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Scot: The review of last week's recipes, Saucy Buddha Bowls, plus we're going to wrap up our easy to make "Tasty Man Meals You Can Eat All Week" series.

And to find out the favorite recipe and some kitchen takeaways, this is "Who Cares About Men's Health," providing information, inspiration, and a different interpretation about men's health.

I'm Scot Singpiel, the host, and from thescoperadio.com. And the MD to my BS, it's Dr. Troy Madsen.

Troy: Hello.

Scot: And the guy who is learning healthy isn't always just a pile of vegetables, Producer Mitch is in the mix.

Mitch: Hey there.

Scot: And both of our guests today from the Department of Nutrition and Integrative Physiology at Ï㽶ÊÓƵ of Utah's College of Health, first we've got nutritionist and spice wimp, Thunder Jalili.

Thunder: Hi, everyone.

Scot: And registered dietitian and culinary coach, Theresa D.

Theresa: Hello.

Scot: I don't have anything to say about you, because you're just the . . . you're the most solid person on this whole podcast series so far.

Theresa: I'll take it.

Troy: I was just saying, Scot, you've got to refer to Theresa as "TD."

Scot: TD?

Troy: I know that has no meaning to you as not being a sports fan, but . . .

Scot: You like TD?

Thunder: I do like TD.

Scot: All right.

Troy: TD is in the house. We've got TD here.

Theresa: I'm good with that. Whoop, TD is in the house.

Troy: TD is in the house.

Theresa: I can do it. I can hang. I've spent my time on a sideline.

Scot: Last week's recipe was Saucy Buddha Bowls. Unfortunately, Troy got super busy, wasn't able to participate. I was out for a week and didn't realize how much that was going to impact my participation, so I'm feeling pretty bad. But we did have Mitch and Thunder make those, so we're going to find out more about the Saucy Buddha Bowls.

Plus also, since this is the last episode of our "Healthy to Eat Man Meals," we're going to do some reflections. It's kind of like graduation, as Troy said last week. Going to reflect on our favorite recipes. And then also, what did we learn out of this experience? And then Theresa is going to wrap it up with where we can find more recipes, because we're not always going to have our Culinary Coach TD in the place to be on the "Who Care About Men's Health" podcast-y. So you've go out and do this on your own sometime.

Troy: And I think, Scot, since it's a graduation week, we have to pick a valedictorian. And clearly, it's not you or me, so it's going to be a tight competition between Mitch and Thunder.

Scot: I don't know. It could be you. And I like your idea, a valedictorian. We'll figure out who that is.

Troy: Valedictorian, yeah.

Scot: At the very least, you'll get most improved, I think. But we'll find out.

Troy: Yeah, I started pretty low, so the fact that I actually cooked something is . . .

Theresa: More than just adding water.

Troy: Yeah, it is. That was my lesson. I learned that you don't just have to add water, yeah.

Scot: Saucy Buddha Bowls. Thunder, let's start with you. Tell us about this. This one looked really intriguing to me, so I'm bummed I wasn't able to make it. Tell us a little bit about this from your perspective.

Thunder: Yeah, this was a kind of meal that's right in my wheelhouse in terms of what I like. The prep took a little longer than I thought, but that was because I decided to add my crispy tofu to it again. I thought that would be a good addition, so that took more time. And then the other thing I did that was a little different, and it was kind of out of convenience, is I served it with rice instead of the quinoa. I did it that way because my parents were coming over, and they're super old school. I think if I would've given them quinoa, they just would've rebelled.

Scot: What would a parental rebellion look like exactly?

Troy: Probably like my dad's response to the salad we made last week. Not maybe flat-out just refusing, but just kind of like, "Eh."

Thunder: My logic was that my parent's really like white rice, but sometimes if there's a lot of crazy vegetable combinations, they get a little nervous. So I was thinking if I have the white rice, that's their zone of comfort, and they'll take whatever I put on top of it.

Theresa: Just like you do with a toddler, right?

Thunder: Yeah. Same thing.

Theresa: Food introduction. Food pairing. Something familiar with something new.

Thunder: Yeah. It's full circle. It turned out great. I thought it was delicious. My wife loved it. My sister loved it. My dad said it was pretty good, and my mom said she's really not that hungry.

Troy: Well, at least they were polite about it.

Thunder: Yeah, at least they were polite about it.

Scot: What sauce did you go with?

Thunder: I went with the spicy sauce. I can't remember the name off the top of my head, but . . .

Theresa: The tahini one, or the other one?

Thunder: No, the spicier one. I actually didn't have any serious hot sauce in the house, no surprise there given my background of aversion to spice. So what I did is I actually put some of the red chili paste from the Thai recipe we did in Week 1. I put some of that in it and mixed it up, and it actually turned out amazing. And I think that was the high point of the meal. I feel like I can put that sauce on anything and make it Asian.

Theresa: Awesome.

Scot: Cool.

Theresa: Well, that's how I feel about this particular sauce recipe as well, is that it really could go on anything. Maybe you should've just served Mom sauce and rice.

Thunder: Yeah, that would've been a good one. That's an accepted move to have sauce and rice. But it was good. Everybody did like the sauce, even if they weren't wild about all the veggie combinations. I think it was a win.

Troy: Did anyone get seconds?

Thunder: Besides me, my sister got seconds. Bless her. Well, my little nephew had a good quote. He's 11. He said, "I liked everything in it." I said, "Really? Well, what didn't you like?" He said, "Well, I liked the rice and the egg. I didn't like anything else." He was trying to be nice.

Scot: Well, we'll find out if this made Thunder's top meal or not coming up. Let's go to Mitch. How did the Saucy Buddha Bowls work for you?

Mitch: Well, I'm going to start . . . let's talk about the sauces for two seconds. I made both. Fantastic. Especially the fact that there is so much spice and flavor to them, it really made the dish really tasty, right? So it wasn't just roasted vegetables. Just a little bit of that sauce could go a really long way, and that was really kind of cool. I mixed them up a little bit, and that was kind of fun.

So the thing that I tried this week was . . . Thunder last week had mentioned, "Hey, you could make it easier if you just got frozen veg." And I live in a household where someone told me, "That's cheating." And I was like, "Excuse me. Whatever makes this work better, right?" So sure enough, I grabbed a frozen cauliflower, frozen sweet potatoes, some pre-prepared zucchini. They had them all sliced up already in the grocery store, and it wasn't that much more expensive, if at all. I didn't do the full pricing out of everything.

But to be able to just come home and maybe cut an onion and throw everything together and be able to get this done in the 10 minutes it took for the couscous to cook, and the 20 minutes it took to roast everything, that was worth it to me. That is something that I will never forget.

Sometimes, eating healthy seems to take a lot of work, a lot of chopping, a lot of whatever, when you could literally just go to the local fast-food place and someone will hand you a fully prepared meal, right? So that was my big breakthrough this week. It was delicious, absolutely loved it. Tried out the frozen stuff. And the bags were big enough, I have enough to do this again next week.

Thunder: Oh, that's excellent.

Theresa: Awesome.

Thunder: I think that's one of the wins of all this, is that at least we now know we can turn to the frozen vegetable section that makes our prep time less, and maybe that won't be the barrier anymore to not wanting to cook at home, because you eliminated a lot of that chopping and cutting and so forth.

Mitch: And I had no problem with the chopping. I'm comfortable chopping, but it was just like, "Hey, I just cut my entire prep time in half." So it was good. It was really good.

Scot: Yeah, I think anything you can do to make these recipes more simple is a great idea, whether you go for the frozen vegetables and use those instead of doing all the chopping, or get even the fresh vegetables that a lot of grocery stores carry that have already been pre-chopped for you that you can buy. That's a great idea that you had there, Mitch, to cut your prep time.

By the way, what sauce did you end up using?

Mitch: I did both of them.

Scot: Oh, over-achiever, eh?

Mitch: Then you mix them up a little, and so you get a little bit of the tahini, a little bit of the Gochujang, and it's way good.

Thunder: Is that a legal move?

Theresa: Totally. Totally okay.

Mitch: Absolutely.

Theresa: No flags on that play.

Scot: Yeah. TD says there are no flags.

Thunder: No penalty?

Troy: No flags on the play. I love it.

Scot: Nice. All right. Time for some reflections on this whole process. So we're just going to go around the room here. First of all, why don't you go ahead and tell us your favorite recipe? And then follow up with going through this process, what did you learn, how did you change, what's different, do you think you're going to continue to do this? Let's start with Troy.

Troy: Well, Scot, this was definitely a growing experience for me. I came into this, as we talked about, having had experience making pancakes, and that's been my idea of cooking. If it requires more than three or four ingredients, I'm not doing it. So it was a stretch.

In that first week, I seriously had doubts if I was going to continue, and I really wanted to make the Buddha Bowls. Things were just crazy this week, and I wasn't able to do it.

But the biggest thing . . . number one recipe for me was spaghetti squash. Absolutely loved it. It was easy to make, and I could think of many variations with that. That is definitely a keeper. And Laura, my wife, has even been asking me, "Hey, when are you going to make spaghetti squash again?"

Theresa: Yes!

Troy: You know you've succeeded when you have someone actually . . . That's why I asked Thunder if anyone went back for seconds. I knew my sister-in-law liked the salad because she got seconds. The others were kind of like, "Yeah, I liked it," and some were like, "I didn't."

The biggest lesson I learned, I think . . . well, number one, I learned how to use an oven for something other than pizza, which was a definite learning experience, and just trying to figure out where stuff is in the store. That was intimidating, but I feel like I've got a good sense of where to find things. I feel like now I can start to look at more of these recipes, and just try some out maybe not every week, maybe it's every other week, but I would like to continue to do it.

Scot: Hey, Mitch, how did it turn out for you? Favorite recipe and reflections?

Mitch: So my favorite was definitely the Buddha Bowls. In the past, my partner and I have tried eating healthier, getting in shape, etc., and it seems to always, always, always end up being chicken and peas.

Theresa: Iceberg salads?

Mitch: Yes, something along those lines. It's chicken and peas, so just a plain roasted chicken breast, maybe a boiled chicken breast sitting next to a bunch of frozen peas, or a chicken breast and a bunch of . . . We did the "if it fits your macros" for a while, and that felt really strange. Every little thing is a calculation and whatever. And that, in the past, has been my primary relationship with "healthy eating."

And so the thing that really was meaningful for this week and why I really, really liked the . . . or this whole experience and why I really, really liked the Buddha Bowls was it was meal prep that was tasty and fun, and there were carbs in it, but it was still delicious. And the recipes were things that I enjoyed eating, and things that I would try again. There were new things, and it was exciting. It wasn't just the same measured caloric intake three times a day.

And so that was the big takeaway for me, is that I feel like I have . . . I've cooked before. Troy learned so much in this thing, but for me, I have some ingredients, I have some ideas, I have some tried-and-true nutritious recipes that I can add into my arsenal that I really think is going to help me make healthy choices that I actually enjoy eating.

Scot: I want to run a comparison here, Theresa. Mitch's understanding of what was healthy versus his new understanding of what is healthy. The boiled chicken breast next to the peas versus . . .

Theresa: Oh, so plain.

Scot: Yeah, versus some of the recipe . . .

Theresa: It needed a sauce.

Mitch: Some sort of sauce, right?

Scot: I mean, are these recipes just as nutritious as what Mitch . . . I could see how somebody might think being more disciplined, boiled chicken, peas, a salad, would be more nutritious than some of these great things we had. So what is the definition of nutrition? Maybe that's where we're kind of screwed up in our heads.

Theresa: Yeah, I think unapologetic deliciousness is where we should start. It should taste good and it can still be healthy. And I do think we have a bit . . . we as in western cultures . . . have a bit of a skewed sense of what healthy is. You don't want to point fingers, but I think that the diet industry has kind of exploded this, right? If you want to try and lose weight, if you want to be healthy, this is the plan that you need to follow, and it needs to be X, Y, and Z, and nothing but. But there's so much more room for choice. It's okay.

With a few skills that I think most of us have explored this week, or this month, these four weeks, we can take something from a very plain chicken breast, which is healthy, and peas that are healthy, and make them taste good as well without adding a ton of calories, and adding a ton of salt and sugar, which we often associate with deliciousness.

And so we can have both. We can be healthy and delicious. Think about that color, and combining foods, and trying new recipes, and going out on a limb every once in a while.

Mitch: I just want to say I love that "unapologetically delicious." It seems like when we've done this in the past, my partner and I, yes we lost some weight, but I was miserable the whole time. But when you ate something delicious, you almost felt bad about it, right? You were like, "Oh, no, this thing was delicious. It must be terrible for me."

Theresa: "It must be bad for me."

Mitch: Yes. And so that idea of finding healthy foods that are unapologetically delicious is just . . . I love that idea.

Theresa: I'm very much of the practical sense that all foods can fit in an eating plan, right? It's on a spectrum. What do we eat most of the time, and what do we eat every once in a while, or in smaller portions?

We're not going to make health changes to our bodies biochemically or otherwise in one day, right? Sure, we can have blood sugar spikes and whatnot, but we're not going to affect our overall systemic inflammation, or our arthritis pain, or our cardiovascular disease and our cholesterol numbers on one day. But what are we doing for the long haul? And I think we have to find foods that taste really good, that help us to continue to eat that way for the long haul. And what's sustainable? Anyway, that's my soapbox.

Mitch: I love it.

Scot: Thunder, favorite recipe and what did you learn?

Thunder: Probably the first one actually, the Thai curry, because I'm kind of a sucker for curries and coconut milk and all that, so I liked that. And what I learned in this process? I should say of all of us who made the recipes, I'm going to take a guess I'm probably the most experienced in terms of cooking this, because I've been kind of doing it for a while just because I've been influenced by Theresa and everyone else in our department for years.

Theresa: He's worked with a dietitian or two.

Thunder: Yeah. And so I have that background. But what I was reminded of was a couple things. One, it really doesn't take as much time as you think, as long as you have a little bit of a plan in where you can save time. And that's something we've talked about before, like the frozen veggies, and the prepared garlic, and things like that. The other thing that this taught me is that I probably don't use enough sauces in what I cook.

Theresa: Yes.

Thunder: I look back on . . . and I do make a lot of things with vegetables and so forth, but in general, I find myself maybe adding some seasoning salt, or something like that. I have so much more room to incorporate interesting sauces in the stuff that I cook. Even if it's just a side of vegetables, instead of putting butter and salt, maybe add a little bit of a sauce to it, and that would be probably better.

And one last thing. This actually just occurred to me. I think this has had an indirect influence on my daughter, because she's living on her own now. She just moved in to a house, and when I would make one of these recipes, I'd text her a picture, "Hey, look what I made." She's been texting me pictures now of things that she is making at home that are kind of like these recipes, so that's been a positive thing.

Scot: That's great. You've influenced another individual. You're a good dad.

Thunder: It all comes back to Theresa, because it was her recipe.

Scot: So I did miss out one week. I really wanted to try the salad. Which one was the salad? What was that called specifically?

Theresa: The zesty lentil salad.

Scot: Yeah, I wanted to try that, because I'm not big on lentils, but I want to try to incorporate them in my diet in a way that I can sustainably do so. I was bummed about that. And these Buddha Bowls sound great, and I am going to go back and try to grab these. So I'm a little limited, but boy, I loved that red curry. I thought that red curry was great. It was easy to make. And also the granola bars. How did not any of you say granola bars? Those things were . . . I don't know.

Theresa: Unapologetically delicious?

Mitch: Yes.

Thunder: I loved those bars also. I thought they were great, but I was kind of thinking I should pick a meal and not a snack . . .

Scot: Yeah, sure.

Thunder: That's why I went with the Thai curry.

Scot: And quite frankly, portion control on those is a little difficult, right? That's the key for that, because there's sugar in them and they do taste good.

Theresa: You got it.

Scot: But you can't eat the whole thing in one sitting, which I came close to doing. But anyway . . .

What I learned was . . . so I've been in the kitchen before. Nothing very fancy. I tend to only make food for myself because my wife is a vegetarian and I am not, although I am moving more toward a plant-based diet over the past few months. But I kind of enjoyed being in the kitchen for a couple of reasons. One, it's kind of relaxing. Once you get past the point where Troy was, where it's uncomfortable, and you don't know what you're doing, and you feel lost, it's kind of like a meditation state. You just kind of focus on making the food that you make, and I'm not thinking about anything else, which gives my brain a break from my daily life.

And then the other thing was it was like a gift to make food that other people could eat. My wife was so excited every time I made one of these meals, and then we could sit down and share a meal. I can kind of understand when they talk about the power of food throughout history and sharing a meal together, especially one that you've made. Just from an emotional standpoint, that felt really good, right?

Theresa: I love that.

Scot: So that kind of goes to our domain of mental health. You're not only nourishing your body, but you're nourishing your mental health, your soul, whatever you want to say. So I really enjoyed that aspect of it.

Thunder: I always think of . . . when you share food with someone, prepare food and have it together, you're kind of giving a little bit of yourself to that person. So, for me, that always seems to make it special, if someone makes something for me or vice versa.

Scot: I think I want to hit on a theme here. I want to kind of summarize some of the other things that I've noticed everybody saying. If you've never made meals in a kitchen before, that kind of comes down in my mind to overcoming barriers.

We saw a lot of this with Troy, right? Not understanding the kitchen, not understanding the language of recipes, not being comfortable in the kitchen, not understanding where things are in the grocery store, all of these barriers can make you stop and give up. But as we learned with Troy, coming up on Week 4 here, making four recipes, he's feeling a lot more comfortable with that. And if that barrier stops you, that's not good. But I think that barrier has been lowered for Troy.

And Mitch, his perception that a healthy meal needs to take a lot of work or a lot of time, we saw that barrier changed a little bit as well.

And maybe even the barriers you hate, cleaning dishes. You give a little piece of yourself by making the food, and the deal is, "Hey, honey, how about you clean the dishes?" I mean, you can work all these things out.

Theresa: Love it.

Troy: Did you do that, Scot?

Scot: No, I didn't. I don't mind doing dishes. Again, it's a Zen thing for me. For one moment in my day, I'm just focusing on the feel of the dish, how clean it is. So I actually like it.

Mitch: I sure did.

Troy: You did? You told Patrick . . .

Mitch: I did.

Troy: That's good.

Scot: Anyway, if you've been reluctant or you've tried stuff in the kitchen before, and you feel it wasn't a success, I really encourage you to try it for a few recipes, because you will get comfortable pretty quickly. It was pretty uncanny how Troy got comfortable pretty quickly, really. That first week was terrible for him, and now by the end of this, he's feeling pretty good about it, or at least a lot more confident.

Troy: Yeah, I'm feeling better. I won't say . . . I have not reached the Zen state yet, as I heard you talking about. I am definitely not at the Zen state, but I can see what you're talking about. To truly enjoy cooking, and to do it on a regular basis, I think you really need to at least approach that and just enjoy the process, and that's been probably the biggest challenge for me. I can't say I'm at the point where I enjoy the process completely, but I have enjoyed the end result, and so it's a start.

Scot: Yep. And I know your wife has too, because she posted about it on social media.

Troy: Yeah. I think she did it more to maybe make fun of me a little bit, but . . .

Scot: No.

Troy: Her top 10 list of questions I asked, like, "How do you peel garlic?" and whatever else I was asking . . .

Scot: But that's legitimate stuff. That's navigating the kitchen, and that's . . .

Troy: Yeah, these were sincere questions. I wasn't just making stuff up. These were sincere question. I'm like, "How do I do this? I don't know."

Scot: All right. We're not always going to have Theresa with us, so if we want to proceed and go forward, where can we find some good recipes that are still fairly easy to make that you can make in mass quantities and save?

Theresa: Yeah, sure. So there are a lot of . . . Thank god for the internet. There's an amazing plethora of recipes out there. The challenge sometimes is, "Is it good? Am I going to like it?" And so I tend to go with recipes from more sources that have been around a while versus random . . . sometimes blogs can be hit or miss. If you find a good one, there are some really great ones out there.

There are some good apps. Yummly is a really great app. Pinterest is . . . I know Pinterest is often seen as this women's things, female app, whatever, but Pinterest is actually a really great place to go for recipes, because you can type in whatever vegetable you've got in the fridge that's starting to go bad, and you'll come up with thousands of recipes for that fruit or vegetable, or food item. And usually, there are great pictures to go with it and you can kind of scroll your way through.

If you're looking for things on the more plant-based and healthful side, eatingwell.com. They also have a magazine that you can find in your grocery store or things like that. It's a great source for recipes also.

If you're looking for things that kind of take it up to the next notch a little bit, you're looking for some awesome new sauces, things of that sort, one of my personal favorites is Bon Appétit magazine. They've got an awesome recipe warehouse on their website.

If you're looking for different grains and trying to incorporate different grains, Bob's Red Mill has awesome recipes, as well as King Arthur. And a little bit more getting in . . . Maybe you'd like to explore baking. King Arthur and Bob's Red Mill have really great baking recipes also, hitting on the grains a little bit more.

So there's a lot of variety, and it's, again, just trying new things. I think using friends and family is a great way to explore new recipes. So if you're at that family gathering, or if we ever get back to buffets or what have you, having somebody . . . if you like that particular salad that they brought, or that entree, or what have you, asking for the recipe and sharing those recipes is a really great way to add to your list.

And whether you keep those recipes electronically, or if you're like me and old school and like to have them written out, whatever kind of works for you, there are lots of great sources out there.

Troy: Well, I'll tell you, Theresa, as I'm hearing you talk, I think you might want to consider creating either your own app, or website, or both. "TD's Man Meals Made Easy," something like that.

Theresa: I did a quick search, and when you look for a compilation of men's focused recipes, it's really focused either around the grill . . . which isn't bad. I love grilling. But that's it, right? And they tend to be very meat-centric and don't incorporate a lot of vegetables. I don't think you have to be completely vegan or eliminate all meat, but if we're looking at it from a health standpoint, and not only health for me as a human, but health for the planet, we need to be incorporating those plants more.

Yeah, maybe we're onto something. That'll be my next career move maybe, Troy.

Troy: Do it.

Theresa: I'll give you a call.

Troy: TD's Man Meals.

Mitch: Love it.

Theresa: TD's Man Meals, I like it.

Scot: We were given these great recipes, and we kind of had to try them, right? First of all, we had a great guide in TD, in Theresa, but then we just kind of had to try them. I find that sometimes when I go online and start looking for recipes, I get overwhelmed and I don't know which one to pick. I don't know if it's going to be within my skill set. I don't know if it's going to be good. How can we choose a recipe that is within out skill set that's not going to be too incredibly difficult that's still going to be good?

Theresa: Read through the recipe. Does it sound good? Do you understand it? Are there words or culinary skills that are being talked about that you have no idea what it is? Maybe you want to learn a new skill so that would be an appropriate time to take a little bit of additional time. But sometimes it's just reading through the ingredients. Does this have foods that I like? Go for it. Is it curry, and I know that I've made curries before but this one has some different ingredients? Let's go ahead and give it a try because I know I've liked other curries, or things that are similar to it. So sometimes it's helpful to start with something. Is there some familiarity within the recipe?

The image speaks . . . a picture says a thousand words, right? Does it look appealing? That's something that I always try to look for or think about when I'm taking photos to go with my recipes, is to make it look appealing. If it doesn't look appealing, I probably don't want to make it.

Sauces? I want try some new sauces. Make a small quantity first versus making a large quantity of it. So I often find that I'll try a recipe the first time per the recipe and follow the recipe, and then I'll either make changes to it or I'll discard it or keep it as is, and I end up putting that recipe into three stacks. But I usually just try and make just one batch of it first. Try not to make too much.

Or making it and taking it to a group event where other people can eat it too is a good way to test out new recipes that you're not quite sure of.

Thunder: Theresa actually hit on two points that I think, for me, are the main points when I look at recipes and I decide, "Is this something I want to make or not?" And this is, I guess, from my perspective as a guy who also kind of knows how to cook a little bit, but not an expert.

Number one, the ingredients. Do the ingredients look like they taste good? That's my number one thing. And my number two thing is do I understand how to make the dish? Do I understand the instructions? And if those two are a go, then I try it. If one of those two is not a go, then I move on. So that's my personal way of picking things.

Scot: All right. As per Troy's suggestion, Theresa, let's name a valedictorian, or as any graduation goes, sometimes they name "Most Improved" or something like that. Do you have some awards to give out to us guys?

Theresa: I like it. Certainly. I think, first and foremost, "Most Improved," Troy.

Scot: Yeah.

Thunder: Yay.

Theresa: We went from just adding water to the pancakes to taking food to a family event.

Troy: I fed the family. See, I'm basically the guy . . .

Theresa: That's huge.

Troy: Yeah. So I'm the guy at graduation who started off freshman year failing out and then I somehow got in community college.

Scot: Hey, we're not knocking community college here.

Troy: Hey, no offense to community college. I'm just the guy who barely got in community college. So anyway, thanks, Theresa. I do appreciate that award.

Theresa: Right? I would say the next is . . . "Most Saucy" goes to the one and only Mitch.

Scot: Yay.

Mitch: Thank you.

Theresa: Everything tastes better with sauce on it.

Mitch: It sure does.

Theresa: Sure thing, right? And then I would say "Most Likely to Add Tofu to Their Dish," Thunder Jalili.

Scot: Woo.

Thunder: Thank you.

Troy: Yeah, Thunder was doing stuff with his tofu I've never heard of. I just threw mine in the dish. I don't know what you did, Thunder, but . . .

Thunder: Well, the closer they taste to potato chips, the more apt I am to eat them.

Troy: Good call.

Theresa: And "Most Able to Hold Us All Together," Scot. You are the butter to our bread.

Scot: Hey, I like that.

Troy: The sticky to the rice.

Theresa: Yes.

Troy: The one that keeps this train going.

Theresa: The sauce to our Buddha Bowl.

Scot: Theresa Dvorak, TD, as you have come to be known over the past four weeks, thank you so much for helping us out.

And if you are listening to this episode and you have not heard any of our previous episodes, this was part of a series that we started out over the course of four weeks. I think a great way maybe to get started if you're intimidated by any of the things we talked about, any of those barriers, is to just go back to the first episode and try that recipe. And instead of doing the garlic and the ginger as the recipe says, just buy the little jar of pre-made stuff, right?

And then maybe the next time you make it, you might want to try using fresh garlic and figuring out how to make that work so you don't overwhelm yourself. Then you start learning some of those kitchen skills.

And then hopefully you'll get to the point that we're at where you're starting to feel a little bit more comfortable in the kitchen, and you're sharing food, and you're not only nourishing yourself, but you're nourishing your soul as well.

So, Theresa, thank you so much. This has just been such a fun thing to do.

Theresa: This has been really great. I've really enjoyed it. Thanks, guys.

Scot: Yep. And Thunder . . .

Troy: Thanks, Theresa.

Scot: Yeah, thanks for being on along with us. We sure appreciate your insight and expertise, how to make this stuff easier.

Thunder: You're welcome. It's always a pleasure to be on with you guys.

Scot: And, of course, Mitch and Troy, thank you as always for being on the show.

If you would like to participate in any of these recipes, even though we're done with this series, you can go to facebook.com/whocaresmenshealth. You can also find all the recipes in the show notes for this episode in the event you don't want to go back to the previous episodes and try out some of these recipes, work up your kitchen skills, work up your grocery shopping skills, and make some great meals that you're going to love eating that are nutritious.

Thanks for listening, and thanks for caring about men's health.

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