hip hip hooray to having a kitchen again!

This past week we finally got the green light to use our kitchen again! We had to shut the gas off due to a gas leak we detected during our first week here. It took a few trips from the gas company and my sweet in-laws' hard work to finally get our kitchen up and running again! For the past month or so, we've been living off of cereals, salads, fruits, sandwiches, bagels (toasted via our toaster) and microwavable foods. What a blessing to have our gas turned on and kitchen working again!

Immediately after I got the green light, I rushed over to the grocery store to get my supplies. I was so excited! Strangely, more than anything else I was craving fish and veggies for the past few weeks. I've also been experimenting with my slow-cooker and trying to find tried-and-true recipes I can gather for safe-keeping. Not a whole lot of success quite yet, but we're getting there!

Here's my little cooking adventure from this past week-- actually, this was all in one day. (Sorry, not sorry.)

There was definitely some chicken-herbing going on..

..which also meant there was also definitely some chicken-searing happening. 

This was smelling really wonderful!

Then there were some vegetable cutting and layering (in my crock pot)

Chicken meets the bed of vegetables.

Chicken broth action shot.

I actually took these pictures just in case I liked the recipe enough to share it. I ended up not liking the recipe all that much so we will just enjoy the pictures for now :)

I cooked brussel sprouts for the first time. They were amazing! (Thanks for the inspiration, Amanda!)

Healthy lunch packed for him (left) and her (right). Craving satisfied. :o)

I couldn't choose between Salmon and Tilapia so we had both. On the same day. For the same meal. Yup..

One of my co-workers told me about this cookbook a few weeks ago and I was so inspired by it that I asked Eugene if I could buy it. We swung by Costco today after church and purchased it! I'm excited to use my new kitchen to make lots of tasty and healthy meals for my family! Yay! (See, I already started marking my pages.)

Another sweet thing about living at our new place is our "study room".  My very cute in-laws set up our desks so that we'd be facing each other. (Isn't that so adorable?!) We loved this arrangement so much we decided to keep it. It's nice because a large chunk of our time together at home is spent studying (for him) and reading, book-keeping, mail-organizing, budgeting, blogging (for me) so this makes our time together all the more sweet!

I love having Sundays off to spend worshiping God with my church family, spending time with Eugene (so rare these days!) and preparing for the busy week ahead. What a blessing it is that God knows our need for rest and grants us days such as this!

Cheers to many, many, many cooking adventures and recipes-sharing ahead!

Have a great week, friends!

Give Thanks -  a working kitchen, spending time with Eugene, fellowship within our church family, days to rest, sleeping in, my new cook book (!!!!), furniture searching fun, a great week of work, excitement for the week ahead, God's grace in helping us persevere through every season!