What Should I Eat?

Four lists for the same argument

Choosing food is a low-stakes decision with an enormous number of options, which is exactly the combination that produces twenty minutes of "I don't mind, what do you want?" Every option on these wheels is fine. The wheel's job is to end the conversation, not to find the perfect meal.

The buttons above the list switch between four versions of the question:

• Any meal lists types of food, not dishes. "Tacos" leaves room for whatever you have or whichever place is still open, where "chicken tinga tacos with pickled onion" does not.
• Dinner mixes cooking with ordering in, because "are we cooking?" and "what are we having?" are really one decision. Twelve of its sixteen entries mean eating at home, so three spins in four land there on average — delete a few if you want it the other way round.
• Lunch is built for speed: everything on it is available in under twenty minutes. "Leftovers" and "Skip it, snack later" are on there because they are honest answers on a busy day.
• Where to eat chooses a place rather than a food, and only becomes useful once you have filled it in.

The lists on this wheel

Any meal

Twenty types of food rather than specific dishes, so a spin leaves room for whatever is in the kitchen or still open.

• Pizza
• Tacos
• Burgers
• Sushi
• Pasta
• Fried chicken
• Ramen
• Thai curry
• Burrito bowl
• Wings
• Pad thai
• BBQ
• Grilled cheese and soup
• Breakfast for dinner
• Poke bowl
• Chinese takeout
• Salad and a side
• Sandwiches
• Chili
• Whatever's in the fridge

Dinner

Eleven weeknight meals to cook, four ways to order in and one freezer night.

• 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

Lunch

Fifteen midday options that take under twenty minutes and no planning.

• Sandwich
• Salad
• Burrito
• Soup
• Leftovers
• Sushi
• Bagel
• Rice bowl
• Wrap
• Pizza slice
• Noodles
• Chicken sandwich
• Deli counter
• Whatever's closest
• Skip it, snack later

Where to eat

Twelve placeholders, meant to be replaced with the real places near you.

• The Italian place
• Sushi bar
• Taco spot
• Burger joint
• Thai place
• Diner
• BBQ
• Ramen shop
• Pizzeria
• Mediterranean place
• Indian restaurant
• The new place we keep saying we'll try

Plan a week of dinners in five minutes

The version of a dinner wheel that actually sticks is a Sunday habit rather than a nightly one.

1. Load Dinner and replace the generic meals with the ones your household really eats.
2. Turn on Remove the winner after each spin.
3. Spin five times — Monday to Friday, with no repeats.
4. Press Copy in the Results panel and paste the list into your shopping list.

Five minutes on Sunday, no negotiation on Wednesday. The no-repeat setting is what makes it work: without it, tacos can land three nights running. Give a *2 weight to the meals you already have the ingredients for and the wheel starts helping with the shopping too. More on weighting →

Where should we eat? Rules that keep it binding

"The Italian place" means nothing. Marco's on Fifth means you can spin and then call. So before you use Where to eat, open your maps app or your order history and paste in eight to twelve real names. That one list will settle the question for a long time.

When two people cannot commit, this is the version that works:

• Both of you add places. Six each, and nobody adds anywhere the other would refuse.
• Agree before the spin that the result stands.
• One veto each, per evening. It costs a re-spin, and knowing you only get one makes people use it honestly.

The veto rule matters. Without an escape hatch, people re-spin until they get what they wanted, which is just a slower way of arguing. The last placeholder is deliberate too: everybody has a place they have meant to try for months, and putting it on the wheel is what finally gets them through the door.

Make the lists your own

The default lists are generic on purpose. Five minutes of editing makes them far more useful:

• Swap in real names — your usual pizza place, the lunch spots within walking distance, the dishes your kids will actually eat.
• Delete what you never want. An option you would always reject is just noise that causes re-spins.
• Add what is already in the house. Two or three "we have the ingredients" entries make the wheel cheaper as well as faster.
• Tilt the odds without banning anything. With Weighted choices on, Salad and a side *3 comes up three times as often.

For packed lunches, load the five things your child will eat and let them spin the night before. The choice is theirs, so the negotiation is over.