OK, I finally had a chance to look through my folder of recipes and find the Real Simple ones I have tried and liked. I haven’t included links but if you go to realsimple.com->recipes and search the title they should come up.
[ul]
[li]Slow-Cooker Sausage and Kale Stew With Olive Oil Mashed Potatoes (fine with 1/4c olive oil instead of 1/2c)[/li][li]White Bean and Kielbasa Stew (also slow cooker)[/li][li]Chicken Posole (I used black beans instead of hominy because that’s what I had available)(uses rotisserie chicken)[/li][li]Ravioli with sweet potatoes and thyme[/li][li]Broiled steak sandwiches with balsamic vegetables[/li][li]Chicken and potatoes with mustard vinaigrette (rotisserie chicken)[/li][li]Pasta with zucchini and goat cheese[/li][li]Chicken with roasted sweet potato salad (The salad is fabulous)[/li][li]Pork tenderloin with cabbage and apple slaw[/li][li]Quick moroccan chicken (rotisserie chicken)[/li][li]Peanut noodles with snap peas and cabbage[/li][li]Lemony shrimp with white beans and couscous[/li][/ul]
In addition to the advice people have already given you, keep a list of things she makes that you like. Then when she wants a suggestion, you have some at hand without having to do any real thinking or planning. Everyone wins.
As for things you can make, a lentil stew or pasta fagioli tends to work well this time of year, and they’re both simple and endlessly flexible. For the first one, throw some lentils, onions, carrots, garlic, chicken broth (bouillon cubes or stock concentrate are both fine) and water in the crock pot with whatever seasoning blend smells good to you. Cook for a few hours, then eat with bread and a green salad. For the second, cook a pot of beans with whatever seasoning you feel like, then when they’re about done add in cubed potatoes, then a small amount of pasta. Also serve with bread and a nice salad.
Also, let’s talk about salads. Take a mix of a few types of lettuce–you can buy a head each of romaine and something else, or buy a pre-done mix-- and add chunks of leftover meat, whatever kind of nuts you have on hand, whatever fruit you have around, and then shred on some of whatever cheese you have kicking around. Throw on whatever dressing you like, add in some bread and maybe a little wine, and you have dinner. Or leave out the meat and you have a really good side dish.
My husband and I tend to find recipes that we put in rotation. We end up with “I dunno” sometimes but not too often. Generally my list consists of recipes that are essentially Protien + Roasted/Steamed Vegetables + Pasta/Rice. The protien part is pretty much the only thing I ever have to decide really. If she’s not into the pasta/rice, well, a lot of asian dishes are lackluster without the rice/noodles, but just double up on the veggies in any case I’d say.
So, for instance, a sampling of my recipes might be:
Mongolian marinated beef + steamed broccoli + rice
Kofta + steamed peas + pasta in white sauce
Beef & Egg soboro + steamed peas + rice
Yakisoba (pan fried chicken and carrots/cabbage/onion/etc + chinese noodles + sauce)
Japanese beef curry (box of curry sauce + pan cooked beef strips + onions/carrots/peas/potatoes/etc) + rice
Meatloaf + steamed corn + mashed potatoes
Chicken & Wild Rice Soup (has onions, carrots, celery, etc…you get the idea yet?)
Burritos (ground beef and rice mixed with spices + black beans + everything else you like on burritos)
Fettucine Carbonara (pasta + bacon + white eggy sauce) (yeah we often leave out the vegetables on this one…try not to make something like this as often as we do)
Ginger pork + potatoes & onions + rice
Breakfast casserole (sausage + eggs + biscuit mix + red/yellow/green peppers & onion)
Potato leek soup (potatoes + leeks + milk/cream)
Chicken ranch wrap (basically a bunch of lettuce with chicken and ranch dressing inside a burrito wrap. All other salad stuff optional.)
etc, etc, etc. Just ask me if you want the recipe to any of those. I cannot guarantee that all are easy though…
And sometimes it’s plain simpler to just buy the seasoning packet or sauce bottle than make it yourself. Just get the low-sodium option if available.
Anyway, as others have said it sounds like your wife wants some help with decision-making, too. So try to remember the dishes she makes that you would like to eat again, make a list, and pick one next time she asks.
I may be a little late to the game here, but my 2 cents:
When I’m working with my wife to figure out what we want, we usually try to narrow it down in big chunks. The chunks are often defined by regions, staple ingredients or overall cooking methods.
For example, say we have a chicken and we’re in the mood for Mexican. We still have a lot of options left (tacos, enchiladas, arroz con pollo, tortilla soup, etc.) but we’ve also eliminated 80% of other cuisines and 80% of other main ingredients. Let’s say we decide that we want to cook the chicken outdoors on the grill. Now we’ve eliminated half of our remaining options.
Since your wife is doing the cooking, this may be more her end, but it’s useful to think of ways that you can take something similar, but move it in a different direction easily. For example, that grilled chicken. If I put BBQ sauce on it, we have one flavor profile. The Italian herb rub is a totally different flavor. So is a teriyaki or mahogany marinade. Or we could go chile powder or jerk seasoning or just plain salt and pepper. Same technique, same chicken, but we can easily adapt it to whatever continent we feel like eating from that night.