Hello there, nice to meet you, I'm Jen, mom of two wonderful girls. I'm glad you're here and I hope you also love to cook easy and delicious meals.
A BIT OF MY CHILDHOOD:
I grew up in a household where home cooking is an essential part of day-to-day living. I was born and raised in the Philippines. I came to the U.S. when I was 19 years old (that was a long time ago, I'm a lot older now). My grandparents raised me and taught me everything about cooking, cleaning the house, gardening, and saving money.
When I was a little girl, I remember my grandparents having a bountiful vegetable garden and raising pigs in their backyard. My grandma and I used to wake up very early in the morning to go to the market to buy the freshest ingredients we needed. We had an old and small refrigerator that constantly breaks down. Most of the time, we can only buy what we need for the day because of the limited space we have in the fridge. My grandparents lived a frugal life. They were very mindful of their expenses, I grew up not having a lot and just having enough for what we needed for the day. My grandma was very creative when cooking simple but delicious foods. She cooked mostly Filipino foods, and her "sinigang" (sour soup) was the bomb! I learned by watching her and asking endless questions.
MARRIED TO A WONDERFUL MAN:
I met my husband here in the U.S. I was 20 years old, he was 24, and was in active military service. Shortly after we met, we got married. We rented a studio apartment, and I started budgeting and prepping our meals every week. We're on a tight budget, and I needed to be creative to meet the budget. To this day, my husband never goes to work without bringing his lunch. I owe my grandma everything I know about working around the kitchen. I'm thankful to my grandparents for showing me how to live happily and appreciate simple things.
I share recipes inspired by my grandma's cooking. For many years, I've adapted cooking techniques that I can easily use to create simple and delicious meals without breaking the bank. I also love to use dried herbs and spices to enhance the flavor of my dishes. This blog is my virtual kitchen. It's a space where I share my love of food and places I go to experience different cuisines. You're welcome to my virtual home. Please help yourself with the delicious, simple, nutritious, and budget-friendly recipes I share in my blog posts. And don't hesitate to ask questions, I'm just a click away.
MY JOB:
I'm a Community Education Culinary Instructor for our school district. I'm also the owner and founder of Lean Bellas Kitchen.
Here at Lean Bellas Kitchen - we help make everyday cooking flavorful, simple, and with no artificial ingredients. Honest to goodness recipes that are quick, easy, fresh, and deliciously satisfying.
I teach my students to prep their meals efficiently and I provide them with simple techniques and step-by-step instructions to help guide them to achieve their long-term goals.
I'm here to help you:
- Learn the fundamental steps to creating home-cooked meals without artificial ingredients.
- Learn and develop your knife skills, knife cuts, cooking methods, and combining different herbs and spices to create amazing flavors.
- You'll receive all the materials, tools, and resources you need to gain confidence in creating simple delicious meals.
You don't have to be a chef to experience wonderful flavors from around the world. A good foundation for creating delicious meals is knowing the basics and honing that skills.
CREDENTIALS
Author of a cookbook DINNER MADE EASY
Graduated from The Institute for Integrated Nutrition
Completed Wellness Cooking Academy Program as a Certified Wellness Cooking Instructor
Completed Plant-based Cooking through Fork Over Knives with Certification
Completed Gordon Ramsay's Master Class
Completed Wolfgang Puck's Master Class
Completed Alice Waters Master Class "The Art of Home Cooking"
COOKING CLASSES
I teach at our Community Culinary Program District 214. Teaching kids to eat their fruits and veggies in a fun way is so rewarding for me. In this class, they learned fun snacks like Banana and Strawberry Skewers and Peanut Butter Chocolate Cups.
This class is also at District 214. We made Vietnamese Spring rolls with rice noodles and peanut sauce for dipping. They also learned how to handle a knife and the different knife cuts.
This class was a fun evening with one of the women's club. This is a demo class with the full meal course. We had the Chicken Teriyaki, Soba noodles, and for desserts, we had Banana CoCo Rama and Chia pudding. We even made green smoothie.
my FAMILY
