Our Week in Meals #262

Good morning, and happy Sunday! We celebrated another birthday this week, enjoyed beautiful fall weather, and even started some Thanksgiving prep. 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…

On Sunday morning, I met my friends for an early walk at Mollie’s farm.

The rest of the day included work around the house, football-watching, and grilled salmon for dinner. We paired the fish with wild rice, dinner rolls, and a Caesar salad.

Spencer turned 8 years old on Monday, and proudly wore his new Tom Brady t-shirt to school that day. He also took in two batches of his favorite soft and chewy chocolate chip cookies to share with his fellow 2nd graders.🥳

Teddy joined me for a blustery walk, and we then returned home to work for the day. The trees are quickly losing their leaves…

Spencer wanted to spend his birthday afternoon practicing field goals with his new football and kicking tee, so we headed to the park after school.

His dinner request? Chicken nuggets! Plus potato chips, carrots, cucumbers, and Ranch dip…

…followed by the best vanilla cake for dessert!

Tuesday was cloudy and cool…

…so after a morning walk, I plugged away at the computer while Teddy spent his day doing this:

We had homemade nachos for dinner, along with corn, salsa, and guacamole. Quick and easy!

A gorgeous Wednesday! I caught up with my friend Ashley on a walk, and then spent a good chunk of the day on Thanksgiving planning. I wanted to get a meal plan, schedule, and grocery order submitted for the bulk of my ingredients about a week in advance, since waiting until the last minute doesn’t always work out well around here (the store was already sold out of a few items!).

My parents picked up sandwiches from Yoder’s Country Market and stopped by for lunch. I had the weekly special, which was a sourdough panini with turkey, havarti, pumpkin butter, and pecans. Different, but tasty!

I used the meat from a store-bought rotisserie chicken to make a pot of chicken noodle soup for supper, along with Aunt Bee’s 3-ingredient sour cream muffins.

I’ve got a great book to share this week! My mother-in-law gave me Apples Never Fall, which is Liane Moriarty’s newest novel, since I enjoyed her previous book, Nine Perfect Strangers, so much. This one did not disappoint! It’s is a gripping, fun, thriller, but it’s not scary or stressful. My friend also finished it in just a few days because she couldn’t put it down. Highly recommend this one for a quick, entertaining read!

I spent a good amount of time doing some pre-holiday baking on Thursday morning, and then took a break mid-day for a lunch date with Keith.

We went to Miranda’s, a little Southern restaurant that’s right on Main Street in town, and sat outside in the sunshine.

My tasty tuna salad sandwich

I picked up my Thanksgiving grocery order after lunch, and then met my two girlfriends for a walk in the woods before I had to get the kids from school. Soaking up these last few days of warm fall weather before the seasons really change…

We had a cozy Ravioli Lasagna for dinner, which we paired with salad and garlic bread. This meal is so easy, since you layer the ravioli in the dish while it’s still frozen (very little prep work)!

After a morning walk with my friend on Friday, I drove up to Culpeper for a handful of errands. Not my favorite way to spend a day, but I treated myself to a sandwich and salad for lunch at Panera Bread while I was in town…an added bonus!

Keith was gone that evening, so I let the kids pick our dinner menu. They voted for “breakfast for dinner” in the form of waffles, sausage, and fruit. Shortly after, we made popcorn and watched the new Home Alone movie on Disney+. Wild and crazy Friday night!🥳

Saturday was a relatively quiet day at home. I realized that it was actually the first Saturday that we’ve had free since last summer! The boys are in between soccer and basketball seasons, and since we were traveling the previous two weekends, it was nice to have a slower day to get organized.

We took care of chores like laundry and yard work, I made a pot of soup for lunch, and there was a lot of college football on TV.

Keith picked up takeout from our favorite local bbq restaurant, The BBQ Exchange, for dinner that night. We had an array of pulled pork, pulled chicken, and chicken wings, plus sides like collard greens, pickles, onion rings, cornbread, and pumpkin muffins. So good!!

And that’s all for now, friends! I hope that you’ve found some new, easy dinner ideas for the days ahead. Enjoy the Thanksgiving holiday, and I’ll see you back here next week!🦃