we have about 10 standard meals and 4 flashier meals that are our standard, and we just plan and shop in advance - and if that's not what DH or I feel like eating that night, it's just too bad ... you know at the start of the week what you'll be having for dinner on Tuesday (and therefore often for lunch on Wednesday!!) and you get out the chicken (or whatever) to defrost on Tuesday morning, you know all day Tuesday that you're having chicken korma with rice (or whatever) and so by the time it comes to cooking and eating dinner, your tummy is a-waiting its chicken korma!!

or you can leave something small to be the "option" of the night ... eg: we always have rice and noodles ready, so when we're going to have stirfry or mincey-thing (a delicious combination of mince, vegetables and casserole base...) we can have it either with rice or noodles, depending on which we feel like ... you could have rice or naan (or lentils!) with your curry, or whatever - if the *choice* is important, you can limit it to a small section of the meal.

but by planning the week ahead of time and shopping that way, we save crudloads of time - and quite a bit of money - and there's a lot less wasteage, we find.

HTH