Here’s an unpopular opinion: you don’t need more recipes. You need about five dinners you can cook without thinking, and the permission to repeat them shamelessly.
The rotation
Ours looks like this: a pasta (pesto, aglio e olio, whatever’s in the fridge), tacos, a stir-fry, eggs-and-toast night (shakshuka counts as fancy), and a big soup or curry. Five templates, infinite variation, zero decision fatigue.
Learn them by heart
The magic isn’t the dishes — it’s that you stop measuring, stop second-guessing, and dinner happens on autopilot. New recipes are for weekends; weeknights belong to the rotation.
Keep a short list
Write your five on the fridge. When someone asks “what’s for dinner,” the answer is already there — and grocery shopping becomes a ten-minute job because you always buy the same foundations.