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The Fed+Fit Podcast | Nurturing a Healthy Mindset for a Healthy Lifestyle

We’re back with our 32nd episode of the Fed+Fit Podcast! Remember to check back every Monday for a new episode and be sure to subscribe on iTunes!

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Episode 32 Topics:

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Ep. 32: Special Guests: Juli Bauer & Vanessa Barajas

This is the Fed and Fit podcast starting your week off with motivational thoughts on real food and fun fitness activities with Cassy Joy Garcia and co-host, Charissa Talbot. Remember our disclaimer; the information and opinions shared in this podcast are solely those of any given individual, and not a substitute for medical advice. Here are the ladies.

In today’s totally unedited episode, Juli Bauer of PaleOMG and Vanessa Barajas of Clean Eating With a Dirty Mind join me to gab about life and their new books!

Topics:
1. Vanessa Barajas’ book, Clean Eating With a Dirty Mind [4:33]
2. Juli Bauer’s book, Juli Bauer’s Paleo Kitchen [8:09]
3. Favorite part about the book writing process [11:58]
4. What writing style did you use when writing the cookbook [16:13]
5. Most used recipe from your blog [19:53]
6. Favorite non-recipe week night meal [24:04]
7. If you could have any other job in the world… [27:50]

Cassy Joy: Today’s episode is especially special, because two of my favorite friends are joining me to chat about life and their brand spanking new books! We’ve got Juli Bauer, the indomitable blogger and author behind PaleOMG, and her third book is getting ready to come out. It’s releasing on August 18th, Juli Bauer’s Paleo Kitchen, and it is just from everything I’ve seen absolutely stunning.

We are also joined by Vanessa; dammit Vanessa I was about to ask you {laughing} before we started recording how to say your name!

Vanessa Barajas: {laughs} How to say my last name? I was waiting for you too; I was like, is she going to get it? I don’t know if she’s going to get it.

Cassy Joy: Barajas?

Vanessa Barajas: It is Vanessa Barajas.

Cassy Joy: Ok. {laughs}

Vanessa Barajas: {laughs}

Cassy Joy: Thank goodness I know how to edit these things now {laughs}.

Vanessa Barajas: Yes. {laughs} No, you better leave all that in there.

Cassy Joy: Maybe I will.

Juli Bauer : This is unedited guys; I say we go for it. Just full unedited podcast.

Charissa Talbot: We’re going to do it. Let’s do it. I’m sorry I cursed, audience. {laughing}

Juli Bauer : Are we not allowed to curse? That should be something I should know beforehand, because yeah.

Vanessa Barajas: Same here.

Juli Bauer : Ok.

Cassy Joy: Oh, that’s a good thought. Well then that was a really mild curse to warm the audience up. {laughs}

Juli Bauer : Yeah, if that was a curse, come on.

Cassy Joy: Oh my goodness.

Juli Bauer : Oh snickers! Oh sorry guys!

Cassy Joy: {laughs} Oh my goodness. Ok, I’m sweating.

Vanessa Barajas: Me too.

Cassy Joy: Ok, Vanessa Barajas. Did I nail it?

Vanessa Barajas: Kind of.

Cassy Joy: {laughs}

Vanessa Barajas: It’s good enough. It’s close enough.

Cassy Joy: I’m a disgrace to Garcia’s everywhere.

Vanessa Barajas: {laughs}

Cassy Joy: She is the recipe whiz and genius behind the wildly popular blog, Clean Eating With a Dirty Mind, which also happens to be the title to her upcoming debut book, which will release on September 8th. And once again, everything I’ve seen from that; no surprise here, has been absolutely stunning. both of these ladies knocked it out of the park, and I’m so proud and excited to be a part of their release story with a show today. So welcome ladies!

Everybody: Yay!

Vanessa Barajas: Thanks Cassy. Thanks for having us. We’re excited to be here.

Juli Bauer : We are.

Cassy Joy: I’m excited to have you guys here. I’ve been looking forward to this for a while. I’m excited to call you girls friends, and it’s so fun that we can also talk shop at the same time. It’s funny how that happens later in life; you just meet people that are in your industry, and you’re just like, where have you been my whole life.

Juli Bauer : Seriously. And we only get to see each other like once a year, so we we’re all obviously just the best friends.

Cassy Joy: {laughs}

Juli Bauer : We need to get better at that and do different retreats.

Vanessa Barajas: I know.

Juli Bauer : let’s do women retreats together.

Vanessa Barajas: I’m totally down for that, that sounds like so much fun.

Cassy Joy: That does sound like so much fun. Juli, I almost signed up for your Costa Rica trip. {laughs}

Juli Bauer : I was just looking at the Facebook group, because we just created one for that. What the hell guys, you could have been there with me!

Vanessa Barajas: I know.

Cassy Joy: {laughs} Dang it. We missed the boat on that one.

Vanessa Barajas: We did.

Juli Bauer : I’m going to get my surf on. Probably not surf; maybe body board or boogie board. I don’t know.

Cassy Joy: That sounds fun. I once got a minor concussion from trying to surf {laughs} which probably isn’t a huge shocker.

Juli Bauer : {laughs}

Cassy Joy: Oh, I’m really coordinated. Well I’m so excited to have you girls on here, and I’m excited for your books to come out. I know you’ve poured so much time and energy and love into all of those pages; they’re both absolutely beautiful. And I know you’re going to do a book tour together, so I’d love to hear a little bit about your books real quick before we jump into some of my oh so professional questions. {laughs} Tell us; let’s start with Vanessa. Tell us a little bit about your book and your plans for the release.

1. Vanessa Barajas’ book, Clean Eating With a Dirty Mind [4:33]

Vanessa Barajas: Sure. So, as you said, my book is called Clean Eating With a Dirty Mind. It releases September 8th, and basically my whole kind of premise behind this book was I feel like desert gets demonized a lot in the paleo community. It’s kind of like the paleo dirty secret; everyone’s kind of doing it behind everyone else’s back, you know?

Cassy Joy: {laughs}

Vanessa Barajas: And I don’t think it has to be that way. So I just want to show people, hey you can still eat paleo, you can still eat clean, you can still reach your goals, and you can still eat dessert too, and this is how you do it. So I kind of have a lot of information in the book about baking. It’s more of a baking book. There are a couple of savory recipes, because I do want kind of something in there for everybody.

It’s also really instructional, which was something that was important to me because as a self taught baker, I didn’t have any of that. I really had to figure out what I wanted to do, and I had to teach myself how to do it. I had to Google a lot of dumb questions, I had to watch a lot of YouTube videos, and a lot of it was just trial and error. And I thought to myself; you know what, if I can just kind of take all this information that I’ve learned and taught myself, and kind of dumb it down to a level that even I can understand, I really feel like that would help people out a lot in the kitchen, so I kind of have a section about kitchen hacks, little tips and tricks that I do to make things flow better when I’m baking or cooking in the kitchen.

I also have a super, super small kitchen. Cassy, you’ve actually seen my kitchen.

Cassy Joy: {laughs} Yes.

Vanessa Barajas: Juli will see my kitchen in August, or no, September. So that’s challenging; it’s challenging not having all this space to work with. So I really wanted it to be a book that everybody could use, kind of regardless of their skill, so I kind of went that way. And I also kind of went to the deepest, darkest depths of my dirty mind and just came up with just crazy stuff. And I’m like, you know what, I want to eat that!

Cassy Joy: {laughs}

Vanessa Barajas: It sounds great, and it’s going to have chocolate and caramel all over it, so here’s to that. Cheers.

Cassy Joy: {laughs}

Vanessa Barajas: So that was kind of the premise behind it.

Cassy Joy: That’s amazing.

Vanessa Barajas: I’m really excited about it.

Cassy Joy: That’s awesome. Actually, when we were at PaleoFx together, Vanessa gave us the option to make sometimes from her book, and you don’t know this yet, I don’t think I’ve told you yet, at least, she made us this toffee, what was it? Was the recipe in the book?

Vanessa Barajas: Yeah it was just chocolate covered toffee.

Cassy Joy: Chocolate covered toffee. So everyone else had to hop on a plane t leave Austin, so I had the unfortunate task of taking the toffee home with me {laughs} because I was just a drive away. And I ate about two thirds of it during the drive, and then the rest of it, it was one of those I’d sit down on the couch, and I’d wait 5 minutes, then I’d get up and go back to the fridge and eat another piece. {laughing}

Vanessa Barajas: {laughing} I love it.

Cassy Joy: Until it was gone, which took like half a day. But I was thinking; a lot of my listeners know, but in case you don’t. Austin and I, my fiancé, we’re getting married in late October. And I was racking my brain on what to do as a party favor, and I knew I wanted to make something, so I started thinking what would be seasonal and delicious; I’m going to make chocolate covered toffee for everybody, I loved it so much. So.

Vanessa Barajas: Oh, yay, that’s awesome! I’m so excited.

Cassy Joy: You’ve inspired me. But anyway. It’s awesome, every recipe I’ve seen was just stunning. So congratulations.

Vanessa Barajas: Thank you. So good.

2. Juli Bauer’s book, Juli Bauer’s Paleo Kitchen [8:09]

Cassy Joy: Juli! Take it away! Tell us about your beautiful new book.

Juli Bauer : Ok! So this is my third cookbook; Juli Bauer’s Paleo Cookbook, really just to the point with that title.

Cassy Joy: {laughs}

Vanessa Barajas: {laughs}

Juli Bauer : And it is filled with over 100 of my best, I think by far, my best recipes. I shot it with Bill and Hayley; so they did the photography. The blog people of Primal Palate.

Everybody: {laughing}

Juli Bauer : I don’t know what their job title is. But, they were so awesome. They had me stay at their house, and I would just cook 5-6 recipes per day, and they would help me shoot all those photos, and they were absolutely amazing, so the book is beautiful because of them. It’s just really filled with books that remind me of my childhood, just remind me of food kind of pre-paleo. So I have recipes like mu shu pork, which I used to eat growing up at the Chinese restaurant by us, and I made a chocolate flourless cake that’s layered with buttercream as a birthday cake.

So I really just make recipes that sang to me, and they’re easy recipes. I am not very good at complicated recipes, that’s why I started my own blog. It’s all the recipes in there are easy to find ingredients, you can find them at most grocery stores, maybe a couple of specialty items, but you can find those online. So all the recipes are pretty straightforward. I don’t go crazy with how I make things, because I just don’t know how. Because I just taught myself to cook.

So it’s really about simple recipes that are easy to make, and my voice is really in there, so I’ve talked about how I’ve made paleo work for myself, and how I can help other people do the same. Because so many times you go out there, and it’s like, if you don’t eat strict paleo you’re going to hell.

Cassy Joy: {laughs}

Juli Bauer : And that’s not what I really wanted my book to be approached as, so I wanted to be really approachable and doable, and that’s what it’s all about. Helping you make paleo work for you as much as you can.

Cassy Joy: That’s awesome. I think it’s really going to resonate with so many people. Because you’re right. Paleo perfect works for a very short period of time; and you’ve been living this way for 5 years, I guess?

Juli Bauer : Yes.

Cassy Joy: Oh, I got it right! I guessed.

Juli Bauer : You killed it. Nailed it.

Cassy Joy: {laughs} But yeah, you have to arrive at a happy medium, and that’s so exciting to see that written down. You are such an incredible writer. I can’t wait to read every word.

Juli Bauer : Oh my god, you’re the best!

Cassy Joy: {laughing} I like to compliment my friends a lot so they want to hang out with me more! {laughing}

Juli Bauer : Keep doing it.

Vanessa Barajas: Exactly, that’s why we’re doing this podcast, because we’re like, we know Cassy’s going to say all this really nice stuff about us, so we should probably just call.

Cassy Joy: {laughing} You might actually even get a thank you gift in the mail, you just never know.

Vanessa Barajas: Oh my god!

Juli Bauer : What?

Vanessa Barajas: Wow, classy! This is a high class podcast.

Cassy Joy: Well now I have to go figure out that. {laughs}

Juli Bauer : She’s like, dammit, I shouldn’t have said that.

Vanessa Barajas: That could be your new name, new podcast name. High Class Podcast.

Cassy Joy: {gasp} OH my gosh, I like that.

Juli Bauer : Vanessa always comes up with the best names.

Cassy Joy: She does. We need to talk after this, actually, speaking of that. {laughs}.

Vanessa Barajas: Ok.

3. Favorite part about the book writing process [11:58]

Cassy Joy: Just kidding. I have more projects coming up. But yeah, this is awesome. I wanted to ask you guys some fun questions; some are about your books, and about just life in general, and just kind of get to know you girls a little bit better. So, first of all, talking about your books, what would you say has been your favorite part of the book writing process? We can start with Vanessa.

Vanessa Barajas: You know, that’s a great question, and I think my favorite part was actually being done with the book.

Cassy Joy: {laughs}

Vanessa Barajas: I’m just kidding {laughs}. It was the ice c ream chapter, strangely enough. I was so; I’m the type of person where I get really intimidated by things if I’ve never done it or tried it before.

Cassy Joy: Mm-hmm.

Vanessa Barajas: And I didn’t have an ice cream maker before this book, and I had never really experimented with churning or making ice cream or anything, so I kind of put that chapter off to last, and I also was really freaked out about photographing it, because it’s so temperamental and you only have this small window to work with it in. And I live in southern California, so it’s always 80 degrees here, I never get a sort of temperature break, you know. Like, oh this will be a great day to shoot ice cream because it’s freezing cold and rainy.

Cassy Joy: {laughs}

Vanessa Barajas: So, I was really, really intimidated by that chapter, and it turned out to be my absolutely favorite experience. The pictures are the ones I’m probably the most proud of. I loved every second of it. It was like pure joy working on that and photographing it, and it’s so easy to throw these recipes together. They’re all so delicious. And after this, I was like, you know what, I would love to do a whole ice cream book. It was so much fun. So that was definitely my favorite part for sure.

Cassy Joy: Well I support that idea.

Vanessa Barajas: The ice cream book?

Cassy Joy: Yeah {laughs} That’s awesome. Juli, what’s been your favorite part of the writing process?

Juli Bauer : It was definitely working with Bill and Hayley.

Cassy Joy: Aww.

Juli Bauer : It was like, I kind of forgot about it, because you work on the book and you don’t get the actual copy for so long, so once I got the book, it brought back all these memories of working with Bill and Hayley. It’s like you got to hang out with friends all day every day, and even though we had our hard days, where we were losing light or recipes were just sucking so I was in major biotch mode.

Cassy Joy: {laughs}

Juli Bauer : Other than that, it was so much fun working with them. I feel so grateful and so lucky to have gotten to work with such great people on this book. So I have to say that was my favorite part.

Cassy Joy: That’s awesome. Is there a certain recipe you’re looking forward to people making most?

Juli Bauer : Well the cake. I’m sorry. I’m sorry to be that person who says the dessert first.

Everybody: {laughs}

Juli Bauer : I really hope people make the mu shu pork, I don’t know if that’s a popular recipe among other people, but that was my favorite thing growing up, and I love this recipe because you can’t really have hoisin sauce so I make my own hoisin sauce in the book. I think it’s just spot on, and I just love it, so I hope more people just slather that sauce on some pork. {laughs}

Cassy Joy: Yeah! Oh my gosh. Well that will be the first thing I make then.

Juli Bauer : Girl, I hope so. And I hope you like it. I’m so scared; it’s scary when you make this book, and then you’re like, what if a recipe doesn’t come out, or what if somebody hates it? What if it was a teaspoon and it was supposed to be a teaspoon and a half!

Cassy Joy: {laughs}

Juli Bauer : And you freak out, so I just hope it all turns out ok.

Cassy Joy: I think it’s going to be beautiful, but I’ll be sure to reassure you every time I make something {laughing}.

Juli Bauer : Yeah. And if it doesn’t turn out, just don’t tell me because I’ll have an anxiety attack and pass out.

Everybody: {laughs}

Cassy Joy: I’ll just send you pictures; perfection, again!

Juli Bauer : {laughs} And you had gone to a Chinese restaurant.

Cassy Joy: {laughs}

Vanessa Barajas: Got take out, took it out of the box and photographed it.

Cassy Joy: Oh, I have thought about that. I had a weak moment, one time I was trying to develop some kind of curry for the blog, and I had been through four batches with this darn thing, and they kept failing. I had a moment, I asked Austin, I was like, would it be the worst thing ever if I just took a picture {laughing} of something that we ordered? He was like, yes, that would be the worst thing ever, do not.

Juli Bauer : Hey, I know people who have done that. It’s totally cool.

Cassy Joy: Oh my gosh. Yeah. Luckily, just disclaimer, everything on the website is painstakingly

Everybody: {laughing}

Juli Bauer : You’re like, hey, we’re not liars, ok.

4. What writing style did you use when writing the cookbook [16:13]

Cassy Joy: I’m sorry. I had a weak moment. Ok, awesome. Well, I’m kind of curious. When it comes to writing a book; what are you girls’ styles? Do you like to start out with an outline and just say, these are all the recipes I want to make and then you work through them, and you start to populate the outline with the developments; or do you just kind of fly by the seat of your pants and let inspiration strike you and at the end of it you’re left with all the content for a book?

Juli Bauer : I feel like Vanessa and I are very different in this.

Vanessa Barajas: We’re so; you know what, we had this exact conversation at PaleoFx, because when I told you guys to choose a recipe from my book, I took out my laptop, and I took out my excel spreadsheet, and I was like, here it is organized by chapter, what would you like; so I definitely take a super, super organized approach. I blame it on the fact that I’m such a hardcore Virgo, everything has to be super organized and in its place.

And that’s just the easiest way for me to work, is super organized like that. So when I was first developing the recipes for the book, I literally sat down and brainstormed all the recipes I wanted to make, I inputted them into an excel spreadsheet, I went through and I kind of ordered them into chapters, and then I kind of worked a chapter at a time. So I’m like, ok here’s the cake chapter, here’s the cookie chapter. And just literally went through and checked everyone off as I made it, and if it didn’t work out, because there were a few recipes I just wasn’t happy with, I couldn’t get it to work, and then they just kind of got X’d off and they got put on a separate tab of, will try again later at some point, but not going to go in the book. So I definitely take a super organized approach. Everything has its place, and its process. I know Juli is totally different.

Juli Bauer : Yeah, I’m fly by the seat of my pants kind of gal.

Vanessa Barajas: {laughing}

Juli Bauer : I mean, I had a list going. No excel spreadsheet {laughs} that’s for sure.

Vanessa Barajas: {laughing}

Cassy Joy: {laughs}

Juli Bauer : I had a notes section in my phone, which at one point I erased accidentally.

Cassy Joy: Oh no.

Juli Bauer : So I lost all these plans. But I probably had at one point 40 recipes planned by the first trip I was going on to Pittsburg to do the book; and then towards the end, I think the last trip I had going out there, I had absolutely no recipes planned at all. It was like, oh shit, what am I; sorry, I cuss.

Everybody: {laughing}

Cassy Joy: That’s ok.

Juli Bauer : I was like, what am I going to post, or what am I going to make, I have no idea. Because I was trying to post stuff for the blog as well.

Cassy Joy: Mm-hmm.

Juli Bauer : But I still figured it out, and things kind of came; and I’d be like, oh I haven’t cooked with radishes, and I have no idea what the hell to do with radishes, so I’d start figuring out different things and trying different stuff. But mine was definitely fly by the seat of my pants, for sure, and then see what was missing. If I was missing some seafood; ok, what else can I make in seafood, that sort of thing.

Cassy Joy: Nice. Sometimes my favorite recipes come out of moments like that.

Juli Bauer : I know; same.

Cassy Joy: Yeah. Although I do really like the satisfying feeling of crossing things off a list and having a plan.

Juli Bauer : Yes.

Cassy Joy: Really comforting, so. That’s nice. I might ask you to send me that spreadsheet one day, Vanessa, so I can {laughing} see how you organized it.

Vanessa Barajas: {laughs} Totally. I still have it. We can just use it as a template, you know.

Cassy Joy: That’s be wonderful. You could even put it out there; it could be a new product. {laughs}

Vanessa Barajas: Yeah. Writing a cookbook? Here’s your template.

Everybody: {laughing}

5. Most used recipe from your blog [19:53]

Cassy Joy: I can see the QVC video already. Ok, awesome. More questions. So I’m curious, you girls. Both of you have a lot of recipes on your blog already that are awesome. Is there any one recipe, we can start with Vanessa again, that you have made over and over again, more than any other?

Vanessa Barajas: Definitely. My personal favorite recipe on my blog, for sure, is my chocolate cupcake recipe. I think the reason it’s my favorite is, most of all, because it tastes like real chocolate cupcakes. I’ve given those cupcakes to people, and they’re like, these are better than regular cupcakes. I can’t believe they’re paleo. And I think they’re also my favorite because it was just kind of a recipe that happened by accident. It was like, well let me try adding this, and let me see if this works, and then 20 minutes later I opened the oven and it was like the heavens shined down, like {singing}.

Cassy Joy: {laughs}

Vanessa Barajas: These perfect cupcakes came out of the oven, I was like, oh my god, did I really just do this? And then you have that moment right before, where you’re like, ok, let me take a bite of this and see if it’s even good, you know, it could taste like crap, I could have forgotten to put sugar in it, and all I put was salt, who knows. So let me take a bite of this, and I took a bite, and it was like, oh my god. This is a real cupcake. And I feel like I had so many of those moments; that was one of the reasons I started my blog in the first place was because I just really wanted some damn dessert, man.

Cassy Joy: Mm-hmm.

Vanessa Barajas: And it was like, I couldn’t find any good dessert recipes besides Juli; Juli had this cookie recipe, this is a total tangent side note. Juli had this freaking cookie recipe, like around Christmas, and I would make them all the time, and I was like, oh it’s ok, they’re paleo. By the end of the holiday season, none of my clothes fit, I was like wearing leggings every day, and I was like, ok, we’ve got to cut back on this PaleOMG cookie recipe.

Cassy Joy: {laughing}

Juli Bauer : {laughs}

Vanessa Barajas: So that was literally one of the only dessert recipes that I loved, and it would just get to that point where I was like, I just want dessert! I’m sitting in my kitchen, on the floor, crying, like I just need dessert!

Cassy Joy: {laughs}

Juli Bauer : {laughs}

Vanessa Barajas: I came up with that recipe, and that’s kind of my recipe, too, that I go to if I have an event or if I really want to impress somebody with my paleo baking skills. I definitely do the chocolate cupcakes. And also, you could do so many things with them. You could do just a plain chocolate buttercream; I use that as the base in a couple. I have a Reese’s cupcake in my cookbook, I have a rocky road cupcake, so those are kind of the main base in that. But yeah, I love that recipe.

Cassy Joy: Well I think I might have to go make that today, too.

Vanessa Barajas: {laughs}

Juli Bauer : Seriously.

Cassy Joy: Sold!

Juli Bauer : Seriously, I might be doing that, too. Actually, I might log onto Vanessa’s website right now.

Cassy Joy: {laughs} I want to know about this secret ingredient.

Juli Bauer : Yeah. Damn girl, you so fancy! I’m going to look this up.

Vanessa Barajas: {laughs}

Cassy Joy: Oh my gosh. Juli, is there a recipe on your blog that you feel like you’ve made more than any other?

Juli Bauer : Yes.

Vanessa Barajas: Spaghetti squash pizza.

Juli Bauer : For sure! It’s like my 5 ingredient spaghetti squash casserole, or pizza pie, or I don’t even know what it’s called.

Vanessa Barajas: Yeah, what’s it called. I never even know what it’s called. I’ll make it, and I’ll try to post it on Instagram and tag Juli in it, and I’m like, wait, I have to read it like 5 times. I’m like, is it?

Juli Bauer : I know.

Vanessa Barajas: 5 ingredient pizza squash, what is this?

Juli Bauer : I know. I have no idea what it’s called. But it’s my 5 ingredient pizza casserole, we’ll call it that. It is just so easy, it’s so delicious, I know Vanessa has made it before. And it’s just my favorite recipe by far.

Cassy Joy: That sounds awesome.

Vanessa Barajas: So good.

Juli Bauer : That’s it. {laughs}

Vanessa Barajas: You know what’s so funny too, if somebody comes up to me and they’re like, oh hey I’m trying to eat paleo, can you just recommend a good recipe, I’m having company over. I’ve probably given that recipe out 20 times to people. Like, oh my god, yeah! I don’t even give them one of my recipes. I’m like, no you need to make this, it will knock everybody’s socks off.

Cassy Joy: {laughs}

Juli Bauer : {laughs} You’re the best!

Vanessa Barajas: And every time they come back to me they’re like, oh my god that was amazing! I’m like, I know. My friend rules, I don’t know what to tell you.

Cassy Joy: {laughs}

Juli Bauer : I know.

6. Favorite non-recipe week night meal [24:04]

Cassy Joy: Oh my goodness. Ok, so I’m now curious. If y’all are not going to; let’s just say it’s a random night, week night. I’m going to figure out a way to articulate this question.

Everybody: {laughs}

Cassy Joy: So if you don’t want to follow a recipe, what’s your go-to meal for like a normal dinner? What would you say is a non-recipe meal that you do a lot?

Vanessa Barajas: I would say for me it’s usually a chicken based thing. I’ll just kind of take two chicken breasts, and I’ll just kind of throw crap in there. I’ll put them in a baking dish, season them with some spices, salt, pepper, if I happen to have anything cool in the fridge like rosemary or thyme I’ll kind of throw that in there. Or do like Steve’s Paleo Goods, the sauce that they have, I’ll throw some of that in there. And lately I’ve been a really big fan of, when you go to the grocery store, kind of by the salads in the prepackaged section, they’ve got prepackaged veggies and stuff, and they have this mushroom onion type mix, and I’ll just open that and throw it all in there with the chicken and mix everything around, bake it at 350 for about 30 minutes, and then it comes out and, I don’t know why, I’ve just been so obsessed with cooked mushrooms and chicken lately. It’s so weird, I have no idea what’s going on.

Cassy Joy: {laughs}

Vanessa Barajas: But I literally made that probably 3 times for dinner this week, and every time I’m just like, oh my god this is so good! It takes literally 30 minutes, everything is ready to go, and you have the best dinner.

Cassy Joy: That sounds delicious.

Juli Bauer : Seriously.

Vanessa Barajas: It’s really good.

Cassy Joy: Wow. Your no-recipe dinner’s totally smash mine.

Juli Bauer : Yeah, what the hell.

Everybody: {laughing}

Cassy Joy: My no-recipe dinner is like, Austin will you please make me dinner? {laughing} I can’t possibly cook another thing.

Vanessa Barajas: Or Chipotle. Chipotle is always the good; I can never even say it. I call it “chipote”. Chipotle, I can’t ever say it. I’m Mexican, too, and I’m supposed to be like; you can’t say my last name, but I can’t say Chipotle. {laughs}

Cassy Joy: Oh it works. Juli, what do you make on easy nights.

Juli Bauer : Don’t get excited, because it is not exciting.

Cassy Joy: Ok. {laughs}

Juli Bauer : I literally make crispy chicken thighs and broccoli. And that’s it.

Cassy Joy: That sounds delicious.

Vanessa Barajas: That does sound delicious.

Juli Bauer : I make, usually a honey mustard to dip the chicken in, and then end up dipping the broccoli in it too, so I eat a ton of sauce, but that’s my normal go to. At one point Brian, my fiancé, was like, can you please stop making chicken? We’ve had it every night for like 2 weeks straight; I can’t do it anymore. I think it’s so good. I don’t know how you can get sick of crispy chicken thighs. That’s the best, most juicy meat ever. But whatever. So I had to start making other meat. But that’s my go-to thing.

Cassy Joy: That’s delicious. And they’re so affordable!

Juli Bauer : So affordable.

Cassy Joy: Yeah.

Juli Bauer : Exactly. And I’m the one who buys the groceries in the house, so I’m like, ok you go buy the steaks, then because chicken thighs cost me, for like 6 pounds it’s like $2.

Everybody: {laughs}

Cassy Joy: Oh, that’s exactly right. That sounds delicious too. I’m hungry. Man.

Juli Bauer : I know, I want to go make cupcakes after this.

Cassy Joy: I know. I want cupcakes, mu shu pork. Really what I want is to open the door to my office and just walk out to a big potluck of everything we’ve talked about.

Vanessa Barajas: Just a spread. Yeah, just a spread of everything.

Juli Bauer : Yes. But us not make it, somebody else makes it?

Cassy Joy: Oh, that’s the dream.

Juli Bauer : Yeah, that is a dream. That will never happen.

Everybody: {laughing}

Cassy Joy: No, it won’t. Oh, you get invited to a party; will you bring something?

Juli Bauer : Exactly, that’s totally what they do. You’re like, no! This isn’t my party!

7. If you could have any other job in the world… [27:50]

Cassy Joy: {laughs} Yeah! Can I please just buy something? {laughs} Oh goodness. That’s so fun! Well, I’m curious, we’re getting kind of close to the end of this show. Both of you are wildly successful at everything you do, and I know that you’re clearly following your passion and your heart. But if you could do; if being a paleo blogger/author/professional in Vanessa’s world.

Everybody: {laughing}

Juli Bauer : A professional excel spreadsheeter?

Cassy Joy: What would you do? What job, if you could have any job in the entire world, what would it be?

Vanessa Barajas: You know what’s funny is I actually talk about this in my book. Is that weird that I have fantasies about this? And actually, I have a super cool day job. You guys know that I work for Go Pro, so I love my day job. And the blogging and the cookbook writing, that’s kind of my second job. But I talk about this in the book, and it’s kind of funny; I would be a professional chocolate taster. I would be a sommelier, but instead for wine. I mean, I’d do the wine thing too. But I would be a chocolate taster. I would live in the south of France; this is my fantasy so just go with it.

Cassy Joy: Ok.

Vanessa Barajas: And I would basically travel to far regions of the world to taste chocolate, and I would be able to tell you the difference between Swiss chocolate and south American chocolate and German chocolate. And everybody would send me to chocolate tastings and pairings, and I’d be able to tell you if the beans were harvested too early or if they were harvested in rain in a rainstorm in August in south America. I would just be able to shoot off all this really cool chocolate knowledge. Yeah, I’ve thought about this extensively.

Juli Bauer : Chocolate knowledge bomb.

Vanessa Barajas: Chocolate knowledge bomb.

Cassy Joy: Chocolate knowledge bombs.

Vanessa Barajas: Exactly.

Cassy Joy: Oh my gosh, that sounds like a match made in heaven. I have a question; would you taste test dark chocolate or only milk chocolate?

Vanessa Barajas: So this is actually really funny, because I don’t know if you know this or not, but Hayley of primal palate is not, she hates dark chocolate, and I think it’s the funniest thing in the world. So we’ll text each other joke pictures of milk chocolate, because we both thing milk chocolate is so delicious, and we hate that it’s so frowned upon in the paleo world, because it’s awesome. I don’t detest dark chocolate as much as she does; if I could choose, I would choose milk chocolate, or just a lower, everyone’s all hardcore with the 85% and over, and I’m just kind of like, it’s a little chalky for me.

Juli Bauer : Or 100.

Cassy Joy: {laughs}

Vanessa Barajas: Yeah, they’re like, oh my god this 100% cacao bar, it’s so good.

Juli Bauer : {laughs}

Cassy Joy: So charcoaly.

Vanessa Barajas: Yeah, like it’s chalk. You’re eating dirt chalk.

Cassy Joy: {laughing}

Vanessa Barajas: So I definitely would, I try to, if I’m doing dark chocolate, because it’s like, I’m not chocolate prejudice here, I’m pro all chocolates.

Cassy Joy: {laughing}

Vanessa Barajas: So, I would absolutely eat dark chocolate. I think my happy range for dark chocolate is about 72%. I use all throughout my book, Guittard makes this dark chocolate that’s amazing in chocolate chip form, and that’s at 63%, and I feel like it’s absolutely perfect. I actually prefer that over the semi-sweet, which is probably about 40-something percent. But it’s incredible. I just love chocolate, so. Long story short, yes I would eat it.

Everybody: {laughing}

Cassy Joy: You have a lot of knowledge on it. And I think the quotable, tweetable tweet whatever from today’s show is definitely going to be, I’m not chocolate prejudice, I’m pro all chocolates.

Everybody: {laughing}

Vanessa Barajas: I’m not chocolate prejudice, ok guys?

Cassy Joy: Yeah, ok. Let’s get that straight. Oh my gosh. Juli, what job would you pick in the whole wide world?

Juli Bauer : Ok, so I really, I just love my job right now so I can’t complain about it at all.

Cassy Joy: Yeah.

Juli Bauer : But it would be really cool to maybe be Mindy Kaling.

Everybody: {laughing}

Vanessa Barajas: To be Ryan Seacrest; like, whatever.

Juli Bauer : {laughs} I don’t care about meeting anybody famous, but if I could meet one person, it would be Mindy Kaling because she is pretty much just the coolest chick every based on herself. But, ok, so hear me out here. It would be so fun to be a writer, because I absolutely love writing. It would be so fun to be a comedian, because I try to make jokes and 1% of people think they’re funny. And, it would be so fun to be on a TV show where you get to dress up all the freaking time. So that is why I want to be Mindy Kaling.

Cassy Joy: I think that’s a solid choice.

Juli Bauer : Thank you! Thank you so much.

Vanessa Barajas: I agree. And I really like how you ended that; that’s why I want to be Mind Kaling. Like you’re giving a class a report on your dream job.

Cassy Joy: {laughs} It was very pageant-esque. Yeah.

Juli Bauer : Thank you! I’ve been training for that. {laughs}

Cassy Joy: I’m actually in the middle of her book.

Vanessa Barajas: Well she’s so great, like in the office.

Juli Bauer : Her new book, or her last book?

Cassy Joy: Her last book, Is Everybody Hanging Out Without Me? I can’t believe that I did not read it before now.

Juli Bauer : It’s so good.

Cassy Joy: it is so good. I get in the car. Ok, so I listen to it; disclaimer. {laughs} I don’t actually read books {laughing}.

Juli Bauer : {laughs}

Cassy Joy: I listen to books, and she narrates it, and I just feel like I’m her BFF now.

Juli Bauer : Right? Don’t you want to be her? There you go.

Cassy Joy: So funny. I do.

Juli Bauer : That is what you want to be when you grow up.

Cassy Joy: That’s it. That’s awesome. Great answers.

Juli Bauer : I have her new book, and it’s by far the best.

Cassy Joy: Oh my gosh. When does her new one; or is it out? The new one is out?

Juli Bauer : I think it’s out.

Cassy Joy: Ok.

Juli Bauer : I don’t know; that reminds me, I need to get books for book tour when I’m not on book tour with Vanessa. Because what the hell am I going to do? Who am I going to talk to? My books. My books, that’s who I’m going to talk to.

Cassy Joy: {laughs}

Vanessa Barajas: {laughing} You can talk to Mindy, in your head. Just pretend like she’s there.

Juli Bauer : Yeah. Hey Mins!

Cassy Joy: I feel like Mindy would hang out with you on your book tour, Juli.

Vanessa Barajas: Oh my god, she totally would. You should hit her up.

Juli Bauer : I wonder if she’d let me borrow her makeup artist and stylist too?

Cassy Joy: Oh my gosh.

Vanessa Barajas: That’s like a simple request.

Cassy Joy: Yeah, that’s a totally reasonable request. That could be your in. {laughs} Oh my goodness, that’s so fun. Well, ladies, thank you so much for coming on the show. It has been a lot of fun.

Juli Bauer : You’re the best.

Vanessa Barajas: Yeah, thanks for having us. We’re so excited to be here, and thank you.

Everybody: {laughing}

Vanessa Barajas: I was trying to wrap this up; I’m like how do you be professional and wrap this up? That was it. I failed horribly, I don’t know.

Juli Bauer : Terrible. Just say, ok bye!

Cassy Joy: {laughing}

Vanessa Barajas: Yeah. Oh, should I say Mm, bye?

Juli Bauer : Mm, bye. {laughing}

Vanessa Barajas: Speaking of, ok you guys this is actually really funny. When we were all in Austin staying at the blogger house together for PaleoFx, we were playing this game, which is literally the best game. If you guys don’t have it, you have to go get it.

Juli Bauer : No, it’s the worst game of all time.

Vanessa Barajas: It’s called Smartass.

Cassy Joy: It’s the worst!

Vanessa Barajas: it’s the best! And it’s basically just a trivia game. You kind of read cards and then the questions are, it will be who, what, where am I, and you kind of have to guess what the clues are telling you. Juli was zero for zero; she was still on the little start square and all of us were kind of advancing, and one of the hardest questions of the entire game. So we’re playing with like two doctors; you know, we’ve got all these super smart people in the room, and we’re totally stumped for this question, and the answer to the question was Mumbai. And Juli just busts out; she’s like, oh, Mumbai. Like, we’re all the idiots in the room that can’t get this question. And then, Austin was like, are you going to bed? Did you just say Mm-bye?

Everybody: {laughing}

Vanessa Barajas: So that’s probably one of my favorite memories from PaleoFx. So that’s actually, long story short, that’s how I should have signed off today, I should have said Mumbai, and then you guys would have known.

Cassy Joy: {laughs}

Juli Bauer : {laughs}

Cassy Joy: Oh my goodness.

Juli Bauer : I nailed that question! It was the one question I got. And then everybody finished the game and I was like at 1 square ahead. That sucked; I hated that night.

Cassy Joy: That was like a mike drop moment. You were like {laughing}

Juli Bauer : I’m going to bed.

Vanessa Barajas: It was so good. I would pay somebody $100 if I could have that on video recorded somewhere.

Cassy Joy: {laughing}

Juli Bauer : {laughs}

Vanessa Barajas: So good.

Cassy Joy: I really do feel like I need to buy that game so I can study and feel smarter.

Vanessa Barajas: Seriously. It makes you feel so dumb. Except for you guys, who are smart.

Cassy Joy: {laughing}

Vanessa Barajas: Well it’s like, I don’t ever get it until the last couple of questions, too. And I actually was just at a dinner party the other night. And I bought it on Amazon because they’re always out of it at Target. So I bought it on Amazon, and I took it over there, and everybody got the biggest kick out of it. It’s just such a fun game.

Cassy Joy: It is.

Juli Bauer : Yeah, sure.

Vanessa Barajas: Juli’s like, this game sucks. Can we stop talking about it.

Juli Bauer : It was the worst.

Vanessa Barajas: Is this podcast over yet?

Cassy Joy: {laughs} I’m going to bring it, wherever y’all are on your book tour near me, I’m going to bring it. I’ll be like, look guys!

Vanessa Barajas: Yes.

Juli Bauer : God I can’t wait; let’s go on book tour now.

Vanessa Barajas: I can’t wait either. It’s going to be so fun. I’m so excited!

Juli Bauer : So excited.

Cassy Joy: I can’t wait to hold both of your books and take pictures and cook out of them.

Juli Bauer : Hopefully you get mine today, you guys. You might be getting it today. Bill and Hayley got it.

Cassy Joy: Did they? I’m going to check the mailbox on the way home.

Juli Bauer : Yeah, you might be getting it.

Vanessa Barajas: Every day when I get home, I’ve been running to the mailbox. I almost locked myself out of the house the other day trying to get to the mailbox to see if it was there. I’m like, is it here? I want it now! And it wasn’t there, so. I literally cannot; I’m going to probably cry. I’m going to get emotional; I can feel it.

Juli Bauer : I can’t wait to get yours. It’s just such a great month!

Cassy Joy: It is.

Vanessa Barajas: Mine’s coming out next month.

Cassy Joy: Oh my gosh, well I can’t wait to follow you girls and all of the fun things that are going to come with the book releases, and all the signings. I know that listeners are everywhere in the country, and these girls have a pretty massive book tour scheduled, so look them up online, PaleOMG.com, CleanEatingWithADirtyMind.com, and then both of their social media accounts. Juli is @PaleOMG. And Vanessa, are you @CleanEatingWithADirtyMind?

Vanessa Barajas: I’m @VanessaBarajas for Instagram.

Cassy Joy: {laughing} I am really getting all these right.

Vanessa Barajas: Yeah.

Juli Bauer : But it will pop up if you search clean eating with a dirty mind.

Cassy Joy: That’s true.

Vanessa Barajas: yeah, that’s true. Good call, there you go. See, JB.

Juli Bauer : See how you do; I’ve got social media. You guys have trivia.

Everybody: {laughing}

Cassy Joy: Oh my goodness.

Vanessa Barajas: I actually have spreadsheets, because I’m not even that good at trivia, so I’ll just take the spreadsheets. That’s fine.

Cassy Joy: {laughs}

Juli Bauer : If anybody on your show is following us on social media, tell us where to go eat in the cities that we’re at.

Vanessa Barajas: Yeah.

Juli Bauer : Like if we’re in Chicago; whatever else. Tell us, and then we can go try those places out, because we want recommendations.

Vanessa Barajas: Yeah, we want like the best places to eat.

Juli Bauer : The good ones.

Vanessa Barajas: We’re such foodies, so tell us all your favorite places and we’re going to check them out. Exactly; that’s kind of the whole reason we wrote this book and are going on tour, is just so we can go eat around the country.

Cassy Joy: {laughs}

Juli Bauer : Exactly. I’m eating chocolate chips now guys, because I was thinking about cupcakes, now I’m eating chocolate chips.

Cassy Joy: {laughing} I’m going to go, I’m actually going to go make toffee to experiment for wedding presents after this is probably what I’m going to do. So I can sit on the couch and eat more frozen toffee. Oh my goodness. This was so much fun! I cannot wait to see you guys. I’m going to come when you’re in Texas, come find you girls while you’re on your tour. Thank you so much for coming on today. Y’all, please do reach out to them on social media. Listeners here have got the hookups and they know all the great restaurants, they’ve given me great tips so I think they’ll have some goodies for you. So definitely find Juli and Vanessa on their book tour, stop by and say hi. They’re just as fun in person as they are on a Skype call podcast thing.

Everybody: {laughing}

Juli Bauer : Whatever this is.

Vanessa Barajas: We’re so technical. It’s like, just so much technology.

Cassy Joy: Oh my goodness. Well thank you ladies so much for coming on. I’ll be sure to link up to everything in the show notes, so if you’re listening and you want to know how you can find both of their books, how you can preorder, get everything if they’re already out or find their websites, I’ll link to all of that! So thank you ladies.

Vanessa Barajas: You are the best!

Juli Bauer : Thanks Cassy!

Vanessa Barajas: I just love you Cassy!

Cassy Joy: Oh, I just love you. This could be one of those moments; no you hang up. {laughs}

Vanessa Barajas: No you hang up!

Juli Bauer : No you hang up!

Vanessa Barajas: No you hang up!

Cassy Joy: OK. Bye everybody! Or, mm-bye!

Vanessa Barajas: Mm-bye!

Juli Bauer : Mm-bye!

Cassy Joy: {laughing}



About the Author

Cassy Joy Garcia, NC

Cassy Joy Garcia, a New York Times best-selling author, of Cook Once Dinner Fix, Cook Once Eat All Week, and Fed and Fit as well as the creative force behind the popular food blog Fed & Fit.


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