Our younger kids have a morning snack then they go to lunch, they come home from school, they eat a snack after they get off the bus, and then we have dinner. But they're used to eating five times a day.
Tiffany Sauder: And I think when they get on our adult schedule, I can kind of forget their bodies are programmed to eat during those times.
Tiffany Sauder: And so it kind of becomes this like battleground of like, why are you in the pantry? Instead of me or my nanny or whoever's watching the kids to get ahead of it and say, Hey, it's 10 30, let's have a snack. Let's pull some stuff out of the fridge. Let's be thoughtful about what we're going to eat and kind of size it appropriately to a snack versus just letting 'em kind of free for all in the pantry of the [00:12:00] fridge in that time, so
Tiffany Sauder: just kind of keeping those school eating patterns in mind when they transition to summer schedule. I think that's gonna be a real helpful thing for us this summer. I'm always like annoyed at three. I find this on Saturdays and Sundays when it's like everything in the fridge is out.
Tiffany Sauder: They're all starving. I'm like, oh my, word dinner's in two hours. It's like, oh, of course you guys are used to just housing food this time of day. When Monday through Friday. have a hydration station. Either like a spot in your fridge door for your younger kids, or just remind your older kids, like we all get grumpy when we're dehydrated.
Tiffany Sauder: Let's keep water within arms distance, get new water bottles if it needs to be kind of fun. But that's important to just kinda keep people hydrated. Cook with
Tiffany Sauder: leftovers in mind. I always make one and a half to two recipes for dinner. 'cause we eat leftovers very well as a family. But I think reminding yourself, everybody's probably gonna be eating lunch at home too.
Tiffany Sauder: And so just making sure the quantity you're making for [00:13:00] dinner, is bigger so that you've got more leftovers that are gonna feed more people. number eight is single serve snacks. So either like Not everything, but a lot of things I'll buy in single serve sizing. it just takes away the temptation of like eating the entire bag of potato chips or if you get the bigger bags, you don't have to portion out everything, but if you find it's like it is kind of annoying to go back to the pantry four times for little bags of snacks. I just find it kind of slows them down sometimes. And it's important for me. With my girls, for them to have a super healthy relationship with food. I am not a parent who has foods that are just totally off limits. I let them eat anything, not all the time. I don't always have it all in the house.
Tiffany Sauder: And when we do have treats in the house, I try to make it portioned in a way that's just like thoughtful 'cause it doesn't feel good to them. 'cause it doesn't feel good to have that kind of food in our bodies Post a a weekly menu. If you've listened to the other episodes in the series, I've said this in probably every episode, but putting a post-it note on the [00:14:00] fridge that says Here is what is in the fridge to eat, helps them.
Tiffany Sauder: Just like when you go to a restaurant and if they said, these are all the ingredients that we have in the restaurant, what would you like to eat? You would be like, I'm Audi. So seeing a menu helps them be like, this sounds good. The stuff is in here to make that, I think I'll do that,
Tiffany Sauder: Grab and go breakfast.
Tiffany Sauder: This can be also a place where we kind of get stuck on cereal. we have really been into those Kodiak cake cups. They're like two or $3 a piece, which is probably, I don't know if that's a lot. Is that a lot for breakfast?
Samantha Johnson: I feel like.
Samantha Johnson: In the long run, if you are like going out to eat, you're gonna spend more than that.
Samantha Johnson: That's what I always think in my head. is like, it's still cheaper than if I were like, run through McDonald's and get something. You Yeah, Totally. And it's better for you, for them. So if you don't know what they are, they're literally like
Tiffany Sauder: when you were on vacation as a kid and would have like a single serve of Cheerios.
Tiffany Sauder: and you just add milk, it's like that format where it's like this cup and you pour in a third a cup of milk or [00:15:00] water and then stir it and microwave it for 30 seconds. So.
Tiffany Sauder: There's like 15 grams of protein in one of them. so that has been a real go-to.
Tiffany Sauder: My kids don't eat overnight oats. That's a good one if they do, but nobody really is into that.
Tiffany Sauder: and for my teenagers, sometimes I'll do Ziploc bags of like a banana, a cup of berries, and a scuba protein and put that in the freezer so that all they have to do is dump that bag into a blender and add some milk.
Tiffany Sauder: That's kind of a quick grab and go like smoothie for the morning. So grab and go breakfast, work with your family. What do they like? How do you make it easy? Those Kodiak cake cups. check those out.
Tiffany Sauder: the other is freezing fruit.
Tiffany Sauder: we are big treat family and so, just taking a bunch of grapes and freezing them, freezing bananas. Those are probably our two favorites. They're like delicious just outta the freezer and kind of the sweet and cold popsicle kind of a moment experience without all the sugar. So again, we are not an anti-sugar house, these are some things that keep healthy food in the [00:16:00] forefront.
Tiffany Sauder: Keep unhealthy food kind of in the background of our family and me being able to control. Some of the portions on pieces of it without having to be like this militant guide that's like checking to see what it is that they're eating and giving them some control over choice by having some really clear agreement. So I hope these have been helpful. all of these are things that are happening in our house literally every single week. and I've just layered them in over time To make it so that we can have quick, healthy food mostly at home. I don't like eating out during the week. It's expensive, It feels like it takes so much time and it really cuts in our ability to like be together as a family.
Tiffany Sauder: Quick rundown. Keep fruits and veggies front and center. Cut 'em up, keep them in. Clear containers.
Tiffany Sauder: set out fresh produce while you're cooking a meal and see how quickly it disappears so that as your kids are kind of snacking and as you want to reach for something, it's healthy and.
Tiffany Sauder: Good for you. have one major protein prep a week. My go-to is shredded chicken. set a snack agreement, one thing [00:17:00] from the fridge, one thing from the pantry. And dip it. anticipate snack times that like late morning and just after school are their kids' bodies are programmed to be hungry in those times. So go ahead and get ahead of it so that everybody's gonna get grumpy water within reach with a hydration station. increase the the amount that you're cooking for dinner so that you've got lunch overs to sustain. Think about single serve snacks, especially for those things that are not quite as healthy.
Tiffany Sauder: just slows down eating the whole thing.
Tiffany Sauder: post a weekly menu and, freeze fruit as quick go-tos for popsicles.
Samantha Johnson: Awesome. And don't forget to download the Summer Sanity Guide.
Samantha Johnson: to
Samantha Johnson: get everything prepped for summer.
Tiffany Sauder: Awesome, Thanks.
Tiffany Sauder: [00:18:00]