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Good morning, and happy Sunday! This week included an early start to our holiday baking and celebrating, plus some delicious, festive treats. 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…
We started Sunday with a batch of the kids’ favorite waffles (so easy!), plus bacon on the side.
I joined my friends for a walk at Mollie’s farm, Keith and Casey went for a hike, and then I delivered holiday gifts to my neighbors that afternoon.
The weather was warm, sunny, and not too windy, so it was perfect conditions for Keith to smoke a turkey breast for supper.
On the side, we had gravy, Stove Top stuffing, steamed broccoli, cranberry sauce, and cranberry muffins. A simplified version of a classic holiday meal!
Monday marked the start of the last full week of school (and work) for the year. Crazy how the time flies! I met my friend Ashley for a walk once the kids were out the door, picked up our weekly eggs from my neighbor’s farm, and then settled in at home for a day at the computer. Plus lots of gift wrapping!
Look at this coffee mug that Ashley made me! She did it all herself at home, and her craftiness just blows my mind.
I read another good book this week! My mother-in-law knows my love for Louise Penny’s Inspector Gamache series, so for my birthday last month she gave me State of Terror — the political thriller that Penny coauthored with Hillary Clinton. While I don’t normally choose books in this genre, I really enjoyed it! The writing was very obviously Louise Penny’s, while Clinton must have helped with a lot of the behind-the-scenes details regarding life in the White House and State Department. It was an interesting page-turner that kept me on the edge of my seat. Definitely a fun read!
All three of the boys had basketball practice that evening, so beforehand we had Slow Cooker Jambalaya for an easy weeknight supper…
…which I paired with rice, green beans, and buttermilk biscuits.
Snapshots from Tuesday morning’s sunny walk…
I was home the rest of the day to plug away at work until I ran out to Yoder’s for a handful of ingredients, and eventually picked the kids up from school.
Dinner included a cozy pot of our favorite homemade spaghetti sauce (pulled from the freezer), served over pasta with a side of garlic bread and a green salad with red wine vinaigrette.
Wednesday morning was devoted to cooking and photographing a handful of recipes. Once finished, I was ready for some fresh air and a walk with my friend that afternoon.
The boys had basketball practices again that night, so I made a quick pot of my 30-minute tomato basil soup, which we paired with grilled cheese sandwiches before heading out the door.
Another beautiful Thursday! After an early walk with my girlfriend, I spent the rest of the day at the computer. Trying to be productive and finish up the bulk of my work before the kids are home from school for the rest of the year. Then it’s time for cookie baking, toffee making, stollen eating, and warm cinnamon rolls!
I made Pork Schnitzel for dinner (you could also use chicken cutlets in that recipe), and paired it with rosemary roasted potatoes and a house salad.
I dropped Teddy off at the groomer on Friday morning and ran into two of my girlfriends there with their dogs at the same time. Who knew that it was the place for Madison moms to meet on a Friday?!😂
While I waited for the dog to finish, I ran up to Culpeper for a car wash, a stop at Panera for a loaf of bread, and a quick pop-in to a local antique mall.
I also grabbed this caramel brûlée latte while in town for a tasty, festive treat (definitely my preference over the sugar cookie latte).
Back home, I baked a batch of 3-ingredient shortbread cookies in various holiday shapes, then dipped half of them in dark chocolate and decorated the other half with icing and sprinkles for the kids. Along with soft cut-out sugar cookies, these are some of their favorites for the holidays.
We had Chicken Enchiladas for supper that evening, along with corn, tortilla chips, salsa, and homemade guacamole. The meat from a store-bought rotisserie chicken makes this recipe so quick and easy!
On Saturday, we packed up and headed south to Nelson County for a holiday celebration with my parents. They will be visiting my brother’s family in Florida next weekend, so we exchanged gifts, decorated a gingerbread house, and enjoyed my mom’s traditional Christmas dinner…a week early!
On the menu: Southern Bourbon-Glazed Beef Tenderloin,
Creamed Spinach Casserole, and a baguette. Plus peppermint stick ice cream and my Christmas cookies for dessert!
And that’s all for now, friends! I hope that you’ve found some new inspiration for your own table in the days ahead. Thank you for joining me here, and have a very merry Christmas if you’re celebrating on Saturday!🎄
From Canada to you and yours a very Merry Christmas and we will pray that 2022 brings us a healthier year!!!!
Wendy
Thank you, Wendy! Same to you!!! I bet you’ll even get a white Christmas up there (unlike our anticipated 65 degree day!). 🙂
I love reading all this and I enjoy the site. However do you have a site for one person cooking and eating. I live alone
Hi, Delores! Thank you! I’m sorry that I don’t have many recipes to serve just one. It’s not in my wheelhouse since I’m feeding a big family of growing boys. 🙂
That said, I always try to suggest instructions for reducing the scale of the recipes that I share. For instance, if I include a casserole that bakes in a 9 x 13 inch dish, I typically note that you can cut the ingredients in half and bake the same recipe in an 8-inch square dish. You can also change the number of servings on my recipe cards and they will automatically adjust the ingredient quantities. For instance, you can change a 4-serving recipe to 2 servings, and it will scale the ingredients down so that you know how much you’ll need for just 2 servings of that recipe. Hope that helps!
Blair, next time you are at Starbucks try the white chocolate peppermint mocha without whipped cream. It is delicious! But a calorie splurge. Happy Holidays! I am going to try your waffle recipe on Christmas morning.
Oh, thank you — I will! I just might have to make it there this week so that I can try it. I’ve never even noticed that one on the menu. I’m not a fan of whipped cream in my coffee, so I would definitely leave that out, too. Thanks for the tip!
Blair, I love that mug Ashley made for you! Perfect!! And that picture of Gibbs and Casey with the gingerbread house looks at lot like Uncle Jeff and Uncle Kevin probably looked at that age!! Wow.
That’s true — they do look like their uncles! Mom might have told you…the gingerbread house decorating was sub-par. I think they’ve finally outgrown it. Instead, they just wanted to eat the candy. Oh well…they had fun!
Hi Blair! Thank You again for sharing your last week, which was such fun to hear about! I always look forward to getting new recipe ideas from you. I really appreciate the easy bannana pudding recipe posted today. I will definitely be making this, as I love the no-bake desserts!! Again, take care, and god bless you and your family! Merry Christmas
Thank you, Stephanie! Merry Christmas to you, too! 🙂