Our Week in Meals #378

Good morning, and happy Sunday! This week included an early Valentine’s Day dinner, spring-like weather, and plenty of easy 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…

Casey and I got out for an early walk on a beautiful Sunday morning. Never too old for throwing rocks in a pond!

I spent time in the kitchen cooking and photographing a couple of recipes, while Keith and Gibbs played golf that afternoon. Taking advantage of a warm February weekend!

We had a cider Dijon roasted chicken for supper, which we paired with sauteed zucchini, a loaf of Dutch oven bread, and some store-bought shells and cheese (here’s my homemade version if you prefer!).

This week’s book is a fun one! If you enjoy a mystery-thriller with a surprise twist ending, then you should definitely pick up The Perfect Marriage by Jeneva Rose. I couldn’t put down this fast-paced psychological suspense!

Back to school and work on Monday morning!

It was frosty for our morning walk, but it warmed up nicely! I made a quick stop at Yoder’s to pick up lunch meat, cheese, peanut butter, yeast, bread flour, and other staples, but otherwise stayed close to home.

We had my oldie-but-goodie easy shrimp Creole for supper that evening, which I paired with rice, a simple iceberg side salad with Dijon vinaigrette, and a tray of these easy cheddar drop biscuits.

Ashley and I walked our dogs together on Tuesday once the kids were off to school, and I cranked through work at the computer for the rest of the day.

Keith offered to pick up pizzas for dinner that night — yes, please! I took advantage of the night off from the kitchen and enjoyed a couple of slices with zero effort and minimal clean-up…

Wednesday was a full one — including a walk, a stop at the vet for Teddy’s meds, a stop at the upholsterer to drop off fabric for a window seat that we’re having recovered, re-testing a new recipe, and updating a couple of old blog posts — all before the boys got home from school!

We had an early supper before soccer practice that night: baked potatoes topped with leftover turkey chili (that I thawed from the freezer), cheese, sour cream, green onions, and garlic roasted broccoli. A “baked potato bar” is such an easy way to stretch a little bit of leftover chili (sometimes my growing boys eat two baked potatoes — talk about a cheap way to fill them up)!

Thursday morning!

I went over to Adria’s farm, where we walked some hills…

…and checked out the progress of the seeds that she’s started indoors. She’ll be sharing herbs with me later this spring, and flowers this summer. We can’t wait!

Keith took Gibbs to his golf lesson that afternoon, and then we had easy meatball subs for supper afterwards. Plus potato chips, cut-up veggies, and Ranch dip on the side!

Friday was sunny, almost 70 degrees, and perfect for a walk with Ashley. I ran errands in Culpeper the rest of the morning, and took care of chores at the house in the afternoon.

Keith was gone for dinner that night, so the boys and I had chicken and noodles with side salads for supper…

…and my one-bowl buttermilk chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream for dessert (Gibbs’ request!).

And that brings us to the weekend! Adria came over for a walk on Saturday morning, Keith took Spencer to soccer, and I spent most of the rest of the day in the kitchen testing new recipes.

We had reservations for the Valentine’s Day dinner buffet at Graves Mountain Lodge that evening. Of course, the boys love an all-you-can-eat meal!

The lodge is tucked up in the mountains here in Madison, and these were our views just before sunset.

The food was great, too! This is my first plate, which was mostly salads, but I particularly liked the shrimp with tomato gravy on fried grit cakes for supper. Keith and the boys loved the prime rib and the yeast rolls with apple butter, while Casey also ate his weight in bourbon brown sugar glazed chicken.

For dessert, I chose the red velvet cake with vanilla ice cream. Delicious!

So there you go, 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 Super Bowl Sunday!