About

Hello! Welcome to Hello Hungry! I'm Becky Jensen and thanks for stopping by my blog! Hello Hungry came to be when I looking for a recipe my mom told me about and I forgot the website. I finally found a very similar recipe on a different site. I guess in all my experience in cooking I had just been to sites where there was one pictures, an ingredient list and then instructions with measurements.  I had never really seen a site that posts a picture of each part of the recipe. The idea stuck with me for several weeks until one day I just decided i'm going to try taking pictures of each step in the recipe and post it on a blog! And that is how Hello Hungry happened!

A little about me: I'm currently 25 years old living in the Bay Area of California, having just recently moved back here from living in Cancun, Mexico for 6 years. Over half of the recipes on here are from when we were still living in Cancun and you can read more about our adventures through them. I am married to my handsome little husband, Matt, and together we brought two little cuties in the world, Riley and Siena. We LOVE to eat, so luckily I learned how to cook. You'll find most my recipes are family friendly, meaning even the kids will like them! Aside from cooking we love going to the beach, taking road trips, traveling the world and trying new fun things! 

Learning from my mother first, was mainly the baking part of cooking. From cookies to pies, Christmas to birthdays, there was always a reason to bake. My mom is a really good baker. I don't remember anything ever burnt. Once, I dropped a lemon meringue as it was coming out of the oven, you always see the famous chefs on TV never burning their fingers but that's definitely not the case when you're 13.

So when  suddenly there was two of us to feed and I was no longer in my mothers house I was little intimidated by the word "dinner". Since we ate a lot of casseroles as kids I thought, well they cant be that hard to make. (It ended up being a long time after that until I achieved a decent casserole.) I started off with small things, in an even smaller kitchen. Most things I made were foods that could be consumed after being cooked in a microwave. But I learned. Stir fry, chicken and rice, mashed potatoes  ramen. Looking back, it was pretty gross, I really should thank my husband again for sticking with me through the "learning to cook" phase.


My mother in law was a great inspiration. She gave me lots of recipes that were simple but super tasty! I still think if my husband hadn't grown up with such an excellent cook as a mom, I might not have felt the push to cook so well. Some of the few recipes I have memorized are the ones she gave me long, long ago (well maybe just 4 years, but it feels like i've been making them forever!). Roast chicken, apple crisp, chicken tenders with honey mustard dipping sauce, are some of our family favorites.


Though living away from our families for about 6 years in Cancun, Mexico was hard on an emotional level, cooking wise  I loved the challenge. Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter; the holidays were all on me to have a piping hot dinner and welcoming home. Our 3rd Thanksgiving together was my first really big dinner hosted entirely by me. I remember going out and having to buy pots and pans just to accommodate everything I needed for the feast! It was such an exciting moment when everyone dug in and the compliments started flowing! I felt so proud of myself and every really enjoyed themselves.
From then on I was hooked!


Now I enjoy teaching my kids to cook. We often bake cookies together when it should be bedtime. My husband will come home from work to huge baking projects going on in the kitchen. For special holidays we head over to my grandmas and help her bake some of her famous cookies. In my life cooking as always been way of bonding, time well spent together, and showing love. Ive always been shown love by food and now its inbeded in me to do the same. Sitting down to dinner each night, watching my kids grow, and delight from my husband from a meal I cooked makes every day worth it.

♥