Back-to-School Lunches, Sheet-Pan Dinners, and Finding Joy in the Kitchen with Hillary Dixler Canavan

Hillary Dixler Canavan returns to Not From Concentrate as the show’s first repeat guest! Nearly one year after her first appearance, Hillary joins Catherine for a timely conversation about feeding our families, and ourselves, during the back-to-school rush.

They talk about letting go of picture-perfect lunchboxes, choosing foods children will reliably eat at school, and adding joy without adding much work. Hillary shares her genuinely life-changing trick for assembling and freezing sandwiches in advance, plus easy ways to bring protein and variety into packed lunches.

The conversation also ventures into cooking with kids, why project-based kitchen activities may be more manageable than everyday “help,” and the value of teaching practical cooking skills when children are ready.

Then Hillary previews Sheet Pan Month in her newsletter, What Are We Having? She and Catherine even develop a Green Goddess chicken, gnocchi, and broccoli dinner in real time. Finally, they discuss finding creativity through constraints, clearing physical clutter, and using audiobooks to make cooking feel restorative.

Assemble sandwiches in batches, return them to their original packaging or place them in a freezer-safe reusable bag, and freeze. In the morning, put a frozen sandwich directly into an insulated lunch bag. It should thaw by lunchtime while helping keep the rest of the lunch cool.

Freezer-friendly combinations include:

Subscribe to What Are We Having? at whatarewehaving.substack.com.

Follow Hillary on Instagram at @hillarydixlercanavan.

What does it actually take to make local food more accessible, sustainable, and financially viable for the people who produce it?

Catherine talks with Erin Baumgartner, founder of Family Dinner, a farmers market delivery service that grew from bringing groceries to seven friends out of Erin’s Somerville apartment to serving 120 Massachusetts communities. Erin explains how Family Dinner uses data and predictive analytics to help farmers plan what to grow, reduce food waste, and reach more customers—and why buying local can have such a meaningful impact on the communities where we live.

They also talk about balancing our food ideals with real-life budgets and limited time, building a mission-driven business without outside investors, resisting shiny objects, and breaking intimidating goals into manageable steps. Plus: feeding kids without expecting perfection, making dinner from whatever is languishing in the fridge, and why creativity sometimes requires doing absolutely nothing.

Not From Concentrate is distributed by PRX and produced by Catherine Smart, with audio and video production by Kevin O’Connell and Asia Garcia. Our associate producer is Allie Miller, and our theme music is by Kylie Dailey.

What if the answer to feeling too busy isn’t making everything faster, but choosing one place to slow down?

Trinity Mouzon Wofford, founder of Golde and author of Eating at Home, joins Catherine to make the case for protecting mealtime in a culture built around convenience. They talk about taking a real lunch break, shopping at the farmers market and why it's work soaking your own beans. 

Trinity also shares what she learned from building a wellness company during a period of explosive growth, separating her identity from her business and writing her first cookbook while becoming a mother. Plus, she explains “component cooking,” her practical alternative to traditional meal prep, and how a pot of beans, rice, pickles or a simple herb sauce can make home-cooked meals possible on even the busiest weeknights.

It’s a candid conversation about convenience, all-or-nothing thinking and why making time for food might be more radical—and more necessary—than ever.

What happens when the brain that fuels your ambition and creativity is also the one constantly pulling you in twelve directions?

Chef and restaurateur Will Gilson, whose Cambridge Street Hospitality Group now includes eight concepts, talks with Catherine about thriving under pressure, self-sabotaging deadlines, and why the chaos of a restaurant kitchen can feel strangely comfortable to an ADHD brain. He shares how seasonal depression led him to seek out projects with a clear beginning, middle, and end—and why learning to delegate was essential as his business grew.

Will gets practical about assessing his bandwidth, deciding what truly needs his attention, building a team he trusts, and using technology to keep multiple restaurants connected without having to be everywhere at once. He and Catherine also talk about unfinished projects, the temptation to say yes to everything, the dangerous ways restaurant workers have traditionally tried to “turn off,” and why sometimes you need to physically leave your environment to rest.

They also dig into what failure can teach you, how Will transformed the debt and emotional baggage of his first restaurant into lessons for the next one, and why travel is still essential to his creativity.

If you’re trying to build an ambitious life without letting your busy brain run the entire show, this episode is for you.

What if learning to cook could help us get better at starting tasks, managing time, working through frustration, and asking for help?

Sophie Mortner is an educator, learning designer, executive functioning coach, and the creator of Nibblings, a collection of recipes designed to help kids cook independently. She joins Catherine to explain why the kitchen is such a powerful place to build skills that extend far beyond cooking.

They talk about breaking intimidating tasks into manageable first steps, developing time awareness, helping kids become more independent in the kitchen, and why parents may need to step back and let things get a little messy. Sophie also shares practical strategies that can help adults with ADHD navigate task avoidance and calm kitchen chaos.

Find Sophie’s recipes at nibblingscooking.com 

In this solo episode of Not From Concentrate, Catherine Smart shares a personal essay about ADHD masking, embarrassment, and the effort of trying to seem easygoing, capable, and “normal.”

She reflects on how sensitivity, people-pleasing, and a strong social radar can be exhausting—but can also make us thoughtful friends, generous hosts, and deeply caring people.

This is a personal reflection on understanding old patterns with more compassion and learning when it might be okay to let your guard down.

Read the essay at catherinesmart.substack.com.

Not From Concentrate is a food podcast for busy brains about ADHD creativity, cooking, and finding more joy in and out of the kitchen.

On this episode of Not From Concentrate, Catherine Smart talks with chef and cookbook author Ham El-Waylly about the surprising journey that led him from fine dining back to the food that first shaped him.

Raised between Egyptian, Bolivian, and Qatari cultures before building a career in New York restaurants, Ham shares how the sudden loss of his mother caused him to distance himself from the recipes he grew up with—and how reopening her handwritten recipe notebook during the pandemic helped him reconnect with his family, his creativity, and himself.

They talk about:

Ham also shares recipes from Hello, Home Cooking, including his Cinnamon Pita Crunch, cheesy tapioca garlic buns, and toasted spaghetti with black beans.

Courtney E. Smith joins Catherine Smart to talk about Ravenous, the new worker-owned food and culture publication founded by former Eater writers after a layoff.

Courtney shares how the team built an independent media company from scratch, why they’re choosing subscriber support over VC money and branded content, and what it means to cover food, labor, restaurants, and culture with stronger ethics and sharper opinions.

She and Catherine also talk about what’s missing from today’s food media landscape, the challenge of writing about local restaurants for a national audience, the business learning curve for creatives, and why shared values matter when you’re building something with other people.

For listeners interested in ADHD creativity, this conversation digs into the messy, energizing process of making something new with limited resources, strong opinions, and a lot of moving parts. And because Not From Concentrate is a food podcast for busy brains, Catherine and Courtney also explore how food media shapes the way we think about restaurants, cooking, labor, and culture.

Not From Concentrate is a food podcast for busy brains from host Catherine Smart — a cook, writer, mom, and creative entrepreneur with ADHD.

Tune in for conversations with chefs, authors, creators, and food lovers about sparking creativity, calming chaos, and finding joy in (and out) of the kitchen + subscribe to the Not From Concentrate newsletter on Substack

On this episode of Not From Concentrate, Catherine Smart talks with Zachary Baum, co-owner of Bow Market in Somerville, about what it takes to build a place where small businesses can take root.

They discuss how Bow Market transformed from an old carport into a vibrant courtyard of independent food, retail, art, and service businesses; why a true sense of place cannot simply be scaled or replicated; and how small restaurants and makers navigate the realities of rent, regulation, labor, and limited capacity.

Catherine and Zachary also talk about the importance of proximity, flexibility, and human relationships in building sustainable businesses, plus why consumers have a role to play in supporting the local places they want to exist.

Not From Concentrate is distributed by PRX and produced by Catherine Smart, with audio and video production by Kevin O’Connell and Asia Garcia. Our associate producer is Allie Miller.

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Not From Concentrate is a food podcast for busy brains from host Catherine Smart — a cook, writer, mom, and creative entrepreneur with ADHD.

Tune in for conversations with chefs, authors, creators, and food lovers about sparking creativity, calming chaos, and finding joy in (and out) of the kitchen + subscribe to the Not From Concentrate newsletter on Substack

This week on Not From Concentrate, Catherine Smart talks with freelance baker Mackenzie Innis about the artistry, logistics, and emotional weight behind her beautiful seasonal cakes.

Mackenzie shares how she moved from fine dining pastry kitchens to building Ceres, a freelance baking business rooted in local ingredients, florals, seasonality, and deeply personal celebrations. She talks about translating clients’ food memories into wedding cakes, sourcing from New England farms, growing flowers in Somerville, and finding inspiration in bakeries, gardens, mythology, and community.

Catherine and Mackenzie also get into the less-glamorous but essential parts of creative solopreneurship: email, bookkeeping, client communication, systems, structure, and managing a busy brain while running a business.

For listeners interested in ADHD creativity, this conversation is about what it really takes to turn beauty, skill, and intuition into a sustainable creative practice. And because Not From Concentrate is a food podcast for busy brains, they also talk about ADHD cooking, calming kitchen chaos, slowing down, edible flowers, Boston-area bakeries, wedding cake etiquette, and why cake can still matter in complicated times.

Not From Concentrate is a food podcast for busy brains from host Catherine Smart — a cook, writer, mom, and creative entrepreneur with ADHD.

Tune in for conversations with chefs, authors, creators, and food lovers about sparking creativity, calming chaos, and finding joy in (and out) of the kitchen + subscribe to the Not From Concentrate newsletter on Substack