The organization of dinners is also trained
It's one thing to see everything idyllic on paper, and quite another to actually arrive at dinner parties on weekdays. The truth is, in cooking, as in many other aspects of life, you don't get it right the first time: organizing dinners also takes practice.
Turn your thoughts around. Try changing the "oh my god, I'm so exhausted," "who wants to be in the kitchen now," "I'm missing some things from the store," and "I don't even know what to do..." to "I'm going to get busy in the kitchen, because with something simple and delicious we'll have a fantastic dinner!"
Remember that investing time in cooking is investing in the health and well-being of yourself and your family. To do this, it's essential to have a well-stocked pantry and refrigerator with basics for improvising, a few freezer staples (which always come in handy), and to plan dinners a bit in advance to avoid the "I don't know what to make" dilemma. And be careful with improvisations; sometimes we're cooking dinner for others and then we're so tired we grab whatever's handy...
I don't do it as much for lunch, but for dinners it helps to have some guidelines and repeat a dish each week. The staples of my dinners are:
While we might initially think that organizing dinners is the easiest part of cooking, that's not always the case: often we're so tired that it becomes a real struggle. Try to spend some time during the weekend planning them, getting them half-prepared, or even buying the ingredients: you'll find it much easier to tackle this task.
