Our Week in Meals #386

Good morning, and happy Sunday! We welcomed April with a low-key Easter celebration, a relaxing Spring Break, and plenty of delicious food. 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…

We were still in Annapolis on Sunday, so we enjoyed a late-morning Easter brunch at O’Brien’s Oyster Bar in town. French toast and ham for me, plus omelets and bacon, pancakes and sausage, avocado toast, and burgers for the rest of the crew. It was all really good!

Afterwards, we drove over the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and spent the afternoon on the Eastern Shore at Terrapin Nature Park on Kent Island.

It was so beautiful, but we came back to the hotel very sandy, wet, and muddy. We had anticipated a walk, but instead ended up in the water and on marshy trails. Oops!

For dinner that night we went over to Eastport to Davis’ Pub — a restaurant that Guy Fieri featured on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives back in 2012. This cozy little spot had a great neighborhood feel. After a day of French toast and frozen custard, the Cajun chicken salad hit the spot for me! We also ordered the burgers, wings, fried chicken sandwich, soft pretzel, and chicken tenders. Everyone enjoyed their meals, and the service was especially good.

As far as books go, I’ve got a fun, fast-paced mystery-thriller to recommend this week: I Found You by Lisa Jewell. I’ve read a number of novels by this author, and they never disappoint!

After grabbing donuts for breakfast, we left Annapolis on Monday morning to head back to the mountains of Central Virginia.

The rest of our day included re-stocking the kitchen with groceries and washing numerous loads of laundry.

I kept supper as simple as possible, knowing that I wouldn’t have the time or energy for too much cooking after our travels. On the menu: 5-ingredient chicken parm sandwiches, along with crispy Parmesan roasted potatoes and cut-up carrots and cucumbers with Ranch dip.

The boys were still on spring break on Tuesday, but I got back to work in the kitchen — testing new recipes and photographing a couple of others.

I also made the kids’ favorite pretzel crusted chicken strips for lunch. Spencer (my chicken tenders connoisseur) says these are even better than any of the tenders that he had in restaurants in Annapolis. Hah!

My parents came for a short visit that afternoon. They also dropped off Teddy, who stayed with them while we were away. The most spoiled GrandDog!

Keith took Casey to soccer practice in Charlottesville that evening, and then went shopping for new golf clubs with Gibbs. This is what happens when the teenager is constantly growing! Meanwhile, I stayed home and made supper: a simple chicken and bell pepper stir-fry with a side of rice, plus baked egg rolls.

It was yet another rainy day on Wednesday! We got everyone out of the house to run some errands in Culpeper, stopping for lunch at the boys’ favorite Chinese buffet while we were there.

The sun eventually came out…

Casey’s soccer was moved to the indoor facility, so I took him into Charlottesville that evening and left Keith in charge of supper. He had cast iron skillet burgers, waffle fries, and salad ready for us when we got home that night!

Keith and Gibbs went up to D.C. for a Caps hockey game on Thursday, while the younger boys and I stayed home.

We took advantage of the good weather and spent most of the morning outside (with Teddy along for the adventures).

Baked a batch of the boys’ favorite salted chocolate chip cookies!

Casey’s soccer practice was eventually canceled (due to flooded fields), so we had a quiet dinner at home while these two were at the game:

I made breakfast-for-dinner (always a favorite for the younger two): Jiffy and Bisquick cornmeal pancakes along with sausage and fruit. Fun story: this pancake recipe came from one of the builders who worked on our house last year. It’s how his grandmother taught him to make pancakes, and they’ve always been his favorite. He was kind enough to share the recipe with me, and I hope that you enjoy them as much as we do!

Adria came over on Friday morning and we snuck in a beautiful walk before her work day.

Keith and Gibbs had a tee time at the golf course, while I dragged Casey and Spencer with me to Ruckersville to pop into my favorite antique shops (we didn’t last long — this was NOT their idea of fun, hah!).

Once we were all back home, I reheated a jar of homemade spaghetti sauce that I had saved in the freezer when I made it last month. We paired the sauce with pasta, garlic breadsticks, and Caesar salad. Another kid-favorite meal!

We spent Saturday on the soccer fields watching Casey’s game.

And dinner was a clean-out-the-freezer meal: Keith grilled a small piece of beef tenderloin that was stashed in there, as well as a handful of bbq chicken breasts that needed to be enjoyed.

Plus corn on the cob and Bisquick cheddar beer biscuits on the side!

And that’s where I’ll leave it for today, friends. I hope that you’ve found something new to add to your own table in the days ahead. Thanks for being here, and have a wonderful Sunday!