Introduction

Here is the Crescendo Music Education Podcast – Episode 86. Welcome back to the Crescendo Music Education Podcast. Now if you’re just coming in to the middle of this series, we’re talking about music teacher wellbeing, I’ve got a special guest, Beth Duhon who has a book that you should all grab at read. And in this episode, we’re talking about meals and food, and looking after yourself, fueling your body for our fairly tricky job that is music teaching.

This podcast is being recorded on the lands of the Turrbal people. I acknowledge them as the traditional owners of the land and pay my respects to elder’s past, present and emerging. They were the first music makers on this land.

About ‘Read the Episode’: Sometimes, we would rather skim visually than listen to a podcast! That’s a great way to learn too!
The transcript of episode 086 of The Crescendo Music Education Podcast is below.

Food and Fuel Tips from Debbie

Debbie
So before we get into our hints from Beth, here’s a few more from me, I do love my cooking in the evenings if I get a chance to do it. So here’s a few little hints from me, that helped me with my food prep.

Ask Friends for Recipes

So I asked friends for recipes and food prep ideas and I have a collection of recipes. I’m not as efficient at this as I should be there in a couple of different places. But asking your friends for things that work, things that are tasty, things that are quick, things that are nutritious, and keep a collection of your favourites.

Create an Excel Doc to Store Food Recipes and Ideas

Create an Excel doc to store all of these things. Mine is in its infancy, but it’s slowly getting there. And you can even put links in your Excel or you could use Google Sheets, you know, whichever you use. And you can even put in a link to the website where you found that recipe. Now I got this idea initially from Katie Argyle, Thank you Katie, Midnight Music you rock. So that’s great. Create that Excel doc to help keep track of things plan ahead.

It really makes a difference. I do shop once a week because I like to have fresh things, it’s actually fairly rare I have to even go and grab bread and milk, sometimes I may have to grab fresh bread, but that is about it. And we don’t eat as much bread as we used to anyway. So if I plan ahead, and I shop once a week, and not huge shops, only the two of us now and it’s so valuable.

Shop Less and Plan More

Work out what you’re going to cook, when you’re going to cook it, and buy to that shopping list, it also saves a mountain of money. If you can shop to a list. Cook in bulk if you can. Batch cook, Hey, it works for planning. It works for cooking as well. Batch cook. So tonight I’m going to make teriyaki beef with mince from Nagi dinner, the Recipe Tin Eats book, love it love it.

And I’m going to make enough for at least two nights for my husband and I. Why would I make something like that, go to all of this bother, not that it looks hard. And I might as well make it for a couple of meals. So cook in bulk, batch your cooking.

You can freeze leftovers or have them in the fridge for a day or two or if you’re a person that likes to have a break between the same meal freeze it, but it keeps in the fridge for a day or two or three. So keep your leftovers use them again. Yum. I like leftovers, love leftovers.

Prep and Cook Your Lunches Ahead of Time

Another little hint is that I now create my lunches in advance on a Sunday as far as possible. So if it’s a little bit I might have a little bit of leftover homemade fried rice. I’ll pop it in a container in the freezer. I will sometimes then just pull it out. And I’ll go oh freezer surprise. I’m not even sure what leftover I’m grabbing. But I know that I have put leftovers in there in the right amount for me to take for my lunches, curries, stews, mince type meals work really well. So I have my freezer surprises there in there.

But lately what I’ve been doing is I pop into containers. I buy a kilo tub of hommus and I just put five little containers of hommus into the fridge and I put in plastic bags a little selection. It’s actually usually one row from the rice crackers that I buy just a cheapo rice crackers and I grab a tub of hommus and the rice crackers. That’s part of my lunch. So I don’t have to do any prep. I just grab them from the fridge.

The other thing I do is I have five slightly bigger containers than my hommus containers. So I try and do a wrapper free lunch as much as possible for the environment. Thanks says my husband who does the washing up and goes thanks for giving me these containers. But anyway, I’m helping the environment. I chopped some fruit up and I pop them in five containers. Then I put in some yogurt. I like Jalna pot set natural yogurt, Greek yogurt, I pop that in, and then maybe a drizzle of honey.

And if I feel like it in the morning, I put some toasted almonds on the top. And I take that. I mean, yum. But now all of the prep is done on Sunday afternoon, and I’m right for the week. So a little bit of a rave, but I thought I’d share what I do because I really find that works well. I was nowhere near that organised when I was also looking after my two sons and my husband.

Okay, I will be honest, my husband did his own lunches, and he tended to do the boys lunches. So anyway, I was not as organised back then. But I am now so you can take some advice from me if you wish. And now let’s get on to Beth, and have a chat with her about food and meals.

Now, I think we should go on to meals.

Beth Duhon
Yes, yes, yes.

Debbie
Shall we do that?

Beth Duhon
Yes ma’am.

Beth Duhon’s Tips for Food & Fuel

Debbie
Oh wow meals. I’m actually pretty good at meals now. Because it’s something that I enjoy cooking. And I plan the meals and I make time to cook, that’s a little bit of my time. And also at my stage of life I am an empty nester now, my two beautiful sons do not live here.

So it’s just my husband and I and the puppy. So I take time to cook and make nutritious meals. Well, I try to do nutritious tasty meals, but that’s it’s a lot of effort. It’s planning the meals planning the shop, making sure they’re quick or doing some in advance. So what are your thoughts around wellbeing and meals for the busy music educator?

Have a Classroom Food Pantry

Beth Duhon
Debbie? These people eat three times a day. It’s exhausting. Myself included. Some of the things at school I like to have my own classroom pantry. Now it may be more convenience foods. It may not be that environmentally savvy, but I like to have just a pack of low sodium V8’s and some string cheese in my fridge.

Debbie
Okay, sorry, can you go back? What was the first thing you said?

Beth Duhon
Low sodium V8 juice.

Debbie
Oh V8 juice. Yes. Okay, got it.

Beth Duhon
So LaCroix, trail mix, little prepackaged hommus, or guacamole, any of those type of things. It may not be a meal, but I can put them together to make a meal. And if I eat just one or a little bit of them, or maybe I grab a fruit or yoghurt, I’m not trying to microwave a lean cuisine down in the lounge and fight everybody for fridge and microwave space. I can be in my room, grab those things pretty easily. And pretty much they’re all maybe not the healthiest food on the planet, but pretty, pretty okay, health wise, and I won’t feel worse after eating them.

Debbie
I love that. That’s a good idea. I have a little version of that I have mini tins of tuna in my drawer. But yes, I should have like a little packet of biscuits. Yes, I could extend the pantry. And also sometimes I have nuts, nuts and trail mix and things that they’re good for a quick energy hit when you’re feeling low, like a handful of nuts, fruit and nuts.

Beth Duhon
Mine is like a little convenience store. So I really do stock up. I bring in the bottled waters, I bring in all of my food for the week. And then as I get low, I just restock. And that way I have a teacher I’m with this year. She’s actually the long term substitute for the music two position. And if she’s hungry or hasn’t had her lunch or something, I can offer her something from my pantry. It just makes things a little bit easier for me because I don’t know about you where you are. But if I try to run out to get lunch, it’s not going to be very economical. It’s not going to be very healthy. And I’m literally driving there grabbing it, wolfing it down and then in two minutes kindergartens coming in, it’s just not the most relaxing situation.

Debbie
No, it actually creates more. I think I would rather be hungry than race out and try to do that.

Beth Duhon
Agreed.

Debbie
I do love that, a classroom pantry. Yes, I think that’s a great idea. I can think of some teachers who would want to come in and raid it all the time. But anyway. Oh, I think that’s great. Yes. And what about your meals at home? Are you the chief cook or do you share that?

Tips for Cooking Food at Home

Beth Duhon
I am in the loosest sense of the word but I’m gonna give you a couple of gadgets that are fun for it. I have a hard boiled egg cooker which is like, it’s like a one task machine. It really just hard boils eggs but instead of struggling with it, you just use that machine and instantly you have hard boiled eggs for the week for everything you use them for. The other one I like is my rice cooker.

Debbie
Oh yes.

Beth Duhon
Once again, I’m not great at cooking eggs. I’m not great at cooking rice, but I can work the machines. And if you have hard cooked eggs and rice, you have a pretty decent start to a meal.

Debbie
Yeah.

Beth Duhon
And then if you add a simple protein or something, I’m also right now we’re on a big kick. I’m definitely in praise of the rotisserie chicken and egg salad.

Debbie
Yes, yes. If you’ve got to grab something take away, grab a cooked chook and a bag of salad.

Beth Duhon
We’re also fruit people. Like I said, there’s three of us at our house. And we try to have a fruit after almost every meal. But this is not anything crazy or high prep, you know, a carton of berries and I rinse them and put them out or make sure that we have cuties that my son, I can grab for our lunchbox in the morning, banana, just something easy and portable. Like I said, convenience is a big priority followed by health.

Debbie
Oh, I think that’s amazing advice. And I think that we could all rethink how we plan our food for during the day. Yeah, I think that’s great. Wonderful advice. Beth it’s been just lovely having you here again. Would you come back next time, please. Because we’ve got to talk about the next section of your book so that our listeners can go, Ah, yes, I can fix that a little bit in my life.

Beth Duhon
I will talk about my book and self care all day. Just ask me.

Debbie
Good, I’m counting on it. All right. I’ll talk to you again soon.

Beth Duhon
Thanks so much, Debbie. Bye.

Sign-Off

Thank you for joining me for this podcast. Don’t forget that you’ll find the show notes on crescendo.com.au/86. Also, you can find the transcripts there. So you’ve got all of the detail that you need. If you’ve found this podcast useful. I’d really love it if you share the link with a colleague. Remember all I can be is the best version of me. All you can do is be the best you. We’ll meet again. I hope we will. Bye.

Just for Laughs

As we know laughter relieve stress. Don’t lose sight of the funny side of life.

I knew a woman who owned a taser.

Like even I have to admit she was stunning.

Links Mentioned in the Episode:

📕 Happier Music Teacher by Beth Duhon

🎙️ Ep 83: Introduction to The Wellbeing Series with Beth Duhon

🎙️ Ep 84: The Wellbeing Series: Rest and Recharge

🎙️ Ep 85: The Wellbeing Series: The Commute

Where to find me:

• Crescendo Community Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/crescendocommunity
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