026 – Fast and Easy Homemade Meals – with Elizabeth Yarnell

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Anouk :

Welcome to parenting the intensity, where we'll talk all about how we can drop the general parenting advice That doesn't work with our emotionally intense kids anyway. And let go of the unrealistic expectations society puts on us as parents. Together, we'll find solution and ideas that work for you and your kids. Chances are, deep down, you know what they need. But you need a little encouragement to keep going on other days and permission to do things differently and help you fully trust that you already are a wonderful parent to your exceptional but challenging kids. Welcome to the podcast. Today is day 2 of the episode with Elizabeth Yarnell from the Inflammation Academy. Last episode, we talked about full sensitivities and inflammation That can cause emotional intensity, and that included adapting, the way kids eat, Witch and the family heat, which heat which can be very challenging when you're already busy enough, kids that are very intense, And Elizabeth has a solution for us, and it's all in our cookbook. So we'll talk more about that cookbook, today.

Anouk :

So So let's do this. Okay. Talking of time. Yeah. I know you have a cookbook that, like I read the title, and I was like, I might need that one

Elizabeth Yarnell :

Yes. So this was something I developed, it's called Glorious One Pot Meals, And I needed because I have MS and I needed a way to eat healthier on a more regular basis and Fatigue is a hallmark of autoimmune conditions like MS and when I started to learn how to cook and taking cooking classes and watching the Food Network and in the kitchen, it was just exhausting. Everything seemed to take hours using every pot and pan in the kitchen and

Anouk :

Yeah. It takes some hours. Is it more time to clean than it takes to cook?

Elizabeth Yarnell :

The cleanup was horrendous. And sometimes it wouldn't work out. So, I actually I call myself an accidental inventor. I was watching a, Infomercial late 1 night in the days before we had cable TV when we only had 3 channels. I remember that. Remember back those days? And, this guy comes on and he says, look, I can you can make your whole dinner in this 1 countertop appliance and he puts in dry rice and a can of tomatoes and then he a metal grate like a barbecue grill type grate over it. He puts chicken breast and another metal grate and then he puts brownies on the top, Covers the whole thing in a dome, plugs it in and turns it on. And I thought, wow, that's brilliant.

Elizabeth Yarnell :

I want to make my whole meal in one Appliance too, but I don't have that countertop appliance. I don't have any of those metal grapes, and I don't really care about the brownies. And so what I did have was I had just received a little cast iron Dutch oven as a wedding gift, and, I didn't know what to do with it. I'd never had a pot like this before, but It's the kind

Anouk :

of pretty things you receive as a wedding gift.

Elizabeth Yarnell :

As a wedding gift. And you're like, I'll just put it on this shelf here.

Anouk :

Yes. It's ready in my kitchen.

Elizabeth Yarnell :

But I went over to my oven, and I thought, well, maybe that kind of cup appliance he was using was pretty hot, so I cranked up my oven to 450 degrees and then I I'm like, okay, well I'm going to kind of go like what he did in terms of layer the foods in even though I don't have any dividers. I'm just going to layer in and I had Frozen fish fillets in my freezer and some fresh vegetables and herbs and I layered them in and put the lid on it and Put it into my 450 degree really, really hot oven, and then in 45 minutes, it just smells like dinner. Great. And that's how easy it is.

Anouk :

Yeah. Yeah. Love that. And you have 1 pot. One pot. A cutting board, a knife, and That's basically it.

Elizabeth Yarnell :

And that's it. And you can do it with any any foods, and you can, totally create any meals you want. I mean, I have a 150 recipes or so in the cookbook, but I I look at them and I freely talk about in the cookbook, like, oh, if you don't want to make this, let's say, Let's, one of the most popular recipes for kids is is sweet and spicy, Pork. Well, let's say you don't wanna make it with pork. Oh, no. It's, honey and spiced pork. Maybe you don't wanna make it with pork, but you can make it with chicken. It's the same thing.

Elizabeth Yarnell :

Just switch any protein for any protein and maybe you don't like the taste of cinnamon, which is the spice part in this meal, then great, just leave it out. Just make a honey basted chicken. You can put in any combination of Fresh, frozen, or canned foods into the same pot and it doesn't take any longer to cook. They all still cook perfectly The same amount of time, I call it infusion cooking, because when if you take it out too early, Nothing's cooked enough, but if you leave it until 3 minutes after the aroma escapes your oven and comes to find you in your house, That's your 3 minute warning, and then you pull it out, everything will be cooked to perfection. The veggies will be crispy and cooked, the meat will be totally done, and you can even do Pasta and rice and things like that, and they will be perfectly cooked.

Anouk :

You mean, even, like, the the meat can be frozen when you put that in?

Elizabeth Yarnell :

The only thing you can't put in is, bone in. So as long as it's boneless.

Anouk :

Yeah. Because this is bone, it it takes way longer to The

Elizabeth Yarnell :

bone takes

Anouk :

too long. Yeah. Yeah. But that's kind of honestly mind blowing. I don't I I'm sure I'm not alone. Like, you have to make dinner, but you forgot to unfro something. It's like, that Happens at least once a week over here. Exactly.

Anouk :

Switch your plan for dinner and you're like, shoot. I forgot to unfurl this or that.

Elizabeth Yarnell :

For me too, for me too. And so I freeze things in portion sizes. So 1 chicken breast and not a massive chicken Just like a 5, 6 ounce tops chicken breast, so might have to cut the chicken breast in half depending on boneless, skinless, Fish fillets, all these things, I freeze them individually in, in my freezer and then I can pull them out and I can say, oh, I'm feeding 2 people or 3 people or 4 people and I put in 4 chicken breast depending on and then I might need a larger Dutch oven, but I, of course, I have, like,

Anouk :

After all, that that I don't know who gave you that gift, but it was a very nice gift.

Elizabeth Yarnell :

And you can see in my book, I give gratitude to my friends who gave us that gift and they know it changed Not only my life, but 70,000 people have bought my book. Wow. And so it's changed a lot of people's lives.

Anouk :

Yeah. That's nice. And it's it's, I love the idea and How easy it is because I I I find like, it's so hard as parents to find a time to really cook the meal, like, from Scratch, and often we don't have time. And when we have kids that are more demanding, it's even. Like, it's another layer of not adding the time More energy to cook something. So I know for lots of people when you start talking about food sensitivities and changing diets, it's like, I don't wanna listen because I that means too too much job. You know?

Elizabeth Yarnell :

It's true. It's true. So for a family of your size, which is 5 people, you'd want a 5 quart Dutch oven, which lucky for you is the most common size and the least expensive one that can get I

Anouk :

think I already have 1 in my

Elizabeth Yarnell :

You already have 1. That's I

Anouk :

would have to I don't know exactly the size, but it's like the oval ones. Like yeah.

Elizabeth Yarnell :

Yeah?

Anouk :

They used to sell it at IKEA back in a few years back. I don't know if they still do, but yeah. You wanna make

Elizabeth Yarnell :

sure it's cast iron, not ceramic Because cast iron has different heat conduction properties and ceramic won't work as well.

Anouk :

Okay.

Elizabeth Yarnell :

But yes, so you just add instead of 45 minutes, I think For a 5 chord, it's somewhere around an hour, so 60 minutes, but you don't touch it that whole time. As soon as you put

Anouk :

it in

Elizabeth Yarnell :

the oven, Hands off. Yeah. No touching. No opening the oven. Nothing.

Anouk :

You can take care of the arm work. You can go play with the kids. You can do anything you need to do. Go Load of laundry. Anything you need

Elizabeth Yarnell :

to do. Glass of wine. Ew.

Anouk :

So, yeah, it's it's great because it's like, The the cooking time is one thing. It's the prep time that often takes us a long time. Right.

Elizabeth Yarnell :

Right. So and there's so many easy ways. Like, you can get The baby carrots, they're already peeled and they're already small and you can literally just chop them in half and throw them in the pot. You can get frozen vegetables. Roasted organic vegetables are just as good as fresh vegetables are already cut. They're already peeled. They're ready to go. Just shake the bag into the pot.

Elizabeth Yarnell :

Yeah.

Anouk :

And even in in winter, I know over here, vegetable are coming from so far south that often frozen is better in winter because They're they picked up, like, 3 weeks before they arrived for us, so the nutrients are ridiculously low. So, like, the test that were made is that frozen ones are better in winter most of the time than fresh ones because they're not fresh that all?

Elizabeth Yarnell :

Well and that's what a great reminder. You're so far north Yeah. That that is true. And even For me, I'm in Colorado, not as far north as you are. But even here, I mean, we don't we don't grow year round.

Anouk :

No. So, Yeah. It may I mean, it's not snow. Yeah. If it's not coming for that far, I guess it's not that bad. But when it's coming from another country, most of the time, like, there is nowhere in Canada where we grow food in winter. It's too cold everywhere. Like, there are some places that are colder than others, but It's too cold to grow anything unless it's, like, inside.

Anouk :

There's a little bit of it, but not lots of it. You know? So not enough to feed everybody. That's for sure.

Elizabeth Yarnell :

No. And so so, really, my goal with my cookbook is to unleash your creativity and allow you to create any meal out of whatever you have on hand. It's really the technique that's important and once you learn the technique, now you have it in your back it. You can just whip it out and do it anytime.

Anouk :

Yeah. And it I I really love the idea of that. You still have that creativity in in the kitchen even if You need to restrict some some food because that's a big, big thing. Like, it's I I'm not a very creative cook, but my husband is. And That's that can be very, like, disappointing when you need to like, you're like, I cannot use this, this, this, this, this. But how am I gonna cook anything interesting? You know?

Elizabeth Yarnell :

Yeah. So you have to really dig deep and look around and hopefully read some of the other recipes and get some inspiration. And another thing I like to do is have the kids be involved because this is something that is so easy. I've had 8 year olds take my cooking classes and then say, Oh, yeah. You know, my job is on Wednesdays, I cook for the family because my parents are divorced and my mom works late on Wednesdays or whatever it is. Mhmm. Because it is so, so easy. For sure.

Elizabeth Yarnell :

But and if you get the kids involved and you say, okay, well, what kind of meat would you like Tonight in our dinner, would you like chicken or fish or pork, you know, or beef or whatever it is or even tofu? You can go completely Vegetarian or vegan with this cooking method very very easily. And on top of it, you can use any kind of Dairy substitute. So you can like, another one of the the kid pleasing recipes I have is called glorious mac and cheese.

Anouk :

Mhmm.

Elizabeth Yarnell :

And It's, macaroni and cheese made from scratch, not from the, neon colored orange powder.

Anouk :

We're gonna the name.

Elizabeth Yarnell :

Not gonna say the name. Made from scratch and then you fill it up with the vegetables that you'd like. So even if you can't have dairy, Like, you can have a vegan nondairy cheese or maybe even goat milk cheese. So I don't eat cow's milk dairy myself, but I do fine with goat's milk cheeses. So and now you can get goat's milk Cheddar cheese, goat's milk mozzarella cheese.

Anouk :

It's much and more. It it's pricier, though, but it's much easier to find In most cases, it's not better, so I'm biased. Okay.

Elizabeth Yarnell :

The more expensive goat's milk cheddar versus the regular cheddar, The regular cheddar would would put me to bed for days. Yeah. It's totally worth it to me.

Anouk :

Yeah. For sure. For sure. When when you know what's triggering your reaction, The price of it. Al as long as you can afford it, the price of it makes such a difference. Yeah. It's more complicated when you don't have the money, but then you can you need to avoid more things.

Elizabeth Yarnell :

Or maybe you don't make the macaroni and cheese. Right? Maybe you just make, like, more of a primavera pasta primavera, which is, of course, another recipe I have. Where where there's no cheese, it's more like olive oil based with spices and vegetables Yeah. And pasta. Yeah.

Anouk :

So you have everything but tweaked so it won't quit the The

Elizabeth Yarnell :

Right. And if you if you're not eating wheat, you can there's rice pasta, others, quinoa pasta, others.

Anouk :

So many new big brands now are doing non gluten based pasta. Exactly. It's easier and cheaper to find than it was 10 years ago for sure.

Elizabeth Yarnell :

Exactly. And if you go to an Asian market, all of their pastas are rice usually.

Anouk :

Yeah. And it's very cheap Compare to Very cheap. Pasta. Like, gluten free pasta are branded to be pricier than anything else even if they're cheaper to make.

Elizabeth Yarnell :

Right, right. Well, and that's a big thing I teach. So my programs are called the inflammation academy. It's all about inflammation and this is all the information that your doctor doesn't know and nobody told you. Nobody taught us growing up about what inflammation is and what triggers it and what the microbiome is and how to keep our body healthy, because they didn't know either and, really, so many things changed in the 19 fifties when in the 19 forties when women went to work for the war effort and then, all of these convenience foods kind of appeared. Yeah. And Because we

Anouk :

didn't have time anymore.

Elizabeth Yarnell :

Because we didn't want to spend our whole day in the kitchen preparing food and then cleaning up afterward, which is what it was. I there was, there was a special I know I'm totally diverging now from the topic that was spent on PBS a number of years ago and it was called pioneer families or something like that and they took a couple families and they moved them out by covered wagon to the prairie, I think in Montana, and they had to live for 6 months just as the pioneers did and all of the women talked about How their entire day was spent cooking, preparing the food, and then serving the food, and then cleaning up from the food, and then Doing the laundry and their whole day was just drudgery all day. Yeah. Yeah. So it's no wonder convenience foods took over. We wanted them. We needed them, but now we have to take a step back and and recognize that

Anouk :

Yeah. It might be earthing us. Yeah. It might be earthing us, and there's solution for It do not take all day. That's what I love about

Elizabeth Yarnell :

it. Like, all you need to do is, like, half iron Dutch oven.

Anouk :

I ate Cooking longer than I eat, so

Elizabeth Yarnell :

Me too. Me too. Honestly. And then and then, of course, you have kids and, Like, it's all gulped down in 5 minutes, and you're like, I just went, oh, we're slaving over this thing. Nobody appreciates the shop.

Anouk :

Or they're telling you they don't like it. That's another problem too.

Elizabeth Yarnell :

So that is another one of the deals I strike with the kids that we work with is that, even if you're 5 years old, you need to understand somebody prepared the food for you and that person deserves appreciation and respect for doing that and gratitude and so appreciate the chef kind of becomes like a motto And even if you don't like it, like in my household, we had a rule, you're not allowed to reject the food without eating 3 bites first and that means 3 bites in the mouth and down the down the throat and then if you still Can't stand it, then okay. I'll make you something else so you can have something else. But even if you're like, I had that last week and I didn't like it, Every time it changes, and sometimes it takes more than 10 tries of a food before your taste buds accept it, recognize it.

Anouk :

Yeah. I can tell you. I can say take it took a lot more than that for me to eat mushrooms, but now I love them.

Elizabeth Yarnell :

Good example.

Anouk :

Yeah. Definitely. That's always what I tell my kids when they don't wanna try food. You know,

Anouk :

I didn't like mushrooms when I was a

Anouk :

kid, but now I do. We can change.

Elizabeth Yarnell :

Sometimes right? Sometimes you find the foods that you're like, oh my gosh. I can't believe I didn't like this before. This is, like, my favorite food now.

Anouk :

Yeah. And As I said, it's just how it's cool. It's cooked too. I like, brussels sprout, we use to, like, steam them. It's and it tastes like Shit. So sorry, but it really is not good. And when you cook them differently, then it, Like, it's all my kids eat brussels sprout, and lots of their friends are like, you're crazy. That's disgusting.

Anouk :

It's just a matter of how you cook them. So that's often the case too.

Elizabeth Yarnell :

There's a lot of that. Oftentimes, when people come through my program, they discover like, oh, you know what I realized? Coconut milk ice cream is so delicious. I don't even miss dairy milk ice cream.

Anouk :

Mhmm.

Elizabeth Yarnell :

Or, oh, I like, almond butter better than peanut butter after all. You know what I mean? Whatever that may be. Yeah. They would never have

Anouk :

any one of my kids most prefer almond butter. When we have almond butter, it's gonna default to that. Almond butter for sure.

Elizabeth Yarnell :

Exactly. Yeah.

Anouk :

Exactly. So trying new things and diversifying our our food that we we take. Because we're so used to some things than what we need to and I I I know how hard it can be because I attitude that, like, going through Removing a lot of food from my own diet, so it really is a struggle. And at some point, it can really be challenging to, Like, I have the feeling you cannot eat anything, basically. So I love that that idea of, like, finding ways to still make it fun and enjoyable when you need to remove lots of things from your diet.

Elizabeth Yarnell :

Exactly. So if you, you know, if your favorite food is pizza, I make a really great pizza I made probably once a week when my kids were growing up. It's A chickpea flour crust. They make it in the cast iron pizza pan. I use tomato sauce on it and nondairy cheese and all sorts of things to make our pizza, and so we enjoy pizza.

Anouk :

Yeah. Yeah. It's just a different pizza then. You cannot buy it in the The freezer in the store.

Elizabeth Yarnell :

Well, now there are

Anouk :

you can. Yeah.

Elizabeth Yarnell :

Right? There's brands that you can find and if And they might be safe for you or not. Like, there's 1 a brand called Kinnickinnick that makes, like, a rice flour pizza crust, and there's other brands I've seen with, like, cauliflower, pizza crust, things like that, there's so many more options now

Anouk :

than

Elizabeth Yarnell :

there used to be.

Anouk :

Yeah. True.

Elizabeth Yarnell :

That is really find substitutes for almost anything.

Anouk :

Yeah. Definitely true. It was much more complicated 10 years ago is now to avoid some of the food, for sure. Yeah.

Elizabeth Yarnell :

I used to, bring treats in to my kids' classrooms and stock them. You know, the teacher would have, like, they would distribute, and I'm, like, these are the ones when you hand out those things to the other kids, this is what my kid because I want him to Have a treat.

Anouk :

I don't want him to feel

Elizabeth Yarnell :

like he's the only one who doesn't get a treat. Of course. If he can't eat the crap that the licorice thing or whatever you're handing out With red food dye, that's gonna kill them.

Anouk :

They they give that at school? They're

Elizabeth Yarnell :

I don't I don't wanna throw any Teachers under the bus.

Anouk :

Okay. I don't know. Generally, I've never seen other things that fruits given up at school, especially since, like, I'm a thought Because of allergies and things like that, I've never seen

Elizabeth Yarnell :

anything happen. Much more aware of it now. Yeah. Yeah. But, you know, the Parents will come in and bring cupcakes for a birthday or something and I'm like, well, you you can't have that cupcake, but here. Here's his supply of of cookies that are safe for him Mhmm. That he can have.

Anouk :

And it's great, like, it's some old made one would not stay for the school year, but Bought 1. Can stay for a few months at least.

Elizabeth Yarnell :

Well, you know, I resupply the cupboard too. Yeah.

Anouk :

I'm sure you don't leave them for a year. They would love that well. It's a great tip, like, to have like, whenever the kids go somewhere, like, I'm I and I know, like, sharing that also with Other parents, like, I remember for one of my daughter's friend who's sensitive to lots of things, we used to make another cake. Like, we always add like, like, crispy rice and marshmallow based cake because that was safe for her. It was crispy wise. Like, not the store bought, like, the it was a non gluten one.

Elizabeth Yarnell :

Uh-huh.

Anouk :

So, yeah, that was a safe base for her, and We would find something to decorate that, so we add 2 cakes. And most of the time, the kid wanted hers. So

Elizabeth Yarnell :

Right. And if your if your child is is staying away from wheat and you know that parents bring in cupcakes for parties, you can supply rice krispie treats or something like that so that your kid can have a treat or like I remember going to the Pizza parties or something, and I would bring a pizza for my son. Yeah. But he could still have pizza. Yeah. Pizza with the other kids, just not the same pizza.

Anouk :

No. So it doesn't feel like left alone and, like, left aside and,

Elizabeth Yarnell :

different psychologically. Right? Yeah. Psychologically, that's so that can be so painful.

Anouk :

Yeah. It is. And in when you already have a child that can be triggered for by men like small things. You don't want to add that Over. And hopefully, if, like, food is the cause, that will lower the reactions. And I can say I've seen it happen with Some kids, and I'm sure you've seen that. Lots of kids.

Elizabeth Yarnell :

Yes. In fact, one of my nieces, when she was little, When she would go to a birthday party without fail, before the party would end, she would have a complete meltdown when she was like 3 or 4 years old and just being at tantrum and in tears and her parents would literally have to scoop her up and take her away and, and my sister was like, I don't know if we can go to birthday parties anymore because it's such a nightmare and when we tested her, it turned out that she was sensitive to chocolate.

Anouk :

So when

Elizabeth Yarnell :

she would eat the chocolate cake, She would have a meltdown half an hour later. So, just by learning some small, clues about your child. So now when they go to a party, they bring a vanilla cupcake or something for her, so she can still have a cupcake And she doesn't eat the chocolate cake, and she doesn't have a meltdown.

Anouk :

Yeah. Yeah. That's definitely, like, makes a big difference, like, once you know What can be the cause? Great. Just before we end, is there anything you wanted to add that we didn't touch on?

Elizabeth Yarnell :

Well, I think that, it can be really tricky to figure out what's going on with inflammation in the body and how it is affecting The brain and the behavior of in the function of your child, so, one of the things that I would like to offer anybody who's listening is I have an inflammation quiz that you can take. Give yourself at least 15 minutes to sit down. It's not a quick quiz because Inflammation can show up in so many ways but you might go through this quiz and there might be things like you're like, oh, I did not realize this was a sign of inflammation, but, yes, I recognize that symptom.

Anouk :

Mhmm.

Elizabeth Yarnell :

And so that one is at inflammation investigator.com.

Anouk :

Great. We'll put that in the show notes so they can they can go and check that out. Definitely gonna test it. My me for myself and for the kids too. Really curious.

Elizabeth Yarnell :

You know? Because it's, it's hard to figure these things out on your own and then, if you're ready, you can and you want to get your kiddo tested food sensitivities or learn how to create an anti inflammatory life and household for them. That's what the inflammation academy is all about and that website is the inflammation academy.com. Gotta put the z in there first, The inflammation academy.com, and there's a lot of different levels of solutions and depending on How serious you are about getting to the bottom of this, you can pick the right level or you can certainly book a time to talk with me, and I always have time to talk with people and answer any questions.

Anouk :

Great. That's very, very fine. So is there, so that's Is is there any, like, social media where people can follow you and learn more, or it's basically on your website that's most of the information is?

Elizabeth Yarnell :

Of course, I'm all over social media but I'm terrible if you

Anouk :

I get it. If you

Elizabeth Yarnell :

fight into my DMs, it might be months before I recognize that has happened.

Anouk :

So email is better if people wanna reach out to you.

Elizabeth Yarnell :

Emails. I'm I'm old older than I look. Email is always better, and you can always email me as well from my website. My website is kind of my hub of everything I do. It's elizabethyarnell.com, And I'm sure that's gonna be in the show notes. Yes. So All those links

Anouk :

in the show notes.

Elizabeth Yarnell :

Yeah. Elizabeth yarnell.com. And, And, yeah, you can reach me directly through there. It's so much information. I have almost a 1000 blog posts, so there's lots to read and learn about too.

Anouk :

Great. So if people Or, again, I would say most of the time, and I always encourage parent to follow their instinct. Like, if anything that we talked about today resonate or you were like, Might sound it sound it sounds like something I need to investigate. I would say trust your gut and do it. It's most of the time we're right, and it might take times to find the right thing, But it's worth to pursuing when we have that gotten synced up, yes. That's what's happening for me. And it might not be the only thing. There might be 1 more than one thing, But it might be part of the solution.

Anouk :

So always encourage parents to to follow their instinct and on those things. So thank you very much. Yeah. Thank you very much for sharing. That was really interesting and complete information. I have to do 2 episodes because it's a bit long. But thank you so much for being here, and, looking forward to, talking to you again later.

Elizabeth Yarnell :

Me too. Anytime. Thanks so much,

Anouk :

focus on finding a new way to parent that works for you and your kids. To get the episodes at Soon As They Drop, make sure to subscribe to the podcast. And please leave everything in review so other parents can find it too. Also, check out all the free resources on my website at familymoments.ca so you can take action on what's the most important for you right now. And take a deep breath. Keep going. We're all in this together.