Our Week in Meals #512

Good morning, and happy Sunday! Welcome to September! This week included a heat wave, storms, soccer tournaments, and golf matches. 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…

Gibbs played golf with a friend on Sunday, while Keith and I were on the soccer fields: I was back up in Northern Virginia with Spencer’s team,

while Keith was in Charlottesville for Casey’s game.

Since I knew we’d be getting home right at dinner time, I planned a meal that I could prep earlier that morning (then we just needed to pop it in the oven before mealtime)!

In honor of the start of football season, I made a big pan of my easy buffalo chicken dip (a favorite for my boys) as well as a tray of these store-bought chicken tenders.

We paired the dip with tortilla chips, cut-up veggies like celery, carrots, and bell peppers, and a side of the best homemade Ranch dip.

Let’s chat books! This week I read The Three Graces of Pearl Street by Elizabeth Wellington Rollins. This is a brand new release (it came out on September 1), but I was able to snag an early copy through my Book of the Month membership. I loved it!

In this novel, three generations of Italian American women (a grandmother, daughter, and granddaughter) find themselves living under the same roof again after years of distance. As they navigate their very different personalities, beliefs, and stages of life, old secrets surface and each woman begins to better understand the others and herself. It’s a warm, heartfelt family story about complicated relationships, generational differences, tradition, and finding a sense of belonging.

The boys returned to school on Monday, I got out for a short (very hot) walk,

and then I made a trip into Charlottesville for a quick Costco run. I occasionally get questions about our regular Costco purchases, so I took a photo of my cart before loading the vehicle! This is fairly typical — we don’t usually buy frozen foods and we don’t get too many cold items, because we live so far away from town it’s tough to transport them when it’s hot outside.

This time I grabbed chocolate chip cookies and bread from the bakery (the rosemary parmesan loaf was a huge hit), fresh berries, steaks, rotisserie chicken, peanut butter, olive oil, meat sticks (Casey loves the Archer brand), Mateo’s salsa, hamburger buns, Fairlife protein drinks for my teenage boys, Purely Elizabeth granola, and some packaged snacks like Goldfish, Z Bars, trail mix, and Nutella dip. We also really like Costco’s whole coffee beans, but we’re fully stocked at the moment!

I prepped an early dinner of Italian sausage and peppers, which we served with pasta and the bread from Costco.

After that, Spencer and I were back out the door to join his teammates at the UVA men’s soccer game. The boys were involved in the players’ walk-out and anthem before the game, and played on the field during halftime. They had a great time — in spite of the pouring rain!

I had my annual physical at the doctor’s on Tuesday, so that took up a large portion of my day.

In the evening, I watched Gibbs at his high school golf match while Keith took the other two boys to soccer practices in Charlottesville.

It was one of those nights where we largely finished leftovers from the fridge as everyone was coming and going at different times — pizza, buffalo chicken dip, and Crock Pot apricot pulled pork sandwiches (thawed from the freezer).

Mollie and I met for a walk in the woods on Wednesday morning, in an attempt to stay cool in the 100-degree heat.

Then it was kitchen time — cooking and photographing a few recipes — and washing all of the dishes.

Keith went to watch Gibbs’ golf match near Front Royal that night, so the younger two boys and I were on our own. I took them to get haircuts after school, and then we enjoyed baked pancakes for supper (their request!).

Plus sausage and blueberry banana smoothies on the side.

Thursday included a morning walk with Ashley, followed by errands in town — including a visit at Yoder’s to pick up a few groceries. Teddy waited outside near the goats while I was in the store!

Back home, it was another full day in the kitchen. I baked a batch of our favorite one-bowl easy pumpkin muffins, tested a few new recipes, and prepped dinner in advance.

I knew that we’d need to eat in shifts again throughout the night, since each of the boys had practices at different times and in different locations. With a batch of taco meat in the fridge, it was easy for us to assemble tacos (or quesadillas) as needed,

along with tortilla chips, salsa, guacamole, and a handful of toppings.

I met Adria for a humid, sweaty walk on Friday morning before we both started our work days. It was another 100°F day — not the fall weather we’ve been longing for!

We had a full agenda that evening, since the younger two boys had back-to-back soccer games for the start of their Labor Day weekend tournament (and Gibbs had his regular golf practice).

I packed supper in a cooler and kept it very simple: chicken salad sandwiches on a Costco baguette, chips, cookies, and the (very portable) sesame kale salad from this great new cookbook.

We ate in the car during a lightning delay, and the kids’ games were eventually canceled as storms rolled through all evening.

And that brings us to the weekend! Spencer and I were out the door early on Saturday morning to get to Richmond for his game. We finished up just as the storms rolled in (again)!

I didn’t plan to cook supper that night, and instead took the easy route with takeout pizza, pasta, and subs from Gino’s. Everyone was happy…

So there you have it, friends — another week of quick meals! I hope that you’ve found something new to add to your own table in the days ahead. Thank you for being here and have a wonderful Sunday!