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  Joey Blanco

  

For many years I have been fascinated by this feed. Wife, Mommy, Career Woman and Home Chef Extraordinaire. Meet Johanna de Larrazabal or Joey as she is fondly called. Chichajo is her instagram handle and she is the woman behind the blog 80 Breakfasts. If you haven’t yet, I suggest you follow her on instagram for many an inspiration on home cooking and making the most of your meals with the simplest of ingredients or what you have lying around. I love everything about her and her feed. And I hope you will be as inspired as I have been.

Joey actually works for a media outfit based in Hong Kong. That she says, is her “real job.” She prepares business reports for companies interested in/or doing business in Southeast Asia.
She would travel abroad for this job when she was single before she got back to the Philippines and got married. The company she worked for asked her to continue and do back end support for sales from home. Her busy life consists of midnight conference calls from her bosses in Europe. It is not your ordinary nine to five story because she is on-call but it is one that suits her lifestyle and allows her to be creative the rest of the time.

Here is the jaw dropping part, blogging is just a hobby! Yet, if you look at her feed and blog, it is something that is quite hard to believe. It is so artsy you would think she does it professionally. Also, very relatable and not intimidating at all. Joey advocates that nothing goes to waste, which we should all adapt to.  It is not an easy habit to pick up but there’s a lot to learn from this super mama.

Joey loves to look for food in her refrigerator and does not eat fast food. She avoids such meals especially for her kids but has the occasional pizza night . She is a goddess when it comes to re inventing leftovers and did mention to me that while she is a working mom, she has some help and leftovers to make life a bit easier.
To which i thought, she is human after all!

Joey has been blogging for eleven years, a time she says when there were no photos but just a bunch of crazy people who loved food and sharing recipes. Cooking is her stress reliever. Cooking that need not be fancy. She applies a lot of shortcuts but what she holds dear is bringing food to her family with a smile. Her practical ways (like  using her oven as a crock pot because the actual ones take up counter space) and shortcuts (like buying something semi-prepared and jazzes it up) are so endearing and real. She is also a big supporter of home cooks.

I love to follow how she makes stocks and jams since she enjoys slow cooking a lot. But then she also loves quick cooking for weeknights, which is a joy to watch too! Joey says her favorite thing about blogging is not the restaurant meals and freebies but the messages she gets from other mothers and home cooks that fulfills her. One of her most treasured messages is from someone who said “I have always wanted to cook but was nervous until your recipes came along.”

What she loves about social media? ” I feel like I get to cook with other people and the interaction with the individuals who ask for her advice on cooking makes me want to cry.

Now that’s a mark of a true foodie and someone who majorly keeps things real don’t you think? Wait for part two of this blog post as Joey shares with us a hearty heirloom spaghetti recipe.

Joey’s Apple Mango Muesli on part 2 of this blog post… Stay tuned!

Follow Joey for your everyday tips, ideas and inspiration!

Ig: @chichajo

Blog: @80breakfasts.com