The meal you can prepare on a tired evening deserves a place among your favorites.

Favorites tend to be chosen at your best, when energy and attention are available. Most evenings are not like that, and the dish you can still manage when the day has emptied you does more for you across a year than the elaborate one you attempt twice. Reliability under low capacity is a genuine quality, not a compromise to feel apologetic about.

Think of the two or three things you can cook while half asleep and treat them as a real part of your repertoire. Keep their ingredients in the house on purpose. Eating properly on a bad evening beats an ambitious meal you never start.