Welcome to Episode 418 of The Intermittent Fasting Podcast, hosted by Melanie Avalon, biohacker, founder of AvalonX, and author of What When Wine Diet: Lose Weight And Feel Great With Paleo-Style Meals, Intermittent Fasting, And Wine, and Barry Conrad, actor, singer-songwriter, and creator and host of Banter with BC.
SPECIAL GUEST BIO
Allison Schaaf is the founder and CEO of Prep Dish, a meal-planning service that helps busy individuals and families save time while enjoying healthy, stress-free meals. As a registered dietitian and trained chef, Allison combines her expertise in nutrition and culinary arts to create practical, delicious meal plans designed for real life. With a passion for simplifying mealtime, she has helped thousands of subscribers reclaim their evenings and enjoy meal time.
Beyond Prep Dish, Allison is also the founder of the nonprofit, Miscarriage Hope Desk, a resource for women navigating miscarriage and recurrent pregnancy loss. Through this platform, she offers support, education, and community for those on their fertility journey.
Allison is also the host of the Meal Prep Monday Podcast™: 10 minutes of actionable meal prep advice, helping you answer the dreaded “What's for Dinner?” question with ease.
Allison and her husband have 3 young boys and enjoy living in the Texas Hill Country with their chickens, goats, cats and bees.
LEARN MORE
Website } Meal Prep Monday Podcast™ | IG
Plus, my listeners can get a 2 week free trial at prepdish.com/melanieavalon!
SHOW NOTES
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Original theme composed by Leland Cox, and recomposed by Steve Saunders.
Our content does not constitute an attempt to practice medicine and does not establish a doctor-patient relationship. Please consult a qualified healthcare provider for medical advice and answers to personal health questions.
TRANSCRIPT
(Note: This is generated by AI with 98% accuracy. However, any errors may cause unintended changes in meaning.)
Melanie Avalon
Welcome to Episode 418 of the Intermittent Fasting Podcast. If you want to burn fat, gain energy, and enhance your health by changing when you eat, not what you eat, with no calorie counting, then this show is for you. I'm Melanie Avalon, biohacker, founder of AvalonX, and author of What, When, Wine. Lose weight and feel great with paleo-style meals, intermittent fasting, and wine. And I'm joined by my co-host, Barry Conrad, actor, singer-songwriter, and creator and host of Banter with B.C. For more on us, check out MelanieAvalon.com and BarryConradOfficial.com. You can submit questions for the show by emailing questions at iapodcast.com or by going to iapodcast.com. We would love to hear from you. Please remember, the thoughts and opinions on this show do not constitute medical advice or treatment. So pour yourself a mug of black coffee, a cup of tea, or even a glass of wine if it's that time, and get ready for the Intermittent Fasting Podcast. Hi, everybody, and welcome. This is episode number 418 of the Intermittent Fasting Podcast. I'm Melanie Avalon, and I am here today with a very special guest. I am so excited about this interview. And what's funny is I was just talking with this fabulous human being right before this. And I actually, I have been so familiar with what this woman is doing and such a fan of her company and her brand for so long that I couldn't even remember if she had been on the show before. I've been hearing about her company, Prep Dish, on my friend Noelle Tarr's Well-fed Women Podcast, which used to be the Paleo Women Podcast. And I was such a fan of Prep Dish from that podcast. And then Allison and Prep Dish actually sponsored our show years and years ago. So yeah, that's why I couldn't actually remember if Allison had been on the show. I'm here with Allison Shaff, the founder and CEO of Prep Dish. They're such a cool service, and we're going to dive all into it. But they're a meal planning service so that you can easily save time, optimize your grocery shopping, make really healthy, stress-free meals that fit your own dietary needs and protocols, and all the things. It is so cool. I think it can really, really help optimize people's lives when it comes to time and health and wellness and all the things. So Allison, thank you so much for being here.
Allison Schaaf
Thank you for having me and I am also just so excited to talk with you. I've been a fan of your work and your podcast for so long and we're finally making it happen.
Melanie Avalon
glad to be here. Yeah, this has been such a long time coming. I'm really excited because I've always been so inspired by what you're doing with this company. So I'm super curious. Okay, when did you launch prep dish? How long ago? 2012. So it's it's been a while. Okay, wow. Long time ago. What's your background?
Allison Schaaf
Yeah. So I started out, my background is I'm a dietician, but also went to culinary school. So I've always had both the culinary background and the nutrition background and always was looking for ways to combine the two. When I was cooking, it was always through a nutrition lens. And when I was doing nutrition, it was always through the culinary lens. And I started out as a personal chef going into people's homes and cooking for them. And while I really enjoyed it, I knew when doing it, I was like, this is not going to be sustainable for when I have a family someday. And then also, I wanted to reach more people. If I'm cooking for people one on one, I maxed out really quick with my clients. I started hiring chefs, but that was a lot of work. And so I was like, how can I... And that was kind of when the online stuff was just coming out. So I was like, how can I write down this system that I've created and working with my clients and write out these recipes and then just get it into people's hands? Because I'd kind of come up with all these efficiencies and better ways of preparing meals. And so that's what I did is while I was going in and working with clients, I was writing down my systems and putting it into a PDF and then eventually got it online and out to the masses.
Melanie Avalon
I love that so much. It's kind of similar. I feel like it's a little bit similar with what I do, because people, at least like my parents and people will often ask me if I want to be, if I ever wanted to be like a doctor, like individually working with people on health. And for me, what I love is having this platform where I get to take all this information that I love and spread it, you know, make it like mainstream and like reach a lot of people. So it's kind of like, I feel like it's kind of similar, but it's like on the food, the food side of things. When you were working as a private chef, or like and working privately with clients, like when you were coming up with meals, were there ever meals that you really loved that the clients didn't like or vice versa, meals that you weren't so sure about, but you'd be surprised that they liked? Like what was the collaborative experience like working with people and creating these meals?
Allison Schaaf
Yeah, it was interesting. I always try to elicit feedback as much as possible, just like I do now with the meal plans. And there were some clients that would do a good job. What I did is I print out the menu. And what I would tell them to do is just on the menu that was printed out, write any notes of things they liked or didn't like. And before I even started here, I went through an extensive questionnaire of, you know, what do you like and not like in your preferences. And it was really good feedback, though. And just in creating these meal plans of what types of foods people like, what were the things. And even if they weren't giving me the feedback, they they would in what they selected, right. So I'd send out options each week. And the thing that I found interesting is a lot there were a few where I would always try and like mix in all this variety. But I'd put in a few that I knew they liked, like lasagna or something. And there were they would always go back to the same things versus like, I would want to do more variety. And sometimes they would want to do more of the like staples or things they enjoyed. So that was interesting. And yeah, there were definitely some dishes that like every client liked, like lasagna being one of them. And then the other is, you know, kind of dependent client to client.
Melanie Avalon
What about your personal palette? Do you like most foods and can you create dishes and recipes that you like even if you don't actually like the food?
Allison Schaaf
No, actually, I think this is the short answer. I'm pretty open on things, but I will say like, so I'm gluten free, so all of the meal plans are gluten free for that reason. We've always had people push us to do vegetarian, but I can't do that many carbs and that many like, I can do some of like all of those things, but to do just straight up vegetarian plans because so I'm not creating the recipes anymore, I have another chef dietitian that's doing that, but I do test them sometimes and also just kind of out of principle. So I don't do the vegetarians. We do have one meal week on one of the plans that is a vegetarian dish, but to just do all vegetarian is too much. So that's kind of where I draw the line, I guess. But all of the others, you know, I'm pretty I can do all the different flavors and stuff like that.
Melanie Avalon
Yeah. So I think that's something people will be excited about with prep dish, which we can, we can talk a little bit more about how it works, but you do understand this need for protein. We talk all the time. It's one of the, probably the topics we talk about the most on this show besides actually fasting, which is people really struggle, especially with intermittent fasting to get enough protein in their eating window. Yeah. How do you integrate protein into the meals?
Allison Schaaf
Yeah, that's something and we focused even more on that in the past few years. And that's something where, you know, one we're calculating to make sure that there's, so our meals, there's one that we guarantee it's at least 30 grams of protein per serving with our super fast meal plans. And just one thing we've also helped a lot is like giving resources for getting more protein at breakfast and how to incorporate meat into the first meal of the day. So even if you're fasting, like I know sometimes it's just like we're not always raised to like eat meat when we first are eating no matter what time of the day that is. And so just kind of coming up with creative palatable ways to get in enough protein and also things like specific to breakfast, like it's not easy to eat enough eggs to get enough protein at six grams of protein per egg. So what I found is it's easier to do like a combination of some protein and some eggs or, you know, such that you're mixing up the protein sources and that way it's palatable. So it's really just like, okay, let's figure out how to get the protein. But then also how do I actually make it palatable? And it's something I can sit down and eat in one setting.
Melanie Avalon
Okay, I have a major question there and I based on when this airs, I don't know how much this will still be an issue or not, but do you adjust for the market? So like with eggs, the egg craziness, the egg scarcity and price increase, do you adjust for things like that? We do.
Allison Schaaf
try and be really aware of prices and what's out there and if there are cost issues or even scarcity type issues. One thing that we always do is we keep things flexible, right? So that you can always sub things like whether it's, oh, I don't like broccoli, so I'm going to sub with asparagus, or my preference is... Or you have a food intolerance, we keep it really open for that. And same thing with cost. So if there's something that we know is a higher cost item, then we may even on the menu just say, hey, instead of the lamb chops, you could sub it with a pork chop or something that's a little more cost efficient. So we do try and keep them to where they can make them their own, depending on whether it's preferences, allergies, or cost.
Melanie Avalon
Awesome. Okay. And I feel like I definitely want to give a foundational overview still related to that really quickly with making things your own. When you eat out at restaurants, do you make a lot of modifications or do you order things as they come? I'm just like so crazy at restaurants. So I'm always curious how people, especially people with really culinary backgrounds, how they navigate restaurants and if they're gluten free.
Allison Schaaf
Yeah, it's interesting you say that I have a friend who's notorious. She we always joke that the menu is a suggestion merely a suggestion for her like she's always like picking and choosing all the things and like any menu that's like no modifications. Thank you. She's like, Oh, no. And she does have kind of some intolerances and stuff. And I will sometimes especially with the gluten thing. But you know, I'm in the Austin area. So I found most places are really good with that. But yeah, there's, there's signs are I'm trying to do some switching around and substitution.
Melanie Avalon
Yeah, it's just funny because I'm like your friend. I'm like, it's just a suggestion. And it's very rare actually that I come against a wall where they can't make a suggestion. Although that actually happened over the weekend because like most of their meats were pre-marinated in things. So I couldn't, I just couldn't change that. But yeah, okay, that's funny. Okay, just to give listeners an overview because I think when it comes to making mealtime easier and more efficient and more cost-effective and also more tasty, I think the first thing people think of is like meal delivery services or meal kits. That's the first thing, at least for me, that comes to mind. So this is not that. This is a meal planning service. So can you describe to listeners a little bit how it actually works, especially like in with our, you know, our modern internet and I mean, the internet has been around for a long time, but like with the internet and stuff, people might think, oh, I can just find recipes online. So like, how is this actually optimizing people's lives when it comes to their meals?
Allison Schaaf
Yeah, sure. So I'll take a step back first. And I know this is a podcast, so it's not visual, but I'm a visual person. So the meal plans are literally like a PDF that comes to you in three different pieces. And I'll explain those pieces. And as I explained them, sure, you can put them together on your own. It's just whether you want to spend that time upfront and doing that, which is kind of, you know, one or two hours, or if you want someone to just do it for you and hand it to you. So the three pieces, the first one is the grocery list. So at the top, it's, you know, the five meals depends on that. We have a few different plans. So they're kind of set up slightly differently, but say like five meals for the week, and then the grocery list that you need to make those meals, there's some things there, like it's done really efficiently. So if you're going to use half of an onion for a soup, the other half of the onion gets used in a dish later that week. If you're making a chimichurri, maybe you use it on Monday with the salmon and again on a salad on Wednesday. So everything is like really considered, I guess, in terms of the ingredients, the flavors, the, you know, variety, all of those things. So it's really well thought out. The second piece is a meal prep piece. So that's very specific instructions of like, Hey, if you have an hour at the beginning of the week, sometimes I even do it like to, you know, on a Monday night, right before dinner, I just do some of my chopping for the week. But it's like, Hey, here's some tasks that you can do upfront, whether it's, you know, 30 minutes in the afternoon, or like while you're making dinner, and you do all these prep things. So then the rest of the week, the dinners are just like almost like a meal kit, you know, you don't even have to chop them. It's like, Oh, the marinade is already done. My carrots are chopped, I just have to throw it in the saute pan. The third piece is the actual instructions of what you need to do at dinner time. And that's where we try and keep it super simple. The thing I try and avoid is having to do much, not just thinking, but also work at dinner time. Because by the time that time comes around, if you're exhausted, if you've had a long day, that's when you're going to make poor nutrition choices. And so to me, the key to healthy eating is having that plan and that heavy lifting done upfront. So when you get to dinner time, it's like a no brainer, you don't have to think, Oh, what am I going to make? And I know I should be healthy, but maybe I should just call and take out and blah, blah, you know, so it's like if you've done all the work up front, it just makes that decision. Like, it's not a decision, right? It's just there, it's in the fridge, it's already chopped, you just here's what you do, you follow the instructions.
Melanie Avalon
Awesome. And so, because I think the last time we were sponsored by you guys was, I mean, a while ago, probably like four years, five years ago. Is it still the setup where you have like a grocery shopping day? Like you do all, like the majority of your prep all at once, and then then throughout the week, everything's like pre-prepped. So then you still cook it fresh the day of, but it's mostly like pre-prepped.
Allison Schaaf
Exactly, yeah, so that prep days like sauces and chopping and then, yeah, dinner is just kind of the finishing steps.
Melanie Avalon
Awesome. Yeah, that must be a game changer, especially for parents. And so you have you have three young boys? Yes, I do. So has that has having children yourself come to inform your like how you approach all of this?
Allison Schaaf
It does. It's interesting. It's more like the whole concept of using meal plans has come full circle, because in the past, I used them and they were great. But now it's I literally rely on them week to week, you know, it's like I have got to order the groceries, I've got to do this, I've got to have it printed. So if I'm not, you know, there, someone else can step in. And like, it is we rely on them in a way that I didn't in the past, you know, I used them and I thought they're great. But now it's like they are our lifeline to eating healthy throughout the week. And, you know, it has given me some insight in terms of, you know, dealing with, you know, picky eaters and such. But, you know, my kids honestly are pretty, they're pretty good eaters. So I haven't dealt too much with that. But it, you know, it's been interesting to just watch it in action with a full family. How old are they? Six, four and 14 months. So they're pretty young.
Melanie Avalon
Oh my goodness, oh wow, okay, and boys, all boys, they eat a lot. Oh yeah, do they? I bet, oh my goodness.
Allison Schaaf
Even the 14-month-old, he can go to town on some chicken thighs. I don't know what it is about chicken thighs, but he loves that.
Melanie Avalon
Oh my goodness. Is it all gluten free in your household?
Allison Schaaf
Yeah, it's easier that way. I'm the only one with the intolerance, but it's just easier to have it be across the board, no gluten.
Melanie Avalon
You have thoughts, experience, or advice with raising kids, how to encourage them to make healthy food choices, but also not have them feel... I mean, I guess your kids are still young, but not have them feel like they can't eat, that they can't eat the things their friends are eating, or how are you going to deal with that?
Allison Schaaf
It's, I will say, it's really hard. I've been surprised at how early and often it comes up. It's like every, like I, in the house, you know, we eat the way I eat and, you know, like, sure, like it, you know, Easter's coming up. Like, I'll make like a carrot cake and all that. Like, so I'll make things like that, but it's like, you know, special occasions and we don't treat it as, I think one thing is to not treat it as like so special that then they like, it's this thing they only get and they crave and they go crazy. But it's hard because when we go out into the like, quote unquote, real world, it's just like a bombardment of like mainly sugar, but just all sorts of stuff that I would prefer they not eat on a regular basis. So it's really hard to filter out like, okay, it's okay for them to have that sometimes and on occasion, but like, the more you go out and like, even when we're traveling, I find that I do a lot of Airbnb's and like, having some meals at home and that sort of thing. But yeah, like we go to church and they have donuts and this and that and it's like, well, if that's every week that adds up. So, you know, I don't know, some strategies are volunteer to bring snacks, volunteer to be the snack person. And, you know, kind of know what you're getting into. And sometimes I see where, where can I avoid the snacks and other times I just have to, you know, loosen up about it, to be honest, it's, it's been interesting.
Melanie Avalon
I literally just applaud moms out there and I don't think I'll ever have kids. I just don't like see it in my life, but I that's one it like this issue is one of the things I think I would most Just be I don't know. It just seems like a really big challenge
Allison Schaaf
Yeah. I mean, the only place that I'm really blessed is their school is amazing. They go to a small Waldorf school and the chef like sources the food. I mean, the families will donate like lamb that they have from their ranch and venison and, you know, just really high quality. They have ferments every week. I mean, just insanely healthy. So that does help me feel better that here and at school, they have this like really healthy foundation. And so their bodies, I mean, gosh, I think back to what I ate when I was that age, like I think their bodies can tolerate the things they're getting.
Melanie Avalon
Um in between that's amazing. Okay. I love that. Do they have a favorite recipe of yours?
Allison Schaaf
I don't know if there's like one recipe that like, oh, that's the one some things that I know have always been favorites meatballs or something that kids like, they always seem to like, some of them will go through phases. But yeah, I mean, I don't know, my kids are really good eaters. So they kind of like most of it. Yeah, the one thing I've had to do sometimes with them is I found it is easier to instead of mixing everything into like one pot, sometimes like separating it out. I think they I've done that a little bit. So that's kind of the adjustment I've made, they prefer it being separated. It's a little less overwhelming that way, you know, if like, if I have a big salad, I wouldn't serve a thing of greens with like the chicken and the, you know, beans and the sweet potato, like all mixed together, I'd be like, Okay, here's the lettuce, here's this, here's this, and they'll eat all of the things. But I think when it's just all mixed together, sometimes that's overwhelming.
Melanie Avalon
So you said that you now have, you know, somebody creating the recipes on your team. Do you still, do you ever get like inspirations though for new recipes? Like what's your creative, like do you, are you ever in the shower and like a recipe comes to you like a new recipe?
Allison Schaaf
I don't know if that happens as much anymore. I did, it was funny though. I did have a meal plan editing dream the other night. I haven't had one of those in years. Oh really?
Melanie Avalon
Yeah. Just like what happened last night? A nightmare or a good dream?
Allison Schaaf
It was a good dream, but it was, I mean, it's kind of vague. That's how dreams are. But I was like, oh, I haven't had one of those in a while. So yeah, I will. We do have a board that anyone on the team can actually access. So if they make a recipe or if they see something on Instagram that we want to try, then we'll always, you know, we can add that to it and she can put that in there. And what she does is she looks per quarter. She looks at the new menu items and so she creates them. Then she sends them to me, I give any feedback and then she goes through and writes the recipes. And then when it's time for testing them, we divvy it up amongst the teams. That way everyone on the team can kind of be involved and they just test them out at their house, you know, with their family. And then we go through, do a final round of edits and then they're released out.
Melanie Avalon
Oh, wow. Do you know, going back to when you launched in 2012, are there any recipes from the original days?
Allison Schaaf
Yeah, there's a few that sometimes we'll like bring back. And then there's something like, oh, I missed that like soup recipe, like there was a roasted red pepper and sweet potato. And they're like, maybe we should bring that back. And yeah, there's different plans. So super fast, it's like brand new recipes each week. But some of the others, what we do is like each year, we'll just like cycle in new recipes, not like the entire menu is new. We do surveys, so we'll be like, okay, whichever ones were hit, we'll keep those in there. Because I mean, at the end of the day, and that's the thing, like I said, I learned with the clients, like people don't want brand new recipes all the time, like they want to see that like, you know, salt and pepper chicken drumstick stick, which is simple, but a favorite, like, you know, they want to see those come back. So we mix things up. But we also like don't scrap all of them except for with the super fast.
Melanie Avalon
Do the recipes adjust for your family size?
Allison Schaaf
So the recipes are quote unquote for servings, but we don't do a lot of like, you know, I'm not into calorie counting. I mean, with kids, especially, it's crazy, because like, they really do. And I've read this of like, you know, they don't adjust, you know, I always think like, Oh, you eat kind of the same amount, like ever, you know, however many meals and each day, with kids, it's like you really have to look at their caloric and take over the course of a week, like they will have meals where they almost nothing, you're like, that's all you're eating. I mean, I don't say that, because it's better not to comment. But over the course of a week, research shows they will eat, you know, a consistent amount and like what they need. But like meal to meal, and even like within the course of a day, some days they'll have days where they don't eat a lot. And other days they'll eat a ton. Anyway, so back to the sermons. Yes, they, they each are for servings. And then if people want to adjust, they just, you know, they can double actually at my house, I usually always double just so I have leftovers for lunch. And honestly, sometimes I just have to double so we have enough for all of us because we have, you know, my family, then we have no pairs, we're feeding a lot of people. And yeah, but that's the nice thing about having the meal plan versus the kit, is a lot of times people can look at a recipe and know like, Oh, I know that my family needs, you know, two pounds of protein for dinner, or four pounds of protein for dinner. And so they can kind of adjust based on that. And they know, like, okay, one bunch of broccoli is fine, or one bunch of sari asparagus is fine. Whereas some families, maybe they need two bunches, because they just know their family, like eats a lot of veggies. So I think that's the nice thing is it is flexible to where they can, you know, everyone can adjust based on, you know, knowing their family, and you kind of learn that over time of like, how much, you know, there's certain proteins that I know in my family, oh, we're gonna eat more than what it calls for. But others, it's like, okay, we'll eat that amount.
Melanie Avalon
So you commented how you don't comment on the kids, like how much they're eating. How do you feel about that? Do you just let your kids eat whatever amount they eat and you respect that? Do you think, do you encourage them to eat more or less? How do you deal that?
Allison Schaaf
So there's a dietician, Ellen Satter, and she has this philosophy and it's, you know, as the parent, I decide what and when I'm going to feed them, right? Like we have set meal times and set snack times, and I decide what's being served at those meals and snacks. It's their decision to decide what and how much they eat. And I have no opinion on that. And I try to like not even pay attention. And this is I think actually where parents really with very good intentions can get it wrong, you know, by making those comments by, you know, focusing on it by making, you know, saying things like, Oh, it's so yummy. It's like kids catch on to that. They are smart, you know, you don't like if you legitimately like something like, sure, I'll comment on the food, but I'm not going to make a comment on it to try and like manipulate them because it's going to do the opposite. They're going to feel the force and they're not going to eat it. So I just don't comment. And my kids eventually they try everything I serve them. The other thing I remind parents is often if it's a new food or something they haven't seen in a while, maybe at dinner, they don't eat it. But if we have again at lunch the next day, they'll eat it. Even at dinner, sometimes my kids I have one when he always is like, Oh, I don't like that. I'm like, okay, then don't eat it. And nine times out of 10 by the end of the dinner, he's eating it. He just wants to not be forced. He wants, they want to like sometimes they're just playing around with their independence and they want to be able to make the comment of saying, I don't like that. And here you say like, that's okay, you know, and not like forcing. It's funny because his older brother old sometimes be like, but you just had that like three nights ago. You do like it. And I want to say that, but I know it's better like not to.
Melanie Avalon
Oh my gosh, that's so funny. So would you like make them try everything or if they don't even want to try it? I know you said that they tend to try everything, but.
Allison Schaaf
I don't yeah, I've never I've never had said I don't have the one bite rule I just put it on their plate and then they decide and but i've never had any issues with things, you know
Melanie Avalon
This is so interesting. If I ever were to have kids, this is what I'm going to adopt. I love this. Sounds like a great system. And then the other question I had was if people really are looking to optimize their time with all of this, and I actually have another question about time, but if they are looking to do that, could you with the recipes even use like Instacart or something? Like could you have somebody get all the ingredients?
Allison Schaaf
By the time this airs, I can almost guarantee we have Instacart set up to where you can click and it'll automatically fill an Instacart cart. So we're testing it right now. And like, I think it's going to launch tomorrow or the next day. Oh, wow. Congrats. Yes. So I've wanted that for a long time. And I'm really excited to have that because I do most of my grocery shopping online, but to have the cart pre filled. And then you can go in and like, okay, what are like the things that I need to add? And, you know, you can kind of like play around with it and adjust it. But yeah, to have it pre filled and then only make some tweaks, I'm excited because it's going to save me a significant amount of time and like, make it easier to not put off that grocery putting in that grocery order.
Melanie Avalon
Oh, that's amazing. Okay. Yeah, and I'm so fascinated by this whole business creation process. So was there a moment where you've had the idea for this company? Or like, do you remember or was it? Did you ideate on it a little bit?
Allison Schaaf
I kind of ideated on it for a little bit. I remember the first year that I did it. This was funny. The first year, I was like, okay, I'm going to have four, like literally four meal plans. You know, like one for the spring, one for summer, one for fall, one for winter. And I was working with this business coach. He's actually now a close friend of mine and she was like, Allison, you've got it. Like, I think you can actually do more than that. And so then I was like, because I couldn't wrap my head around doing more than forks. They took so long to make. And then, and then like a few months later, it was like, okay, after I launched, I was like, okay, I actually need to do one each week. And I thought that they were going to be like $25 per meal plan, like per week, because they took me so much time to create in the beginning. And then she kind of helped me come up with ways to make it more efficient and then, you know, over time. And then now it's like, well, we have four meal plans each week that we're cycling through. So it's, you know, but it was a journey that first year to kind of figure out how like just to wrap my head around like what was possible.
Melanie Avalon
Wow. So is it is it seasonal eating? Is there like seasonal theming to everything?
Allison Schaaf
Yeah, for sure. In the winter, it'll be more soups and stews. In the summer, we use the grill some. There are more salads and also just seasonal. I mean, any more of the grocery store things are not as seasonal, but there still is. And we try and rely more on a summer tomato or, I don't know, root winter veggies in the winter and in the spring, more peas and asparagus.
Melanie Avalon
How did you build an audience? Like, how did you find the people?
Allison Schaaf
Yeah, it took a while to figure that out, and that's changed over the years, you know? Gosh, in the beginning, so it's funny now, you know, they say, oh, it's like they call them influencers. But back then, I don't think that's what it was called, but you know, there were bloggers. So I would like work with bloggers to get the word out. And then there was one, and I don't even know if she still, but it's 100 days of real food. That was a really popular one. And so I would, and she would do Facebook posts. And so that would like help build the audiences. And I think we did like Facebook videos together and stuff. But that was some of what we did back then was working with bloggers and also like Facebook posts or sometimes like email, sponsored emails. So it's always been some version of like working with influencers that just kind of evolved like even what they're called and where they're at. Like is it on a blog? Is it on Facebook? Is it on podcasts? Is it on Instagram? And I'm just kind of figuring that out. And then, you know, of course, word of mouth has always been really big for us. It's just, you know, people, people sharing it.
Melanie Avalon
Yeah. And like I was saying, I remember hearing you on the podcast all the time. I just thought it was so unique because like I said, I just would think of meal delivery kit services. I hadn't heard of this comprehensive meal planning idea with the Instacart thing, which I think is really exciting. Have there been certain benchmarks throughout the evolution of the company that were exciting next step moments for you, like the Instacart thing? Have there been other ones?
Allison Schaaf
Yeah, the Instacart one. I mean, bringing on the super fast plan was, that was kind of a funny story because that was, now it's been quite a few years, but there was a podcaster. It was like, I can't remember his name, but it was a male fitness podcaster. And he was big into like efficiency too. And you know, the meal prep on the plans is like, you know, one to two hours. But he's like, no, he's like, you've got to do it. He's like, I want you to do a plan for me. That's like less than an hour of meal prep. Like that's what you have to do. And he challenged me. And we did like a challenge, I think, where it was like, oh, here's these super fast plans, but everyone loved it. And so then we just incorporated that. And now like one of our plans that you get each week, and it's our most popular plan is our super fast. And that's where it's like an hour or less of prep to get everything ready for the week. And it, you know, just really, it's, they're still very like healthy. It just relies more on, you know, pre chopped vegetables and leans more into like, okay, if we're going to make a salad dressing, let's double it and have it also be a marinade. And so just like really, like leaning into all those efficiency hacks.
Melanie Avalon
Okay, I love this. I have an idea for you for it, although it might already be integrated, so I'll have to ask. But before that, as far as the actual time saved, so I love this, you know, the super fast idea. Well, first of all, never having been a parent with children and a family and meal prepping, I don't know how much time it normally takes to do all this. I imagine it takes a lot more than I envision it takes. So how much time realistically, do you find people saved by using this service?
Allison Schaaf
I know that's that one's tricky. And we've tried actually in the past, like to quantify yeah, to do that and to be able to like have these hours and put it into marketing. And I've, I've seen other meal plan services like do that. And it's tricky because it's not something I would like geek out on that. Like I love like things like tracking my time and knowing how much time things take, but like other people are not really good at doing that. So we haven't ever, I don't know, I don't have good numbers for you. But I can say, I mean, people definitely will say like, it saves a lot of time. The other big thing that people comment on is it really prevents them from eating out as much like if they want, you know, if you're wanting to eat healthy, a lot of times that is like, how do I not do takeout, you know, and, and the thing they realize is like takeout actually isn't saving them a ton of time, right? Like they're stopping to go through the process and make the decision and do the order or maybe, you know, you know, they're still like cleanup, if you have it brought to the house, like there's still some cleanup and this and that. So it's just kind of being more organized with it and having this system and, but yeah, for sure. I mean, some people will say like five to 10 hours because, you know, in the beginning of the week, just like looking up recipes and planning out your grocery list, like that can easily be, you know, two hours or more just figuring out like what we're going to eat and how do I turn that into a grocery list. And then, you know, each night you're spending an hour to, you know, in the cleanups, maybe an extra 30 minutes, it's likely you can shave time off of that. So I don't know, there's, there's definitely.
Melanie Avalon
hours saved. I'm just thinking now it's funny so I think because we're airing this I think before okay so either last week's episode or next week's episode one of those episodes we talked about with my co-host Barry like what is the one health hack or bio hack we wish we had started sooner in our lives and mine was I just wish growing up I had eaten I wish in my like home environment it had been more like whole foods and less processed foods and I'm just thinking I wish my my wish my mom had had this service growing up because I feel like it would have just helped so much like so much for everybody.
Allison Schaaf
everybody. Yes, absolutely. Same. I mean, it's same thing. And even so not only for the health of the food, but the thing that's really cool is you can eventually like, I mean, I'm already getting my kids involved, you know, like they're helping out, they're doing chopping, they're doing all of these. I mean, I have, you know, the culinary background, so it's like really important to me as well. But because of the way the plans are designed, it's easy for people to pitch in to delegate tasks to have, oh, you know, give your husband the grocery list or you know, one night you're not home, whoever if the babysitter is there, she can read the instructions and pick up where you left off. So it's a good way to get everyone involved. But yeah, definitely getting kids involved, not just with exposure and eating healthy, but like seeing how it's done, you know, like when I was a personal chef, I would do in home cooking classes. And it was just shocking how people had no, and I wasn't that surprised with my mom actually wasn't a huge cook, I kind of got more of it from my grandmother. But yeah, I mean, just a lot of times, kids will go to college and not even know how to make eggs.
Melanie Avalon
you mentioned that the fast version how many different versions of the plans are there so there are
Allison Schaaf
4 so super fast the one that I talked about there is gluten-free and then paleo So, you know the gluten-free would still have the grains where the paleo doesn't and you know has all the paleo Compliant and then we have a low carb as well. Okay
Melanie Avalon
Okay, awesome, is the low carb keto or is it just lower carb?
Allison Schaaf
So just lower carb, I'd have to go back to see, I don't remember our exact numbers on our criteria, but we did, we used to call it
Melanie Avalon
Yeah, I think you did when we were last promoting it.
Allison Schaaf
structured it slightly different. I mean, the meals are still basically the same, but we don't do the fat bombs as much anymore. We didn't find that people really wanted those. And then we also found that people weren't looking for a true keto. So it is low carb, but it's slightly different back from when we did call them keto, but not that different. Some of it was a marketing decision more than anything else.
Melanie Avalon
Keto is still very popular, but there definitely was a really intense like keto wave where people were you know much more into it would you ever have like a Like a romance or like a date night version for people cooking for their romantic dates and things
Allison Schaaf
I think we maybe haven't done that, you know, we'll do a lot of like bonus, bonus, like handouts or recipes, you know, so if someone's already a subscriber, like, we'll give them, you know, on Valentine's Day, I will sometimes incorporate things like that. So I feel like we did that one year and then yeah, I like over holidays, sometimes we'll try and give you like, Oh, like here's something you could make for Easter. I keep thinking about since that's coming up or so things that aren't included in the meal plans, we will sometimes just give them here's a special, you know, so breakfast actually, because most of our meal plans don't include breakfast, but because we've done all this protein stuff work, I realized that breakfast is the place where people are falling significantly short on protein. So we've given more resources for that just given them to our subscribers and not part of a meal plan, just because I'm like, okay, if you're wanting to increase your protein, like it's important to get it dinner, but it's a lot easier to just naturally get enough protein at dinner. Whereas you have to make more of an effort. I find it some of the other meals.
Melanie Avalon
So to that point, so for people who are doing intermittent fasting, will it work with all different approaches to that or would they modify it? How would that work?
Allison Schaaf
Yeah, no, I think with intermittent fasting, it works just fine because, you know, like most of them are just dinner recipes. And I say dinner, but you know, hey, here's five recipes to use for meals throughout the week. You can use them for dinner, you can use them for lunch, you can, you know, like I said, I'll sometimes use them for dinner, but double it. So then I have leftovers for lunch. So yeah, you can kind of because I know, you know, you do the home at or the one meal a day. And yeah, but you know, you can just have that be your one meal. And maybe, you know, if it's a couple, they can use it. And because it's for servings, or maybe they still double, you know, you kind of have to get and play around with it. The, the servings are a suggestion. It's, you know, you have to figure out what serving sizes work for you and the situation. But yeah, the meals, we don't really designate like time of day or type of meal that you use for.
Melanie Avalon
And then do you provide wine pairings ever? That's my that's my idea
Allison Schaaf
That's my request. I would love that. And I know that you and I are both fans of Dry Farm Wine. I'm on the Vivino app, and it's funny because I'll see you on there sometimes. I log my apps, and I love your tasty notes, by the way.
Melanie Avalon
I am wondering because I, oh my gosh, that's so funny, with the Vivino app, because I use dry farm wines and listeners are probably familiar because I talk about it all the time, but they provide a subscription service to organic, low alcohol, low sugar wines that they find in Europe and they test them to make sure they're organic and mold free and you really will feel so much different drinking them. So I'm always trying these new varietals because you get just random things to try and I am obsessed with the Vivino app and I leave reviews and I sometimes put my link in there as well and I always say it's dry farm wines. A, I wonder if they're ever gonna kick me off of it because I put my link on there. You do the link? Yeah, it hasn't happened yet though, knock on wood. Two, I always wonder if listeners or somebody is gonna see me on there and be like, oh, that's so funny, do you leave reviews on it? I do.
Allison Schaaf
just because I like to go back. So I only, we only drink dry from wines we have for years. It's like the only thing we drink in our house. And yeah, I've always left the reviews because it's nice too. If you get a repeat bottle, you can go back and you can look, but I've noticed lately the wines they've sent, I don't know if they're just like newer wines, but they're not always in there to leave. But yeah, we enjoy it too. We sit down and I got my husband one of those little wine wheels for his birthday one year. And so we'll sit down with the wine wheel and, and come up with the notes and just makes it, you know, more of a fun experience and more enjoyable, I guess.
Melanie Avalon
Oh, my goodness, I love this so much. Okay, have you talked to you talk to their they call it like their VIP line, but anybody who's ordering from them can talk with them. Do you have our email with them?
Allison Schaaf
I have when, so the only issue, I mean, I love dry farm wines, but sometimes in August, because I'm in Texas, we've had the, they get over, they get corked or like whatever it's called when they're too hot. And so we've had to return them. But I mean, I've had their, their people you talk to are amazing when you talk to them. But is there a specific thing that they're good to talk
Melanie Avalon
to about? Because I've been ordering from them since forever. It's like one of my earliest things in this whole world and podcasting and help stuff. So I used to just order, like have the box come surprise, like surprise varietals each time. But then I started emailing with them and they are incredible. And they will actually, they'll like curate each box for you. And they'll like keep notes of what you like and don't like. So now all my orders, they like hand selected and I like asked for like extra low alcohol. So they're like 11.5% or less. And when you start talking to them, I don't know if this is, I'm guessing this is just how it goes down once you start talking to them. Because when you order through the subscription, like it takes, you know, I don't know, it takes a few days, I feel like to, it takes longer. When you're like emailing them, they like ship it right away. It's amazing. Start emailing them.
Allison Schaaf
Okay, I'm totally going to do that because we do have ours and I have once or twice like if I find one that I like, I've requested it or I've, there was one even one summer there was a white and I don't remember what it was right now but I really liked it so I just ordered like six of them or something but oh my gosh I'm totally going to do that and yeah I do like the I decide do like the lower alcohol and sugar ones so I would make that request too so I am definitely stealing that hack thank you.
Melanie Avalon
You're welcome. Oh, and so email them ask for Chiara. That's who I talked to. She's incredible. And she'll like remember what you like and like, yeah, and she'll make suggestion. She's the best. And then when you, then when you want like gifts for people, it's amazing because you can, you can like ask your friends like what type of wines they like. And then I'll just tell Chiara and then she'll like send them a custom box. It's so great. Speaking of saving time. It's great.
Allison Schaaf
So the little hack that we have is whenever we're traveling, we will a few weeks in advance, just ship a box out. So that way, like if it's the holidays, and we're going to be there for a week, or even just a few days, we'll just send a box and then whatever we don't drink, like that's like a gift to them. But then that way, we don't have to get to the location and like go buy wine. And we'll just have it there. And one time we even did a road trip. And we started at my sister-in-law's house, we had a box sent there. And then the road trip, we made like 10 stops to visit friends. And so we had the two old bottles of wine. And then each house we stopped at, we could like, one, have a gift when you show up at someone's house. And two, it was dry farm wine. So then it's like, okay, good, I can drink wine that I know I'm not gonna be hung over the next day.
Melanie Avalon
This is so brilliant. Oh my goodness. Okay, if you're ever in Atlanta, I would love to we have to like go out and Over wine and like discuss all this. This is amazing Have you ever thought about collaborating with them with your meals with your meal prep? That would be cool
Allison Schaaf
That would be smart because you were asking about wine pairings. We actually, I don't know that we have done that. We do use wine in the cooking and then, you know, people don't use it. You can always just like some chicken stock, but yeah, we definitely use wine to deglaze our pans. So the other gal that helps with recipes, she's Mediterranean diet is kind of was her forte before she came on board. So she likes to, and she's in California. So yeah, we use wine in the recipes, but yeah, wine pairings, I might have to reach out. We are, I do, I'm also an affiliate for them. So it's definitely something I talk about as well.
Melanie Avalon
Yeah, I would love wine pairings, I think would be so cool. And then you could like refer people to them as well, like through the recipes. That's a great idea, thanks. I love like going into brainstorming mode. Okay, love that so much. Another topic that I'm personally passionate about in addition to the wine, which is optimizing my space and I'm always trying to like declutter my living space and everything. So when it comes to the kitchen and it comes to like kitchen appliances and like duplicates of things and tools, how do you best approach the kitchen to optimize having everything you need? Maybe what are your favorite appliances and tools? And also like, what can we get rid of? Like what do we not need in the kitchen? You can probably get rid of them.
Allison Schaaf
lot. I love going doing all this stuff. And yeah, we did a renovation of years back. So that was really fun for me. And then, yeah, I'm constantly like, same way, like what can I pare down? One thing I did a few years ago in the kitchen is I got really strict, I went through like every door and I'm like, I am only doing stainless steel, I'm getting rid of all plastic, because when I try not to use plastic, and then to I'm strict about not using plastic in the dishwasher. So I got I kind of like anything, anything that I could, I was like, okay, stainless steel, I mean, spatulas, I sold spatulas that are silicone. And yeah, I really just try and like constantly like pare down and not just that, but then like by really high quality. So I think the key is like higher quality and like less. So for example, like a few really good knives are important. And that's where you need to splurge. But then the crappy ones you can just like get rid of. And then, you know, kind of play around with it, too. You know, kind of same thing like I do with my closet, like, you know, set them aside, you know, maybe leave two or three spatulas set aside, if you have more, set those aside. And then if you don't use it in a month or two, then okay, I can get rid of that. I don't like a lot of the single use gadgets, unless it's something that you really are like using all the time. You know, like, usually you don't need a lot of those weird like, oh, here's a thing to like slice hard boiled eggs, or here's like a weird strawberry slicer, I don't know, you just need a good chef's knife. You don't need all the things just to slice one thing. So yeah, good cutting board, good knife, you know, food processor and blender, like I think those things are helpful as well. But yeah, beyond that, I don't do a lot of the a lot of the one offs, you know, unless I really see a purpose. And also with prep dish, we try and be really intentional of like not using fancy gadgets that maybe not everyone has. So yeah, that's my approach is just really kind of higher quality and less and you know, less is more.
Melanie Avalon
Yeah, I was going to ask with the meal preps and everything, will they ever need anything that they wouldn't have in their kitchen with prepping tools?
Allison Schaaf
They really shouldn't. I mean, again, like a good knife is going to be helpful and especially like going bigger. A lot of times the mistake I see people use is they're a little intimidated maybe and they use like a small paring knife. A larger knife is going to be helpful. A larger cutting board, like a larger sized cutting board and like either like a wooden ideally or even bamboo are fine too. Those are important. Having a blender or food processor, you need to have at least one. I like to have both, but at least one of those will get you pretty far. But even things like instant pot and a slow cooker, if we have those things on the menu, there's a way to like sub and use something else. Just we don't want to overwhelm people. The other thing that is important is to have like some glass containers for when you're doing meal prep to like, you know, store things in. But yeah, other than that, we really do try and keep all of the extras.
Melanie Avalon
to a minimum. I love this conversation so much. And one of the, I think one of the things, like one of the biggest changes I made with my kitchen that the purpose was to, quote, declutter, but it actually makes me so happy. Beyond that, I read somewhere, and I realize it's probably different in different scenarios if you have a larger family and heirloom things. But I basically read to, like, use the nice china. It was saying, use the sentimental nice stuff, because why save it to use it once a year when you could just use it all the time and get more joy from it? And that's what I do. Because I have these different plates that have been given to me as gifts or, like I said, things from relatives. And I was like, oh, I could just use this as my everyday stuff. And it breaks while I got more joy out of it using it daily. And it was so great. It helped me get rid of a lot of stuff. I get so much joy from using it. So yeah, that was one of my favorite packs. That's really smart. That's really smart. And then I also like buying, like you said, the high quality stuff. So I'm obsessed with, which I just realized it's pronounced La Crucet. I've been calling it La Crucet for so long, and I'm so embarrassed. But I love getting all my heavy duty cast iron and keeping all of that around. Out of those four plans, is the fast one the most popular? Or what do people gravitate towards the most?
Allison Schaaf
super fast is the most popular one, yeah. But you know, again, it depends on, you know, if someone, you know, the paleo one, if someone's grain free, like that's, you know, you want to do the paleo one, or if you're a local organism, part of it's just, you know, whichever one is going to work for you and what your dietary preferences are.
Melanie Avalon
one more little topic I wanted to ask you about which is it says in your bio that you live on a wait are you not on a farm but you have chickens goats cats and bees
Allison Schaaf
Yeah, I know. I'm like, I think it's kind of like a little mini farm. It's six acres, so it's not huge. But yeah, we have chickens and goats and bees and it's an adventure every day out here for sure. It's a lot of fun. Do you eat the chickens or the goats? The short answer is yes. So with the chickens, mainly the eggs, my husband has processed a really mean rooster one year at Christmas. I think he also just wanted to see if he could do it. Not great eating. It was a lot of work, like a day or two of work for like a few bites. So we're not going into meat birds anytime soon. The goats, yes, we will occasionally process them. We bring out a little processor and it's a very good eating and it's nice knowing what went into it. And I would like to milk them at some point, but we haven't gotten there yet. But at some point, I would like to have goat milk as well.
Melanie Avalon
Oh my goodness, you could even make gold.
Allison Schaaf
cheese. I know I have a neighbor and they had goats and she did that so she kind of inspired me like okay someday yeah and then the honey from the bees is really nice too it helps with the also when you know whenever there's like a cough or sore throat type of thing it's nice to have the the local honey. Do you get the help?
Melanie Avalon
for hunting yourself from the beehive.
Allison Schaaf
I don't know if I would say myself, my husband. My husband's pretty involved with a lot of this stuff as well. But the honey is, the honey harvesting as they call it, that's like twice a year and it's a lot of fun because the kids can get involved with the equipment and you kind of like spin it around and you have the, I can't even think of all the names, but there's the, I don't know, it's not the hive. Anyway, but they do the whole thing and they have a lot of fun with it. But he's the one that has the bee suit and goes out and like tends to them.
Melanie Avalon
That is so cool. Oh my goodness. That's amazing. Okay. Well, this has been such a pleasure. It's so exciting to finally connect with you after all these years and years and years. And I just am obsessed with what you're doing. And you do have a special offer for our audience. So what, what is the deal with it? What can they get there?
Allison Schaaf
free trial so it's just 14 days to try it out you can have access to all the different plans you don't have to choose you can look at all of them poke around see what's there it's set up at prepdish.com Melanie Avalon and I just always encourage people to start there and if nothing else just kind of get some ideas of of how we do it and see if it might be a fit and yeah might as well try it for free
Melanie Avalon
Awesome. So again, this is amazing. It's literally free, like literally free. So friends, if you've been inspired by this, I know I have. I mean, it's funny, I eat basically the exact same thing every night, like literally the same thing. So are a few key foods. So I'm not the best customer for this because I'm not creating recipes. But now I'm like, I got to go download this and do this myself. Listeners, go to prepdish.com slash Melanie Avalon, that will get you a two week free trial. Again, literally nothing to lose. You can try all these recipes, see what you think. Congrats again on the Instacart integration. That is amazing. And yeah, anything that you would like to share with our listeners before we go?
Allison Schaaf
Gosh, no, in my head, I'm like, man, wine pairing soon.
Melanie Avalon
I know, I feel like that's, yeah, I think that could be amazing.
Allison Schaaf
Oh, and then I'll give a quick plug though. I do have my own podcast at Meal Prep Monday, where we talk meal prep and, you know, food and nutrition, but I also kind of go off on tangents. I probably, you know, do talk about wine or kids or travel and all the things. So that's there too.
Melanie Avalon
Awesome. Awesome. Well, we will put a link to that in the show notes as well. And yay. Well, this has been so amazing, Alison. Thank you so much for what you do. I've been a fan of it for so, so long. I really think you're going to, you save or you, you just help so many people optimize their lives, their health, their wellness, all the things. So thank you so much. And we'll have to talk again in the future and let me know if you're ever in Atlanta.
Allison Schaaf
I will. Thank you. I really appreciate it. And it's so fun to finally connect. Likewise. Have a good rest of your day.
Melanie Avalon
day. You too. Bye. Thank you so much for listening to the Intermittent Fasting Podcast. Please remember, everything we discussed on this show does not constitute medical advice and no patient-doctor relationship is formed. If you enjoyed the show, please consider writing a review on iTunes. We couldn't do this without our amazing team. Editing by podcast doctors, show notes and artwork by Brianna Joyner, and original theme composed by Leland Cox and re-composed by Steve Saunders. See you next week!
Allison Schaaf
you