Our Week in Meals #418

Good morning, and happy Sunday! This week we celebrated another birthday, played a lot of golf, and enjoyed plenty of sweet treats. 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 spent a cool, gray Sunday cheering for Spencer on the soccer field.

I served shrimp and grits with tomato gravy for supper, along with a simple green salad dressed in Dijon vinaigrette and buttered corn.

Let’s chat books! This week I finished The Violin Conspiracy by Brendan Slocumb. My mother-in-law loaned me this novel, which her book club also enjoyed. It’s the story of Ray McMillian, a Black classical musician on the rise, who is undeterred by the pressure and prejudice of the classical music world. A shocking theft sends Ray on a desperate quest to recover his great-great-grandfather’s heirloom violin on the eve of the most prestigious musical competition in the world. It’s a page-turning mystery, as well as an inspiring story of an underdog hero. Very entertaining!

The sun came back out on Monday, and the boys returned to school.

Keith and I had a lunch date at Yoder’s, where I ordered the weekly special — a turkey cranberry panini. Soooo good!

I took Spencer to a doctor’s appointment that afternoon, since he’s had a lingering ear infection that needed new antibiotics. Meanwhile, Keith took Casey to PT for his knees.

Dinner was a perfectly cozy fall meal: roast chicken and vegetables,

as well as my friend Barbara’s recipe for Crock Pot ranch mushrooms and these tasty store-bought dinner rolls on the side.

I played golf on Tuesday morning,

got some work done that afternoon, and took Spencer to his soccer practice after school.

I planned an easy supper that I could pull together quickly when we were back home: slow cooker lasagna soup, a baguette from Panera that I had stashed in the freezer, and a store-bought Caesar salad kit.

Ashley and I walked our dogs together on Wednesday morning, and then I jumped right into the kitchen for a day of recipe testing.

I picked Casey up from school early for an appointment with his orthopedist, Gibbs played 9 holes of golf before it got dark, and we all came back together at the table for supper. On the menu: dump-and-bake chicken broccoli rice casserole,

as well as cranberry muffins (I had some extras stored in the freezer),

and a pan of Arkansas green beans. I love these so much!

I snuck in a walk with Mollie on Thursday morning before the rain arrived that afternoon.

Spencer and Casey had golf lessons after school,

and I pulled together an easy dinner afterwards: dump-and-bake meatball casserole with a simple green salad on the side and some frozen garlic knots.

My baby turned 11 on Friday!

I joined Adria and Ashley for Pilates and coffee that morning, got work done during the day, and took Gibbs to a golf lesson after school.

Spencer had soccer practice that night, so he celebrated with his teammates with giant chocolate chip cookies afterwards. I made these, but used a heaping ice cream scoop to portion out the dough (per the birthday boy’s request), and baked them at 350 degrees F for about 20 minutes.

And for his birthday dinner after practice, we all met at Spencer’s favorite Charlottesville restaurant — Hibachi Grill and Buffet. There was a lot of sushi, General Tso’s chicken, lo mein, and the like consumed by all…

And then it was Saturday! Keith and the boys played golf that afternoon, while I got organized at the house to host Spencer’s friends for his birthday.

We had a couple of his buddies over for dinner, and the birthday boy picked the menu: Goldfish chicken nuggets with potato chips…

…and one-bowl brownies for dessert. The meal of champions, hah!

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