The Lazy Genius Podcast - #300 - How to Lazy Genius Meal Prep

Episode Date: February 6, 2023

Are you feeling “rut energy” around the table? Maybe you’re already tired of soup. Maybe you had January goals to cook more at home or try new things, and you haven’t experienced that the way you hoped. Maybe you’re having to tighten your budget after the holidays and don’t have as much to spend on groceries, not to mention that the price of them is going up. I would like us to put a positive spin on this ordinary, “rut energy” season, and I think one of the ways you can do that is through meal prep.   Helpful Companion Links Bizarro Meal Prep blog post from last decade Sign up for the Latest Lazy Listens email. Grab a copy of my book The Lazy Genius Kitchen or The Lazy Genius Way! 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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From binge all episodes exclusively on Paramount Plus. you are 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 is episode 300. You guys, 300. How to lazy genius meal prep. It is the beginning of February, and I think that February has big, like, rut energy. Chances are we have for sure lost the sparkle of the winter holidays. We have definitely lost the sparkle of January freshness. And now it's just February. You know? February gets a bad rap because it's possibly the most boring month. Very little happens for a lot of us. And because we're so programmed to live a life of happenings, we can miss the

loveliness that February affords, namely that it's usually calmer, ordinary, regular. You still have stuff going on, of course. But February is usually not a month with a lot of extras. which is why it can have rut energy, especially around the table. Maybe you are already tired of soup. Maybe you had January goals to cook more at home or to try more new foods and you haven't experienced that the way that you hoped you would. Maybe you're sick of eating the same 10 meals over and over and over again, especially now that there's not as much busyness to break those meals up like with, you know, holiday parties and stuff like that. maybe you're having to tighten your budget after the holidays and you don't have as much money to spend on groceries. Not to mention that the price of them is going up. Like none of us are eating eggs right now. I would like us to put a positive spin on this ordinary rut energy season. And I think one of the ways that you can do that is through meal prep.

Now, please do not turn off this episode because I just said meal prep. I promise you that I'm not going to make you do something you don't want to do. I just think you could be well served by even thinking. about what meal prep could positively do for you in the kitchen. And if you find enjoyment and ease as you develop maybe the tiniest of rhythm around meal prep now, you will be more equipped to experience its benefits when we transition into a busier season with different kinds of meals. So today I'm going to walk you through the right order to think about meal prepping. Not necessarily the order of like what to do because what you do will be very different from what anyone else does, but kind of the order of your decisions. Now, before we jump into that

step by step, it is important to define, maybe even redefine a couple of things. First, what is meal prep? This is my definition. At its core, meal prep is doing something to food so it's easier to cook or eat later. Doing something to food so it's easier to cook or eat later. Now we make it grander than that, but really that's pretty much it. It's also an answer to the magic question. What can I do now to make something easier later? A way you can make eating and cooking easier later is moving your food further along the process of being ready to eat. Now, I also want us to differentiate between food prep and meal prep. Now, I'm not sure how many people like throw these two terms around interchangeably, and that's totally fine if they do. But you just for our sake today to help create kind of a separation in your mind and to show you the importance of that separation for you, we're going to make them different. Okay. Now, to me, meal prep is prepping meals and food prep is prepping food. Clear's mud, right? Okay, but think about it. If you wash a bunch of grapes, you cut through various pieces of the stem to create like tiny

bunches of grapes and then you put all of that back in the fridge for you or your kids or whoever to grab for a snack. To me, that's food prep. That's prepping food to be eaten. It's like cutting a pineapple. A pineapple isn't ready to eat until you prep it until you cut it up, right? It has nothing to do with a meal. It's making the food ready to eat. Now meal prep involves foods that will for sure be used, but as part of a meal. Or maybe even you make the complete meal itself and you just reheat it. So things like mixing a marinade, roasting vegetables ahead of time, just so you can warm them back up in the air fryer later, making the soup early and reheating it on the stove. Those are all things that I would consider meal prep. Meal prep also usually involves a plan of some kind. Food prep is just

making the food easier to eat. You don't have to plan to cut the pineapple. You just cut the pineapple. Now, here's one of the reasons that this distinction between food prep and meal prep is so important. Let's say that you slice up some bell peppers and you put them in a container in the fridge. Now, that could be food prep because maybe you're, you snack on peppers, right? And you're just going to grab some, dunk it in some ranch and snack away. But you could have also sliced those peppers for a steak stir fry tomorrow night. So they are intended for a meal. meal. So sometimes it's good to distinguish what's meant for a meal and what's not. Now, the other big reason it's good to distinguish between food prep and meal prep is that it gives you broader

permission to do this the way that you need to. You might have groaned at the title of this episode because the thought of stacking up completed meals and containers for the week or filling your freezer with a dozen casseroles. Like in theory, you're like, I would love to do that. But practically, it's just not your jam, right? Maybe energetically, You just do not have it. Or you could simply not have the freezer or fridge space to do that kind of thing. So you automatically write meal prep off because it's grander in your mind than the reality. Now, you meal prep one tiny thing and it's still meal prep.

But the point here is that you might be a person who leans more toward food prep. The produce is washed and maybe cut somehow. You filled your snack basket with snacks for the kids for the week. You're preparing food to be eaten whenever it gets eaten. It's not attached to a meal or a meal plan because you don't operate that way. But maybe food prep could serve you really well. I would say most of us do a tiny combination of both. We probably don't do that consistently because I think food rhythms are harder to come by

just because of life. But it's likely you'll have a little bit of both here and there. So does all that make sense? There's a difference between meal prep and food prep. And depending on what matters to you in your life right now, one might serve you better than the other. Now let's walk through some steps. We'll be right back. Amazon presents Jeff versus Taco Truck Salsa, whether it's Verde, Roja, or the orange one.

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Like, everybody's sick, right? Everybody's sick. So thank you so much. Okay, it is time for us to prep some food. Now, I know I just told you that there is a difference between food prep and meal prep and there is, but for the rest of the episode, I'm going to generally classify what we're doing as meal prep. It's likely that food prep is quicker and more spontaneous than meal prep is, and therefore it might not require the same kind of thinking, right?

It doesn't need a plan as much. So, I mean, it can. But just to keep things a little bit clear and more streamlined and to keep myself from saying food and meal prep a million times or distinguishing between them, we're just going to generously call all of it meal prep now for the rest of the episode, even though the two things are different. I'm so sorry. Okay, so step one. Choose your time. Choose your time. If you were to spend a little time this week preparing food that you'll eat later, when would that be? When do you have the actual time and also when do you have the energy? Because you will be better served, at least initially if you're doing this for the first time, if you pay attention to your energy. If you're like, well, I mean, I have time after the kids go to bed, look at me in the eye and tell me that you will honestly be even slightly motivated to cook a

random pan of ground beef at eight at night instead of sitting on the couch and reading Sarah J. Moss or something. I mean, I'm probably going to pick Sarah. Now, can you be disciplined? Of course. Are you going to do this every single night? No. But that's not the point. The point is that we're batching. We're actually doing a lot of the same kinds of things like chopping and sauteing and mixing or whatever else at once so that you do have time to be a person later. You know, you don't have to be like jazzercise instructor excited about it and just love your time meal prepping. But even though we are batching, you still need to pay attention to your energy. Even if it's just one time a week or one time a month, you still need to pay attention to your

energy. Okay. You don't have to drum it up and you don't have to like force yourself to do it if you're like really tired or whatever, but pay attention to your energy when you're choosing your time. Now, when you do choose your time, it can be two hours, it can be 15 minutes. Like the length of time doesn't matter here. And a short amount of time doesn't mean it doesn't count either. Anything counts because you're making something easier to eat or cook later. Whatever amount is still accomplishing that goal, like whatever amount of time, it's doing. It's doing. its job. So I just don't want you to think you're not doing it right if it's not like an entire morning or, you know, several hours or something. Anything counts here. It is also really important

that you start small. Please don't choose your time and then assume it is what you're going to do every month or year or whatever for the rest of your adult life. Like this is not a choice for all of eternity. This is not even a choice for the next four weeks even. This is a choice for right. This is a choice for right now. If you do not already have some kind of rhythm of preparing food, so it's easier to cook and eat later, you're only going to set yourself up for frustration and failure in your own mind because you didn't follow through on this after week one. So just start with week one. This week only, is there a time where you will likely have enough energy to meal prep a little? Cool. Just do that this week. That's it.

step one is choose your time and pay attention to your energy. Step two is choose your scope. You choose your time first because if we started with scope or how much you're going to cook, you would choose too much. I have no doubt about that. So it is vital. You hear me, it is vital that you make your prep fit your time, not the other way around. if you're like, I have 30 minutes on Sunday after lunch. And in your head, you're planning on making four complete dinners, that's impossible. And you'll also quit. You'll quit like midpan of ground beef.

Your house will smell weird. You'll be mad at me. It'll just become a whole thing. So name a realistic amount of time and then a realistic scope of what you can cook during that time. Are you going to make one dinner? Maybe prep the protein for two or three dinners for the week. Are you going to do this right around?

when you're already making a meal that you're going to immediately eat, you know, like you're doing some meal prep while you're making a night's dinner or something. But also, if you do that, maybe your counter is going to be more full than you realize. You cannot accommodate the scope of a big meal prep time if you're also cooking dinner. I just want you to be realistic about the scope, especially if this is your first meal prep endeavor, and base it on the time that you have. Okay? So that's step two. Step three is to choose your food. Now there are a couple of ways to approach this. Obviously, you need to know what food or meals you're going to prep, right? That might require a meal plan for the next couple of days. So that could be your next step, actually, is to figure out

what you're going to eat so that you know what to prep. Another way to see choosing your food is if you're going to go shopping for fresh groceries based on that plan and then prep. Or you could do what I call Bizarro food prep where you take foods you already have, especially like produce and proteins that need to be tended to right away. And you do something to them. You know, you roast limp green beans. You take that container of like half a can of coconut milk and you make a curry. You do what Quincy Wyatt did is our lazy genius of the week two weeks ago. And you make soup from whatever random ingredients, need eating based on the chart of ingredients from different cuisines in my book, The Lazy Genius Kitchen. Seriously, I'm still so obsessed with Quincy and her idea and her name.

This order, by the way, that we're doing right now, it is in that book. It is in the Lazy Genius Kitchen, along with like a million other orders of things. It's seriously a great book. So if you don't have it, you should get it. So as you choose the food for your meal prep, are you choosing food based on predetermined meals or recipes? will you need to shop? Are you only cooking the foods that need eating now? And your answer to this question, it will likely vary every single time you decide to meal prep.

It all depends on what matters right now. What time you have, like that first choice, how much time do I have? It's going to vary, right? All of these things are going to shift. But after you have chosen your time and your scope, which are basically like, you're your realistic parameters for this little project, what food do you need? That's step three. Step four is to choose your methods. This is kind of like your approach or your tools. Are you going to do, you know, mainly food prep? Will you prep meals to completion? Are you going

to prep just elements of a meal? Naming the recipe alone is not enough, right? Are you going to do the whole thing? You just going to do part of it? Are you going to use different appliances? Are you going to store things in the fridge or the freezer or both? And do you have space for those things if you're doing something bigger? Basically, you are looking at the meals that are coming or the food that you have and you're deciding what methods you will use to bring that food closer to being easier to eat or cook. But it's important to pay attention to those things and not just be like, this is the meal

I'm going to prep if you haven't really thought about how and to what end. And then this, at this point in the steps, these first four, this is where the planning stops and the action starts. So the first four steps are planning. The next three are just getting it done. We'll be right back. All right. So let's start doing stuff. Step five is to choose your zones.

You're ready to go. Ready? We're in our kitchen. We're ready to go. Even if you're just making one thing, zones are going to be your best friend. I love a zone in the kitchen. A zone is just a designated area, right? Well, your kitchen loves zones, even really small ones, maybe even especially small ones. Zones are great because they give you a visual demarcation of where something goes or what something is. And they make your kitchen feel tidier

even when you have stuff out. For example, we have two zones that we use all the time. We have a dirty dishes zone and a fridge zone. I've talked about these a lot. They're also in the lazy genius kitchen book explained. But these two zones are lifesavers in our house. A dirty dishes zone is where dirty dishes go. That's just where they always go. It is a, it's just a spot on the counter right over the dishwasher next to the sink. And that's where we always put dirty dishes. You don't always always have time to wash your dishes or load the dishwasher right away. But by quickly zoning the dishes that are on the kitchen table or other parts of the counter in somebody's bedroom or whatever, you're clearing clutter from certain places. And you're also creating order in another. Dirty dishes

are supposed to go in the dirty dishes zone. That's literally their place. So even if they're out, it still feels, at least to me, it feels purposeful because that's where they go. You don't feel bad because they're dirty dishes out, they're in the dirty dishes zone. That's where they belong. Plus, when it's time to wash or load them, they're already right there. There's no like hunting or gathering to find all the stray cups or whatever, you know. We also love a fridge zone. This is a little spot on our counter in front of the refrigerator. And when I am, you know, I'm making lunches or dinners and I make most of the food in the house, which is totally fine. My husband and I have a good division of labor, just so you know, but I do most of the food. But so when I'm doing that, when I'm making

lunches or dinners and I'm done with an ingredient that goes in the fridge, I will put the ingredient in the fridge zone right next to me on the counter rather than turning my body, which I know sounds crazy, but rather than turning my body and like opening and closing the door a few times or even just leaving that thing scattered wherever it is on the counter along with everything else. By zoning it, it's out of the way of the task that it is no longer useful for. And then it's ready to be put away when things get put away. And my family, they understand both of these zones. They know if food is in the fridge zone, that it can be put away. And they know which counter to put their dirty dishes on. It's fantastic. So let's go back to meal prep. Having zones is huge for meal prep,

huge. You might want a dirty dishes zone and you might want a fridge zone. Depending on how intense your meal prepping is, you might want a chopping zone or a cooking zone by the oven where you also plug in your small appliances that you're using, if you're doing like a bigger, you know, a bigger session, you might want a cooling zone. If you're cooking a meal, you know, fully and then freezing it later, you might want a packaging zone where all your containers are. And those zones can be in your kitchen, you know, on the counter, your table, whatever. But depending on your scope and your food and the methods that you are using, you might want some zones. That also keeps people from tripping over each other, trying to do two different tasks in one congested area. Things are put in their place. And that's a lazy

genius principle, right? We love that. Put everything in its place. Okay, next is step six. That is to choose your order or your order of cooking. Choose your order of cooking. You're asking for a lot of trouble if you just like start chopping or sauteing randomly, especially if you have like a handful of things that you're doing. Now, is it trouble that you can handle? Sure, of course, especially if you're just doing a couple things. But if you have plans to make more than a few things, it is really good to know what order you're going to go in. A good rule of thumb that I have found is to start cooking the thing that takes the longest first so that you're not spending more time in the kitchen than you need to. Or if one thing is not going to take a significant amount of time, think about the cooking style or

like maybe the appliance or the process that will take the longest. For example, if you're going to roast like a lot of vegetables, like maybe a couple of rounds worth, even though they take about as long as anything else, even though one pan takes about as long as anything else, if the oven needs to be preheated and it's going to be used for like 90 minutes, go ahead and get the oven going. You know what I'm saying? That's the longest thing. So let's just get it started. Does that make sense? Now in many circumstances, there's not going to be like a right order for your meal prep. Most of you are not going to go about this where it's like a several hour affair and you have to be super, super organized. You're just roasting this thing, you're chopping that thing. You're maybe throwing a marinade together really quick and you're calling it

good. Okay. So order is relatively insignificant, but it's still a really nice idea to decide your order just so you're not scrambling when it's time to go from one task to another. You know what's coming next. it still put everything in its place. Just put your order in its place. It's not right or wrong. It's just helpful. But do remember this. No matter what order you choose, please make the last task to clean up. Include washing pans and wiping down counters as part of the meal prep process or you will be so sad. It is better to see that as part of the whole task rather than a separate thing that you will hate doing or get help. doing that thing, you know, recruit a family member or something if you have one in the house to do that part for you. But include that as part of the process. And then finally, step seven is to

choose your adventure. How do you want to make this fun? You can listen to a favorite podcast or an audiobook. You can blast really great music. You can do this with a friend and chat the whole time. You can use this as an opportunity to teach a teenager about food and using a knife and stuff. You can turn on a favorite movie in the background that you can miss here or there when you're, you know, like running water or whatever you're doing, but you can still enjoy it, you know, you're not going to be distracted. You can make or buy a favorite beverage to enjoy while your meal prepping. Like make it fun. If you make it fun, you'll be more likely to do it again because the prep itself is going to be great. It's going to really help. So those are the seven

steps. And here is my suggestion if you want to take it. I want you to go through the first four steps, remember the ones that have to do with just making decisions. And I just want you to pretend. I want you to pretend like you're going to meal prep this week and then see where you end up after those first four decisions. And then decide if you're going to actually do it. Does it feel worth it? Is your plan maybe a lot simpler than you expected it to be? And you might just give this a shot. You know, you could spend 10 or 15 minutes while you're sitting in the carpal line or waiting for a grocery pickup or something, and you can just see, see how it feels once you make a handful of decisions. And then if you're like, no, I think I'll try this. Then you can try it. And if you're like,

nope, I don't want to. It was a good thought exercise and you can move along. And if you do decide that it's worth giving a shot, remember that every single week it can be different. And it probably will be. You know, one week, you might just prep a little food. Another, you make your lunches for the week. another you cut up all the vegetables for all the dinners for that week another you make one dinner the night before and then another week you might not even do anything at all right remember that you should only be a genius about this or even about certain aspects of this if they matter to you or if the results of them matters enough to do them and as always match your expectations to the energy you're willing to give.

Do not expect a freezer full of ready-to-go meals if you can barely muster up enough energy for 15 minutes. Fit the meal prep into the time you have, not the other way around. We will write out these steps and points in the next edition of the latest lazy listens. So if you would like to start getting really robust summaries and resources of this podcast,

sent straight to your inbox. box because like you always forget to check the show notes since you listen to this while you run or something like that. It's super simple. There is a link in the show notes to sign up or you can go to the lazy genius collective.com slash listens. You just do that real quick right now if you can. You just give us your email address and then you're going to get this particular resource every other Friday straight to your inbox. So you will be reminded of the last two weeks of episodes, complete with points, extra resources and they live in one place in your inbox and you can keep the ones that matter to you. Okay, before we go, let's celebrate the lazy genius of the week.

Today, it is Laurie Helwig. And when I read this tip, which has to do with meal prep, I said out loud to no one because I was alone in a room, this is brilliant. So now I should have said this is genius if I wanted to stay on brand, but that's cool. So I can't wait to tell you Lori's tip. Lori writes this. I wanted to share a decide once that we're going to try implementing in our new season of life with a school-aged kid. On Sunday nights, I will make breakfast for dinner. And I'll make enough of some of the menu items, ham and cheese, egg cups, oatmeal muffins, breakfast biscuits, et cetera, to have some left over for quick breakfasts before the bus comes at 6.40 a.m. for the rest of the week. Thank you for inspiring this. One dinner plus five

breakfast decisions done each week feels like such a big accomplishment. I appreciate you. I mean right, Lori, this is such a great idea. This is meal prep because Lori is prepping the meal of breakfast, but she is batching like a boss by making breakfast once, but for multiple meals. I also love implementing the other principle of Decide Once here. You know, Sundays are breakfast for dinner. That's just what we do. And that those extras can be saved for breakfast. It's just like chef's kiss. Love this idea, Lori, and congratulations on being the lazy genus of the week. If you want to remember Lori's tip any of these seven steps from this episode or you want to hear my favorite meal prep resource. Don't forget to sign up for the latest Lacey Listen's email. It'll land in inboxes next Friday.

Also, if you could really use some help across the board in figuring out these kinds of things in your own kitchen on the whole, please check out my book, The Lazy Genius Kitchen. It is a fantastic resource to help you think through the parts and processes in your kitchen that matter to you. Plus, it's super pretty and full of so many references and resources. I think you'll love it. Okay, y'all, that's it for today. Thanks so much for listening. And until next time, be a genius about the things that matter and lazy about the things that don't. I'm Kendra. 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, and 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.