I try to plan a few easy/easier/not-always-blogworthy/leftover dinners each week. Every night is not photo worthy here at casa-the three bite rule, especially since my new job us suuuuper busy. Tonight is my first event there! Wish me luck!

Since it is feeling like fall with lovely 60-degree days, I wanted something seasonal. Grilled cheese and tomato soup seemed appropriate since I kept seeing interesting grilled cheese passing right under my eyes.

A Cup of Jo posted a grown up grilled cheese from Just a Taste that looked so good. It was packed with cheddar, kale, and caramelized onions. That was my inspiration for the balsamic onions I added to my sandwich.

I also saw From Away posting an amazing canned tomato soup with a BLT twist with grilled cheese croutons.

My dinner was a souped-up grilled cheese (haha, get it?) and a can of creamy tomato soup. Done and done. I liked the little touch to make it more exciting but really the beauty of this meal was how simple and perfectly paired this meal was.

I didn’t really caramelize the onions. I cheated.

I cooked the onions through, just past becoming translucent. Then I drizzled some balsamic vinegar and cooked them for another minute or two.

This is onions done in 10 minutes, tops. No 40 minutes of onion-caramelizing for me that night.

The soup was just a heated can of tomato bisque from Campbell’s. I mean, I know there’s a lot of sodium in there, but it isn’t crazy-bad-for-you if the rest of the meal is reasonable. I don’t use any butter for the grilled cheese either – just some nonstick spray and a little olive oil.

The grilled cheese had some sharp cheddar and some swiss on sourdough. The onions were sweetly tangy. Mr. J doesn’t really do soup, but he was a good sport about it.

Mr. A bookmarked these note-worthy grilled cheeses until he can get his life back from work. I also recommend my bacon, cheddar, and peach compote panini, or my Italian grilled cheese with breaded eggplant, or the Pioneer Woman’s hot ham & cheese with poppyseed sauce, or it is perfect season for a grilled turkey, cranberry, and brie panini.

What grilled cheese ideas do YOU have?