Our Week in Meals #518

Good morning, and happy Sunday! This week included the end of high school golf season, lots of soccer, and another road trip. 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…

On Sunday morning, we got Gibbs ready and out the door for his overnight trip to the high school golf state finals. In spite of the rainy weather, he had a practice round in Tappahannock that afternoon and a dinner later that evening.

Meanwhile, I took Casey to Charlottesville for “media day” with his soccer team, and Keith stayed home to take care of supper. He grilled a couple of whole chickens,

and baked potatoes,

which we paired with a handful of fall sides that I prepped in advance: roasted butternut squash, Southern collard greens,

and 2-ingredient pumpkin muffins with cake mix.

For dessert, I made an apple crumble with vanilla ice cream to use up some of the apples that we got at the harvest festival the day before. SO GOOD.

Let’s chat books! This week I read The Thoroughbreds by Elin Hilderbrand and her daughter, Shelby Cunningham, which was such a fun fall pick! It’s the sequel to The Academy, which is definitely worth reading first if you haven’t already.

In this novel, senior year is getting underway at an elite New England boarding school, where the students are juggling college applications, complicated friendships, romantic drama, and plenty of secrets. As tensions rise between classmates and the school’s headmaster faces problems of her own, old rivalries and unanswered questions about a student’s death threaten to turn everything upside down. It’s a juicy, entertaining story filled with wealthy teenagers, messy relationships, school scandals, and all the drama you’d expect from an Elin novel.

It was so nice to see the sun again on Monday!

The boys had the day off from school, so Keith went to watch Gibbs play in his golf tournament while I was home with the younger two.

I made a quick stop at Yoder’s, and I took Casey to Trader Joe’s because he loves to stock up on their frozen meals for his “snacks.” I often hear him in the kitchen at 10 p.m. cooking himself a second dinner after soccer (teenage boy hunger is no joke)!

I also have to brag on my 12-year-old niece, Abby, who baked a pan of my farmhouse cinnamon rolls on her own that morning. She is so good in the kitchen, and I know her teenage brothers appreciate every bite, too!

Spencer and Casey both had practices that evening, so I made a dump-and-bake butter chicken and rice casserole ahead of time (Casey’s request). We served the reheated dish with a side of green beans and mini naan for scooping.

I met Mollie for a walk on Tuesday morning,

ate a bowl of healthy pumpkin soup for lunch (thawed from the freezer), and then took Spencer to an orthodontist appointment mid-day.

That afternoon, I made dinner ahead of time since I knew I’d be gone for most of the evening.

I assembled a pan of stuffed shells for Keith to pop in the oven, as well as garlic bread and a bagged Caesar salad. Similar to lasagna, this meal freezes well, so I stuck an extra pan of stuffed shells in the freezer for another day.

Then we were out the door to two different practices in Charlottesville. After Spencer’s practice, I also took him and a friend over to the UVA men’s soccer game to catch the second half of the action. What a full day!

Wednesday included a walk with Ashley, plus a day at my desk for Zoom meetings and other computer work.

Keith and Gibbs had a tee time for a round of golf that evening, so they weren’t home for supper. Since the younger boys had the night off from practices, I let them choose our meal. They opted for these easy potstickers from Trader Joe’s (which I just pan-fried and steamed) along with rice and steamed broccoli.

I dodged the rain on Thursday morning to get some fresh air and to take Teddy to the groomer.

The bulk of my day was also spent preparing to leave town for a few days (i.e., lots of laundry, groceries, and packing).

A cooler, damp day called for a pot of quick and easy rotisserie chicken noodle soup for supper, which we could reheat in shifts as the kids were coming and going from their soccer practices.

Plus a baguette and a side salad to round out the meal.

The sun returned on Friday, and Spencer I hit the road for another soccer trip that afternoon. He had a game in Asheville, North Carolina on Saturday morning, so his team had a short training session and spent the night there beforehand.

It was a beautiful fall day to drive through Appalachia (even though the leaves are peaking much later than usual this year)! Spencer was thrilled to make a pit stop at a Cracker Barrel in Johnson City, Tennessee for supper along the way.

He had pancakes, sausage, and bacon, while I got chicken, grits, green beans, and cornbread. This place is his absolute favorite!

And that brings us to the weekend! As I mentioned, we were in Asheville on Saturday morning for Spencer’s game.

As soon as that was over, we were back on the road…this time headed to Charlotte for Sunday’s game. En route, the zuppa toscana, salad, and breadsticks for lunch at Olive Garden hit the spot after a very chilly morning outside.

Once in Charlotte, we watched some college football and had Chinese food for dinner…

So there you have it, friends — another week of easy meals! 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!