The Lazy Genius Podcast - #84 The Lazy Genius Guide to Lunch

Episode Date: November 19, 2018

When you think of the words “meal plan,” I bet you think of dinner. But lunch is just as important. This week, I’m talking about ways to find strategies and recipe ideas to make lunch not feel like such a throwaway meal. Plus, there's an exciting new community on the Internet that I think you'll love. Companion Links The Wondering Years by my Internet brother and The Popcast’s own Knox McCoy The Monday Uniform Planetbox lunchboxes (my boys have this one) Listen to this episode if you want to hear me talk about meal matrixes The Tim Riggins Salad of my dreams The Lazy Genius Collective Facebook group 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

Hi there. You're listening to the lazy genius podcast. I'm Kendra 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 84. The lazy genius guide to lunch. I talk about dinner a lot, but lunch is an important meal too. We all have different needs when it comes to lunch. Feeding big old homeschool families, feeding toddlers without leaving ourselves just sandwich scraps from their plates or taking lunch to work every day. So many things. So in this episode, we're going to find some lunch strategies and recipe ideas to make lunch not feel like such a throwaway meal. First, though, I want to tell you about a book written by my pretend brother, Knox McCoy, from the podcast. His new book released last week, and it's called The Wondering Years. If you have an off-center relationship with religion or God, this book will help you laugh and think about it in all the best ways.

while Knox's community was defining itself by Christian culture, he was defining himself and his understanding of faith through pop culture, two arenas that don't often play well together. This book is funny, it's thoughtful. It will make you feel less alone, especially if you happen to grow up in the South in the 80s and 90s, which he and I both did. I will pop a link to the book in the show notes. So if you're looking for a good read for Thanksgiving weekend or you need a gift for that brother-in-law who's impossible to buy for, check off this book. I think you'll really enjoy it. Now let's talk about lunch. We all eat it. A lot of

us make it for other people. And it happens in the middle of the day, which has its own set of challenges. We're going to talk through some concrete lunch ideas for a variety of challenges. But first, I want to offer a simple perspective to jumpstart your lazy genius thinking about it. Lunch can take up space. If you work, you probably have a lunch hour, a literal hour where you can eat your lunch without focusing on any responsibilities. I love that. And I think it's a valuable practice for everyone that can make it happen. Now, you might have that option, but don't take it every day. Maybe your job is so busy that you have to like fit lunch into the cracks. If you're a teacher or a doctor or any number of professions, you just don't get the same time that a lot of other folks might get.

If you're home, there's a chance you don't take a lunch hour at all. You fix a plate for your kid at home and then you try and keep up with the laundry while going through the mail pile and putting away groceries from a couple of hours ago and in between steps you grab a handful of whatever bag is left open on the counter for making a kid's lunch. Lunch can take up space. We can let that time breathe and take care of our bodies and our souls and slow down if the situation allows for that. I realize that's not an option for everyone. But if it is an option for you, like it is for me most days, I think we should consider. taking it. Just like if you have a job where you get a literal lunch break, consider giving that

to yourself at home or within your own schedule. Plan a lunch break. We're generally more productive when we've had breaks and we give ourselves a chance to rest, even though that feels counterintuitive. So if you usually avoid lunch because you're too busy, consider letting lunch take up a little space. Give your mind a chance to refuel within that space and your body a chance to refill from the food, you know? And if you tend to not give lunch at space because it just doesn't feel worth it, like for example, if you're home with little kids and you don't have the energy, to think about your own lunch alongside all the other minutia, I just invite you to consider a different way. You're allowed to take some time in the day for yourself. You're allowed to leave dinner

unprepped and laundry unfolded to eat lunch like a person. It's okay. It's good. It even might make you more productive on the other end because you've rested. It is worth the time, even on like a real tiny level. Okay, so let's talk through the most common challenges to lunch and then think through some ways to maybe make them a bit more manageable. The three most common lunch challenges that I hear are volume, decisions, and boredom. knowing specifically why lunch is a challenge, it will help you focus your solutions a little better. Okay, so that's why we're breaking them down like this. So let's start with volume.

By volume, I mean the literal amount of food. We're starting with like kind of the most nichey challenge because it's kind of quick for us to run through. If you're home with a lot of kids or you send multiple kids to school with lunches. If you homeschool, if you're caring for aging parents, basically if you're making lunch for more than yourself, it can feel overwhelmed. So do you find the source of your frustration around like how many sandwiches you have to make or how many Clementines you have to peel or how long it takes to make lunch for so many people? It's good to recognize that specific frustration before we jump into solution ideas. Okay.

So that's the first challenge, volume. The second challenge is decisions. You just don't want to make another decision. You already struggle with feeding yourself or others at the very start of the day. at breakfast and we all know how crazy making dinner feels having to decide a meal in the middle of the day too no thank you it's too much so if that's your frustration name it specifically it will help later and then the third challenge is boredom maybe you're bored of eating the same lunch every day or maybe you think your kids are bored with the same thing every day recently somebody DM'd

me on instagram asking about packing lunches for kids and how to add variety my question was do your kids ask for variety are they bored and she was like, um, actually no, they seem fine, which makes the answer very easy. Don't worry about variety. Sometimes we try and find solutions for frustrations that are only in our own heads or don't even exist. If you think your kids are bored, don't plow ahead with intense lunch variations until you actually confirm their bored. So as you think about your frustration with making lunch, is it, let's narrow it down. Is it more centered around volume, decisions, or boredom? that could be for you or for the entire population of people that you are responsible for feeding

every day. Name it and then narrow your response. It's a good way to think about a lot of things actually. Don't waste energy fixing invisible problems. Okay, so next we need to talk about prep. But before we do that, we need to make a tiny decision first about timing. It is good to think about when you currently make lunch and if it would make sense to change that time. If your frustration is volume and you make lunch at lunchtime, I can see why it feels daunting to make multiple lunches in the crunch. You just walked in from running errands and everyone's hungry and it's stressful to get everyone fed quickly, especially when maybe you just came in from like groceries and you need to put groceries away or there's a load of laundry that you forgot that's in the washing machine that

you need to turn over, all the things. So maybe in those things. So maybe in those scenarios, it's worth it to think about when you make lunch. Maybe it's in the morning or the night before. If you're making lunch for yourself, maybe it's once or twice a week in one fell swoop. And the definition of prep is very gracious in the context of lunch. When we think of meal prep, we often think of like containers of sliced bell peppers and then another container of homemade meatballs, mason jars of salad, all the things. While those things are meal prep and they're lovely lunch meal prep can totally mean that you have baloney in the house like simply having supplies for lunch is meal prep so we want to prep and supply your kitchen with what you need for lunch based on

your frustrations about lunch so if your frustration is volume um that you have to make so many lunches let's talk about the kind of prep that will alleviate that frustration if you're packing individual lunches pack the same thing for everybody that's one idea this might seem obvious, but I'm often guilty of this. Like not all my kids like the same fruits or sandwich fillings. One kid likes potato chips, the other pretzels. One likes crust. One doesn't want a sandwich cut. One literally says he won't eat cheese except on Thursdays. I'm not making that up. It is bonkers managing volume, especially when people have preferences. I do love making my kids happy with their lunches. And I want to honor their preferences. But I also know that it's okay for them to not love every

component every time. And that's true for all of us. Lunch doesn't have to be perfectly suited to every taste every day. And a great way to help with the volume frustration is to make the same thing for everyone, or at least like a close variation. If you're feeding multiple mouths that are at home for lunch, for example, if you homeschool or you nanny or something, consider prepping lunch as dinner. like do it the same way and make one unit of food that will feed multiple mouths. Here's what I mean. We will use the idea of enchiladas as our example. Okay. Inchaladas are essentially cheese and maybe some other stuff wrapped into a tortilla, stuck into a big baking dish covered in sauce and baked. Okay. Now, you might think of that as a great crowd meal because it's all made in one pan for many people.

That's only partly true, though, because you have to individually fill and roll each tortilla into an enchilada. Okay? They're going into one pan, but the individual work is still there. Compare that to making what is essentially like enchilada lasagna. Put down a little sauce, layer on a bunch of tortillas, dump in half your filling, do that whole thing one more time, douse the top of cheese, and bake it. Now, that prep takes way less time than the truce.

traditional way because you're limiting your your movements basically okay making those kinds of choices with lunch is a good idea because you're feeding multiple mouths with as few motions as possible i know i sound like a weirdo efficiency expert but that is my job here folks let's be as genius as we can where we can so make a one unit make one unit of food okay that feeds multiple mouths rather than making five sandwiches, get a big loaf of Italian bread and make one big sandwich that you cut into pieces. You still have to make food, but you're doing one unit instead of five. It makes a difference, especially if your frustration is around volume. Aw isn't something we need to travel for. It's something waiting for us in everyday life, whether in a city street or a moment with a work

of art. I'm Dr. Keltner, host of the Science of Happiness podcast. Join me for Cities of Aw, A special series on how our public spaces can spark awe, wonder, and enhance the quality of public life. You can find us wherever you listen to your podcasts. And one more thought when it comes to prep for the frustration of volume. Consider cutting up more than one serving of fruit or vegetables and keeping them for another lunch. This is kind of a no-brainer, but also it's something that we overlook. When I buy strawberries or oranges, for example, It's easy to slice only as much fruit as I need for that set of lunches.

But when I cut up all the strawberries or slice all the oranges while I'm in the groove, not only is it more efficient mentally and physically because I'm already doing it, it makes the next lunch so much easier because some prep is already done. Basically, there's not a single solution for everyone because we're all different. But if you start to think about how to adjust what you're already doing to make it a little bit easier, one sandwich instead of five, cutting up all the fruit at once rather than three or four times a week. Your frustration with volume, it might lower a little bit. Okay. The next frustration is decision making.

You just don't want to have to think about something else. Like, you don't want to make another decision. How can you rethink lunch and meal prep if that is your frustration? Maybe deciding in the moment is the problem. So consider deciding what lunch is at breakfast. maybe deciding every day, no matter what time of day is draining, so decide once a week. Now, that doesn't mean you have to make a traditional meal plan with a different lunch every day. Maybe you choose what lunch is once a week and eat that thing every day that week.

The same can go for your family. Maybe on Saturday you decide that lunches for the week are turkey sandwiches, apples, mini cucumbers and chips. Make that lunch every day for everyone and then decide a new lunch the next Saturday. Or you can do that for your kids, but make a different plan for yourself if you're not into turkey sandwiches and chips. You can make a big batch of something and eat on it all week. I've been known to make a pot of soup for my own week of lunches and no other reason. Like I just make myself a big pot of soup. You make it Monday morning.

You have lunch that day and the rest of the week. No decisions needed. Another idea I got, which is super interesting for my friend Ann Bogle from the podcast, What Should I Read Next? She chooses a lunch that she'll eat for as long as like a month or two. And it depends on the season. So maybe it is vegetable soup during the winter, like for lunch every day. It's salmon and salad in the summers.

It's rotisserie chicken in a pita in the spring, that kind of thing. When you want to limit decisions, don't be afraid to make one decision for an extended stretch of time. It's kind of like a Monday uniform. You wear the same thing every Monday and you adjust it season to season. You don't have to think about it anymore. You might care way more about not thinking. about outfits or lunch than you do about variety. You would rather like eat the same thing or wear the same thing than have to decide something new every week. That's why it's important

to know the specific source of your frustration so you can address it the best way. Okay. So those are some thoughts if your frustration is variety. And then the final frustration is boredom. You get bored eating the same thing, which could obviously be the opposite of what we just talked about. if you care about variety for yourself or your kids. Let's talk about how to make that easier. For your kids, I want to bring up again that they might not care. Don't assume they're bored. For my kids, they eat pretty much the same lunches every single day.

My boys are in school every day. They're both in elementary school and they take their lunches. And then my daughter, she goes to school twice a week and takes her lunch with her. And then she eats at home the other days. my boys get either a sun butter and jelly because I have a peanut allergy in my house. So the boys get either a sun butter and jelly sandwich or a turkey sandwich every day. Those are the things they both reasonably like, so we stick with them. We use Planet Box launch boxes.

I will link to them in the show notes. They're essentially like stainless steel bento boxes. They are not cheap as far as lunch boxes go, but we use them year after year. is on his sixth year I guess yeah sixth year with his and it is practically the same as it was the day we bought it you don't use baggies there's no Tupperware and they go straight in the dishwasher I love them so much but one of the reasons is because they they almost pre-make decisions for me these lunch boxes there's a big compartment that fits a sandwich or anything else big but it always is a sandwich for us pretty much there are three other medium compartments and then a super tiny one

Two of the three medium compartments get fruit or carrot sticks. The other ones get something crunchy like pretzels or chips. And then there's a tiny compartment that get some candy or a thin mat cookie or something like that. And that's what they have every single day for lunch. And they're fine. Annie gets that when she goes to school. And then when she's home, she pretty much gets the same thing too. It's like a different home lunch.

She gets salami, a cheese stick. She loves salami and cheese. If you've watched me on Instagram Live, she asks specifically, for daddy's cheese, which is just like the big block of Colby Jack, but she likes daddy's cheese. I don't know. So at home, she gets slimy cheese, two kinds of fruit, maybe carrot sticks thrown in there, and then something crunchy. Every day.

I realize that right now, we are talking about the frustration with boredom, but I am giving you the freedom to not feel pressured to give your kids a ton of lunch variety if it makes you crazy and they really don't care. Don't try and fix invisible problems. Now, if you want variety personally and you hate eating the same thing every day for your own lunches, you have a couple of options. You can actually make a different lunch and spend the time deciding on and executing another meal. You know, like you have to make another meal every day.

And if you have the time and the energy and the desire for that, go for it so hard. There's no judgment in this. If you want some variety, but you don't have that kind of energy on a daily basis, Here are a couple of approaches. First, you can have a meal matrix for lunches. I talk about meal matrixes a lot when I talk about dinner. But a meal matrix is essentially a plug-and-play approach to meal planning. You give yourself some kind of limit to make your decisions easier.

Taco Tuesday is a meal matrix. You know that you're having tacos on Tuesday, but the kind of tacos can vary, which still gives you a variety. Okay? Try that for your lunches. Monday is a sandwich. Tuesday is soup. Wednesday is a green salad. Thursday is a grain salad. Friday is something hot with cheese and bread. You can also do this approach for an entire month. Like one week is green salads. For example, you could make my Tim Riggins salad on a Sunday. And then again on a Wednesday and you eat that every day that week. And then the second week of the month is rice bowls. Okay, you make a giant batch of rice and then you make a couple of different rice bowls that week. The first few days, you do something like a taco bowl where you have ground beef and sauteed peppers and then you top it with salsa and avocado.

And then the second half of the week, you have that same ground beef and sauteed peppers, but you top it with ginger dressing and a dollop of plain yogurt and cilantro. And you have sort of like an East Asian situation. And then, okay, so week one is green salads. Week two is rice bowls. Let's say the third week is chicken salad. you make or buy a big batch of chicken salad and then you put it in a pito one day you can put it in between two slices of bread on a bed of arugula that kind of thing you can kind of switch it up you can meal matrix the entire month by eating the same thing for a week and then kind of switching it up just a little bit within that week or you can meal matrix individual days again the most important thing here is to recognize what your actual frustrations are when we say oh i hate making lunch but don't identify why.

We just say frustrated because we don't know what solutions to look for. So know why. It's frustrating. Give it value. It's okay. And then leave space for it. And then you can consider how to adjust when you make lunch, how you prep for it. Which remember, that still includes just stocking your kitchen with like fruit and sunbutter in my case.

You're not doing anything wrong because you're frustrated with lunch. making food, it feels like one of those things that should come easily, but it doesn't always. And usually it's because our lens is too broad. Narrow down those frustrations and seek out solutions within helpful limits like a meal matrix. And don't be afraid to eat the same thing every day. It doesn't make you a bad person. It's really fine.

You do you. Okay. Check out the show notes for some helpful links at the lazy genius collective.com slash lazy slash lunch. And while we usually talk on Instagram every Thursday, this week, we are not because it's Thanksgiving, at least in America. So we're taking the week off. But I do have good news if you want to process and ask lunch questions now or anytime. We have a lazy genius Facebook group. Took us long enough, right? If you want a community that has a lazy genius perspective, I want to crowdsource some ideas based on what you specifically. You want to crowdsource some ideas based on what you

specifically need in your life. Like lunch, join the group. I'll put a link in the show notes for that as well. Lazy geniuses are such a great resource for ideas to help us be a genius about the things that matter and lazy about the things that don't. So let's gather and help each other out and encourage each other in the things that matter to us. I will hang out in there for sure and my delightful assistant Leah, you'll see her around. We'll make sure that things are working for everybody and that everyone is treating each other kindly. are fantastic. I have no worries about like weird dynamics, but we're going to protect that space from bad-moutting and judging for sure. Nobody's got time for that. So check the link out in the show

notes and join the Facebook group. I'm so excited that we have one now. It's going to be so fun. And don't forget to check out Knox McCoy's new book, The Wondering Years. I think you will love it. Okay, guys, that's it for today. I'm Kendra. And remember to be a genius about the things that matter and lazy about the things that don't. See you next week and happy Thanksgiving. Bye. Have you ever felt like you are 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 podcast. Podcasts.