How To Brainstorm Weeknight Meals

You might feel like you’re either stuck in a rut or flat out of ideas. Brainstorm some easy weeknight recipes and write up a new menu to help get through a busy week or break out of a routine. We’ll show you how to:

• Get ideas from everyone in the house.
• Leverage restaurant menus.
• Plan a meal that lasts a few days.
• Treat yourself.
• Work around your schedule.
• Combine your favorite meals.
• Use artificial intelligence (AI)

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Ready to get started? Here are a few ways to keep things fresh in the kitchen every night:

Get ideas from everyone in the house.
Despite the fact that you’ll probably be doing most of the hard work of cooking the meals, take solace in knowing that you’re not the only one eating them. Source ideas from the rest of the house to find out what everyone would like to eat for weeknight meals. Make it even easier by using a shared online family calendar to craft your family menu by soliciting ideas from everyone!

Look at restaurant menus.
One of the best parts of going out to eat is getting something you can’t normally eat at home. While it’s nice to go to a deli and get a good BLT, it’s a sandwich you can easily make for lunch any day of the week. Get inspiration from your favorite restaurant’s menu by pulling it up online. Look for dishes that don’t look too difficult and look online for a copycat recipe to make it easy. No, it probably won’t taste exactly the same because restaurants often load up their dishes with butter and/or sugar, but it’ll be close enough.

Plan a meal that lasts a few days.
You’re not going to have the time (or desire) to cook every day. Make things easy on yourself by cooking for a few days at a time. No, this doesn’t mean you have to make taco meat and meatloaf all at once. Instead, make an extra-large dish of taco meat or meatloaf that’s a little bit bigger than usual. You can use these dishes a few times over and save yourself some time over the next few days. For example, turn Monday’s meatloaf into Tuesday’s meatloaf subs. Or turn Friday’s tacos into Saturday’s taco salad! Knock out two or three birds with one stone by planning a meal that makes several days’ worth of leftovers.

Treat yourself.
The house chef deserves a night off, so pick a night to eat carry out once every week or two. Consider some tasty fast-serve, your favorite pizza—or just have something delivered. Pick something that everyone likes or have a rotation for who gets to choose where you get food that week. It’s probably the one meal where you can reach a general consensus, and everyone in the house will be happy. It’ll certainly cost more than making one of your weeknight chicken recipes, but it’ll give you a fun night off.

Work around your schedule.
Some nights are just going to be busier than others, and there’s not a lot you can do about that. Let’s say you only have 15 minutes to put together dinner on Tuesday nights, but Wednesday nights are wide open. Plan meals according to your schedule. Think of something simple and quick that you can throw together between the time the kids get home from school and have to run off to soccer or band practice for the night. This would be a good night to throw those leftovers in the microwave.

Combine your favorite meals.
You don’t have to be an expert fusion chef to be able to throw together a fun, new meal for everyone. Think about things that you love to eat and try putting them together. You might find that you really like macaroni and cheese with BBQ pork. Do you love breakfast and tacos? Make breakfast tacos! And eat them whenever you want. Make breakfast for dinner and have leftover dinner for breakfast. Don’t let the clock dictate what you eat and when. You’ll find that there are some foods (like cold pizza) that are exceptionally delicious for breakfast the next morning.

Use artificial intelligence (AI).
Using an AI bot to generate a recipe is an easy way to come up with fresh ideas! In truth, AI has gotten to be so advanced in the last several years that it can create a recipe from scratch based on what it finds across the internet. For example, we asked ChatGPT for a list of easy chicken dinner ideas using only four ingredients. It responded with ideas for lemon chicken, honey-mustard chicken, garlic-parmesan chicken, BBQ chicken skewers, and more. The suggestions came complete with all the necessary ingredients, measurements, cooking instructions, etc. You can even ask for appetizer suggestions or dessert ideas for your meal of choice!

One final note: be sure to use a handy online app to store, share, and update all your amazing new recipes in one easily accessible location. Now those weeknight meals just got a whole lot easier. Bon Appétit!