St. Patrick’s Day + Zoo + Our Week in Meals #123 ☘️

Good morning, and happy Sunday! The kids had a short school week around here, so we’ve stayed busy with other adventures over the past few days. I’m sharing all of the highlights, 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…

Sunday was St. Patrick’s Day! I met my girlfriend for a hike early that morning, photographed a couple of new recipes, and then took the younger two boys to swimming lessons after lunch.

Plus a post-pool snack: donuts for them…

…and Irish Creme iced coffee for me! ☘️

We had a really pretty, sunny day outside, so our “Irish” dinner included grilled Guinness Marinated Steak,

Fried Cabbage with Apple and Onion,

Crispy Seasoned Oven Roasted Potatoes,

and a big beautiful loaf of Irish Soda Bread! I used The Barefoot Contessa’s recipe (here), and swapped out the currants in favor of the chopped dates that I had in my pantry. Delicious (and the extra bread was great toasted for breakfast all week)!

Dessert was leftover Lucky Charms Treats from our party the night before (these were a big hit!).

Monday was pretty standard: gym with a friend in the morning while the kids were at school, and then a stop at Yoder’s Country Market that afternoon on our way to pick up the older boys from school.

Spencer insisted on weighing everything in our cart, including the chicken salad, potatoes, lunch meat and pickle relish.

He was also sure to pick up a few chocolate covered graham crackers to bring to his brothers for snack!

Meanwhile, I impulse-bought this Bear Jam that was on sale. It’s a tasty combo of apple, blackberry and red raspberry jam!

The kids and I had a quick early supper before Gibbs’s soccer practice that evening: Garlic & Herb Grilled Chicken, which I served with salad and pesto pasta. The chicken recipe will be on the blog next month, but in the meantime you can try this delicious marinated grilled chicken recipe!

It was only about 25 degrees when I took Teddy up the street for a quick walk on Tuesday morning, but I was treated to the most beautiful sunrise!

The sun’s reflection made this tree look like it was glowing (so of course I had to pull off my gloves and snap a photo!). ????

While Spence was at school for the morning, I took care of chores around the house, made potato salad for dinner that night, and started some pork chops in the slow cooker.

I also walked over to our neighbor’s farm to pick up another week’s worth of her homemade cheddar scones.

Gibbs has been enjoying these for breakfast almost every morning (my personal favorites are the cranberry scones, which I’ve also got stashed in our freezer).????

After picking up the older boys from school that afternoon, we made a pit stop to pick up our Girl Scout cookie order from a friend. I let the boys each pick out a box, so we snagged Thanks-a-Lots (shortbread cookies dipped in fudge), Peanut Butter Patties, and S’mores cookies. YUM!

Dinner was easy since I had prepped it in advance that morning! We had Crock Pot Smothered Pork Chops,

which I served with homemade potato salad (recipe coming soon!) and broccoli.

Signs of spring on Wednesday morning (the first “official” day of the season)!

I went to a strength class at the gym, met Spence from the school bus at lunchtime, and assembled the world’s easiest dinner that evening. I can’t even call this “cooking,” because I took all of the help from the store.

Knowing that we would be rushed to get out the door for Casey’s first soccer practice at 5:30 followed by Gibbs’s practice at 6:00, I planned a quick supper that I could throw together in minutes. We had chicken salad from Yoder’s (which I absolutely love) on croissants. Served with sliced cucumber and bell pepper, as well as potato chips!

It poured rain all day on Thursday, so my friend and I had to take our regular morning hike indoors to the gym. We chatted on side-by-side treadmills and made the most of our kid-free time! Then I was back to shower and pick up the kids, since they were released at noon.

We had Subway for lunch, which we ate at the school while we helped set up the Book Fair that afternoon.

Sweet Onion Chicken Teriyaki Sub

I then dropped the boys off at home to stay with Keith, while I attended parent-teacher conferences at the kids’ schools.

I also worked at the Book Fair, where our PTO had arranged for a local food truck to come serve dinner to all of the teachers.

Convenience won that night, and my whole family was treated to Catch the Chef burgers for dinner as well! I just placed my order and brought it home with me at the end of the day. Everyone was happy!

Friday was a teacher work day, so the boys had the day off from school. We took advantage of a pretty morning and headed to the Metro Richmond Zoo!

Road trip snacks (those Skinny Dipped Chocolate Almonds were the first to disappear!)…

We love this zoo because the kids can get up close and personal with the animals.

Feeding the giraffes, riding the Safari Train, and holding the birds were some of the highlights.

We hit the Chik-Fil-A drive-thru on our way home for a very late (and very tasty) lunch. I normally try to stick to meat-free meals on Fridays during Lent, but I totally flaked and didn’t realize that I was “breaking” my rule until after I had finished my meal! Oops.

Chicken Wrap + Lemonade + a few Waffle Fries hit the spot!

We made it home shortly before dinner, so I was glad to have a few easy ingredients in the fridge to throw together a quick vegetarian supper.

Homemade pizza was on the menu, using store-bought dough, a jar of marinara sauce, cheese, and some sautéed vegetables that needed to be enjoyed. I also tossed together a salad to have on the side. The rest of our night was spent in front of the TV watching NCAA basketball!

Saturday morning included a trip to the grocery store and then cheering on the sidelines at Gibbs’s soccer game down in Fluvanna County.

Everyone was hungry by the time the game was over (and we were still about 45 minutes away from home), so we stopped for a late lunch of chicken and biscuits before making the drive back.

Keith took the boys to get haircuts later that afternoon, while I stayed home to get dinner organized. I found this Bratwurst Chicken Sausage at Yoder’s recently, but it’s Boar’s Head brand so it’s probably available at other grocery stores as well.

We had 3-Ingredient Grilled Beer Brats,

along with my favorite Garlic Parmesan Zucchini Casserole. <– This is a great way to get kids to eat their veggies!

And there you have it! Another week of easy dinner ideas that I hope you find helpful as you plan your own meals for the coming days. Thank you so much for stopping by, as always!????

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