What does it mean to live more with less? I'm Katie Wells and welcome to the Maximized Minimalist

podcast. If you found yourself caught up in the hamster wheel of modern day motherhood and want to

rewrite the script, congratulations you're in the right place. I'm here to be your guide and help you take

back your motherhood

and achieve a simpler, more joy-filled life. Cheers to being a maximized minimalist. Enjoy the show.

Hey there. Today I'm hanging out with Nikita Atard Vassallo. She is a blogger and author of the book,

The Mama Manual. If you follow her on social media or read her

blogs, you know she is so passionate about meal prep, organization, and streamlining your routine

so that you can get the most out of motherhood and life. She is my kind of friend.

Nikita is actually my first guest on the show that doesn't live in the United States.

She lives in a small island off the coast of Sicily, not far from Italy, which is one of the most

beautiful places in the world. I know I'm jealous too. What's funny is that right after we recorded

this podcast, literally the next morning, we booked our family trip to Italy, and it dawned on me that I'll be so close to her.

So I messaged her, and, you know, if it all works out, my husband and I are going to hop on a flight from Rome to Malta and hang out with her for a day or two, maybe even a weekend.

So fingers crossed, so excited.

Today we are going to do a deep dive into both meal prep and meal planning.

So the easiest ways to get organized and started with meal prep, she'll be talking about

her favorite slow cooker, and she'll be sharing

more genius cooking hacks. So let's dive in. All right. So welcome to the show. Hi, I'm so glad to be

here. I've been listening to your amazing podcast episodes, and I'm totally hooked. Oh my gosh,

to be on your show. Oh, such a pleasure to have you. So tell us,

for anyone that doesn't follow you, I'm just going to preface it a little bit. And probably most

...