Our Week in Meals #422

Good morning, and happy Sunday! This week included festive fun like gingerbread houses, a lunch date, and a Winter Wander Trail of Lights. You’ll find all of the highlights from the past few days, along with each of our dinners, 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…

Spencer and Casey decorated a gingerbread house on Sunday (largely because they wanted to eat the candy), and I packaged holiday gifts for our neighbors. This year I filled these 6-ounce spice jars with my all-purpose seasoning blend and included this holiday post card with the ingredients and suggestions for use. I printed the cards from Canva, but you can download the file here and print them yourself if you’d like to gift them as well!

In each gift bag, I also included a jar of homemade jam — either my Christmas jam, blueberry jam, cherry jam, or peach jam. Edible gifts are always well received!

Adria came over for a walk after lunch, and I hit golf balls with the boys that afternoon.

We had a very simple-yet-cozy meal for supper: easy chicken pot pie with biscuits. This is the shortcut version of one of my childhood favs!

Shall we chat about books? I’ve got another fun thriller to share: Like Mother, Like Daughter by Kimberly McCreight. When her mother suddenly disappears, Cleo (a student at NYU) races to uncover her mom’s secret life. This thrilling emotional suspense is also a love story between a mother and a daughter, each determined to save the other. Such a satisfying read!

It rained on Monday morning, so I ran a handful of errands in town and saved my walk for later in the day.

The sun did eventually come out!

Brought my friend Chip some carrots…

We had beer cheese soup for supper that night, which I paired with soft pretzels. These are the best homemade soft pretzels if you have the time! On a busy Monday evening, though, I took a major shortcut and used these frozen Auntie Anne’s pretzels instead. They were still a hit with the kids!

Another gray day on Tuesday. Ashley and I walked our dogs together that morning, and I had a golf lesson mid-day, in spite of the weather.

For supper, we had Crock Pot meatballs over rice,

with a winter salad dressed in orange vinaigrette on the side.

Since it poured rain most of Wednesday, I skipped my walk with Mollie and instead spent the morning working at my computer.

I had an Invisalign check-up at the dentist, and treated myself to this cutie peppermint mocha afterwards. That’s a blooming Christmas cactus from my mother-in-law in the background!

Dinner was an oldie-but-goodie: sheet pan maple-glazed salmon with sweet potatoes and broccoli. I swapped out the sweet potatoes, though, and just used regular baby gold potatoes since that’s what my boys prefer.

Plus a skillet of cast iron cornbread on the side!

The sun returned on Thursday, so I met Ashley for a morning walk and then returned home for a day of cooking and photos.

The younger two boys had golf lessons after school, and then we sat down to a Mississippi pot roast for supper. I cooked rice to have with the meat, but the kids actually preferred the shredded beef served on sandwich rolls with a side of potato chips. I also offered a green salad with the leftover dressing from earlier in the week to add some color and fresh veggies to the table.

After an early Pilates class on Friday,

I met my aunt for lunch at Chipotle in Charlottesville.

And look at this — more Mexican food for dinner that night! Not my best planning, but I certainly didn’t suffer. Hah! We had the easiest pulled pork enchiladas alongside corn, tortilla chips, salsa, and guacamole. I used store-bought bbq pulled pork that I picked up from Yoder’s earlier in the week to quickly assemble the enchiladas.

We got haircuts on Saturday morning, and I went over to Adria’s farm for a visit and (chilly) walk after lunch.

That evening we headed to The Boar’s Head resort in Charlottesville for the Winter Wander Trail of Lights.

This has become a fun tradition over the past few years, and it always surprises and delights me when the boys are still enthusiastic about it. They claim to have outgrown a lot of festive activities, but not this one!

Maybe they just look forward to the s’mores and hot chocolate?!

For dinner, we picked up fried chicken and country ham sandwiches from The Market on the way home. Always a hit!

So there you have it, friends — another week of easy dinners! We’re looking ahead to the last week of school before the kids’ break, some holiday parties, and all of the fun craziness that this season brings. I hope that this weekly post offers a handful of simple ideas to add to your own table in the coming days. Thank you for spending time here today, and have a wonderful Sunday!