Food

Dinner Wheel

Spin for tonight's dinner — cooking and takeout, on the same wheel.

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What's on the wheel

One entry per line. Paste a whole list at once and the wheel updates as you type.

Wheel options

Results

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Saved wheels

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    Cooking and ordering on one wheel

    Most dinner decisions are really two decisions stacked on top of each other: *are we cooking?* and *what are we having?* Putting both on one wheel collapses them into a single spin.

    The list is eleven cook-at-home meals and five ordering options. That ratio is doing something: roughly two thirds of spins land on cooking. If you want it the other way round, delete a few of the cooking lines or add another takeout option — the wheel does exactly what its list says.

    Every meal here is a weeknight meal. Nothing needs a marinade started at lunchtime or a trip to a specialist store.

    What's on the Dinner Wheel wheel

    All 16 options are on the wheel to start with. Edit, delete or add to them — the wheel redraws as you type.

    • Sheet-pan chicken and veg
    • Spaghetti and meatballs
    • Tacos
    • Stir fry
    • Chili
    • Roast chicken
    • Baked ziti
    • Salmon and rice
    • Breakfast for dinner
    • Soup and grilled cheese
    • Burger night
    • Order pizza
    • Order Thai
    • Order Chinese
    • Order Indian
    • Whatever's in the freezer

    Making it a weekly habit

    The version of this that actually works is: edit the wheel once, save it, spin it on Sunday for the whole week.

    1. Replace the generic entries with meals your household actually eats.
    2. Turn on Remove the winner after each spin.
    3. Spin five times — that is Monday to Friday, with no repeats.
    4. Copy the results into your shopping list.

    Five minutes on Sunday, no negotiation on Wednesday. The no-repeat setting is what makes it work: without it you can land on tacos three nights running.

    Add a couple of *2 weights on the meals you have the ingredients for and the wheel starts helping with the shopping too. More on weighting →

    Frequently asked questions

    How is this different from the food wheel?

    What should I eat? lists food types for any meal. This one lists specific evening meals and deliberately mixes cooking with ordering, because that is the actual dinner decision.

    Can I plan a whole week?

    Yes. Turn on Remove the winner after each spin and spin five times — you get five different dinners, and Copy exports the list.

    Can I weight cooking over takeout?

    Yes. Turn on Weighted choices and add *2 or *3 to the meals you want more often.

    Can I save my household's list?

    Yes. Save stores it in this browser, and it loads from the Saved wheels panel next time.

    Build a wheel from scratch

    Paste any list of your own and spin it the same way.