Review of The Lazy Genius Kitchen: Is this Book for Me?


Do you Have a Love/Hate Relationship with Your Kitchen?

If you feel frustrated or overwhelmed by the responsibility of feeding hungry people, The Lazy Genius Kitchen is for you. 

Two of the biggest stress points in the kitchen are coming up with a main meal day after day and serving food to visitors in your home.

What’s for Dinner?

I think we underestimate the gargantuan task of feeding a family. There’s a lot of moving parts, there’s a lot of ways to fail. Plus we live with the internet where we can access pictures of other people’s food and homes. There’s no way we can live up to that kind of comparison. 

Company’s Coming

There’s not much that can make you feel inadequate like having people in your home for a meal. The good news is, you don’t have to live up to other people’s expectations. With Kendra’s help, you can pinpoint what matters to you, focus on those priorities and let everything else go. 

If there’s a kitchen book that can help you with those two things—company and supper— it’s worth it’s weight in gold. This one is. 

Kendra Adachi works her magic again building on the principles laid out in The Lazy Genius Way

Who’s this Book for?

This book is for you if:

You ever feel frustrated by the mammoth task of feeding your people 20 times a week. 

You wish you could hire a cook and/or maid so you won’t be overwhelmed by your responsibilities.

Hospitality makes you anxious. 

You’ve fallen into a food rut and don’t know how to get out. 

You feel guilty about how you manage your time or energy.

You have trouble articulating your highest priorities and living by them. 

Your performance in the kitchen doesn’t live up to your expectations.

Who’s this Book not for? 

This book is not for you if:

You only have a kitchen for the resale value of your house.  

You have no kitchen privileges. 

You’re looking for a cookbook or a kitchen design book. 

You’re completely happy with your meal planning, food prep and kitchen organization. 

You’re not interested in learning new and helpful ways to serve your people better. 

What I Love

27 Ingredient Combinations that Will Never Let You Down

It’s on page 154 and it’s my favorite page in the whole book. 

I already knew that tomato, basil and mozzarella cheese was a winning combo. 

But peas, bacon and cream? Who knew? And shrimp, garlic and lime just makes me hungry. 

Plus 24 more combos to put to the test. Let’s go grocery shopping, mama!

The Liquid Index

The Liquid Index is fascinating and also confusing. I heard it on the podcast first, where she re-named it The Recipe Decoder, which explains it a little better. 

It refers to a basic breakdown of many recipes that helps you build your own favorite meals easier.  

I remember when I discovered that salt, pepper and garlic improved the taste of almost any meat and parsley and paprika are both good on chicken. 

This is way beyond that. 

I dare you not to learn something new. 

Five Action Steps

The Lazy Genius Kitchen introduces a five step process—prioritize, essentialize, organize, personalize and systemize— to create your own systems for your unique situation. These apply in the kitchen but also in other areas of life. 

That’s in Part 1. Part 2 is Have What You Need and Part 3 is Use What You Have

Change Your Life Chicken

This is one of only two recipes in the book and can also be found on the web by a simply searching the name. 

Note: this is a sheet pan recipe—one that I love—but best used during seasons of the year with cooler temps. 

Practical Lists and Charts

The last third of the book is encyclopedic, reference pages on kitchen tools, how to cook chicken, blending flavors and how to pages. 

Applies Lazy Genius Principles

Let’s be clear: Using the LG principles is life changing. I wrote about it in Why The Lazy Genius Way Feels Like a Giant Exhale

Name What Matters

The strength of all the Lazy Genius principles is taking time first to identify the top priorities. 

This helps you to focus your efforts on what matters most, and release expectations about what matters less. 

It’s paradigm shifting because stress and overwhelm come from having too many priorities and trying to excel in all of them. 

Why? Because we’re overwhelmed with too many choices, too many responsibilities and too many expectations to do it all well. 

Without the foundational principle of Name What Matters, we continue to be overwhelmed. 

When you have clarity on what matters most, you can make the other decisions quickly and confidently. 

How to Name What Matters

Kendra even teaches how to find what matters. First, list what could matter. Then, decide what does matter. And, finally, choose what matters most to you

The only way to be content is to release unrealistic expectations. We’re not living someone else’s life. 

Once you’ve identified and articulated your highest priorities, you can let go of what’s less important and develop strategies in line with what matters most. 

Or, as she says it, be a genius about what matters and lazy about what doesn’t. 

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