Vacay

The holidays are coming faster than I can keep up with! As much as I love posting about what I make, it takes a lot of work too. And just for a little while and im going to take a mini vacay and step back from blogging. But I will be back, I promise! I will still post things I make on Instagram , so make sure you're following me on there! 

See you all soon! 

XOXO,

Blessings!

Becky

What's Been Going On!

So last spring when we moved into our house with a huge backyard I headed straight to the planter beds! After hours of digging up really tough, dried out dirt and trip to ACE, we had the makings of a nice veggie garden! The house came with railway ties stacked up about 2 feet from the fence, filled with dirt, so it was the perfect spot for my veggies to thrive! 

Above is the before and below of the veggies in their new home! From the left to right we have: watermelon, lemon cucumber, celery, tomato, strawberries and (not visible) pole beans! 

These were the first tomatoes produced from the plant! I actually wasn't even going to buy the plant because as you might have noticed we HATE tomatoes! But at only .99 cents a plant, why not? I ended up using these beauties in a little gift basket I made someone!

Here is the lemon cucumber almost ready to pick! I've never had one but heard they are GREAT on salads!

Pole Beans are an amazing plant because they almost produce at least a couple beans each day! I go out there to water every other day and more beans have come! It makes a great snack to just crunch on while I'm out gardening! Since it constantly grows you can get quite a lot from just one plant. I used some thin rope to attach between two trees on either side of the garden to let the beans grow on.

These, I didn't plant and are running rampant on my other fence but since its giving me free blackberries I'm not complaining. I was able to get 10 berries and made mini berry pies! I just used a normal pie crust and added a little sugar and a couple drops of lemon. 

I don't have any pictures of the strawberries because 1. the kids eat them before I can snap a pic, and 2. the pic I did get got erased when we had to replace our hard drive. But for the longest time I was a victim of  thief squirrels! After hours of researching I found out that squirrels take your fruits/veggies because they are thirsty, so adding this little DIY bird bath has kept both the squirrels and I happy! No more missing strawberries!

So here is the garden now in full bloom! Thriving and happy! Making me quite happy as well!! Hoping to get better pictures up soon once I retrieve my charger from my moms house! 

Pictures and Pins

Around the holidays I was, of course, taking pictures of e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g; well along the way my camera fell and my lens broke. :( Not the glass, but something inside with the auto-focus...maybe it was the camera gods telling me that I shouldn't be using auto focus (easier said than done when I have half the dinner on my hands and I'm trying to snap a pic). So now im looking for a lens. But its ok!
We had our second Pinterest Party which was so fun! Its actually THAT much fun that we don't take pictures of the process, forget a group pic, and stay out till midnight! We made shortbread cookies in the shapes of heart and spelled out L-O-V-E...it was really cute.

Penne, Chicken, and Asparagus

So basically:
Its been a while since I've posted a food-blog...My apologies for the lousy attempts of actual blogging to tide everyone until I cook something worth posting. But its been a crazy-insane-unbelievable-ridiculous-incredible-unexpected-blessed past 3 months. None of what happened was really planned. It just all happened, and really fast. Things are good and we thank God daily for our health and safety. I say all this because we now living once again in California. My Cancun days are over. And as hard as that is to fathom sometimes (well, most of the time) it is what is. An opportunity came to us and we just jumped on it. There was little thought, lots of packing, many decisions, and too many tears. Being here with our families and having the support that we do has made it all worth it. The memories of our beach days we will hold tight to because it changed it so much, and turned us into better people. When you live someone foreign your mind just opens up, you have to experience new things because everything is new/different. I am grateful for the time we had there, the friends we made and love, our memories, the birth of our two kids. It will forever hold a huge spot in our hearts. So forgive me if you see me using forks for spatulas, I'm still equipping my kitchen and re buying a lot of stuff unable to move with us.
Meanwhile, this recipe is a must try! You probably will already have the ingredients on hand like I did! If not there are so many easy substitutes! Ill be first to admit that it sounds like a very bland, uninteresting dish, but it is guaranteed to shock your taste buds with tastiness!

1. (Like any good recipe starts off) Boil water. Probably about 6 cups or so. Once its boiling toss in 2 cups of Penne pasta (any small pasta would work too!)m you'll want to cook these until al dente about 8-10mins. While the water is boiling, start step 2!

2. Warm 3 tablespoons of olive oil in a pan, then add a large breast of chicken cut up. Add some S&P then cook until done.

3. Remove chicken and set on a paper towel (this part always kinda freaks me out, because I don't like mixing paper with my food. But it ended up ok!). Turn off the heat but keep the juices from the kitchen in the pan.

4. When pasta is done, drain and set aside.

5. Keep out the S&P and cut up some garlic (the recipe called for garlic powder but fresh is just so much better).

6. In the pan used for the chicken add in ½ cup of chicken broth and 1-2in pieces of asparagus. Then sprinkle in S&P and a couple gloves of garlic chopped up. Cover and let simmer on a low setting until asparagus is done cooking.

7. Mix chicken and pasta together in a pot.

8. Then add the asparagus and broth into the chicken with pasta. Let it sit a couple minutes before serving.

9. Serve it up! I served this with a light salad with honey mustard dressing and sunflower seeds (my fav!)

For ingredients:

(instagrammed: pinkbeach -follow me :)

♥ Thank you to many wonderful people who helped with the move, and those who made our new place feel more like home ♥

Getting Back in the Swing of Things

Since moving, my favorite hobby has been put on the way, way, back, back, dirty, dusty burner of my new kitchen. It's not that I haven't been cooking at all, it just hasn't been out of anything more than a temporary belly filling. There's little passion and much stress! The lack of spices, much less counter top space (although the granite tops are quite pretty to look at), and a whole new world of foods, flavor, brands, etc has been actually pretty overwhelming. What I had imagined would be encouraging and exciting has been scary. I find myself feeling like a stranger in my own country. Throw me in a Mexican supermarket and ill be whipping up something yummy in no time. I'm just so out of the loop here it's hard getting back into it all. But I'm taking this time to absorb it all. Adapting. Taking in my surroundings. Collecting the right utensils (the ones you don't realize you sold at the garage sale until your reaching for it and it's not there). It's been a project and it's been really fun. Who knew how much Safeway could deter someone FROM cooking. Walking the many isles reading labels to find out what something is, getting lost because milk is refrigerated here, the brands they don't have here. The one place I have found that gives me some peace is Walmart. Everyone jokes .(myself included) that Walmart is sooo white trash, because most of the time it is. Luckily, we have a brand new, semi-close by that if you go early enough in the morning you can be the only one there. They have all my familiar brands like Fabuloso, Bimbo, even Taki chips! It's so exciting and I'm getting used to the weird glances from people seeing the whitest girl loading up on Mexican brand foods as if they were coming into style! It's ok, because thats what's home to me. I'm stocking up on Food Network mags and Pintrest-ing new recipes to start trying out once the fear has subsided and the "ganas" to cook is back. So bear with me my Hungries because the food is coming!

World Vision Donation

One of the gifts we got for Christmas, came to us a little late. When my mother in law came to visit us a couple weeks ago she gave my husband and I card, and another one for my 2 kids. Inside we read that she had a made a donation to World Vision . "World Vision is a Christian humanitarian organization dedicated to working with children, families, and their communities worldwide to reach their full potential by tackling the causes of poverty and injustice." The donation made on our behalf was towards Food and Aid. Because of my love for food and the creation of Hello Hungry, she found a perfect match to make this donation a little more personal. We so grateful for this donation and in the near near near future we look forward to being able to participate in World Vision through donations and becoming involved. If you would like to make a donation you can follow this link to the webpage : http://donate.worldvision.org/OA_HTML/xxwv2ibeCCtpItmDspRte.jsp?funnel=dn&lpos=top_txt_donate&item=1753172&go=item&section=10392
It doesnt have to be Christmas to donate!


-Becky Jensen

Turkey Day Leftovers!

Ok, so you may be thinking this will be full of recipes for delicious dishes I made out of the leftovers. But im actually just posting about the food made but dont have enough pictures for a full blog. Here are my Thanksgiving Dinner leftover pictures!

 Green Bean Casserole : 1 can Campbell's Cream of Mushroom Soup, 1/2 cup milk, 1 teaspoon soy sauce, and a dash of pepper. Mix together in a bowl, adding 4 cups of frozen (or fresh) green beans (cook beforehand!) . Throw in 2/3 a tin of French's Fried Onions . Put in baking dish and bake 375°F for 35mins or until bubbling. Sprinkle on the leftover french onions and bake 5 more mins until golden!
♥ This was a hit! They were scraping the bowl until there was nothing left! ♥

  My good friend Priscilla helped me out the Mashed Potatoes and Gravy. She made the Mashed potatoes at home with potatoes, milk and butter (I believe?!). The gravy she made using the pan drippings from the turkey! We poured everything that was left in the pan, into a pot, then strained it so there were no chunks. Then made a butter and flour roux on the stovetop. Slowly she adding in the drippings, until it was smooth like gravy! It tasted phenomenal!!
♥ Thanks Priss! ♥

Creamed Corn: I can literally find myself dreaming of this recipe all year round. Unfortunately, until now, I could taste this at Thanksgiving. This is my Auntie Hazels recipe. You take a large bag of frozen corn, cook it. Then slowly mix in heavy whipping cream in a pot over the stove. You want to mix in enough so its covered but not soupy. I think I added about half of a tall whipping cream. If need be add a little flour, but stirring it for a while should give you that creamy texture!

♥ And enjoy, its as simple as that! Now we dont have to wait til thanksgiving next year! ♥

Chocolate Pudding Pie : This is from my moms side of the family as well. My sister being the difficult one didnt like apple or pumpkin pies, so there was always sure to be a chocolate pie especially for her!This one is super simple! Take Jell-O Chocolate Pudding mix and follow the directions (should be add 3 cups cold milk.) Add the mixture to a ready made pie crust and allow to set in fridge. After about an hour you can take it out and add some cool whip to the top. (this will prevent the pudding from getting a film). Allow to set over night for best results!

♥ Even though it was hot, and the pudding melted a bit, it was still really tasty!

♥ ♥ Even with all this wonderfully yummy food, it couldn't have been possible with the people who mean alot to me, family & friends, and that is what im thankful for ♥ ♥