Go-To Dinner Recipes

I really try to branch out when it comes to making dinners but a lot of times you have those dishes that are your go-to's. Stephen really likes them, I like them and they're fairly easy to make after a long day at work.

This is Stephen's favorite thing from the crock pot! It's easy to make but requires a few steps on the stove post crock pot. I also skip the pre-browning; I don't notice much of a difference with or without it.

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We've only made this once but oh my, it was delicious! We're on a huge roasted brussels sprouts kick and this fits the bill! I will definitely be making it again in the future.

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I'm not a huge fan of this dish (I think it's the chicken lol) but Stephen LOVES it! He thinks this is one of the best dishes I make :)

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Sorry for the awful picture but I had to include this dish. We discovered this one while we were dating and we love it! It's easy to make, lasts us a few meals and has all the ingredients we love. It doesn't call for meat but we added a can of tuna in it once and it was quite delicious - so now we always include it.

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I actually made this during the summer and after eating it, we both agreed it was more of a "fall" dish. I really need to make it again soon because it was SO good!

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I recently discovered this recipe and I've made it a few times now (we actually ate this earlier this week). It is so delicious and even though it says creamy, it's really not that creamy. I totally kill the whole 30 and add pasta so it's a fuller dish.

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Y'all, after discovering the magic of fresh kale, this has become our go-to salad. I used to buy bagged kale and it is THE WORST - you have to use fresh kale. This salad is so easy and filling! Even Stephen loves it :)

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This pasta is so delicious and not like your regular pasta made with a jar of spaghetti sauce. You make your own sauce in the process (takes a little more time for this dish but not much) and it tastes so delicious. We love this dish and add some pre-made meatballs with it to get protein. 

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Hopefully this helps anyone in a dinner rut and you enjoy these meals as much as we do! What are some of your go-to meals?

Linking up with Annie

2016 FSU Family Weekend

My little sister goes to FSU and every football season, my family has taken a trip to see her and go to a football game. Since engineering is a 5 year program, this was our 5th and final year going up there for the weekend. After working a half day on Friday, we got into FSU around dinner time. We headed to dinner at the FSU Club, which is a tradition, and got to see the new stadium area that was just built! After dinner we headed back to the hotel for some card games before calling it a night.

Saturday after we woke up, my dad, Stephen and I walked to Starbucks and got breakfast. It was so nice and cool outside - we really enjoyed it! Later, we met up with my sister for lunch before going to a few tailgates, seeing the Sod Cemetery then heading into the game. The game was a lot of fun but oh my goodness the whole first half of the game was blazing hot! We were dying and were so thankful that the 2nd half of the game was nice and shaded. After the game, we grabbed a delicious dinner at a new Italian restaurant on campus and then called it a night.

Sunday we went to brunch with my sister and her boyfriend. This was our first time meeting him and we loved getting to meet him! He plays football for FSU and was kind enough to to take us on a tour of the locker room and team areas! It was seriously the perfect way to close out the weekend!

We had the best weekend and I'm sad it's already over. Last night, I started This is Us and it was so good!! The twist at the end had me in tears and I've been told it gets worse from there - I'm going to have to be prepped with tissues from here on out ;)

I hope everyone had a great weekend! Linking up with Biana.

Five on Friday

I'm finally back!! After about 2 weeks of spotty blogging, I'm finally back! Things have been so busy, yet so good and it's time to catch up

One
Even though Hurricane Matthew brought a lot of wind and rain, it also brought along a lot of visitors! A friend stayed with us 2 nights to escape the storm, a few hours after he left, my sister and her friend came to stay the night with us on their way to the FSU game in Miami and then later on the next day, my parents came over. They stayed a few nights with us which was so much fun!

My parents got in Saturday afternoon, we relaxed, watched the super close UT game and made dinner. After church on Sunday, we ran over to Downtown Disney for lunch and then over to the outlets for some shopping. It was so mice of my parents to take us shopping - I really enjoyed it since I never get to shop with my mom anymore. We all found so many good deals! We got home late Sunday night and watched the debate before heading to bed since Stephen and I had to work the next day.

My parents stayed with us through Wednesday so it was a real treat coming home from work to see them. Monday night, my mom made us a big dinner which was delicious and Tuesday night we went out to a local seafood place. My mom also spoiled us with homemade breakfast every morning!

Random: the fun part about my sister losing a ton of weight is I get all her hand-me-downs now. I was shocked when this jumper fit and actually looked flattering (minus it's a little short)

Two

When we ran to the outlets, I found this shirt, this sweater and this skirt from J Crew Factory. I also found these wedges for only $12!! The stores had so many good sales due to Columbus Day and I was able to get a few Christmas gifts like this Kate Spade clutch and fall purse (granted, I'm using the purse now ;)).

Three

I'm so excited because this weekend we're heading up to FSU for our 5th and final Annual Sorrick Family Weekend! Since my sister started college at FSU, we've all gone up for a football game. After my parents moved to another state, it's been so great because it's a central location for all of us to meet up. My sister graduates in May so this will be the last year we do this - we're going to have to find another location to have a Sorrick weekend next year ;)

Here's a quick look at years past:

2012

2013

2014

2015

Four
In preparation for the FSU weekend, I decided to make a fun pumpkin snack for us to have up there. I realized I haven't made any pumpkin-y things like at all this season so when I saw this recipe for pumpkin spice truffles, I knew I wanted to try these out. They turned out so good!!

Five
I've been wanting to test out monogramming a vest for fall. I saw Old Navy was having a 1 day sale last Saturday on frost free vests for only $15 so I had to go and get one. I decided to monogram it the other night and love how it turned out! Now I can't wait for it to get cooler so I can start wearing it :)

I hope everyone has a great weekend!!

Hurricane Matthew Update

The Lord was so faithful to us last night and this morning. The hurricane stayed offshore and didn't end up hitting us directly like we thought. Stephen and I stayed up all night watching the news and listening to the wind and rain get worse and worse. We were SO thankful that the power never went out so we were able to keep up with what was going on outside. I think we would've had pretty extensive damage if the 100 mph winds ended up hitting our house.

God really protected us and kept our house safe. We haven't found any damage - we still have all our shingles! lol There are some tree branches towards the back of the yard that we'll have to clean up tomorrow but other than that, everything stayed put. Most of our neighbors houses are safe as well, a lot of people lost parts of their fences and some screen damage but no trees through houses.

The worst of the damage - the left tree is almost completely bald!

We were excited because the screen held up!

A LOT of people did not come out of this storm as well as we did though. I cannot believe my eyes when I see the news coverage of Daytona and Jacksonville/St Augustine. There is so much flooding and devastation which could have easily been our area. Please keep those areas in your prayers still!

Thank you so much for all the prayers and for making sure we were okay!! We had a friend stay with us Wednesday and Thursday night but thankfully, their beach condo was safe to return to this afternoon. I'm laughing because my sister is coming tonight with a friend on her way down to Miami and then my parents are coming tomorrow afternoon to stay a few days. Things will be quite busy but I am so thankful - the blog will probably take a back seat so hopefully I'll be back in 2 weeks!

Thanks again and I hope everyone has a great weekend - and the Floridians enjoy the cooler weather that's coming!!

Life Update

It's been a few days since I've been able to get a blog post up and I definitely didn't mean for the radio silence! Since we just finished fortifying the house for Hurricane Matthew and it's not here yet, I figured I'd give everyone an update.

We've had an interesting past 2 weeks to say the least... two weekends ago, we went with our friends to some local springs for the day. We had so much fun but my mom always warned me against going into any sort of water between Aug-Oct when it's really hot outside because bacteria can grow easier. We figured since the springs were so cold, we'd be fine. Fast forward to last Monday after work, we bought my new car and not 30 minutes after getting home, I started feeling symptoms of an infection. I was up all night and felt so bad - Tuesday morning I ran to urgent care to get some medicine.

My mom told me she was allergic to the medicine they gave me but she's about allergic to everything so we thought I might be fine. Thankfully, I started feeling better and was able to go pick up my car once Stephen got home Tuesday and I returned to work the rest of the week. Towards the beginning of the weekend, I wasn't feeling well - something was off. After church on Sunday, I noticed I was getting a rash which meant an allergic reaction to the medicine so we raced off to another urgent care since the original one I went to was closed. I was put on a steroid once a day and was put on a different antibiotic.

I won't get into too many details but thankfully my biggest reaction was a rash and nothing to put me in the hospital. Throughout the rest of Sunday, the rash continued to spread. I was worried because I was set to leave Monday morning for Kansas City to run a photoshoot at a power plant. I didn't want to let my co-workers down but I was so nervous to leave all while in the middle of an allergic reaction. I was advised to cancel my trip if I woke up Monday and the rash was worse. Well, Monday I was worse so I cancelled my trip and was off to the original Dr I went to the week before. He gave me a shot, upped my steroids to 3 times a day and gave me some other medicines to take as well.

Thankfully, all of those worked, I am slowly getting better and I'm so glad I didn't go on my business trip - the Lord really protected me especially with the hurricane. My co-workers were awesome and had everything under control! Wednesday (yesterday) rolls around and it's time for me to go back into work after being home Monday and Tuesday and what do we hear, Hurricane Matthew is legit coming for us. Thankfully, Stephen had me to go to the store during lunch while I was at home on Tuesday and I was able to stock up on a lot and one of my co-workers in Orlando picked up water for us since they were all out over here.

Stephen left work really early on Wednesday to start working on boarding up the house and thankfully, two of our friends came to help since I couldn't get off work until later. I joined everyone before our buddy had to take his wife to the airport and we worked on boarding up the house until past 11 pm. We were up at 5:30 am this morning finishing everything up and I can officially say, WE ARE READY!!

We never boarded up for hurricanes in Tampa - this will be interesting not being able to see anything!

I want to thank everyone who made sure we're alright and offered a place for us to stay! We are right on the coast, but we're not on any islands and not in any evacuation areas. We have a friend staying with us since they live right on the beach - he has been SO helpful (and this will be his first hurricane ;)). When you see the eye starting to hit FL, think of us and keep us in your prayers! We should be fine and I will be sure to let everyone know our status on instagram.

And because this is legit happening and SO funny, I had to share