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A pneumatic nailer I mean, just a lot of different things. And for each one of those, I needed some very specific tools that made the job go a lot faster, and, in many cases a lot safer too, because if I was using the wrong tool, I could have lost a finger.
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You're listening to the smarter Healthy Living podcast where we firmly believe that getting healthy should never feel like torture, where your host Jarrod and Anita Roussel were college sweethearts, and health professionals who help you redefine what getting healthy looks like using a whole food plant based lifestyle. It's time to hear from the experts and learn the best tips and tricks that helped others get beyond the overwhelm, to create a vibrant life they love. If you're sick and tired of being sick, and tired, you're in the right place. So pull up a virtual chair, grab your matcha latte, and let's get started.
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Welcome to today's episode, we're extremely excited to have you here with us. I am going to tell you something that when you hear it, you're gonna say yeah, I kind of knew that already. But it rings true nonetheless. And I still feel like it really bear saying that the right tool makes all the difference. Now I'm a bit of a do it yourselfer. I mean, around the house, I've done some drywall repair. For some holes at Rome purpose, a few holes that were not. There are some stories there. And some of those holes were in the ceiling too.
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But the drywall, I've done a little bit of like some light electrical work, I've worked on my car. I've done some paver work outside. I mean, I've done a lot of different things. I've even redone some siding and some molding around a big wall of windows we had in one house that we had that was a child in the same thing was true for every single one of those that having the right tool made all the difference. So like with the pavers, I had to get an angle grinder to try to shape some of those pavers as I was putting in around an existing sidewalk. Now could I have done that with a screwdriver and a hammer, maybe, but it wouldn't have looked very good. You know, for doing all that work on the side of the house around the windows, I need to have a good miter saw, and have a table saw. I've made some furniture, some beds for my kids. And I need to have a table saw I need to have a pneumatic nailer I mean, just a lot of different things. And for each one of those, I needed some very specific tools that made the job go a lot faster. And in many cases a lot safer, too. Because if I was using the wrong tool, I could have lost a finger. Yeah, that's true. And it's true with anything that you do. And it's also true in the kitchen.
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Absolutely. Absolutely. I agree. You know, you've got to have the right tool in the kitchen to bring joy. And that's what we want for you when you're on your plant based journey. You just want to find joy, you don't want to have be trying recipes you don't like or be spending hours and hours in the kitchen trying to prep your meals and prep your ingredients. You need the right tool and the tool we're sharing with you today.
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We're talking about knives because it's really important.
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Now this is the only way you're gonna prep your vege I mean, are you gonna spend hours on chopping and chopping? Now we've got a lot of other ways that you can do that. And we're going to be sharing those with you as time goes on. But
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invariably, you're going to need to chop something with a knife. And you may be thinking to is how is chopping with a knife going to bring me joy?
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Well, it does it really really is it honestly it's some of the most simple things I know for Nate and I that bring joy when you use something and it feels almost effortless. Yeah, can you just think, wow, I had no idea of doing something so simple.
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Could be this easy. and dare I say enjoyable.
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Well and for me really the joy comes in and the time savings because I'm looking at you know we're in a time crunch.
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We got to go here got to go there whatever's going on during the day and I've got to have something to help me get dinner on the table fast. And a lot of times that's my trusty chef knife I'm telling you best knife ever created. And if you can only buy one knife that is the knife you want write it down chef's knife I'm telling you is
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awesome. It's really just the all purpose knife. It's
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incredible. You can use it for so many things, but I use it mainly for the chopping of all my vegetables. I use it when I'm even prepping tofu and I mean pretty much for everything.
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That's the knife I reach for.
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And so it's the one I always want closest to me ready to go at any given moment. And one of the keys though, no matter what kind of knife you're using is you've got to have a cutting board. Please don't try to cut stuff on a plate that's going to flip on you or crack and break or draw your knife cutting it directly on the countertop is going to dole your knife.
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That's the big thing is that it's going to dole that razor sharp edge Whereas with wood, and actually, some of ours are wood, some of them are bamboo. Same thing though, because you have the natural fibers there, they will give to that blade, and they're gonna keep them sharper much longer.
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And then there's gerrits knife pet peeve, there will also doll the blade, ma. So what it is, can you think of what it is?
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I know exactly what? What is
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it? It's putting the knives in the sink?
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I cannot stand that that just is no, no, you can't?
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Well, and that's because we have a stainless steel sink and stuff always gets put on it.
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And it's the same thing, you've got the hard surfaces, and it might be other dishes that bang against it. And it's just going to dull it faster well, but it also can be a little bit of a hazard. Because if someone comes in there, maybe got some water in the sink, and they reach for it, or you reach underneath the dish, because you see Oh, here's maybe this bottle brush or something? And then Oh, what's that? That's a sharp knife blade edge.
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Oh, yeah. And you know what that made me think of something else, please don't ever run your finger down the edge of your knife to see a fish. Okay, that's just never a good idea. I'm not saying we've ever done that, or our children have, I'm just saying, don't do that. Okay, it's not a good thing, you'll be able to tell if it's sharp or not, by whether or not it goes through your vegetable like butter, I mean, it should really just go smoothly, right through that vegetable should
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be essentially when they're really sharp, effortless, lets
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you do the work for you.
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And that's the whole point here, you want a tool that's going to do it for you. And really, it can double or triple your speed in the kitchen, it can speed you up that much. But what I recommend and Jay recommends is looking at somewhere on YouTube, there's tons of different knife skill videos, even classes if you want to take a class because you don't want to lose a finger ease and knives. And so many people scare me having their fingers out while they're chopping their knives really close to that blade. And there's a way that you can use your knuckles to kind of protect your fingers. And some
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of those techniques are very simple. But once you know the slight differences, then that it makes it faster helps protect the finger tip. Well,
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it's what you always say you don't know what you don't know. And, and simple things are simple, simple things are simple. I say that to Donna, you do or at least you do now.
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Well, there you go.
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All right. So those are some kind of safety tips. And just the basics of knowing how to use a knife is really important. But a lot of people say Okay, so what do you recommend, that's the type of knife a chef's knife is that one knife, if you can get a block set, I prefer that to a drawer.
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Now you may have children and you want to put a safety latch and have a tray that your knife sit in, in a drawer, they sell wooden blocks, there
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are specific ones that are made of wood that have little individual slots, so that they stay safely tucked in the drawer. But they're still in the woods so that they're protected, they don't bang against each other. And they're nicely arranged.
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And our children are old enough now where they don't mess with them if they're not supposed to be cutting something or whatever. So we just keep them out on a blocks in a blog set on the counter. And I like that because I have him right next to my stove where I'm chopping stuff and throw it into the penguin. So I like to have it right there and put it in a convenient place or an always having to look for them. I mean, that's a huge part of joy is just being able to be organized and find your things. Again, that's another thing you'll hear us talking about. We'll be talking about organization might even have some guests on about organization as well. Because I think it's really important to know how to keep your things organized. That is one of the things that has brought me the most joy in life and relieve the most stress in my life is being able to find
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my thing watering, organizing stuff, organizing minimalizing things. Minimizing There you go. But I didn't know if that really brought the whole term of minimalism. So minimalizing makes sense to me.
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It sounded good. Yeah, well, there
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are different ways that knives are made. So they're stamped, and they're Forge. Tell man, well,
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those are the main ones.
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We heard of another one that's kind of a blend between the two.
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But I don't know that anyone would ever really come in contact unless you were at some kind of specialty convention.
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But you have stamped which typically, those are rolled out sheets of metal. And it's like a cookie cutter that there is this big dye that comes down and cuts the shape of the blade, and then they will sharpen the edge. Now that one's typically less expensive, it's easier to make was easier to make in massive mass quantities. They're going to be lighter.
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So they won't do as much of the work for you probably being lighter, not as heavy and may not last as long.
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I think sometimes they're equated with being cheaper quality, but from what I've heard, is that in the last like 20 years, it's not necessarily the case, but they are easier and cheaper to make.
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And so it would be a less expensive knife right for you if it's you're wanting to get into it and the entry level. I hate to say that Because there can be some really good quality knives that way, then there's forge where they actually will pour the metal into a mold. And they kind of stamp it out and really work it. I mean, it gives you that that image of a blacksmith putting in the fire and hammering it away. More work there. Yes. And it may be done by hand, it may be done by machine, but it's where the metal is actually formed, and then it's polished, and then you get the sharp blade on it, those will tend to be stronger last longer, tend to be heavier, tend to have a wider what they call spine, which is the opposite edge of the opposite side of the sharp edge. And it acts almost kind of like a wedge. So that whenever you're cutting through this separates food
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more easily. I
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think with those being heavier, they can do more of the work for you. But it depends on you depends on your your hand, your strength, your style, your preference.
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Yeah, highly recommend going to kitchen shop and holding the knives that you're looking at. Or if I mean even one of our one of the budget picks that we recommend is found at IKEA. And we don't recommend all their knives. But and I haven't used this line, this specific line that we recommend, but we'll leave links below in the show notes. But the thing is, is that it's pretty inexpensive. A lot of people really liked them. And I've had a lot of people recommend them, to me to tell others about them.
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So that's a good knife to look at if you're looking for a budget knife. So you could just go into IKEA hold some see what they're like, because different knives feel different in your hand. And some might rejoin. And some you might think, Oh, this is way too light, or this is so heavy, I don't like this
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Well, and if it's not balanced well, because if the blade is heavier than the handle, you're having to work harder to pick it up. And once you're to doing it once or twice the slice is not a big deal. But if you're there using it for an extended period of time, 1015 minutes, whatever, 30 minutes.
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With repeated use, it's going to start tiring out your hand maybe hurt your wrist. So finding something that is balanced.
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And the other thing is, you know, they talk about whether a knife is full tank or not. And you'll hear that a lot with knives and what that means does the steel or the metal run the full length of the blade?
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And so that's something that is really falling to the handle. I mean the handle sorry. Yeah, exactly. So it runs the full length of the knife the steel does is one solid piece, right?
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Yes. Okay. When you hear it sounds kind of exotic. Is it a full tang knife? I don't know what you mean? Well, you could some of them will run just partly and then at the handle, it's it's bigger, then it creates a weak point where the handle may break. Whereas a full tank goes the full length of the knife. So it's one solid piece of metal, but I think it also gives the handle a little more weight to it. And again, that balance I was mentioning.
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Yeah. And so even within the brands that are most highly recommend, a lot of times you'll hear about her ankles or we've stopped there are two really good brands but they had different lines within those brands. So they have cheaper lines. They have more expensive lines that are some are full tang. I don't know that they all are or not. But I know that some are forged, and some are stamped. So you need to just look at all these different things. See what you think. And then look at your budget because I've got to be honest, when I was a big keep on our back about 16 years ago,
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I how long we've sat alone. We got
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him. Yeah, honestly.
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Yeah, I've had those sense.
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Well, it may have been more like about 14 I think Well, no, we've had it for a long
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time. I didn't realize it was that long ago.
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Yeah. I mean, it was quite a while ago. So we got it was, um, it was Black Friday, and I was couponing at the time.
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So I'm online looking at all those sales and Kohl's had this sale on Food Network knives. So I looked on there. I said, Oh, it's the whole set of block of knives. I can't remember what the price was if it was 16 $100.
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Around read, I think
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it was about $60.
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That's pretty inexpensive for a full set of knives. But after rebate, they were free. I mean, I found like I had a coupon. And then I got had a rebate. So I'm
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getting them for free.
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And I think we may have even gotten some Kohl's bucks back on it. Yeah,
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I think we did. It was
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right. Yeah, we really racked up on that deal. But we still have them.
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We have them. And they're the ones that are out on my counter that I use all the time.
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I have the whoo stuff. I have the ankles. I grabbed them sometimes. But I'm telling you, as long as we've kept them honed and sharpened, which will again we'll leave links I know everybody's gonna be emailing me going, how do I do that? What tool do I need? And so that'll all be down below for you don't worry about that. But the thing is, is they are a less expensive choice for a knife. You're not going to find Food Network ones anymore. I've looked online I don't really see any unless I'm missing it. You guys might be able to dig some up in there.
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But But really, honestly if you just go for a budget set, which will give you some options, you may find that you like those just as well. I mean, some people will just sort of like I want the best That's how much it costs. And some of us feel like well, just whatever works and whatever I like and feels good in my hand and it does the job.
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But I'll tell you that is inexpensive set that inexpensive set of knives from Food Network, or it has their brand I'm sure so
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well, and that's what I was thinking to is it may have been made by could have been made by his ankles or boost off for all we know, it could have been but it's a full tang.
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Right? It also is the heavier so I'm pretty confident that it is a forged knife, right. And all we've had to do is obviously wash them but periodically we have to sharpen them.
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I'm not sure those are forged. Can they be stamped in the full tank? I think they can.
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Oh,
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yeah, well, I don't think it's the Tang that makes it forged. I just think they've got a really good way the mine on him is a little bit wider than you're saying because I we have a long time ago. Back when we were first married. We did have a few knives that looking back I remember they were lightweight, and they were real thin and they didn't last very long. It was one of those where even if they were sharp witness here, they cut through a tomato nice and easily. So I think these are forged,
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it makes a big difference just to have a knife that you love, because honestly the best knife is the one that you're going to use that you're going to keep honed and sharpened.
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That feels the best in your hand and that you really like it. A chef's knife, I'm just saying it's my absolute favorite. Have one of those. If you don't have anything else, I have actually two different sizes of chef's knife. love them both use them both day Lee and they just saved me so much time. Learn those knife skills, get those down so that you're safe in the kitchen and teach your children to do the same. Did you know while we're talking about knives, there's actually a set of knives for little kids. I wish I had known when ours were younger, but they're plastic. They will not get the kids but they cut very well. They're serrated a little bit on the edge. And so I have my younger one now she's getting here she's starting to use regular knives. But she still enjoys. We've had those only for about a year but she has loved having her own set of knives. And she'll stand by me and cut fruit salads and she'll help me cut at Bell peppers about big things a bell peppers at Costco, and she'll help cut those up and we freeze those and it's just it's a fun mommy and
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they work amazingly well too. It's really shocking. I really tried it out it could you think you'd be just kind of mashing through whatever produce it was, but no, it just sliced right through it. I mean, it was there great wide like are other knives. But it was very close
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they are they're really, really great. So if you have children definitely pick up a set of those. I wish we had done it when they were so much younger, they get comfortable using a knife and it's just they can learn knife skills on one that's really safe, which is great. All right, so that wraps it up for knives, don't think that you have to have a knife to be able to chop things though. I mean, you name one, you want to have one. But the thing is, there are other ways as well. So you're not going to be constantly using a knife. We're going to share more of these things with you as we go. But for now, just get a chef's knife, if nothing else and find some plant based joy, find ways to make this life livable, and fun so that you can do it for the long term. So you'll feel great, you'll be healing, you'll be filled with vibrant energy to get out there and do all those things you've wanted to do for so long, you're going to start feeling like doing it and you won't believe how quickly that can happen. Until next time. I hope you have a great week and we'll see you again on the next episode.
