As you're going through recipes, how do you save them/plan them ahead of time to smart shop at the store?

Sunday is for meal planning on grocery store shopping for all our meals and pantry basics. We try to map out dinners for Monday - Thursday. Pasta night, taco night, protein and veggie night, protein in simmer sauce + rice night, etc.

What are some common foods that you always have on hand that go as a good "side dish" for main meals that don't get too repetitive?

Things get repetitive. The trick, as Lawrence of Arabia might say, is NOT MINDING that it gets repetitive.

We're beyond "side dishes" for weekday dinners. That's a weekend luxury. We have 3 kids under 6, and by the time I get home from work, it's: dinner, clean kitchen, bed time for kiddos, relax. But when we do have then, it's usually a roasted veggie. More often than not, our veggie side dish is carrot sticks in the middle of the table that everyone just grabs and munches on.