It's what's for dinner

After 7+ months (and several pounds) of eating frozen pizza, sandwiches or takeout pretty much every night, we've been trying to eat better and save money by making dinner at home. And, let's be honest, I'm also trying to become more domesticated so Reid and Grant don't grow up thinking Luby's is the only place a home-cooked meal comes from.

I'm on the lookout for dishes that take less than 15 minutes to prepare, and can either be in the oven while we're putting the boys to bed, or cooked in less than 10 minutes after they're down. The crock pot has become a regular guest in our kitchen.

I thought it might be neat to post our menus here from time to time so (1) anyone else who struggles with the super-annoying question of "What the heck should we eat for dinner?" can get some ideas and (2) I can recycle these in a couple of weeks months when I have exhausted all of my internet-stealing sources.

So, here are the menus from last week and this week:

Week of August 2-5

• Tuesday: Chicken and avocado wrapinis -- These were easy and tasty.
• Wednesday: Black-eyed pea soup with jalapeno sausage (crock pot) -- I added a can of diced tomatoes to this and it was easy and good. It will be even better when it's not 105 degrees outside.
• Thursday: Broccoli beef (crock pot) over rice -- This. This was not good. The flavor was ok, but we used beef that was pre-cut and it ended up disintegrating into something resembling chopped beef barbecue. But Asian. We'll try it one more time with a different cut of beef.
• Friday: Bruschetta chicken bake -- This casserole is a favorite of ours that never disappoints.

Week of August 8-12

• Monday: Roasted tomatoes with shrimp and feta -- This is incredible and really light and fresh-tasting -- a company-worthy dish for sure!
• Tuesday: Herbed balsamic chicken + arugula -- We made this last night using goat cheese instead of blue cheese, and it was maybe the best chicken of my life, and so, so easy. I made a quick dressing of dijon mustard, olive oil, lemon juice, salt, pepper and sugar for the arugula, and we had a delicious and healthy meal!
• Wednesday: Grilled pork chops + zucchini + jalapeno corn pudding (crock pot)
• Thursday: Lemon basil pasta with grilled chicken

As you can see, "easy" is the common denominator here. So, if you have any great, easy, low-maintenance recipes to share (you know, the 5 of you who read this blog), please email me or post them in the comments.