Creamy Pasta with Pancetta and Mushrooms

You can never go wrong with bacon and mushrooms! This creamy and delicious pasta with pancetta is our comfort food for sure.  

I am so happy to be living in New Haven, CT! Two yummy reasons are - Whole Foods and Trader Joe's! When we were in  Michigan the nearest Trader Joe's was 3 hours away - to the west in a Chicago suburb and to the east in a suburb of Detroit. That means when we visit either store, we tend to hoard as we don't know when we will return. My hubby is such a huge fan of their salsas so we haul loads of them back home.

20 Wholesome and Delicious After School Snacks

Tomorrow my little boy begins his first day of school for the 2014-2015 academic year. He is going to 3rd grade. He's excited to go though a little bit nervous because this is a new school for him as we transferred from Holland, Michigan to Connecticut this summer. Thankfully, last week he already met two of his classmates during a soccer camp. With at least two familiar faces in a different and new environment, it won't be totally alienating or strange. I hope that he'll easily gain new friends like he did in his previous school. But, as you know, being a Mom, I worry more for him than he does.

Sauteed Chayote (Sayote Guisado)

When I was still in the Philippines and living with my family, this dish was on our table every week. We truly love all kinds of squashes especially Chayote (called Sayote in the Philippines). It such a well-loved dish that you can find Sayote Guisado in any cafeteria or canteen all over the country during lunch time. I often had this for lunch when I still worked for the Supreme Court. It's almost like a soup that you have on the side, though it really isn't a soup at all but more like a stew. And, you often serve this with rice. It's also pretty cheap to prepare yet quite nutritious, too. You can make this dish with just chayote on its own but you can certainly add other vegetables like cauliflower or broccoli to the mix.

Double Chocolate Zucchini Bread

We have been given some huge zucchinis by some friends from church and I didn't know what to do with them! Then I remembered that one of the ladies in our previous church brought some chocolate zucchini bread and I got to taste it there and couldn't believe it had vegetable in it! It was so moist and really tasty and with no hint at all that there's zucchini in it, just plain good chocolate yummy-ness in each bite. I was hooked!

Peach and Blueberry Financiers

A Financier is a small French Almond Cake traditionally baked in the shape of a gold bar, hence the name. Some say that it is called such because the cake became popular in the financial district of Paris surrounding the Paris stock exchange and was named after its wealthy bankers. Its main ingredient is the almond flour (ground or finely crushed) though it's distinct feature comes from the use of  beurre noisette (brown butter).

Mango Raspberry Frozen Yogurt

My family loves frozen yogurt. When we still lived in Holland, MI we would often visit the local store that sells frozen yogurt (fro-yo, as its known) and have that as a dessert. I find, however, that store-bought ones can still be loaded with so much sugar and so may not necessarily be a healthier alternative to ice cream after all. I thought it would probably best to make one at home so you can certainly control the sugar content without sacrificing taste and ensure that it's a truly wholesome dessert.

Chipotle Copycat Slow Cooker Pork Carnitas

This week we relocated to New Haven, Connecticut and left Holland, Michigan, our home for 10 wonderful years. It was bittersweet. While we are excited to start a new chapter in our life as a family, it is truly sad to leave behind a place that was truly our first home after we got married. There were so many memories both sweet and sad that made our stay in Holland truly memorable. For this post, I won’t dwell on this so much as I will make another one – pure reflections on the 10 years we had in Michigan.