#Ep 68: Here We Go Again With Tiffani Thiessen

From the Dr. Oz Show, Ellen, Today Show and more, today's guest has been sharing her love for food for years. Today I chat with Tiffany Thiessen; actress, mom, cookbook author, and queen of transforming leftovers. Food waste is a huge global issue and today's celebrity guest is doing her part to reduce our environmental impact. 

Tiffany takes us through her journey from a young girl learning in her family's kitchen to the food-obsessed mom of today who's redefining the art of repurposing food. Her latest book "Here We Go Again: Recipes and Inspiration to Level Up Your Leftovers", brings to light the critical issue of food waste, sparked by her desire to educate her children about its importance, and offers ingenious hacks to breathe new life into the current food we serve.

Her book doesn't just offer recipes, it's a guide to sustainably stretching your food and budget. Hear how she manages to whip up meals for her family amid the chaos of daily life(which we all can understand as business owners).

In this episode we will cover:

•  How Tiffani developed her love of food
• The difference between her first book and this one
• Why addressing food waste is apart of her mission
• Practical tips for meal planning as a busy mom or entrepreneur
• How to be more sustainable in the kitchen and much more

Loved this episode? Check out her blog and new book by clicking here https://tiffanithiessen.com/here-we-go-again/

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:02

Hey, sweet friends, my name is Chef Schaumburg. I started my baking business with the bottle of DeCerono and one Bundt Cake Pan. Fast forward to today, from news to magazines, speaking on national stages and more. I can truly say that baking has changed my life. So now, as a bakery business coach, I get to help others have the same success. I've helped hundreds of my students across the world in my global membership program create six-figure businesses, mainly from home.

Speaker 1: 0:29

The Baking for Business podcast is an extension of that, from actionable tips to valuable tools and resources that can impact you as a business owner. I truly believe y'all. We would never have been given a gift if we couldn't profit and prosper from it. So come on, darling. What are you waiting for? Hello, what is going on, sweet friends, and welcome back to the Baking for Business podcast. We're excited to have you guys listening in today. Today we have an amazing young lady who is an actress, a mom, but also a cookbook author, and her new book is coming out and she's going to spill all the tea and we're going to talk all about how you're really going to love the book. Like honestly, you guys, I read it and it's really, really awesome. Let's dive in Tiffany. Welcome to the podcast. How are you today? Beautiful, I'm good, sweetheart. How are you? I am doing wonderful, and so I know a lot of people may know you from your other projects. But how exactly did the cooking come around?

Speaker 2: 1:35

Well, I think my love of food has always been there since I was a little girl.

Speaker 2: 1:40

I have very early memories of seeing my mom and my grandmother and my aunt all having fun in the kitchen and me wanting to be that little girl in there with them having just as much fun and really just enjoying my sort of girl time in the kitchen, for whether it was a Monday night dinner with my mom or a family birthday or a big holiday.

Speaker 2: 2:04

And so my love of food started pretty young, like I said, and then it kind of developed as I got older, into I started traveling all through the United States and going to the South and going back East and learning about different food cultures and then finally getting to go to Europe and overseas and learning about those kind of cultures and my love of food just kind of really expanded even bigger. And then it went into wanting to entertain, as I got into like a young adult and wanting to entertain my friends and maybe try to find a boyfriend and you know, and then grabbing my husband and you know, and now it's like a little bit of that and also family meals, you know, because now that I have kids, so it's definitely been kind of a road trip of different sort of genres and different moments in my life with my relationship with food, but it was always a love affair for short.

Speaker 1: 2:55

That all sounds delicious and we all grow. The more we expand our palates, the more we're open to different things. It just really takes on an entire livelihood of its own. Is there any person in particular, aside from family, that actually inspired and influenced you any particular cooking style you love?

Speaker 2: 3:16

I would say probably the biggest, earliest memories I have were actually going to the south.

Speaker 2: 3:23

So it was, I got to tour all through, you know, the states for a particular show that I sadly can't talk about at the moment, but it was touring and doing that and really loving the way southern people and their relationship with food, because it always had a story Right, which a lot of people do I'm not saying not everybody, but there was something about the south.

Speaker 2: 3:48

And you know my best friend, who's been my best friend for gosh almost we're going on almost 30 years now he is from South Carolina and I used to remember sitting there, visiting him and we would sit on his porch and his mom would always have the most amazing, beautiful story about some dish that we just had for dinner. And I remember that as the same sort of memory that I had as a teenager when I was traveling and going through the South and going to Louisiana and going to Texas and going to the Carolinas and all these places where I found if it was a restaurant or if it was somebody's home. They always had a story about that pie or a story about that fried chicken that they had, or a story about the potato salad that came with it and I loved that connection and so I would say Southern food would probably be my first initial like remembrance of really getting another side of what food does for people.

Speaker 1: 4:50

Absolutely. Food is so universal. Being down here in the South, as you were saying, that it's crazy, because when you were naming those dishes, I'm like you're right, I live, I literally have a story that I can tie to all of those dishes, especially potato salad.

Speaker 2: 5:03

So yeah, especially potato salad.

Speaker 1: 5:05

Yeah yeah, I love it. Your first book, though, you focused a lot on the family recipes, and now, with the second book coming up, how did the idea for this book come to be?

Speaker 2: 5:20

Well, it came from a couple places, but initially came from, I think, just really being sort of overly concerned and wanting to kind of teach my children about the simple aspects of food waste, because it is one of the most impactful issues that we have for our climate change right, and really diving into doing the research of understanding that and this is really kind of mind boggling that 40% of food gets wasted from farm to table, like literally from the farm getting picked and going to your table. 40%, that's almost half, and and it's really kind of it was surprising to me and really wanting to teach my children better, because we are living in a time where we have to be more conscious, we have to be better right. So that's initially where the first sort of idea came from. And then it kind of came back to how I was raised. So I was raised in a very modest family. My dad worked two jobs to allow my mom to stay home and raise three kids, and so my mom was always trying to stretch the food right because we didn't have a lot, so she was really good about whatever we had.

Speaker 2: 6:33

Monday, say, it was a roasted chicken, she would put it into enchiladas on Wednesday, right, and so it was that sort of mentality that I was always I grew up with and it never really resonated until I really wanted to think of a new way of showing leftovers. Because then the other side of it is, my husband hates leftovers and it was proving to him that leftovers are amazing and there's different ideas about leftovers. Right, there's the traditional Mexican leftovers that you had from enchiladas the night before, and you know there's that and I understand that. But there's certain leftovers that in my opinion, like pizza, taste so much better the next day half the time. Yes, right, and so it was also showing.

Speaker 2: 7:21

It's not just leftovers that are in your fridge from tinfoil or whatever from a restaurant the night before. I'm talking about leftovers like the vegetables of the fruit that are just starting to go soft. Let's do something with them instead of wasting them and throwing them in the trash. That little bit of pretzels that are at the bottom of the pretzel bag that my kids won't eat because they're all crushed up. Let me show you what you can actually do with them if you have a little extra creativity in your brain to kind of think of outside the box a little bit.

Speaker 2: 7:52

So it's really more about not just the typical leftovers that say my husband would think about, and so I really wanted to create a book that kind of goes along the lines of all of that. So I really broke down the book into like a section on everything dairy, everything that comes from a box or a bottle, everything that is vegetable and fruit, the produce bin I call it, everything that has to do with meat and seafood. So really kind of breaking down all the basics in the sense and really kind of coming into like the popular things that I feel that are generally in my fridge and my pantry that are leftover sometimes.

Speaker 1: 8:33

And you're so right, especially with the food waste coming from both angles. Number one, because, as a wife, generally when we grocery shop, you don't want to buy that item and then see that item go to waste Go to waste, yeah. And then as a business, you don't want to have stuff laying around Then that's actually eaten into your business. So, yeah, so it goes both ways and that's just amazing For sure. Yeah, and the book is broken down when you set the section. I actually loved reading the produce section. I don't want to spill all the tea, you guys. The book is called here we Go Again Recipes and Inspiration to Level Up your Leftovers, and it's very thought out, you guys, very thorough, beautiful pictures, and so you guys are really going to love this. When you get your hands on the copy, what will you say is one of the most underrated items that people can actually do as a leftover.

Speaker 2: 9:30

Ooh, that's hard. I mean I feel like there's so many, because with my kids, the normal leftovers are stuff in the pantry, right, the leftover, chips, the leftover, or this is a really funny one, but this seems to always happen because I'm always yelling, going please close the bag of chips, and they never do, and they never use the chip clip and they get stale, right. Well, I'm going to show you what you can do with those stale chips. You can make chilaquiles, the best way you can do with them, right? So you might want to follow. There's so many ideas. I mean it's hard to pick just one, but I feel like I would say like the bags are the best ones, because I do have children that never seem to remember to close the bag, or they just want to throw away all that little bits at the very end, which I'm like it would make a really great crust on a chicken, you know, like, come on, let's fry some chicken up. You know that kind of thing.

Speaker 1: 10:22

So, and I'm guilty, when you said the chip clip, I was like dad gone. I always forget to use that thing.

Speaker 2: 10:29

I love them. They're great, man, I have so many of them. I am. I should be an inventor of a new chip clip or something because I love them so much. They're great, but my kids forget to use them a lot.

Speaker 1: 10:38

OK, yeah, so totally guilty. So anyone else who's listening? If your kids forget, then now you have some new ideas so that those chips don't go to waste. So how exactly do you balance being a mom while still providing dinner for your husband and kids with everything else going on in life? Do you have systems or things?

Speaker 2: 11:01

you like to do. You know, I wish I'd say that I had a normal system that works every day. It doesn't. I mean, I think everybody can probably be in agreement that every day is different, right? I don't shy away from needing, every now and then, on a long work day, that I don't have time to cook, that we're just going to order takeout. Or sometimes I rely on my kids and be like can you just make a sandwich, like you know, there's bread and meat in there, let's do it right. Or let's have breakfast for dinner, like that's super fun too. Or another one I do a lot of times, if I don't have a lot of times, I do a huge tray. I get a baking sheet out and I put tons of different stuff, because kids love variety, they love colors, right, and so I'll put different types of dried fruits and nuts and it's like a big snack tray. But it's great for a meal because as long as I put protein on there and I've got all the vegetables and all that, they go at it, you know. So I wish I said I had the thing that works for me, certain things that do work.

Speaker 2: 11:59

As I do, I don't prep meals because I don't have time, but I do meal prep. If that makes sense, I meal plan, I should say so. I try to do that on the weekends so I know what I'm shopping for and then I know what days I'm going to do what, so I can make sure to defrost the meat or do whatever use that leftover rice that I had from the night before, make it fried rice the next day for the kids with vegetables, and so there's a lot of that and that definitely helps the timing aspect in knowing my schedule, what days we're going to order takeout, what days I'm not going to be home, that I'm going to tell my husband to grab something out of the freezer to make it easy for him, or there's a lot of communication. I would say it would be the best thing that I really go for and a little bit of just meal sort of planning ahead.

Speaker 1: 12:43

That definitely makes sense. Do you have? I am obsessed with Instacart as much as I try to get in the store myself. Do you have a service you love? Are you team Instacart or team Shifter?

Speaker 2: 12:56

You know I am whatever works. How's that? Because I remember when I had my second kid, which of course was eight years ago now, but I leaned on Instacart a ton because I had been two kids, new baby at home and was trying to at the time I think I was shooting my cooking show at the time right after, and so it was a busy, busy time and so, yeah, I leaned on sort of those apps that do the shopping for you, and I still do every now and then. I don't as often as I did back then, but I do. But I lean on other people too.

Speaker 2: 13:37

I lean on my husband sometimes, and I mean, even during COVID he was the one going all the grocery shopping, which was so funny because he had no idea what he was doing. So I literally was telling him to either FaceTiming behind the mask and the gloves and all that, or it was taking pictures and texting them to him going no, yes, no, yes, that kind of thing. So that was kind of funny because I generally do all the shopping. But I lean on people. You have to. I mean they say it takes a village to raise a family, right, and that's so, so true. I'm very lucky to have my parents that are pretty close by, and my husband, who helps out a lot, and now that the kids are a little older, I lean on them as well.

Speaker 1: 14:19

Absolutely. I wish I had some kids to lean on. I'm always borrowing people's kids.

Speaker 2: 14:23

I was saying you need to borrow some kids, then yes, yes, yes, totally so in the book.

Speaker 1: 14:29

here we go again, tiffany. As soon as we get our hands on it, what is one of the first? I'll start off with recipes that you would recommend that we try.

Speaker 2: 14:39

Okay, it's hard again, hard to pick, but I'm gonna go easy for people because and I also am gonna go with a leftover that I feel like everybody has, and that's my pizza for breakfast, my pizza for breakfast sandwich everybody always has leftover pizza. It's one of the easiest things to make and I think it's the bomb Okay.

Speaker 1: 15:00

Pizza for breakfast. I'll take it. I mean, I eat pizza at the time, but yeah, for breakfast.

Speaker 2: 15:04

Me too, and I eat cold pizza too. But this is kind of a fun sort of take on pizza that you can make it for breakfast and it's super, super. It's so delicious and my kids love it.

Speaker 1: 15:17

All right, you guys. So now we have our homework and marching orders, cause, like she said, I'm sure all of us have pizza in the fridge. And so, with the book, will you be doing a book tour?

Speaker 2: 15:27

I am. Yes, we're actually just finalizing the book dates as of right now in cities, but as of now I will be in quite a few different areas of the tri-state, you know, New York area, New Jersey. It looks like I will be going to Chicago, Just one of my another favorite city of mine. It looks like I possibly will be going to Texas and Austin, it looks like, and then I of course will be, hopefully and of course we'll be, in LA, in a couple of different areas in LA. So that's as of right now. There could be a possible changes, but I can definitely let you know the final, which should be in the next week.

Speaker 1: 16:04

Awesome sauce. And in the show notes, you guys, we will have a link to her website, which I'm sure will have all the information. And so, tiffany, here we go again. When does it come out and where can we get our hands on it?

Speaker 2: 16:16

Yes, it comes out a pub date is September 26th and it literally will be sold where all bookstores you know pretty much all bookstores across the country, all the normal pot you know the ones that you would hear of of Amazon and Books, a Million to small bookstores. Or you can go to my website and actually all the links are there as well.

Speaker 1: 16:35

Awesome, Thank you so much. We cannot wait to dive a little bit deeper into the book. And thanks so much for swinging by the podcast and sharing with us. And before I let you go, I have to play a game of lightning round with you. Are you ready to? Well, it's perfect cause you've got lightning right now. Yes, y'all as we are recording. Oh my God.

Speaker 2: 16:58

Yes, I love it. A total lightning storm, this is perfect.

Speaker 1: 17:02

Listen, you know what is a kitchen utensil you cannot live without. Oh, my cast iron pan.

Speaker 2: 17:09

Awesome. What is your favorite color? Mmm, I would say like a mustard, orangey, yellow, which is like the cover of my book.

Speaker 1: 17:17

Yeah, and speaking of which, what is a book that you would recommend, one of your favorite books?

Speaker 2: 17:24

Ooh, that's so hard. Well, besides my cookbook, of course, you've got to do that one. I would say what am I reading right now? I'm actually I just finished a couple of books and I've been watching a lot more documentaries. Right now, can I say not a book? Can I say a documentary that I just watched? Why not right, I just watched? Yeah, or maybe I can't because no, it's not SAG, it has nothing to do with SAG. Okay, it's the WAM documentary and I don't know if you were a fan of WAM or George Michael, but it's an amazing documentary I just finished this week and I highly recommend it. If anybody, if it's kind of part of their childhood and their teen years, which it was for me in my early 20s, it's a great documentary.

Speaker 1: 18:11

All right, and the last question Tiffany, who is your celebrity crush?

Speaker 2: 18:17

Ooh, oh, that's so hard to, I'm gonna do a couple. Can I do a couple?

Speaker 1: 18:26

Yes, don't.

Speaker 2: 18:28

Okay, it's Kevin Bacon and Kara Sidrick, and I love them so much.

Speaker 1: 18:33

All right, I'll take that answer. I love that answer. I know my husband. He was like, are you gonna do Lightning Round with Tiffany? I was like, yeah, he's like, tell her me, me, tell her me. I said you tell her how cute he is. This is Tiffany, not Kelly. We're not talking about your. I love it. Well, thank you so much for swinging by, tiffany. It was so nice to speak to you. We'll have all.

Speaker 1: 18:59

Yeah you too, my dear, absolutely. We'll have all the links in the show notes, you guys, on how you can get Tiffany's new book, as well as her website so you can check out her book tour and see if she's coming to us sitting near you. Thank you so much. Beautiful. Thank you.

Speaker 1: 19:13

So how awesome was Tiffany, you guys, and also apologies for that rumble. When I was recording with her, I was literally in the middle of a thunderstorm. It's so crazy, because as soon as we wrapped up five seconds after that, I lost power. Wow. But the universe is such a blessing because it worked out right and I'm so happy that she was able to come by and to share all about her new book.

Speaker 1: 19:39

I know a lot of you guys probably know, as wives especially me, when it comes to the grocery budget, managing a household while trying to manage a business that you don't like food to go the waste, amongst other things, and so I thought the element of food waste in this book and how we can actually repurpose things was so important, because it applies not to just us as women, or maybe you guys as moms also in business. There's so many different little elements that you can take away from it. Be sure to check the show notes if you are interested in getting Tiffany's new book. Here we go again. I am sure you're going to love it. And again, special thanks to Tiffany for swinging by. Thanks so much to all of you guys for listening. Take care and bye for now.