Our Week in Meals #420 + An Announcement

Good morning, and happy Sunday! This week we enjoyed Thanksgiving, celebrated another birthday, and decorated for the holidays. I’ve also got a big announcement to share, so look for that at the end of the post. In the meantime, 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…

Spence and I left the house before the sunrise on Sunday morning to get to his soccer game in Northern Virginia, while Keith and the older boys took care of outdoor jobs at the house. It was the end of a successful soccer season, so we’re now looking forward to a slightly quieter schedule in the coming weeks!

Since the weather was fairly mild, we decided to take advantage of the grill that night. I served honey garlic Dijon pork tenderloin (you can also roast it in the oven),

along with spinach casserole, roasted rosemary potatoes, and rice.

Let’s talk about this week’s book! I decided to kick off the holiday season with a fun and festive read! I picked up The Christmas Tree Farm by Laurie Gilmore when I saw it on display at Barnes and Noble a couple of weeks ago, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. This is total fluff — think a spicier version of a Hallmark movie — but it was exactly what I wanted when cozied up in front of the wood stove!

The boys went to school on Monday morning, I met Ashley for a walk, and I ran a couple of errands afterwards.

First, Yoder’s for a few groceries, and then to a local furniture maker.

They were having a holiday sale, so I stopped in to pick up a Christmas gift. Of course, I came home with something for myself, too — this saddle stool to use as a plant stand…

I met my parents for lunch at Burton’s Grill in Charlottesville to celebrate my dad’s birthday. This was a tasty southwestern chicken salad — delish!

Since I was out of the house for most of the day, I planned an easy slow cooker meal that wouldn’t require too much effort or attention: Crock Pot chicken Alfredo, which we paired with a green salad with red wine vinaigrette and garlic bread (from the freezer).

Tuesday was the boys’ last day of school for the week. Teddy went to the groomer, I had a golf lesson, and Casey went to PT that afternoon.

So much hay!

I made a Mexican lasagna for supper, which we served with tortilla chips, salsa, and guacamole.

On Wednesday morning, Adria, Barbara, and I met for a walk before Spencer’s friend came over to the house.

After lunch, I dropped the boys off to play a round of golf while I spent the afternoon in the kitchen.

I was busy with some Thanksgiving prep, including a double batch of cranberry orange sauce, a double batch of sausage stuffing, and a loaf of pumpkin bread. We weren’t hosting the holiday, so these were all options that I could prep in advance and that would travel easily!

For dinner that night, I served the kids’ favorite dump-and-bake sesame noodles, but I omitted the chicken. Instead, I paired the noodles with a skillet of 15-minute honey garlic shrimp, these frozen egg rolls, and a simple shredded iceberg salad.

Thursday was Thanksgiving!

Keith and I went for an early walk, and then we all piled in the car and headed up to Northern Virginia where we joined Keith’s brothers and their families at my in-laws’ house for dinner.

Keith smoked a few turkey breasts, his brother brought a honey baked ham, and we enjoyed all of the best sides, like sausage stuffing, cranberry sauce, pumpkin bread, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, ambrosia salad, corn, roasted carrots, and more…

Plus pumpkin pie for dessert! The other hit of the dessert table was this turtle pie, which the kids devoured…

On Friday, we switched gears into Christmas mode and cut down our tree at Claybrooke Farm.

Back home, I got dinner started in the slow cooker, and we spent the afternoon and evening putting up our decorations.

We had a simple Crock Pot chicken stew,

along with Keith’s very favorite jalapeño cheddar bread.

And gingerbread cake for dessert! ‘Tis the season…

Another reason to celebrate on Saturday — Gibbs turned 15!

We opened presents that morning, Keith took care of yard work,

Casey and I went up the street for some fresh air, and my parents came for lunch.

We had pulled pork sandwiches (using pulled pork that I picked up from Yoder’s), as well as coleslaw and Duke’s homemade mac and cheese. Plus brownies and leftover gingerbread for dessert!

For dinner, the birthday boy requested German food at The Bavarian Chef. The giant soft pretzels and the chicken paprika schnitzel are his favs!

Plus sachertorte and creme brulee for dessert…

Some News to Share!

Okay, and now for my “big announcement:” For over a year now, I’ve been working behind the scenes on developing and photographing new recipes for a cookbook! At this point, I have created about 50 new dinner recipes that have never been featured on my website. But this is where you come in! I’d also like the book to include some of my readers’ favorite recipes from the blog. What would you like to see in a hardcopy published book? Do you have any favorites from The Seasoned Mom that you turn to again and again? If so, please let me know! This will help me decide which ones I include. Thank you in advance for your support and feedback! More to come in the months ahead…