Our Week in Meals #330

Good morning, and happy Sunday! It was a short school week, complete with spring sports, quick suppers on the go, and a trip to Virginia Beach. All of the highlights, along with each of our dinners, are included in today’s roundup of Our Week in Meals.

For those of you who are new to the blog, Our Week in Meals is where I share a little bit about what we’ve been up to over the past week — as it relates to our dinners each night. 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.

Now, let’s back up to last weekend…

My friend Adria joined me for a walk on Sunday morning, our family had lunch at the kids’ favorite Chinese buffet in Culpeper, and I took Casey to soccer practice in Charlottesville that afternoon.

Always watching his older brother…

Keith smoked a turkey breast for supper, which we paired with Pepperidge Farm stuffing…

…sweet and spicy collard greens with bacon,

…and a bread basket full of angel biscuits and one-bowl cranberry orange muffins (both thawed from the freezer).

Shall we chat about this week’s books? The Dry by Jane Harper is the first novel in the three-part Aaron Falk series, which takes place in drought-ridden Australia. The well-written mystery had me feverishly turning the pages in an attempt to piece together the puzzle! I’ll definitely read the next one, too.

I also really liked The Wife Between Us by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen. I checked this one out after enjoying the authors’ other novel, The Golden Couple. This one was equally entertaining — with another fun twist at the end!

The boys kicked off a short week of school on Monday, and I headed up the road for a walk before sitting down at the computer to work for the day.

Signs of spring spotted along the way…

Keith took Casey and Spencer to their respective soccer practices that evening, while I went with Gibbs to hit golf balls — which meant a very early supper before everyone ran off in separate directions.

I used the leftover turkey breast from the night before to make these BBQ chicken wraps with bacon, avocado, cheddar, and ranch (subbing turkey for the chicken). We paired the wraps with potato chips, pickles, and a broccoli coleslaw that I picked up at Yoder’s.

After dropping the boys off at school on Tuesday morning, I met my friend Ashley for an early walk. Then it was the usual cooking, photos, and writing back at the house before I had to run back out the door for pickup.

We had a rare night free from sports practices that evening, so I prepared homemade meatballs with spaghetti and marinara for supper…

…along with garlic bread and Caesar salad.

Tuesday was largely devoted to work-related Zoom meetings, so I got outside for a walk and some fresh air before settling down inside.

I made a batch of buffalo chicken chili in the Crock Pot for supper, and then took Spencer into Charlottesville for soccer practice that evening. We scooped up the chili with tortilla chips, and added some salsa and guacamole on the side.

The kids had a half day of school on Thursday (with parent-teacher conferences in the afternoon), so I tried to get as much done as possible that morning before picking them up at noon.

I went for a walk, baked a loaf of banana nut bread to take advantage of some overripe fruit on the counter, and stopped at Yoder’s.

In addition to my weekly re-stock on staples like lunch meat and buttermilk, I also grabbed sandwiches from the deli for myself, Keith, and the construction guys for lunch, brought home these spring-themed flour sack towels, and scooped up the shamrock sprinkles to use on a whiskey cake for St. Patty’s Day next week. You never know what you’ll find in that shop!

I squeezed in a work meeting that afternoon, and then prepped an early supper before Casey’s soccer practice. He requested Dorito casserole, so that’s what we had! I assembled two casseroles at once, and stuck the extra one in the freezer to have on hand for another busy weeknight in the months ahead. Two meals for one effort!

In addition to the casserole, I made a batch of cake mix cornbread on the side,

along with a simple salad dressed in this cool, creamy, buttermilk dressing.

The boys had the day off from school on Friday, so we started the morning with a golf lesson for Gibbs.

The middle school students received gift cards for free lunches at Chik-Fil-A in Culpeper, so they were excited to use them!

Then Keith and Casey headed to Virginia Beach for Casey’s soccer tournament this weekend, while Gibbs and I took Spencer to his soccer practice in Charlottesville. Since it was just the three of us home for supper that night, I kept it really simple: a tuna melt for me, and grilled cheese for the kids!

Saturday morning started with a soccer game for Spencer in Charlottesville, and then we hit the road to Virginia Beach to watch Casey play.

Meanwhile, Gibbs and the dog were living their best life with my parents for the day: playing golf, and watching the UVA men’s lacrosse game.

We spent the night in Virginia Beach, so we tried a new-to-us restaurant that was close to our rental house: Margie & Ray’s Crab House. It was so good! Casey was in heaven with his all-you-can-eat crab legs, while the rest of us enjoyed fried calamari, crab cakes, grilled shrimp, scallops, and boatloads of delicious hush puppies. Needless to say, we left stuffed.

And that does it for now — another week of easy dinners! Spencer and I are headed home this morning to pick up Gibbs and Teddy from my parents, while Keith and Casey are following shortly behind us after Casey’s team plays in the championship game. Thank you so much for being here, and have a wonderful Sunday!