Our Week in Meals #324

Good morning, and happy Sunday! It was another routine week around here, complete with school, work, kids’ sports, books, and a handful of easy meals. All of the highlights, 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…

Sunday morning was chilly and gray, but I snuck in a walk at Mollie’s farm with two of our friends before the rain arrived.

The boys’ hockey game was canceled that afternoon (thanks to the weather), so Keith ran a couple of errands in Culpeper, and we otherwise had a very cozy day inside. I proofed a loaf of cheese bread in front of the stove in my office, and we watched soccer and football on TV.

We had marinated flank steak for supper,

along with the jalapeño cheddar bread that I baked earlier in the day (minus the jalapeños, since I didn’t have any in the pantry),

sauteed zucchini,

and Duke’s super-easy mac and cheese (frequently requested by Gibbs!).

Let’s chat about this week’s books! My mother-in-law loaned me Horse by Geraldine Brooks, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Based on the true story of a thoroughbred named Lexington, this novel beautifully combines historical fiction with romance, science, and more difficult cultural issues. Here’s the summary from Amazon:

A discarded painting in a junk pile, a skeleton in an attic, and the greatest racehorse in American history: from these strands, a Pulitzer Prize winner braids a sweeping story of spirit, obsession, and injustice across American history.

Kentucky, 1850. An enslaved groom named Jarret and a bay foal forge a bond of understanding that will carry the horse to record-setting victories across the South. When the nation erupts in civil war, an itinerant young artist who has made his name on paintings of the racehorse takes up arms for the Union. On a perilous night, he reunites with the stallion and his groom, very far from the glamor of any racetrack. 
 
New York City, 1954. Martha Jackson, a gallery owner celebrated for taking risks on edgy contemporary painters, becomes obsessed with a nineteenth-century equestrian oil painting of mysterious provenance.
 
Washington, DC, 2019. Jess, a Smithsonian scientist from Australia, and Theo, a Nigerian-American art historian, find themselves unexpectedly connected through their shared interest in the horse—one studying the stallion’s bones for clues to his power and endurance, the other uncovering the lost history of the unsung Black horsemen who were critical to his racing success.

I also finished Pretty Little Wife by Darby Kane, an entertaining thriller that kept me turning the pages. A fun, twisted read!

The sun returned on Monday, so I started the morning with a short walk with Keith…

…and then took Gibbs to the orthodontist to get his braces. Not his idea of fun!

For a quick dinner before the boys’ hockey practice, I served Rice Krispies Parmesan Ranch Chicken,

as well as Parmesan roasted cauliflower and broccoli, and a side of rice.

Tuesday included a sunny walk with Mollie, and a quick stop at Yoder’s Country Market for the weekly restock of buttermilk, lunch meat, peanut butter, and the like.

I served this 30-minute tomato basil soup for supper, along with grilled cheese sandwiches on the side. A soft dinner for sore teeth with new braces!

I squeezed in a walk with my friend Ashley on Wednesday morning before the rain started. Here’s a cozy scene from the kitchen counter on the day spent indoors: tea in my favorite heart mugs, alongside chocolates that the boys love (these and these) in heart-shaped dishes.

I took the kids to get haircuts after school, and since I knew that we wouldn’t be home until dinnertime, I prepped some chicken salad in advance. We paired the chicken salad sandwiches with potato chips, carrot sticks, cucumbers, and ranch dip, for a quick meal that I could throw together when we walked in the door.

I shot some recipe photos at the house on Thursday morning, and made a pot of this easy ham and bean soup to take advantage of the leftover ham bone that I had stashed in our freezer after Christmas.

I had the soup and some cornbread for lunch, took the dog out for a short walk up the street,

…and then headed to the Starbucks in Ruckersville for a meeting. The renovations at our house are a little bit too noisy for Zoom calls at the moment…

Once I scooped up the boys from school, I made spaghetti and meatballs for supper,

which we paired with salad and homemade vinaigrette and garlic bread. Then Keith and Casey were out the door for Casey’s soccer practice in Charlottesville. What a day!🤪

I started my Friday with a long walk up the road with Keith, and spent the rest of the morning editing photos at the computer.

After lunch, I went to my friend Adria’s house to use her quiet library for another Zoom meeting, picked the kids up from school, and eventually made it back home for supper. On the menu that night: oven bbq chicken breast,

along with coleslaw (from Yoder’s) and Jiffy cornbread with creamed corn.

Then it was the weekend!

Keith and Casey headed up to Fredericksburg for Casey’s soccer training that day, while I took the other two boys to Charlottesville for Spencer’s indoor soccer game.

Keith and I went out to dinner at Graves Mountain Lodge here in Madison again, since we enjoyed it so much when we were there a couple of weeks ago. It wasn’t a buffet that night, but instead we each ordered entrées, and every entrée was served with every single one of the family-style sides. It was a ton of food, and we came home with plenty of leftovers!

I had the chicken and cheddar dumplings, Keith had the coffee-rubbed smoked brisket, and all of these sides were delivered to our table: a bread plate (dinner rolls, cornbread muffins, and corn pudding); house salad; baked potatoes; honey poached winter vegetables (golden beets, carrots, butternut squash, and parsnip); corn casserole; and a red winter wheat berry salad with pecans, roasted mushrooms, kale and Brussels sprouts. It was a cozy evening at the lodge, with a roaring fire and live bluegrass music downstairs!

That’s where I will leave it for today, friends. I hope that you’ve found some new inspiration for your own table in the days ahead. Thank you for being here, and have a wonderful Sunday!