Here are my dinner recommendations (and salads!) for the upcoming week (October 13-19, 2025). 🍁 Plus, life update + photos at the bottom (spoiler: we might be moving soon!) 🍁

DAY 1 (NEW!): Tuscan "Marry Me" Butter Beans (30-Minute, One-Pan, Gluten-Free, Vegetarian, can be easily made Dairy-Free and Vegan)

DAY 2 (NEW!): Creamy Chicken Enchilada Soup​

DAY 3: Grilled Pork Chops with Dijon-Honey Herb Marinade (you can grill them outdoors or use a grill pan on the stovetop indoors; serve with my cilantro-lime black bean rice.)

DAY 4: 30-Minute, One-Pan Mexican Ground Beef Bowl (tomatoes, black beans, corn, mild green chiles, green onions, and homemade taco seasoning. High in protein, packed with veggies and fiber, gluten-free, and dairy-free! Use it as taco meat, to stuff burritos, or to add to casseroles or pasta. Or, serve corn tortillas or cilantro-lime black bean rice on the side.)

DAY 5 (NEW!): Winter Minestrone Soup with Butternut Squash, Kale, Butter Beans, and Pasta​

DAY 6: Basil Pesto Salmon Orzo (cherry or grape tomatoes, Mozzarella cheese, garlic, lemon, oregano, and toasted pine nuts.)

DAY 7 (NEW!): Roasted Butternut Squash with Honey Labneh (or Honey Greek Yogurt), Dates, and Hazelnuts (this one is definitely going to be on my Thanksgiving table this year!)

SALAD 1: Fall Pasta Salad with Roasted Butternut Squash, Spinach, and Maple-Lime Dressing​

SALAD 2: Maple Apple & Spinach Salad with Pecans and Goat Cheese​

SALAD 3: Beet and Burrata Salad with Pine Nuts and Balsamic Dressing​

DESSERT (NEW!): Pear Almond Cake (made with almond flour, can be easily made gluten-free & dairy-free - I provide instructions)

DESSERT (NEW!): German Apple Cake with Caramel

Life Update

It’s been a wild few weeks. I wish I were home cooking and sharing cozy fall recipes, but life jumped to the front burner: my husband and I have been house-hunting around the Denver and Boulder areas of Colorado.

The problem is that we’re still in our original 860-sq-ft condo with a tiny kitchen, and buying a house where we currently live is… to put it mildly, ambitious. It’s an unbelievably beautiful place—towering peaks, alpine lakes, wildflower meadows in summer, golden aspens in fall, endless outdoor fun—but also a bit “high-maintenance” in the cost department (as a friend jokes, like a stunning but expensive "high-maintenance" companion).

There’s also a sense of urgency on my husband’s part—he believes home prices will likely rise (slightly in some areas, more so in others) once interest rates start to drop and buyer demand rebounds, shifting the market back toward sellers. Right now, things are more balanced—and in some areas, even leaning toward a buyer’s market—because higher mortgage rates have cooled demand. So we’re doing all the research now to be ready before that changes.

We’ve been exploring the Boulder and Denver areas: researching neighborhoods, hiking (of course), popping into open houses, chatting with locals, and going to local restaurants (there are so many good ones in Denver!) to see where we could actually picture ourselves. We’ve even been toying with the idea of a small hobby farm and living in a more rural area — which sounds like so much fun, but also a huge time investment. So there’s a lot to think about and decide in the next few months.

Fall hiking is my favorite, so we did plenty of hiking—not just for the views, but to feel out whether this could be our new “playground.” I also spent over a week in NYC with my elderly parents, so time truly evaporated.

Colorado around Denver is gorgeous in its own way—tons of trails and outdoor activities—and if we find the right spot, you may see me relocate to a different corner of the state. Thanks for sticking with me. The fall recipes are coming.

If you try any of these recipes, I'd love your feedback in the comments section for each one on my website. Please do not respond to this e-mail. If you have questions, feedback, or any other concerns, please use the comments section for a particular recipe on JuliasAlbum.com or leave a message on my ABOUT page. I always check the comments shared on my website. If you would like to share a photo of what you made, tag me #juliasalbum or @juliasalbumblog on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/juliasalbumblog/​