What's for dinner? Night four.

I've been making this dish for the last few years. Its simple, tasty and with minimal mess. What better for those crazy busy days?! And if your like me, the last thing you want to do after a full day is wash a mountain of dishes.

Here's the recipe from Real Simple magazine. The only changes I made to the recipe was adding 2 tsp more lemon juice and a sprinkle of Parmesan.

Enjoy!

http://www.realsimple.com/m/food-recipes/browse-all-recipes/cheese-tortellin-brown-butter-00100000085424/

What's for dinner? Night three.

We have finally settled in a bit in our new home. There are a few lingering boxes... And a busy to do list, but its starting to feel like home. 

The weather took a turn for the cold, and overnight it feels like winter arrived. What better time then to try out a new soup recipe. 

This one came from Pinterest as was a hit! It was by far the most flavorful Minestrone recipe i've made. Add some fresh baked bread and you have a delicious dinner. The only modification I made was leaving out the pancetta!

Here's a link to the recipe. Enjoy:)

http://homeiswheretheboatis.net/2013/01/28/winter-minestrone/

Settling in.

That's right. We made the final stretch of the move and are settling in to the new place. I was quite anxious over the flights, but the girls did fabulous! P baby nursed and slept and big sis was content to read stories and watch Winnie the Pooh. I thankfully had my mom with me... And the extra hands were so helpful.

We got answered prayers that all our belonging arrived as planned and the movers had everything unloaded from the moving containers by the time I arrived. My sweet husband rocked it by getting the beds put together and stocking up the kitchen. 

The last few days have been full and productive. Were down to the last few boxes and starting to explore the neighborhood. Last night we took a break from organizing to take Millie trick-or-treating. To our surprise, she loved seeing all the costumes! We also learned that our neighborhood is quite the place to be on Halloween. It brought back so many childhood memories. Hundreds on people out on the streets, fully decorated houses and tons of candy to go around.

It still hasn't fully sunk in that we live in DC. The weather has been great, making it so far an easy transition from sunny Southern California. I'm of course missing my close friends and praying over meeting new ones here and getting connected with a community of faith. 

Here's a few snapshots from the last few days!

What's for dinner? Night two.

Since I'm longing for the weather to feel like fall, and its not cooperating... I decided to at least make a fall dish.

In all honesty, I had to step outside my comfort zone a bit with this recipe. For some reason, I just couldn't decided how  ground turkey and a can of pumpkin would taste in chili.

After all the rave reviews I decided it was worth the try. I could always order delivery if it was a fail:)

To my surprise, it was actually quite tasty!  I also turned this recipe into a crockpot dish, taking advantage of nap time.

I sautéed my veggies and ground turkey. Dumped the remaining items in the crock pot, and turned it to low. A few hours later- dished it up and toped it with cilantro, chips, lime, cheddar cheese and avocado.

A tasty and easy weeknight meal! You'll find the recipe link below. Enjoy:)

http://inherchucks.com/2012/11/09/turkey-pumpkin-chili/

What's for dinner?!

If your like me, a busy mom of two little kiddos, dinner can seem like a rather daunting task. I decided I'd start a little series called "what's for dinner?". 

 

The recipes are found online, and sometimes tweaked a bit to make them simpler. Hope these can give you some ideas for when your in a bind of what to make for dinner:)

Tonight I tried out a new tortilla soup... Recipe courtesy of Rachael Ray. It was quite delicious. To speed up the prep time,  I used precooked rotisserie chicken, frozen corn and skipped char grilling the veggies. I tossed everything into the pot, let it simmer and toped it with cheese, cilantro,lime and homemade tortilla strips. I will definitely be making this quick and easy soup again. Yum!

http://m.foodnetwork.com/recipes/25920

Boxes and bubble wrap.

 Boxes and bubble wrap have taken over our house. We're packing little slowly and using the opportunity to purge. We're determined not to lug a bunch of stuff we don't want across the country.

The realization is really setting in that we are moving. A flood of emotions are constantly on my mind. Excitement for our new place ( which looks really awesome in pictures), experiencing a new city and meeting new people. But alongside that excitement is sadness.

We have an incredible community of friends here in LA. We love our sweet neighbors and their little kids, our amazing Church and the ability to drive to see our families. We really have been blessed to have all our immediate and almost all our extended family live in Southern California. Our kids just adore spending time with their grandparents and our closest friends.

I'm keeping my head up and a joyful heart. Im so thankful for such a supportive husband and family. Im excited for my husbands new adventure and proud of him for how hard he has worked and how far he has progressed.

I keep reminding myself to be thankfully for the things like FaceTime and 5 hour flights. We have such useful tools to keep in touch with friends and family.

Our stuff ships out Monday, but were here for two more weeks. We're looking forward to enjoying each moment with family and friends:)

Our new adventure!

It's hard to believe that our newest little one is 7 weeks already. We have been loving that she is more awake and alert now and even giving us lots of smiles! She's still giving me some pretty good sleep at night, which is doing this momma well!

On a crazy and exciting note, we got word last week that my husband was the final candidate for a really great new job... so were headed for the east coast! We are excited, anxious and sad. Neither my husband or I have ever lived outside Southern California or away from family. Moving cross country with an almost 3 year old and 2 month old seems a bit wild. We are however excited to experience seasons, meet new people, and start this adventure!