Stacey Green Whips Up Comic Relief for Mealtime Mayhem

Ever find yourself locked in a battle of wills with a pint-sized food critic at your dinner table? Stacey Green, a registered holistic nutritionist and the author behind the hilariously honest cookbook "You'll Eat it and You'll Like it," joins us to talk about the messy, joyful chaos of family mealtime. Her philosophy of 'fed is best' is a life raft for parents navigating the stormy seas of picky eating and nutrition guilt, and she's not afraid to get real about the sometimes unpalatable truths of feeding a family.

Flipping through the vibrant pages of "You'll Eat it and You'll Like it," you'll quickly see that Stacey's approach to meal prep is far from your average culinary guidebook. She regales us with tales from her kitchen battleground, revealing the inner workings of self-publishing her own cookbook. From her decision to pair food with humour, challenges with traditional publishers, to setting up a home studio, Stacey's story is a testament to the power of persistence and the virality of relatable content on social media.

 If her candid conversation whets your appetite for more, her cookbook can be snagged on her website https://www.staceygreenliving.com or Amazon. 

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Transcript

Catherine Murphy: 0:09

Hi everyone and welcome to this episode of the What the Family Studies podcast. I'm your co-host, Catherine Murphy. In this episode, we're talking with Stacey Green, mom of two, registered holistic nutritionist and cookbook author. Stacey's whole life has revolved around food, from trying to get the perfect ratio of peanut butter to jelly as a kid to her latest endeavour, a cookbook called "You'll Eat It $ available through her website staceygreenliving. com and Amazon. Stacey's career included stints in grocery stores and restaurants, but it was when her first son was born that Stacey started to think seriously about what went into the food she was eating. She went back to school to study nutrition and become a registered holistic nutritionist. Armed with this new food knowledge, she thought she would feed her son and it would be the easiest thing in the world. It was then that she wanted to write a book that people would enjoy reading as much as they would enjoy cooking the delicious recipes and if their kids ate the food too well, that would be perfection.

Catherine Murphy: 0:59

Let's go through our learning goals for today so that we can begin talking to Stacey. We'll learn about Stacey and her favorite part of the career she's made for herself. Learn about Stacey's food journey and the influence it has had on her food habits and choices. Learn about the challenges she faced with feeding picky children. Learn about Stacey's views on accessibility regarding healthy eating. And, finally, discuss her very own cookbook and the process she went through to get it published. Stacey, thanks for joining us. I'm so glad to have you here. Thank you for having me. I'm really excited to chat with you.

Catherine Murphy: 1:31

Well, I think what most of us want to know most about Stacey, of course, is your cookbook. There's a lot of foods teachers who have always thought about writing a cookbook of some sort, and a lot of us have had very similar part-time job experiences to you too, so it sounds like your career has really evolved over the years. What would you say is your favorite part of your career now?

Stacey Green: 1:44

Yeah, it definitely has. It is always kind of, in some way, shape or form, revolved around food it's. I just love it so much. But I think my favourite part now is the freedom that comes with it. You know like if you are in any kind of an entrepreneur, there's obviously difficulties, it's there's a hustle involved. You know it's not like I can just go to work, come home with a paycheck. You have to have a little bit of grit. But with that comes, you know, the freedom to really design my life, the availability to be home for my kids if needed and kind of pick and choose the projects that I want to work on, which has been really great, I think that's an excellent part of your career, right?

Catherine Murphy: 2:19

And I think as teachers we don't have I don't want to call it a luxury, but maybe it is a luxury, but it, you know, it's one of those things, I think, where you give and take, and having that, maybe that flexibility, it sounds really appealing. For sure, I can definitely see that.

Stacey Green: 2:30

Honestly, I don't know if I talked about this, but I was an EA with the TDSB for 11 years. Yeah, I was at a high school in Toronto d. You have a certain amount of you know time that you're expected to be there and, while I loved it, this has just been. This is a lot, a lot more you know, free time, family time, that kind of thing. Yeah, maybe a little bit more creativity too. Oh, definitely, definitely.

Catherine Murphy: 2:56

Right. So your personal journey with food from childhood to motherhood. It influenced the approach that you take in educating others about nutrition and healthy eating habits. Can you tell us a little bit about?

Stacey Green: 3:05

I thin tha I think that the ideas around food have kind of evolved with you know, society, and I really kind of want to drive home the idea that fed is best, you know, and not necessarily in the traditional, you know, breast milk versus formula. But generally I think parents are really hard on themselves a lot of the time. I think it's a difficult job. It can be a difficult job, especially if you're working outside of the home and then you come home and think what am I going to feed my kids, you know. But I really kind of want to let parents know that not everything has to be a five-star Michelin meal. You know, like some of my fondest food memories are things that my grandmother cooked for me and those weren't anything fancy, you know, it was a comfort food and and that was the best part of it.

Stacey Green: 3:45

I always say to my eldest son I can't wait until he gets older and moves out of the house and then he gets to come home and I can cook for him right, like that's going to be such a huge part of his life. It was such a huge part of my life. There's there's such a sense of family and community and tradition with food and I don't think that parents give themselves enough credit. It can. Maybe m your. You know, signature meal is a simple lasagna or I mean whatever. Whatever it is, your kids are going to love it because you made it.

Catherine Murphy: 4:11

Yeah, and I think we put a lot of pressure on ourselves as parents to ensure that our kids are eating healthy and sometimes, you know, sometimes dinner doesn't have to be the most nutritious thing in the world.

Stacey Green: 4:19

I have a chapter in the book actually called the last chapter is called when all else fails. And it's like you, you have, you know, swim practice and piano and this and that, and sometimes dinner is pizza, and sometimes you open a bag salad beside it and sometimes they don't eat it at all, and that's okay. You know, your kids are fed and they're home, and that's good.

Catherine Murphy: 4:39

Yeah, absolutely so for those of us who are struggling to navigate the challenges of feeding nutritious meals, especially to picky kids. My oldest was incredibly picky kid and, based on your own experiences and expertise, can you give us some insight and tips for this? And I think it can apply to teachers in their foods classes too, because some of our students are picky eaters. So what are your best ideas for feeding those kids?

Stacey Green: 5:02

Yeah, I think what's worked for me traditionally and what I, what I have found from talking with parents, is that getting them involved as much as you can has really been super helpful.

Stacey Green: 5:12

So for me, I've always taken my kids grocery shopping with me and then when we're in the produce aisle they can pick one thing, one thing, and we're going to try it, you know, like one, whatever that may be, p a pick, a fruit, pick a vegetable, and then we kind of try to create a recipe from that. Listen, sometimes it doesn't work out, sometimes it's like a daikon radish and I don't know what to do with that, but they're excited about it. We can Google something together and maybe it's not amazing, but they're involved in kind of the process of where the food comes from. And I think that could easily like foray into the classroom if you did choosing recipe right, like they don't necessarily have to go to the grocery store with you, but maybe you you bust out your favorite cookbooks and everybody in class kind of flips through them or a cooking magazine or even something they saw in like the Food Network, and maybe we can recreate that. You know, getting them involved in choosing the recipes I think is is going to be really, really helpful.

Catherine Murphy: 6:02

Yeah, I think one thing we did during COVID, when you know, we had lockdown and I was going to the grocery store myself, we would have fun fruit Friday and I would just bring something home that we had never seen or heard of or tried before, yeah, and we'd give it a go. And yeah, sometimes, you know, sometimes we found some new favorites through that, but sometimes we did not, and that's okay., But but it's trial and error, that's just that's how it's going to go, and even if you have something that you think is going to be , <br>.

Stacey Green: 6:26

aybe they're not going to love it, but at least you're exposing them to things and getting them involved. Along that same line, I, I really start my kids, or I have started. My oldest<br> is 15. My youngest is five, cooking with me and I'm not talking like you know, mincing garlic with a planer where they're going to chop themselves. But they have little kids, safe knives and they are responsible for washing and, you know, using their hands to rip stems off. They think it's fun, right, it's creative. They get to help you out in the kitchen. They're getting messy. That's been really great for us as well.

Catherine Murphy: 6:56

Yeah, and I think brings families together too. So can you discuss with us some key strategies or some philosophies that you incorporate to make healthy eating appealing and accessible to people and into a wider audience? And how can maybe we as teachers give us you know, give us some same strategies that we can use in our foods classes?

Stacey Green: 7:12

It's going to be kind of along the same lines as getting everybody involved as much as possible. But I think with little kids, repetition is going to be key right. Just because you don't love something . g the first first<br> first time I didn't love broccoli the first time I ate it, you know, I vividly remember taking one of those trees and dipping it in ranch at my aunt's house and stuffing the whole thing in my mouth and thinking, oh God, what did I do? This was a terrible idea. But now I love it.

Stacey Green: 7:35

Right, giving yourself a little bit of grace with the idea that things are always evolving. Kids' taste buds are changing. Y k, l a e K t b a c. You know, like it's not it's not a no forever just because it's a no kind of right now within the classroom, if it's possible. You know, budget-wise that kind of thing, I think field trips would be wonderful. We're out East in the DDSB here, but there are so many wonderful accessible farms that are around us that have far cheaper produce than you would necessarily get in in long goes, Longos<br> g, and if you can kind of involve them in that, you don't know what you love until you see it. You know, like it's just an exposure kind of thing too, which I think can be really helpful.

Catherine Murphy: 8:12

I mean, I think, all over Ontario. We're very fortunate, where we live, that we do have this ability and this accessibility to some really great fresh foods, especially, you know, with the season coming up. So I think taking advantage of that is great.

Stacey Green: 8:23

Even if you went into the grocery store, there's those you know less than perfect. If we're talking about accessibility and trying to get fresher produce into people's hands, then there's definitely those imperfect vegetables and that kind of thing and really discussing why does everything have to be perfectly shiny and beautiful? You know, these are just as nutritious. The positives around that kind of thing where you can save a little bit of money, be accessible and still have delicious food.

Catherine Murphy: 8:43

Yeah, and it's all going to the same place anyways, right? So this cookbook you wrote, this is what we really want to talk about .your cookbook. You'll Eat It a ou'll Like It, and it's available on your website, stacygreenliving. com, and Amazon. It sounds kind of like exciting but overwhelming. So how did the book happen and what's the process that you w when? Where does someone even begin with the idea of writing a cookbook?

Stacey Green: 9:10

Yeah, that's a great question. After I went back to school for food. I've always loved food and I always have, kind of, in the back of my mind, wanted to write something. But I also love comedy, I love making people laugh, I love, you know, telling jokes and entertaining. So I really wanted to come up with a way to kind of combine the two and there wasn't what I wanted to create on the market. So I was like you know, I'm going to give it a shot, but that's a, that's a large undertaking, right, cause I had absolutely no idea what I was doing. I'm not a graphic designer, I'm not a food photographer, I'm a home cook, right?

Stacey Green: 9:42

So originally I shopped the idea to a couple literary agents and I ended up signing with one of them and we shopped the idea around. You know, like I wrote a pitch, but I was pitching to large, kind of like Penguin and Random House and big companies who didn't necessarily see what I wanted to do. So a couple of months into it I was like you know what I think I I think I can do it myself, because during COVID, during lockdown, when everybody was stuck at home with their phones, I, like you know, millions of other people decided to download TikTok and put all of my nonsense up there. But there ended up being kind of a little bit of an audience, people who were like-minded, who you didn't necessarily see the world with kind of the rose coloured glasses of parenting past, you know. So I did have a little bit of an audience and I thought I'm going to try and do this myself. You know, I I had half kind of written the book. Here and there I had a couple of recipes.

Stacey Green: 10:33

I never really jumped in with both feet until a year ago and I was. I was talking to my wife and I was like you know what? I think I'm going to do it, I'm just going to do it. And she's like okay, let's go. So I hired a photographer, I hired a graphic designer and that's really the catalyst right. Like I always say, I felt like I pushed a boulder down a hill and then just started running after it because for me, I need accountability, I need people who are expecting deadlines. You know I need that. I need somebody to be like hey, we need this on this day, so let's go, I can procrastinate like a champ.

Stacey Green: 11:05

So I hired the people that I wanted and then the photographer came to my house. Actually, we converted one of the rooms into a studio and I cooked all the food here and my wife would come downstairs at like 6:<br>, 30 in the morning and I'd be making stir fry. I'm like, don't look at me. I'm like I'm busy, you know. So we did. We shot five to six a day and then I would send it to the designer and then I hired an editor and kind of just like flying by the seat of my pants kind of situation. But once that ball started rolling, it's like you build the, the plane on the way down, right, like you figure out the answers as you go, which is exactly what happened.

Stacey Green: 11:42

And then I found a printer and and oh, actually, what another large part of it was. It's a large financial undertaking, right? This you can. If you wanted to write a book that was just words, just text, you could totally do that on Amazon. There's a million different programs that you could do for far less money.

Stacey Green: 11:59

But because I was printing a full color, highly graphic book, I needed an actual printer. I didn't have the option of Amazon, so I started a Kickstarter. I don't know if you know what a Kickstarter is, so it's basically crowdsourcing. So I treated it as a pre-sale. So you create kind of a campaign and you say this is what I want to do, this is the idea, this is what it looks like because we were halfway through it. These are some of the recipes, whatever and then people can choose to buy it ahead of time, which was lovely. So I did a 30 day Kickstarter and then I got 32,000 in sales, which was a wonderful help, because printing is very, very expensive. So that kind of offset the cost of the printing got the book into people's hands a little bit early.

Catherine Murphy: 12:42

That's amazing. Like I think you know, when I look at this finished product, it is beautiful and I can see you know that there has been a lot of time and effort spent in the graphic design behind it and the photography.

Catherine Murphy: 12:52

you know like you said you, you, that's not really your wheelhouse, I guess, but hiring those people and coming up with that, I guess that money to get it started right, that's sort of the hard part and maybe that's what scares people off. But I think you've given some people some some really great ideas there to get them started.

Stacey Green: 13:07

Yeah, Take advantage of your community, right? If you have a community around you of kind of people who are interested in the stuff that you like, then they want to support you. That you know. If you're, if you're creating something that you really believe in and if it's a good product, then you can absolutely do it yourself. I always kind of liken it to the record companies of old, right like back 30 years ago you'd have to find a record producer, go to the studio, create your music, release an album, but now, with social media and different streaming platforms, you could do that at home. You don't necessarily need a publisher's reach. It's wonderful to have, but there's a lot that comes with it. If somebody gives you an advance, that's wonderful that you get an advance, but all that's doing is paying for your book, right like that's paying for you to do the same things that I did, but I just fronted the cost myself, and then you don't make money until you pay that advance back.

Catherine Murphy: 13:55

Now, speaking of your publisher, this cookbook, You'll Eat It a You'll Like It. it has some very colorful language in it. So what kind of reception does that get from people? And particularly did publishers kind of you know, look at you kind of strange.

Stacey Green: 14:08

You know what I'm sure some did honestly a couple of them they were when we were shopping it around. They were like, ah, we are a Christian publisher, this is going to be a no from us. But a couple of them originally passed because they had kind of similar books, I guess like too similar, that they weren't willing to take a chance on it. But again, I think it's kind of knowing your audience and because I have an audience on social media of very like-minded people. It is a cheeky cookbook but it's intended to be that way. It's a comedy cookbook. So the reception has been great. Because I tell them up front, I don't want you to be shocked by it. You know there's a little splotch on the front where there would be a profanity. That happens to be, you know, splotched out. It's very clear on the back and I think the people who are interested in that book it's going to find its audience.

Stacey Green: 14:57

I went on The Social it's just a local talk show a couple of weeks ago. There was a woman there and we were in the green room together and she was very stoic, very stern, older woman in her suit, you know, very fancy, and she said are you a guest today. And I said I am actually I'm doing the segment just before you. And she's like oh, what did you do? And I said I wrote a cookbook. You know it's a real cheeky, profanity filled cookbook about how tricky it can be to feed kids. You know it's poking fun at the difficulties of parenting. And she didn't say anything for a while and I was like all right. And then she said why would you write a book for children full of profanity? I said no, no, it's not, it's not for children. I said it's about children, it's for parents, like it's, it's definitely not for kids.

Stacey Green: 15:44

And she was like who published that book? And I said I published the book. And she's like why on earth would you do that? And I said you know I have an audience. You know it's the same thing. I said I have an audience kind of like-minded individuals. You know people were interested and it's a, it's a funny book, it's a comedy book. And she's like do you have children? And I said I do. And she's like do they swear? I said no, no, they don't. She said do you swear in front of them? And I said listen sometimes, lady, you know she was real, real stressed out about it. Anyway, I went out and I did my segment and then it came back and she was like I watched your segment. I think those books are going to fly off the shelves.

Catherine Murphy: 16:23

Oh, that's great.

Stacey Green: 16:27

I w l t a t i e t w. I love that.

Catherine Murphy: 16:28

Thank you so much for that quick 180.

Stacey Green: 16:30

That's amazing, and you know what you did.

Catherine Murphy: 16:31

You mention your social media. You had a TikTok that went viral, did you not? I?

Stacey Green: 16:35

I did. I've had a couple of them. Listen, it's a double-edged sword when they go viral.

Stacey Green: 16:39

to be honest, I have a series called things I wish I knew about having kids before I had kids which was just literally one time I was walking with my son and I was, like you know, when I was in my twenties my Saturdays were so much different Like I didn't realize all the like the tediousness of the day. Sometimes you know, like where you're just pushing the swing, or you know, like Whoa, look at that down the slide. That kind of thing. That series has gone a little bit viral, yeah.

Catherine Murphy: 17:07

I think we have a few teachers. One of our courses called Raising Healthy Children. Now, I'm not going to recommend we use that in our classes because I haven't watched it yet, but from what I've seen of it, you know it might be something that we might want to use I don't know, in the classroom or not, but we'll see. We'll see. My last question for you. I'm going to answer it first, because it's about the favorite recipe from the cookbook.

Catherine Murphy: 17:27

So I need to tell you, my favourite recipe from the cookbook is Not Your Mom's Mac and Cheese. And the reason why it's my favourite is because mac and cheese is a staple in our house. I cook it all the time for my family. They love it. And I got this cookbook and I did let my daughter read it she's 12 and I did let her read it and she said hey, mom, can we try this mac and cheese recipe? And I was like sure, OK, why not? We'll give it a try. Hands down. T. Everyone agreed it was way better than the recipe I was making and it was way easier.

Catherine Murphy: 17:57

O g, t was a double score for me, for my family. So we've tried quite a few recipes from this book and we really do love them. So I can definitely definitely vouch for it. But what is your favourite recipe from the cookbook and why?

Stacey Green: 18:10

Yeah, that's a good question, right, like these are it's. I get asked that sometimes and it truly is so hard to choose because these are recipes that I grew up eating, recipes that I make for my family. So I have a lot of favourites. Because I'm biased, obviously because they're mine, but I love a soup. I am a big, big soup fan. So the recipe Blank You Put in a Bowl, I do love that chapter. I love the cheese soup. That one is one of my favourites by far. I also really love pea soup. That's my one of my go-tos, for sure. And then I love the slow cooker chapter, just because I love to forget it. I love to put stuff in the morning and then come back and have dinner ready to go. But there's there's a couple in there like the meatballs, the meatball sub I really love. I just made the honey garlic chicken last night just because that's a good one.

Stacey Green: 18:56

Yeah, I love, I love a slow cooker.

Catherine Murphy: 18:58

Yeah, and I think you know we can all agree, right, if we're working parents, definitely, a slow cooker can definitely come in handy a lot of nights for sure, a hundred percent, yeah. So, stacey, we come to one of our favourite parts of the show and that's our rapid fire. So we're just going to ask you five questions and just answer the first thing that comes to your mind. Okay, you ready? Yeah, I'm ready. Okay, First one's easy Pancake or waffles. Oh, pancake, okay, night in or night out.

Stacey Green: 19:28

Oh, night in all day. I love the couch.

Catherine Murphy: 19:32

Unlike our twenties, when a night out would have been the choice. Totally, here we are today. Okay, would you rather have a bag that always has everything you need, or shoes that will take you anywhere you want to go?

Stacey Green: 19:44

You know what? I'm not a huge traveller. I'd like a bag.

Catherine Murphy: 19:46

I think I'm going to go with the bag it would be kind of handy, right To have when someone asks you for it. It's true, all right, what's your favourite way to spend the weekend?

Stacey Green: 19:56

If it's warmer weather, I love to hit up the all of the markets. I love to go to farmer's markets and pick out beautiful, fresh veggies that I have so many dreams for and then watch them go bad in my fridge. But I love the. It's so hopeful when I'm there full of getting all these crisp, beautiful vegetables. I love that one. And then coming home and making dinner.

Catherine Murphy: 20:18

I like that. A familiar story for a lot of us, maybe, but I think that's a great way to spend the weekend for sure. Yeah, all right, here's our last one. Now, if you could pick, who would your ideal celebrity best friend be?

Stacey Green: 20:30

Oh my gosh, that's real tricky. I think I'd say Tina Fey. Oh, that's a great choice. I think I would pick Tina Fey. She's so funny and so smart. Yeah, like I would love to sit down and write. If I could go back in time to my twenties, I would love to camp outside of SNL and try to be a writer on some kind of TV show. I would love to hang out with Tina Fey.

Catherine Murphy: 20:52

That could be a great retirement plan too, later on, that's true. Well, Stacey, I want to just thank you so much for for coming onto our podcast and joining us and telling us all about your journey, because I know a lot of us. You know we have some, some dreams outside of the teaching profession, and so I think you've maybe given a few people some inspiration. So thanks so much for joining us.

Stacey Green: 21:11

Oh, my pleasure, and you can absolutely do it. Listen, you can. You can absolutely design how you want the rest of your life to be, and maybe it's a book, and maybe it's some other course, but I think that you should go for it.

Catherine Murphy: 21:21

That's awesome, Stacey Green. Thanks for joining us talking about your new cookbook. You'll Eat i a You'll Like It, and I highly recommend purchasing it from Stacey's website, c. com. com. com. And it's also available t on t, though, too. And thank you for joining us on What episode of what the Family Studies. We appreciate you taking the time to share about your food journey Stacey and success, stacey, and we hope our listeners will tune in next month as we interview Debbie Marson, the Executive Director at the North Bay Food Bank.

Cassandra MacEachern: 21:49

What the Family Studies is brought to you by the Ontario Family Studies Home Economics Educators Association. Special thanks to our producer, Micheyn Gallant. Tech support and podcast editor, Thank y. Thank you.