Our Week in Meals #201

Good morning, and happy Sunday! It was another busy week around here — full of school, work, and plenty of fall-inspired delicious food. 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…

I headed out to my friend’s farm nice and early on Sunday morning for a beautiful, cool walk. Time flies when you’re chatting with girlfriends!

I picked up a grocery order, came home to feed everyone lunch, and then the whole family got out for another walk in the woods.

Taking advantage of fall-like weather!

I had cod fillets in the freezer from our last ButcherBox order, so we made Fish Sandwiches for dinner that night (I’ll share my go-to recipe soon).

We paired the fish with Baked Potato Wedges,

and a tossed salad with apple butter vinaigrette.

New book time! This week I read Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen by Susan Gregg Gilmore, which was a really sweet story about a girl growing up in a small town in Georgia. Catherine Grace desperately longs to leave Ringgold for the big city of Atlanta, but when she finally gets her chance, tragedy brings her back home. A series of shocking events — and sweeping changes in Ringgold itself — alter her perspective and show Catherine Grace that she’s right where she belongs.

The small town of Ringgold totally reminded me of Madison! Her Dairy Queen is our Tastee Freez, and the Dollar General features prominently in the little community where “everyone knows everyone.” The book was well-written, entertaining, and full of surprising twists!

Monday morning — back to school for Spence, and distance-learning for the older two. I try to get them outside for some fresh air and exercise before they sit down at their computers. It puts all of us in a better mood, and the dog appreciates a walk in the woods, too!

The kids had been requesting Goldfish Chicken Nuggets for weeks, so that’s what I made for supper on Monday evening. It’s one of those great meals that all three of my boys adore — I just forget to make them until my kids remind me. I baked a double batch to feed the 5 of us, and next time I think I’ll make them as chicken tenders (it will be even easier with fewer pieces to bread)!

We had potato chips, pickles, coleslaw…

…and green beans on the side.

Tuesday looked a lot like Monday — the older boys and I met my friend and her daughter for a walk in the woods before a morning of homeschooling.

After lunch, the kids had soccer practice. While I waited for them to finish, I took a short walk with the dog to enjoy the gorgeous cool weather.

Dinner that night was a bowl of Broccoli Cheese Soup (a lot like this recipe minus the ham), along with baguette and a side salad. Inspired by Panera Bread!

All three of the boys are home with me on Wednesdays, so that was kind of a crazy morning trying to help each of them with online school and Zoom meetings. Casey had to bake a “Thunder Cake” (i.e., a chocolate layer cake with strawberries on top) to go along with a book that his class read — so there was some messy kitchen action as well!

We went up to Culpeper that afternoon to get the kids’ flu shots, and of course they had to check out the Halloween section in Target while we were there. These boys love the holiday — the creepier, the better. And no, we didn’t actually come home with any skeletons…

Casey’s chocolate cake for an afternoon snack…

And tacos for dinner!

I also made my easy guacamole to have with chips and salsa on the side. We can’t get enough of this stuff!

It rained off-and-on all of Thursday (thanks to remnants of Tropical Storm Sally), so after a quick morning walk with my friend, I stayed tucked inside to get work done.

As soon as the boys got home from school, they grabbed snacks, changed, and we were out the door again for football practice. It was wet and muddy, but they didn’t seem to mind…

Soup and sandwiches sounded like a good option on a cool, rainy day, so I made Ham, Cheddar and Apple Paninis (swapped cheddar for the brie in that recipe)…

which I paired with side salads and bowls of Roasted Tomato Soup. Since I just had to reheat the soup, this meal came together really quickly when everyone was hungry after practice.

It was really hazy, but the sun returned on Friday!

When I picked up the boys at school in town that afternoon, we laughed to see a group of cows loose on the front lawn of the library, trotting along Main Street. They found some sweet grass! Fortunately, the farmer was nearby in a pickup truck trying to herd them away from the sidewalk…

There’s a Mennonite family that sells the best homemade donuts at Yoder’s every Friday, and Spencer has been asking me to stop there for weeks now. He finally got his favorite cinnamon-sugar donut on the way home from school!

Teddy hunted lizards in the garden while I picked cherry tomatoes for our dinner salad…

…and supper that night was Spaghetti with Meat Sauce,

plus garlic bread and salad on the side. This meal makes all of the boys happy!

Saturday was a gorgeous fall day!​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

I met Mollie and Sallie for a walk at Mollie’s farm that morning, and then spent most of the afternoon sorting through all of the boys’ fall clothes. The temps officially require pants and sweatshirts!

Spence wanted to go to the high school track to run, so that’s what we did! The older boys threw the football and rode bikes…

Keith grilled salmon for dinner, which I served with rice, salad and dinner rolls. Simple and tasty!

That’s where I’ll leave it for today. I hope that you’ve found a few new recipes to try in your own kitchen this week. Thanks for joining me!