Our Week in Meals #375

Good morning, and happy Sunday! This week included a little bit of snow, a lot of canceled school, and plenty of cozy meals. 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…

Adria came over for a chilly, blustery walk on Sunday morning, we took Casey to his indoor soccer game that afternoon, and Teddy spent as much time as possible in front of the fire in my office while I was on the computer. We all need this dog’s life!

The kids requested chicken wings for dinner, so I made these crispy baked wings, along with carrot sticks, celery sticks, Ranch dip, and baked waffle fries.

Let’s chat about this week’s book! I really enjoyed What Lies in the Woods by Kate Alice Marshall — a creepy thriller with plenty of twists and turns. It’s one of those novels that has you second-guessing every character along the way in an effort to figure it all out.

We woke up to a light dusting of snow on Monday morning!

The boys had school off for the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday, so Gibbs spent most of the day at his friend’s house. The other two boys were happy to play outside “before the snow dried up” (i.e., melted). Hah!

Knowing that we’d have more winter weather that evening, I planned a cozy supper that could simmer for a couple of hours on the stovetop: New Orleans red beans and rice. This meal is easy — you just have to remember to soak the beans ahead of time!

On the side, a simple green salad and a loaf of no-knead Dutch oven bread.

We got another 2-3 inches of snow overnight, so school was canceled on Tuesday (and eventually for the entire week!).

Since this was our first snowfall in a couple of years, the boys were very excited to go to the sledding hill at the school (Teddy and I stayed warm in the comfort of the car, hah!).

Hot chocolate once we were back inside, of course…

Outside again for the rest of the afternoon!

Casey had an indoor soccer practice in Charlottesville later that evening, so I fed everyone an early supper beforehand: stuffed pasta shells paired with Caesar salad and garlic breadsticks.

It got so cold that night that the roads were still icy on Wednesday — which meant another canceled school day.

The temps were frigid, but it was so nice to see the sun and blue skies eventually reappear!

We had a relatively quiet day of work at the house before I took Casey to his indoor soccer game that night.

A simple meal for a busy night: Crock Pot pulled pork sandwiches, along with coleslaw (from a bag mix) and potato chips. We were actually supposed to have Spencer’s soccer practice that evening as well, but it was ultimately canceled.

The boys were home again on Thursday, thanks to icy conditions on some of the backroads in the county. I met Mollie for a morning walk, photographed a couple of new recipes in the kitchen, and supervised Teddy while he played with 10-week-old Kiki all afternoon. We had some guys doing work at the house this week, and one of them brought along his new Border Collie/Shepherd mix. The two dogs chased each other in laps for hours until they both crashed!

Casey’s outdoor soccer practice was canceled, so we had a quiet evening at home. I made Rice Krispies Parmesan Ranch chicken for supper, along with these new-to-us Sister Schubert’s Hawaiian rolls (which the kids didn’t like nearly as much as the original), roasted broccoli, and roasted cabbage.

We got another dusting of snow overnight, which meant another day off from school on Friday. This week officially turned into the boys’ second “winter break.”

Desperate to get out of the house, we headed up to Culpeper for a few errands and to have lunch at the kids’ favorite Chinese buffet.

While they played outside most of the afternoon,

I used some overripe bananas on the counter to bake a loaf of the best banana bread for snack (no nuts this time, per the kids’ request!).

We had ground beef tacos for supper, paired with seasoned black beans (love these!), corn, tortilla chips, salsa, and guacamole.

And that brings us to the weekend! Saturday included a morning walk with Adria and Barbara, followed by indoor soccer for Spencer in the afternoon.

And a night off from the kitchen for me! We briefly considered going out to dinner, but it was cold, and football was on TV, so we opted for takeout pizza from the local Italian restaurant instead. An evening on the couch in front of the fire seemed just right!

So there you have it, friends — another week of easy dinner ideas! I hope that you’ve found something new to add to your own table in the days ahead. Thank you for being here, and have a wonderful Sunday!