The Lazy Genius Podcast - #109 - Food in a Bowl: Hacks and How-To’s

Episode Date: May 20, 2019

The last in our three-part Food in a Bowl series, this week’s episode features hacks and how-to’s so you can build your best food bowls yet! Together, we will figure out the logistics of actually making food bowls a staple in your meal planning without feeling like you’re prepping literally everything always. This kind of episode is one of my favorites because we make can make life simpler but also more full . . . by filling it with things that matter, like delicious meals in a bowl. Helpful Companion Links Are you signed up for the Latest Lazy Letter? June’s edition comes out next week, so don’t miss it if you’re looking for a new book to read or a podcast to listen to plus I give readers an inside look at my book writing process. I use Kokuho rice and a Japanese rice cooker that literally has no English words on it. If you don’t want to invest in a rice cooker, I suggest using Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything. Looking for my fake fancy Asian lettuce wraps recipe? Here you go. Yum-Yum Sauce makes every rice bowl better in my opinion. This is what we use. There’s a spicy version and regular. Here are five easy to customize food bowl dinner options. If you have questions, join me this Thursday on Instagram around 12:15 pm EST for a LIVE Q&A session. Download a transcript of this episode! This podcast is hosted by Kendra Adachi and executive produced by Kendra Adachi, Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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about the things that matter and lazy about the things that don't. Today is our final episode in a three-part series on food and a bowl. In part one, we talked about the basics of dinner bowls. Contrast is king, and you can build that contrast using the main four building blocks to dinner bowls base, protein, toppings, and sauce. Last week, I became a bit of a flavor. Bible evangelist and we talked about flavor and what ingredients go together. One of the scary things about bowls is figuring out what to put in it. So last week I shared some tips on how to figure that out. This week is hacks and how-toes. Let's figure out the logistics of actually making this a staple in your meal planning without feeling like you're prepping, literally everything always.

I love episodes like this where we can make life simpler, but also make life more full by filling it with things that matter like delicious meals in a bowl. Okay, but first, before we do that, I just want to make sure that you guys are on my VIP mailing list and are getting my monthly latest lazy letter. I'll send out the next edition in another week or so, and it's VIP because those folks get stuff that no one else does. I share book reviews, which this month has some year-to-date favorites, for sure. Podcast episodes that I loved to save you from listening to like the lame stuff. before you get to the good stuff. Info about the razor that is changing my life.

And then news about things like, what happened when I turned in my book manuscript? Which I did a couple of days ago. It is one of my favorite things to write every month. So if you like being a lazy genius, you should be a VIP to make sure that you get the latest lazy letter every month. So you can click the link in the info section of your podcast app by clicking that little I icon or just swiping until you see the links.

Or you can go to the lazy genius collective.com. slash join. Amen. Okay, so let's break down some hacks and how-toes for food and a bowl. First, we're going to talk about essential ingredients, at least by my standards. Next, we'll talk about limiting your prep time and dirty dishes because it feels like this is so much work and mess. It's not actually. After that, we will talk about kids, picky kids, and then we'll wrap up with the timing of kind of getting everything done at the same time-ish. Okay, so first step, essentially, Ingredients. It's important to have a base that can be ready to go quickly or is mostly hands off. So choose one to be your go-to, especially when you're roughing at the last minute. Our go-to base is white rice.

I talked about it a little bit last week. It does take about 45 minutes to cook in the Japanese rice cooker that my father-in-law insists that we use that does not have English words on the buttons. So I actually have no idea what other things this rice cooker is capable of doing. But he's right. It's very very. It's very, Bobass rice. I use, it's called Cocoa Rose, K-O-K-O-H-O, Rose like the flour. I use, that's the brand of rice that I get from the Asian market. That's what my in-laws wear by. And we use that almost exclusively. I don't really like brown rice as a personal preference, and I just never buy Wild. Like Wild's fine, but I just don't ever buy it. Now, if you love white rice, but you struggle making it on the stove, I cannot say enough about investing in a rice cooker. I can press a button and walk away. Like, I love it. I use it multiple times a week. I will never go back. Now, if you don't have a rice

cooker, though, and you want to cook your rice on the stove, I think that Mark Bittman has great thoughts on how to cook rice simply and effectively. Or you can just Google, like, how to cook great rice on the stove and just see what you find. Because it could be that you have a different preference for what your rice, the texture of your rice is going to be. Our other main family base is noodles, like just regular pasta and then Asian noodles, like Soba or ramen. If I'm making lunch bowls for myself for a week, I will often make quinoa as my base, and I'll just use that all week.

But that's pretty much it for us. Three main bases as a family, rice, pasta, and then Asian pasta. And 90% of those are rice, right? Why rice? And that's mostly because we love rice as a family. family and it doesn't lead to complaint. So pick what works for most people in your family. Now, if you have dietary differences, like one of you is grain-free or doesn't like rice or something, bases, they keep really well, either prepped over the weekend and, you know, they kept in the

fridge or even frozen, cooked quinoa and barley and Farrow freeze well. A lot of stores like Trader Joe's and Whole Foods, they have a lot of convenient bases ready to go. So, things like cauliflower rice, even cooked rice, like Trader Joe's has bags of just cooked rice. It's frozen and you just heat it up. Now, I know that that feels weird for a lot of you buying foods that you could make yourself. But that might also be why you're stressed out about dinner because you're not spending the extra 75 cents on something that's already cooked for you rather than making it yourself. Your time and sanity, they cost something too.

So just remember that. so have a base that's brainless to make. Ours is rice. Sometimes if my meal plan is wonky and I'm like, wait, what are we having for dinner? We're changing that or whatever. I will still make rice around 4.30. And if we use it for dinner, great. If we don't, then I get rice bowl lunches for the week.

Rice always, always gets eaten in our house. And so if you have an ingredient that's that way, make it, even if you don't know exactly how you'll use it, because it will get used. Okay, so next up, essentials for proteins. Canned beans and eggs are the easiest options here, since they cook up quickly and they feel less overwhelming than like cooking a piece of meat at 11 in the morning. Rotissary chicken is also really great, since it's already cooked well, you know, and it's easily chopped or shredded.

And since it's not seasoned, it's super versatile for any group of flavors, for any destination you go to. One of my favorite hacks for a quick dinner bowl is keeping cooked ground meat in the the freezer. I will often use the mushroom ground pork mixture from the pork and mushroom lettuce wraps on my site. Sometimes I'll also do the exact same recipe, but use beef instead of pork. And I will cook up a big batch of that to freeze. And I can either use that entire recipe for a family dinner, or I can pull out a little at a time for lunches, just microwave it. It's done. It's great. Okay, so toppings. It's taken me a while, but I have focused in on my essential toppings.

that I always have around, always. Cucumber, and I use the English cucumber that costs a little bit more that's wrapped in plastic, so I don't have to peel it. Again, my time costs something to. And I also think they taste a little sweeter, like they're just not as bitter, maybe. So it's cucumber, avocado, carrot, green onion, always. Cucumber and green onions both add great flavor and color and then texture, you know, like a crunch to tons of cuisine destinations. Japanese, Greek, Mexican, Turkish, lots of options.

Avocado is great. It's like an automatic creamy texture and great fatty flavor, and it can be mashed into a sauce with other ingredients too, so I love that. And I love carrots because it's one of the few vegetables my kids choose to eat, I mean sometimes, and it has options. Like you can grate it raw for crunch. You can roast or steam them to go on top of the protein or pickled carrots are really great. I also, speaking of pickles, I also have a jar of pickled ginger in my fridge for like amped up Asianish bowls, which I buy at my local Asian grocery store. It's usually in the refrigerated section by the tofu, but it's like the little jars of the pink ginger that you get at the restaurants. And I'll tell you what, man, that stuff is a bang for your buck.

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So the trick is to name three or four ingredients that you and your family generally like and that can be used in a couple of different flavor profiles. Olives are a really good example. And I personally don't like olives, but maybe you do. And you can put those in Italian bowls, Greek bowls, Mexican, French, Moroccan and Spanish bowls. Like, it's so great. And they come in a jar and can be kept around forever, you know?

So just find like three or four toppings that you commit to for a while and see where they lead. Don't ever think the rest. And then essential sauces, that is up to you too. But a good rule of thumb is something creamy, something spicy, and something bright. Like maybe always on hand. You can make your own sauces at some point, but just start with maybe something that's already made to make it easier. So our go-toos are yum-yam sauce for what's creamy, saracha for the spicy,

and green salsa also for spicy. I get, Trader Joe's makes this green salsa in a bottle that's like a little looser and I don't know, it's a great, it's a great sauce for a lot of bowls. And then some kind of Italian dressing for something kind of bright. Those could be used alone, obviously, but also in tandem sometimes. Oh, and salsa, like jarred red salsa. That's not in a bottle, which is why I forgot to list it. But that is such an easy sauce to add to like burrito bowls and stuff, which you already knew, you know, but there you. Your essential list, it needs to just be what's essential to you. That's true for everything. We all like different things. So start small, pick one base that you love, one or two protein possibilities, and think of how to keep them

more or less on hand, and pick ones that you love. Pick three or four toppings that can span across a couple of cuisines that you're trying out first that you love and then sauces that cover that creamy, spicy, and tangy realm, start building from there and then just add slowly as you need to. Okay, next step. Let's talk about limiting prep time and dirty dishes. A lot of you have said something like the following. It seems like this kind of meal would be so much more work with all the prepping. Seems like might be true, but until you do it, you don't know how simple it really is. Don't assume. Your base is likely easy. Just a grain cooked in a pot, maybe even far in advance or pulled from the freezer. So at most, that's like one pot and hardly any hands on time, right? For the protein, it might be beans from a can,

chicken from the rotisserie case, or something that you, you know, sauteed on a skillet or roasted or grilled. The nice thing about cooking your meat when you're making the dinner bowl is that you can cook any vegetables the same way using the same pans. So you can use the saute pan to cook your meat and then throw in your vegetables. You could also use that same pan to make a sauce after you cook some chicken and peppers or something. I don't make any meal that requires more than two pods ever. So I promise that bowls only need something for your base and maybe something for your protein or vegetables. Anyway, a lot of you are doing like meat and three meals anyway. You're making like some sort of protein in two or three sides.

That's what this is, maybe even a little simpler than that. Now, if you are going to make your own sauce, don't go crazy on the toppings. It's kind of a balancing act. Just like tear some herbs off of the stem or cut up some green onions with kitchen scissors. Now, if you're using sauce from a bottle that's already made, maybe you can take a few extra minutes to chop up some fresh things or to quickly saute a vegetable. Cutting boards, go in the, you know, that's what you're using mostly for your prep. Plastic cutting boards can go in the dishwasher. Wooden ones are just wiped down. your knives sure they need to be hand washed but you're already washing one or two pots you know that task will literally take like two minutes max and it will go faster if you start dinner with a sink of hot soapy water and wash as you go by the way and in terms of that whole like build your bowl for an entire family where you feel like you have to have tiny bowls of a million things out two tips first don't have as many topping options if that helps but really more than that you guys just use your cutting board to serve your toppings. No more bowls. Just make piles. And if some things are like fatty or wet,

you know, like some ingredients, it doesn't quite work the same. I will like layer a sheet pan, like a cookie sheet with parchment paper and pile everything on that. There's literally zero cleanup. Do not ever put everything in bowls ever again. Just don't do it. All right. So you likely think it takes a long time and uses a lot of dishes because you think you have to make literally everything from scratch and serve up the entire produce and cheese sections as topping options. And you do not. Keep it simple. Serve it simply. And then wash your pans as you're done with them or just dunk them in the water for somebody else to wash later. Okay. Let's talk about picky kids or spouses or you, maybe. I want to reframe pickiness. It's just preference, right? Yes, kids seem to have stronger

preferences than the average person, but we're just like humans trying to eat what we like. Don't hold it against your kids for only wanting rice and meat or meat and cheese or chips and salsa. It's okay if it stays simple for them too. Dinner bowls are great ways to visually have more options than your kids are used to seeing, and maybe they'll surprise you one day by putting olives on something. I don't know. We don't even really encourage the kids to add certain toppings. We don't like push them to. we just put them out and let them choose. Most of the time they don't. Occasionally they do. Keep doing it. In terms of kids who don't like food to touch, I get that. Sometimes we run into that with certain kids and then certain bowls. My daughter, for example, she is more likely to eat salmon and rice

if they're separate, but the opposite is true with like meatballs and pasta. They need to be in the same bowl. It's weird. So I will just say to the kids, I'm putting this in a bowl for myself. Do you want a bowl or a plate? and then just go with it. You can have a dinner bowl while the components are separate on a plate for your kids or your husband or you or whatever. Don't let it be too dramatic. It's okay to eat off plates or bowls or change your mind from meal to meal. It's no problem. And then finally, just the timing logistics. Again, I think this feels more overwhelming if you assume you're making everything yourself and serving 20 different components. Just start with the simplest dinner bowl. Have a base, a simple protein, a sauce from a bottle and two toppings.

The base will likely be fine sitting until it's ready to surf things up. Just keep the lid on the pot or the rice cooker closed. The protein is the same. Most meats are just fine hanging out for a few minutes. The only exception to that might be like fried or scrambled eggs, so don't make those until the very end when it's time to assemble bowls.

Toppings, they can be chopped in the morning and pulled out last minute. Dinner bowls are such a great place to use the magic question for cooking. What can I do now to make dinner easier later? You can chop up a cucumber and stick it in the fridge. Really, getting everything together at the same time is easiest when you keep it simple. And dinner bowls are better, the simpler they are.

It's kind of like pizza. You're likely going to enjoy a simple but thoughtful pizza with sausage, ricotta, and arugula. Then you are a pizza that's covered with literally every topping at the store. Dinner bowls are the same. Simple is good. Not a cop-out. Simple is not a cop-out. And it makes prep and cooking so much easier.

All right, I really hope this series has been encouraging to you as you've thought about food in a bowl. This is literally my favorite way to eat. And once you start practicing simply, you'll see other recipes that will give you ideas. That would make a great sauce. That would be a great protein. Build it slowly and enjoy the process. You don't have to do everything yourself. And for the love, stop putting all the toppings in individual bowls.

If that is the only thing you take away from this, your life will be changed. And I think that is it for today. today. If you have questions, you can join me this Thursday on Instagram. Follow me at The Lazy Genius. I'll be there live around 1215 Eastern to answer any of your dinner bowl questions. So until next time, be a genius about the things that matter and lazy about the things that don't. I'm Kendra. I will see you next week. You ever felt like you were living just a B or B plus life? It's so dangerous to live that more dangerous than a B minus or a C plus life because when you're living a B or B plus life, you don't change it. You think it's good enough. Is it? I'm Susie Welch. I host a podcast called

Becoming You. People think, okay, an A-plus life is not available to me, but there is a way. We are all in the process of becoming ourselves. Listen to Becoming You wherever you get your podcasts.