Vanessa Pascale, Journey of a Passionate Writer + Foodie

Fun Family Nights: Grilling, baking, & pizza making

When I was trying to come up with a title/subject for this week's blog, I turned to Jerry; he said it should be about family night. Initially, I was hesitant to use that title as we aren't officially married yet --can I call us a family? He assured me that I can and that we are. I love planning little special occasions to break up the monotony of the week. This week is the twin's 13th birthday, so I wanted to ensure that their time with us was extra special. I normally cook or bake at least one dish with the boys the week they're at our place, but I wanted to plan more. On Monday (Memorial Day), we barbecued. Jerry grilled up some cheeseburgers and hot dogs, and the boys helped me make homem

Week 1 of Healthy Eating: All About the Salads

Last week, Jerry and I jumped on the healthy-eating bandwagon (after all the baking I've been doing, it was needed!), which meant I needed to find some great salad recipes. Here is what I whipped up for us. Cilantro Lime Shrimp Ceviche Chopped Salad This salad or "ceviche" was our absolute favorite. It is made with cooked shrimp, red onion, avocados, tomatoes, fresh lime juice, fresh cilantro leaves, sea salt and pepper. It's light, refreshing, and super yummy. Recipe by Clean Food Crush. Broccoli Salad We bought a huge bag of broccoli from Costco, so I wanted to figure out a new (to us) way to prepare it --rather than air frying, baking, steaming... This salad is sweet and savory with blanc

Winner Winner, Chicken Dinner

Chicken -- it's what's for dinner. To keep things fresh, I've been preparing chicken a variety of ways lately, sautéing white meat for fajitas, air frying dark meat, putting it into pies, baking it... Here are three ways that I've recently prepared chicken. Filipino Chicken Adobo For those of you who don't know, I am half Italian, a quarter Chinese, and a quarter Filipina. My mom often cooked us chicken adobo as I was growing up, so this dish is pure comfort food for me. I tried one other chicken adobo recipe but quickly concluded that Mom's is my favorite. Made with fluffy white jasmine rice, this chicken dish is such a treat. And Jerry loved it. I prefer to use dark meat, but you can use w

The Sweet & the Savory: Dutch Apple Pie, French Onion Soup, Cheesy Beef Empanadas, and Shrimp Sc

Those who know me, know I live for sweets. Seriously. This is why I love to bake (because I love to eat!) and have always dreamed of opening a bakery/café. But I've been baking way too much lately, so I decided to scale back and only bake one dessert this week. I gave the boys three options: apple pie, peach cobbler, or chocolate chip cookies. They chose apple pie. Excellent choice! Jerry joined me in the kitchen twice this week. I recruited his help for my Cheesy Beef Empanadas and Dutch Apple Pie with fresh whipped cream. Here are a few things I learned this week. Our Dutch Apple Pie came out perfect! I researched a number of dutch apple pie recipes before committing to this one: Dutch App