SPEAKER_01 0:00

Thought it'd be a great opportunity to share how, because of not fearing specific foods and diet culture, uh each season has their has their best foods of choice. Now, that's how this conversation was started. But then immediately Lara proceeds to go, yeah, because eating the same food all the time is just so boring.

SPEAKER_00 0:24

No, that's not what I meant.

SPEAKER_01 0:25

Immediately I felt personally attacked because I do eat the same thing.

SPEAKER_00 0:30

I never said boring. That wasn't my point. Uh what I was getting at was that if you eat the exact same thing every single day, all times of the year, you're missing out on a variety of food that can help with different micronutrients and your gut microbiome and just that variety that's really.

SPEAKER_01 0:46

I still felt personally attacked.

SPEAKER_00 0:47

Yeah, you did.

SPEAKER_01 0:48

Because I don't eat the same thing all the time. I I don't know if it actually got picked up. I kind of do.

SPEAKER_00 0:54

Um so I think that there is something great about eating seasonally and understanding what fruits, vegetables, produce are available in different seasons where you live. Now we live in Michigan, so this is going to be different for us compared to somebody living in, say, California, but I still think the seasonality is fun to add to your routine.

SPEAKER_01 1:20

Absolutely, because uh as we go through the top five foods that we're looking forward to in the fall, I would like to start this off by saying our garden. And when I say our garden, I mean your garden, I don't do anything.

SPEAKER_00 1:34

You've been in it like twice.

SPEAKER_01 1:36

I I I've picked some tomatoes and a couple cucumbers and some arugula.

SPEAKER_00 1:43

Did you pick arugula?

SPEAKER_01 1:44

I helped cut some arugula.

SPEAKER_00 1:45

Oh, I think I cut it and gave it to you.

SPEAKER_01 1:47

I still was in the process of helping.

SPEAKER_00 1:49

You did.

SPEAKER_01 1:50

Uh I think that's the Did you pick a zucchini? Yes, I did pick a zucchini. Um, and right now our garden is completely before you say it, this is one of my top five.

SPEAKER_00 2:04

So can we can we hold on? Yes, we can hold on. Okay. Stay tuned. This is very exciting. There's something growing, exploding in our garden right now.

SPEAKER_01 2:13

It's fascinating. Yep. And it wasn't a squirrel. I don't know why I just said that.

SPEAKER_00 2:18

What exploding squirrels? Is that a thing?

SPEAKER_01 2:20

That's where I was going with it.

SPEAKER_00 2:22

All right. Um, so David, top five fall food list. What is your number five?

SPEAKER_01 2:29

My number five is probably uh what the one of the things that gets me the most. It's not even a this is the angle to me when it comes to the list. Since I don't eat by that kind of usually seasonality, one of it's it's not my top five, I'd actually argue it's my one, but I want to hit it quick because it's super important to me is I friggin' love chili.

SPEAKER_00 2:54

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:55

And I eat chili throughout the year. Like having a hearty lean protein, like a lean beef with a bunch of like beans and legumes into a pot, the macros it hits is always really good with a lot of great fiber and a lot of great protein. So I eat chilies quite a bit. Now I choose leaner sources of beef.

SPEAKER_00 3:21

Not doing brisket and work butt and stuff.

SPEAKER_01 3:23

I'm not doing the fattier sources uh necessarily, but I friggin' love chili.

SPEAKER_00 3:28

Well, I mean, I'm going to now adjust because my number four was chili. Okay. So I will join you in this topic because I think chili is amazing. And I do agree with you. You can eat it all year, except I do not eat soup in the summer because it just makes you so hot. And I just don't like soup in the summer. And I mean, you don't have to do it.

SPEAKER_01 3:47

Yeah, I wouldn't say I don't do it in the summer.

SPEAKER_00 3:49

But I agree that the f it's it's the it's a great full meal in a bowl of chili, and it can be incredibly healthy. You can make it more indulgency. You can add cheese and sour cream if you want. You can leave it as is.

SPEAKER_01 4:03

It's so good.

SPEAKER_00 4:04

You can dip some bread into it. Great for a group of people. Some bread from the bakery. It's amazing. And I agree, there's uh the bean, if you had beans, such a great addition for fiber and awesome great carbs and more protein.

SPEAKER_01 4:24

All right, so chili, we both have the same list.

SPEAKER_00 4:26

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 4:27

What do you got for your number four or just your next one?

SPEAKER_00 4:30

Number four is pumpkin baked goods.

SPEAKER_01 4:35

You friggin' love pumpkin. And I do too.

SPEAKER_00 4:38

Okay, so one of our I think it might have been the first time we ever baked together when we were dating.

SPEAKER_01 4:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:44

Do you remember us making pumpkin bars?

SPEAKER_01 4:46

Yes, we made them from I think my mother.

SPEAKER_00 4:50

No, we made we didn't make them for your mother. She did eat them. Yes. Boy, we made them because you were doing like a a thing on Instagram, TikTok, TikTok, whatever, about how you were going to eat and indulge in every treat every night and still lose weight or something.

SPEAKER_01 5:06

Yep, yep, yep.

SPEAKER_00 5:07

And so that was one of the things we made.

SPEAKER_01 5:09

Pumpkin bars. I love, I love anything bars.

SPEAKER_00 5:12

And pumpkin bars are just so like they're so gooey and I don't know. And the the it is like a fall thing, even though you can buy pumpkin in a can all year round, because nobody, I mean, unless you're in the 1%, is making pumpkin puree from a pumpkin in their garden. I mean, a few people I'm sure do that, but most people are just buying a can of pumpkin, which you can get year round. And I think every year, why can't why can't I make pumpkin bars in June and you just don't do it?

SPEAKER_01 5:38

So good.

SPEAKER_00 5:39

You always wait till the fall.

SPEAKER_01 5:40

I could see that.

SPEAKER_00 5:40

So pumpkin bars, pumpkin muffins. I love pumpkin scones.

SPEAKER_01 5:43

All right, pumpkin everything is friggin' delicious. Exactly. But then I will admit, when when we make those things and I see how much sugar gets put in it, it's terrifying.

SPEAKER_00 5:54

You even didn't know what how much sugar that was required in baked goods and topics.

SPEAKER_01 5:59

Oh my gosh. When I started baking for the first time with you, I when you said 140 grams of of sugar, I just started pouring it like, uh, ha ha ha, I don't like this, I don't like this.

SPEAKER_00 6:11

See, this is why I think it is great to make your own food because you see what goes into things and why they taste the way that they do. And that doesn't make it bad, but it does make you aware.

SPEAKER_01 6:20

100%.

SPEAKER_00 6:21

Awesome.

SPEAKER_01 6:21

What's I would say for mine next, and this is always crazy to me because the low-carb carnivore community just they're so rigid that they lose their minds over this, which is apples. Like I friggin' love, now I eat I eat apples throughout the year, that's for sure. Uh-huh. Um, but like honeycrisp apples and stuff in the fall from Michigan are so flipping good. And actually, on the golf course uh last week. Last week. Yeah, we were on the golf course, and one of the courses we play at is right on an apple orchard. And Lara walked over and she was hungry, picked up an apple right off the ground, and we ate it, and it was delicious.

SPEAKER_00 7:04

It was. I mean, apples taste so great that way, even though it's not wasn't my favorite variety of apple. It's like just doing it in that experience.

SPEAKER_01 7:11

That was a Macintosh, probably.

SPEAKER_00 7:12

Yeah, it was something a little softer, but uh it was still fun. And I think some of those softer apples have great apple flavor, even if their texture is not what I would prefer. But um, apples is also on my list, by the way.

SPEAKER_01 7:24

I have a feeling this is gonna be very funny.

SPEAKER_00 7:26

I mean, there's only so many things you can pick up. But I think um apples are so fun because you're right, you can get them year-round and they're fine. Like you can get good apples. I argue you cannot get good apples in Michigan in the early summer because it's too far from apple season and they're just not good anymore. Their storage, the storage is just not great, or they're coming from Chile or something. But fresh apples from the farmer's market this time of year, there's nothing that compares to that. The flavor, the crispness, the it's just like it's so good.

unknown 7:58

So good.

SPEAKER_01 7:59

I'll be honest, I have never been a big farmer's market person, but then now we go to the farmer's market uh on Fulton, uh-huh, and it is literally every time we walk to the farmer's market, Lara's like a kid in a candy store, just running around seeing Visser farms. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:17

I get to meet all my friends, the farmers. So Jan and I went to the farmer's market together a few weeks back, and we used to go to the farmer's market together every week. And then Jan obviously moved, she got married and moved, and so she doesn't come as much. And we walked up to one of the farm stands, and the guy says, Oh, we've missed you two. We haven't seen you around together the like in a while. And I just love that, that they recognize us enough to realize that we weren't there. I thought that was pretty cool.

SPEAKER_01 8:45

Yeah, I I I respect like the the whole the desire to be local, local sourced and stuff and the the di the relationship building and stuff. It's it's a fun, fun idea.

SPEAKER_00 8:55

Talking to the people that literally picked grew took care of your food, and they worked really hard for it. And I love being able to pay them directly for what they did.

SPEAKER_01 9:03

I like it. What's on your list?

SPEAKER_00 9:05

Um, so I'm a number well, so that's three. Yep. You've done three as well? Yep. Okay. So my uh I guess number four then is roasted root vegetables, which I can tell is not in your list based on that.

SPEAKER_01 9:19

So not true. Oh. I just don't put it by itself because my number one.

SPEAKER_00 9:25

Wait, wait, don't give away.

SPEAKER_01 9:26

Oh, okay. Okay, I I because it's it's it's a it's a meal.

SPEAKER_00 9:30

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_01 9:31

It involves that.

SPEAKER_00 9:32

This is not a meal. So I really do love roast. And and I and I shouldn't just say root vegetables because some of the things I like to roast are not truly root vegetables. But um, you know, like I'm talking butternut squash and different uh like uh beets and parsnips and carrots, like that type of roasted vegetable, you don't really do any other time of year. At least I don't. Maybe some people do. And I've made this, so Jan and I made a roasted root vegetable for Thanksgiving one year, and I don't think anyone touched it because no one, well, people in my family aren't always the most adventurous, and no one knew what a parsnip parsnip was, and so darkness touched it. My mom hates beets, so beets are quite. I don't know that there's beets in this mix, but um is this was like roasted, knife and caramelized, had a bunch of maple syrup on it. I mean, it was so good. So good. So I love a good root vegetable roast.

SPEAKER_01 10:30

Okay. Now I will say one that's not on the list that probably everyone will lose their minds over.

SPEAKER_00 10:35

What?

SPEAKER_01 10:36

Uh okay, okay. Like okay, I need to preface this because what like I'm not saying I don't like this. It's not something I go out of my way for, which is uh apple cider like shops with with donuts.

SPEAKER_00 10:54

You don't like that? Or you don't care for it?

SPEAKER_01 10:56

I just don't care for it. I don't know. There's something about drinking apple cider in particular. I don't find it that appealing.

SPEAKER_00 11:03

I do agree. Okay, so I love apples. Apple cider is like if someone gives it to me, I'll drink a few sips. But I agree with you. It's not my favorite thing.

SPEAKER_01 11:13

It's not, it's not the donut side gets me more. I love apple cider than like but the like people that are so obsessed with like warm apple cider, I uh it doesn't really get for someone who loves sweets and loves like I know it's like pure sugar. Yeah, I think it's pure sugar and it tastes like apples.

SPEAKER_00 11:28

And so you're like, why don't I like this as much?

SPEAKER_01 11:30

It's again, it's fine. It's not something I like, yes, I got like when you make the pumpkin bars, like I will go out of my way to have a pumpkin bar. If someone says, Oh yeah, here's app here's warm fresh apple cider.

SPEAKER_00 11:44

Yeah. No, I I mean I am totally in agreement with you on that. I know people that love it and it's it's fine.

SPEAKER_01 11:50

I get it.

SPEAKER_00 11:51

It's it's a nice ball thing, but I'm not gonna go out of my way either. All right. So we've each done four. Have you done four?

SPEAKER_01 11:58

Mine was three and a half because I said one I didn't really care for.

SPEAKER_00 12:02

Okay, what's your number four then?

SPEAKER_01 12:03

Um, I would say a big one like when you get into number four. I mean, anything pie, like rolls, pie, just the the all that stuff starts to really jump.

SPEAKER_00 12:14

It doesn't seem like baked goods are just like the right thing.

SPEAKER_01 12:16

Yeah. It's bear season, bulking season. It's bulking season. And there's nothing that says bulking like cobbler.

SPEAKER_00 12:24

Um okay, so would you pick a cobbler over a pie?

SPEAKER_01 12:28

I actually like cobblers over pies.

SPEAKER_00 12:30

Okay. Um, what about a crisp?

SPEAKER_01 12:33

Define crisp versus cobbler.

SPEAKER_00 12:35

So cobbler, so they both have fruit on the bottom, and then a cobbler, you're putting more of like a biscuit dough on top. Yeah. Whereas a crisp, you're putting like a crumbled OD mixture.

SPEAKER_01 12:45

I would say crisp then. Like a crisp cobbler pie.

SPEAKER_00 12:49

Okay. What's your favorite pie? For cobbler or crisp?

SPEAKER_01 12:53

Peach cobbler and some vanilla ice cream is hard to touch.

SPEAKER_00 12:58

It's pretty good.

SPEAKER_01 12:59

Apple cobbler's good too.

SPEAKER_00 13:00

I'd pick peach over.

SPEAKER_01 13:01

I'd show peach. Peach cobbler's some.

SPEAKER_00 13:06

So um this fits really well because David and I started watching the movie last night, Gone with the Wind.

SPEAKER_01 13:12

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 13:12

Classic. So David's never seen this. This is one of these rare moments where I have seen this movie and David has not.

SPEAKER_01 13:19

It's a three-hour movie.

SPEAKER_00 13:20

It's over three hours.

SPEAKER_01 13:21

It's wild.

SPEAKER_00 13:22

But um, so this brought up the topic of my mom used to do civil war reenacting. And I have done civil war reenacting because of my mom. And there was always the person that we um that we did the reenacting with, she loved to do the baking and the cooking side of things. Peach pie was her thing. So she would make peach pie in a Dutch oven on over an open fire. Like you'd be like, How do you even do that, right? You know how okay, baking a pie in an oven is hard enough. Making it in a pot over an open fire.

SPEAKER_01 13:56

Like Well, yeah, I could easily undercook it, overcook it.

SPEAKER_00 13:59

Yeah, like how do you adjust the temperature? How do you get the temperature right on both sides? This is a double-layered crust with peach. It was amazing.

SPEAKER_01 14:07

Aww.

SPEAKER_00 14:08

Amazing. So that's my pie story.

SPEAKER_01 14:10

I like it. You and then finally for your Okay, so number one, the last one. Last one.

SPEAKER_00 14:15

All right, so this one is what I didn't want you to give away at the beginning. So um, I do a garden every year. It's not like something that I am like living out of, but it's a fun hobby. And my sister gave me plants this year because I just didn't have time to go get my own and she had extra. So she gave me a bunch of plants, one of them being a butternut squash plant, which I have never I've never grown a butternut squash. So we just had one butternut squash plant, and that thing has taken over the entire garden.

SPEAKER_01 14:46

Entire garden. It's in it's actually in the lawn.

SPEAKER_00 14:48

Yeah, it's creeped out of the garden.

SPEAKER_01 14:50

It somehow made through the fence and is now making full-on uh butternut squashes in the middle of the grass.

SPEAKER_00 14:57

And I had to like pull one of the butternut squashes like out of the fence because it was like growing in the fence. But it's like it's beautiful. This plant is just like vining everywhere. And we have butternut squash galore sitting in that garden.

SPEAKER_01 15:12

That was actually back in the day, I used to flip and love butternut squash soup from Panera bread.

SPEAKER_00 15:18

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:19

That was a that was a staple. Haven't done it in a long time, but that was a staple.

SPEAKER_00 15:23

Like a butternut squash bisque, a soup, like I enjoy, but I truly, I'm not like I don't love soup. I'm just gonna say that. I mean, I like soup, fine, but like I will never pick soup over something else. I like just roasted butternut squash. You can mix it with things, put it on a salad with goat cheese and some candied walnuts or something like that. Like that, I just I'm very excited for this phase of the year first.

SPEAKER_01 15:46

This is the phase of the year.

SPEAKER_00 15:47

Yeah, and we're gonna we just have it, it's all sitting there. I mean, I didn't even buy this plant. This is all free. It's all free butternutes. We should count how many we're getting out, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:54

We're gonna have to count it because it's a lot.

SPEAKER_00 15:56

And it great is great too because it made my weeding um uh my weeding the garden, I didn't have to do very much because this plant just overtook everything and there's hardly any weeds. It was great. It's a great strategy. Weed control.

SPEAKER_01 16:10

And I would say for me, my final goes off of what you said earlier, but it in four it's a piece of it. It's more on the indulgence side, depending on what what cut of meat you're having, pot roast.

SPEAKER_00 16:23

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:24

See, and like usually people with doing pot roasts, they put a lot of um root vegetables in the roast.

SPEAKER_00 16:33

Continue. Like carrots and so my mom never put vegetables in her pot roast.

SPEAKER_01 16:38

See, we our family always did.

SPEAKER_00 16:39

Yeah, we were always a vegetable-free.

SPEAKER_01 16:43

That surprises me.

SPEAKER_00 16:44

Actually, my mom doesn't love vegetables.

SPEAKER_01 16:47

Yeah, I was about to say, you between you and your sister who love vegetables, that surprises me.

SPEAKER_00 16:51

But the I did not learn that from my parents.

SPEAKER_01 16:54

Gotcha, gotcha. Well yeah, I love pot roast. That was like I love my mom to death. She's she'll fully admit it, she's not the most uh diverse uh high-end from scratch chef. But what she did have was a mean pot roast.

SPEAKER_00 17:12

What was it? She like put like a can of pop in it or something. Wasn't there some weird ingredient in her pot roast?

SPEAKER_01 17:18

I don't think so. Or maybe she was talking about doing that. Well, she's done a couple of different pot roasts. She's she's she's her safe one was getting whatever that meat of pot roast is, the chuck or whatever.

SPEAKER_00 17:28

Uh chuck roast.

SPEAKER_01 17:29

Um, and then it was celery, carrots, um, green peppers. Um I'm sure there's some stock in it. And then one or two other things.

SPEAKER_00 17:41

That was like Did she put like peppers on it? Did you say that?

SPEAKER_01 17:44

Yeah. And then she made another one more recently with that a newer one. Yeah. And she did it in the she did it in a crock pot instead of a Dutch oven. Dutch oven.

SPEAKER_00 17:54

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_01 17:55

And that one had some type of pepper, which blows my mind because mom does not deal with anything.

SPEAKER_00 18:01

I actually liked the peppers in there. I thought that would be weird. I hadn't Okay, so growing up, we had a roast every single Sunday. Every Sunday.

SPEAKER_01 18:09

That's fascinating. Yeah. I mean, it's not it's not dissimilar to ours because that was of the three main meals my mom could do very well. Pot roast is one of them. So it was on cycle all the time.

SPEAKER_00 18:19

I mean, it was just one of those like traditional Sunday after church meals that I think is a very, I don't know, Dutch West Michigan thing. Yeah. It seems to be. But um, so like I said, no vegetables in ours growing up. And I don't really, even today, I don't love vegetables in a pot roast because to me they just get cooked down too far, and all they do is taste like the meat. And so I'm like, I'd rather have vegetables on the side than in the pot roast.

SPEAKER_01 18:42

See, but then you got my brother, yeah, who, as he likes to quote and say, the only way he likes vegetables is if you uh like, for example, the the classic is how do you make broccoli good? Um cheese. You cook it till it's brown and then cover in cheese.

SPEAKER_00 18:58

Okay, but twice now he's eaten by coleslaw.

SPEAKER_01 19:03

He has.

SPEAKER_00 19:05

He has he has gone straight to that coleslaw.

SPEAKER_01 19:07

He has definitely added to his palate since he's been cooking.

SPEAKER_00 19:10

I love I'm like, oh my gosh, Rob likes this.

SPEAKER_01 19:13

It's funny because like when push comes to shove, Rob likes a diverse amount of food.

SPEAKER_00 19:17

He really does.

SPEAKER_01 19:18

Um he's not he's not a picky eater. If he had a choice, he would just eat McDonald's and blank blank blank.

SPEAKER_00 19:26

But he's not against any Logan's or not Logan's, Texas Roadhouse.

SPEAKER_01 19:30

Texas Roadhouse. Texas Roadhouse.

SPEAKER_00 19:32

Ujiyama.

SPEAKER_01 19:33

14 ounce New York strip with double. Actually, for someone uh in Rob's situation, him having a uh 14-ounce steak with double Caesar salad is actually not the worst decision in the world.

SPEAKER_00 19:47

Depending on how much dressing is on that Caesar salad.

SPEAKER_01 19:49

That's true. The Caesar salad dressing jumps in. And then again, the the fattiness of the steak. Yeah. But compared to a big old pasta dish for a type 2 diabetic.

SPEAKER_00 19:58

Well, I mean, if we're talking diabetes, that's a whole different story. But yes. Well fun. Uh anything else you have to add about fall food.

SPEAKER_01 20:08

Um I think pumpkin spice lattes are massively over dramat like over-dramatized everyone's I'm surprised that hasn't come up. Someone in the someone in the office today just had a pumpkin spice latte.

SPEAKER_00 20:19

Someone in the office does like them.

SPEAKER_01 20:21

And then I I had to immediately go, it's sugar-free, right? And this person did not disclose if they were sugar-free or not. And uh I will leave the name unnamed.

SPEAKER_00 20:32

Good move.

SPEAKER_01 20:33

But just know if you're watching this sugar-free. Sugar free.

SPEAKER_00 20:40

All in that, I I don't mind a pumpkin spice latte. Like, I don't want to drink the sugar, so that's why I never get those things. But like if I didn't care about that such a thing, I would enjoy one.

SPEAKER_01 20:51

Can you believe there's a past when I was 400 pound David, I used to flip and drink can often caramel mocha frappuccinos and um and then it was yeah, the biggest one was caramel mocha frappuccinos from the biggest size. Yeah, the biggest size. And it's like, yeah, it's like 800 calories for these things. It's like a milk. It's these like Frappuccinos that people drink. They're glorified milk drinks.

SPEAKER_00 21:20

But I think there is something fun too. Eating seasonally, I think there's a benefit to eating seasonally. I think you don't have to fear some of the more indulgent parts to eating seasonally. I think have fun with it.

SPEAKER_01 21:31

Eat more fruits and vegetables is ultimately what it comes down to.

SPEAKER_00 21:34

And pumpkin bars.

SPEAKER_01 21:36

Occasionally. 140 grams of sugar.

SPEAKER_00 21:40

You're only eating a little piece, David.

SPEAKER_01 21:43

See, you say that. That may work for you and your sister who eat like squirrels. I don't eat like a squirrel. For the Roman household, if you don't eat the bar, it's gone by tomorrow. So you eat three.

SPEAKER_00 21:53

Do I eat like a squirrel? When I say you eat like when it comes to sweets, okay, but I eat plenty good otherwise.

SPEAKER_01 22:00

Oh, 100%. You you eat more, you eat more than some dudes I know. But I'm just saying when it comes to sweets, your ability to take a bite and stop is in the 0.1% of people out there. Some control. Most people, at least the rodent household. Oh, the rodent household's horrible. If we have a sweet in the house, if you don't get a piece within 24 to 36 hours, you're missing out. You're not getting anything. And so maybe I have kept that trend for my entire life.

SPEAKER_00 22:32

I just look at it as if I eat less now, I will have more later.

SPEAKER_01 22:37

Or if I don't get enough now, I'll never get any later.

SPEAKER_00 22:41

I don't I don't get it.

SPEAKER_01 22:43

That's how it works now. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 22:44

Oh, gosha. All right. Well, enjoy your fall cooking, baking, roasting.

SPEAKER_01 22:51

Tell us some of your favorite fall foods and fall recipes. And if you'd like to DM Lara or myself on your favorite fall fall recipes of foods, we're love to hear it.

SPEAKER_00 23:01

Yeah. What did we miss? That was so important to you. We want to know. Have a great day.

SPEAKER_01 23:07

We'll talk to you soon.

SPEAKER_00 23:08

Bye.