posted 24 minutes ago
what a great question.
I also get the glut issue, and I think I address it the same way you do, with "themes" every day. But the themes are very, very broad- one day Turkish with flatbread, one day Japanese/Chinese/Korean with rice or noodles/bread, one day soup.... When I feel like it I'll add in some kind of beans/rice day, Ethiopian day, pancakes with toppings day, etc. It often depends mostly on how I'm feeling.
But I do the "themes" mostly because I hunt online for recipes and it is absolutely overwhelming to search for "recipes with potatoes" or "too many mushrooms", know what I mean? If I can somehow whittle it down a bit ("Chinese mushroom recipes", "mexican potato recipes", etc) it just seems easier to get a handle on things so I can go ahead and whip a full meal together (since now we're really not going out anymore, and we need enough leftovers for lunches too. All our lunches are leftovers, I do not cook lunch, period.)
Recently I've started trying to make a more concerted effort to save the 'keeper' recipes that have become standbys (for example, today is 'Turkish'. which means we'll have whole wheat flatbreads, tabbouleh salad, a bean/soy protein/tomato/pepper stew, and maybe some roasted cauliflower and yogurt sauce). All of these I make so often that I don't need a recipe, but if my daughter wanted to make them I'd like to have it written down-- thinking about what would happen if the beloved sites I originally got them from went off the air (which happens). This is sort of an ongoing long-term project for me (and an entirely different thread).
But yes, I am ALWAYS searching for what to do with "too much XX".