Our Week in Meals #435

Good morning, and happy Sunday! We’re halfway through the month of March and it’s starting to feel more and more like spring in Central Virginia — complete with busy kids’ schedules and wonky weather. 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 went to church on Sunday morning, and then Keith and Gibbs headed up to DC for a Caps hockey game that afternoon. Meanwhile, the younger boys and I took carrots to our neighbor Chip and had a quiet afternoon at home.

For supper, I made this easy chicken pot pie with biscuits, as well as a simple green salad with this quick homemade Dijon vinaigrette.

Now let’s chat about books! I was really excited to finally read The Housemaid by Freida McFadden, since the #1 NY Times bestseller generated so much buzz when it first came out. It is definitely a page-turning psychological thriller! I couldn’t put it down, but I was also very disturbed. You’ve been warned!

The boys headed back to school on Monday morning, I met Ashley for a walk with our dogs, and then I spent the bulk of the day working at the computer and catching up on laundry.

When Casey was home from soccer that night, we had this simple chicken marsala recipe for supper along with pesto pasta (using store-bought pesto) and steamed frozen green beans.

Tuesday included a morning walk with Mollie and Adria, followed by a day of cooking and testing new recipes.

We were pulled in multiple directions again that night for Casey’s soccer game and Spencer’s practice, so I cooked dinner earlier in the day and then just reheated leftovers as we needed them that evening. On the menu: corned beef and cabbage in the oven, plus a loaf of Ashley’s homemade sourdough bread on the side. The boys don’t want anything to do with the veggies in the pot, so they use the thinly sliced corned beef to make sandwiches instead. Everyone’s happy!

A morning walk on Wednesday, cooking and photos in the kitchen, and a mid-day Zoom meeting.

I baked a couple of loaves of Casey’s favorite whole wheat banana bread to have on hand for quick breakfasts and snacks, too.

It was another late night with golf and multiple soccer practices, so I once again prepped dinner in advance and reheated it when we all got home. We paired a double batch of dump-and-bake sesame chicken noodles with steamed broccoli and frozen egg rolls for a meal that the kids always devour.

Thursday was more of the same: work during the day and carpooling to kids’ activities all afternoon.

Gibbs played 9 holes of golf with friends, Casey had a soccer game with the high school team, and Spencer had soccer practice in Charlottesville. I made this Mexican pizza earlier that afternoon, which we reheated and paired with tortilla chips, guacamole, salsa, and corn.

Friday was another full one, complete with Pilates in the morning, errands in Culpeper, a coffee drop-off at my friend’s house, and a lunch date at Yoder’s.

This was the weekly special — the “Farmhouse Sandwich” — toasted homemade honey wheat bread with mayo, honey mustard, turkey, roast beef, hard salami, Farmer’s cheese, lettuce, and tomato!

Once we were all home from golf lessons and soccer practices, I served spaghetti and baked meatballs for supper. Plus garlic breadsticks and a simple green salad with the leftover Dijon vinaigrette from earlier in the week.

And that brings us to the weekend! Spencer’s team was playing in a tournament in Northern Virginia this weekend, so we expected to stand on the soccer sidelines all day Saturday. Instead, he came down with a fever Friday night…and missed his Saturday games.

The older boys got haircuts, and I otherwise took advantage of the unexpected day at home to check some chores off of my list.

We picked up pizzas from Jenny Lynd’s for dinner that night…and watched a lot of college basketball on TV!

So there you have it, 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 Sunday!