Our Week in Meals #381

Good morning, and happy Sunday! This week we welcomed March with soccer tournaments, spring weather, and a good book. 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 met Mollie and Sallie for a frosty walk at Mollie’s farm on Sunday morning,

and then spent most of the afternoon on the soccer fields watching Casey play. The weather warmed up and it turned out to be a beautiful day!

We were home in time for Keith to grill marinated flank steak for supper,

while I roasted crispy Parmesan potatoes,

and 3-ingredient yellow squash on the side. Last week the boys were talking about which vegetables they would willingly eat (trust me, the list is short), and this yellow squash was Gibbs’ #1 — “only because of the Parmesan cheese.” Of course, I added it to the menu for this week, along with Spencer’s #1 choice — roasted cauliflower (which makes an appearance later). His brothers groaned when he mentioned that one! Hah.

Book time! This week I read one of Colleen Hoover’s older novels, November 9. It was a bit different than her more recent books, and was a nice cross between a mystery and a love story. Definitely worth a read — especially if you can find it at your library!

The kids went back to school on Monday, and I got to work in the kitchen — testing a couple of new recipes and photographing an old one.

The outdoor spring soccer season started this week for Spencer, while Casey’s outdoor season has been ongoing all winter. That means that we’re now back into the routine of juggling two different teams’ practices and games each week, in addition to Gibbs’ golf commitments. That evening, Keith took Spencer to Charlottesville for his practice, while I stayed home with the other two and organized dinner. We had a French onion pasta bake once everyone was back at the house, along with a Caesar salad and garlic bread on the side.

I got out for an early walk at a park near the boys’ school on Tuesday before the rain arrived, and stopped at Yoder’s on my way home for some weekly staples.

A corn field in winter…

The rest of my day included editing pics, some writing, and a Zoom meeting after lunch. Not very exciting, but productive!

Casey’s practice was canceled that night, so we had a nice evening at home. I made dump-and-bake sesame chicken noodles for supper (one of the kids’ favorites), and paired it with garlic roasted broccoli and cauliflower, as well as frozen egg rolls.

Another gray, rainy day on Wednesday…

I took Teddy to the vet for his updated vaccines, and stayed dry inside for the afternoon.

Before Casey’s practice that evening, we had bowls of creamy tomato soup with ground beef and noodles. Cozy comfort food!

It was so good to see the sun again on Thursday! I met Mollie for a morning walk, picked up groceries, and prepped dinner in advance since I knew it would be a busy evening.

Spencer had an early soccer practice, while Casey’s was late. That meant that both Keith and I were coming and going in shifts, and dinner was served in stages when it worked for the kids. I planned a convenient meal that we could just reheat as needed: Mississippi pulled pork sandwiches, paired with coleslaw that I picked up at Yoder’s, a skillet of Southern cornbread, and a pot of okra and tomatoes.

After dropping the boys off at school on Friday morning, I made my way up to Culpeper for a Pilates class, followed by a few errands in town.

I met my parents for lunch in Charlottesville, and handed over Teddy so that they could “dog sit” for the weekend. We have two different soccer tournaments on the agenda, and Teddy’s a much happier camper if he’s with them rather than home alone.

Keith and Gibbs played golf that afternoon, taking full advantage of the nice weather. Once they were done, we had an easy ground beef enchilada casserole for supper along with tortilla chips, salsa, and guacamole.

And that brings us to Saturday! Keith and Gibbs took Spencer to Fredericksburg for his two games (in the mud!),

while Casey and I went to Richmond for The Jefferson Cup.

We had a lot of time to kill between Casey’s two games, so we ate lunch at Panera and wandered around a mall. Dinner was unpictured nuggets and fries from the Chick-Fil-A drive-thru at 8 p.m. on the way home — so glamorous!

So there you have it, friends — another week of meals! I hope that you’ve found something new to add to your rotation in the days ahead. Thank you for being here, and have a great Sunday!