Making Room by Gather

The Kitchen Sink: Recipes to Fill Your Table, Words to Fill Your Heart with/ Dina Deleasa Gonsar

• Dina Deleasa-Gonsar • Episode 149

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What happens when a cookbook becomes more than recipes? When it meets you at 4:44 AM as you're cleaning bottles, staring out the window, wondering what happened to you? That's exactly what Dina Delicia Gonsar accomplishes with her new book "At The Kitchen Sink" - a refreshing blend of practical recipes and soul-nourishing devotionals.

Returning to Making Room, Dina takes us behind the scenes of her publishing journey, revealing how years of seemingly rejected proposals transformed into perfect divine timing. Those waiting seasons allowed her to incorporate profound personal experiences - including her battle with cancer and postpartum depression - creating devotionals with authentic depth rather than surface-level encouragement.

Unlike traditional cookbooks organized by meal type, Dina structures her book around the actual rhythms of family life. "Carpool Warriors" offers meals you can eat in the car between sports practices. "Mom Minute" provides quick personal nourishment when you haven't had a moment to yourself all day. Even "eating off your kid's plate" becomes an opportunity for creativity - like adding protein powder to abandoned cereal milk.

What resonates most powerfully is Dina's liberation from rigid mealtime rules. Gone are the days of insisting on elaborate multi-component dinners at precise times. Instead, she embraces flexibility: sometimes dinner happens at 4:30 before soccer practice, sometimes it's breakfast foods at night, sometimes it's dessert with dad when he gets home late. This adaptability doesn't diminish the importance of gathering; rather, it makes consistent family time possible amidst life's constantly shifting demands.

Through it all, Dina reframes everyday cooking as meaningful ministry rather than mundane labor. When nobody's applauding the person wiping Cheerios off the floor for the fifth time, her book stands as a reminder that this too is sacred work.

Ready to transform your relationship with mealtime? Order "At The Kitchen Sink" today 

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This Episode was sponsored by Feast and Fettle. Get $25 off your first week of personal chef quality meals delivered straight to your door with code GATHER25

Speaker 1:

Hey everyone, welcome back to Making Room. I'm so glad you're here, goodness. Well, today's conversation seems very relatable to a lot of us. Very personal, because I'm in a season right now where I feel like I actually have time to be cooking. I have the margin to be cooking a little bit more, but it feels that there's just a lot happening, a lot of moving pieces and so, even though I have the time to cook, I'm not enjoying it like I used to. There seems to be a lingering stress as I'm cooking. Maybe actually, dina, I'm going to start over. Okay, hey everyone, welcome back to Making Room. I'm so glad that you're here. Today's conversation is sweet, dina.

Speaker 1:

Our friend Dina is back on the show. This is her second time, so you might have heard her episode. I should have looked back to when it is a few years ago. Maybe, I don't know, maybe you'll remember COVID. It's been a few years, but she is not a stranger to the show and we are celebrating the upcoming release of her new book, which I know that you guys are going to be encouraged by, and it's going to speak directly to your heart. I don't know about you. I'm in a season where I actually have time to be cooking. I don't have to watch Wesley as carefully anymore he's playing crazy in the background but I have time to cook dinners. But I find that I need a little extra encouragement as I'm doing it. And her cookbook talks to both of them. Talks to the new mom to get delicious dinner on the table while encouraging her heart, and I know that you're going to love it as much as we do. Well, if you are new to Dina, here is her bio to learn a little bit more about her.

Speaker 1:

Dina Delicia Gonsar is a creator, writer, speaker and television personality behind the popular food blog Dish it Girl. She was named Best Home Cook by the Hallmark Channel's Home and Family and has contributed her recipes on On Air Talent, on the Today Show, the Good Dish Guys, grocery Games I didn't know that actually Inside Edition, gma Online, rachel Ray Online and Real Simple, as well as countless other media outlets she works with. She Lives Fearless Women's Ministry as a devotional writer, podcast co-host and conference speaker. Dina currently lives in New Jersey with her husband, brian and daughter Sienna Guys. Dina is a friend, and so I always love these conversations because, I don't know, it feels more like we're chatting over coffee than just having another interview, and so I hope that you could feel that through the screen and love it as much as I do.

Speaker 1:

Well, if you are in a busy season, where are we? Oh my gosh, we are just at the start of spring. It feels like sports are starting. It feels like goodness, I don't know all the crazy. I was talking to a friend the other day who said yeah, basically for the next few months we're just going to be living at the fields.

Speaker 1:

If that is you and you want to get dinner on the table for your family, feast and Fettle wants to come alongside you and make that a little bit easier. It is so simple. If you haven't tried it yet, if I haven't convinced you, you head on over to feastandfettlecom F-E-T-T-L-Ecom. You pick your kids' snacks. There are lunches, dinners. You could actually even just like heat it up and bring it to the fields to feed your family. They want to come alongside you and make it simple and you can get $25 off your first week. Use code gather and the number is two, five when you order your coupon code at checkout. Get it delivered straight to your door, just like a personal chef, and you can thank me later.

Speaker 2:

Hi, I'm Katie, a hospitality educator and the host of Making Room by Gather podcast. I am set to see our communities get back to the table through hospitality, but it wasn't always this way. My husband and I moved to Thailand and through it I experienced some loneliness and with it I was given a choice to sit back and accept it or to do something about it, and for me that meant two things that I needed the healing to learn how to accept an invitation and the confidence to know how to extend one. Through this process, I developed some of the richest and deepest relationships of my life. Through making room by gather, you will hear conversations from myself and experts in the areas of food, design and relationships. You see there are countless things trying to keep us from the table, but can I tell you something? Take a seat because you are ready, you are capable, you are a good host.

Speaker 1:

Okay, hi, hi, friend, I know I'm so motivational, I can do it.

Speaker 3:

I'm like I didn't invite somebody over this week.

Speaker 1:

Oh, you do it so well, I just love being created here.

Speaker 3:

Katie, it's amazing and it's been so nice to know you all these years and watch you grow this platform and your heart for people and connecting people. I really love it.

Speaker 1:

It's thanks to friends like you honestly, I mean, I say that a lot, but I don't say it lightly. It's possible because of the people you go through the journey with right, very true People, that you talk about the highs and the lows which I actually wanted to start off by talking to you about, because people might know your background a little bit from the past episode. Do you remember what year it was?

Speaker 3:

Gosh, that's a good question. It's like one of those things where I'm like oh, maybe it was only two years ago, but it probably was longer than we think. When did you start the podcast 2020. So I think, probably, or I think I was one of your first batch. Maybe first or second batch, I guess, wow.

Speaker 1:

That's so wild. Well, so I actually should have listened back to the episode before this, because I don't even know if we talked about the hopes for a book.

Speaker 3:

You know it's possible we did because I feel like for a number of years that's kind of where everyone had me. They were like either you need a book or you need a show. You need a book, you need a show, stuff like that was always what people would like to email me with or tell me about in person, and I was always just very hesitant with those types of comments. Well, they're appreciated, I appreciate what people are saying. I'm always like well, I got to make sure that I want what God wants out of this and not just like what, what I want, or else I'm going to get into a lot of trouble, which I mean I. I always get into a lot of trouble, so I'm not going to lie. But but, um, that was always um, yeah, that was always the feedback.

Speaker 3:

And I did have a proposal for a book in many different forms sitting in a folder on my computer for many, many years and Brian joke around with me and be like how's that proposal you're sending out that everyone's rejecting. Like you say, I'm like oh, it's, it's fine sitting on my computer, but maybe we'll get into that later. But when God opens a door, it feels so much different than when you try to push open a door, and I had that experience with the book and it's something that I hold in my heart as like an imprint of like, okay, this is what it feels like and this is what it looks like when God truly has his hand on something.

Speaker 1:

Well, I guess run with that a little bit, because I remember before I started the podcast. So I'm interviewing a lot of authors these days, right, and so I hear little nuggets of little things like the proposal process, working with an agent, self-publishing, all these kind of key buzzwords that you hear. But my goodness, it is a difficult road. There's a lot behind it that people don't know. So what do you want people to know about your road to the book?

Speaker 3:

I guess that it was long and it was much longer than I anticipated. And you hear those stories about maybe Julia Child or this person and that person, like whatever field you're interested in, you listen to, like the how I Built it type podcast, like people will tell you that a lot of it's not overnight and, especially with God's timing, a lot of things don't happen, you know, in the timing we think would make sense. But when you experience his perfect timing, it is, it all does make sense. But when you experience his perfect timing, it all does make sense. Maybe if I would have published this book years ago, I wouldn't have the experience to put into it as I did now, or the testimony as I did now, walking through cancer, walking through a season with postpartum depression. I wouldn't have been able to write those devotionals that I did within the book, um, to the level or or the depth in which I was able to. So I can see, looking back on it, although really hard to wait, um, perfect, perfect timing in a sense.

Speaker 3:

And I mean I started out with the blog not realizing I was writing a blog. I was just kind of writing down my recipes to pass on to friends when I had them over for dinner parties, because I was in college and making like Sunday dinner with I was not your normal, your normal trajectory, but I just I don't know. I was just always that way. I was always making food and thinking that I had to gather people with food. I guess I was reading Gourmet Magazine and Cosmopolitan Magazine.

Speaker 2:

I was a different animal as a Walton magazine.

Speaker 3:

I was a different animal and, um, so then I think, what? What happened? Is God just like took that and he started shaping it and, um, I let me see, hold on one sec. I'm sorry, katie, no, you're good. Are you kidding? You're good, okay? Um, you can definitely do that. I'm sorry, kate, that normally doesn't happen. Oh my gosh, I really believe me today. And I just have to text Brian to like try to keep a hand on it.

Speaker 1:

You're totally fine. Usually it's my end, so I'm so sorry. Okay, I will back up where you Honestly, don't worry about it, your answer was super good, okay, yeah, no, it actually helps my brain. I'm like, oh good, I can reset. Oh, my gosh, right, okay, honestly, I think your answer was great. Okay, I could just trim it. Was there more you wanted to say, or do you want me to segue? Um?

Speaker 3:

whatever, whatever you need honestly, whatever you need, however you need it to be, I mean, like, I mean I can always tell you more about, like, the publishing process. Oh, let's do that, let's do that Just pick up there.

Speaker 1:

Pick up there and I'll edit it together. Yeah, sounds good, yeah no-transcript.

Speaker 3:

You know I don't have a lot of outfits of the day and things like that. I don't have a ton of affiliate links. You know. Working on it, I'm like the worst influencer ever.

Speaker 1:

People are like where'd you get?

Speaker 3:

your sweater. I'm like it's five years ago from TJ Maxx, I don't know. So I struggle in that way. But it went from school counselor by day writing recipes for different brands by time. And then I had a friend in public relations who was like I need someone to do a food demo on TV for a brand. Do you know how to do that? And I'm like no, but okay, I'll do that.

Speaker 3:

And that turned into me doing a lot of television segments. Again, I didn't know what I was doing and that's like the whole theme of Dish it Girl. You don't know what you're doing, but you're going to get it done. Yeah, good, you know crock pots in the hotel room, like watching segments on TV and being like, oh, I guess they have a finished dish, so I should do that, all of these things, and so just very food heavy. But then around the time when I had Sienna, you know we dealt with a lot with her being in the NICU and more of an emergency situation. And then here I am flying around like to home and family and different television shows doing food. And then all of a sudden I'm like full stop and dealing with being very type A, very functional, and then wondering like how did I fall into being diagnosed with anxiety and depression?

Speaker 3:

And I couldn't hide that from people I'm not a good liar, I'm not good at hiding and you know, almost eight years ago this was not a lot online about people struggling through motherhood, just a lot of like I had a baby and now we're going and you know, boarding a plane, and I'm doing a television segment Like that's what I had a lot in my feed, or like messy bun but still glowing because I had time to go to hot yoga this morning, and I'm like who's watching your kid? I'm like how are you doing this? Why is your baby good on a plane? Like what is wrong with me? And like all of these things, like just piling on me. And so Dish it Girl took a different turn and I started being more open about just my faith and sharing that and what I was going through a little bit more and people were really responding and it sounded like a lot of people were hurting in that way and needed that message and I figured I'd rather let people see the non-curated part, because so often they will ask you like how do you keep your faith? Or if you're curious about that type of thing, just seeing the picture like before and after doesn't help, because you're like what does it look like in the middle. So I started sharing in that way and didn't stop, and through that I guess I got hooked up with Christian Parenting, which was a wonderful platform to be a part of, and while I was working with them, someone there her name is Jill Jefferson, very lovely.

Speaker 3:

She was like oh, who's your agent? And this is like getting like nine years into Dish it Girl. This was only maybe two years ago. And she's like who's your agent? Dish it Girl, like this was only like maybe two years ago. And she's like who's your agent? Who's your publishing agent? Cause everyone assumes I have like full speed here, but it's always just been me. I've never had an agent. I've never had, yeah, I've never had any of that. I've just kind of been operating on God's favor, his open doors, and just like the capacity of my season. And I said nobody. And she's like well, let me introduce you to so-and-so. So that was here at Alive and trying to make the story as short as possible, I mean, I had sat through seminars on how to publish and how to do proposals and things of that nature prior. You know, I just didn't, I just was. I'm oh, and I still am very shy at trying to approach agents or you know, even with like television work, things like that.

Speaker 3:

I'm not very good at advocating in that way, um, but you know the Lord still has a way of getting of getting it done. But you know the Lord still has a way of getting of getting it done, um, and so I met with the literary agent and, again, like, self-publishing is a great route to um, you know, traditional publishing isn't the only way. Um, for example, like Brian's been in a children's book author for years. He's been shopping his book and it took him years to get his book deal, whereas with me it looked like it happened very quickly, but it was really years in the making. I, just once I finally had the agent and whatever, I guess I was ready in that moment. I didn't have to take the years with the proposal.

Speaker 3:

And so we did the proposal and she, you know, I'm let's see, I think I was going to dance practice with Sienna and she calls me and she's like all right, I'm going to send this out today, just so, you know, this could take months for people to respond. Don't get discouraged. And if it does take a couple of months and no one said anything, we're just going to go back to the drawing board. So she's real positive about everything, like trying to give me the real deal. And so I was like, okay, okay, I'm like that's great.

Speaker 3:

So I hung up the phone and I filed it in the back of my brain and I'm like, all right, this let's not get like excited or worked out. I'm very realistic, like that. I'm very like slow to the celebration. I think you could say, and I'm like all right, let's file this in the back of my brain and if it works, it works. If it doesn't, it doesn't. And then, like an hour later, she called me back and she was like I have to set up five meetings in the next week and I was so overwhelmed in that moment. I would never expect that kind of response. That's really not how it works with me. Yeah, um and yeah. And then I yeah.

Speaker 3:

I ended up going with um penguin. Uh, they have a more of a religious arm, convergent, yeah, and there it went. So, and I say there it went because the trajectory was, you know, someone passed me on to someone else, they took me right away, um, and then, like you know, like I said, god just made it happen like dominoes, and I've never quite had that happen. It's been a lot of work in between, yeah, I mean in between, and I guess I had been doing that work all those years.

Speaker 1:

And you knew not to quit. Like I'm getting a little teary eyed, like as you're saying it, because the different like conversations we've had over the years of like it feels like it's not working, but I don't feel like I'm supposed to quit yet. Like on both of our ends, right.

Speaker 3:

Katie, like I've have the book coming out now and I still I'm still having issues with that, like I'm still, you know, in a lot of prayer about it. And he's, he is telling me. He's like don't quit, and I'm like I'm actively trying to quit all the time. I'm like all right, quit, and I'm like I'm actively trying to quit all the time. I'm like all right, I'm like this isn't working. I understand, maybe I took a wrong turn and I really am writing in, like I love writing and journaling. I think that's like a great tip for anyone if you can. And I'm really hearing like don't quit.

Speaker 3:

And I, you know, sometimes I don't really know why he's saying that or like what's up ahead and it, you know it doesn't mean that has to be a big thing, but I do know that I I just want to be faithful with whatever he's given me. My main concern is to steward it well in his name. Um, it's hard not to quit, especially when you're in waiting seasons. Um, yeah, it's. It's not easy, and Anything in entertainment and publishing requires a lot of waiting, requires a lot of self-reassurance. When you're freelancing or opening your own business, it is a lot of self-reliance, which is hard sometimes.

Speaker 1:

It is hard, it's a lot of, it's a, it's a slow like it's the long road right.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, yeah, you have to be in for the marathon, not the sprint. There will be times where you're sprinting, like right now I'm in pre-order and, um, you know, starting to promo it. So this is like my sprint, but I also have to keep my you know so my, my energy, my body has to be in the sprint, but my mind has to be on the long game and realize that I'm going to have to be doing this for a long time. Like my book might not be like some huge pre-order success, but I have a feeling in my heart that, like over time, this is going to reach who it needs to reach and that has to be more of that, has to be more my center with this.

Speaker 1:

So good. I um. I don't want you to think I'm like doing something behind the scenes. I'm going to message my next guest and just ask for a 15 minute delay. Really quick. No, you're good. I want to like we could have made this short and sweet, but I don't want to. Um, do you have an extra 15 minutes? I totally.

Speaker 3:

I have whatever time, whatever time? No, I don't. I'll try to be more succinct.

Speaker 1:

No, I want you to. I know I don't want that. Um, um, okay, we're good, good, good, good, um Okay, make a big backup. So in the book, what I think is so beautiful about it, and what's going to be so refreshing to people, is the mix of devotional or snippets of encouragement with recipes. Why was this important to you to include the merge of the two?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, so it ended up being like two books in one. There's over 70 recipes and there's also like a little bit over, I think, 40 devotional. So it's like almost equal in that that sense. You know, it's not just like I wrote a little paragraph in front of each chapter. That's encouraging, it's like real, it's like a real five entries per per chapter.

Speaker 3:

Um, and I think when I was, I was giving the given the task to finally write this book, I thought, you know, I can't just drop, uh, something into people's lap. That's like another cookbook with just like aesthetically, um, aspirational moments of like look at her family, look at her home, look at the all these beautiful pictures of this beautiful food and you know, just like social media, it just creates a lot of spirit of comparison. Yes, there's parts of entertainment, but for me and what I've gone through, I'm acutely aware of how that makes people feel, who may be struggling. Or I think the climate has changed over the years with social media, as we are just in this wheel of constant wishing and hoping and comparing. Wishing and hoping and comparing. And I always felt like with my Instagram account, I never wanted anybody to hop over to my corner and be made to feel that way, like, oh, I wish my house looked like hers. I mean, yeah, there's moments of that, there are magazine and curated looking moments to my life, but there's also a lot of like. This is what it looks like every day, like in the trenches. This is like the non-glamour part.

Speaker 3:

This is me cleaning my kitchen or my toilet, like I showed you guys that you know, directly after today's show appearance, I go home and you know you get home at 1030, rest of the day to clean, home at 1030, rest of the day to clean. But I wanted to be able to meet someone where they were at. And the people I was thinking of in my heart is like, yes, like the mom or the dad, or the person who's like at the kitchen sink gripping it Like I don't know if I can make it the rest of the day, or you know who's like cleaning up like Cheerios off the floor. I want to meet you on the floor and like, grab your hands and look in your eyes and being like what you're doing right now is is ministry. You know this, this book that I have like, while it's beautiful and polished and a blessing, like that's not where it's at. Um, so good.

Speaker 3:

You know there's not a lot of people cheering everybody on in the everyday, in the, what they think they think. I say think mundane because it's really obedience and it's really like kingdom work. And I said that to my mom once. I said did you realize, like all this time, your hospitality and your willingness to open your home and you making us dinner, you know, most nights out of the week and the holidays, that you created like that, that was a ministry? Like just because you weren't up on a platform speaking doesn't mean what you were doing was any less important.

Speaker 3:

But the problem is it's not being clapped for or recognized the same way some of these other more public forums are. So if I have the chance to meet someone on the floor, meet someone at the kitchen sink, or when they close the door of their closet or the bathroom for 10 minutes and they're just like crying because they're like what did I do here? Because I've been there. I've been there cleaning out the bottles at like 4.44 in the morning, staring out the back window, like I know, like it has nothing to do with whether or not you love your family or it's what you wanted to do. You're just like a mess. It's really dark at a moment and you're like what happened to me? So I just didn't want to hand somebody like oh, work a little harder and make this for dinner.

Speaker 1:

I wanted an opportunity to say a little bit more and do a little bit more, so that 444, I feel like people are going to listen to that and be like okay, this girl gets it. Those are the stories, right, like those are the stories that social media, like you said I mean you said it explicitly Maybe we're starting to see it more.

Speaker 3:

Yes, it is happening a lot more than it was eight years ago. Eight years ago it was nothing and I just felt like crazy. I felt crazy.

Speaker 1:

And honestly, Dina, I was flipping through my advanced copy, like the PDF, and I was like, man, these are recipes that are I totally could make on a weeknight and my husband's going to be happy with them, Like my kids are going to be happy with them Like they are. So they're elevated in a way, just because you love. You love food and style, but like every day, like well, you know, I feel confident making them?

Speaker 3:

I hope so. When I, when I was tasked with okay, like I mean, I don't know how to write a cookbook, I don't know what I'm like, I say I don't know what I'm doing. So I'm sitting there thinking like how am I going to structure these chapters? Like, is it breakfast, lunch and dinner chapters? Like is it breakfast, lunch and dinner? Is it dips and you know, treats? And like I was like what is all of this? Like what am I going to do? And do we need another book that tells us how to do that? It's hard.

Speaker 3:

You go to Barnes and Nobles or wherever you go to shop for books and it's amazing, you stand in the middle of all these cookbooks and it's like you're like crap, who's going to buy? You know, like what are we going to do here? And I just like had this like little epiphany, because my desire is really, like I've said before, to serve people right where they're at, not where, like social media puts us at or not where, like, all the aspirational books put us at. But I'm like what does everybody need a solution to every single day? So I thought about my week, like my regular week, and I'm like how am I surviving through the week, like, let's get honest about this. And you know I I've said it many times before I had that moment where I picked up Sienna from school and I knew we were going from school to dance to soccer with 30 minutes in between, which is crazy. I don't recommend that and I was so sick of stopping a Chick-fil-A for her, which let me preface by like, do the pizza, do the Chick-fil-A, do the breakfast for dinner, do the cereal? Like that's all good.

Speaker 3:

We were just getting into like a cycle, because this was a new season for me, having a kid in many sports, and I just realized like I couldn't do another night like that. This was what every week was going to be like. So I like made us a pizza, made us a salad, packed it up and we were tailgating like in our in in our car, at the soccer field in between. So that's where chapters like you know, carpool, warriors or weekend, you know, came from. You know things that you can eat in the car, pack it up, throw it in the car, things like a mom minute. There were times where it's like, you know, like two o'clock in the afternoon and like you're just like gripping the counter and you're like, oh my goodness, if I like, serve one more snack. Or if, like, one more person calls my name, I haven't sat all day. I don't even think I've peed like, to be totally honest, you know, and I would like pop like a piece of chocolate in my mouth or like a treat.

Speaker 3:

That's where like the peanut butter bluffer nutters came from Um and then eating off your kid's plate Like how many times are you eating scraps off your kid's plate? And I noticed I wasn't eating and I wasn't eating right and that was contributing to all the issues I was having. And so I started making things like she has leftover cereal milk, I would put protein powder in it and a banana and like word up and at least it was something.

Speaker 1:

That is genius.

Speaker 3:

So that's. That's in the book too. You know, there's the mom minute. There's like what are you going to eat for carpool? Oh my gosh, I love opening up my pantry and my fridge and being like how are we going to make this work? So good.

Speaker 3:

The pantry picks. And then of course there's like hey, do you have a couple more minutes in the morning? Here's something you could set up in the morning, and it's good for you to pop in the oven or leave the slow cooker on solutions like that. So it really spans your week.

Speaker 1:

I guess you would say yeah, that's like, wherever you're at, in the range of like capacity, that's so good. Well, let's go through each one. Maybe tell us a recipe if you're comfortable with that that maybe you're like yeah, I have my book right here.

Speaker 2:

I'll go through it Good.

Speaker 1:

Maybe a recipe you're extra excited about or you think people will be refreshed to see, as you were saying, that too, like it's meeting people where they're at. This week I was meal prepping and I told Colby I was like I wish someone could just like tell me what to make. My brain is just zapped and I love that. With this cookbook I could be like, oh yeah, there's no time this week, like I'm going to this chapter, you know, or?

Speaker 3:

for sure. I mean, that's what a lot of people will be like. Well, how do you like meal prep? How do you meal plan? And that's sometimes a hard question for me, because I don't have a Sunday or a day to meal prep, just because of the nature of my family being close by and I'm usually making dinner for them on Sunday. But what I will do is I take a look and every week, as much as I want it to be the same, it's kind of slightly different, like what we all have going on. So I have to look at the week and I've stopped being so strict about like I would have a meal planned for every single night of the week. That's crazy. A lot of cooking yeah, that's, that's, that's crazy.

Speaker 3:

And I found you know it's not smart budget wise, because you're not leaving room for that night where you're like you know what, I can't do it. We are ordering out or for leftovers and repurposing them or for I don't know, like if you just change your direction and you're like I can't make this whole meal, but I can make eggs tonight, so you're not missing out on like ingredients rotting away in your fridge, because I plan so tightly that if I veer off the beaten path. So I make sure I have ingredients for two to three solid meals per week instead Instead. That way I know I'm not feeling so guilty when I have to order pizza, Cause that was a personal problem. I would deal with a lot of guilt for some reason if we had to order out, and that was a little like faulty as as well. So, um, budget wise, it's just you know and try to plan like those round two recipes like in the book.

Speaker 3:

I have two recipes dedicated to rotisserie chicken, to rotisserie chicken. I mean, rotisserie chicken is a lifesaver, Um, and that that is part of my chapter that says ahead of the game, prep, prepped dinners. So you know, if you're, if you're able to sit down and plan the start of your week and you're like, all right, I'm going to be out all afternoon shuttling kids, or I'm not getting home from work until late, but the night before I can set this up and just have it ready to throw in the oven or throw into the crock pot in the morning, like, switch it on. That's going to save my life on this day.

Speaker 1:

Also rotisserie, what I love. If people are Costco fans which I know, I have a lot of Costco fans it's a $4.99. Yes, it's very cost-effective.

Speaker 3:

It is. It's a great-. You can do a million things with it. You can make it into chicken salad. You can make it into like I have rotisserie chicken, avocado enchiladas. Those are so yummy.

Speaker 1:

And then I have to admit, though, one of my kitchen jobs that I hate like I think my least favorite kitchen job is pulling the meat off the rotisserie. So it really grosses me out, but I like eating it. So our system is I buy it and then Colby.

Speaker 3:

I was going to say you got to enlist.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, he pulls it apart there.

Speaker 3:

And um, I also have a recipe for rotisserie chicken spinach stuffed shells. So you know, having a round two recipe is good for that. And then you know even chicken soup. My chicken soup is a shortcut chicken soup. It's not in this book, I've done it on Instagram before, but it involves rotisserie chicken. That's awesome. That's great. Yeah, so that's, that's one of the, the gems. What?

Speaker 1:

about? I'm curious though, the mom minute. What's a mom minute one? You're excited about gems. What about?

Speaker 3:

I'm curious, though the mom minute. What's a mom minute one you're excited about? Oh gosh, I mean I think that the um, peanut butter and fluff stuff dates are going to make a lot of people happy. Um, but I love. I mean I try to drink coffee and it just sits like my coffee right now is cold again. That's the worst. Yeah, you think you're going to drink it and you just don't. And I was sick of like I don't like it reheated, I know, and I was sick of dumping it down the sink. So one day I had some chia seeds and I was like you know what, let's, let's make this into something for the next day that I'll enjoy, or like the afternoon. So I have a coffee chia seed pudding in there. Then I did another recipe with cold coffee, which was called a banana coffee whip. So it's just like I make myself a little treat. Instead I took a banana, the brewed coffee and some heavy cream, and I judged that up for myself and gave myself a little treat.

Speaker 1:

Have you ever seen? As you were saying that, I was thinking. When I was a nanny, I saw this one of the moms had one of those hot pads. It was a smart coffee pad. Have you seen?

Speaker 3:

that, yes, I do have one of those now. I do.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so like I don't like my coffee reheated either, so what do you think of it? Is it worth?

Speaker 3:

it, it keeps it, it keeps it warm. Yeah, it truly keeps it warm. I got it as a Christmas present, actually, from my brother-in-law. Yeah yeah, he's a big coffee drinker and he's like I love mine. He's like you probably need this and I'm like you're right, it is life-changing. Do I use it every single day? No, cause I'm consistency is not my thing, but I'm with you, but it does. It does. It does help, it does help. Okay, I've been happy some days when I'm like, oh, so glad this is still warm.

Speaker 1:

That's so nice. Okay, I like that. That sounds like a what's that like social media trend right now. It's like dopamine hits dopamine schedule.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, dressing for, like dopamine dressing this and that yeah. That's like a dopamine thing, that is when you revisit your coffee an hour later and you're like oh, oh it's still warm, okay.

Speaker 1:

Well, so as Sienna and your nieces get older and the reason I'm pairing them together is because if people follow you, they're together a lot, you guys spend a lot of time together. They're around the same ages. What's the age span? Just so people know as we're talking.

Speaker 3:

So Alina is oh my gosh, she just had her birthday. She's 11. She's really old, and Valentina and Sienna are nine months apart, which is pretty cool. So they are seven and eight at the moment. There is a time where they're both the same age, but right now seven and eight. So seven, eight and 11.

Speaker 1:

They're the sweetest when they're all together. I saw a picture of Alina recently and I feel like she looks so much older.

Speaker 3:

She does. She's dropping that kitty baby, look for sure. And she's transitioning more into, like that middle school vibe. And it's like you know she's our OG baby, you know she was our everybody's first baby. So we have to make that transition in our minds as well. Right, she can talk about skincare, Like, oh, she does know about this.

Speaker 1:

Oh, okay, oh my gosh, it's man. It's so much learning right, with all these different stages, it is.

Speaker 3:

And it's really sweet to have them together. I'm glad they have each other. They're like little sisters for sure. I just lost your audio. It just your microphone just clicked off.

Speaker 1:

I muted it Okay.

Speaker 3:

All right, I was like oh, it just lost you oh my goodness, I was like don't.

Speaker 1:

I was like not today, satan, not today.

Speaker 3:

I know.

Speaker 1:

I know. No, I coughed and I muted him.

Speaker 3:

Okay.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, we're good, thank you. Thank you, wait. Actually, let me just check to see if the publicist Hold on one second. Yeah, I have this amazing assistant. She is like a godsend. That's great, but she has two little kids and so she can't always be like.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1:

Like super, super on it. Okay, we are good, okay, um, okay, I'll start that over. So, as the girls are getting older and as you're kind of like learning and growing with them, how are you guys encouraging them to huh, like, see value in the table? Cause right now it's a culture of fast food, fast meals. The way that you guys appear to cultivate family time isn't the norm, but it's such a gift, it's so sweet. So how are you encouraging them to pursue that? Because I think so many of us want that. We're just like oh, the kids want to go run and play with their tablets or different things like that. Like, what do you guys do?

Speaker 3:

There's definitely tablet and phone situations, definitely tablet and phone situations, like sienna doesn't have a phone yet, um, but I mean there's definitely like the tablet and the phone situation you know when you go out to dinner you know they're kind of bored so they get to play a game, this and that.

Speaker 3:

Like you've done things for survival, so um you know, uh, I won't say there isn't that issue with us here and there, but I think it all started with my parents and the fact that we ate dinner together. I mean, yes, we ate dinner together every night, but especially on Sundays. And then, as we all grew up and started who was going to college, who was working in the city, who was moving here and there, we all still found our way to my parents' house on Sunday. We all still found our way to my parents' house on Sunday. So it was a habit that if we missed a Sunday or had something else to do, like we felt strange inside, like not being together, like we missed something. So I understood what my parents were doing and how they did that. So it takes a lot of intentionality and it takes work. It really does. It really does. And that's not to make anybody feel bad, it's more to encourage them that like, hey, is it hard to get everybody together at a certain time habitually? Yeah, it is, but it's work that's worth it.

Speaker 3:

I say all the time is it easy for me to do Sunday dinner all the time? Like, do I want a Sunday off? Sure, but I think of like the long-term ramifications of that and I see like the fruit of that with what my parents did, and so it's worth it for me to keep it up. Like do I have strict rules surrounding it? Do sometimes we go out to eat instead? Do sometimes we do something different? Sure, sure, but we really like fight to stay together. I know that sounds crazy, but like around holidays and things like that, like you've got to open your home a little bit more.

Speaker 3:

As people get married too, like maybe it's everybody's in-laws can come. Like everybody, you have to change the structure of things. Sometimes you gotta you also need to know your season and what season you're in. They shift and they change, so your gathering is going to look different as alina, valentina and sienna get into their teenage years. We're gonna have to come up with like different, different things.

Speaker 3:

Like right now, it's great that you know on fr, on Friday or Saturday nights my sister can call me and be like you want to let them play in the basement while we order pizza, because they're still at that age where they like to play together, they like to hang out together like that. So we did a lot of a lot of that together, um, and just in my own home with the three of us. Um, you know it's hard. Brian, for a season, was getting home really late from the city, at like 730. So, yes, sienna and I would eat dinner together earlier, and then Sienna and I would have dessert with daddy as he had his dinner. So we were still finding a way to be at the table together. But you know, she's like two and three years old, she can't wait until like seven, 38 o'clock at night.

Speaker 1:

I can't wait until seven 38. I mean, yeah, I couldn't either.

Speaker 3:

So I had to modify what we were doing and then, you know, towards the weekend, be a little bit more intentional, that Saturday or Sunday we make sure um, you know, we have that Um. And now that she's in a season of sports and Brian's working a little closer to home, you know what Sometimes, like we're having dinner at 4.30, but it works because she comes home from school starving, like you're going to find that with like Wesley, like they're going to come home from school, like she's ready for dinner at like 3.45. And I'm always like, no, you can't do that. But you know what, with her having dance and soccer at right at dinnertime, right at like your five o'clock, I've learned not so bad if we eat dinner at three, 45, four, cause you're ready to eat, you're eating everything I'm asking you to. And then when you come home, I don't care what kind of snack you have, you know it's not, it's not as stressful trying to make them eat when they're tired and they're whatever. So you're just always, always adjusting and just realizing that, even if it's cereal, you know, as long as you're sitting together and you have a little bit of face time, like that's because even when I was a school counselor.

Speaker 3:

A lot of kids in my office just wanted more time with someone, and I understand that that's really hard with all the moving parts. So it's up to you just to decide. Where am I going to put this? What is this going to look like? What part of the day am I going to? Or part of the week am I going to put this time into?

Speaker 1:

Such important reminders and just the flexibility and the grace and the you said this about, like your book process and like your platform, but kind of following the capacity of your season. I wrote that down because I loved that, that picture following the capacity of your season and as parents, as we're approaching the table it's going to look different, but it's the intentionality and the working for it that it is the lasting impact.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, and I'm guilty of wanting things to look a certain way.

Speaker 3:

You know I wouldn't. I wouldn't make a dinner unless it had like your main and like two sides and like the appetite, like it was crazy. Like Brian was like I can't eat all this when we first got married. He's like I wasn't used to it. He's like I can't do all this and I'm like what? Like this is what it has to be. And then, having like Sienna, I was like, oh, we need to like sit down at this time every night and this is what it's got to look like. And I just learned I was making myself really insane Like who told me that this is the way it was supposed to be and that it was not okay to adjust to my season, to like look at my season.

Speaker 3:

The same thing goes with work, as you know. Yeah, katie, it looks like everyone's always moving and hustling faster and doing it better, whether it's work or family life. You're always feel like people have more of a handle or somebody else is doing it better than you and um, that's just not. That's just not the case. That's just a lie that we're fed and you know you have to make your choices and in making choices, realize that. All right, if I'm choosing to do this with my family, then maybe parts of my career work are going to suffer for a moment, but this is what's worth it. We say we can have it all, but I feel like we can't have it all at once and I know some people don't like to hear that. But when I realized that it took a lot of pressure off me, I'm like in this season, this is my all, this is what my all looks like, and then in my next season I might get some of these pieces of my old all back.

Speaker 1:

I don't know. I was just saying that it feels like an exhale comes with that. Yeah, an exhale that a lot of us need. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3:

Not to say it's easy, but you have to give up some pieces at certain times and it's hard to give up those pieces, but once you do, it's filled with other things at the and when there are other things at the appropriate time. Um, it just makes life a little bit easier to go through each and every day. Wow.

Speaker 1:

Well, that's a powerful way to end. I know it was so good, so good, so many timely reminders for a lot of us listening, I mean, and I, you know, I was thinking this definitely is going to be relatable to a mom of young kids, but also I've talked to a lot of grandmas lately watching the kids and it's like a new season for them to just figuring out new schedules with childcare and watching kids and all the things and empty nesting too and like missing, having your kids every night, or finding space for like.

Speaker 3:

Well, how, now that my kids are here, they're in everywhere, my family's here, they're in everywhere and we can't get together right on Christmas Day. Does that mean like Christmas is tanked, or can I be a little bit more flexible and we can celebrate our family Christmas on family Christmas day, like it's? I've seen some of those situations. Situations, too, where we have to just be willing to revise the way we gather season to season, rather than not gathering at all. So good Goodness.

Speaker 1:

Well, tell people where to get their copy of the book. We'll have a link in the show notes, but where do you get their copy of the book? We'll have a link in the show notes, but where do you want to send people?

Speaker 3:

Great, I mean you can. I mean wherever books are sold at the moment online, you can find at the kitchen sink and the penguin page, for at the kitchen sink, the penguin book page that can send you to anywhere. It is that you want to go. Right now, at the time of this recording, we're in pre-order mode, which is really exciting, because with pre-order, there's a lot of incentives like exclusive videos and content that come with pre-ordering, which is great. So, yeah, wherever you would find a book, whether it's Amazon, target, walmart, barnes and Nobles, they've all got it.

Speaker 1:

Oh my gosh, can you believe you're saying those words? Nope, that's so wild? Not at all. Oh my goodness. Well, we love you, we're excited for you, we're celebrating with you. This is so huge.

Speaker 3:

Thank you so much, Katie. This has been really special to sit with you and talk about all this.

Speaker 1:

Oh my gosh, I've loved it. I want to sit here all day with you, but, guys, you know what to do. It is so helpful to authors if you go ahead and pre-order, so head on over to those pages in our show notes, give Dina a follow and let us know what you thought about the episode and we will see you next week. Thank you so much, dina. See you again soon.