I prepare most of the meals that my wife and I eat. I find that having a routine is highly beneficial and keeps me on track. Here&#x27;s what works well for me:<p>* Each week I make one meal from each of the following three categories: soup (or chili), meat oriented (usually chicken, sometimes beef), and pasta (or risotto). I make four servings, so we&#x27;ll have the same meal for two consecutive nights. Each category has four to six different dishes, so even though we eat the same dish two nights in a row we&#x27;re not making it too often. The limited number of dishes means I don&#x27;t have a lot of ingredients in my kitchen that I&#x27;m using infrequently. On the seventh night we&#x27;ll eat out or order in.<p>* A significant number of recipes come from a few different(don&#x27;t laugh) Real Simple books that we own. The recipes are typically, well, simple to prepare, relatively healthy, and don&#x27;t require a lot of time. They call for ingredients I can find without having to go to a specialty grocery store. I also have a few recipes from blogs and NY Times Cooking, which has a back-catalog of thousands of recipes.<p>* Lunches are usually sandwich based, though sometimes extra leftovers. Sandwiches can get boring quickly, so I find adding a lot of ingredients helps. A typically sandwich may be two slices of low sodium turkey, bacon, cheese, broccoli sprouts, and a slice of tomato. For a side I may add in a piece of fruit or a handful of almonds (sometimes plain, sometimes chocolate covered). Usually twice a week I&#x27;ll go out for lunch. Makes it a little more special when it doesn&#x27;t happen every day.<p>* I live in a smaller apartment with limited kitchen space, so I try to use recipes that don&#x27;t require specialty equipment.<p>* I make a list of food I&#x27;ll need for the week on Sunday mornings and make one trip to the store. No going back until next Sunday.<p>* I try to find recipes that will last for a few days in the refrigerator. Most Sundays I&#x27;ll make two recipes, providing us with food for four nights. This means I&#x27;m usually cooking only one night during the work week. Start at around 4:30pm on Sunday, done eating and cleaning up by 7pm.<p>Tonight we&#x27;re having broccoli soup, one of the more &quot;challenging&quot; dishes on my list:<p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;cooking.nytimes.com&#x2F;recipes&#x2F;1017010-seared-broccoli-and-potato-soup" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;cooking.nytimes.com&#x2F;recipes&#x2F;1017010-seared-broccoli-a...</a>