Our Week in Meals #98

Good morning! The sun is shining in Virginia (after almost a full month of rain), so we’re anxious to get out and about to enjoy some beautiful fall weather.???? But first — since it’s Sunday, it’s time for our regular 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…

It rained almost all day on Sunday, so after a short walk with my friend Mollie (while we held umbrellas), I stopped at the grocery store and returned home to scoop up the rest of the family. Spencer had been asking for “China Food” for a long time (not sure why, since we don’t even have a Chinese restaurant here in Madison), and Gibbs wanted sushi, so we took the kids into Charlottesville to their favorite Hibachi Grill & Buffet for lunch. Pizza, French fries, and sushi…only the finest, hah!

I spent the rest of the afternoon transitioning the kids’ clothes to pull out all of their fall gear. It’s one of my least favorite Mom tasks, but it’s something that I just can’t avoid! I’m always surprised by how fast they’ve outgrown all of their clothes, too. Thank goodness for online shopping. ????

Keith wanted to grill burgers that night (in spite of the rain), so we had turkey burgers with French fries and salad for supper. Definitely one of the family’s favorite meals…

After dropping the boys off at school on Monday morning, I drove up to Culpeper to get my car serviced. I sat next to my friend Sallie in the massage chairs in the waiting room, since she was getting her vehicle serviced at the same time. It’s funny that I run into my friends at the Toyota dealer on a regular basis. Clearly it’s the hot spot for moms around here (that, and Costco)!????

I treated myself to a pumpkin coffee on a wet day,

and then made a quick stop at Yoder’s Country Market on my way home.

I resisted this Apple Pie Syrup (they also have Pumpkin Spice and Butter Pecan flavors!!!), but I did come home with local apples, fresh lunch meat, chicken salad, and a hot-from-the-oven loaf of bread.

My mom arrived for a visit late morning, so I served us chicken salad sandwiches, carrots with hummus, and sliced apples for lunch.

Soccer practice was cancelled that evening because of the crummy weather, so we stayed inside and had a cozy Spaghetti Dinner instead. This was Casey’s meal request for the week, and I served it with garlic bread and salad on the side.

Look what I picked up on Tuesday morning! I think I love these mini donuts even more than the kids do!????

Our new mattress finally arrived, too! We’ve been loving the Purple mattress over the past few days!

Soccer practices were cancelled again that evening, so we all had dinner together before heading out to Back to School Night at Gibbs’s school.

I made this oldie-but-goodie Easy Taco Casserole, which is a great way to use up leftover chicken or turkey from a previous meal. If you don’t have leftovers, try using a rotisserie chicken or pre-cooked chicken (like Perdue Shortcuts). It’s a great make-ahead meal, and it’s freezer-friendly.

The sun came out again on Wednesday morning, after what felt like weeks of rain. We were all very happy about it!

Casey had soccer practice that evening (which was ultimately cancelled because of wet fields), so I planned an easy slow cooker dinner that we could enjoy early (for the boys) and keep warm until later (for Keith). We had this Italian Slow Cooker Pot Roast on hoagie rolls — like Chicago-style Italian Beef Sandwiches. YUM!

There was a break in the rain late on Thursday morning, so I was happy to meet Mollie for a walk after sitting at my computer for a couple of hours. The hiking trails were very muddy, so we stuck to the gravel road at the soccer park instead. Fresh air (anywhere) is always a good thing!

I made it home in time to reheat a plate of leftovers for lunch before Spencer arrived on the bus from school at 11:15. I eat leftovers just about every day for lunch (because I’m always testing new recipes and it’s easy), but this combo tasted particularly good so I snapped a photo:

Italian Slow Cooker Pot Roast + Roasted Acorn Squash + Pumpkin Panzanella Salad (from a Fresh Express bagged mix, which included apple cider vinaigrette, cherry flavored cranberries, pumpkin spiced cornbread croutons, apple pie spiced glazed pumpkin seeds, and pumpkin seasoned chow mein noodles — so tasty!)

Both soccer practices were cancelled again that night (rain!!!), and Keith had a “boys’ night” out with some friends, so Spencer picked the dinner menu: chicken fingers, Tater Tots, and carrot sticks! The boys were happy, and I appreciated a night off from cooking.

The sun was shining again on Friday, and the boys only had half a day of school, so by noon we were ready to party! We have a tradition of going out to lunch on short school days, so the kids voted for a meal at IHOP as soon as I picked them up.

We headed to Culpeper for our late lunch, where I ordered “breakfast” and had poached eggs, toast, fruit and bacon…

Meanwhile, Casey basically ordered dessert for lunch! He had been waiting for months these Cupcake Pancakes. As if the butter, whipped cream and sprinkles weren’t already enough, he made sure to add a heavy pour of blueberry syrup on top!

And then…because it was a beautiful Friday afternoon…we marched right next door and served ourselves cups of frozen yogurt at Sweet Frog. I got a tasty combo of Apple Pie, Pumpkin and Praline flavors. The boys always get the oddest mixtures of cotton candy, chocolate, watermelon, gummy candy, marshmallows, etc. EWWWW.???? To each their own, I suppose…

We made pizzas for dinner that night using store-bought dough,

and on the side I threw together my Tossed Salad with Apple Butter Vinaigrette. I had a big jar of Slow Cooker Apple Butter in my fridge from when I made a batch last week, plus all of the other ingredients for the salad waiting for me in the kitchen. LOVE this combination!

I woke up on Saturday morning to a delicious, warm fall breakfast — my Slow Cooker Baked Apples! I actually prepared them the day before, so I just reheated one of the apples in the microwave for a quick meal. I topped it with Greek yogurt and enjoyed a piece of toast on the side. So easy, and SOOOOO good!

They’re also a great light dessert with vanilla ice cream…

We had 3 soccer games on the schedule for Saturday, but they were all cancelled because the flooded fields were under water. Instead, Keith took advantage of the free morning to chop some wood…

while his assistant supervised (safety goggles included).

We were all ready to get out after lunch, so we headed to downtown Culpeper to walk around, do some shopping,

check out the train tracks,

and get some ice cream for snack.

This little shop has the best flavors (and so many more inside)!

Here’s the game: match the kid with his ice cream flavors of choice…

Strawberry + Blueberry + Rainbow Sprinkles (Casey)

Cookie Dough + S’mores (Gibbs)

Chocolate + Chocolate + M&M’s (Spencer)

and Keith ordered the Pumpkin + Apple Pie. Lucky me? I got to sample all of them!????

For dinner that evening I made one of my latest recipe creations, since I had all of the ingredients on hand: 5-Ingredient Penne with Prosciutto Parmesan Cream Sauce.

I hope that you’ll give this easy meal a try soon! You only need about 20 minutes from start to finish. We also had salad and bread on the side. Delish!

And there you have it! Another week is in the books! Maybe you even found a few new recipes to add to your meal plan in the coming weeks? Thanks so much for stopping by!

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!

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links. I may earn a small commission for my endorsement, recommendation, testimonial, and/or link to any products or services from this website.