Meatless Monday
Taco Tuesday
Take out Wednesday
Crock Pot cuisine Thursday
Pizza and popcorn Friday
International Saturday
Fine China Sunday

I recall a blogger who did Milanese Mondays - not necessarily a true Milanese but like chicken parm, or pork cutlets - that kind of thing

We do meatloaf or meatball (not meatless) Mondays

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We never do breakfast for dinner but may do it once a month or so this year. We just don't eat those foods for breakfast either so I don't have the ingredients on hand!

You don’t have eggs and avocado and bread for toast and fruit on hand?

Super boring breakfast, much less dinner.

And I only buy avocados certain weeks at a decent price point. They can be very expensive or gross.

I’m so curious what the hell you DO eat for breakfast if fruit, toast and eggs are “super boring” but “we don’t eat breakfast foods for breakfast so we don’t have those ingredients” either

Anonymous wrote:I like to do “clean out the fridge/pantry day” where we eat whatever miscellaneous leftovers we have. I pull out everything that needs to be eaten and create a buffet. If there’s not a enough or large enough portions, I’ll supplement with a salad, crudité or charcuterie board.

+1 We call it scrounge night. If all else fails there's eggs - scrambled with whatever's in the fridge, or fried, or omelet, or egg salad, etc. In fact even if we don't have little bits of things to use up, we usually have eggs for dinner one night a week anyway.

Also, salad. We are lucky to have a Trader Joe's 2 blocks from the house so I can send DH to run over there for a bag of salad if dinner options seem sparse. Then we just add whatever to the salad. The aforementioned eggs (hardboiled or fried), cheese, bit of leftover chicken, etc!

So, OP, egg night can be a category.

Also, a night where you do chicken of some kind, tofu of some kind, etc.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We never do breakfast for dinner but may do it once a month or so this year. We just don't eat those foods for breakfast either so I don't have the ingredients on hand!

You don’t have eggs and avocado and bread for toast and fruit on hand?

Super boring breakfast, much less dinner.

And I only buy avocados certain weeks at a decent price point. They can be very expensive or gross.

Anonymous wrote:We never do breakfast for dinner but may do it once a month or so this year. We just don't eat those foods for breakfast either so I don't have the ingredients on hand!

You don’t have eggs and avocado and bread for toast and fruit on hand?

Some ideas - I don’t do all each week.

1-tacos
2-pasta
3-fend for yourself
4-breakfast for dinner
5-kid 1 chooses cuisine, I choose recipe
6-kid 2 chooses cuisine, I choose recipe
7-DH chooses cuisine, I choose recipe
8-Korean 1 night a week (I am Korean-American and am trying to build my repertoire of homemade Korean food).
9-fish
7-pizza (homemade or delivery)

soup night
pasta night
breakfast for dinner
make your own sandwiches
international night (pick a different country each time)
kid's choice (if you have multiple kids either rotate or make them agree...but whoever's choice it is helps cook and clean up that night)
Freezer Surprise
snack dinner/leftovers/picky platters (whatever you want to call it)
burger night (could be beef, turkey, veggie, etc. with different toppings)
rice bowl night

We do Italian once a week - not necessarily always the same meal but always that theme. For us that is in line with how we don’t do Taco Tuesday per se but Mexican or Tex-Mex once a week. Like seafood once a week, whether fish or shellfish.

We do meatless mondays and taco tuesdays (and often order pizza on Fridays).

We generally stick to these categories on the other nights (although we might switch up the night depending what is going on/how much prep time we have):

breakfast for dinner (eggs, pancakes, fruit)
make your own bowls (chipolte-like or cava-like)
sheet pan chicken and vegetables (flavor profile changes)
baked pasta (lasagna, ziti or tik tok feta/tomato pasta)
stir fry (usu beef or chicken and broccoli)

Pancakes for dinner (or whatever breakfast item ...we actually do bagel egg sandwiches).

Pie day Thursday (leftovers from the week disguised in a casserole...tater tot casserole, Mac n cheese casserole, whatever)

We also do taco Tuesday, but switch it out a bit so it doesn't get old - substitute steak/chicken or serve it in a bowl (Chipotle style), or switch out the sides (tacquitos, nachos, red rice, different shells).

International - 1x a month for is bc it's usually a flop. It's an attempt to serve (simple) Chinese (stir fry, for ex), or Gyros (Costco has a kit I buy), chicken schwarma, BBQ ,...you get the picture.

I want this exact thing with the days of the week. And seasonally. And of course there could be like transition times where I just go with one of the other. One example would be meet Monday. With burgers in the summer, something more hearty in the winter.

My go-tos are:
Stir fry or something Chinese
Indian
Pasta
Pizza (can be homemade and healthier)

Some ideas that help me stay organized - I don’t do all each week.

1-tacos
2-pasta
3-fend for yourself
4-breakfast for dinner
5-kid 1 chooses cuisine, I choose recipe
6-kid 2 chooses cuisine, I choose recipe
7-DH chooses cuisine, I choose recipe
8-Korean 1 night a week (I am Korean-American and am trying to build my repertoire of homemade Korean food).
9-fish one night a week.
10-pizza (homemade or delivery)

DH does most of the cooking - he’s better on the fly. If we plan ahead, I don’t get overwhelmed and can also cook.