A thirty-minute dinner took me ninety minutes. How do I choose recipes that fit my actual evenings?

The recipe said thirty minutes. At the thirty-minute mark I was still chopping, with an unopened packet on the counter and sauce ingredients scattered beside it. My partner arrived expecting dinner and offered to order noodles.

I finished ninety minutes after starting. The meal tasted good, which made abandoning the recipe feel silly, but a weekday dinner can't regularly swallow that much of our evening. I had counted the advertised time from walking into the kitchen, including reading the method and finding equipment.

My partner says we'll be quicker with practice. Probably, but I need to eat this week too. How would you test whether to keep a recipe in the weekday rotation? I'd like to learn without repeatedly announcing dinner at seven and serving it after eight.