Every good intention I have ever had about food has died on a Wednesday at 6pm, standing in front of an open fridge, too tired to make a decision.
Decision fatigue is the actual enemy here. Not knowledge, not motivation. By the time dinner arrives you have spent the day making choices, and the part of your brain that would have made a good one has gone home.
So this is the list I fall back on. Seven things, one shop, no decisions.
The seven
Chicken thighs. Tinned chickpeas. Frozen mixed vegetables. Eggs. Greek yoghurt. A bag of leaves. Wholegrain rice or quinoa.
Thighs rather than breasts because they are cheaper, harder to overcook and more forgiving when you have stopped paying attention. Frozen vegetables because they are picked at ripeness, cost less and do not rot in the drawer while you feel guilty about them.
How that becomes fourteen dinners
One and two. Roast the chicken thighs with a tray of frozen vegetables and serve on rice. Do double. The second night it is the same thing and you are fine with that.
Three. Shred the leftover chicken through leaves with a yoghurt-and-lemon dressing.
Four and five. Chickpeas roasted with spices onto a grain bowl with leaves and yoghurt. Again, double it.
Six. Chickpeas blitzed into a fast curry with frozen veg and yoghurt stirred in at the end.
Seven and eight. A frittata using eggs, whatever vegetables survived, and any cheese in the house. Cold frittata is a legitimate dinner.
Nine. Fried eggs on rice with greens and chilli. Ten minutes.
Ten to fourteen. Rotate the above with one spice change — smoked paprika one week, cumin and coriander the next, lemon and herbs the third. It stops tasting like the same food without requiring new recipes.
Why this list specifically
Look at the shape of every meal above. Protein is present in all of them. Fibre is present in all of them. Starch is the smallest component and turns up last on the plate, which means you are doing meal sequencing without thinking about it.
The sequencing is doing its work quietly. You are not following a protocol — you are just eating dinner.
The rules that make it survive
Cook twice, eat four times. Doubling costs ten extra minutes and buys you a whole evening back later in the week.
Do not add an eighth ingredient. The list works because it is short. Every addition is another decision.
Keep a fallback that requires no cooking. Yoghurt with seeds and fruit is a real dinner on a bad night, and it beats the alternative, which is toast at 10pm.
Questions people actually ask
What if I do not eat meat?
Swap chicken for firm tofu or a second tin of pulses, and lean harder on the eggs and yoghurt. The structure — protein, fibre, small starch — stays identical.
Is frozen veg really as good as fresh?
Nutritionally it holds up very well, and in some cases better, because it is frozen close to harvest. The vegetable you actually eat beats the fresh one that went soft in the drawer.
Will I get bored?
A bit, and that is the trade. Boredom is cheaper than the 6pm decision. Changing one spice mix weekly does more for variety than adding ingredients.
More of the food approach, in the order to build it, is in the nutrition section.