Dinner wheel
Spin for tonight’s dinner from twenty home-cooked meals that most kitchens can manage, from spaghetti bolognese to a vegetable curry. Replace them with the recipes your household really cooks, and use the wheel to plan a whole week of dinners in a couple of minutes.
Press Spin, click the wheel, or press Ctrl + Enter.
Results
- Your results will appear here.
How to plan a week of dinners with the wheel
Load your recipes
Press Edit as text and paste the meals you cook regularly, one per line.
Turn on removal
In Settings, tick Remove the winner after each spin so the same dinner cannot land twice in one week.
Spin once per night
Spin five or seven times. Swap two days around if a busy evening landed on a slow recipe.
Copy the plan
Open Results and press Copy, then paste the week into your notes and write the shopping list from it.
How does a dinner wheel help at 6 pm?
By removing the step that takes longest: choosing. At the end of a working day, most people can cook something; what they cannot face is deciding. A wheel of meals you know how to make turns that into a single press. The only rule worth keeping is that you check the fridge first. If you lack the ingredients for something, delete it for tonight, then spin.
How do I put my own recipes on the wheel?
Press Edit as text, clear our list and type or paste yours, one dinner per line. A notes app list or a column from a spreadsheet pastes straight in. Aim for fifteen to thirty meals: fewer and the wheel repeats itself, many more and it starts picking dishes you rarely cook.
Your list is saved in this browser. To keep it on a second phone, or so a partner can spin the same wheel, press Share or embed and save the link.
Planning a week of meals with one wheel
Meal planning is where the dinner wheel earns its place. With Remove the winner after each spin ticked, five spins give you five different dinners for the working week. The Results list keeps them in the order they came up, and Copy lets you paste them straight into a shopping list or a family message.
Two refinements make it work better. First, tick Use weights and give your quickest meals a higher weight, so weeknights lean towards twenty-minute dinners. Second, if a slow recipe lands on a busy night, just swap it with the weekend; the wheel chose the meals, but you still choose the days.
Dinner ideas for picky eaters and families
Children are far more willing to eat a meal they helped choose. Let them press Spin, or build a “kids’ choice” wheel of five or six meals everyone accepts and give them one spin a week. For theme nights, turn the wheel into categories instead: pasta night, soup night, something new. Our dinner ideas list is grouped by type, with quick, budget and vegetarian meals you can add.
Once dinner is settled, the chore wheel can decide who washes up, and the dessert wheel handles the next question.
Dinner wheel or what to eat wheel?
This wheel lists actual meals for home cooking. The what to eat wheel works one level up, with cuisines such as Thai or Mexican, which suits nights when you might order in or go out instead.
Frequently asked questions
How many meals should I put on the dinner wheel?
Between fifteen and thirty works well for most households. That gives enough variety that the same meal rarely comes up twice in a fortnight, while keeping every option something you actually cook.
Can I plan a week of dinners without repeats?
Yes. Tick Remove the winner after each spin in Settings, then spin once per night. Each dinner leaves the wheel after it is chosen. Press Reset to default or re-paste your list to start next week.
Can the wheel make quick meals more likely on weeknights?
Yes. Tick Use weights and give your fastest meals a weight of 2 or 3. Their slices get bigger and they are picked more often. Leave slower recipes at 1.
Does the dinner wheel give recipes?
No. It picks from the meal names on the wheel. You can include a hint in the name, such as “Stir-fry (20 min)”, and each option can be up to 60 characters.
Can my family use the same wheel on their phones?
Yes. Press Share or embed and send the link. It contains your list of dinners, so anyone who opens it sees exactly the same wheel.