Valentine’s Day + Family Time + Our Week in Meals #118

Good morning, and happy Sunday! We had a week full of Valentine’s Day celebrations and family time. I’m sharing all of the highlights from the past few days, along with our easy 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…

Keith and I were still in Lynchburg for our little getaway on Sunday morning (more on that trip in my previous post), so we slept in a little bit and then headed down to the Marigold Cafe in our hotel lobby for breakfast.

I had a vanilla cappuccino, this big slice of Quiche Lorraine, and a fresh fruit salad. Keith said that his croissant breakfast sandwich was one of the best he’s ever had!

Once we were properly fueled, we headed out in the 20-degree weather for a chilly-but-beautiful walk before we had to pack up and leave.

We made it to my parents’ house late morning to scoop up the kids and continue our trip home. They had stayed busy with plenty of fresh air, Legos, and art projects — including these Minecraft Snow Globes that they made with my mom!

Keith and I are crazy for the Coconut Clusters that my folks sent home with us as well. I think they’re from Costco, and they’re basically the best big, chunky parts of granola. Highly recommend!

We quickly ate lunch and unpacked the car, and then I had to rush Casey and Spencer back out to get to Culpeper in time for their 1:00 swimming lessons, followed by indoor soccer practice from 3:00 – 5:00. Thrown right back into the busy routine!

Keith was gone that night for dinner, and I hadn’t been to the grocery store in over a week, so I kept our meal really basic — “breakfast for dinner.” We had my 5-Ingredient Dump-and-Bake Buttermilk Pancakes, along with eggs and fruit.

Thanks to sleet and ice overnight, the kids had a 2-hour school delay on Monday morning. Casey tried to go outside to shoot baskets at 7:00 a.m., but his ball got stuck in the frozen net! Hah!

When I went to check on him, he was trying to break up the ice on the strings with a rake.

I took all of the boys to the gym with me, where they played with their friends in the kids’ room and I got in a strength class with my girlfriend.

We had a few extra minutes to spare before they needed to be at school, so we went across the street to Dunkin Donuts for a fun mid-morning snack and coffee date!

Gibbs seemed to be feeling fine all morning, but about an hour after I dropped him off at school, I got a call from the nurse letting me know that he had a fever. Yikes!

I quickly finished putting my groceries away and Spencer and I jumped back in the car to pick him up.

The rest of our cold, rainy afternoon was full of house chores, which I had neglected over the weekend while we were busy having fun. Laundry, bed linens, and dinner prep were on the agenda!

Teddy desperately wanted to play with the cows next door, and if it wasn’t for that leash, he would have been right in the field with them!????

I baked a loaf of my easy 1-Bowl Whole Wheat Banana Bread because I had 3 overripe bananas sitting on the counter that I didn’t want to throw away. Love this for quick breakfast or snack options!

Our supper that night included a new recipe that I was testing for Slow Cooker Pork Roast with an Apricot Sauce. I’ll share the details on the blog soon! We enjoyed the pork with macaroni and cheese and steamed broccoli.

Gibbs was feeling like himself again and fever-free on Tuesday, but I kept him home with me for another day to make sure that we didn’t share any germs.

We spent a quiet, rainy morning at home, where I photographed a couple of recipes and Gibbs (reluctantly) finished his make-up work for school.????

One highlight? These Cocoa Truffles that we snacked on from Trader Joe’s, which my mother-in-law sent to us. SO rich and creamy!

I had a PTO meeting that evening, so dinner was a quick and easy option before I left the house: tacos! Always a kid-favorite, too. Spencer ate leftover tacos for lunch every day after school for the rest of the week!

After multiple days of constant rain, we were all happy to see the sun on Wednesday morning!

I met my friend at the gym for some weights, ran errands in town on the way home, and made it back to the house just in time to meet Spencer’s preschool bus before lunch.

Gibbs had basketball practice that night, so I served a new-to-us Crock Pot dinner beforehand. This was my friend Sarah’s recipe for Slow Cooker Coconut Curry Chicken. We had the chicken and sauce over basmati rice with green beans on the side. So good!

Thursday was Valentine’s Day, and of course I managed to find the largest possible box of chocolates to give to Keith (they boys each got their own smaller box).

Can you tell how big it is in comparison to my oldest son?!

I met my friend for a hike in the woods that morning, and then Spencer and I joined Casey and the other second graders at the class ice cream party that afternoon.

Followed by some time on the playground to run off all of that sugar…

We had a special Valentine’s dinner that evening before Casey’s late basketball practice, so I made my boys a steak dinner with potatoes, salad and roasted Brussels sprouts.

Plus Pink Ambrosia for a festive touch! They could have done without the Brussels sprouts, but the meat, potatoes, and marshmallows are always a hit!

And speaking of Valentine’s Day, here’s a funny throwback photo that Keith recently posted on Facebook. It was taken over 15 years ago on the night that we got engaged! My how times have changed…????

Friday was off to a rough start when I came home to find an entire Costco-size container of Tide laundry detergent spilled all over my laundry room floor!

I had placed the unopened container on top of my dryer before I left, and then I left the dryer running with a load of clothes inside. Sure enough, the vibration from the dryer caused the detergent to fall…leaving a thick, deep pool of blue detergent on the ground, splattered on walls, stuck under the washer, and on and on and on. It was literally covering everything, and that stuff is impossible to clean up! Water makes it bubble, and towels can’t absorb it. Long story short, I used my kitchen supplies to get the job done — a giant spatula to scrape and push it into my biggest mixing bowls!

That’s a mistake that I will never repeat again…nothing goes on top of the dryer!

Fortunately, the rest of the day was much more fun! I picked the kids up early from school so that we could head south to my parents’ house. My brother and his family were in town from Florida, so all 7 cousins were together for the first time in months.

We enjoyed the warm temps with a walk outside,

backyard fishing, and a kids’ dance party on the porch. I’m sure the neighbors were thrilled with the music!????

Pizza was on the dinner menu, followed by ice cream and cookies for dessert.

Perfect Friday night!

We spent our Saturday morning on the basketball courts for 3 different games.

After a quick lunch at home, the boys showered, and then we were right back out the door to join my brother’s family at my parents’ house again for the rest of the day. We squeezed in as much quality time as possible before they flew out this morning!

Aunt Barbara and Uncle Gary joined us for a big family dinner, which included my mom’s ragù with pappardelle pasta, salad, and French baguette.

Plus Aunt Bee’s 5-Ingredient Cherry Dump Cake for dessert!

And that’s all I’ve got for today! I hope that this helped to give you a few new easy dinner ideas to add to your own meal plan for the week ahead. Thanks so much for stopping by!

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