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Happy Sunday, friends! I hope that you’ve all had a great week! Before we get to another round of Our Week in Meals, I have a few quick announcements for you.

  • I recently updated the photos for one of the most popular (and oldest) posts on my site. If you haven’t seen it already, you should definitely check out My Top 10 Toddler and Little Kid Breakfast Ideas. Even if you don’t have kids, there are some great easy options to mix up your routine. Don’t miss the 3-Ingredient Healthy Banana Pancakes or the Freezer-Friendly Breakfast Cereal Bars!
  • If you enjoy these snippets from our daily life, be sure to follow me on Instagram. I’ve had fun using Stories to share videos of what we’re doing in live time, including favorite beauty products, food finds, and books. You can find me HERE.
  • And finally, if you’re a subscriber to Taste of Home magazine, you may have seen my feature in this month’s issue. So fun! They contacted me about doing an interview almost a year ago, so I had completely forgotten about it until they sent me an advance copy of the magazine a few weeks ago. Hah!

And with that, let’s get on with today’s post. For those of you who are new around here, this is where I share a little bit about what we’ve been up to over the past week — as it relates to our meals each night. I hope that this series gives you a glimpse “behind the scenes” at some highlights from our life, shows you how I balance a busy schedule with feeding my family, and offers a few new ideas for your own weekly meal plan.

Last Sunday started with a breakfast treat! I was up before the rest of the crew, so I baked a batch of these Cinnamon Sugar Puff Muffins, which are basically like baked cinnamon sugar donuts in muffin form. Sooo good!

Keith was headed out of town that afternoon for a week-long business trip, so I was anxious to get as many chores done as possible before he left. He took the boys for a hike in the rain while I went to Charlottesville to run errands. I made a stop at Costco, I picked up a grocery order at Harris Teeter, and I took advantage of the Starbucks next door.

This was a Sweet Cream Cold Brew…meh…I won’t get it again. It was okay, but I much prefer the Smoked Butterscotch Latte that I tried the week before.

After Keith left for the airport I made a simple chicken dinner. An Oven Roasted Chicken sounded cozy on the cool, gray evening.

Ready for the oven…

Here’s what I did in case you want to give it a try:

Oven Roasted Chicken

Prep: 10 minutes
Cook: 1 hour 15 minutes
Total: 1 hour 25 minutes
Servings 4

Ingredients
  

  • 1 small chicken about 4-5 lbs.
  • 1 lemon cut into wedges
  • 1 sweet onion cut into wedges
  • 1 bunch celery chopped into big pieces
  • 1 lb. carrots chopped into big pieces
  • 2 tablespoons butter melted
  • Salt pepper, garlic powder, fresh herbs

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Line a roasting pan with foil for easy clean up.
  • Remove giblets from the chicken. Rinse chicken under water thoroughly. Pat dry. Tie the legs together with cooking twine and tuck the wings under the bird.
  • Stuff a few lemon wedges, celery chunks, and onion wedges inside the cavity of the chicken. Season inside of the chicken with salt and pepper. If you have some fresh herbs, stick those inside the chicken too!
  • Place remaining onion, lemon, celery, carrots, and herbs in the bottom of the roasting pan. Place chicken on top.
  • Brush chicken with melted butter. Season liberally with salt, pepper, and garlic powder.
  • Bake for 1 hour, 15 minutes - 1 hour, 30 minutes (depending on the size of the bird). The chicken is done when the juices run clear and it reaches an internal temperature of 165 degrees F.
  • Cover the chicken loosely with foil and allow it to rest for about 20 minutes before slicing and serving.
Author: The Seasoned Mom

I served our chicken with the roasted veggies and a side of quinoa.

It poured rain all day on Monday, so I was happy that I could take Spencer to his indoor tumbling class to burn off some energy.

He gets sooooo bored when he’s stuck inside, so this was really a lifesaver that day.

We had lunch when we got home, and mine was leftovers (as usual).

This was broccoli + roasted chicken + curried quinoa with currants.

Dinner was a new recipe that I was testing (it turned out great!). The only downside was that Keith was gone and couldn’t enjoy it with us. He would have loved this meal!

One Skillet Chicken Sausage and Tortellini (recipe coming soon)

The rain moved out on Tuesday morning and I was looking forward to a walk with friends while Spence was at preschool. Unfortunately, Casey woke up with a fever of 102, and apparently caught the bug that’s been making its way through the kindergarten class. We stayed home all day and rested on the couch!

Such a pretty winter morning. I snapped this photo from my car as we were driving up our road on the way back from school. Mountains + clouds + sunshine!

For dinner we had a delicious Sheet Pan Supper: Honey Garlic Shrimp with Rice and Green Beans. Healthy, tasty, and so easy — it was ready in 12 minutes (start to finish)! Can’t beat that! I’ll share the details in a separate post soon…

I cancelled my plans again on Wednesday to stay home with poor Casey who still had a fever. The weather was gorgeous, so I took my “workout” outside in the yard with Spencer.

This basically just involved me chasing after him while he drove his tractor all over our property…

and he thought it was the most amazing game EVER. ?

Breakfast that morning was another Chunky Monkey Protein Smoothie. Seriously the best. Did you watch me make it on Instagram stories?

Our mid-morning snack turned out to be these 3-Ingredient Healthy Banana Pancakes, as I was taking some updated photos. Definitely a recipe worth trying if you haven’t already!

At lunchtime I reheated the leftover shrimp from dinner the night before, and when Spencer spotted it he demanded shrimp for lunch as well (in lieu of the peanut butter wrap that I had already made him)! That’s a ringing endorsement for the seafood recipe, and I can’t wait to share it on here.

Wednesday night’s dinner was a vegetarian meal that I thawed from our freezer. This 4-Ingredient Black Bean Enchilada Casserole was part of the dump-and-bake freezer meal session that I prepared last week. The full details, recipes, and shopping lists will be on the blog in the coming weeks, so stay tuned for that!

I thought that Casey was finally feeling better on Thursday morning, so I took all of the kids to school and enjoyed a morning walk with three of my girlfriends for the first time in ages. I had a few minutes of quiet time for a business call before the school nurse phoned me to come get Casey. His fever was back for the third day in a row…

Spencer was thrilled to have his brother home all afternoon…and a low-grade fever couldn’t keep this kid inside!

That afternoon a blog reader sent me a question about an ancient recipe that I had forgotten about: my freezer-friendly Breakfast Cereal Bars. I quickly remembered how good they are, I realized that I had all of the ingredients on hand to make them, and I threw together a batch for the boys’ afternoon snack that same day. You can see the original post, recipe, and updated photos HERE. Warning: they’re deeeee-licious.

Dinner that night was another one of my dump-and-bake freezer meals: Mom’s Meatloaf. I served it with roasted sweet potato on the side and a salad for something green. So cozy!

On Friday I had to keep Casey home from school for one more day (even though he seemed to be feeling better), so I dragged both of my younger boys to the grocery store.

Never an easy task when these two are in the cart…

These coconut chips were an impulse purchase and WOW…they are SO good! Definitely track down a bag and taste them ASAP! I was so pleasantly surprised.

Casey helped me roast some veggies when we returned home. These were intended for dinner, but we munched on them with lunch as well. He actually said that the Brussels sprouts smelled good, which made me laugh. Nobody ever says that! ? We tossed them with avocado oil, salt, pepper, and garlic and roasted at 400 degrees until they were tender and crispy on the outside (about 20-30 minutes).

The rest of our dinner was the usual: Friday Night Pizza. This time we just made our own at home to save me another trip out with the kids since there are no pizza delivery options around here. It worked because I was at the store in the morning and could pick up the dough and the rest of the ingredients.

Keith came home late that night so he had his own pepperoni version when he walked in the door later…

While Keith was in Charlottesville running errands with the older boys on Saturday morning, Spence stayed home with me to help in the kitchen.

We made (and photographed) a Garlic Parmesan Zucchini Casserole, which we served with Barber Foods Chicken Cordon Bleu for dinner. I’m working with the brand on an upcoming project and I was happy to have an easy dinner ready to go!

 And that brings us to today! I’m off to enjoy Sunday with my family and I’ll catch up with you again tomorrow when I share a new easy one skillet meal. Have a great week!

blair

Hey, I’m Blair!

Welcome to my farmhouse kitchen in the foothills of Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains. Inspired by local traditions and seasonal fare, you’ll find plenty of easy, comforting recipes that bring your family together around the table. It’s down-home, country-style cooking!

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Comments

  1. Wow, you’re a foodie celebrity!! Congratulations
    I can’t even remember where I first saw your site but I
    love your recipes.
    Your blog is so much fun to read and the boys are
    darling.

    Keep up the great work!!

    1. Hah! I think “celebrity” is a stretch, but it’s definitely fun. Thanks so much for reading along and for your kind words, Lauren! I so appreciate it!

  2. Congratulations on the ToH feature! How exciting!! The photo they used is so perfect, too!

    That shopping cart with the seat is SO cool. We definitely don’t have carts like that here!

    1. Thanks, Kristy! Nice cart, right? They are great because they give me and the kids so much more room, but they’re kind of impossible to steer and turn! 🙂

  3. 2 things – I LOVE that you were in Taste of Home!!! Congrats and SOOOOO fitting for you!! Other thing – I need that tractor for my son. Yes we live in Southern California and tractors are not very prevalent here, but when we go back to the Midwest (where I’m from) and my truck-loving toddler see’s my dads small Bobcat tractor in their garage he is in LOVE. Where did you get that?

    1. Hey, friend! Thanks so much! And as far as the tractor goes, would you believe that it’s our FOURTH tractor? Hah! A house full of boys! We always bought them through Amazon (warning: some assembly required), but the most recent front end loader tractor was purchased via Walmart online because I couldn’t find it on Amazon at the time. Hope that helps…I know that Brockston would LOVE it!