Planning Meals - Cookbooks and Note Apps

Cookbooks; I have a lot of them.  In spite of all the recipes online, I do use my cookbooks. 

I keep a couple of cookbooks and a large pad of sticky notes near my chair and when I have a little free time I will look through one and write down the recipe and page number of anything I want to try on the sticky note. I then put the sticky note inside the book's cover and that way I have a short list when I am looking for a quick idea or two. 

I also have an entire copy of my own recipes stored in a note-taking app called Evernote on my phone (you could also do this with Google drive). When I worked, this was especially helpful so that I could check and see if there were any recipe ingredients I needed to pick up at the store on the way home. I still use the app even now that I am retired.

My grocery list also lives on my phone, and if someone is going to the store besides me, I just text the list to them.

When it comes to trying new recipes, you don't necessarily want to try something new every night but a new recipe a few times a month can help keep things interesting and expand your skills.