Our Week in Meals #395

Good morning, and happy Sunday! We kicked off June with a Renaissance Faire, berry picking, and a trip to Florida. 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’s big adventure was a visit to the Virginia Renaissance Faire with my younger two boys (Keith and Gibbs opted to stay home).

We drove about 1 hour east to Lake Anna in Spotsylvania County, where the boys were in awe of jousting knights, smoked turkey legs the size of their heads, and all of the weaponry. It was really well done, not too crowded, and such a fun way to spend the day.

We were trying to take advantage of what we had in our freezer, so dinner that night was a combination of “surf-n-turf” — steak salad and a few grilled scallops.

On the side, we had our first garlic parmesan zucchini casserole of the season and a pan of rosemary roasted potatoes. We’ve got rosemary in the garden at the moment, so those were easy and delicious!

Let’s chat books! This week I read Zero Days by Ruth Ware — a new mystery-thriller that truly kept me on the edge of my seat. I couldn’t put this one down…

Monday morning…

…it’s definitely hay-making season around here!

Casey and Spencer swam at the pool, while Gibbs hit golf balls. The water was frigid!

Dinner that night was an easy summer meal: crescent roll Sloppy Joe casserole and a cucumber dill salad.

Tuesday included a handful of appointments — Teddy to the groomer, a phone meeting, and Gibbs to the doctor’s in Charlottesville.

I love how the flowers in our yard are coming in this season!

The lilies in the back of the house are thriving, which is nice to see. After so much construction from the addition and a lot of new landscaping, we weren’t sure which plants would appear. Thanks to some help from the pros, it has never looked better!

You know I had to buy the Dolly Parton Krispy Kreme doughnuts!!! Banana puddin’ pie, chocolate crème pie, plain glazed, and strawberry dazzler. Our box didn’t include the “peachy keen cobbler doughnut,” so I guess we’ll just have to buy another round soon…

We had golden chicken thighs for dinner, as well as a simple green salad with buttermilk dressing, rice, and yeast rolls from the freezer.

It rained off-and-on on Wednesday, but that didn’t really derail our plans.

Gibbs had a golf clinic in the morning, and then we met my mom and my aunt for lunch at Qdoba in Charlottesville. We ate salads, burrito bowls, burritos, chips, and guac on the patio…my pulled pork was great!

Back home, the boys played outside (even in the rain), and I made an easy Italian-inspired supper. I paired 20-minute sheet pan Italian shrimp with pasta and jarred marinara sauce. On the side, we had sauteed spinach and garlic breadsticks.

Highlights from Thursday included a walk with Mollie, and hours of pickleball for the boys. This has become their summer entertainment! Keith bought the paddles and balls to use on the pickleball courts at the golf club, but so far the kids are just as happy using them on our basketball court here at the house.

Casey joined me for berry picking that afternoon!

We brought home loads of blueberries (double what’s shown here)…

…and also picked a handful of the most plump, sweet blackberries I’ve ever tasted.

Back home, I baked a batch of Aunt Mary’s blueberry bread to have with vanilla ice cream for dessert that night.

We used a store-bought rotisserie chicken to make easy chicken enchiladas for supper, which we paired with tortilla chips and homemade guacamole (as usual).

Friday morning started with a batch of blueberry jam that Casey requested, followed by a walk with my friend Barbara.

I took Gibbs to a golf lesson, and spent most of the rest of the day getting the family packed and organized for our trip.

Keith grilled marinated pork tenderloin that evening,

which we served alongside pesto pasta (a kid favorite) and steamed broccoli.

And that brings us to the weekend! We flew down to Orlando bright and early on Saturday morning to visit my brother’s family.

With an early flight out of Richmond, we were in Florida in time for lunch, swimming in the pool, and soccer under the sprinklers with their cousins.

We went to an indoor amusement park that afternoon to get out of the heat,

and picked up pizzas for supper on the way home.

So there you have it, friends — another week of easy meals! I’ll share more adventures from our Floridian vacation in next week’s roundup, but in the meantime, I hope that you have a wonderful Sunday. Thank you for being here!