Our Week in Meals #72

Happy Easter, friends! I hope that you’re all enjoying the holiday weekend! I’m busy right now with egg hunts and Easter baskets from The Bunny, but I wanted to pop in this morning to share a quick roundup of Our Week in Meals. Thanks for joining us here today!

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…

It was chilly, but sunny, so I met Mollie for an early walk in the woods before I made my way to Costco for our weekly haul.

I spent the afternoon on house chores (like laundry…SO MUCH laundry!), and we had a simple dinner that came together really easily.

I thawed some frozen mahi-mahi from Costco, thinking that it would be warm enough to grill outdoors that evening. WRONG. It was really windy, so instead I just broiled the fish in the oven for about 12 minutes. Worked like a charm! In fact, Casey had 3 servings and announced that mahi-mahi is his favorite seafood.????

We had the fish with a salad and French bread.

Plus 5-Minute Pink Salad for a sweet treat! This recipe came from a reader, and it is deeeeelicious.

I’ll share it on the blog soon, but in the meantime you can make my oldie-but-goodie Pink Ambrosia Salad if you need a similar fix.????

We woke up to sunshine on Monday morning, so I met Mollie for a walk after dropping the boys off at school.

We had two different soccer practices that evening, so I fed the boys an early dinner before we headed out to the fields.

I had prepared this One Pot Coconut Chicken Curry over the weekend so that I could easily reheat it on Monday night. I knew that it would also work well to reheat later in the evening for Keith when he got home.

Served over rice! This recipe will be on the blog next in the coming weeks…

Tuesday was such a gross, rainy day. Spence and I were trapped inside all morning, and while I had plenty of tasks to check off my list, I can’t say that I got much done…

As it was cold and damp outside, I kept eyeing the yellow tulips on my kitchen counter to remind myself that warmer temps were definitely in the forecast!

I dragged Spencer along with me to my haircut that afternoon before we had to pick up the older boys from school.

I planned another really quick dinner, since Spence was supposed to have a 5:30 p.m. soccer practice. In the end, his practice was cancelled because of the rain. But we still enjoyed our quick dinner!

My mom recently recommended these frozen steaks from Costco, so I picked them up on my shopping trip last weekend. I’ve never tried frozen beef like this, but I was pleasantly surprised by how good it was.

The steak is not pre-cooked, but instead comes in raw, thinly sliced “patties.” You cook the meat frozen (no thawing necessary), and you can pull out as many as you need for any given meal. This would be a great option for those of you who are cooking for just one or two, since you can easily make one serving at a time and leave the rest in the freezer.

The box says that the meat cooks in a skillet in about 5 minutes, and that’s very accurate!

I used the cooked, thinly-sliced beef to make Steak & Cheese Subs, which I served on hoagie rolls with melted provolone cheese and sliced tomatoes. After the beef was cooked in the skillet, I popped the sandwiches under the broiler for a few minutes so that the cheese would melt and the rolls would get toasty.

This meal was a huge hit with all of the guys in my house! Plus a salad on the side for some veggies…

Spencer was SO excited for the egg hunt at his preschool on Wednesday morning.

Success! A basket full of plastic eggs (and candy)!

Dinner that night was an old favorite — Grilled Honey Lime Shrimp.

Gibbs had soccer practice in the rain, so the kids and I had an early supper around 5:00 p.m. before we went out to the fields. Keith enjoyed reheated leftovers much later in the evening!

I served the shrimp with buttered pasta and peas.

Thursday was all about Gibbs! The second graders presented their spring musical that morning, and all four of his grandparents (plus his brothers) were in the audience.

Gibbs’s role was a news anchor, so he was most excited about getting to wear a necktie to school that day. Hah! I think the novelty wore off after about 1 hour of having that thing around his neck…

My mother-in-law came with plenty of Easter goodies in hand, including these two treats that the kids were VERY happy about:

It wouldn’t be Easter without Peeps!

Flatbread “Pizzas” were on the dinner menu that night.

I used the extra Garlic & Herb Tomato Sauce that I prepared last week as a base, and then added mozzarella and Parmesan cheese for the kids. Keith and I had pepperoni and veggies on ours as well. YUM!

After we ate, Keith and Gibbs went back to the school for Gibbs’s second performance, while I stayed home to put the younger boys to bed. But first: some after-dinner artwork on the front porch!

The weather was finally beautiful (warm and breezy), so they painted Easter sun catchers from their grandmother.

Spence didn’t have preschool on Friday morning, so he stayed home with me and worked through a pack of Easter stickers while I did some recipe testing in the kitchen.

I wanted to avoid the pre-Easter Saturday crowds at Costco, so I dragged Spencer to the store on Friday afternoon instead. That strategy worked pretty well, because the store was empty.

This little guy had fun pretending to be the “garbage man” riding on my garbage truck the whole time.

Since we were in town, we also stopped for special Spring Break snacks to share with his brothers after school. Friday was their last day of school before break, and they couldn’t be happier about that!

Donuts are always a good way to celebrate…

I had some leftover taco meat in the freezer, so I thawed and reheated that for dinner.

We ate our soft tacos with chips and guacamole, plus a salad and corn on the side.

Saturday was such a busy one as we prepared for Easter. But first — a morning walk with Mollie in the woods, followed by Spencer’s soccer practice.

He was very reluctant to get out there initially, but by the end he was having a blast. It only took some cajoling from Mom and Dad to drag him onto the field…

This child is SO SHY…but once he’s comfortable, he never stops talking!????

We spent the afternoon preparing food for Easter (more on that in next week’s roundup) and taking care of other household chores.

Dyeing Easter eggs, sticks, rocks, and weeds.????????????‍♀️

Dinner was another clean-out-the-freezer meal, since I heated up frozen meatballs with marinara sauce and served them over spaghetti.

A salad and French bread completed our supper.

Then it was time for the Easter Bunny to get to work — stuffing eggs and preparing baskets for this morning.

Now I’m off to spend the holiday with family, and I’ll be back tomorrow with another recipe post. Thanks for reading along with us!

Need some help planning your family’s meals? When you join Simply Mailed, I will send you 3 quick-prep dinner recipes and a grocery shopping list each week (for about $1 per week!!!). This super-affordable service takes the stress out of dinner, saves you time and money, and brings your family together at the end of the day. There are even options for smaller households of just 1 or 2!

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