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Happy Sunday, friends! I’m checking in today with another roundup of Our Week in Meals!
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.
It wasn’t our finest week around here — from a case of the flu to a week-long business trip, there were some days that felt like complete chaos. But hey, we all survived, everyone seems to be healthy now (knock on wood!), and I even have a few delicious meals to share with you. Be sure to scroll down to the bottom of the post for a new seafood recipe that we enjoyed for dinner last night — it was a big hit (and SO easy)! But first, let’s back up to last weekend…
Gibbs woke up with a fever of 102 on Sunday morning, so needless to say, we stayed close to home that day. A smoothie sounded good to the sick patient, so all 3 of the boys had Chunky Monkey Protein Smoothies for breakfast. I have even been able to sneak in a couple of handfuls of baby spinach when making this smoothie recently, and the boys don’t even notice. WIN!
If you follow me on Instagram, you also watched me make some healthy snacks that morning! I wanted something that we could keep in the fridge during the week to just grab and go. Since I’ve had a bag of dried blueberries in the pantry from Costco for ages, these No-Bake Blueberry Almond Energy Snacks were born. And seriously…they are SO good. Keith and the boys all gave them two thumbs up…and then proceeded to eat almost the entire batch in one day! They require only five ingredients and no baking, so I can assure you that these will be a staple in our kitchen. This week I’m going to try a peanut butter chocolate chip version (per Gibbs’s request)! You can see the full recipe HERE.
The weather was warm and sunny, so the younger two played with water guns while Keith washed his car and Gibbs observed from the sidelines!
There was some Frisbee-throwing involved later that afternoon…
For dinner Keith grilled a variety of sausages that I picked up at Whole Foods, which I served with cornbread and roasted veggies. Hit the spot!
And then Monday morning rolled around and Keith jetted off on an international business trip for the week. The boys were off from school for the President’s Day holiday, but our only outing that day was a trip to Charlottesville for an appointment at the pediatrician’s. Gibbs went to bed with a fever of 104 on Sunday evening and a hacking cough, so I wanted him checked just to be sure he didn’t need any special treatment.
Poor guy was so embarrassed by the mask!
While Gibbs rested inside for most of the afternoon (binge-watching old Indiana Jones movies on Amazon TV!), Casey and Spence spent just about every waking hour outside.
Building “bug houses.”
Mining for Gold.
I served 5-Ingredient Dump-and-Bake Chicken Teriyaki with rice and steamed veggies for dinner (recipe coming soon), which was great!
Gibbs stayed home from school on Tuesday, but I knew he was feeling better when he requested this combo for snack (and proceeded to eat about 3 servings). He loved being an only child for a couple of hours that morning, too — with full control over the TV remote and my undivided attention.????
Justin’s Chocolate Hazelnut Butter + Pretzel Crisps
We were a few minutes early to pick up Spencer from preschool at lunchtime, so I wandered through this little vintage shop on Main Street called Indigo Gypsy. I left empty handed, but they had a lot of fun furniture, vintage clothes, and antique decor.
Dinner was a new recipe that I’m so excited to share with you guys! This Dump-and-Bake Cajun Chicken Pasta is seriously gooooood. Recipe coming soon!
On Wednesday Spence and I made a Costco run and then picked up a grocery order at Harris Teeter. Tip: to keep squirmy preschoolers quiet in a shopping cart, feed them lunch! I packed Spencer’s peanut butter sandwich and timed our trip so that he could eat while I piled stuff into the cart around him. It kept us both happy!
I made a batch of my Cheddar, Chive & Bacon Biscuits that evening, which I stashed in the freezer for a later brunch. Have you tried these yet? They’re based on my dad’s biscuits that I grew up with. Such a part of my childhood (and the biscuits only take about 15 minutes to prep)!
For dinner we had one of the kids’ favorite meals: quesadillas. The boys ate plain cheese quesadillas, while I stuffed mine with sauteed bell peppers, onion, and leftover chicken. Served with avocado, always!
Thursday was relatively uneventful. I walked with 4 of my girlfriends in the morning while the little ones were in preschool, got some work done, and completely LOVED the 75 degree weather! Instead of my usual hot tea or coffee to keep me warm in February, I was sipping on this new-to-me vanilla seltzer. It might sound odd, but this was SO good — it reminded me a lot of a classic cream soda (minus the sugar)!
For dinner I tried a recipe that Aunt Bee recently sent to me. We loved this 20-Minute Chicken Cacciatore with Rice, so I’ll be sharing it on the blog in the coming weeks! Best of all, the chicken, rice, and veggies all cook together in the same skillet (which means easy clean-up). And thank goodness it was simple, because by Thursday evening my children were seriously unraveling. I don’t know if it was the fact that Keith had been gone all week, if they were tired, or if they had a case of Spring Fever. Whatever the reason, I just know that there were a lot of tantrums, fighting, arguing, and a bad headache for me by bedtime.????
Fortunately Keith made it back late on Thursday night, so he was home all day Friday to help with Spence. I had an early morning appointment at the Chiropractor/Acupuncturist to finally deal with my migraines and some chronic pain in my back from a pinched nerve. This was my first experience with acupuncture and I was SO impressed! It was not painful at all, and I noticed some relief right away. I’ll be going back for regular treatments, so I’m excited to see if it helps.
On my way home from the appointment, I stopped at Mollie’s farm to go for a walk and to get some exercise in the sunshine. The weather was beautiful, and so was our scenery!
That evening I took Casey to a birthday party while Keith grabbed pizza with the other two boys. I love a night off from the kitchen on Fridays!
Pokemon cupcakes!
We tried to go for a hike at Grelen on Saturday afternoon, but the walk was very short-lived. The storm clouds rolled in as soon as we left the house, so we hightailed it out of there as soon as we saw lightning.
Instead, we made a quick stop at the Somerset Center Store on the way home…
for some ice cream treats at the indoor picnic table!
We were planning to grill fish outside for supper, but the weather turned out to be cooler and windier than I expected. Keith wasn’t too thrilled with the idea of cooking outdoors, so I handled the dinner inside instead.
We had fish sandwiches with Margeaux’s Coleslaw (<– my go-to recipe) and baked potatoes.
I marinated and then broiled cod for the sandwiches. Gibbs was grumpy and didn’t eat much dinner, but Casey, Spencer, Keith and I all thought that the fish was delicious! Here’s what I did:
Broiled Cod Fish Sandwiches
Ingredients
- 1-2 lbs. cod fillets
- 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon minced garlic
- 1 teaspoon honey
- 1 teaspoon dried minced parsley
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- Pinch of pepper
- Sandwich rolls and coleslaw for serving
Instructions
- In a small bowl, whisk together olive oil and next 7 ingredients (through pepper). Pour the marinade into a large Ziploc bag. Add fish to the bag, gently toss to coat, and refrigerate for at least 10 minutes (but not more than 1-2 hours).
- When ready to cook the fish, preheat broiler.
- Place fillets on a greased rack of a broiler pan; discard remaining marinade. Broil 3-4 in. from heat until fish just begins to flake easily with a fork, 10-12 minutes.
- Serve fish on sandwich buns; top with coleslaw!
Keith’s plate, with the fish on a toasted roll from Yoder’s (baked this morning by our neighbors)!
And my plate: with some spinach added, a sweet potato, and no bun. I loooooove the combo of fish with slaw!
We spent the rest of the night watching basketball and relaxing, and I’m looking forward to another relatively quiet day today before the crazy week starts again. I’ll be back with a full report next Sunday. Have a wonderful week!
I had lost contact with your site for a bit glad to find you again. Always love your recipes and your adorable kids! Thanks so much for writing them. Always try most of your recipes!
Hi, Terri! So glad to have you back! Thanks for your kind words, and enjoy the food! 🙂
I absolutely adore Polar Vanilla Seltzer water. I keep it on hand to mix with orange and black cherry seltzer flavors as well, I love your dump and bake recipes! After working all day, I can make a quick meal while having half the neighborhood over to play with my boys.
Hi, Stacy! I love the idea of mixing the vanilla seltzer with other flavors — like a Creamsicle!
Thanks for your kind words about my recipes. I feel the same way — at the end of the day, you don’t want to be stressing about dinner…especially when there are a lot of little ones running around!
Have a great week!
Oh no! The flu and one parent out of town at the same time? Luckily it looks like you had it all under control though! Go mama!
I know, right? The timing is always bad, but at least Gibbs was the only one who got sick this time! 🙂