Our Week in Meals #392

Good morning, and happy Sunday! This week included a cake-filled Mother’s Day, a birthday celebration, and an 8th grade dance. 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…

Sunday was Mother’s Day! I baked this easy cinnamon crumb coffee cake for breakfast,

and then went over to Mollie’s farm for a get-together and walk with three of my friends.

It was a picture-perfect spring day! Snapshots from around the farm…

Back home, I showered, changed, and we headed out to Graves Mountain Lodge for their Mother’s Day brunch.

The buffet included fried chicken, smoked brisket, Southern yeast rolls, cornbread with Graves apple butter, various salads, green beans, corn pudding, smoked salmon, Judy Knighting’s chocolate cake, apple pie, and strawberry shortcake (among many other things). Always such a treat!

The boys helped me plant herbs, tomatoes, cucumbers, and Adria’s dahlias in the raised beds and pots that afternoon.

Dinner was another delicious meal! Keith grilled scallops and marinated shrimp,

which we paired with Southern macaroni salad, a skillet of cornbread, and sauteed asparagus with garlic and lemon.

And for dessert, an old-fashioned icebox cake that I had prepped the day before! I realized after typing this that I actually ate some type of cake with every meal that day — no wonder I was so happy. Hah!

As far as reading goes, I recently finished Sometimes I Lie by Alice Feeney. This is a crazy psychological thriller with so many wild twists and turns!

The boys returned to school on Monday, while Keith and I got back to work.

I took a break for a walk up the street mid-morning — it was too gorgeous to be stuck inside!

We’re done with soccer season, so that means slower evenings and a bit more time in the kitchen. I made stuffed peppers with rice for supper, and paired them with a green salad and red wine vinaigrette as well as frozen garlic breadsticks.

Spencer woke up with pink eye on a rainy Tuesday morning, so instead of sending him to school, we headed to the doctor’s to get some medicated drops. I also had an appointment at the dermatologist in Charlottesville that afternoon, so my day was basically spent driving around Central Virginia from one office to the next…

We had sticky chicken for dinner…

…along with white rice, frozen egg rolls, garlic roasted broccoli, and my fav ramen noodle coleslaw (even the boys eat this version of coleslaw!).

I snuck out for a short walk in between rain showers on Wednesday, photographed a new recipe, and took care of a few house chores that were neglected when I was out and about the previous day.

This little guy was looking for action indoors while the weather was crummy…

Keith had friends over that evening, so he picked up dinner for all of us at The BBQ Exchange. We had pulled pork, pulled chicken, wings, hush puppies, southern-style green beans, collard greens, coleslaw, cornbread, and pumpkin muffins, with plenty leftover for lunch the next day!

The sun (and heat) returned on Thursday…

I met Ashley for a walk, took Teddy to the groomer, and ran a few errands up in Culpeper while I was waiting for him to be done.

Keith and I had a Dorito taco salad for supper (one of my personal favorites), but I served a “deconstructed” version to the kids. I gave them individual snack-size bags of Doritos and let them build their own “walking tacos,” adding the meat and various toppings directly to the bags of chips. This is a lunch that Spencer loves in the school cafeteria, which gave me the idea to recreate it at home. Such a hit!

Plus homemade guacamole, extra chips, and salsa on the side.

Highlights from Friday included Pilates with Barbara and Adria, followed by an early birthday lunch with Casey (sushi at his request)!

Gibbs had a golf lesson after school, and we enjoyed blackened chicken for an easy dinner.

I paired the chicken with calico beans that I had leftover in the freezer, a baguette (that was also in my freezer), and a simple green salad dressed in buttermilk dressing.

And that brings us to Saturday!

It was Casey’s 13th birthday, so we started the morning with donuts and gifts (at the early hour of 5:30 a.m.!). He might be a teenager, but he was still very excited for his special day…

And just for fun, here’s one of the first pictures of Casey that I shared on the blog — way back in December of 2012 when he was just 18 months old. My how time flies!

My parents came by for Casey’s requested strawberry tres leches cake and a visit that afternoon, and Gibbs’ buddies spent most of the day with us as well.

We fed the crew of boys pizzas for dinner, and then dropped off Gibbs and his friends at the 8th grade dance.

Ready to go!

So there you have it, friends — another week of dinners! I hope that you’ve found something new to add to your own table very soon. We’re looking forward to the last week of school and the start of summer break just days away. Have a wonderful Sunday!