Our Week in Meals #313

Good morning, and happy Sunday! This week we celebrated the website’s 10th anniversary with a fun giveaway. If you haven’t already entered, you can check out the details here! All of the other highlights from the past few days, along with each of our dinners, are included in today’s roundup of Our Week in Meals.

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…

The older two boys were still recovering from the flu and RSV on Sunday, so we had a very quiet day at the house. It rained off and on all day, and we stayed busy indoors with laundry, cleaning, grocery pick-ups, and football on TV. Keith smoked a turkey breast for supper,

which we paired with my favorite easy broccoli casserole, Pepperidge Farm stuffing, and cranberry sauce. A mini Thanksgiving feast!

Let’s chat about this week’s books! My mother-in-law gave me her copy of The It Girl by Ruth Ware. This was such an entertaining mystery, with an ending that I didn’t predict! Here’s the quick summary from Amazon:

April Clarke-Cliveden was the first person Hannah Jones met at Oxford.

Vivacious, bright, occasionally vicious, and the ultimate It girl, she quickly pulled Hannah into her dazzling orbit. Together, they developed a group of devoted and inseparable friends—Will, Hugh, Ryan, and Emily—during their first term. By the end of the year, April was dead.

Now, a decade later, Hannah and Will are expecting their first child, and the man convicted of killing April, former Oxford porter John Neville, has died in prison. Relieved to have finally put the past behind her, Hannah’s world is rocked when a young journalist comes knocking and presents new evidence that Neville may have been innocent. As Hannah reconnects with old friends and delves deeper into the mystery of April’s death, she realizes that the friends she thought she knew all have something to hide…including a murder.

Next up: Anxious People by Fredrik Backman. I really enjoyed Backman’s novel Beartown, and also liked A Man Called Ove (although not nearly as much), so I was excited to read this novel that many of you also recommended. Like Backman’s other books, the characters and plot in this one were sad and heavy; however, the author always finds a way to leave us smiling by the end. This story was unique and lovely!

And finally, The Wife Upstairs by Rachel Hawkins was another great thriller! I wouldn’t say that it was scary, but it was definitely an intense page-turner with fun twists. It’s also cool that this is a modern re-telling of Jane Eyre. Highly recommend!

Y’all…it was 80 degrees here on Monday! We actually turned on the air conditioning in November, which just seems wrong. It sure was pretty, though. I’ll take this weather over snow any day!

The older two boys were still at home recovering, so our day included make-up school work for them, and new recipe testing for me. Supper was an oldie-but-goodie: country chicken and biscuits, paired with a side of southern-style green beans.

I voted bright and early on Tuesday morning,

That’s one of my favorite sweatshirts from Orvis…and their quilted pullovers are also wardrobe staples!

and then Mollie joined me for a walk!

Keith took Spencer to soccer practice that evening, so beforehand I served roasted shrimp po’ boy sandwiches for supper. We paired the po boys with potato chips, carrots and celery sticks, and store-bought spinach and artichoke dip (this is the best brand I’ve found!).

The highlight from Wednesday was a visit with my friend Ashley in the morning, including a walk with our dogs. From there, I stopped by the middle school to pick up the boys’ missing assignments, and then returned home to juggle make-up work with Gibbs and Casey, as well as my own work and house chores. It definitely made me appreciate the days of a quiet house when everyone’s healthy and going to school!

We had roasted buttermilk marinated chicken for supper,

along with roasted Brussels sprouts with bacon and a side of rice. Then it was back out the door for a chilly night of soccer practice for Spencer under the lights.

After a week at home, Gibbs was well enough to return to school on Thursday (hooray)! Casey was feeling better too, so we picked up subs for lunch to celebrate the return of his appetite!

I’m almost always a steak and cheese sub girl at Subway, but I decided to go the spicy route that day and instead ordered the buffalo ranch chicken sub. It was fine, but not as good as my usual order.

I knew that Casey was officially ready to return to school when we saw him running around the yard that afternoon in his banana costume to try to get a laugh out of Spencer. He said that he was bored after barely leaving his bedroom for days!😂

I thawed leftover taco meat from the freezer and prepared taco quesadillas for dinner, along with homemade guacamole, corn, tortilla chips, and salsa.

It doesn’t take much to make me happy, so when I could spend a very rainy Friday wandering the aisles of Target with a holiday-themed Starbucks drink in hand, I was quite content. The boys were all back in school for the first time in ages, I had birthday shopping to finish up for Spencer, and I thoroughly enjoyed my sugar cookie latte!

I also picked up a few Christmas items while I was cruising through — even though I won’t decorate until after Thanksgiving. I grabbed the “mulled spice” candle and the “cypress and pine” candle from the Hearth & Hand Magnolia line, both of which smell fresh and cozy for winter.

I snagged bottle brush trees in a variety of colors and sizes, wooden trees and ceramic trees (in white) to add to my collection, and these cloth napkins. ‘Tis almost the season!

Speaking of Christmas decorations, my holiday doormat arrived that afternoon, too. It was backordered at Anthropologie, but it’s now in stock again. I can’t wait to add it to our porch next month!

Spencer had a friend come home with him from school that afternoon, and they requested chocolate chip cookies for snack.

Once Gibbs finished golf practice, we all had flatbread pizza and Caesar salad for supper. A perfectly easy Friday night meal!

And that brings us to Saturday! Casey and I drove 3 hours southwest to Radford, Virginia for his soccer game. We left early in the morning and didn’t get back home until supper, so the bulk of our day was spent in the car and on the sidelines.

Sideline mascot!

Favorite monogrammed tote bag (that Teddy fits inside!) + cowboy boots

Keith and the other two boys stayed home for Spencer’s game, and were also left in charge of supper. They grilled hamburgers, which we paired with French fries and a three bean salad.

So there you go — another week of easy dinners! I hope that you’ve found some new inspiration for your own table in the days ahead. Have a wonderful Sunday!