Our Week in Meals #273

Good morning, and happy Sunday! Welcome to February! We’re finishing up a cold, rainy week, complete with a snow day, a good book, and plenty of cozy cooking. 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 was a chilly, quiet day at home. I did some cooking in the morning, we got outside for a walk, and we spent the afternoon watching NFL football.

We had Crock Pot gumbo with rice for dinner, plus corn sticks on the side.

That 1 inch of snow that fell the previous Friday was still hanging around on Monday morning, which meant canceled school for the kids.

Instead, I took Gibbs and Casey to their orthodontist appointments, and then we all headed up to Culpeper for a walk at a park, a couple of errands, and lunch at Chik-Fil-A.

I made a Dutch oven pork roast with gravy for dinner,

which I paired with baked apple slices,

and crispy roasted Brussels sprouts with bacon.

February arrived on Tuesday, and brought with it sunshine and warmer temps — a nice change from the snowy, gray January of this year. It has also helped to melt some of that lingering ice.

I spent most of the day at my computer on a variety of tasks — catching up on emails, editing photos, and writing blog posts. Productive, but not too exciting!

We had one of the kids’ favorite meals for supper that evening: Sheet Pan Chicken Fajitas…

…along with corn, tortilla chips, salsa, and homemade guacamole.

Now let’s chat books! I was able to read more in the evenings again this week, since basketball practices were canceled due to Covid cases in the league. The boys were disappointed, but I didn’t mind the cozy nights in early pajamas! I finished The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles, which I had high hopes for after the author’s previous novel, A Gentleman in Moscow. His latest book is definitely good, but it was slower and not nearly as entertaining as A Gentleman in Moscow. Here’s the synopsis from Amazon, in case you’re interested:

In June, 1954, eighteen-year-old Emmett Watson is driven home to Nebraska by the warden of the juvenile work farm where he has just served fifteen months for involuntary manslaughter. His mother long gone, his father recently deceased, and the family farm foreclosed upon by the bank, Emmett’s intention is to pick up his eight-year-old brother, Billy, and head to California where they can start their lives anew. But when the warden drives away, Emmett discovers that two friends from the work farm have hidden themselves in the trunk of the warden’s car. Together, they have hatched an altogether different plan for Emmett’s future, one that will take them all on a fateful journey in the opposite direction—to the City of New York.

Spanning just ten days and told from multiple points of view, Towles’s third novel will satisfy fans of his multi-layered literary styling while providing them an array of new and richly imagined settings, characters, and themes.

I spent Wednesday morning photographing recipes, and then my friend came over for a walk before school pickup.

We had “breakfast for dinner” that night, including baked pancake squares (so easy!!!), bacon, and yogurt with fresh berries.

I was out of the house almost all of Thursday, which definitely isn’t the norm for me! I took Teddy to and from the groomer, had a check-up at the dermatologist in Charlottesville, and then met my parents for lunch in town afterwards. We went to the Tip Top diner since it’s right near my doctor’s office. So old-fashioned, and always good!

This was a classic tuna salad sandwich on toasted rye with potato chips.

I made southern chicken and pastry (aka “flat dumplings” or “chicken and slicks”) for dinner that night…

…with a side of collard greens and a basket of dinner rolls. It was a perfectly cozy meal for a cold, rainy day.

Rain foiled my plans for a walk with friends again on Friday,

so instead I got work done at the house, picked up a grocery order, and dragged this cutie off of his blankets to take him to the vet for his annual checkup and vaccines.

I made a batch of the best stuffed shells for dinner that night, freezing half of the recipe in a separate dish for a later date. Love when I get two meals for one effort!

We paired the pasta shells with a green salad with red wine vinaigrette, plus a loaf of garlic bread.

Saturday was jam-packed with sports and other activities.

Basketball was allowed to resume after the Covid shutdown, so we had 3 basketball games on the agenda, haircuts for everyone, and an indoor soccer game down in Charlottesville for Casey that evening! Keith and I tag-teamed the various commitments to get everyone where they needed to be.

By the time dinner rolled around, I definitely wasn’t up for cooking an elaborate meal! Instead, I took the night off from the kitchen and turned to our regular Saturday night takeout pizza — a solution that makes everyone happy.

That’s it, friends — another week of easy winter meals! I hope that you’ve found some new inspiration for your own dinner table in the days ahead. Thank you for being here, and have a wonderful Sunday!