Our Week in Meals #168

Good morning and happy Sunday! It was another pretty routine week around here, complete with a new book, missing teeth, and plenty of quick meals. All of the highlights from the past few days, along with our easy dinners, are included in today’s roundup of Our Week in Meals!

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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 turned out to be a beautiful day! I took the dog for a walk up the road, and then returned home to spend the rest of the morning in the kitchen testing new recipes.

When he’s not playing sports or engaging in army battles with his brothers, Casey has turned into quite the sous chef!

We took the kids to the paved parking lot at the school to ride bikes that afternoon, and then returned home for a cozy dinner.

I made a classic Virginia Brunswick Stew in the Crock Pot, which I paired with a bread basket that included cornbread, biscuits and blueberry muffins (the cornbread and biscuits were leftovers that I had stashed in the freezer and could just easily warm up).

I met my girlfriend for an early dog walk on Monday once the boys headed off to school.

Back home, I poured myself another cup of coffee and parked myself in front of the computer to plug away at work for most of the day.

Spencer has been requesting my Dump-and-Bake Honey Garlic Chicken for a few weeks now, so that’s what we had for dinner. I paired the chicken with rice, broccoli and egg rolls that I prepped in the air fryer, and then the older boys were out the door for basketball practice.

I finished another book this week, which was a brief departure from my usual novel, mystery or historical fiction. Written by two investigative reporters, The System is an in-depth look at the glory and the scandal of big-time college football. It’s a fascinating account of every aspect of the game — from Nick Saban’s coaching methods at Alabama, to the beautiful “hostesses” involved in recruiting, the logistics of presenting the weekly College Gameday show on ESPN, and the business of big-dollar boosters. As a former college soccer player, I loved the behind-the-scenes look at another sport (and let me tell you — it couldn’t be more different from my experience! Hah!). I highly recommend this one if you’re a football fan. I’m passing it on to Keith (also a college football player) next, since I know he’ll love it too.

Tuesday was a pretty routine day — I started the morning with a strength class at the gym with a friend, followed by a stop at the grocery store and an afternoon in the kitchen.

Ground Beef Stroganoff was on the dinner menu that night, including egg noodles, green beans, and dinner rolls.

I joined my friend at her farm on Wednesday morning for a visit and a walk.

I also made a batch of our favorite granola so that I could share some with a friend who was having a rough day. Food is love!

She tries to eat wheat/gluten-free, so I swapped out the wheat germ and instead added slivered almonds. Granola is great because you can mix and match so many different ingredients. I just had everything in my pantry, so it was a quick treat that came together in about 25 minutes. Can’t beat homemade granola on yogurt, on smoothies, on ice cream, with milk, or just by the handful!

After a few hours of work behind the computer, another girlfriend joined me for an afternoon dog walk. It can get very quiet when working at home on my own all day, so adding these little social outings into my schedule is a perfect break for me.

Look who lost his first tooth at school that day!

I used a store-bought rotisserie chicken to make this easy Chicken Coconut Soup with Sweet Potatoes. I couldn’t find fresh snow peas at my little grocery store, so I used a bag of frozen, thawed stir-fry veggies instead. Tasted great!

But the best part of the evening was definitely our dessert: this batch of warm, homemade cinnamon rolls with brown sugar cream cheese frosting that my Mennonite neighbor brought over that afternoon. Such a treat, and we enjoyed the extras for breakfast the next day, too!

I went to my parents’ house for lunch on Thursday, where Teddy spent the majority of the time on the back porch stalking the geese in the pond.

Meanwhile, we feasted on fried fish sandwiches, ambrosia and potato chips…plus molasses cookies for dessert. Not my average weekday lunch of leftovers!

Before the boys’ basketball practice that night, I served everyone steak and cheese subs made with my Dump-and-Bake Smothered Round Steak. Mushrooms, onions and tender steak all piled high on a roll with melted cheese…such a hit! We paired the subs with side salads and French fries.

I met my girlfriend at the gym on Friday morning, and then spent the rest of the morning running errands in Culpeper — including a stop at Target for all of the Valentine’s Day goodies (for my boys, their classmates and their teachers). We’ve got a nice stash of conversation hearts in the candy dish now!😍

I kept it vegetarian that night for dinner with my Spinach Pasta, garlic bread and salad. It’s so satisfying — your family won’t miss the meat!

Saturday morning was so foggy, I could hardly see more than a few feet in front of me! Fortunately, the mist eventually lifted and it turned out to be a really nice, sunny day.

We spent the morning watching basketball,

and made a stop at the library before heading home for lunch.

The afternoon involved a lot of house chores, playtime outside…

…and a batch of Puppy Chow to enjoy while watching the Super Bowl today. This was Spencer’s request, because he made some of the snack mix with his class at school earlier in the week and (of course) needed more at home!

Since the weather was decent (for January), Keith grilled hamburgers for dinner. It had been awhile since we made burgers, so everyone was pretty excited about that meal.

I paired the burgers with sweet potato fries, salad and Brussels Sprouts with Bacon (still enjoying those winter veggies)!

So there you go — another week of easy dinner ideas! I hope that you’ve found some new meal inspiration for your own kitchen in the coming days. Thank you for stopping by, and enjoy the Super Bowl this evening if you’re watching!