I know, that’s a lot of redundancy, but I LOVE meny planning. I LOVE TRELLO for meal and menu planning, but I also use a meal planning notepad and I ALSO write my meal plan in my weekly planner. When she and her sister are with us, we stick to American and Mexican and Italian. My favorite cuisine is Southeast Asian, but Maggie isn't a huge fan of Asian flavors, so on the week's she's at her dad's - it's Chinese and Thai and Vietnamese and Indian food for us.
We usually do "meatless Monday" (one of our favorites is this creamy wild rice soup) and one night for takeout (Indian or pizza. Then I see what family favorite recipes I can make with what I have on-hand. When I buy chicken or ground beef now, I usually get 2-3 times what we ACTUALLY need for that week from Sam's Club, and then I portion it all up in the freezer for later use. 2020 has also been the year for us to store up meat in the freezer. I start by looking to see what staples I have in the pantry (cans, rice, pasta, etc.) then I check the freezer to see what our meat-situation looks like. I absolutely love trying new flavors and new recipes… I usually make dinner at home 6 nights of the week - most weeks. UNLESS I need something fresh later in the week - then I'll make a special quick trip to get lettuce or cilantro - things that just don't stay AS FRESH if you let them sit in the fridge for too many days. For the most part, I only go to the store once a week now - on Saturday or Sunday morning. But in 2020, I got into meal planning HARD-CORE when I started limiting my trips to the grocery store.