We’ve lived in our new apartment for just about five months now and the views from our window never cease to amaze me.  Especially around sunset.  We are on the West side of our building and up on the 8th floor so we get some great sunsets.  I know that most people can see a sunset from just about anywhere, but our last apartment was on the interior of the building for the past three years I stared into my neighbor’s window.

I wasn’t creepy.  No one lived there.  But still.  Not the greatest of views. 

So every night I revel in the sunsets we now get to enjoy.  I still don’t know how to take a fancy picture of a sunset, but I still try.  I know a lot of us have been focusing on the horror of Hurricane Harvey and now Hurricane Irma, so I wanted to share my sunset pictures to remind you of the beauty that is still there.  It can be so hard to only see the bad and in our house because of Adam’s job, we’re fully immersed in all things hurricane.  It can really drag you down if you let it.  

Isn’t that so true of anything negative, though?

The more you focus on the bad the more you see and the more it pulls you down with it. I’m actively seeking out the good and these sunsets are one of the things that fills my heart with hope.

And my cats.  Always my cats. 

Since it’s Monday, I wanted to also share some of the things I prepped for meals this week in case you’re still looking for a few things to add to your menu.  I did a lot of recipe testing this weekend so a lot of that will add to our meals but I’m also going to be doing a lot of freezer meals because ours is getting a little full.  Not a bad problem to have… 

• Turmeric Paste. It’s starting to get chilly at night and I like a warm drink to finish my day.
• Tomato Sauce. I’m making spaghetti and meatballs this week so I prepped the sauce this weekend.
• Asian-Style Green Beans.  Green beans were on sale this week so I picked up a bunch and made a double batch of this recipe for veggies throughout the week.
• Sweet Potato Dumpling Salad.  I had leftover mashed sweet potato from another recipe so I prepped some extra sweet potato dumplings for the freezer.
• Slow Cooker Minestrone.  We have quite a few servings of this in the freezer so that will be dinner a few times.  Plus, I FINALLY replaced the awful iPhone pics for this one.
• Dumpling Soup.  I didn’t make the soup but I’m playing around with a few dumpling recipes, so I have leftovers in the fridge for lunches.
• Creamy Pesto Sweet Potato Noodles.  I have a new alfredo sauce coming to the blog soon, but I prepped a bunch of sweet potato noodles and plan on using the new sauce for that.
• Chipotle Sausage Crumbles.  I didn’t make the arepas (but I need to do that ASAP) but I did make a double batch of the crumbles to add to meals throughout the week.
• Italian Roasted Garlic Cloves.  First roasted garlic of the season!!! It’s just too freaking hot to roast garlic in the summer but come fall, I always have a jar in my fridge.  They are perfect for pretty much everything.