Welcome to Day 1 of The End of "What's For Tomorrow?" challenge. Over the next 6 days, you'll build your Home Menu, a system you can pull from week after week. No more staring at the fridge. No more planning from scratch. Today, we start with the foundation.
Goal
Get everything out of your head and onto paper.
Why This Matters
You can't plan meals from dishes you've forgotten about. Most of us rotate through the same five or six meals on autopilot, but your family actually eats way more than that. Restaurant favorites. That one curry your mom taught you. The breakfast your kid requests every weekend.
Today we're capturing all of it. No filtering. No judging. Just listing.
Your Task
- Set a 20-minute timer
- Open the worksheet and go to your first category
- Write down every dish your family eats
- Include restaurant favorites and takeout orders too
- Move through each category until the timer goes off
Don't worry about the other columns for now. Today is just about the Dish Name column. We'll fill in the rest over the next few days.
Download the Home Menu Worksheet
Categories to Include
Curries & Dals. Chicken curry, channa masala, rajma, palak paneer, egg curry, tomato pappu, sambar, masoor dal, and so on.
Rice & Rotis. Plain rice, jeera rice, coconut rice, biryani, chapati, paratha, naan, puri.
Breakfast. Idli, dosa, upma, poha, pongal, kichidi, pesarattu, eggs.
Veggie Sides & Salads. Beans fry, cabbage stir-fry, aloo fry, bhindi, cucumber salad, kosambari, raita.
Chutneys & Accompaniments. Coconut chutney, tomato chutney, peanut chutney, pickle, papad.
Snacks & Desserts. Pakora, samosa, murukku, cutlets, payasam, kheer, halwa, ladoo.
Other. Anything that doesn't fit above. Non-Indian dishes, fusion, whatever your family enjoys.
Don't have dishes for a category? Skip it. Not every family eats from every category, and that's perfectly fine.
Tips for Your Brain Dump
Don't filter. Write down everything, even the "unhealthy" stuff. This is about what you actually eat, not what you think you should eat.
Include takeout. If you order butter chicken every Friday, write it down. Those are meals too.
Ask your family. Text them right now: "What dishes do you wish we made more often?" You might be surprised.
Check your photos. Scroll through your camera roll for meal inspiration. You've probably forgotten a few favorites.
Keep it messy. Spelling doesn't matter. Order doesn't matter. Just get it all down.
What's Next?
Tomorrow is Day 2: The Family Audit. You'll find out who actually likes what, so you stop cooking dishes that sit in the fridge untouched.
Share your progress in the WhatsApp group. How many dishes did you list?
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