What do soybeans, holiday traditions, mashed potatoes, and starting a business in your 50s have in common?

We're spilling ALL the beans in this episode of Everyday Macaroni!

Join Joy as she chats with Attessa Bradley, founder of Standing Tall Foods, about turning a lifetime of experience in the natural and organic food industry into a brand-new entrepreneurial adventure.

After nearly 25 years in the business, Attessa decided it was time to stand tall and start something of her own. Her secret ingredient? Crunchy, protein-packed roasted soybeans!

But we're not just talking beans. We're dishing on family Thanksgiving traditions, creative holiday recipes, healthy snacking, and the age-old question: Can mashed cauliflower REALLY replace mashed potatoes?

(Spoiler alert: Joy has opinions.)

IN THIS EPISODE, WE TALK ABOUT:

🫘 Why Attessa decided to launch Standing Tall Foods in her 50s

🥣 How roasted soybeans can become delicious, protein-packed snacks and recipes

🦃 Family Thanksgiving traditions, including a hilarious rhyming tradition

🥔 The great mashed potato versus mashed cauliflower debate

🍫 Chocolate peanut butter crunch bites and the unforgettable Tall Balls

❤️ Why food, family, and traditions make the holidays so special

WANT MORE RECIPES?

Visit Standing Tall Foods at https://standingtallfoods.com/ and sign up for their email newsletter right on the homepage for delicious recipes, snack ideas, and inspiration for using their products.

CONNECT WITH STANDING TALL FOODS

Website: https://standingtallfoods.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/standingtallfoods/

CONNECT WITH EVERYDAY MACARONI

Website: https://everydaymacaroni.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/everydaymacaroni/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@everydaymacaroni

If you enjoyed this episode, please like, subscribe, share, and leave us a review! Your support helps us keep bringing you fun conversations about all things family.

And remember, we'd love to hear YOUR family stories. You never know—you might end up on an episode of Everyday Macaroni!

#EverydayMacaroni #SpillingTheBeans #StandingTallFoods #AttessaBradley #FamilyTraditions #HolidayRecipes #HealthySnacking #WomenEntrepreneurs

How old is that thing in the back of your refrigerator? And more importantly… are you gonna eat that?

This week on Everyday Macaroni, Joy sits down with Jordan Robinson, creator of the Anxin app, to talk about food safety, food recalls, restaurant inspections, mystery leftovers—and why the old-fashioned sniff test may not be quite enough anymore.

With a background in cybersecurity, Jordan had an intriguing idea: What if we protected ourselves and our families from food-related risks the same way we protect computers from threats? The result was Anxin—a kind of Swiss Army knife for family food safety.

Anxin brings together tools to help families keep track of groceries and leftovers, monitor food recalls, check restaurant inspection information, learn more about ingredients and potential medication interactions, and even locate food banks in their communities.

And because this is Everyday Macaroni, we also tackle the really important questions:

How long is too long for something to live in your freezer? Is an expiration date a rule—or merely a suggestion? Can a pickle actually go bad? And should questionable cold cuts ever find their way into the family lasagna?

Jordan and Joy also talk about misinformation surrounding food recalls, cybersecurity and privacy, caring for kids and aging family members, food insecurity, and how having better information can help families make better-informed decisions.

Because taking care of your family happens in a thousand little ways—and sometimes it starts with opening the refrigerator and asking:

“Are you gonna eat that?”

Connect with Jordan Robinson & Anxin

🌐 Anxin: https://pieceofmind.fyi/ 📘 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/people/AnxinApp/61566240005752/ 📌 Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/anxinapp/ 💼 LinkedIn – Jordan Robinson: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jordan-robinson-a3216b405 🧵 Threads: https://www.threads.com/@anxinapp ▶️ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@anxinapp

Thanks for listening to Everyday Macaroni—where family life is rarely perfect, usually funny, and apparently sometimes requires a food-safety app.

And remember: when the sniff test isn't enough… maybe check Anxin before you take a bite.

#sandwichgeneration #spanish #comedy #familyfun #Genxer Look for us on the following platforms: IG - @everydaymacaroni YouTube - Everyday Macaroni

Shop for macaroni merch at https://everydaymacaroni.com/shop/

What happens when someone who was donor-conceived grows up and decides to become a donor himself?

In this episode, we sit down with Daniel Bayen—better known as Donor Dan—founder of the Open Donor Association. Dan shares what it was like being raised by a single mother by choice, growing up knowing he was donor-conceived, eventually building a relationship with his biological father, and discovering a very large extended family that includes 22 half-siblings.

We also talk about why Danl decided to become a donor himself, the importance he places on openness and transparency, and some of the complicated questions surrounding donor conception, identity, stigma, and what it means to be a family.

It’s a fascinating—and at times funny—conversation about one very unconventional family tree and a simple idea we come back to again and again: families don’t all have to look the same to be great families.

CONNECT WITH DANIEL “DONOR DAN” BAYEN

🌱 Open Donor Association: https://www.opendonorassociation.com/

🔗 Donor Dan — all links, social media, contact information & donor resources: https://linktr.ee/askdonordan

📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/donordan/

💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniel-bayen-a773a4366

Daniel’s Linktree also provides direct links to his TikTok, Facebook, X, YouTube, WhatsApp, email, donor portfolio, health/genetic testing information, co-parenting application, and Open Donor Association resources.

#sandwichgeneration #spanish #comedy #familyfun #Genxer Look for us on the following platforms: IG - @everydaymacaroni YouTube - Everyday Macaroni

Shop for macaroni merch at https://everydaymacaroni.com/shop/

What can courtrooms, Charles Dickens, Winston Churchill — and a round of golf — teach us about human nature?

We sit down with longtime attorney, elected court official, veteran and author Jon Gegenheimer to talk about his fascinating journey from the courtroom to writing fiction. Jon shares how his experiences as a military intelligence interrogator and attorney have shaped his storytelling, why reading is essential to becoming a good writer, and what decades of observing people have taught him about character, leadership and perseverance.

We also dive into The Griffin Murders, his love of Dickens and classic mysteries, and his latest novel, Churchill vs. Hitler: The Untold Golf Match that Changed History — an imaginative story with some surprisingly timely lessons about history, appeasement and why, as Churchill famously urged, we should never give up.

It’s a fun, wide-ranging conversation about books, history, law, golf, writing and the experiences that shape the stories we tell.

You can find Jon here: https://jagauthor.com/

Books: https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B00JH0GLO8/allbooks

#sandwichgeneration #spanish #comedy #familyfun #Genxer Look for us on the following platforms: IG - @everydaymacaroni YouTube - Everyday Macaroni

Shop for macaroni merch at https://everydaymacaroni.com/shop/

What does it mean to intentionally raise a child for the life you hope they will lead?

In this powerful conversation, Nathaniel “Nate” Turner shares the deeply personal story that led him to create the “Life Template,” a framework for parents to intentionally design the lives they want for their children. Nate, a financial services entrepreneur and advocate for intentional parenting, reflects on growing up frustrated with his father, graduating from law school without a job, and suddenly recognizing that he was repeating some of the same patterns he had questioned in his own childhood.

That realization sparked a radical question: What would happen if parents worked backward from their hopes and dreams for their children and intentionally prepared them for that future?

Nate and his wife, LaTonya, began with an unlikely source of inspiration—the Harvard application. They studied what Harvard said it wanted in its students and transformed those principles into a parenting framework centered on intellectual ambition, global and cultural competence, and humanitarian drive. Their approach asks parents to think beyond grades and careers: What do you want your children to say about you in your obituary? What would you want the world to say about them? And what would you hope they accomplish if there were no obstacles in their way?

Nate also opens up about his complicated relationship with his father, the lessons he learned from his father's untapped potential, and the realization that we often have more control over our stories—and our children's stories—than we think. He shares how those lessons shaped the way he raised his son, Naeem, who holds a PhD and MBA and is exploring renewable energy and teaching young people to become “energy detectives.”

From soccer dreams and a life-changing trip to Brazil to a concussion that changed Naeem's path and ultimately led him toward affordable energy, Nate's story is about much more than parenting. It's about purpose, legacy, personal responsibility, and the question every parent must eventually confront:

What are you willing to produce in yourself before you ask it of your child?

This is a conversation about raising extraordinary human beings—and becoming the kind of person who can help them get there.

You can find Nate here:

The League of Extraordinary Parents: https://www.lxtrap.com/

Raising Supaman, Nathaniel Turner, JD: https://a.co/d/0eglurY6

https://raisingsupaman.com/

https://the-raising-supaman-project.teachable.com/

#sandwichgeneration #spanish #comedy #familyfun #Genxer Look for us on the following platforms: IG - @everydaymacaroni YouTube - Everyday Macaroni

Shop for macaroni merch at https://everydaymacaroni.com/shop/

If you’ve looked at plane ticket prices for your family vacation and thought, “maybe next year,” this episode is for you! Our guest is Linda King, founder of The Smart Travelista, author of 14 books, travel writer, blogger, former travel agent, and banking professional who's made it her mission to help families travel the world for less. Linda combines decades of travel experience with smart money-saving strategies that can help stretch your vacation budget further than you thought possible.

Whether you're planning your first family getaway, dreaming of a European adventure, thinking about a cruise, or simply looking for practical ways to make travel fit your budget, you're going to walk away with ideas you can actually use.

You can find Linda on the following platforms:

https://www.thesmarttravelista.com/

https://www.facebook.com/Thesmartravelista

https://www.instagram.com/thesmartravelista/

https://www.youtube.com/@thesmartravelista

https://www.linkedin.com/in/linda-king-81541523a

https://www.tiktok.com/@thesmartravelista

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GRV1YT5F

#sandwichgeneration #spanish #comedy #familyfun #Genxer Look for us on the following platforms: IG - @everydaymacaroni YouTube - Everyday Macaroni

Shop for macaroni merch at https://everydaymacaroni.com/shop/

What began as a conversation about family, travel, and podcasting took an unexpected turn when we discovered we were both navigating the recent loss of our dads.

In this heartfelt episode, I sit down with fellow podcaster and travel advisor [Guest's Name] to talk about the journeys that shape us—both the ones we choose and the ones life hands us. Together, we share honest reflections on grief, family, resilience, and finding connection in the moments we least expect.

If you've ever lost a parent, are supporting someone who has, or simply appreciate authentic conversations about family and life's unexpected twists, this episode is for you.

Please make sure you check out Life in the Baggage Claim here:

https://www.lifeinthebaggageclaim.com/

https://www.jphauckadventures.com/

IG - @jphauckadventures

#sandwichgeneration #spanish #comedy #familyfun #Genxer Look for us on the following platforms: IG - @everydaymacaroni YouTube - Everyday Macaroni

Shop for macaroni merch at https://everydaymacaroni.com/shop/

Happy 250th America! On this episode, we thought we would celebrate our nation’s birthday by talking about the one thing more American than apple pie, dads, families and kids playing sports! Our guest is a dad, coach and author with a philosophy on parenting that centers on grit and resilience. Stephen Clifford’s series of children’s books teach lessons designed to instill values and character in children using cool techniques like alter egos, fun badges and the idea that fear is a choice.

Please make sure you check out The Forgotten Wisdom books and support Stephen on the following platforms:

IG: @stevecliff443 @taylorsjobsafari @forgottenwisdombooks

https://forgottenwisdombooks.com

#sandwichgeneration #spanish #comedy #familyfun #Genxer Look for us on the following platforms: IG - @everydaymacaroni YouTube - Everyday Macaroni

Shop for macaroni merch at https://everydaymacaroni.com/shop/