The Lazy Genius Podcast - #164 - The Summer Meal Formula

Episode Date: June 29, 2020

I’m not saying I fixed summer cooking because that would be stupid, but I think I found an approach that will be pretty awesome, especially if you’re three weeks into hot weather no school everyone home cooking and losing your mind a little. Stuff Mentioned Apply to be a member of The Lazy Genius Way Launch Team here! The application will close at noon on Wednesday, July 8, and we kick off activities Monday, July 13. I’m so excited, and I would love for you to join us! Here’s a link to my pancake recipe I make every couple of weeks in a big batch and freeze. I’ll be on Instagram around noon eastern to go live and answer your questions on Thursday. 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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these little freaks multiply at a rate that would make a rabbit say, yo, chill. But Laura shopped on Amazon and saved on cleaning spray, countertop wipes, and fly traps. Hey, fruit flies, your baby boom ends here. Save the Everyday with Amazon. on. Hey everyone. You're listening to the lazy genius podcast. I'm Kendra Adachi and I'm here to help you be a genius about the things that matter and lazy about the things that don't. Today, you guys, today I'm really excited. This episode, it's really great. It's 164, a summer meal formula. Now, I'm not saying I fixed summer cooking because that would be stupid, but I think I found an approach that will be pretty awesome and maybe come as close to perfect as you can get,

especially if you are three weeks into hot weather, no school, everyone home cooking, you know, and you're losing your mind a little. First though, real quick, I want to tell you it's launch team time. I will keep this super quick. If you want to be on the launch team for my book, The Lazy Genius Way, click the link in the show notes to get all the info. applications are open a little over a week until next Wednesday, July 8th. A launch team is basically a fun group that tells people about my book in hopefully very natural, non-awkward ways at very specific

times. Again, all details are in that link. Thank you for being excited about it. This is very great. Okay. So the summer meal formula. First, there are two rules of the summer meal formula. And then the actual formula. Okay, ready? Rule number one, summer is a season. I mean, yeah, but give me 20 more words. Summer is a season and it won't always be like this. But since it is like this, let's lean into what it offers us. Living in your season is one of the principles of being a lazy genius. And this is about as near a perfect time to practice that that we're in right now. So summer food, it feels complicated because we try and fit rhythms of fall and winter and spring food into a summer food hole and it doesn't work. For most of you who are like truly concerned about how you're going to

feed everybody three meals a day during hot months with hardly any schedules or structure and everyone is home and all the things, this mindset is incredibly important. You can't expect to approach summer food like you do. the other three seasons of the year. This needs its own plan. And that plan is the summer meal formula. But for now, remember that first rule. Summer is a season. Enjoy what it offers. Rule number two. Dinner is not the most important meal of the day. So on Friday, there will be a bonus episode where I talked to Kate Strickler from Nap Time Kitchen about lazy geniusing dinner. And it's so good. I can't wait for you to hear it.

the episode and on her Instagram account, she says something really simple and profound that I want to share with you. Each week has 21 meals. 21. That's a lot. But let's think of them all as carrying similar weight. Or let's be willing to shift the weight sometimes. Dinner doesn't always have to be the most elaborate meal. Summer affords you the chance to flip the script a little. Maybe this is the season of like a big hot breakfast or a lunch that might feel like dinner, but the oven was on in the morning instead of the hot afternoon, you know, or maybe the oven has nothing to do with it. And you just have more energy to make an actual dinner-ish meal at 11 in the morning instead of 4.30 in the afternoon. That's actually a real thing. Most people's time rhythm makes them

less diligent in tasks and therefore less motivated in the afternoon. That's not a great time to cook the biggest meal of the day, at least not on most days of the week. So rule number two is that dinner is not and does not have to be the most important meal of the day. All meals are created equal. This is a season for that. Okay, so those are two foundational rules for the summer meal formula. Summer's a season. So lean into it. And dinner does not have to be the most important meal of the day. Now, the formula. Here's the math we have. If you, consider our summer eating to include every meal from today until let's say August 20th. That is 156 meals. 156. That's a lot of meals. And if you try and decide each one of those meals one at a time

as they come, you will die. You will be so sad. You will give up completely with everyone surviving on cereal for every meal just a few weeks in. Now is cereal for every meal about it? Now is cereal for every meal a bad thing, not in the slightest. But that's generally not your top choice. We all like to eat tasty food that looks and sounds and taste different from each other. That's fun to eat and sometimes even to cook. So this formula helps you see those 156 meals and a more pleasant, doable light. Okay. So we are considering things that don't heat up your whole house. We are considering food that doesn't need a lot of prep or take a lot of time because summer has its own schedule, you know? And we are considering food that

is it's not just burgers all the time. So here's how we're going to build our formula. We're going to create a summer meal matrix for every meal of the day. Okay, what's a meal matrix? Let's start there first. It is essentially meal scaffolding. It's a certain category of food that can be assigned to a certain day or not. But it limits your options in the best way. So by making a summer meal matrix, you can choose the types of meals that makes sense for you and your people, your appliances, how much you want to turn the oven on or not, you know, all of it. Okay. So I'm hoping to give you a lot of ideas in a second, but here's your job to create your own formula, because we all have different ones. And I'm assuming that you

want thoughts on like every single one of those 156 meals, by the way. Now, obviously, if one of your daily meals already has its own rhythm, don't fix what's not broken. You know what I'm saying? Like if breakfast works for you, great. If lunch is already in a rhythm, great. So I'm just talking about this like everyone is starting from scratch. Okay. So your job in creating your formula is to choose four breakfast categories and 10 non-breakfast categories. We're going to combine lunch and dinner because remember rule number two? Dinner doesn't have to be the most important. So we're going to put lunch and dinner kind of on equal footing here. Now, okay, now 14 categories might sound like a lot. And I get that. It's a big number,

but it's a lot smaller than 156. So what we're going to do is spend maybe 15, 20 minutes. After this episode, you're going to spend a few minutes or during, as I'm talking, you're going to spend maybe 15 or 20 minutes building out your formula so that all you need to do for the literal rest of the summer is plug and play. You're going to spend. You're going to spend maybe 15 or 20 minutes building. You're going to make a bunch of general decisions now so that you have way fewer to make later. Okay, so first let's talk about the categories. Let's start with breakfast. You want four categories to just make it easier in yourself. Here are some ideas. Category one, boxes and bananas. Things like cereal or instant oatmeal for the boxes and then obviously a banana for the bananas.

Category two. Batch stuff, like things that come in batches, pancakes, waffles, a box of cornbread mix, and then you make the whole box. When you pull out a box of pancake mix, or if you make your own pancakes, which mine are now on the blog, by the way, and they're legit incredible, make a lot. Make the whole box or double a recipe or whatever it is. You can have a couple dozen to put in the fridge or freezer for the rest of the week or throughout the summer.

Okay. Category three. The bakery. Muffins and stuff. you know that you would get if you went to get breakfast at a little bakery or coffee shop. Again, you make a big batch and you eat off of it. That way when that category comes up again, you've already got stuff in the freezer and you don't have to cook again every single time if you don't want to. Again, these are just examples and we're going to break down how to use these categories in just a second.

Another idea, category for grand slam, things like bacon, sausage links, scrambled eggs, hash browns from Trader Joe's. Those things are good. Whatever you think of and like when you think about like a breakfast plate, you get at Denny's or something, that's category four. Category five, smoothies, self-explanatory. Category six, egg sandwiches type stuff. Egg McMuffins, hacks, breakfast burritos, that kind of thing. Category seven, parfays, you can do different flavors of yogurt, cereal or granola recipes. Again, my granola recipes on the site and it's super great.

Different fruits based on what you have, that kind of thing. category eight toast different kinds of bread butter and jelly cinnamon sugar toast cheese toast french toast when you want to get fancy okay so pick four categories now again you're the boss you pick as many as you want but this is the idea this is the rough idea pick four categories that you like and you know what to do within them okay you know how to make a couple muffins or whatever you know how to mix up a box of pancake mix. Then choose a handful of options within each of those categories. Some might be too deep. Like batch stuff could just be like one pancake recipe and one waffle recipe full stop. Or maybe you have an entire pancake category and you do all kinds when the

day rolls around. Now here's what you don't do. Don't write 10 options below each category. That is creating a problem again where you just had a solution. Because think about it. If you pick four breakfast categories and then four options within each one, that's 16 breakfasts. That's over two weeks of breakfasts where every day is something different. Now, does that mean you're making breakfast every morning? I mean, maybe if you want to, maybe not if you don't want to. You decide. But you're limiting your breakfast options to something totally doable that you've already chosen, but you're not pulling from the entire internet about what constitutes a breakfast. That's why I want you to start with categories. Choose categories

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You choose categories and options within those categories that are a mix of high maintenance and things that you don't have to get out of bed for. from cereal all the way to French toast. You know, you need the whole scope. If you try and make a hot breakfast every morning, one weekend, your entire family will do cereal for the rest of the summer. Now again, that is not bad unless that's not what you want. So wisely limit yourself with categories that work for you and options within those categories that also work for you.

You now, if you do four categories and four things within them, you now have over two weeks of breakfast that you can just more or less rotate however makes sense. Okay, now let's do non-breakfast. This will probably settle into a more predictable rhythm more than breakfast, just because breakfast generally is a fairly low-maintenance meal, at least it is around my house. I've done an episode on breakfast where I talk about how to lazy genius breakfast, but also how I personally approach it. Essentially, whenever I make pancakes or waffles or pumpkin chocolate chip muffins, I

make a lot and I freeze them. Then everybody eats whatever they want out of the freezer until we run out of stuff. And then they can choose boxes and stuff, you know, all that too, whenever they want. But then once we run out, we just do it all again. We replenish and do it again. The one or two mornings a week that we don't do that, I will do like a Denny's. I'll make bacon and eggs and hash browns and king biscuits, any combination of stuff like that. We'll do that grand slam. Okay. F.I, I am going to, hopefully, I'm, I'm going to put a post on the site. I have not written it yet, but I'm writing it down now. That has my personal meal formula. So like my categories and the ideas within them and then an idea of how those might pan out over the course of a few weeks. Okay, for real. Now let's do non-breakfast,

and this is going to shape up a little bit for you. We need 10 categories and three to four options within each one. That's 30 to 40 meals. That's two to three weeks of, of, both lunches and dinners without any repeats. I'd say that's pretty good. All right. So here are some of my potential non-breakfast categories that you can steal. We've got a few that you can choose from. Field trip lunch or just field trip. Take out the lunch. But think about what you take on a field trip, a brown bag. You know what I'm saying? A sandwich, fruit, crackers, carrot sticks, and a pudding cup. Like whatever you put in that brown bag for your kid when they have to go to the zoo or whatever. Now obviously the options within that are endless because of the type of sandwiches and fruits and crackers and everything else.

So that's one idea. Next up, snack platter. That is absolutely a category. Anything can go on a snack platter because it's literally just throwing crap on a plate in like a pinwheel shape or in groups and it just looks kind of pretty. That's great for lunch or dinner with whatever you have. Another category. Cheesy things. Cazidias.

Grilled cheese sandwich sandwich sand. sandwiches, mac and cheese, cheesy nachos, that kind of thing. Think golden foods, you know. Next, rice bowls, a beloved of mine. There's a whole podcast series I did on food in a bowl. Rice cookers or instant pots are great in the summer heat, you know, and then you can just throw whatever on top that you cook or buy already cooked. So rice bowls is category. Your category can be by the animal, if that's not too, like, crude to say. So one category could be like beef and pork, you know, cows and pigs. Or you can pick like, and in that, you can pick two of your favorite beef recipes and two favorite pork recipes that work well in the summer. And then you just rotate those.

You could do the same with chicken and fish in one category or separate ones, depending on how many options you have and what you want it to be. Next category idea is the farmer's market. You make a meal based on what you bought there and what you brought home. So it's like super fresh. I mean, it could be like a, it could be a hunk of bread and a couple of peaches, you know, remember summer is its own season. Let's lean into it. A favorite on a recent Instagram post was a dinner where everyone picks their own thing. My favorite names for it were yo-yo dinners for you're on your own. go with what you know, which rhymes, which is fun, or silly supper. So that's a category. Just pick what you want. Do whatever. You could also categorize by cooking appliance if you wanted to.

So instant pot, the grill, the crock pot, the sheet pan, where you use the broiler for only a little bit. And I've still got more category ideas. Chicken on the grill. That's a category. And within it, You pick four maraudits and you rotate them. So, shwarma, change your life, shwarma, barbecue chicken, kind of a citrus thing, you know, just like lemon juice and herbs and olive oil. And then something that's like taco-ish, chili powder, cumin, something. Another category, stuff on a bun. Beef burgers, turkey burgers, salmon burgers, veggie burgers, sloppy joys, hot dogs,

bond me sandwiches, Asian pork burger, fried chicken filet, sandwiches, lots of options in there. Stuff in a wrap. Tacos, burritos, flat breads, pizza stuff. Pizza is its own category. Okay. So you see how, okay, do you see how this can help in really big ways when you start to like name some stuff and write some stuff down? Pick 10 categories that excite you, that make sense for you, that you have some options within. Okay? Within each one, write down three or four of those options. Don't do more than that. Don't overload yourself. pull from your brainless crowd pleasers from those meals that you don't mind cooking and most people in your house don't mind eating get specific on actual recipes if you need to or you can just have

general ideas like an Asian pork burger and you'll riff once it's time you'll put soy sauce and garlic and ginger in it and call it a day now once you do that again you have 30 to 40 meals to choose from but here's what I strongly suggest don't have a list of 40 meals and then choose from the entire 40 every time it's time to eat. Plan like once a week or every couple of days or even every day if you want by category. Choose the category first and spread out your categories. Rotate your categories. Let the matrix work for you.

Then if you plan one week at a time and you have 10 non-breakfast categories, you can say that like Monday lunch this week is school lunch and dinner is chicken on the grill. Tuesday lunch is stuff in a wrap and Tuesday dinner is instant pot meals. Wednesday lunch is, you know what I'm saying? You get the idea. So you could create that matrix for yourself for one week and then just repeat that matrix one week after another. And so then all you're doing is choosing which of the three or four options in each category you'll do that day. Now because you're rotating categories and because recipes are not

duplicated within categories, you're not repeating stuff. And because you are considering things from cereal to French toast, from super simple to maybe not complicated, but that might take a few more steps, you have options to choose from each week if you need a really, really easy week or if you feel like you want to spend a little more time making some stuff. Okay. I'm telling you, it's the choice that makes you crazy. There are too many choices. Even just having your list of brainless crowd pleasers, it could be too many choices. You can basically like capsule wardrobe, your summer food situation, by having so few things to choose from. But those categories, those categories are your heavy hitters. You have

versatility within them because you planned it that way. And then you just plug and play. Again, I'm going to try to have that post up. I really hope I do. This is terrible by the time this episode is live. And I'll also have links to some of my favorite summer recipes and other episodes and posts I've done about summer food. But I really think this summer meal formula, it could be really fantastic for you. Just spend a little time brainstorming now. Make it like a little project you can be excited about. Ask your family, what stuff you like to eat on a bun? And write it down. The categories keep you from repeating. but the formula keeps you from starting from scratch every single meal.

I hope this helps. I hope this makes sense. Let me know how it goes. And we can talk about it this Thursday, too. I will be on Instagram or on noon, Eastern. I will go live. I'm at The Lazy Genius and I can answer your questions. But I really hope that you're encouraged by this idea.

So go give it a try. Go get a try. Make a list and see how it goes. And that's it for today. Thank you so much for listening. Remember to check the show. notes for all the different links and the launch team info will be there too. I'm grateful for all of you. So very grateful. Until next time, be a genius about the things that matter and lazy about the things

that don't. I'm Kendra. And I'll see you next week. Have 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.