Eight Tons And Counting – Why Send A Friend Lasagna is Booming

I just saw you on TV. I want to order a lasagna. And I'm like, "Oh my god, what's happening?"

She has sold eight tons of lasagna. That's insane.

Someone you know right now has something going on. Food is where it's at.

How did you go from this is a crazy idea to like actually making lasagna for people?

From South Bin to Evansville and everywhere in between, this is Get In, the show focused on the Hoosier State and the incredible stories happening here today. I'm Nate Spangle, founder of Get Indiana, and I will be your host for today's conversation. Before we get into the show, Arberine is Indiana's first aggrahood and wellness lifestyle community, and it's unlike anything else in the Hooer State. This is an upscale custom home neighborhood located in Center Grove. But it's more than that. It's a new kind of community, one that's been carefully crafted to cultivate connection to people, to nature, and to a more active and intentional lifestyle.

Picture rolling terrain, timeless design, trails, open spaces. It's elegant, peaceful, and designed for families, business owners, and empty nesters who are done with the noise, and ready to live with purpose. Arberine isn't just a place to call home. It's a community to join. Go to arberdineliving. com to schedule a visit.

Now, let's get into the episode. Today, I'm joined by Stephanie Epic Daily, founder and heart behind Send a Friend Lasagna. This is an indiebased delivery service that brings freshlymade lasagnas right to your doorstep. Now, she's a former insurance exec that turned culinary entrepreneur. Stephanie took a leap of faith after her personal loss and career pivots to build a business rooted in healing through food. I'm so excited to learn about uh the causes that that led you up to starting Send Friend Lasagna.

Uh how you've been growing the business over the past few years. And at the end, we're bringing in the Get Indiana staff to do a live on air lasagna taste test.

I mean, that's the best part of this whole thing, right?

So, you have to stick around. That's the thing. You You have to stick around. And we're going to taste test. We're going to bring the the guys in. So, recently, um, both of Shane and Robert started. First day was on Monday.

Oh, this is great. So, we're like now a real team.

Oh, we're like blowing their minds right now.

They're like, "We get to come on the show and taste lasagna. Let's go." I mean, lasagna has just like been a staple food in so many people's lives. It's very much like I always said it was like a labor of love. Like when my mom made lasagna, it's like undertaking. Let's say that, right? You like cuz we wouldn't like just throw something in the the oven. It was like you have to make the noodles and then the layer and then the sauce and then the layer and then the cheese and then the this that. Like I don't even know the full recipe, but I know that it took a lot of work.

It takes a long time. It's a It is a labor of love for sure.

Yeah. So, take us back. What made you want to even like where did you start baking lasagna?

Well, I don't bake them. I just make them.

Oh, it's not baking.

No, I don't consider that baking. I mean, baking is like a scientific thing. This is food to me and I just put it in the oven.

Okay, that's fair. So, where did lasagna first make an impact in your life?

I remember my grandmother making lasagna for family dinners. I mean, we used to get together almost every weekend, it seemed, at my mom's parents' house and the whole family and sometimes we would do, you know, all kinds of stuff. Sometimes we'd have steak, but a lot of time we did Italian. We loved Italian food and lasagna was definitely part of it.

Yeah. Okay. So, lasagna at grandma's house. And then as you kind of like grew up, I mean, you're going through doing some insurance stuff. Where was the moment where and I know at the moment is we did a little bit of research like you made a lasagna for a grieving friend and it like starts it sparked this whole thing.

So talk talk us through that.

Actually I was working in digital med marketing before I started while I started the lasagna business. I had a friend who lost his wife. She was very young colon cancer. I hate cancer. And it was horrible you know and she had a little boy. I think he might have been three at the time. just a bad situation, right? And anytime anything any like that happened, like my mom would call and say, "Hey, so and so broke their leg or something like that. Can you send them a lasagna?" Um, you know, so and so's mom died. Can you make a lasagna and take it over to him? Now,

where where did that come? Like, is that just part of your family? Is this what you

It's just our culture. I mean, that's just we always have healed through food. I mean, we put our hearts in it and it just

that's how we it's our love language, I guess, is is food, giving food to people.

And it was and your mom though is the one that kind of said like it was the las make them dinner, whatever. It was make them a lasagna.

Make it make your lasagna. Yeah. I mean, everybody loved my lasagna, you know. Okay. So, I kind of got past my grandmother, my mom always made it, too, but I kind of took up the wheel and started making it myself. So,

and so you make it for a friend who was grieving the loss of his wife. Where did the idea for the business like where did that spark for you?

Went home immediately after the celebration of life they had for her. My cousin happened to be at my house and my husband was home and I said something about sending a lasagna or making a lasagna for a friend and she goes, "That sounds like a business." And I was like, "No." And so I was thinking about it and I was like, "How could I do that? It was just such an interesting concept. And then I immediately thought of Papa Murphy's. They had that take and bake place and I like their pizza. So, um I thought, how would I I could make the lasagnas fresh and then I could deliver them to people or maybe they could pick up. I don't know. I I'm just like playing around with it, right?

Yeah.

And so I was still working my full-time job.

What were you doing? What was your full-time job?

A social media manager. Okay.

So, yeah. for an agency here in town, Sapphire Strategy. Shout out to them.

Shout out. Okay.

Um, and you know, I've always been into food. I mean, I love like the competitive shows and I love like Bobby Fle and you know, Chopped and I've always been so interested in food and my grandparents owned a restaurant that I just kind of ran around in.

What restaurant?

It was called Dunham's Prime Time.

Dunham's Prime. Where was that at?

It was in Caramel off of Rangeline Road.

Dunham's Prime Time. Okay. So you you kind of grew up around around

I ground Yeah, I grew up around the scene. I love the chaos of it. It's just like, you know, all crazy.

I'm currently reading um Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain

Bourdain or whatever. It's crazy. You talk about especially like this is like the 70s and 80s in the restaurant and in New York and I'm just like holy smokes.

Oh yeah, there were some things. There was a guy that worked for my grandparents and told me and my younger sister we he was going to go up to his spaceship every you know up on top of the restaurant there was a spaceship and he was going to go and he'd be back tomorrow and I was like okay that's cool. I didn't know that he was like doing mushrooms and going

Yeah. that you know sometimes it be like that it's serving people is uh

it's an interesting well cuz like you're you're always working when everyone else is having fun.

Like the best shifts are like Friday Saturday nights you know like they put the best cooks and the best chefs and the best servers and the best bartenders. Like you want the busiest nights. So, while everyone else is having fun, like you're helping aid them in their fun.

No, but there's so much joy for me in doing that. And for people that have had my lasagna, just knowing that I've been there watching them eat it and they had that experience and it's like, I know it's really good.

Let's go. I love it.

I'm like, I know it's really good.

At what moment did you realize that you were like talented, a talented lasagna artist?

I always just I don't know. There's something deeper the way I feel about food in general now since I started Sunder friend Lasagna. Someone you know right now has something going on. I mean something somebody you know and you're like I don't know what to do. I I want to say you know I don't want to send a card. That's weird. Flowers is weird. Food is where it's at. I can send them some food and they don't have to worry about dinner for a couple nights. When someone's grieving or somebody's, you know, lost a pet or when somebody's overjoyed because they just had a baby, lasagna, man.

Yeah.

You get somebody lasagna and just gets in your heart.

Yeah. It's like and it's it's just a little different like because especially when think back to it like meal trains and that kind of stuff where it was like you know the the labor of love that goes into making a lasagna like you drop off a ham sandwich like come on

but it's like making a lasagna. Okay, so here's the thing. So many people like every day a million people maybe not that many but like have a business idea and are like you know what you know what we should do is we should sell these you know like that's exact you should you should quit your job and start a a lasagna making company and then it's like

you know maybe you wake up the next day and you're like that was fun maybe we had a few too many beers but like let's let's keep rolling right so how did you go from this is a crazy idea to like actually making lasagna for people.

So, I talked to Mel McMahon. I was talking to her. We've been friends for a long time. And she said I said, "What do you think of this idea?"

So, you're you were talking with Mel from Indiana Gifts.

I always kind of bounce things off of her because she'll bounce we bounce things off of each other and I'll be like, "What do you think about this?" And she'll be like, "What do you think about this?" So, I asked her that day. I said, "I want her to start this lasagna business." And she's like, "Tell me more about that." And so I just kind of explained to her, you know, I have a family recipe. You know, I can I can make lasagnas, you know, for people who are having babies, for people who are grieving. Food is just like love to me. And she was like, I think that's great. How could you do that, though? And I was like, well, could you help me? Cuz back then she was on indie style back when indie style was indie now used to be indie style

like this is like daytime television or what like lifestyle shows or whatever. Okay. Got like a Wish TV show.

Yeah.

Gotcha.

So Mel was like, "I'm going on Indie Style. You want to come with me and bring a lasagna?" And I'm like, "Yeah." So I registered my LLC. I didn't know I was doing. And I was like, "Maybe I'll just make a Facebook page." So I uh asked one of my co-workers to make me a graphic for my send a friend lasagna business, which I mean, I don't know what I'm doing. And so I go on TV with Mel and Tracy Foreigner was there and he goes, "This is the most original Indiana original idea I have ever heard of." And I thought, "Well, okay. I got it. I got something going on here."

Tons of planning, tons of preparation went into this. Like this is a we have a business plan. We have this is an established business that we've been doing this for a long time.

I've been doing it forever. I've been doing it for four days.

You have been doing the the thing that the action like the rep of sending friends lasagna.

Yes. My whole life.

Yeah. Yeah. So, you go on Wish TV in Indie, what's it called? Indie now. Indie style. Indie style.

It used to be indie style. But now, yeah, it would considered indie now. Anyway,

you go on there and like

they're interviewing you. How do you like keep it together to be like

I don't know. It was they they were like, "What a great idea." And I was like, "Yeah, I just make them fresh and then we deliver them to your door." And they were like, "Wow, lasagna delivery to your door for anybody." And I'm like, "Yep, we'll get we'll, you know, here's our delivery area." I mean, I'm thinking as I'm going here, right? Delivery area 465 inside and then outside 465 like Caramel Officials, Nobleville, Greenwood, you know, Brownsburg, places like that, right? And so I gave out a discount code which was so incredibly dumb at in the moment now that I look back at it. I mean it started it it sparked it but I was like what was I thinking?

How big of a discount code?

I gave them 20% off.

Okay. How many And did you tell them how to order? You're like well go to our Facebook the Facebook

No. I had a I had like a website like a very small website.

So you had they could order on a website now. Okay. So that's good. That's like you have a Facebook page,

but it wasn't like official official. It was just like here's a lasagna you can choose.

What year is this?

2019.

Okay. So, like is it like a Shopify site or something like that? It's like here's a lasagna. Tell us where to like take it to. How many how many people ordered lasagna that day?

I think 50

50 discounted lasagnas. And like at that point, you get out of there, are you like jacked up or are you like

I was like, "Oh my god, what did I do?" So, I didn't even have a kitchen, a commercial kitchen yet. So, I was doing this out of my house at night when I got home from work.

Who was the first order? Like, who was the first person that you didn't know that spent money with you?

The very first person who ordered on my website was Adam Hampton. He he owns Hampton Designs in Irvington. And he was my very first order.

And did he order for himself?

Yes.

Okay. So, so you knew the site worked. He collected people's money. Did you tell them like how long it's going to be till you get

Well, there was a calendar so they could schedule when they wanted it delivered. So, I only had like 10 a day that I could possibly make. Yeah.

So, if I reach 10, then it would go to the next day.

Like early on, what was like the pricing for a lasagna? Like on

30

30 bucks.

So, 30 for it delivered.

Uh the delivery charges have always been $10 inside and 15 outside for 65. So it was like you're paying 40 bucks to get it delivered to your door with inside 465.

But then you gave him 20% off.

Yeah.

And you have 50 orders to fulfill. So you walk off that show. I mean the hits are only like 6 minutes long if that. Right. Maybe less. Totally.

So you walk out of there and you like look down at your phone and you have like a bunch of like Shopify notifications or whatever.

Mhm. My phone's ringing and I'm like what's going on? And they I mean people will just call, right? Because you have the website, you have the phone number. They'll go, "I want to order a lasagna." And I'm like, "What? I just saw you on TV. I want to order a lasagna." And I'm like, "Oh my god, what's happening?" And then my phone's like beeping, pinging, you know, and I'm like,

little Shopify notific. You're like, "Heck yeah." Like in that moment, how were you feeling?

Uh, like I was going to throw up. I don't know. I was overjoyed and terrified at the same time.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So, you get out of there, you're on the phone, you're like, you know, you get all that sorted out. some customer service like

you have your kitchen.

My kitchen

and

making lasagna until like 3:00 in the morning.

Shut up. Oh yeah.

How long does it take you to make one

or like how do you make like what's the process? Is it like you batch at that point? So it's probably it's definitely way different now. But at that point you're just in a normal person's kitchen

making sauce.

Just making sauce. Like you go out and buy the biggest pan you can possibly fit or

I had well I had a little blue pan that I started with and I got bigger to a bigger pan and then when I moved into my kitchen I had access to all these like huge pans and stuff. So yeah, but yeah it was old school stuff.

So how long were you making them out of your kitchen at home? not very long because I got it just it kind of was like people were asking me and I was like I don't I can't store all this stuff at my house. Yeah. Because I offered different lasagnas

like and how quickly did it become like I say in the most polite way like a real business like versus like a side hustle making lasagna versus like this is a real business.

July I think of 2019 where I did the indie style thing.

Is it this is precoid too?

Yeah. This is all pre-COVID. Yeah. cuz I told my husband one day I was like I have to do this. I have to do this lasagna business. I don't know why but I have to do it and if I don't I will regret it for the rest of my life. And he was like okay you can do it. I'm like hell yeah. And so I I didn't know what I was doing but

Oh none of no one does. Figured out.

So I was like okay. And so I gave my notice and uh I

What they say to you? Were they like you're crazy?

No. Jen. So, Jen Leack is the owner of Sapphire Strategy and she worked for um her boss and she went out on her own and so she understood the wanting to do your own thing, wanting to go out on your own. She was just like, "Food, lasagna? I mean, you're a really good cook." And I goes like, "Yeah, but just lasagna." And she's like, "Okay." She was very supportive. I mean, she's like, "Go for it." And I'm like, "Well, that's what I'm doing." So,

heck yeah. November 1st is uh Cinder Lasagna's official official first day in business.

Okay. So you were did it from July, August, September, October, you know, kind of like

nights and weekends that piece of I mean literally we looked at said you were making lasagnas till 3:30 in the morning and then going to work at 8.

Mhm.

Like that's incredible.

Crazy.

So after 4 months you were doing well, but like are people coming back? How was word spread?

Yeah. I mean but it was it was slow, you know? I mean got that big burst from indie style but then you know you have to be consistent on your Facebook page. I mean I worked in digital media so I know all that stuff.

Like how many orders are you doing a month at that point?

My goal was 30.

If you could be like if I can make 30 las

my goal in the beginning I have it my notebook written down. My my business plan my goal was to make 30 lasagnis every month.

So you have obviously you have the launch you have the first one you like 50 but then like month two

10. What got you to the point where you It wasn't based on demand that you're like, I gotta quit my job and do this. It was like, I want to go build this,

right?

So, November came and I was in Indy's kitchen and I I was legit kitchen. I had all the things I could think.

So, you had like you had moved over to a commercial kitchen by that point. Okay, cool.

Yeah, I think I did earlier. I just don't remember exactly when, but I got a phone call from somebody who had had one of my lasagnas and they were like, "Do you do big orders?" And I was like, "Yeah, yeah, of course, of course I do. One man operation here, right?"

Um, "How many lasagnas do you want?" They're like, "2. Can you get them, you know, to us in, you know, next weekend?" I'm like, "Yeah, yeah, I can." So, I mean, I started getting like referrals like that for big orders. Um, and that was really fun around like Christmas time. I have some uh realer guys that I've been with from the very beginning. They've ordered lasagnas for all of their people. And it's just awesome, you know? It's nice to have that.

Like the delivery piece of it though, like getting all that done, it has to be like like making if the thing was like you got to just sit in

You're not going to believe this. I mean, I made them. I grocery shopped. I made them and I delivered them for three and a half years by myself. That's insane.

Okay. And like give us a rough example like early on the goal is to get the third even making 30 in unique deliveries in a month like is and being like charming and smiling and like you know whatever cuz you might be pulling up to you know it could be grieving like you're pulling up with people that um may have like come back from a celebration of life or something. So like reading the room there and like here's your lasagna. This is from zones and so like

man. So you went from 30 a month to like at the peak before you had other help. Like what was the most you did in a month by yourself?

Probably like 45 to 50 probably.

Okay. Cuz you how many delivery slots did you have?

We deliver so Monday through Saturday and then only 10 deliveries per day.

So the most you ever could have done was 60 if you had if you had six days in a row of 10. But you also do it. Yeah, I could do it.

Okay. So, you hang up the phone and like how you

I'm like, "Oh my god, what do I do?" So, yeah, I got it done though. It was great. And

did you have like friends or people that would come over and help you?

My best friend. Yeah. She came in. I mean,

isn't that so much fun to have like someone like to help you out like that?

Yeah. I mean, she knew. She was a she was a stay-at-home mom at the time, and I was like, "I need you." And we've been friends since we were seven years old. Oh, man.

So, when I call and say, "I need you." She's like, "All right, let's go." So,

yeah, she would help me. Um, her kids would help deliver. They were um one of them was at driving age, you know, she helped me deliver sometimes. I mean, it was a it was a team effort. I mean, for real. I mean, my husband, Mr. I mean,

Mr. D. Mr. D. Come on, let's go.

Thank God for Mr. D. No, he's he's a great I mean, he's been so helpful and supportive throughout this whole thing.

So, from 2019, well, and everyone knows there was a a large uh global pandemic that was put in the middle there. You were growing your business from November, December. You feeling good? Like January, February comes around, you're like, "Okay, we're growing." You know,

we're growing, you know, we're doing all right for a small business, you know? I think we're doing good.

Then the world shuts down.

The whole world shuts down and I was like,

I don't know what to do.

And so they started talking about essential workers. And I thought, well, I'm an essential worker, right? Because I'm making food and delivering food to people. So I just said, "We'll deliver lasagna to your house." Contact free delivery. We wore masks. We w wore gloves. We did the whole thing. And uh it just took off like a rocket.

Like even more that. So then the lasagna like it started to like really blow up.

Yeah. People were like, "Laznagna? Really?" And I'm like, "Yeah, really."

Like I mean that's way better than Door Dash. Like

Right.

You know, or at least it's a good shakeup of things, you know, like say you've had all the local restaurants or whatever delivered to your house. like, oh, like a little baked lasagna, you know, like we have to do a little bit of just a little bit of work. Like it's it's just a

like you have to open your oven.

Yeah. It's like, but like you could like totally like I would do this is what I would do. This might I might have to do this. Invite someone over for dinner and like, oh yeah, I'm just making lasagna like like you know,

I don't care. Claim it.

Yeah, exactly. Oh my gosh.

Just keep buying it.

Just keep buying it. Right. U Okay. So you co happens and it starts to just go gang busters. Yeah, that was wild. That was a wild time. I remember looking for ground beef and because ground beef was hard to get period during co plus it was $60 for 10 lb. $60. It's like $39 right now. Oh.

So, I was paying $60 for 10 pounds gra.

Is it hard to manage costs that go

during then? It was ridiculous. I mean, you just couldn't. And I had to buy three or I needed five because I had to make so many lasagnas and you could only buy three. So I had my husband, my mom out black marketing buying

ground beef,

ground beef and lasagna noodles because we we could we had limits on everything.

Yeah. This episode was brought to you by our friends at Greeks Pizza. Greeks has been a great partner of mine. If you remember, Zensville owner Mike Cole broke the world record for fastest marathon with a pizza. Guy was flying. I love Greeks. Next time you're in the mood for pizza, go to greepizzeria.com. They have locations all across the state. I frequent the location in South Broad. Great tap room there. But they have locations everywhere. They've been doing this since 1968. Over 55 years in business. Go to greeks pizzeria.com. Order pizza today. Obviously, your grandparents owned a restaurant. So, like, but the idea of like learning pricing and delivery fees and food costs and like I think that's the number one thing like first time entrepreneurs and founders see is like you always kind of at least from what I see like they price really really low

and where they do too big of a discount. So, like how did you learn about that and like learn about food cost and how you needed to set your prices and all that stuff?

My husband's an engineer. I am not good at math. I don't math but he's good. And I was looking, I mean, we literally like sat down and looked at receipts and I was like, I want to provide an excellent product for a reasonable price. And I think that people will appreciate that.

Yeah.

Did some add and subtract and divide and multiplied and came up with $30 for a meat and cheese lasagna.

Has the price been the same since the beginning?

Uh, no. It's it's gone up over the years. Yeah. I mean, it's like 40 $39.99 now.

Yeah. And then you have your $10 delivery, $15 if you're outside. Where are you based out of now?

So, I'm based out of Beach Grove. It's called the Kitchen Corner and I have a you know nice little back kitchen that I work in from 8 until like two every day.

That's awesome. Yeah. Like uh and you have more people helping you out.

Yeah, I have um two employees, one full-time, one part-time, and then I have a um delivery driver, a dedicated delivery driver.

So, four teams total into four now,

right? And is it all central Indiana?

Yeah.

Is there like a plan like do you want to have more send a friend lasagnas? Do you want to like do you do you like ship can you ship a lasagna? How does that work?

You can. I'm trying to figure that out as right now. So yeah, we're trying we're we're figuring that out. But I teamed up with Market Wagon. So my expan I expanded that. So that was um you can go to Bloomington now Lafayette. No way.

Muny Cooko down to like Connorsville. I mean like all over the place. So,

well, okay. So, so Market Wagon, they're like the virtual farmers market kind of, right? And so, they'll deliver all these like nice produce or lasagna or whatever to people's houses. Did when did you get teamed up with them?

I mean, like 3 months ago.

Okay. And how's that done?

It's going great.

It's really going great. So if you had to think through since 2019 when you started it like big inflection points where like things got crazy and then like you figured it out like what are there a few more like so you had co well you first had the 25 lasagna order

then you had co where everyone's like what did that do to your business over the course of the next few months there? I mean, I grew it because nobody wanted to go anywhere, right? And so when COVID hit in March, you know, I was delivering, I was getting the word out, but I did a promotion for Mother's Day because nobody could see their moms. And so I did a lasagna and I teamed up with a florist and we did flesh fresh flower bouquets as a package and it blew up because nobody could see anybody and it was reasonably priced, you know. I think it was 50 bucks

for both of those. Yeah. And so I mean it was just great. I mean people loved it.

How people learning about you?

Referrals, social media, big time social media stuff.

Did you have like like what were the social media campaigns that like got people excited?

I mean anytime on on indie style people get excited or not indie style indie now they just get excited about that. Or um you know I've gotten written up in Indianapolis Monthly a couple times this year so that's been really cool. Um, I'm actually one of the uh 50 under 50 or 50 over 50 in Indianapolis monthly. The uh edition will come out in July.

I'm pumped.

Let's get the I love the hashtag the lasagna lady. Yep.

That's what a badge of honor that is.

I am.

Um, as you think back, right, like growing a business is fun. Figuring out these challenges are fun.

Yeah,

it's scary.

It's scary. 6 years later, as you think back to growing the business, getting your own kitchen, is there a moment that stands out as like your single proudest moment of the whole thing

when CO was still happening? I remember that my goal was to do 30 lasagnas, you know, a month. And I said I wanted to do 500 lasagnas by May. And I did it. 500 total lasagnas. I've had 500 total lasagna orders by May. And your original goal was 30 a month. Do that like math out. That would have been like 300. That would have been 360 in a year. You're when you first started this thing, you're like, if I could just if I could sell 360 lasagnas, we'd be killing it.

Yeah.

And now

And now

500 lasagnas before May in 4 months.

Yeah.

Congratulations. That's awesome.

I was delivering downtown to the Indie 11 building actually. Yeah. Yeah. And I can't remember her name, but I can see her face. She's on my Instagram page cuz she's holding a 500 little

number 500

sign that I made, but um it was a ghost town. It was like nobody was downtown. And we were like the only people down there. And I was like, "You're my 500th order of ever."

Oh, back then. And like how long how long did it take you to get to 500? So when I officially started November of 2019, so then to May

Oh yeah.

of 2020. So

Wow. Yeah.

Wow. That's so awesome. Like to get to 500 within within the first year is crazy.

And then I was like, I'm going to do 1,000 lasagnas. And I did 1,000 lasagnas before the end of uh December

of that year. So then you really ended up like almost 1,000 in your first year.

Yeah, I did a thousand. So like now like how many lasagnas do you send out in the world in the year what is it 2025

a month?

Yeah. A month or just in general like how much?

125 to 150 lasagnas.

So you're over like a So you're well over a thousand lasagnas a year now.

Yeah.

Oh my gosh.

You're talking how many pounds? Like I think it was like 16,000 pounds of lasagna last year.

What's like the That's actually if you do the math right tons.

Yeah.

Eight. She has sold eight tons of lasagna. That's insane.

Isn't it wild?

That's so fun. Um, and it's just like one of these businesses that like what I love about it is it started with that's a good idea.

And then but again, I go back to like the original statement that so many people have good ideas like, "Oh yeah, that's a good idea. You should do that." And then, you know, you go on with your own way. You keep working your job and you never like take any action for it.

I know. So, if you had advice to people that sit Friday night, you know, dinner conversation, maybe they're drinking a beer or whatever, and they're like, you know, we should do XYZ, what's the what's the advice for them to like actually make it happen?

If you feel it in your heart, and if you feel it in your soul, then you should absolutely do it. And don't let anybody tell you that you can't because I am here to tell you, you absolutely can. Like I think a lot of them are scared or like you know it's nerve-wracking to go quit your job and become #the lasagna lady.

Almost 50 when I started you. I reinvented myself completely. I mean I spent 13 years in insurance. I spent 10 years in digital media marketing and now I'm the lasagna lady

and now she slings eight tons of lasagna.

I sure do.

I love that.

Thank you. Just like I like love the visual representation of thinking about a legitimately like a ton of like 2,000 pounds of lasagna. It's so cool.

Um yeah. So reinvent yourself like you I mean yeah being you said you're going to be featured in Indie Monthly for 50 over 50.

50 over 50. Yeah.

Like that's incredible. People think

I would have thought I would have never

Well, and like people get to be 50 and they like maybe put it into neutral and like they're like okay cool. I'm just like going to coast and then I'll retire and then I'll just chill at the lake house or whatever.

Not me.

Yeah. I I think it's so inspiring. The one thing I will say it's like, yeah, when you're in your 20s, like with the the 18-year-old that quits their job to start a business is like they get a lot of the love and the praise and it's cool or whatever, but like you know, being 50 and being willing to like still run a small business and grow a small business and take on risk and employees and like the headache and the heartache and all the things like when you're 18, you could just like your business could fail and you could restart and like wake up mom and dad and it's still cool.

It's like you Yeah. Right. like you're no one's going to be like upset and it's like I would say like less embarrassing to fail when you're 18. But then when you're at 50 and you like put yourself out there,

you're like there's like a lot of like you know you have to be an adult and you have adult things and probably like a mortgage and all the things. So I I that's just the utmost respect to be willing to like take that on and like

be like crushing it.

I think it's so cool.

It's like a dream.

What's the goal you have for send a friend lasagna? I've done the same thing for so long and I've been working with Carrie Abbott.

Who's Carrie Abbott?

Carrie Abbott is she was the owner of New Fangled Confections and uh the best chocolate in town and she's doing consulting. So um I'm working with her and I'm so excited because I said this year is my growth year. This year is going to be the year that we really stretch. Like the market wagon thing was a stretch for me. I can't even say it. I'm going to start uh doing bread sticks. And it doesn't sound like a big thing to you guys, but I have refused

for this whole time. I'm like, no bread sticks, just lasagna. I'm only doing lasagna. It's stupid to be that way. I got to think outside of the box.

I think that like early on it's super important. You were hyperfocused like we are going to make the best lasagna, deliver the best lasagna. Like we are the hashtag lasagna lady. But then yeah, as you continue to go on, it's like you either have to, if you want to continue to grow your business, you either have to think of like how do I get to new markets and new cities or new places or how do I increase our order size

and so like bread sticks, it was just like this was like a common request.

Yeah. Okay.

Yeah. People be like, "You don't have any salar bread sticks?" And I'm like, "No, just lasagna." Because I'm like, "You can go get bread sticks." But then I'm like, "Why am I taking away the convenience factor of using my business?" Yeah. I mean, why not?

So, where when do

they launch them? On Monday.

Monday.

Yeah.

You heard it here. Breaking news. They are now send a friend a send a friend lasagna and bread sticks.

Yes. Heck

yeah.

I can't believe it.

I love it. That's That's awesome.

There's something else. Oh my god.

We're going to offer this tiny lasagna. It's like this big. A little lasagna, a single serve. In my book, it's a single serve and other people's whatever. But and two bread sticks. It's it's going to be our summer offer for 15 bucks

delivered.

Yeah.

Like you're getting it to my door for 15 bucks.

Well, you have to pay delivery. Okay.

But yeah.

So you can just like have it for a single meal.

Two bread sticks and lasagna. Come on. This you're you're trying new things.

I'm trying new things. And somebody like

Do I have to bake Do I have to bake the little one? Yeah. Okay. So it comes and I have to throw it in the oven and then I'm good to go. Okay. I'm here for that. Do you ever get feedback from that of like people like the instruction was that like hard to like let them know the right instructions?

No. Easy. What's is there ever feedback that you get that like as you went through the um the business process where like you had to like educate them? It's like it's 45. It's not 35 minutes, it's 45 minutes at 350. Like make sure you stick to it.

Yeah. I mean the directions are right here on them. So

it's like I always like wonder like someone's like my lasagna was cold in the middle. It's like whose fault is that buddy?

Okay. Well, get out your thermometer and make it temp to 165 degrees and you're good to go.

Yeah, I love it. U Okay. Wow. So, new things are coming out.

Uh and now with Market Wagon, your your delivery area has expanded.

That's so so so cool. The one thing that we haven't really talked about, we've been talking about growing a business, a lot of stuff, impact that it makes in in your customers. Obviously, it makes an impact in their stomach,

but like the impact that it actually makes in lives, like when people whether they're celebrating

or they're grieving or they're just having a hard time,

like the gesture of someone being considerate enough to send them a lasagna.

It makes an impact.

Do you get feedback like that a lot?

I've had so many people like, "Oh my god, I love your service so much. It's just so easy and I know people are going to love it and it's awesome." I've, you know, stood in the middle of the street hugging a grieving mother because she had just lost a child.

Like you were on a delivery there

and you like found out she had lost a child. And

I mean,

and yeah, she's been a customer forever. I've had her forever. She's wonderful. I mean, I I'm an extension of those two people's relationship, right? So, they care enough to send this person a lasagna. I have to care enough to make sure that it's perfect, that it tastes good, and that they feel the love that is in this pan of lasagna.

I love it. I love it so much. Well, I think that we need to feel the love that's inside that pan. Robert, you want you want to swing the door open and get Shane in here? Let's go.

Let's eat some lasagna. What do you say, team? This is uh this is going to be a new segment on the podcast. It's called Friends Eat Lasagna. What are we sampling here?

Look at that glorious lasagna. Oh boy. All right, boys. You want to come in and you guys can take these two spots right here.

And All right, we're gonna So, we have Friends Eat Lasagna. Here we go.

Yeah.

Um, what do we got?

This is a meat and cheese. It is the classic. My most ordered.

Everyone loves the meat and cheese.

Yes.

Oh, man.

I mean, all of mine are really good. It's like the YouTube crowd. If you're watching on YouTube, you're going to get a Oh, yeah. It's never too early for lasagna.

Lasagna for breakfast. I mean, come on, man. Also, uh, listeners, welcome Robert fulltime. Shane full time. Welcome the new crew of Get Indiana. Here we go. All right. Cheers, Jensen. So excited.

Cheers. Yo,

that's fire. That's good. I was telling her quality lasagna

before we started, I just started eating lasagna like a year ago.

He said, no, the quote was, I just I recently got into lasagna.

Like what?

Okay. Oh my god.

So good though.

Thank you. Mhm.

That is phenomenal.

How many different recipes did you go through before you landed on this one?

This is like my grandmother's recipe and my mom's recipe, but and I tweaked it and just kind of made it my own.

Dude, what's the secret?

Love. Yeah,

dude. This is so good.

You got to love to do it, man.

What What is the process? How much? Like take us through as we're I'm going to eat my whole thing. And this is how you know if it's really good or not. Okay. You talk about like indie style or whatever like or any like lifestyle show. They'll take like one bite and say, "Oh, it's so good." Like here on Get We We finish our plates on Get In. Like I've eaten every ounce of this thing cuz we have nothing but time here. It's a podcast, baby. Um maybe a 28-year-old guy that wants to impress his girlfriend. So, I'm not going to I will make or I will buy lasagnas to give out to other people. But if I wanted to make lasagna, what's the process? How long do I need to block off on the calendar to make one at home?

At least an hour.

At least an plus baking time, right?

Well, yeah. Then that's two hours.

Two hours. So, what what do you have to do? Like I feel like making a great lasagna is a dying art.

Are you getting a can of sauce or you going to make your own sauce?

What do you do?

Oh, I make my own sauce.

Oh, how do you make the sauce? Yeah. Talk me through it.

Yeah, I make the sauce from scratch. as a date night.

You should give.

So good.

Send a friend a lasagna kit. Send a couple a lasagna kit.

Oh, that's fun.

I can do that. I'll make a little video. Okay, so if we wanted to make lasagna, what would I need to do?

You'd have to go buy crushed tomatoes and tomato sauce. And you would have to get uh parmesan. You would have to get mozzarella.

You would have to get fresh mozzarella. You would have to get garlic. You would have to get some red wine, olive oil, noodles, uh basil. too.

Onion powder.

Okay.

Mandarin.

Oh, okay.

I'm giving you my recipe. I don't care. You're not going to make it like me. So,

yeah.

Well, you're not telling how much of it either. Just a little bit of this, a little bit of that.

Yeah. And I throw in some other Italian spices. And then you have to cook the noodles in salted water. Heavily salted water. I'm not joking.

So, it starts with the noodles.

Yes.

First thing you do is cook noodles.

I would start the sauce. Get the sauce going and then you start with the noodles.

Okay. So, you cook the noodles to al dente, uh, cuz they're going to, you know, cook while they're in the pan. Rinse them off and then you get your sauce and you just start layering. Put a layer of sauce on the bottom. Lasagna noodle, layer of sauce.

How many layers are in the in

three?

Mhm.

I don't use ricotta in my sauce. I've only had one person say something about that and I'm like, I you know, I'm sorry. I'm not doing it.

Yeah. So,

I'm not joking when I say that this is the best lasagna I've ever tasted.

Oh my gosh.

Very, very good.

Thank you so much.

Very good.

And I people know me as a guy that hypes things up. Like, I'm always excited. I cannot think of a better lasagna that I've ever had. This is phenomenal.

Do you do you garden as well for any of your ingredients? Love that.

Thanks.

What all do you have in your garden?

Italian parsley, basil.

Dude, this is so good. Uh, this is our younger year segment. It's brought to you by our friends at Or Fellowship. They're a great organization here in Indiana helping develop young business leaders across the state.

Stephanie,

what advice would you give to your 22-year-old self?

Go after her dreams no matter what. I mean, if there's something you really want to do, you should just go for it. And don't be afraid of failing because I have failed more times than I can remember. But I've also gotten smarter every time I have failed.

You don't need to know what the end is. You're just figuring it out as you go. All right, we have some fun lightning round questions for you. What's on your playlist while you're cooking? Taylor Swift.

No way. Let's go.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Taylor Swift. Uh, the Beatles. Always the Beatles. Yeah.

I can just see like here comes the sun. Come on. There we go. Taking it out. J, what's what's on your cooking playlist?

A little older than you. So, I'm listening to the Lincoln Park.

Heck yeah.

Like comes out and he's like

old. Wait a minute. So, like older Lincoln Park. Chester Lincoln Park. early 2000.

I saw them like five times.

That was the first concert I ever went to.

Oh, that's super cool. Minneapolis.

That doesn't That doesn't seem like a very like cooking playlist, but I love it.

I respect it. I respect it. If you could send a lasagna to any celebrity, famous person, athlete, anyone,

who would you want to try your lasagna?

I would want Bobby Fle to try my lasagna.

Bobby, you got to try this lasagna.

Has anyone ever asked to carry your lasagna like on their restaurant menu? Um, I've had a few restaurants feature one like we've done popups and they've been fun. So, I mean, where did you do pop-ups at?

Um, I did a popup at Just Pop in one time.

That would be really cool.

And I did like first Fridays when I was first starting out. I did First Fridays back in the day. So,

Oh, I could It would be hard to like forecast like how many you need to bring, but we do like uh what is it? Fourth,

no, third Thursdays here in Broadripple. And I could just see you. It's like, "Hey, we're going to bring 50 lasagnas or whatever." And it's like they would for sure sell out.

They're so stinking good. But the hard part then is also like you're at like a farmers market type thing and you have a frozen lasagna like you kind of have to like go home. Did you ever do farmers markets like normal ones?

I'm actually thinking about it now.

I know the we had the the caramel farmers market on and they have uh some pretty cool vendors, but that would be a fun one cuz in that period it's like if you go you're probably spending an hour at the farmers market. You might get some other produce that you have to get home pretty quickly so you can make sure it gets back.

Okay. When you're not eating lasagna, what's the go-to food?

I'm gonna go to Sakuras after this and get sushi.

Yes. Okay. That place is fire. And there's been a ton of famous people that have gone through there and loved it, too. Sakuras.

Sakura is so good. A lot of people give everyone the advice that like the restaurant, the food business is hard.

It's extremely hard.

And a lot of people say, "Don't even waste your time doing that." Like what would you say like what's your if there's a kid out there maybe that that wants to build a restaurant or work in the food industry what would you say to that?

You have to be a little crazy like seriously you have to be a little nuts to work in this industry but it is the most rewarding thing. I mean it really is serving other people seeing you guys' smiles on your face when you ate my lasagna. It's worth it.

Yeah. I mean, it definitely helps if you're like really good at making something like if you make the world's best corn dog or whatever it is. Like this is legitimately a like I'm this was not a paid appearance. Like this is not advertising. I would disclose this. Like we had advertisers throughout the episode, but like this was just um Alli Bratnacker, shout out to Ally, connected us and said, "You need to have Stephanie on to try this lasagna." Um so I will I will upfront say that that we were not paid for this endorsement. Uh, this is just a really stinking good lasagna. Oh my gosh. So, you'd say you have to be a little bit crazy.

Watch The Bear. The first season of The Bear is uh most accurate season or accurate show I've ever seen about cooking and being in a restaurant.

What was What's so good about it?

It's like real life. It's like things that actually happen in the kitchen, not just like Gordon Ramsay screaming at his, you know, people cuz he overcooked their scallops. I mean,

he has like a little You're an idiot sandwich.

You're an idiot sandwich. Got to be a little crazy. If you want to be really creative, too, if you love because food is art. I mean, I feel like sometimes that I'm like painting but only with sauce. Yeah. You know,

sometimes people think to make like the most special recipe, you need a million ingredients. And it's like the true art, again, I'm talked about reading this book. He's like the true art is like if you could are given five things or 10 things like five ingredients, 10 ingredients and being able to create something magical where like less is actually more. Like that's pretty cool.

Yeah. That's why I love watching Chopped because you get, you know, into it and you see what their basket items are and what they come up with and then me and my cousin will like watch it together. We'll be like, "Oh, they should have done this or oh, I would have done that or," you know, it's just very creative. If you got to go on any of those shows,

I would definitely go on Beat Bobby Fle.

On Beat Bobby Fle.

I would.

That'd be so cool.

I think I I think I'd beat him

with lasagna.

Mhm.

That would be such a fun episode.

It was so cool when Steve Oakley beat him. Steve Oakley here in Indiana. Oakley.

Steve Oakley.

Oakley's Beastro.

Where's that at?

Off of 86th Street. And did

he went on Beat Bobby Fle and beat Bobby Fle.

And beat Bobby Fle with a shrimp corn dog.

Shrimp corn dog. Beat Bobby Fle.

I'm telling you, those shrimp corn dogs are amazing. Are they on his Are they on his menu?

Yeah.

Steven Oakley was the winner of Beat Bobby Fle. Yeah,

that's pretty sick.

It was pretty cool.

Wow. We're going to have to go there and check it out.

This guy beat Bobby Fle. That'll be a great video. As we kind of wrap out, we have three questions that we ask every single guest who comes on the show.

Okay.

Uh the first one, what's something the world needs to know about Indiana?

We are all inherently good people. People just have a hard time showing it. And that's why I love doing what I do because this there's no hate in this. This is just all love.

It's all love.

It's all love. Things are crazy right now. Let's just give each other a little grace. Say hello to a stranger when you walk by. They will smile.

Send your friend a lasagna.

Send your friend a lasagna.

This is your chance to shine a light on a part of Indiana that more people need to know about. What is a hidden gem in Indiana?

There's a guy named Billy. He owns Texas Boys Barbecue at Emerson in Churchman and it's some of the best barbecue I have ever had.

You know how you know it's really good is that the number one thing that shows up is his Facebook page,

right?

Is it like a food truck?

Yeah, it's a food truck.

No way.

Some of the best brisket, some of the best ribs. He makes his own sauce. Get this. He smokes lasagnas. He'll buy lasagnas from me and he'll put them on his smoker and smoke them. That's real good. Oh man. Okay. Texas Boys Barbecue.

The like tagline is treat yourself. I love that.

Come on. Okay. That's a good one. That's a really good It's the corner of Emerson and what?

Churchman.

Emerson and Churchman. Like on the east side.

Mhm.

Kind of over by Yeah. by Beach Grove. But yeah.

Heck yeah. All right. That's a good one. I've never got that one before, so I love getting a new one. Final. This is where you get to share the love with someone. Like this is where we get future guest recommendations or just people that we need to know about. Who's a Hoosier that we need to keep on our radar? someone who's doing big things.

Faith Blackwood. She's an artist. She has a place in the Stuts. She makes incredible art. She uses fun things like candy and um gummy bears, which I'm obsessed with. Um and you know, she does like the Broadripple Market. She's going to be at Penrod this year. Um she's had her art in the Indianapolis airport. She's had her her art is actually at the Bottle Works Hotel. So, she's kind of everywhere. She's stretching her wings doing more stuff. So, I I really like I'd like to see her be I want everybody I know to be successful. So, any way I can help out, that's what I'm doing.

Cool.

That's so awesome. Faith Blackwell, you gave two, no, three really solid answers that I haven't gotten before. And that's what I love. Sometimes people are like, "Uh, we'll like have a lot of state parks or this that or the other thing that all the like or like a restaurant like we need to go up to Bungy's Tavern. Have you heard of this?

Oh my god, I want to go so bad."

Yes. We've gotten that one a few times, but it's like Texas Boys barbecue, Faith Blackwell. Two spectacular answers there. Um, thank you so much for coming on and sharing your epic journey to

and sharing a slice of lasagna

and sharing and sharing lasagna. We are going to like that thing is going to be empty by the time she leaves this building.

I want a picture of it empty.

Oh, absolutely. We'll be a picture of it uh before we get out of here, too. But thank you so much for coming on, sharing your story.

My pleasure. It is amazing to see people go out and pursue their dreams.

And the fact that like you had that moment with your husband where you said,

you know what, this is what I I have to do this

and you quit your job

to sell at the time you hoped it would be 30 lasagnas a month in a year doing 8 tons 16,000 lbs of lasagna. It's incredible. And and not only is it incredible from a business perspective, but the amount of smiles, people who may be grieving or loving or celebrating or all the things like

I forgot to tell you something. Oh, tell me.

So, Coburn Place, it's a domestic violence place um off of 38th Street. Uh they have um houses for women, domestic abuse survivors, sometimes with their kids. And since 2022, yeah, I've delivered lasagnas. I I donate lasagnas to uh residents when they first get there, they have one of my lasagnas in their fridge, so they don't have to worry about food for one night. And that's like really near and dear to my heart.

Oh my gosh, that we talk about changing lives. Like you get into this place after a very, you know,

stressful

stressful, traumatizing experience

and the first meal you're going to have is

is one of your lasagna. I can't imagine a better taste. Oh my gosh, that's that's really really cool. And it's cool to be able to give back

give back and like Yeah. And to share your thing like

my love your love.

Yeah. and and impact people's lives that one it's like they probably they're just in there already. So like you probably never you'll never meet these people or see these people but you the your art your work is helping change their life.

Incredible. Thank you so much for coming on and sharing. It is so evident that you are passionate not only about business and stuff but like about the the product, the food, and the people and just the whole experience. And I I have no doubt that over the next the next 6 years, you're going to do even bigger things, more bread sticks, maybe add some other stuff on there, but I'm very very excited. I can't wait to follow you on your journey and congrats on all your success thus far.

Thank you. I really appreciate it.

Thank you for listening to this episode of Get In. If you like what you heard, make sure you leave us a review wherever you listen to podcasts. This show is made possible by our friends up at Sweetwater. Whether you're looking to start a podcast or take your content to the next level, click the link in the description to see all of my gear recommendations at sweetwater.com. If you want a behind-the-scenes look at everything we're doing across the state, make sure you follow me on Instagram and Tik Tok @ Nate Spangle. Thank you so much for listening and being part of what makes the Who's Your State great. We'll see you next time here on Get