The Mighty Mash

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I like to eat out of bowls. 

Why?  Well, there are many advantages to eating out of a bowl!  Since it has slanted sides, you don't have to worry so much about it falling off of your plate. You can mix things up. It is easier to pick up the food with your spoon/fork. It keeps warm food warmer for longer. Bowls come in more shapes and sizes than plates, so you can fit more in it. And who ever ate ice cream off a plate with success?

To my friends and family, I have become well-known for my crazy concoctions in bowls, but I just love being creative with my food and experimenting with how different flavors go together. Now nothing too crazy--I wouldn't try like chocolate and chicken or barbeque blueberries, but you get what I mean;  flavor coordination. 

I've gone back through my pictures and found almost all my bowls I've taken pictures of so maybe you can get some ideas!  Or just entertainment. 

Simple:  banana, protein powder, milk

Blueberry muffin, milk, blueberries. Warmed

Pumpkin, pumpkin seeds, spices, chopped carrots, honey, banana, egg whites

Almond butter, banana, egg whites, oatmeal, quinoa

Egg whites, protein powder, blueberries, strawberries

Microwaved eggs are just awesome. The fluff is real. 

Used my ninja to blend pistachios, milk cubes, pistachio pudding, and frozen banana for this powerful dessert

Almond butter, banana, quinoa

 

S'mores is one of my favorites!  Great additions are:  vanilla or boston cream pie yogurt, marshmallows, graham crackers, s'mores luna bars, brownies, dark chocolate, white chocolate macadamia TCBY, milk

Protein breakfast:  dark chocolate Special K protein shake, toasted coconut almonds, coconut flakes, coconut extract, cream of wheat

A variation of the previous:  vanilla instead of chocolate:  toasted coconut almonds, coconut extract, coconut flakes, almond coconut blend milk, vanilla extract, cream of wheat

One of my all-time favorite flavor combinations:  dark chocolate coconut

Honey and apple pie!

Simple dark chocolate and vanilla 

frozen yogurt, greek yogurt, protein bar, cereal:  the basic components of a rockin dessert.

Healthy banana pudding:  bananas, cereal, banana yogurt, milk

Apple cobbler:  apples, spices, apple pie yogurt, granola, cereal

Pumpkin, seeds, spices, cream of wheat is a great fall season breakfast

This is my homemade ice cream/yogurt stuff that has a description in another post

Apple and almond butter quinoa

Cocoa, banana, almond butter quinoa:  perfect post-workout

 

This was one of my more recent ones!  It was definitely a winner! 

Along with the things you can see in the picture is pumpkin, milk, spices, and apple.

At the beach, the hotel rooms did not have bowls big enough for my desserts, so I used the ice bucket.  Work with what you're given.

Protein+oatmeal=protmeal

This one is pumpkin, spices, egg white, granola, protein powder

Spaghetti with more than the usual trimmings is how we do it at the Jones residence.

From the dining hall at Furman:  sweet potato, cinnamon, greek yogurt, vanilla soft serve, granola, and my own cookies added in

Another FUDH:  banana pudding with strawberry frozen yogurt

The final dessert from Furman camp this year:  greek yogurt, chocolate frozen yogurt, protein bars

 

Some others that I don't have a picture of but I can think of right now are

dark chocolate peppermint:  Yorks, mint chocolate luna bars, mint chocolate yogurt and frozen yogurt, milk

caramel banana yoplait yogurt, blended milk and frozen banana, caramel apple granola

cocoa coffee simply bars, cafe latte yogurt, milk, cereal, dark chocolate espresso beans, cookies, etc

honey yogurt, oatmeal raisin cookies or bars, corresponding cereal, spices, dried fruit

carrot cake luna or clif bars, honey yogurt and frozen yogurt, milk, carrots, dried fruit, granola, cereal

butterscotch pudding, Resee's pieces, peanut butter puffins or cheerios or Resee's puffs, peanut butter chocolate protein bar, chocolate frozen yogurt, milk, etc

**Another all-time favorite:  CARAMEL yogurt, frozen yogurt, chex popped sweet and salty, simply bars, dulce de leche cheerios, milk, caramel popcorn, butterscotch pudding...the list goes on

white chocolate macadamia luna bars and same flavor pudding, vanilla yogurt, milk, vanilla almond cereal

 

sausage, cabbage, mustard, seasonings, eggs, onion, peppers

corn, beans, bbq chicken, onion, salsa

 

These are just a sample, but I mix all kinds of things together for all 3 meals!  I think it just makes them better together than on their own.  That's why I call it the mighty mash.

Finally in that Summertime Grind

Now that I'm back from the beach, I can do some of the things that I look forward to doing around home during summer break.  Unfortunately, I only have two weeks until I'm gone for another two weeks, and one of those weeks is already gone.  This is going by way too fast!

What better way to start the day than a morning run at Panther Creek?  That's what I do Monday through Friday, and sometimes on weekends, too.  Summertime cross country is one of my favorite things to do, and this has been the first week this summer that I've gotten to go every day and not rush to leave! 

Here is 60+ new shark teeth that I am adding to my collection that I started last year.  I have given a couple away, but like I keep trying to tell myself, "Why have things just to have them?  Share them!  That makes it worthwhile."  I sent one to my papaw in his Father's Day card because he has a much bigger collection than I do, which is what got me started looking for shark's teeth.

I had seen this coffee on the Life is Good website and put it on my "wish list" for whenever my parents or someone is looking for something to get me.  Last week, they got it at Ingles!  I can buy it just down the road from my house!  Morristown just continues to step it up!  There are also other flavors, but my main one to try is the S'more to Love, because I am in love with smores (especially marshmallows), but next I would love to try the Banana Bread Bliss.

Since I am back from the beach now, I am not spending so much money on desserts, as was my goal after going all out last week!  Here are a couple healthy, hearty, and yummy dessert ideas I thought of.  Freezer bananas are really good, and will stay fresh that way for a really long time, so that's how I've been keeping my fruits fresh.  For the one on the left, I melted dark chocolate and drizzled it over, then stuck on peanuts and Peanut Butter Cheerios and froze it.  On the right, I sliced my banana in half to make it easier to spread, mixed peanut butter, almond butter, and honey, spread them on, and topped it with peanuts before sending it back in the freezer!

Another great freezer advantage:  when yogurts are going to expire, freeze them.  They won't.  Expiration dates are not always valid, as I have also noticed.  I have many times bought yogurts accidently without realizing that the date was a month before then, but got lost on the shelf.  It was still perfectly fine.  Smell and test the texture and taste first, but they will usually still be good as new!  Before we left for the beach, I had over a week's worth of yogurts that would hit their date while we were gone.  I was a little worried that they might go to waste, so I froze them while we were gone, and now am enjoying them as I want them when I get them out of the freezer.

For the past month or so, Ingles has had the La Yogurt flavors as the cheapest yogurts they have!  I thought at first it may be to clean them out, but they still have them freshly stocked each time I go!  I am loving this, because it is a very good brand, and way cheaper now than it used to be.  Depending on the flavor, they are either 55 or 65 cents each.  That is a deal!  The two that I get most are Pumpkin Pie and Cinnamon Maple.  There are tons of other flavors that I would love to try, they are just not available at stores where I have been shopping.  Another thing I've used here that I would love to try other flavors in is Arctic Zero ice cream.

Lately I've made a lot of maple protein shakes!  I used a partially frozen cinnamon maple yogurt, Arctic Zero vanilla maple "ice cream," vanilla protein powder, sugar free syrup, honey, unsweetened vanilla almond milk, and premade milk ice cubes and blended them all up=a perfect milkshake to feed those muscles and my sweet tooth!

There is a thing going around on Instagram right now where everyone is challenging one or two people to post their favorite (or one of their favorite) Bible verses and challenge someone else to do the same.  I usually don't do those "chain message" type things that always used to go around like in elementary and middle school; I believe in Christ's plan, not the luck of forwarding a message/retweeting/etc.  This, however, is a good thing in my opinion!  It is great to have others to hold us accountable and see what many others have to share.  This is only one of a few of my favorite verses, and it took my 3 days to choose.  I decided on this one because I get really stressed out at times, but I know that if I just trust in God, He will fill me with joy and peace to power through and make the most of each and every day!

A new pancake creation!  I got this idea while Mom and I were walking through Walmart a couple days ago and passed the marshmallows.  Smores and pancakes, two of my favorites, so why not put them together?  I used my Special K Dark Chocolate Protein drink and a little cocoa powder in the batter, some marshmallows, and pieces of graham cracker.  To make it more photogenic and to add some more smore flavor (the marshmallows do better on top than in the pancakes if you want to try them), I put marshmallows and a bit more graham on top, then drizzled honey and syrup.  After a long run, these were super tasty to refuel!  One of my best creations yet! 

The next day, I got another great smores idea!  I am always looking for ways I can make dessert bowls with all kinds of coordinating snacks.  Mom made brownies for Dad's birthday next week, and I knew that she would love for me to eat one.  After hard work outside in the summer, I enjoy brownies, too, ya know!  So I took a Healthy Choice Greek Dark Chocolate Swirl Frozen Yogurt (super tasty even by itself), Yoplait Greek Boston Crème Pie, TruMoo Chocolate Milk Scoops, and cool whip, adding a brownie, Fiber One Chocolate Squares, graham crackers, and marshmallows for a terrific smore in a bowl!

Something that was on my list of things to cook this summer was to make my own recipe apple cinnamon bread.  After going to Walmart and loading up on pink lady apples, I just went in the kitchen one day and got on it.  Last summer, my neighbor who had a garden brought me lots of zucchini and had her own zucchini bread recipe that I also made.  I used her recipe as a guide, changing around some ingreedients, and whalah!  Apple cinnamon bread.

The recipe:

1/3 cup vegetable oil

3 eggs

1 1/4 cups banana

3/4 cups pumpkin butter, sugars, honey, vanilla protein powder

2 cups grated/finely chopped apples

2 teaspoons vanilla

**Mix the above

Add:  2 1/2 cups flour (I used wheat)

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, honey, oatmeal

**Stir together and spoon into 2 loaf pans.  Bake at 325 degrees for around 1 hour.  Depending on your oven heat, it may take more or less time, so check it!

I also keep my baked goods in the fridge when not in use to keep them fresh and moist longer.

I also got the idea to make a hashtag on Instagram for all my crafts and foods that I make, #KenziesCreations.

Are you ready for #CowAppreciationDay?  I sure am!  I love cows!  They're so cute (and tasty)!  Friday, July 11th will be our last day of practice at the park until the team goes to camp in Gatlinburg, and I have a great idea.  All the girls love doing our Bible Studies once a week at

Chick-fil-a, so we should dress up (partially) and run there from the park and have breakfast!  Katlyn and I talked about it this morning and think everyone would love to participate and hope that Farmer will let us. 

 

This morning, Katlyn and I did one of my favorite things:  a breakfast road run!  Wanna hear about it?  I posted about our fantastic morning, too.  What a wonderful way to end this week!  Happy #SmallBusinessSaturday!

Cataloochee and Creek Cafe

Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day!

Since I didn't have school today, Dad and I took a trip to Cataloochee last night.  Except for some ice, especially when the sun went down, it was a fantastic night to ski!  After the 4:30 day pass people left, there was no lift lines to wait in at all!

"Selfies" are not my thing.  I don't like to hear the word or apply it to myself.  It's just annoying.  So this is not a selfie.  This is a picture of me at Cataloochee.

 

Today I did something else I've been wanting to do for a while!  That seems to be happening a lot lately, doesn't it?  After letting breakfast digest, Mom dropped me off at the Jefferson City Community Center so I could swim and run a little bit.  She went to Walmart while I was doin' work.  One of my new favorite places is in downtown Jefferson City, called The Creek Cafe.  The place is so cute inside, the workers are super nice, and the food and drinks are delicious! 

 

I brought my devotion book to read, too.  Today was about being fresh in desiring the Lord, not stale.  God has given us new life to desire Him and to be satisfied in Him!  When we feel stale, it is because our relationship is not focused right.  Just go to God, and He will restore your spirit! 

What I got to eat was their homemade chicken salad sandwich on fresh apple wheatberry bread.  Oh man, could I eat that every day.  That's the best chicken salad I've ever had!  They also have a lot of coffee flavors, and I got vanilla.  The flavors are so good, I didn't even have to add any creamer!  Refills on flavors are only 50 cents, too.  The ice cream they serve in their store is delivered each week from Sevierville's Apple Barn!  That is one of my other favorite places!  You just can't go wrong with a place like this.  The 4 flavors I've gotten lately are Bear Claw (which has brownies), Irish Cream Cappuccino, Caramel Turtle Fudge, and Peanut Butter Fudge.

 

Lately, I've really been trying to make the most of every opportunity I get, because life is so short.  I just love life and all that God has blessed me with, so I want to use every moment to do something good.  It was also a great day off from school getting to spend time with my mom, because since things are moving so fast now, we don't get to be together as often!  Today was a great day of bonding.