- This is cute!
It's good.
Can I just say,
it is so hard
being a stay at home adult.
Like I be tryna find my community,
and I been trying to join the mommy groups
but they all say I gotta have children?
And I feel like that's a little bit on the prejudice side,
that's a little prejudice.
I'ma take a bite.
It's not my fault
that you not gonna have leftovers, Susan.
'Cause you got a full house.
Just don't put that on me.
Hey YouTube world, it's me, Evelyn.
Welcome to #SmackYoLip.
The series I do on here where I taste
and or prepare beverages and or foodstuffs
and share my thoughts on them.
Today's installment of #SmackYoLip
is gonna be a little different.
In this video I'm going to combine my love of food
with my ever-growing quest to understand adulting.
Which really is my quest to find out where I can
get myself some grace.
'Cause life is hard.
Life can get hard.
(crying)
This really good.
Over on this channel, we believe in eating our feelings.
Okay? (laughs)
So in general we tend to think of adulting
in terms of task completion.
Be productive at work, doing your chores on a
daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly schedule.
Decluttering, Marie Kondo.
Having a morning routine that makes you
rejuvenated and ready to go.
And of course, meal prepping.
And believe you me, I've tried it.
I have tried the whole meal prepping thing
where you cook a bunch of dishes,
you portion control in some sorry Tupperware.
Okay, you got a drizzle of rice,
you got five grains of rice, a chicken breast,
and three asparaguses.
And then you eat that for all of eternity
until you get fed up and eventually find yourself
at midnight in the Whattaburger drive-thru
because you know you got rice at home
but you don't want rice.
I don't think food should be that regimented for everyone.
I'm not a bodybuilder, I'm not even an athlete.
Leisurely, I barely go outside.
The reason you suck at meal prep
is because meal prep sucks.
So I've got a handful of tips and tricks and hacks
and experiences and lessons learned along the way
when it comes to me trying to nourish myself.
Number one, and this is the biggest tip, hack,
whatever you want to call it,
prep ingredients, not meals.
Because for me, cooking doesn't take a long time,
it's the preparation to cook.
It's chopping the onions and the garlic
and marinating whatever you gotta marinate
and the chopping and the peeling and it's so much.
Who wants to reheat salmon?
Think about it!
Now I love leftovers just as much as the next person
but, there's some things I won't do.
So prep ingredients, chop your veggies,
peel your sweet potato and chop it up
or whatever you be doin'.
Make your homemade dips and dressings
and hummus and what have you.
When you prepare all the components of your dish,
that also allows for more flexibility and spontaneity,
you know what I'm saying.
You don't wanna be stuck with a chicken breast
if you don't want the breast.
I guarantee if you just do this one tip
you'll drastically reduce your food waste.
You can only reheat things so many times
after so many days.
Why, why try?
Meal prep tip number two,
and this really depends on your mobility,
your level of access to a vehicle, okay,
transportation if you will, so I understand that.
But, second tip,
go back to the store
instead of stockpiling food.
So when I was a teen, I used to cook dinner for my family
'cause my mom worked...
I was the one in charge of dinner.
I took that method of cooking and applied it to my own life
when I moved out and was cooking for just myself.
I had so much pasketti, I mean, I can't.
I would make red beans and rice for the apocalypse.
I went from cooking for four people to one,
but my grocery shopping list stayed the same.
Doesn't compute.
That has been probably the toughest habit to break,
even now I'll go to the grocery store
and I'll feel this sense of "what if I don't have enough?"
In other countries, you know when I went and visited
my family in the motherland,
or even I've heard people in France do this,
at the end of every work day they go to the market
and get that night's dinner.
Not everybody in the world stockpiles Costco food.
Why do you need a thousand shrimps?
For me it's also taken a little bit of the stress,
it's not like really stress,
but it's taken a little bit of the stress away from
planning a week's worth of meals,
and it's like, no, I have to feed myself til Wednesday
and then Wednesday we'll reassess, we'll see where we're at.
Maybe I don't wanna eat at home, huh?
Maybe I wanna socialize.
Number three, which is more of a lesson
or a thing I've come to know over time, is experiment.
And for me that's where Hello Fresh comes in,
shout out to them for sponsoring the kid.
Hello Fresh is home cooking, but make it actually easy.
I mean I can cook, I can cook.
But, even if I couldn't,
it comes with easy-to-follow instructions,
it comes with pre-measured ingredients,
the whole process is simple enough for you to prep, cook,
and get a meal on the table in about thirty minutes.
No Rachael Ray.
(relaxing music)
(sizzling)
This is cute!
Oh my god!
I'm not gonna lie, this smell hella good.
It smell hella hella good.
Mhmm!
That's nice!
Uh-huh.
(laughs)
Yes, okay!
Mmm.
This doin' somethin'.
Whoa!
Come through, sesame oil!
It's giving me Austin, Texas low-key.
It's giving me hipster, Korean taco truck fusion.
They made us make pickles.
I've never had a radish before.
I don't think.
They good!
You know, me myself, I like condiments.
So anytime something says a drizzle,
that's my cue to pour it on.
Tortilla, okay?
You got the Korean-spiced beef,
you got the pickles we made, the cilantro,
some Sriracha, the crema, hey!
Hold on.
It's giving me bibimbap (laughs).
It's giving me quick and easy, okay!
This just like came together,
filming is another story, but for you,
this is gonna come together.
Real fast, gonna come together real fast.
I decided to use Hello Fresh as a way to experiment,
I'm not a particularly picky eater,
but I do get in food ruts, you know what I'm saying?
I be eating the same paskettis.
So you can use it that way as a way
to try different flavors and regions of cuisine
without the risk of it turning out bad.
And like a whole pot of some curry situation
with way too much turmeric.
Turmeric and curry powder kinda look the same,
you got confused, who gonna eat all this?
Aint enough naan in the world to soak it up.
And as far as meal kit delivery services go,
I know some of y'all watching are like,
"What's this hippy-dippy hippy-dippy lifestyle?
"Back in my day, I used to walk ten miles to borrow sugar."
Hello Fresh is really flexible,
you can add meals to your weekly order,
you can change the delivery days if you know
you'll be out of town or something,
and you can skip a week.
You can skip it!
Hello Fresh is now from $5.66 per serving,
get started with eight free meals,
that's $80 off your first month of Hello Fresh.
So go to HelloFresh.com,
link is in the video description box,
click the one that's in the video description box,
and use Promo Code evelynfromtheinternets80.
Next tip, some people need to experiment,
and then some people need to develop their go-tos.
For me, when in doubt, tacos.
You can put anything on a tortilla,
and it'll sustain you.
If you gonna be out here in the world,
okay, thriving,
you have to find a couple dishes
that you like making for yourself.
Doesn't have to be anything intricate,
you don't need to get your Food Network on,
but really take the time to think about what your version
of what fast food can be.
Figuring out what your fast food is
makes it a lot easier for you to decide
to make that ten minute grocery store run,
instead of going to the drive-thru,
Whattaburger drive-thru at midnight, okay?
'Cause you're like whatever, life is but a vapor.
For some people, that's spaghetti, when in doubt, spaghetti!
For some people, their fast food is whipping up minute rice
and some steamed broccoli.
Do what you can.
My last tip for meal prepping, adulting,
trying to do the best you can,
is that life happens.
I have some months where I'm whipping it up.
I'm on my Giada De Laurentiis, I'm on my Emeril Lagasse,
I'm on my Top Chef, you feel me?
And some months, I feed myself day-by-day with
maybe, day-by-day maybe.
The biggest thing I've learned, and I'm continuing to learn,
is that's okay.
We're all out here trying to be as productive
as people we see who have staff, do you feel me?
Remember, the game is rigged.
Food security and access.
How sometimes I feel like I have to choose between
food that's good to the Earth,
food that's good to the humans who grew it or made it,
and food that's good to my bank account.
But I can't have all three, you know what I'm sayin?
I feel like the game is rigged, okay?
I do not have a avocado tree like Oprah,
but I wish I did, if I did, I would share!
I really would!
You can all come over and have guacamole.
Follow me, listen to me, see me, feel me.
You cannot be perfect, but you can always learn more.
And that's it for this edition of #SmackYoLip.
Hope it was informative, hope you learned something,
hope you will visit HelloFresh.com
and use Promo Code evelynfromtheinternets80, hope!
A girl can hope!
Go forth and be full, how 'bout that?
Hm?
How 'bout you go be full.
In the comments below,
let me know if I came to your house for dinner,
what we having?
I'll see you on the internet somewhere.
Bye!
(relaxing music)