The Ups and Downs of House Hunting and Moving...

It always seems like the weekend goes way too quick no matter what is on the agenda.  This weekend was one of those weekends where we didn't have much planned but were incredibly busy.

Friday night started as a normal low key night.  Dinner was cooked, and it was a meal that I had made before but Joe loved.  

Chicken with Sun Dried Tomato-Basil Sauce

Ingredients:

6 boneless, skinless chicken tenders, thawed
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
Fresh ground pepper, to taste
1 1/2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons flour
1/2 cup onions, chopped finely
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 shallot, minced
1/4 cup sun dried tomatoes, chopped (in package, NOT oil packed)
1/4 cup fresh basil, chopped
1 1/2 cups reduced sodium chicken broth
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

Directions:

Heat olive oil in a large pan over medium-high heat.  Add chicken & grind fresh pepper on each side. Cover & cook until done, about 5 minutes on each side. Remove from heat and set aside, keeping covered.

In a large saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. Add onion, garlic, & shallots, cooking 1-2 minutes, just until soft.  Add sun dried tomatoes; stir. With a whisk in hand,  add flour & stir.  Slowly pour in chicken broth, whisking constantly to remove any lumps.  Add cream, still whisking.   Continue whisking for 3-4 minutes or until sauce begins to thicken.  Take off heat and let sit; it will continue to thicken, feel free to stir every so often. 

After dinner was when the fun began. Joe and I had gone to see a town house that we absolutely fell in love with and it was in the perfect location in Buckhead.  It even had a rooftop.  We offered on the house on Thursday night, and as of early evening Friday, nobody else had offered on it.  A couple hours later, we receive an email saying that the buyer went with a different offer.  Since we had nothing to lose, we set in a full price offer.  After a couple questions from the agent, and sending a approval letter, we started thinking that we were actually going to get the townhouse!  Little did we know, a little after 10 PM we receive an email that we had lost out.  We had our hears set on this place, so it was a hard thing to accept for both of us.  After a lot of ups and downs in the evening, we called it an early night.

Isn't it beautiful...

Dinner :)

Saturday was moving day.  After Joe and I got engaged, we decided that financially, it made sense for me to move in with him and his roommates since they were living in a house.  I had to cancel my lease with 60 day notice, so my lease ended July 1.  With that, I think moving day came very quickly, and Saturday was the day we had rented the truck.  Luckily, I had started moving a lot of the smaller stuff, i.e. clothes, food, kitchen appliances, etc. the past two weeks so all that was really left was big furniture.  I got up early and cleaned the whole place, and Andy (one of Joe's friends) was kind enough to offer to help Joe move my furniture into the truck and move it!  It didn't take long, but I am grateful that Andy was there because even with the limited stuff that I moved, I was sore the next day.  We finished up right around lunch time so we ate lunch than took a nap to recoup from the day.  After that we headed downtown for some yummy BBQ at slopes then visited Reza because he clearly needed a study break. He was studying all weekend for his first big test at PA school!  After his study break was over we headed to Andy's house to hang out and have a low key evening.  We have to mentally prepare for the 4th of July and Welfare so we decided it was a better idea to go low key this weekend since we are getting old :)

Moving Day!

The best part about this weekend came as quite a surprise.  There has been a lot of AC issues in the house that Joe lives in, and we quickly realized that the upstairs unit was not working again, and it was 89 degrees inside!  Since we had just moved in all my stuff, we brought my mattress into the living room and had a slumber party downstairs in order to stay cool :)  Roxie loved it because it was right next to her food, so she could get a midnight snack if she woke up hungry, and of course woke both Joe and I up!

Bathing suits that have gone bad from lack of use:(

Sunday was cleaning day!!!  My stuff was everywhere from moving, and we have a lot of doubles when it came to furniture, washer and dryer, etc.  So, Joe posted some stuff on craigslist to sell (we made some money!!!)  and we decided it was time to take a close look at our closets and do some donating.  It was fun going through some of the stuff because it brought back great memories and we ended up donating 3 HUGE trash bags worth of clothes!  We also got a bit more organized and my office was set up so that I could get to work on Monday!  After a day full of cleaning, we went to Joe's house for dinner.  After dinner was work time for Joe and I got a 10K walk in (I still can't run :() to wrap up the weekend.  Now, 3 days until the 4th of July and 4 days until I get to see my beautiful bridesmaids in Greenville!!!

Wedding planning...house hunting...cooking...growing up quick!

So before I get into a recap this weekend, I wanted to recap this past week because it was full of excitement!  The week started of with some wedding excitement on Monday!  The DJ was one thing that Joe and I really knew nothing about and didn't know how to go about finding one.  Luckily, a guy from Joe's high school was a fairly well known DJ so we did some research on him and he had great reviews!  With that, we set up a time to talk to him so we could ask him some questions about how he runs weddings, music choices, etc.  He did a great job answering our questions and concerns about our unique touches that we want during our wedding that pertain to him, so we decided he would be our guy.  With that, we booked our DJ and are one step closer to having everything booked!  The next step is bridesmaid dresses, and I really think they will be the worst thing to decide on!  I promise you it has been harder deciding on that than picking my own dress :)

This week I also cannot pass up some posts about our meals.  We switched up meals a bit this week.  Normally Joe doesn't have too much say in what I cook because I want to try new recipes so this past week I let him pick from my recipe book and I would make the ones he wanted!  We ended up having Chicken Picatta and Shrimp with Mango Salsa.  The Shrimp with Mango Salsa is a super quick, healthy, and easy meal that is full of flavor!  Enjoy :)  I also made "healthy" brownies for desert that Joe said tasted very good considering they were made with apple sauce for sugar, Greek yogurt, and whole wheat flour! They are also only about 145 calories/serving and a lot healthier calories than normal desert!  Since I am not a huge fan of brownies to start with I can't say I tried them but Joe liked them! Anyways, below are the recipes!

Shrimp with Mango Salsa

Ingredients:

Vegetable oil cooking spray

8 cups baby spinach

1 cup couscous

1 lb medium shrimp, shelled and deveined

1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro, divided

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

3/4 teaspoon salt, divided

1 large mango, peeled and diced

1 medium avocado, diced

1 medium tomato, diced

1/4 cup chopped red onion

1 tablespoon fresh lime juice

Directions:

Heat grill. Fold four 18-inch-long pieces of foil in half; unfold and coat inside with cooking spray. Place 2 cups spinach in center of 1 half of each piece of foil. Combine couscous with 1/4 cup water; divide evenly among packets, placing on top of spinach. Combine shrimp, 1/4 cup cilantro, oil and 1/2 tsp salt in a bowl. Divide shrimp evenly among packets, placing next to couscous. Fold foil to close and crimp edges to seal; place on grill; close lid; cook until packets are fully puffed, 10 minutes. Combine remaining 1/4 cup cilantro with remaining 1/4 tsp salt, mango, avocado, tomato, onion, jalapeño and lime juice in a bowl. Carefully cut foil to open; stir contents; garnish with salsa before serving.

 

Yummy Shrimp on the Grill

Chicken Picatta

Ingredients:

½ cup flour

Salt and pepper

1 tbs. parmesan cheese

1 lbs. chicken

2 tbs. butter

3 tbs. olive oil

1/3 cup lemon juice

½ cup chicken stock

¼ cup capers

2 tbs. butter

Directions:

Prepare pasta as directed on box.  Mix flour, salt, pepper, and parmesan cheese on plate then bread chicken.  Mix lemon juice, chicken stock and caper, and bring to simmer.  Fry chicken in 2 tbs. butter and tbs. olive oil for 3 min on each side.  Place chicken in simmering sauce for 5 min.  Remove chicken from pan.  Place chicken on pasta and pour sauce over plate.

Chicken Picatta

 
Skinny Whole Wheat Brownies

Ingredients:1/4 C. Honey
2 Oz. Semi Sweet Chocolate, Chopped (I used Baker's)
2 Tbsp. Cocoa Powder
2 Tbsp. Dark Cocoa Powder
1/2 C. Whole Wheat White Flour
1/4 Tsp. Baking Powder
1/4 Tsp. Baking Soda
1/4 Tsp. Salt
1/2 C. Brown Sugar
1/2 C. Unsweetened Apple Sauce
1 Egg
3/4 Tsp. Vanilla
2 Tbsp. Olive Oil
1/4 C. Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips
 Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and line an 8x8 baking pan with parchment paper. In a microwave safe bowl, combine the honey and chopped chocolate. Melt in 15-30 second intervals, being careful not to burn! Allow to cool. In the mean time, in a small bowl, whisk together the cocoa powders, flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; set aside. In a large bowl, beat together the brown sugar, apple sauce, egg, vanilla, and olive oil.

Add the melted chocolate and honey to the egg mixture and blend. Carefully add in the flour mixture and beat until all is well combined. Spread the batter into the prepared baking dish and sprinkle the chocolate chips over the top. Bake for 30-40 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely before cutting into 12 equal squares.

Healthy Brownies!

So besides meals, the last thing I wanted to touch on was house hunting!   House hunting is full of ups and downs.  Joe spends a lot of time looking at places, and I am very grateful that he actually loves looking at houses above, below, and at our price range!  He is such an expert in this market that I 100% trust his judgement which is nice because it makes the experience a lot easier on me!  That being said, it's still not easy!  Thursday night was date night for Joe and I and we had an amazing date at Prici, an Italian restaurant in Buckhead.  It was super amazing and I ate way too much, but since we were already downtown we went ahead and looked at two houses.  The first was a house we though would love, and ended up not being too impressed by it.  The second house was one we didn't like the images of and thought about not even looking at it, but after a last minute decision to go ahead and look at it, we fell in love with it!  It is the perfect house, so Joe contacted the realtor and we were informed we had to have our final and best offer in by noon the following day!  Lucky for us, Joe was able to do that, and because we loved it so much, we went above list since we knew there were 4 other offers on the table.  Later Friday we received news that we had not won the bid and we were incredibly sad about it :(  That being said, we are still keeping our hopes up and kept our offer on the table as a back up offer in case this one falls through.  So, with that being said, everyone keep your fingers crossed that the other one falls through (not to wish bad things upon someone I have never met but I love this place!). So, with that, the week was over and it was time for our weekend mini-trip to Charlotte!  More to come on that later :)  Workout time for me now!!!