[Senkusha]

Browsing through Reddit as one often does when , I found this genuine question. And I answered it.  I thought I'd share my advice here, to the tiny, nearly non-existent audience here too.

Seriously, I thought the hardest part of growing up would be bills, taxes, or finding a decent job. But nope. It's the never-ending "What's for dinner?" question that haunts me every single day.
Too tired to cook.
Too broke to order.
Too indecisive to choose.
I swear I've eaten the same three meals on repeat for weeks because my brain refuses to function after work. How do adults survive this? Do you guys have a magic trick, or is it just vibes and suffering?
Send help. Or recipes. Or a personal chef.

TL;DR:

• Create a list of dishes you like.
• Identify food staples
• Make a Bulk Shopping List.
• Make a Perishable Shopping List.
• Make a Meal Plan.
• Schedule a single Cooking Day.
• Portion out prepared cooked foods.
• Clean out your fridge before each shopping trip!
• Rinse and Repeat!
• Enjoy your new lifestyle!

I do this, and it works well for me. And I start at the beginning.
You need staples. These are the base ingredients for the types of foods YOU prefer to eat. These are base ingredients that can be used in different ways to produce different dishes.

For example, I have rice, beans, beef, and broccoli. I use a lot of rice, but I also enjoy Asian, Mexican, and Indian cuisine. Rice is a staple in these parts of the world. I usually have ground beef frozen in approximately one-pound zip lock baggies, compressed for easy storage. With adding some various herbs or spices and a veggie, I can make burritos, or beef fried rice, as an example.

Meal planning is essential, and it's not taught to people. I buy my staples in bulk. 50 pounds of rice, 15 pounds of potatoes, 5 pounds of ground beef, etc. This stretches my money. And I can prepare many different options with a few key ingredients. I digress. Meal planning. You should sit down and brainstorm a list of all the foods you like. What do you order when you go out to eat? Find recipes. There are all sorts of variants, so search for recipes and refine your list until you have recipes that mostly use the same base ingredients list.

I set aside one day a week that is my cooking day. I'll cook soups, chill, stews, bowls of rice, whatever I want to eat during the entire week. Left overs are for taking to work the next day or so. Everything is dished out in food safe sealed containers that I can stick in my refrigerator. If at the end of the week, I still have uneaten food, I'll make a stir fry, or garbage soup.

Now the bulk of my cooking is completed in only one day, so when I get home from work all I have to do is pick something, and heat it up. (Secret: sometimes the food tastes better after it's rested and flavors all tango together).

Every time I discover a new fish I like, I'll find an appropriate recipe for it. This process has taken me months if not years, so be patient with yourself. I also change up my menu monthly. I plan the entire month, incorporating dishes from all around the world. This planning really helps to save money too. Less impulse buying, and corporations HATE this! LOL. (I want to state that while I buy my nonperishables like rice and dried beans in bulk, I do that like every three to six months. I do regular perishable shopping every week for fruits and veggies, and twice a month for meats -- that are frozen after I portion them out.)

One final note, when meal planning, ensure that you're using your perishables first so the don't go bad. Different foods have varied expediencies. Potatoes and onions last longer than Spinach or Cilantro. I would recommend using the power of AI to help meal plan. After you create your base food items list, ask AI to figure out a time table for food expirations and use that time table to help you plan out your daily meals throughout the week/month.