Our Week in Meals #84

Good morning and happy Sunday! I hope that you’re all enjoying the weekend! I’m back today with another roundup of Our Week in Meals, so let’s get right to it!

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…

I started Sunday with an early morning sunrise walk before it got too hot outside.

The corn is growing…

and there’s so much hay everywhere!

When we picked blueberries last week, Casey suggested that we use them to make a blueberry pie for Father’s Day. So that’s what we did!

I used a recipe from Susan Branch’s Heart of the Home. Love her books!

I made the easy recipe even easier by using a package of refrigerated Pillsbury pie crust dough (because I’ve never met a shortcut I didn’t like). ????

The final result was far from perfect, but I don’t think anyone cared!

We then headed to Charlottesville for a quick stop at Costco,

and lunch at Hibachi Grill (per Keith’s request). Because nothing says, “Happy Father’s Day!” like a cheap Chinese buffet. ????

Mid-afternoon we took a mini road trip up to Northern Virginia for a cookout with the rest of Keith’s family.

We had hamburgers, hot dogs, sausages, and plenty of all-American picnic fare. Plus blueberry pie and vanilla ice cream, of course!

We also managed to snap a rare photo of 3 generations of Lonergans. And no, your eyes are not deceiving you: the 3 Lonergan brothers each have boys of their own. No girls in sight!

That’s a total of 7 grandsons and 0 granddaughters. Needless to say, it was an action-packed evening!

The older boys spent the night at their grandparents’ house, while Spence and I returned home after supper. As we were driving south, we were slowly watching a beautiful, vibrant sunset. When he finally saw the sun sink behind the mountains, Spence said from the backseat, “I bet it’s bright and sunny in the valley now.”

I thought that was such a sweet insight into how his little brain works. Spencer dozed off to sleep himself just a few seconds later.

Spence and I were home alone on Monday morning before his brothers returned mid-day. We were both pretty tired from a busy weekend, so we had little motivation to do much of anything!

I picked up a small grocery order so that I could work on some new recipes that morning, and the little guy was treated to a donut while we were out and about.

He was happy to play in the shade,

and join me for a quick visit at one of our favorite antique shops. I didn’t find any treasures that day, but he managed to convince me that he needed an antique John Deere combine harvester…

With all 3 boys at home on a 95-degree F afternoon, water balloons sounded like the perfect entertainment. Thank goodness for modern inventions like the Bunch-o-Balloons, which make it easy to fill up (and tie) 100 balloons in 60 seconds! I’ll never do it the old-fashioned way again…

They had a great time until the game ended in tears when Spencer ran out of balloons.????????

This was a week full of evening sports practices, so our meals needed to be easy and early (as usual).

Monday night was football at 6:00, which meant chicken quesadillas at 5 p.m.! I used leftover Slow Cooker (or Instant Pot) Mexican Chicken from last week to fill the quesadillas, and served them with side salads, chips, salsa, and guacamole.

Tuesday started with an early morning walk before the oppressive heat kicked in.

My mother-in-law arrived mid-morning to stay with the boys while I went to Charlottesville for a regular check-up at the dermatologist. She knows that Spence loves to help me in the kitchen (and she never arrives empty-handed) so she brought him this cookbook to peruse. He picked out all sorts of desserts for me to make!

I returned home after lunch, took Gibbs back and forth to a friend’s birthday party, and then quickly fed everyone dinner before heading out to the football fields again.

You know what’s really cute? Gibbs’s friend Will requested one of the recipes from my blog for his birthday treat. Apparently he’s a big fan of my Berry Cheesecake Angel Fluff, so that’s what they had at the party instead of cupcakes. Love that dessert at this time of year — Will has good taste!????

Dinner that night was a new-to-me recipe for Southern “Big Easy” Chop Suey, which a reader shared with me a few months ago. I’ll post the full details in a blog post soon — you’re going to enjoy this one!

We watched the Portugal vs. Morocco World Cup game on Wednesday morning, which aired live at 7:00 a.m., because my boys are obsessed with Ronaldo.

There was rain in the forecast for the afternoon, so we packed up a picnic lunch and headed to the pool as soon as it was open. These boys need fresh air and exercise, so we squeezed it in as soon as possible!

While it stormed later that day, the kids and I went bowling in Culpeper. Honestly, I just have to keep them constantly busy to avoid the inevitable fighting, bickering, “I’m bored!” comments that I would otherwise have to deal with!

Check out that form! Thank goodness for lane bumpers…

I made an oldie-but-goodie recipe from the blog for dinner that night: this Dump-and-Bake Chicken Taco Casserole. I prepped it in advance after we returned home from the pool so that I could just toss it in the oven when we got back from the bowling alley.

I even shared a video on Instagram Stories to show you how I make it. You can still see that video in my “highlights” on IG here.

Then we were back out the door for another night of football! This was obviously a busy sports week around here, with something on the calendar every night except Friday.

Mary Kate came over for a couple of hours on Thursday morning so that I could meet Mollie for a walk and then pick up some groceries.

I was back home by lunchtime, so I fed the kids, changed them into bathing suits, and then carted everyone to Orange to cool off at the splash pad.

Keith left that evening for a trip and was gone for the rest of the weekend, so the boys and I were on our own for a few days. I had to get the kids out to the fields for lacrosse practice by 6, and I had zero motivation to really do much cooking, so I let them pick the dinner menu (as long as it was easy!).

They voted for Naan Flatbreads, which is an old Simply Mailed recipe. The kids love these because I just put out the toppings and let them assemble the meal themselves. I buy the mini Naan bread at Costco and keep it in my freezer for last-minute dinners, but you can also use pita bread.

In the end, lacrosse was cancelled because of some bad thunderstorms that evening, so we entertained ourselves indoors instead.

This included plenty of roughhousing, as well as some quiet time with the Play-Doh King and his prince.

It poured rain all day on Friday, which meant that we had {more than} our fair share of indoor time.

When the cuddles turned to fighting, I put the kids to work!

And after lunch we bounced out the wiggles at the trampoline park in Charlottesville. Always a great way to wear them out!

The kids love going out to restaurants (probably because I prepare dinner at home 95% of the time), so they thought it was a fun treat to pick our dining destination on Friday evening when Keith was out of town.

We ended up at El Vaquero West, the Mexican restaurant in Orange, which is always fast, cheap, and tasty!

The 3 Amigos!

We spent a cool, rainy Saturday morning out in the blueberry fields again.

After baking a pie and muffins last week, my army of pickers was on a mission to collect enough berries for at least a batch or two of blueberry jam this time. It will make great gifts once the holidays roll around…

We had lunch at home, and then ran errands to the library in town,

and Yoder’s for more canning supplies.

We went over to our friends’ house for a play date later that afternoon (and so that I could socialize with Mollie and Sallie), and then I treated the boys to a fancy dinner at Panera in Culpeper.????

Black Bean Soup and Green Goddess Cobb Salad

By the time we returned home to our yard after dinner, the storms had passed and we were treated to some beautiful evening sunshine. Thank goodness!

Casey had picked out a Scooby Doo movie from the library that afternoon, so our rockin’ Saturday night included Shaggy, Scooby, ice cream, and bed!

Today we’re looking forward to Keith’s return — phew! He was greatly missed (and I’m ready for some reinforcements). Hope you all had a great week!

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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