Our Week in Meals #344

Good morning, and happy Sunday! It was another summer week around here, complete with pool time, family time, sports, and a good book. All of the 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…

We were in Lancaster, Pennsylvania on Sunday morning for the final day of Casey’s soccer tournament. He had a late morning game, and then we all made the long drive back to Virginia that afternoon. Amish country was a fun weekend trip!

We arrived home in time for a late dinner, so I was very glad that I had something prepped and ready for us in the fridge. I thawed a baked rigatoni casserole from the freezer before we left, and just popped it in the oven to serve with store-bought garlic breadsticks and a store-bought bagged Caesar salad. There was no actual cooking involved that evening, but we all appreciated a semi-homemade meal after a weekend away.

I’ve got a great book to share with you this week! If you need a light, fun, summer beach read — but you don’t want total fluff — then I highly recommend Curtis Sittenfeld’s newest novel, Romantic Comedy. It’s smart, funny, well-written, and very entertaining!

My crew was tired and moving slowly on Monday after a weekend away, so I guess it was good that we had a rainy day and an open schedule.

Gibbs and I popped into Yoder’s for lunch meat, cheese, buttermilk, and whoopie pies, but otherwise it was a quiet day at the house.

I made potato chip chicken strips for supper, along with roasted broccoli and these frozen onion rings (which are surprisingly crispy and good). A kid-favorite meal!

The sun returned on Tuesday, so Mollie came over for a walk in the morning, my aunt stopped by for a quick visit around lunchtime, and then I took Gibbs to a doctor’s appointment in the afternoon.

The peaches in our yard are starting to ripen! The key is getting to them before the bugs, since we don’t spray the trees with pesticides…

Spencer wanted to go for a “hike” that afternoon, so we did a quick loop in the woods before supper.

And then I made my ground beef stir fry with cabbage for dinner before Keith and Gibbs went to the range to hit golf balls. The boys really like this meal, and it’s a good way to get them to eat veggies that they otherwise wouldn’t touch! This time I subbed ground pork for the ground beef, since I had it in the freezer. It’s just as good in this dish — if not better!

We paired the stir-fry with rice and frozen egg rolls on the side.

It was a bit too cool and breezy for swimming at the pool on Wednesday, so I spent the morning testing new recipes in the kitchen…

…and took the kids biking at the high school after lunch.

Keith and Gibbs had an evening tee time for a round of golf, so we ate an early supper before they left: baked bbq chicken thighs,

along with drop biscuits (I added shredded cheddar cheese to this batch), store-bought coleslaw from Yoder’s, and a can of baked beans.

I met Ashley for a walk with our dogs on Thursday morning, and then prepped another jar of sun tea. The drink of summer (along with lemonade and sweet tea, of course)!

Signs of a successful pool day…

I served a Dorito taco casserole for an early supper, since I had to leave the house at 5:00 to take Spencer to play soccer in Charlottesville. We paired the casserole with a side of tortilla chips, salsa, guacamole, store-bought pico de gallo, and corn. Serve it over lettuce and you’ve got an instant taco salad!

A short walk up the road with Spencer on Friday morning…

Plums!

My parents stopped by for a visit, and we served an early Father’s Day lunch for my dad. I set out platters of bread and rolls, lunch meats, and cheeses from Yoder’s, and let everyone assemble their own sandwiches. Plus potato chips, coleslaw, and potato salad on the side, and chocolate whoopie pies and peach and cherry fry pies for dessert!

Dinner that night included one-pan smoked sausage and rice,

along with a skillet of sweet cornbread and steamed green beans on the side.

And that brings us to Saturday! I spent another morning in the kitchen photographing a couple of new recipes, and then we all headed up to Culpeper for a couple of errands and lunch at the Chinese buffet (kids’ request!).

Keith went to a baseball game with his dad and brothers that evening, so the kids and I were on our own for supper.

Gibbs wanted to hit golf balls at the driving range, so I took the younger two boys to swim in the pool at the club while Gibbs was playing.

On the way home, we grabbed takeout pizza and garlic breadsticks, and called it a night.

So there you go — another week of easy dinners! I hope that you’ve found some new ideas to add to your own table in the days ahead. Thank you for being here, and have a wonderful Father’s Day to all of the special men out there!