Hi there! 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 329, 10 Things to Do when you don't want to cook. It is likely a time of transition in your life. We are going into a new season, right?

The fall is coming, school has started, and all of this impacts our energy and schedules, no matter what our lives look like, and who, if anyone, lives with us in our homes.

But you know what does not change? Is dinner? Dinner doesn't change. We have to keep eating food, and therefore probably making food for ourselves and our people.

I do think that the transition to cold weather, which might be close to happening, maybe where you live, is often an exciting time in the kitchen. In theory, we start making soup and chili and warm comfort foods.

And for the first little bit, cooking is not so bad. Maybe it's even fun. But it does not take long for that sparkle to dim, and we get days, sometimes even like a long string of them, where we just don't want to cook.

Today is your answer to that dilemma. I am going to share 10 Things to Do when you don't want to cook, but not all of these 10 Things are from me. A little bit into the episode, I will be joined by the happiest cooking teacher on the internet, Brea McCoy, who will complete this list of 10 with her own amazing expertise.

If you are listening to this episode on the day it releases tomorrow, August 29th, Brea's new cookbook, The Cooks Book, enters the world.

And I have been anxiously awaiting this for literal months. I will share more about the book at the end of the episode, but right now, let me just say that if you had to go on a deserted island,

that also miraculously had like a working kitchen and maybe a grocery store to access, you know, products and stuff, you, and you can only take two books with you.

The only two books that you need are the Lazy Genius Kitchen and the Cooks Book. I'm not even kidding. I mean, I'm kidding about the island part, but like these two books in tandem, hold the answer to just about every kitchen woe there is.

I tend to the kitchen itself and the Lazy Genius Kitchen and the planning and all that kind of stuff and Brea tends to the cooking.

You might notice I don't post a lot of recipes around here because that is not my expertise. It most certainly is Brea's and you will hear that today.

I am so excited about this book and that she's going to join us a little bit later.

But for now, let's get started on the 10 things to do when you don't want to cook.

Number one, don't cook. We're going to we're going to kick things off with a big old dose of permission.

Sometimes when you don't want to cook, just don't. Don't do it.

There are days and even whole seasons where finding the energy and time to cook something yourself is just too much.

You can be lazy about cooking. You can. It's okay. Now maybe it's not how you want things to be long term.

That makes sense, you know. A lot of us do find some joy in the kitchen sometimes.

But it doesn't mean you're doing something wrong by choosing to not cook when you don't want to.

So get take out, eat cereal, whatever. But number one, when you don't want to cook, don't. You don't have to.

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