In the Kitchen With Cook Smarts
43 episodes - English - Latest episode: almost 4 years ago - ★★★★★ - 71 ratingsCooking lessons to help you live happier, simpler, and smarter in the kitchen. Jess Dang Founder of award-winning meal plan service Cook Smarts is here to make you a more confident and organized home cook!
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Episodes
#34: From Pastry Chef to Cook Smarts Project Manager: An Interview with Jackie Sun
August 06, 2020 10:00 - 54 minutes - 50.9 MBJackie Sun has been one of the greatest blessings to Cook Smarts. She was the first person I hired and took me from a one-woman show to a two-woman show. Not only has she proved herself to be an integral part of the team, but she is such a gentle, caring soul and has made me a better person over the years we’ve worked together. In today’s episode, we’re getting to know this multi-talented lady and also taking a walk down memory lane. I cannot believe that Jackie has been working with ...
#33: Cook Without Recipes by Understanding Flavor Profiles
June 18, 2020 10:00 - 35 minutes - 33 MBFor the full set of links from today’s episode, head to the show notes at www.cooksmarts.com/podcast/33 In today’s episode, I’m covering the five main flavor profiles: salty / umami, sweet, sour, bitter, and spice. Most of us are just following recipes when we’re in the kitchen but if you develop an understanding of flavor and how it’s created using a wide variety of ingredients, you’ll be free to go off-roading and become much more confident tinkering with recipes (or even creating yo...
#32: Creating a DIY Kitchen Summer Camp with Katie Kimball, Creator of Kids Cook Real Food
June 04, 2020 10:00 - 45 minutes - 42.1 MBIn today’s podcast episode, we are bringing in teacher extraordinaire Katie Kimball to give us a few cooking and parenting lessons. Katie is an advocate for healthy kids cooking, a blogger, former teacher and the founder of the Kids Cook Real Food eCourse. Her blog, Kitchen Stewardship helps families stay healthy without going crazy, and she’s on a mission to connect families around healthy food and teach every child in America to cook. We are actually going through Katie’s course righ...
#31: Reducing Grocery Trips & Meal Planning with Extra Adults: An Interview with Member Lauren Davis
May 28, 2020 10:00 - 45 minutes - 43.2 MBIn today’s podcast episode, we’re checking in with another one of our all-star community members Lauren Davis. Lauren lives in the San Francisco Bay Area and is the mom to 4 year old Gavin. Her husband is immunocompromised so she has been extra diligent about staying away from the grocery stores and this definitely requires some next level planning. In addition to the adjustments required for the pandemic, her family has also moved in with her parents, which is introducing another elem...
#30: Adapting During the Coronavirus: An Interview with Member Gabrielle Smith
May 21, 2020 10:00 - 48 minutes - 45.8 MBIn today’s podcast episode, we’re checking in with one of our favorite community members Gabrielle Smith. Gabrielle lives in Fort Worth Texas with her husband and her 7 year old son and 4 year old daughter. While she works as an attorney, she could just as easily be a professional meal planner and prepper. Gabrielle has been one of our most active Facebook members. She so generously offers tips and suggestions when others need it and routinely shares not only photos of her meals but th...
#29: Mexican Pantry Staples with Yvette Marquez
May 07, 2020 10:00 - 55 minutes - 50.7 MB* G I V E A W A Y* Our podcast turned 1, and we are doing a little $50 Amazon gift card birthday giveaway. Leave us a review on Apple Podcast, snap a screenshot of your review and text it to 650-386-0290. It has to be a new review dated after April 22nd. If you’ve already left a review in the past but still want to enter the giveaway, you can leave your review as a voice message at the same number, and we might just play it on a future episode. At the end of the month, I’ll select 1 winne...
Our Podcast is 1 [Giveaway Announcement]
April 23, 2020 10:00 - 4 minutes - 4.9 MBTo celebrate our podcast’s first birthday, we are doing a giveaway for a $50 Amazon gift card. All you need to do is leave a review on Apple Podcast. Snap a screenshot of your review and text it to 650-386-0290. It has to be a new review dated after April 22nd. So If you’ve already left a review in the past or are not an Apple person but still want to enter the giveaway, you can leave your review as a voice message at the same number 650-386-0290 and we might just play it on a fu...
#28: Introducing Solids to Babies With Jenny Best of Solid Starts
April 09, 2020 10:00 - 1 hour - 57.6 MBIn our latest podcast episode, I invited Jenny Best Founder of Solid Starts to talk all about baby led weaning, the process of transitioning a baby to solid foods using a finger food first approach. Jenny is the mom of 3, including a set of twins, and Solid Starts grew out of her own challenges of introducing solids to her little babes. From fears of choking to lack of information around what foods are best for babies, she started documenting all of it herself. Now Solid Starts feature...
#27: How to Organize Spices, Tupperware, Kid Items and More With Sam Pregenzer
March 26, 2020 10:00 - 56 minutes - 52.1 MBFor our 27th episode, I have a real treat, at least it was a real treat for me because I got to talk about one of my favorite topics of all time -- kitchen organization -- with Sam Pregenzer the Founder of SO | Home a residential professional organizing company based in the San Francisco Bay Area. She’s a mom of 3 kids and her specialty is creating organizing solutions and systems for families, because it is so easy to just feel like you’re drowning in stuff when you start having kids. She’s...
#26: Tips for Throwing a Stress-Free Dinner Party with Anna Watson Carl
March 12, 2020 10:00 - 51 minutes - 48.2 MBOur lives are so busy these days, and so often lived virtually, that we’ve lost this beautiful tradition of gathering friends around the dinner table. To help me revive this practice, I’ve invited Anna Watson Carl, an expert dinner party thrower onto our podcast today. Anna is a cook and writer, and the author of “The Yellow Table: A Celebration of Everyday Gatherings.” Her writing has appeared in Food & Wine, Travel+Leisure, and Tasting Table just to name a few. A former private chef,...
#25: Why You Need an Air-Fryer and What to Cook In It
February 27, 2020 11:00 - 27 minutes - 25.8 MBFor those of you who have been following my personal Instagram account @jessdangcs, you’ll know 2 things: 1) I am terrible at posting on Instagram and; 2) I love my air-fryer. Probably every 3rd post is something I made in this amazing machine because it’s the 1 appliance I probably use every single day. I know that there are quite a few of you who got air-fryers over the holidays, and I want to make sure you take full advantage of this incredibly useful appliance, so in today’s episod...
#24: 11 Strategies for Turning Picky Eaters into Curious Eaters [Rerun with Updates]
February 13, 2020 11:00 - 30 minutes - 28.8 MBWe’re rerunning episode #5 with some great updates! In this podcast episode, I’m tackling a big emotional topic for a lot of parents -- how to help your picky eaters become more curious, adventurous eaters. Just about every kid goes through some phase (or multiple phases) of picky eating, and it can be a super frustrating and challenging time for parents. Using my own personal experience as a mom combined with everything I’ve read on this topic, we’ll discuss a wide variety of strategi...
Join our Meal Prep Challenge [Community
February 03, 2020 11:00 - 2 minutes - 2.82 MBHi friends, this isn’t an episode but a little podcast community announcement. So being a cooking instructor and running a meal plan service for the last 7 years, I’ve watched a lot of people try to get dinner on the table over the years, and there’s no question that the members who have a system for prepping ahead experience a lot less weeknight stress. And as our commitment to you, our community, and home-cooking, we’re gonna help you develop a meal prep habit! Now here are the main det...
#23: Meal Prep Tips with Erin Romeo aka “foodprepprincess”
January 30, 2020 11:00 - 45 minutes - 41.9 MBToday we are interviewing Ms. Erin Romeo, nutrition coach, expert meal planner and food prep specialist from Ontario, Canada. She’s known on Instagram as the @foodprepprincess, and that’s also where she shares her tips and tricks for healthy eating through meal prepping. Last fall, she published her first cookbook “The Visual Guide to Meal Prep,” full of easy meal prep recipes and her 5 step fool-proof plan for getting started with meal prep. She has also been featured on Shape.com, Health.c...
#22: Building Cook Smarts & Learning to Code with Jen Gilbert
January 16, 2020 11:00 - 54 minutes - 50.9 MBI have such a treat for you all today and it is completely unrelated to cooking, but it might just become your favorite Cook Smarts podcast episode. I’m excited to share another part of our origin story today -- there would be no Cook Smarts meal plan service without the talents and persistence of Jen Gilbert, who helped me build our meal plan service back in 2013. Jen and I met in the fall of 2012 at a Railsbridge workshop. We had both just turned 30 and made huge career changes. She ...
Win a $100 Amazon gift card [Community Announcement]
January 09, 2020 11:00 - 2 minutes - 2.76 MBHi friends, this isn’t an episode but two short community announcements about our sale and giveaway. First, I wanted to make sure you knew were are in the middle of our big New Year’s sale. 2020 is the year where I want to help you do more by doing less. If you’re not using our meal plan service already, free yourself of tedious mental labor with a meal plan subscription. It’ll be the best money you spend all year because it’ll save you time and money and free you from so much stress and dec...
#21: Our System for Keeping Your New Year’s Resolution
January 02, 2020 11:00 - 31 minutes - 29.1 MBBecause we’re more likely to break our New Year’s resolutions by February than keep them for the year, this episode is dedicated to a fail-safe plan for resolutions that aren’t some short-term whim, but a real long-lasting habit. As you know, I’m all about systems and whether you make resolutions or not, this episode will provide you with incredibly useful tips on developing a system to help implement whatever change you’re looking to make in 2020 (and beyond). You can apply these tips not j...
A Thanksgiving TY Note
November 26, 2019 11:00 - 2 minutes - 3.06 MBI wanted to just pop into your feed today with a little Thanksgiving reflection, thank you note and request! Our biggest sale of the year is on right now. Enjoy 30% off everything with code THANKS19 https://www.cooksmarts.com/weekly-meal-planner/sale Want to be a super supporter of the show and home cooking? Please tell a friend about our podcast and leave us a review on Apple Podcast (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/in-the-kitchen-with-cook-smarts/id1454754429?mt=2) . If we sha...
#20: Strategies Planning Your Holiday Meal
October 31, 2019 10:00 - 23 minutes - 21.7 MBCan you believe that the holidays are just around the corner? I’ll be hosting Thanksgiving this year and am excited to be in menu planning mode. I know cooking a big holiday meal can feel quite intimidating, especially if you don’t have a lot of experience entertaining. So as someone who’s planned and cooked a lot of big meals for friends and family and clients during my catering days, I wanted to pass on celebratory meal planning system. With the right kind of planning and organization, y...
#19: Stocking Your Pantry for Better Meal Planning
October 24, 2019 10:00 - 36 minutes - 33.7 MBNEW: If you’ve got questions you want us to answer in a future episode, comments about a previous episode, or just want to say hi and share some love, give us a call at 1-650-386-0290 and leave us a voicemail. You might just hear your voice on the podcast! Most of us don’t have a pantry stocking system or plan. We simply stock it as we go, based on the recipes we’re cooking. This means that our pantries can become a graveyard of long-forgotten, expired ingredients that were used once a...
[Rerun] #1 Creating a Meal Planning System
October 17, 2019 10:00 - 24 minutes - 23.2 MBToday we’re rerunning the first episode we launched this podcast with -- enjoy! So many new parents tell me that figuring out what to feed themselves is one of their biggest parenting challenges. They wished they had figured out a meal planning routine earlier and not while dealing with all the other demands that come with being a new parent, so that’s what we’ll cover in this first episode! In today’s podcast, I’ll walk you through my 4-step game plan for getting a cooking syste...
#18: Meet Sarah Byun our Kitchen Happiness Cheerleader
October 10, 2019 10:00 - 41 minutes - 38.9 MBNEW: If you’ve got questions you want us to answer in a future episode, comments about a previous episode, or just want to say hi and share some love, give us a call at 1-650-386-0290 and leave us a voicemail. You might just hear your voice on the podcast! If every company had a Sarah Byun on the team, companies would have many, many more happy customers. Sarah started off as a Cook Smarts customer in 2014 and then joined our team as our Kitchen Happiness Cheerleader in the spring of 2...
Join our Chop Like a Pro Challenge [Community Announcement]
October 07, 2019 10:00 - 1 minute - 2.41 MBHi friends, this isn’t an episode but a little podcast community announcement. You know how like every other episode I nag you about improving your knife skills? Well, I only do it because you can’t be a confident and efficient cook without having some good knife skills. However, instead of just telling you that you need to do this, we’re gonna actually help you make it happen with our first ever community challenge. Our three main goals with this Chop Like a Pro community challenge i...
#17: Toddler Nutrition with Kacie Barnes of Mama Knows Nutrition
October 03, 2019 10:00 - 32 minutes - 30.4 MBNEW: If you’ve got questions you want us to answer in a future episode, comments about a previous episode, or just want to say hi and share some love, give us a call at 1-650-386-0290 and leave us a voicemail. You might just hear your voice on the podcast! We’ve invited Kacie Barnes a pediatric Registered Dietitian Nutritionist (better known as Mama Knows Nutrition) onto the podcast to help break down toddler nutrition for us because toddlers don’t always make it easy on us. In o...
Global Chef’s Knife Giveaway Reminder [Community Announcement]
September 29, 2019 10:00 - 2 minutes - 3.17 MBWhat’s this? A reminder for our giveaway, which ends Wednesday, 10/2 What’s the prize? An 8” Global chef’s knife worth $125. This is the amazingly sharp and light chef’s knife that I use every day in my kitchen. I honestly couldn’t live without it, and I want one of our supportive listeners to win one too! How do I enter? Leave a review on Apple Podcast and then send us a screenshot of it at [email protected]. That way we can easily contact you if you’ve won because it’s...
#16: The Story Behind Cook Smarts + Turning 38
September 26, 2019 10:00 - 25 minutes - 24.2 MBIn honor of my 38th birthday, I wanted to share what inspired me to leave the corporate world to then start Cook Smarts 8 years ago. Hint: it was more than just a love for food and cooking but a life-altering medical diagnosis that ended up changing my whole perspective on life and health. At the age of 17, in 1998, I was diagnosed with Hepatitis C, and in today’s episode I talk about how it all happened and how a potentially life-threatening illness became one of the best things that’s ever...
Win a Global Chef’s Knife [Community Announcement]
September 19, 2019 10:00 - 2 minutes - 2.99 MBHi friends, this isn’t an episode but a little podcast community announcement. We’re still a relatively new podcast and one of the best ways for us to grow our audience and support more home cooks is to gather more reviews and ratings on Apple Podcast, so we’re gonna run a little giveaway starting today Thursday, September 19th, running through Wednesday, October 2nd. The prize is an 8” Global chef’s knife worth $125. This is the chef’s knife that I use, and I love it so much that I wa...
#15: Seasoning Habits to Make Every Meal Flavorful
September 19, 2019 10:00 - 18 minutes - 17.6 MBWe’re on a mission to help you never say, “This meal was bland,” ever again because there is no reason why any of us needs to cook or eat a bland meal. With some simple seasoning habits and a few tips on how to make those habits stick, you’ll be on your way to cooking only the most flavorful and enjoyable meals in no time! If you’ve got questions you want us to answer, comments about a previous episode, or just want to say hi and share some love, give us a call at 650-386-0290 and leav...
#14: Ruth Garrett, Cooking for Grandkids
September 12, 2019 10:00 - 42 minutes - 39.3 MBToday I’ve invited Ruth Garrett one of our most enthusiastic community members to the podcast. Ruth is in her early 60’s and instead of enjoying the luxury of an empty nest, Ruth found herself doing the whole parent thing all over again when she became the guardian to 2 of her grandkids a few years ago. Shuttling kids to and from activities after work and cooking for 2 often picky kids have been challenging but Ruth has taken it all in stride. I have such admiration for this incredibly...
#13: Meal Prep Strategies for Saving Time in the Kitchen Part 2
September 05, 2019 10:00 - 24 minutes - 22.8 MBIn today’s new podcast episode, we share more strategies for saving time in the kitchen. If you haven’t checked last week’s episode, make sure to start there so you have the full game plan to kick off your most efficient school year yet! While last week we shared ways to cut down on your prepping and cooking time by being smart about your tools, skills, and ingredient choices, this week we’re all about giving you tips for getting ahead so that dinner goes smoothly every weeknight. Afte...
#12: Strategies for Saving Time in the Kitchen Part 1
August 29, 2019 10:00 - 24 minutes - 23 MBToday’s podcast episode (and next week’s) is for anyone looking to save some time in the kitchen -- so basically, it’s for everyone because in all the years I’ve taught cooking and run Cook Smarts, not one person has said, “I wish it took me longer to cook a meal.” Nope, not one. I know many of the parents in our community have kids headed back to school this week, and with the after-school activities, homework help, PTA meetings, your schedule is about to get packed. So, this episode ...
#11: School Lunches Made Easy with Laura Fuentes
August 22, 2019 10:00 - 1 hour - 63.3 MBFor this kick off to Season 2 of the Cook Smarts podcast during back-to-school season, I’ve invited one of my entrepreneurial heroes Laura Fuentes to give us advice on planning for and packing school lunches. Millions of us are about to face that daily task, and Laura is an official lunch expert. Her company MOMables started out as a lunch meal planning company but has grown to also offer dinner meal plans and 3 transformative health programs tackling processed foods, picky eating, and budge...
#10: A Motivational Meal Prep Meditation
June 20, 2019 08:00 - 8 minutes - 8.35 MBWe’re doing something pretty different for today’s podcast episode. Instead of covering a specific cooking topic or interviewing someone, I’ve created a meal prep meditation to provide you with a little bit of kitchen zen and motivation. Plus, while we’re at it, I also added in some tips for improving your prep skills. The idea for this meditation was actually inspired by my obsession for the digital fitness app Aaptiv. There are a ton of audio classes to choose from, and I’ve loved ha...
#9: 3 Lessons Learned From Competing on the Next Food Network Star
June 13, 2019 08:00 - 20 minutes - 19.8 MBIn this podcast episode, I wanted to share a personal story with you all -- one that’s been really formative in the cook and probably even the person I am today. 14 years ago, I was on season 2 of the Next Food Network Star. Not to spoil the ending (but the show did air 14 years ago) but I was the first person eliminated while Guy Fieri went onto win and become the huge food and media celebrity that he is today. While Guy was completely at ease in front of the camera, I was so uncomfor...
#8: Creating a Greener Kitchen by Reducing Plastic Use and Waste
June 06, 2019 08:00 - 24 minutes - 23 MBIn this podcast episode, I’m sharing how I’m trying to create a greener kitchen and reduce the amount of waste, especially plastic waste, that my family produces and tosses. Ever since having kids 4 years ago, I’ve become so much more aware of all the waste, we as a modern family of 5 produces. Even though I’m committed to making green improvements in all areas of my life, today’s episode is going to focus solely on the food or kitchen side of things. It’s the area I spend the most tim...
#7: Cooking in an RV With Kitchen Hero Brian Powers
May 30, 2019 08:00 - 37 minutes - 34.9 MBWe feel so lucky to have a community of such special members at Cook Smarts, and today we’re chatting with one of our original members! This is our first member interview on the podcast, and we’re so excited to kick it off with Brian Powers. Brian’s been cooking with Cook Smarts meal plans since 2014 and has gone through quite the physical transformation during this time. In today’s episode, we’re getting to know this awesome husband, dad, physical therapist, and all-star cook. You’ll also...
#6: 5 Common Meal Planning Mistakes and How to Avoid Them
May 23, 2019 08:00 - 17 minutes - 16.4 MBIn this podcast episode, I will cover the 5 most common meal planning mistakes I see people make and easy ways to fix them. If you asked me 10 years ago if I thought I would end up a meal planning expert, my response would have been, “That’s a thing?” However, as someone who loves organization and efficiency, it makes total sense that I would fall in love with the puzzle solving aspect of the job. Plus when done well, it means so much time and money saved. As someone who’s been doing...
#5: 10 Strategies for Turning Picky Eaters Into Curious Eaters
May 16, 2019 08:00 - 26 minutes - 24.5 MBIn this podcast episode, I’m tackling a big emotional topic for a lot of parents -- how to help your picky eaters become more curious, adventurous eaters. Just about every kid goes through some phase (or multiple phases) of picky eating, and it can be a super frustrating and challenging time for parents. Using my own personal experience as a mom combined with everything I’ve read on this topic, we’ll discuss a wide variety of strategies parents can use to help support the transition from p...
#4: Pots & Pans: 7 Most Common Questions Answered
May 09, 2019 10:00 - 32 minutes - 30.4 MBI’ve been to kitchens without a sharp knife or a can opener or prep bowls, but I’ve never been to one without at least a few pots and pans. No matter how minimal your kitchen is, you have definitely have at least 1 pot or pan. Now maybe you don’t feel like you have the right ones but that’s what we’ll chat about in today’s episode. I’m covering the 7 most common questions I receive regarding these essential kitchen tools from how to pick them to how to care for them. In this 30 minute ep...
#3: Meet Jess Smith Our Meal Plan Developer
May 02, 2019 10:00 - 39 minutes - 36.6 MBOne of the best things that’s happened to Cook Smarts is bringing on a dedicated meal plan developer. Jess Smith joined the team in the spring of 2015, all the way from Thailand and has taken our recipe development process and the quality of our meals to a whole other level. In today’s episode, we’re getting to know this multi-talented lady and also giving you a behind the scenes of our small little company. Plus, you’ll get to hear: How she made a huge career switch going from working f...
#2: Leftover Herbs: Strategies for Getting More out of Them
April 25, 2019 10:00 - 13 minutes - 12.8 MBWasting herbs is something that has happened to all of us, but in today’s episode I’ll walk you through 5 different strategies for getting more out of them, so you don’t end up in a situation where you’re tossing spoiled, wilting [insert cilantro, parsley, basil, mint, sage, thyme, chives, etc.]. We’ll discuss: My simple 2 category herb classification system that’ll help you decide which strategy to use How to not have any leftover herbs to begin with Different methods for freezing herb...
#1: Developing a Meal Planning System: A Survival Guide For New Parents
April 18, 2019 10:00 - 22 minutes - 21.3 MBSo many new parents tell me that figuring out what to feed themselves is one of their biggest parenting challenges. They wished they had figured out a meal planning routine earlier and not while dealing with all the other demands that come with being a new parent, so that’s what we’ll cover in this first episode! In today’s podcast, I’ll walk you through my 4-step game plan for getting a cooking system in place before the baby comes, so that your sleep deprived brain has one less thing to ...
Our Cooking Podcast is Launching Late April!
March 01, 2019 03:36 - 1 minute - 2.13 MBHi Friends, this is Jess your loyal and always enthusiastic kitchen cheerleader here. So I’ve got some really exciting news -- Cook Smarts is launching a podcast, and it’ll be hosted by yours truly. We’ve already got a bunch of episodes taped, and I don’t want you to miss any of them, so make sure you subscribe in iTunes, Stitcher, or whatever you use to listen to your podcasts. Our first episode is definitely not to be missed. It’s a new parent’s survival guide to feeding yourself but has...