Our Week in Meals #370

Good morning, and happy Sunday! This week included holiday fun, sweet treats, and regular weeknight suppers. You’ll find all of the highlights from the past few days, along with each of our dinners, 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…

I spent a rainy Sunday in Richmond on a day trip with four of my friends to see the Richmond Ballet’s performance of The Nutcracker. What a fun, festive day!

We had brunch at LuLu’s before the show, where I ordered the shrimp and pimento cheese grits. There were poached eggs on top, plus hollandaise sauce, diablo sauce, and grilled asparagus. Decadent!

And here’s a shot of Adria’s meal, which she kindly snapped for my “blog content.” Hah! I’ve trained my friends well! She had the Shockoe Bottom Florentine, which included country ham, spinach, pimento cheese, poached eggs, and hollandaise on an English muffin. She gave it a 10/10!

The five of us returned home around dinnertime, so I was lucky that Keith had dinner ready and waiting for me. On the menu: oven bbq chicken breast along with waffle fries and vinegar coleslaw.

How about a book chat? This week I read His & Hers by Alice Feeney (the same author who wrote Rock Paper Scissors and Daisy Darker). If you love a mystery/thriller with crazy twists and turns, then this is the book for you!

The boys had a two-hour school delay on Monday morning (thanks to snow and ice in the mountains), which was a nice way to ease into the week.

I spent the day cooking and taking recipe photos, and then we had a quiet evening at home. The boys’ soccer is on hiatus until January, so we’re enjoying a few weeks off from driving and running around each night!

I served cornflake chicken for dinner,

along with cheddar chive beer bread, this store-bought mac and cheese,

and sweet and spicy collard greens.

I met Mollie for a chilly-but-sunny walk in the woods on Tuesday morning, worked at home, and then hosted the kids’ friends after school.

Now that they don’t have as many soccer practices each week, they’re having friends over to play soccer in the yard until dark instead!

I made a sausage and spinach penne pasta bake for supper, which we paired with garlic bread and a green salad.

Ashley and I walked our dogs on Wednesday morning, and then I spent a good portion of my day in the kitchen testing a couple of new recipes.

We had creamy Crock Pot salsa chicken for supper, which we used to make our own chicken burritos along with rice, spinach, fresh salsa, cheese, and homemade guacamole. Plus tortilla chips on the side, of course!

Thursday was another day spent at the computer.

I took Gibbs to a golf lesson that afternoon, and then made a pot of 30-minute tomato basil soup and grilled cheese sandwiches for supper. A kid-favorite meal!

Friday was warm and sunny — perfect for a morning walk, followed by errands in Culpeper.

Keith took the younger two boys to play indoor soccer in Charlottesville that evening, so we had a later dinner once everyone was home. I served this easy 4-ingredient maple-glazed salmon, along with rice, steamed broccoli, and frozen egg rolls.

And that brings us to the weekend, and a Saturday full of more festive activities!

After morning hair cuts for the family, I went to a Christmas cookie exchange party at Adria’s house that afternoon. I shared my soft ginger molasses cookies and my cranberry white chocolate chip cookies, and brought home so many goodies!

Loved her charcuterie tree! And her daughter made a similar version with donut holes for the kids’ table. So cute!

From there, we drove into Charlottesville, where we had tickets for The Boar’s Head Resort’s “Winter Wander” holiday light show. This was such a hit with the kids last year that they wanted to go back again this year (and that’s saying a lot in a house full of teenage and pre-teen boys!).

S’mores and hot chocolate…

It’s magical!

After the lights, we went out to dinner at the boys’ favorite Chinese buffet while we were in town. It was packed that night. Hah!

So there you have it — another week of easy dinner ideas! I’ve got some more holiday prep on my agenda for today, including a few batches of Chex mix and Ranch pretzels to add to my neighbor gift baskets, as well as a batch of my soft peanut butter blossoms for the kids and their friends. It’s that time of year!

Thanks for being here, and have a wonderful Sunday!