A colleague of mine, a mother and pediatrician, shared a great idea with me the other day. I thought you might enjoy learning about this idea that falls under the category of “life hack.”

Everyone has experienced the feeling of having no idea what to do for dinner, with barely enough time, and no energy (or desire) to make anything. For some, this is fast food night. Or frozen pizza. Or scrambled eggs. Or hard boiled eggs. But my colleague has hit upon a new solution, one that has been working very well for her family.

Her approach is to keep tortillas and canned beans on the grocery list so that she can always count on having tortillas and beans in the pantry and refrigerator. Always. Tortillas and beans is the default dinner when time is short, or energy is nil, or a child is sick, or a parent is away or stuck at work. Dinner starts with tortillas and beans.

There can be more to this, but there doesn’t have to be. That’s the trick. Maybe there is some grated cheese in the fridge. Or maybe a few grape tomatoes on the counter. Maybe there are a few leaves of lettuce left over from the salad they ate yesterday. Or an avocado that threatens to go bad if it isn’t eaten immediately. How about rolling your tortilla around a stick of celery?

The thing is, I might previously have considered this a proper dinner only if I knew I had all the ingredients for a restaurant-approved version of the dish. But when you think about it, that’s not necessary. This is real life. Heated is fine, but room temperature is, too. Salsa? Sure, but only if there’s already some in the house. Or oregano, or olive oil. If you want. Otherwise, no worries. Please pass the masher, if you can find it.

Tortillas and beans can be your go-to when that’s all you’ve got. Even if it’s literally all there is. And whatever else you’ve got is like gravy on a corn muffin, or icing on your cake. Either way, it’s going to be just fine. And, most important of all, everyone will have dinner tonight.