On this episode of the Healthy Family Project Podcast, we’re joined by Sarah Hester to discuss easy ways to use fruits and veggies and how we can eat more of them. Sarah is passionate about making produce accessible and enjoyable for everyone and she shares tons of tips to make healthy eating easy and doable even with busy schedules and selective eating.

Easy Ways to Use Fruits and Vegetables

How often do we set lofty healthy eating goals only to find ourselves reaching for the takeout menu or heading to the drive-thru? It’s totally normal for life to get in the way and to maintain a balance when it comes to mealtime. We’re here to say that eating fruits and veggies can be easy and doable even when life gets busy.

Easy Ways to Use Fruits

Listening to the podcast episode, you can hear Sarah’s passion for fruits and veggies and the steps families can take to make produce a larger part of family mealtime. Sarah shared a lot of great tips to make eating more fruits and veggies easy from tips on how to make them more visible so they’re not forgotten, how to enjoy them outside of the home, and ideas on how to maximize flavor.

Easy Ways to Use Vegetables Podcast

Sarah stresses the power of condiments, dressings, dips and sauces and how they can be used to make fruits and veggies more enjoyable. If eating fruits and veggies is easy and palatable, you’re more likely to keep eating them and cement the habit. A little creativity can go a long way to flavor your dishes and make mealtime more exciting, especially when it comes to exploring new cuisines.

About Our Guest, Sarah Hester MS, RD

Sarah is a Registered Dietitian based in North Carolina. She is currently employed by a wholesale fresh produce distributor where she works with local farmers and helps to manage their direct to consumer delivery programs. She also provides insight into their non-profit that works to not only make fresh produce accessible in their community, but also offers programming on how to grow and cook with fruits and veggies! Her passion as an RD is to make fruits and vegetables accessible and enjoyable for everyone!

Listen to New & Easy Ways to Use Fruits and Vegetables

What We Cover:

Want to skip straight to a hot topic? See timestamps below. But of course, we recommend listening all the way through to get all the great tips and tricks!

  • 2:51 Get to know Sarah!
  • 7:27 How can we stick to our goals of eating more fruits and veggies?
  • 18:20 How to plan ahead for healthy eating
  • 21:00 Tips to eat fruits & veggies outside of your home
  • 22:30 How to make veggies more enjoyable
  • 24:31 Ideas to make the most out of condiments
  • 35:00 How to use dips to eat more fruits & veggies
  • 46:18 Charcuterie and snack boards
  • 47:22 Sarah’s go-to busy weeknight dinner

Other Podcast Episodes to Check Out:

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Transcript for Episode 77

This transcript was produced by Otter.Ai. Please forgive any misspellings and grammatical errors.

00:09
Welcome to the healthy family project podcast covering the hot topics in the world of health, food and
family with a dose of fun. Welcome to the show. I’m your host Amanda is great to have you here today.
Whether you’re returning listener, or you’re new, we welcome you. We’ve had several great episodes so
far in 2022. So definitely go back and give a listen if you are new to the podcast. Before we get started,
quick reminder about our Facebook group and our social media, especially Instagram, where we are
sharing a lot of inspiration daily. We have a fairly new tic toc as well. So we’re starting to get in, get into
the TIC tock over there. So check that out. This month, we’re talking all about meal planning and meal
prep during our annual mission for nutrition that celebrates National Nutrition Month. You can find
inspiration information, anything you need on all of our social media outlets and on our website, healthy
family project calm. And we are doing weekly giveaways all month on Instagram. So don’t miss out on
that. And if you’re listening after March, don’t worry mission for nutrition. We’ll be back next year and you
will always find giveaways popping up on our social media year round. We also have our weekly e
newsletter, which always has a theme, and it’s delivered right to your inbox weekly. And so you can take
advantage of that by signing up in the show notes in the link. And then okay enough of me enough of me
just talking let me introduce our guest for today. Today we are talking to Sarah Hester, as she is
absolutely the perfect guest to have for National Nutrition Month celebrating mission for nutrition. She is
a registered dietitian based in North Carolina, and she is currently employed by a wholesale fresh
produce distributor where she works with local farmers and helps to manage their direct to consumer
delivery programs. She also provides insight to her company’s nonprofit that works to not only make
fresh produce accessible in their community, but also offers programming on how to grow and cook with
fruits and veggies. Her passion as a registered dietitian is to make fruits and vegetables accessible and
enjoyable for everyone. And I am excited to talk to Sarah today. So let’s jump on in.
02:33
Welcome to the show.
02:34
Sarah we are truly excited to have you on as we celebrate National Nutrition Month woohoo. And of
course, our healthy family projects mission for nutrition. We’re getting into that again this year. But before
we jump in, can you tell our listeners a little bit about you?
02:51
Sure. So like you said, my name is Sarah, and I’m a fairly new dietician. I’ve been a dietician for about
two years. I have my undergraduate and graduate degrees in nutrition. And my graduate degree was
focusing in food systems, more so like about community nutrition, food and nutrition and security,
sustainability, things like that. So kind of unconventional for an RD, I was hesitant at first to become an
RD because I thought you had to be a clinical rd which is in a hospital or in a nursing home. And I did not
feel led to do that. So um, but then I finally realized that dietitians are experts in food in all different ways.
And we can be used in all different fields. So I did pursue becoming a dietitian about two years ago. And
so right now I work for a company in North Carolina, called ripe revival. And we’re a wholesale produce
company. And we do a lot of things. We serve both farmers and consumers in a variety of ways. So we
work with farmers and consults in helping them along the whole process of growing a crop. So the
growing the input on different things that are happening in the market, like this year, we let one of our
farmers know that we think dinosaur kale is gonna be on trend and it was so they experimented with

growing dinosaur kale cool. And then we help them market and sell that dinosaur kale or any of their
crops. And so we do that with a lot of different farmers in our area. And we sell to grocery stores,
processors, people that are making crops into let’s say, baby food, and then we even do some direct to
consumer programs direct to delivery to houses. So that’s I plug in there as a dietitian, but we just try and
market and sell a farmer’s whole crop and at really advocated or agriculture in our state, and agriculture
in general. So our mission is to revive communities through food. And with every purchase that’s made
our company, which I think this is special, every box that we deliver to someone’s house every truckload
of butternut squash that we ship across the country from a farmer, we always donate back a portion of
those proceeds. And usually that’s in the form of donation of actual fruits, veggies, because that’s
important. But then even more so is the development of humans. And putting programs in place like
teaching about farming and teaching about gardening. And then even some nutrition education
programming, which is where I fall into the community and teaching folks how to use let’s say, a fresh
cabbage, we can make an accessible to the community through some of our programs, and then
empowering them to actually utilize it and incorporate into their life.
06:04
Very cool. So you don’t sleep ever?
06:08
Yes. And I have a 10 month old,
06:10
so Okay, yeah, so you really don’t sleep?
06:14
No, no. That’s okay. Well, yeah, yes, exactly.
06:19
I don’t know. Cuz I have a teen in between. And I thought that too, not to not to shatter your dream. But
there’s some times where that sleep comes back. But yeah, oh, you are doing some amazing things. I
mean, just from the first time we spoke, it was so wonderful to hear, you know, the giving back aspect of
what you do, you know, and the education and it’s just so amazing. So I’m excited to have you today.
Keep up all the good work. Okay, so let’s jump into our topic today. I’m excited to hear what you have to
say. So we all want, quote, unquote, to eat more fruits and vegetables, right? It’s always on top of our list
our to do list. But it doesn’t always work out. We are. You know, looking, we talked a little bit about this,
we’re always looking for something maybe more appetizing than plain celery. And I hate to celery
because I love celery. I swear I love celery. But what is your advice on sticking to the mission of eating
more fruits and vegetables? How can we do it in a way that’s gonna stick?
07:29
I mean, I think we’ve all been there, we get really ambitious and want to eat a bunch of fruits and
veggies, whether they be fresh fruit, or fresh, canned, or frozen. And maybe we’ll go to the grocery store
have delivery of a ton of produce when we start our fridges, and by the end of the week, you know, half
of that still there, or we have to toss some of it. So we’ve all been there,
07:55
the worst guessing.
07:58
So there are some things that we can do to be more realistic with ourselves and to make a plan for them.
And you know, it’s not bad to want to eat a lot of produce and but being realistic and purchasing enough
and maybe having a game plan for some of them. So I’m excited to dive more into that today and some
tips that we can share with your audience. Okay.
08:24
All right. Well, okay, so I definitely find myself with many highs and lows when it comes to this goal. As I
mentioned, some weeks we’re total rockstars I’ve been getting some great things in the girls lunches this
week. So doing well this week. And then some life event happens we chatted a little before we hopped
on here today about my my life events this week. So you know something happens and you know throws
me off and pizza delivery. It is or you know, I’m scurrying out the door at 5pm running to the store to try to

figure out you know, sitting I have right now I’m having a vision of myself in the Publix parking lot on
Pinterest, honestly, like, please. Pinterest saved me in this moment. Like plugging in like easy, quick,
healthy meals. So I know so I have been Yeah, yeah, I know. It’s so funny, but I never thought about that.
But if you see me sitting in my car in the Publix parking lot, that’s what I’m doing. Alright, so I know you’re
passionate about finding the fix. So I can’t wait to hear about how you advise me used fruits and fruits
and veggies in a way that sticks.
09:34
Yeah, I mean, it can get really old really quick. I’m just thinking you want to eat, let’s say baby carrots and
ranch or cucumbers and ranch. I mean, that’s great. And you can plan on eating that every night of the
week. But in reality, you might not want that to happen or your you or your family’s probably not gonna
want to do that every, every day of the week. So if that works, that’s great, but in reality That probably is
not going to work for a lot of folks. So there’s really some things that we can do to make them exciting
and making them delicious. So we’re going to focus more on fruits and veggies and a tool to help us use
more. So, you know, there was every five years a study published by Proteus, for better health
organization, it’s an organization that advocates for the consumption of fruits and vegetables, so fresh
frozen and cans, they always publish a study of a survey that they’ve done for the past five years, about
consumers and our eating patterns, and, you know, anything that relates to fruits and veggies, and how
we can increase consumption. And, you know, they found what we know, too, we don’t eat enough fruits
and veggies, I think everybody in the US, you know, we’re not eating our recommended servings, which
is about five, even sometimes, like upwards of nine servings of fruits and veggies, you know, we’re we
know, we’re not eating enough. And that was what they found, too is we’re not eating enough, we’re
aware that we’re not eating enough. But we’re still we’re still motivated to vegetables, and we want to eat
more. And then health and nutrition is a primary reason and driver, why we want to eat more. So we
know we have the knowledge, but that knowledge just doesn’t always translate into a behavior. You
know, it takes more than just knowledge and a little bit of motivation. Like, there, there are some things
that we can do. So what was really interesting from their study was about the barriers that consumers
face in consuming fruits and vegetables. So they know they want to, but they still, they are really craving
new ways to enjoy them, like having new recipes, or just ideas and tips of how to enjoy them. So taste is
always going to be the number one driver and why we choose foods that we do taste and convenience.
But tastes really is going to be the number one reason so if they’re not craving those baby carrots and
ranch, then they’re most likely not going to eat them, you know, maybe they can force themselves to but
that’s not sustainable. And then, of course, they found people need to stay in budget, and then it needs
to be convenient and easy. And so what’s a quick way to include them in meal plans and just your
routines of life. So they gave the recommendations that are really enjoy from this study that focuses
more on human behavior. So I said, you know, we have the knowledge, but that doesn’t always translate
into the actual behavior. So they gave some really good rock solid recommendations that I kind of just
want to go through. And then once we go through that, I think one of their last recommendations I really
want to hone down on and talk about because it’s one that I’m passionate about. So um, they their
messaging now is about human behavior and making it easy. So the first one is making it easy to see
and when I say it, I’m referring to fruits and veggies. So making them easy to see. So having a fruit bowl
on the counter or having a fruit bowl, prepped in the fridge, you know it’s our level, it’s easy to see it’s
easy to grab, you know, a bag of chips can also be sitting on the counter, but if a fruit rolls right beside it,
we can it’s easier to make that decision to eat those fruits and veggies
13:42
making it easier to eat or swallow. So maybe cleaning you let’s say for example that fresh strawberries
that you bring home, maybe taking them home cleaning them chopping them slicing topping, whatever
those fresh strawberries so when you want to go open up your fridge for something to eat those you
have less of a barrier to eat those fresh strawberries because they’re already prepped you don’t have to
do anything you can just grab it and eat it. The other part of that easy to swallow I thought was
interesting and a great point because right now I have a I have a 10 month old at home and he he needs
different sizing of fruits and vegetables and food. So right now I can take that into account and while I’m
let’s say those strawberries go back to that I can cut those fruits and strawberries for me but also I can
put them in the right size for him. And or let’s say if someone in the family needs a different texture or
needs a different it’s a different way of eating a fruit bowl. Yeah, and
14:52
I already wait and I will say when you said just to back up to make it easy to see. I recognize something
or Over the last year that when I, when there’s when I say when there’s less in the fridge, but I guess that

makes sense. So when my fridge isn’t totally jammed, because I will see my daughter open it. And if my
fruit drawer is like, so smashed full, they’re not going to open it and eat it or like if you can’t even reach in
the refrigerator, because things are just like falling out at you. I know this sounds silly, but I feel like I’ve
scaled back a lot on my grocery list. Well, I’ve been meal planning more too. So that helps. And I try to
use crossover ingredients, but scaling back, so that way your fridge isn’t as congested with so many
things. And even the pantry, you know, so that it’s not as congested with if you have like, the canned fruit
or canned veg, or, you know, the, the cups or and so I think that just even taking a step back before the
food and how thinking about how you make those purchases, because I was going like all the things on
my grocery list and Sundays, people are like, Whoa, what happened, we can’t even move or like see
anything in here and then off they go to, you know, something else or whatever’s you know, maybe falling
out of the pantry at the very forefront of the pantry. So yeah, so that was a lesson that I learned over the
past year, I feel like and then for the easy to eat and swallow. For my 11 year old well, even my older
daughter to even my husband, let’s just group everyone in here. I feel like whenever things are chopped,
more fine, or finally more fine. In a recipe, you know, I feel like especially with kids, like you’re getting the
flavor, and you’re still like eating the bell pepper. But it might not be such a huge chunk of bell pepper.
Because I think I learned also that I tried to jam so many vegetables into every meal that they were just
like, Okay, this is overload. So I’m like, Alright, I’m going to scale back, I’m going to cut things a little
smaller. And I’m not going to try to give you all of your servings of veggies in this one meal. So my
learnings, I
17:14
guess that’s awesome, the easy to see, like reducing the amount of options, you know, option overload,
even, you know, that’s a real thing or like, what do they call it decision fatigue, which, you know, we as
moms, oh, yeah, experience. So, I know, we’re not the only ones that experience that. But if they have to
think about a decision more than a second, you know, so I like that. And you took that from your own
family. And the thing about the shredded veggies, too. I mean, you figure that out for your family, like
maybe they enjoy a shredded bell pepper hidden enchilada, but then they’ll enjoy a whole, they’ll pepper
on the side as well or different veggie on the side hole or maybe grate the onions and then keep the bell
peppers Oh, like, that’s something you figure out with your own family too. And if that means an extra
onion in a recipe, that’s great. So I love that point, for sure. The next one that they harped on was make it
easy to plan. So I said I have a 10 month old and so it’s it’s busy, but I just know it gets busier. It’s
actually not as busy it’s gonna get because I can plop them down in a highchair right now while I make
dinner. So I’m able to cook a little bit still. But sometimes I just plan on using a frozen streamable
vegetable every night for dinner, if I know I want to eat a vegetable, I want to just go ahead and plan for
using frozen. You know, that’s easy for me. Or if I want to plan to have a fruit at breakfast every morning,
and I don’t prepare them that week, I don’t quit take them home fresh ones, don’t take it home and cut it
and chop it. I’ll just use cans. So make it easy to plan. So they they are in all their forms fresh, frozen and
canned. They’re very easy to plan if you just sent that plan in advance. So
19:12
and I think and then I just I’m sorry to interrupt you, but I think that people sometimes to feel like I’m not
eating all fresh, you know, like, I didn’t go to the farm stand and pick this out which that’s awesome too.
I’m not but fruits and veggies in all forms. You should be you know, not being down on yourself. If you’re
not, you know, harvesting from your backyard garden and bringing it in for the family. You know, it’s
important to make sure because I know we can all get down on ourselves and that’s definitely not
something to get down on yourself about.
19:46
No, no, I that’s one of my biggest points that I talk about. As a dietitian, you know, obviously I work for a
fresh produce company. So I love advocating for fresh In a diet, and it’s a privilege to be able to eat fresh
produce. But canned and frozen, honestly sometimes can be, if not better, that can be the same
nutritional quality. You know, frozen vegetables are oftentimes taken right from the field and put on a line
and frozen and put in a bag. So I mean, it doesn’t really get much fresher than that, even though it’s
frozen. So it’s just all about you and your preferences. And if you don’t like the way it tastes, when it’s
been frozen, well, then fine, you can use the fresh version of it. But if you don’t mind it, and if it’s more in
your budget, and if it’s in your life, and it’s easy to plan, then absolutely use it. So the next one they
spoke to was making it easy to transport or pack or take with you. So going back to those strawberries,
making them easy to take to work or grab and go. Maybe while you’re prepping them and you’re putting
them in a bowl, maybe put them in individual bags. So it is or container. So you can easily grab and go
or, you know, when your daughters have been the fridge, they just see those chopped strawberries in a

small container that’s easy to eat, maybe that’s more appealing than a large container, you know, it’s one
less decision they have to make by just making it easy to take grab and go. Because we’re all about
convenience, and then making them easy to remember. So one thing I do sometimes is I’ll go ahead and
pack my whole lunch box, if I’m going into the office, I’ll pack my whole lunch box with those Grab and
Go fruits and veggies and then I’ll put that whole lunchbox in the fridge. And then so it’s easy for me to
remember in the morning, I don’t have to assemble right and put everything together. It’s just easy for me
to remember, or maybe putting a sticky note on your fridge, whatever you see is a good reminder make
something just easier to do one less decision you have to make, you’re going to be more successful in
eating fruits and veggies. And then one of my favorites, the one that we’re going to focus on today is
making it easier to just enjoy those fruits and veggies, you know, there’s so much more than a raw carrot
or a raw cucumber, making them something that’s tasty and delicious. And something that you really
genuinely enjoy and that you want to go back and do you know, that’s the best way to create a behavior
for yourself is making it easy to do all of these things. And then really, since we know flavor and taste is
our number one driver, making them something that we want to do, again, like eating a certain food or
feci. And so I think we have a tool in our kitchens, and we might not see it as a tool. But I think a hidden
tool of eating, getting our ourselves and our families to eat more fruits and veggies is using something
like a condiment or using a dip or for Shawn you have some type of sauce or dressing. You know, we
don’t have to harp on what the condiment or dip, you know really is contributing to the meal if, if that
means that we our families are going to eat more fruits and vegetables by using a wrench or or dips that
we’re going to go into, then by all means use it like that as a tool, use it use it as a tool. And now that you
can see that that’s a tool. I think there’s a lot of fun and exciting pairings that you can that you can pair
with fruits and veggies to actually make that happen within you, your family and your household.
24:04
Okay, I’m here for the to Ziqi I felt like oh, my current I’m just dipping everything in the to Ziqi.
24:15
And so we’re gonna go into these different types of condiments and dips and things like that and how to
maybe some ideas of how you can incorporate them into your meal plans or just your general week. But
there is no just like using canned and frozen. There is no shame in buying these. You can make them
homemade, but you can just as easily buy them and there’s no shame in that. But I think it’s kind of
timely. March is National Nutrition Month and every year we have a theme. So dietitians celebrate March
as this month of just promoting nutrition and the role food has in our daily lives. So this year’s theme is
actually talking about flavor and celebrating flavor and different flavors and different cuisines all over the
world. You know, America is a melting pot, and we have so many different flavors around us. And so
exposing our families to those different flavors and using those and thinking about flavor as a tool as
well, to make fruits and veggies more exciting so that we’re more likely to eat them. So yeah, it’s so
25:35
it is timely. And I love this theme this year. Because I think mealtime can, I mean, it’s about food, but it’s
also about family and conversation. And so I think it adds an extra element, like a fun element of
conversation, to the family meal to talk about the flavors and different cultures. And you know, just just all
of that super fun. And then on our web website, the mission for nutrition calm, which we’ll link up to, in
show notes, we actually have a new E cookbook we put together that has two breakfast to lunch and two
dinners, inspired by different flavors from around the world. And it has a grocery list in the front. So you
can take that with you to the grocery store, and have a week full of meals. There’s lots of crossover
ingredients. And I’ve tasted them all and they’re all amazing. So I can vouch for it. So if there’s something
you don’t like and get mad at me, but my family and you guys know this from listening to the podcast, I
have a selective eater and everything was a hit. So
26:53
um, yeah, so maybe instead of having Pinterest on your phone in public, yeah. Yes,
27:00
I can. I know. Sometimes I feel like people are like a, how do you struggle when you this is what you do?
And like, Listen, I am getting when, okay.
27:11
I know, we can talk about what to do. But yeah, I mean, it’s hard. And as humans, we don’t like to eat the
same thing every day or every week, you know, some of us can repeat things, and it’d be fine. But, you

know, we’re driven by new flavors and new recipes. We, I mean, what I referenced earlier in the survey,
they, one of the biggest barriers for consumers was they just want new recipes, and they want new ideas
and you know, different flavors. So I’m excited to go over a few. And I’m a person that when I’m listening
or watching someone, I just like to hear what they’re kind of making. I do like recipes. I think we talked
about this before, both you and I, we don’t necessarily need a recipe, but if we if we know the
ingredients, we probably throw it together. But, um, actually your website healthy family project has a lot
of these recipes that we’re talking about? And if not, that I’m sure you’ll link to. And then if not, you can
just do a quick Google search. And like I said, you can buy them or, or make them yourself. So I know a
lot of these sometimes are found in the deli section. Or, or they’re really not hard to put together. So I
think just kind of going through them and how if we’ve ever eaten them before, what I think they pair well
with that fruit or veggie that It pairs well with. And then just you know, remembering that this is a tool so
you know, the dip or the sauce or the condiment might be a vegetable itself, which is a win win, because
if we’re dipping a fruit or veggie in it or serving it overtop of that. We’re getting the two servings there. But
if it’s not, that’s okay. I mean it’s a vehicle or, or the fruit or vegetables, the vehicle for the condiments, so,
um, but yeah, I kind of went through just a few, you know, we could spend all day going through all
different cuisines. But I just took a few and kind of made them into a few categories. But I think the first
one is dairy bass steps. So actually, a lot of cultures around the world use dairy, not just as a condiment,
but as let’s say a marinate or something that they use to add flavor to. And then we I will say for myself, I
think of dairy being something sweet or I guess that’s how I grew up because it wasn’t used as a
marinate or something savory to Yep. Yeah, so I thought about dairy and ice cream or yogurt or phase or
yogurt speaking loaded with sugar and with even fruit on top sometimes. So I associated dairy with being
sweet. And now of course, as I’ve grown in my palate and grown and knowing different cultures and
cuisines around the world, I love dairy when it’s savory, so it doesn’t have to just be sweet. Um, and then
sometimes it’s used in cultures to balance out a spicy meal. So you’ll see in Indian cuisine, you’ll see
some kind of dairy, bass or dip, right beside a spicy curry or something that’s really spicy, just kind of to
cool and mellow it out, which I think is so fun. And then, I mean, dairy is such a nutrition powerhouse. It
contains so many essential nutrients and protein. So when we’re pairing fruits and vegetables that often
don’t contain a lot of protein, if we pair it with protein, we’re more likely to be satisfied. This goes with
snacks, but also meals. So carrots and ranch might not keep us full for very long. But if we have carrots,
and one of the tips that we’re going to go through has dairy with some protein in it. We’re more likely to
be held over until our next meal time. So and then I think something to note is dairy is super versatile.
And there are so many different options. So Yoker in the standard consistency. Within there’s Greek
yogurt, which is a little thicker, and there’s cottage cheese and sour cream. And then Kieffer is a
fermented dairy drink that I actually really like. But I’m actually people that avoid lactose, they might be
able to tolerate Kieffer, which is awesome, they still get the benefits of dairy without the lactose. And
there’s there’s some lactose free options out there as well, if you don’t have a true dairy allergy, just an
intolerance to lactose, those are something that you can swap out. So I think for all of these dips, you
could kind of choose your own dairy base.
32:11
So the first one, like you already said, Is that Yeah, river dip. So good. You have so many recipes on your
website for these. But I mean, for me, now I’ve made this so many times that I don’t have to buy it that I
can just whip it together really quick. So it’s yogurt, or usually I use a Greek yogurt, sliced or diced or
shredded cucumbers with different types of consistencies of cucumbers, fresh or dry dill, some olive oil,
some lemon juice and zest and salt, pepper and garlic and, you know, live it together. It’s so good. And if
you sit it in the fridge for a little while, it’s even better. And it’s all those flavors get a chance to meld
together. But that is something that you can definitely find in the grocery store already made. So if you
find that or maybe you make a batch of it for the week, and you have a plan for it for the week to let’s say
enjoy it with some sliced cucumbers or some pita chips or things like that. Or maybe you even serve it
over a piece of fish or a piece of chicken or on top of rice or on top of a cucumber salad, things like that.
If you use it in different ways throughout the week, I plan on using it that’d be a good addition to some
meal plans and for something exciting that hopefully you’d be able to enjoy throughout the week. I’m just
like that, from a different culture is right or right the it’s from the Indian culture and it’s again like a yogurt
based dip that actually can be sweet or savory. And that includes you know, that yogurt base within
thrown in a bunch of different fresh herbs like cilantro like mint dot a lots of different herbs and some
spices like cumin, some herbs that come from the Indian culinary palate. So those are that kind of yogurt
dip is great over a piece of fish or chicken or over rice and beans. And that’s where the or something
spicy, you know that comes with a cooling effect. It’s been used in that culture like that. So that one’s
really delicious. I’d encourage you to try that one too. And then your website has a ton of yogurt demos
going on. We love us some yogurt dips. Yeah, I mean, it’s so versatile. So some that I found that ULINK

is a pumpkin pie dip, which is just I believe it was yogurts. A little bit of canned pureed pumpkin, maybe
some vanilla and some And I see that as a perfect vehicle for slice Apple or even like graham cracker so
you have the peanut butter, yogurt dip, chocolate yogurt dip and then a caramel yogurt fruit Deb. So
those are sweet dips that I see apple slices being hurt. Oh yeah, there’s
35:20
and I feel like you’re gonna someone’s gonna like one of those come on as you can’t, you can’t really
dislike all of those deaths. So one will work.
35:31
Um, another one since we’re still on the theme of dairy. Go to Jing which she might have heard of chili
paste from the Korean culture. If you pair that with some sour cream, lime juice and salt. I mean, I I can
imagine this over roasted vegetables or even like dipping bell peppers and fresh peppers in as a snack.
It’s just I see it like a zing of flavor. I think it just something that I would want to eat. I think
36:05
that’s gonna be my lunch because I have some leftover chicken. And I have all of those things. And that’s
so easy. So thank you.
36:15
Well, let me know how it is. I haven’t tried it. That sounds delicious. Or even over over a breakfast potato
and onion hash. I or with some eggs. You know, I use a crema which is sour cream, cilantro, lime, garlic,
salt, pepper, dairy based with the sour cream of crema or that kind of dip. Just to add flavor. Really, I put
that over a breakfast hash sometimes with eggs, that’s delicious. A pesto, you can make your own but
you can also buy it very easily. And it’s dairy based because of some parmesan cheese in there. Um,
and then a cream cheese fruit tip cream, cheeses, dairy. So you have some of these recipes on your
website as well. And I think these are perfect for sliced fresh fruits, which is just yogurt, cream cheese,
honey and vanilla. And then serving it on maybe a tray with a bunch of different fresh sliced apples or I
think even celery would be good there. Especially with a peanut butter yogurt. I love peanut butter and
celery paired together. Yeah,
37:31
delicious. I’m very hungry. Okay, what are we have next and we’re going on to the next.
37:37
So I think the next biggest category was being being bass depth dips and condiments and sauces and
things like that. Beans are their vegetables, well, we consider them a vegetable and a protein. But there’s
a lot of dips out there using beans. So hummus, obviously with garbanzo beans, or chickpeas. Um, you
can buy this you can make this I like to buy this. It sounds it sounds easy to make. And I’ve made it a few
times but it’s a whole lot easier to buy it. So I’m a hummus. But you can buy a home hummus and make
it your own. So some ideas of making it your own and keeping it exciting. So if you want to eat hummus
and vegetables every day or throughout the week as a snack, you know, just a regular plain hummus
and a regular plain vegetable oil might get a little boring. So some ideas to keep it exciting is making it
your own. So you can top it with olive oil and your own satisfice is I like to either buy this or mix it really
quick is put some cilantro lime juice and some jalapeno. I know you can find this in the grocery stores
now. But I have a local Mediterranean place near me that makes that and I’ll just buy that in batches
because it’s delicious. Or you could let’s say put some sun dried tomatoes on it or with that in some
roasted peppers, some chipotle peppers, all different flavors. You could make a sweet potato hummus or
you could take that pre made hummus and spoon in some roasted sweet potatoes for some extra
nutrition and maybe some different texture and color. Black bean hummus which I have not made and
you have a recipe on your website for me so it’s good. Yes. I bring myself to make hummus. I will try that.
39:43
There’s just so many flavors out there now I mean to make so many recipes to make but also when you
go to the grocery store I feel like hummus is becoming like its own department, grocery store.
39:53
It really is. I mean and now there’s even like dessert hummus that sweets so You could that you could
use with fruit, you know, and that’s pre made, go ahead and grab that, um, you have some other
hummus on your website, guacamole hummus, which sounds exciting, and flavorful. And so I think all of

these, you could either make or make a premade store bought your own. And to keep it exciting during
the week. The other been dead that I love that I bring to every party I go to request to now is like cowboy
caviar, or bean and corn kind of salad dip, which is the basics, but also it’s kind of whatever’s in your
pantry at the moment at work. But for me, I’ll do can black beans, canned black eyed peas, some canned
corn, some onion, red, or white, cilantro lime juice, I’ve even seen people just put in a tie and dressing
instead of making a vinaigrette that works too, and serving not with chips or serving not with veggie, you
know, it’s a veggie base and a dip itself. So,
41:12
and either laying in very filling too. So you’re not i i for parties, you know, it’s like, sometimes you have
the appetizers or whatever is out and it’s like, okay, that was like air or, you know,
41:25
I feel like I’m ready for the next right. Yeah. I mean, these are, these are really exciting things and
flavorful things. And you might not realize,
41:36
I know, I’ve been totally excited to try so I mean, I know some that are on our again, I know I know you
guys these are on my website or on our website. So but we have a lot of recipes on the website that we
created, you know, a while back that I need to just remind myself to go back and revisit those, all of these
dips. So
41:59
yeah, back to the keeping us filled and satisfied. I mean, just like yogurt contains protein, and the beans
that contain Viber. And all of those things keep us full or you know, held over and satiated till our next
meal. So it’s a double whammy. You’re getting in more fruits and veggies and you’re nourishing your
body and it’s kind of a another tool that we can use to keep ourselves and our kids full and not always
asking for snacks or you know, to tide them over until dinner time. All right,
42:33
what work? We’re coming up on our time. I don’t but I do. I don’t want to leave out. I know you have
some more dips here to kind of share and then I do have a question for you before we before we sign off.
So let’s let’s talk about some of these other depths.
42:49
Yeah, um, so I think those are the two big categories but of course we can’t leave off Ranch, you could
make your own or throw in Greek yogurt to already pre made ranch for more protein. Mustard are a big,
something that’s versatile, not just to yellow mustard but maybe with being in some lime juice, honey
salts and oil, herbs things like that or making your own honey mustard. I see like zucchini fries being
dipped in mustard dipping sauce or ketchup, some barbecue sauces all of those are fine and dandy if
that means that you’re going to eat more fruits and vegetables use it so well and that’s
43:31
a good it’s a good time to give a little shout out to one of our mission for nutrition partners true made
foods. They have a plant based ketchup which I can vouch for because I used it at our Super Bowl party
last weekend and it was a hit. So it’s plant based and they also do barbecue sauces and mustard I
believe mustard as well but we will link up to to their website in the show notes. So definitely check those
out. Because I know kids are ketchup fans and so if you can get in a plant based catch up I love my
niece bless her little heart but the girl dips her carrots and catch up and I know it’s okay right there but
44:18
they’re getting the vegetable so you know
44:21
I know I tell her all that all the time like Okay, try this and I’ll you know send in Amanda we’ll send you a
little Amazon packet and so call me and say I tried this this and this and then my my sister says yeah,
and she dipped it of all and catch up
44:36

catch up one day they’re gonna grow out of that or they’re gonna see that their friends don’t do that. So
until Yeah, until then, hey, whatever works. Yeah, I’m just different things like peanut sauces. You know,
in Asian culture, they use the peanut sauce. I would see like a spring roll being dipped in a in a peanut
sauce which is so easy to me. Peanut Butter soy sauce, sesame oil, honey or maple syrup, lime juice,
vinegar, garlic, salt, pepper, ginger, all the things. guacamole, salsa or if you go to Geico, fruit salsas that
I like to use and serve with chips, cinnamon chips or things like that. Fruit sauces, you know if we have
overripe fruit in our refrigerator, boiling that down with some sugar and just serving that over, let’s have
pancakes and waffles.
45:29
I forget. Yeah, that too. That is actually a really good tip. Because I, I hate everybody knows I hate
throwing anything away. And so I need to put a post it note in my kitchen, do not throw your fruit, make
some
45:45
sauce. Or maybe throw those few little berries that you have and put them in a freezer bag and just savor
over time. And once you have enough, just make it into a sauce. Okay, so yeah, I think um, I think all of
those are tools to help us eat more fruits and veggies, us and our families. And I even see these being
like, I know, charcuterie and snack boards are all the rage and myself even that’s like my favorite lunches
to put together some kind of snack lunch, right? And so all even put together like some of these dips with
let’s say, a fruit or a vegetable and some crackers and cheese and just call that lunch or call it dinner, you
know, it could be anything. So I think some of these are exciting things that your audience could probably
put into their meal plans or just think about putting into their meal plans. And so I hope they’re inspired by
some of these flavors and excited to try some of them.
46:45
Awesome. Well, there are a lot of great ideas that you’ve shared with us today. A lot of things that I had
forgotten about and are now at the forefront. So thank you for that. And hopefully everybody listening has
some things they can put into action in their own house, we’re all be dipping. If you are creating any of
those things, make sure you share on your social media and tag us we love to see it or share in our
Facebook group. Okay, so I’m asking in 2022 My question for everybody is, what is your go to busy
weeknight dinner?
47:19
Well, like I mentioned, I think every night is busy for me with a two month old and working full time. So I
I’m I really my go to has been just like some kind of slow cooker or crock pot meat or entree and then
Pair that with those frozen veggies usually, and then toss my own kind of seasonings on top of them. And
then our rice or pasta, even like a bag of rice. It’s already pre cooked and I can just eat up sometimes.
That is definitely my busy night. And all those things I keep on hand for that reason. But yeah, that’s a
fun question.
48:04
It is, I think I’m excited at the end of the year to kind of go back and pull I’m going to pull all of those I
think and make a list as we close out of 2022 and have a full list of all the busy weeknight meals from all
of the guests. So good. Thanks for sharing with us. I’m so glad you could join us today, sharing so many
great tips and ideas for families. Before we close things out, can you tell our listeners where they can
connect with you?
48:33
I don’t really have a an official website or blog just yet, but I’m really active on LinkedIn. And that’s
actually where we met. So you can find me on LinkedIn. I’m Sarah Huster. Sarah with an H.
48:48
Okay. And then we’ll need to add you to our Facebook group as well because I know that oftentimes we
continue the conversation from the podcast over in the Facebook group, so we’d love to have you over
there so I will be here. Oh, you are okay. Well then. Yeah. Okay, so you can find Sarah in the Facebook
group. All right, there. Yeah. Well, thank you so much for joining us today. I hope to have you back soon.
Thank you so much for joining us today on this episode. If you like the healthy family project podcast.
Please tell a friend and leave us a rating it will only help our visibility so we can continue to create a
healthier generation. If you want to connect with me directly. I’m at Amanda M Kiefer on Twitter and

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