Kenzie Blogs Life: Homemade

Jestine's: Charleston

7:00:00 AM

5 years ago, in the month of June, my family and I did a different road trip where we spent the last few days in Charleston and then Nashville. When we had the opportunity to spend (what we thought) would be just one night back in Charleston, we wanted to eat at a local favorite.

Our shuttle driver, JP, suggested Jestine's, which is near the historic district and as we drove past the restaurant, four out of five of us immediately recognized the place. Jestine's was our favorite spot to eat when we were there five years ago and we were eating there again.

Walking into Jestine's I immediately knew where we had sat 5 years ago, which means not much as changed. Which is really great. There weren't any lines and we got in right away. At a popular place like Jestine's lines are pretty common and last time we had to wait about an hour before getting a table for four. This time we had my step sister along, and our party of five was seated right away.

The four of us that had been there before, reminisced about the cornbread and fried chicken (their specialty). We ordered cornbread for an appetizer, and put in our orders of food.

Jestine's had cute little photos up, as well as magazine clippings that told about Jestine's life, a feature in Oprah's magazine and a ton of other bits. The staff were super kind too.

Our entire table ordered something different, I did just a plate of shrimp with okra (I have never eaten so much okra in my life!).

Honestly, Jestine's is definitely one of my top 3 places I ate on this trip! They have a wide variety of food that locals love, a great atmosphere and I loved it.

I still can't get over the fact that we couldn't remember the name of the place we had been to five years ago that we loved so much, and wound up back at it again!

Jestine's is located at 251 Meeting St, Charleston, SC

I hope you enjoyed this post, I miss all that shrimp down there! Do you have a favorite place you always go on vacation/holiday to eat? If you could eat at one place for the rest of your life for free where would it be?

x Thanks for reading!

Make sure to comment below!

Charleston

Making Lemons from Lemonade

7:00:00 AM

Hello everyone! I'm officially back from holiday, while I soaked in as much vitamin D as I could, I let this blog take a back seat. I honestly loved being off the internet, it was freeing not to have it with me and just have my nice camera, not to worry about if my phone was left behind and not checking what was happening every 15 minutes on social media.

So, where was I? May 31st through June 14th I was gone, and I stayed near Charleston South Carolina on Kiawah Island. Near the end of our trip, we ended up getting into a bit of car trouble, extending our holiday and downsizing our wallets. While waiting for news on our vehicle that would take us home (Charleston is 17 hours from Wisconsin), we had no choice but to make Lemonade from our Lemons. And we did. I made up a list about Pros and Cons of being "stuck" in a vacation that will seemingly never end.

Pros:

Eating out at restaurants you said "We'll eat there next time" to
Seeing sights you would have had to come back to
Having more time off of work and school
Being in the sun longer
Finding new things to do

Cons:

Not knowing when the vehicle will be done (we waited a long time around the shop)
Spending more money than you thought you would
Running out of Data for your phone
Getting behind on classes and work
Having to go back to Charleston and get the car and drive it back
Not starting the drive back at a reasonable time

We eventually left Charleston on Monday at 6pm Eastern, drove about 6 hours and 15 minutes and then an entire 11 hours on Tuesday. Which is why there wasn't a post Tuesday.
Even though we ran into some trouble, I really enjoyed being in the south, having more time to eat shrimp and grits, see the sights and spend time with my family. It may have been an unfortunate situation but I definitely feel like we all helped each other make lemonade from our lemons! We survived and made it home at last!

I cannot wait to share all of the photos from the trip with you guys! It might take a while but I hope you'll love it! I hope you're all having a great month. Has there ever been a time where you have had to make a bad situation good? Have you ever been stuck on vacation?
Can't wait to hear from you in the comments!
x Kenzie

Clean Eating

Easy Healthy Snacks

8:00:00 AM

One of the hardest things about changing to a non-processed diet, was trying to kill my sweet tooth. Not grabbing a piece of chocolate for dessert was tough at first, but reaching for a clementine became a quick and easy solution to that. Another tough thing that I've always done is snack. I couldn't just snack on anything and logged onto the internet to find clean eating snack ideas. Here I stumbled upon a few, mixed them up, tweaked them a bit and now I think they're ready for you!

If you're looking for a new snack fix while at work or out and about, I've got a few ideas for you!

1. Granola

I love Trail Mix, last semester I went through 3 bags in 2 weeks. It was insane and made me feel really bad. Now that I'm clean eating, I can just make a batch at home when I'm there for the weekend. It's just oats, cinnamon, your choice of nuts (peanuts, almonds, pecans, walnuts). and either raisins or craisins if you'd like!

( always use sallys baking blog. for ideas and how to's.) Just search granola and you'll come across plenty of quick recipes!

(this was sallys Peanut Butter Granola, I used butterscotch chips instead).

2. Power Balls

These are a quick and easy on the go snack. You don't really need a recipe, just some oats, your favorite nut butter, some chia seeds (or hemp seeds), and dried fruit if you'd like! Depending on how much you would like to make, change up the amount of oats (i usually go for 1 cup, and 2/8 of a cup of chia seeds and 1/2 cup of cashew or almond butter). There isn't any baking involved, simply roll these into balls and store in your fridge for a simple pick me up!

3. Freezer Bars

While my body was adjusting to life without refined sugar, I spent some time on the internet (shocking I know) looking for granola bars. While many of them had protein powder, I did find some that were easy and quick to make. As long as you have a freezer, you should be good to go! I found this recipe on this blog. With just 2 cups oats, 1/2 cup nut butter, 1/4 cup coconut oil, 1/4 cup maple syrup, honey or agave and 1/4 cup chia seeds, these bars are full of natural sweetness and my mom loves them! I had to make them for her before I left for university again!

If you're struggling to find easy recipes that go with your new lifestyle, I hope you use some of these! Both the powerballs and the bars are vegan recipes as well as clean eating, you can always change the recipes to fit your needs for your diet as well.

Have you discovered any new treats or entrees? I would love to hear about them in the comments!

Thanks for reading, as always!

xx Kenzie

Baking

Cauliflower Pizza

12:00:00 PM

While winter break seems like ages ago, I still have recipes that I haven't shared while adventuring in clean eating. Pizza, is always a favorite, but the thing about it is..it's not 100% good for you. Though I'm not sure it will ever be just that, I've started thinking about what I put into my body and if my body doesn't benefit from it in some way..I won't eat it. So with a cauliflower crust, and a bright topping, I made a pizza that I can enjoy without feeling like the bread crust is becoming a dough mess inside my stomach.

Benefits of this Recipe: It's quick, it's easy, and delish! If you're worried about whether or not you're going to taste a lot of cauliflower, you shouldn't...because you really don't taste it at all!

Here's What you'll need:

-1 head of cauliflower

-preffered toppings

-pizza pan

Ingredients:

2 cups grated cauliflower

1/2 cup plain yogurt

1 egg

1 tsp Italian seasoning

Sea salt

Directions:

Grate 2 cups of cauliflower (about 1/2 the head) and put into bowl with yogurt, egg, seasoing and sea salt.

Mix until combined

Spread dough onto pizza pan, try to make it an even crust

Bake for about 30-40 minutes, until the crust is lightly browned

To top your pizza, you really can use whatever you'd like! If you're looking for healthy solutions, make sure you pick a can of lightly salted marinara with no added sugars, for me I decided to dab a bit of olive oil on it and top it off with fresh mozerella, peppers, and a dash of bacon bits!

This is probably one of my favorite recipes so far, it really is quite easy and tasty, we've already replicated this one and I hope you do too!

Have you ever had this kind of pizza? How are your resolutions coming along?

I feel like since it's February it's easy to just be worn out, but I'm really pushing myself with not eating processed sugar and other processed foods!

Hope you're all having a great week!

clean

Diet Pizza

9:00:00 AM

"Excuse me, I'll have a diet pizza."

A what? A diet pizza?

When you think of clean eating, or whatever diet resolution you have made this year, you may have thought, "Shoot I have to give up my favorite foods." While many of your favorite foods might have to be cut back, there are still some simple ways to keep enjoying them. Today it's all about the good things in life. Like pizza and quesadillas.

Now you're probably wondering what kind of pizza would be a diet pizza?

Because clean eating means eating things that are not processed, therefore pizza is 100% in that list. But I found a loophole. It starts with a quesadilla shell. Whole wheat, low fat, 80 calorie quesadilla shell. This is what mine looked like.

Here's the best part. You can make whatever pizza you want out of it, just watch those portion sizes and you'll be all good to go. I chose to put mini roma tomatoes, feta cheese, avocado,bacon bits, spinach, and a tiny splash of shredded cheddar cheese. While my mom and I had similar pizzas, my step-dad amped his up with ham slices, more cheese, spinach and bacon. While this is a pretty simple recipe to enjoy possibly one of your favorites; Here's what you'll need:

-whatever toppings you'd like (cheeses, green leaves, veggies, meats).

-a pan and parchment paper, and tortilla shells

Here's what you'll need to do:

-Preheat the oven to 330*F

-Place parchment paper on shells and spread about 1/2-1 tablespoon olive oil on tortilla shells.

-Put pizzas in oven about 3 minutes

-Decorate your pizza

-Put pizzas in oven until cheeses melt

(I continually watched our pizzas.)

You can always raise the oven temp if you'd like it to go a bit faster. While dieting can be a bit boring, I know you can have some fun with this simple recipe! How have your new years resolutions been going so far? What's your favorite pizza? What food do you miss the most, when is your cheat day? I'm planning mine on day 90 so then I know I went 3 whole months clean eating!

Hope you're all having a great day! Make sure to comment below!

xx Kenzie

Food

Feasting

9:00:00 AM

After a busy two weeks of constant projects, turning in papers and bibliographies and turning my giant to do list into a crumpled piece of paper in my garbage bin, it was time to go home. Breaks from school are always nice, and this time it wasn't just a weekend long trip, where essentially I'm only home for Saturday. Being home for more than one day feels amazing.

If you're not too familiar with Thanksgiving, it's a holiday celebrated at the end of November here in the states, and a bit earlier if you live in Canada. It's when the pilgrims first landed here and had their first harvest feast. There is tons of food to go around on this day and you feel extremely full for the next three days. While everyone goes about their daily lives away from one another, it's nice to come around the table for one big meal, and if you're lucky enough to have two sides of your family living in the same town, you get two big meals. Though you're full for the next three days.

For me, the typical Thanksgiving day is started with a light breakfast, leisurely watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade (that's held in New York City), and finally getting dressed and heading to the first house for lunch.

There are always nice snacks set out, and I enjoyed munching on pears with strawberry dip and red grapes, as well as caramel corn. We spent some time catching up before everyone else arrived and we got ready to eat the main meal. In many homes, the staple dishes are always different. Also, to make it easier on the hosts each family brings a different dish, this year, for the first meal, my mom made Green Bean Casserole (and I helped). For my family, there is always Turkey, Stuffing, Green Bean Casserole, Squash, and Potatoes. This year, for the first meal, there were three different types of stuffing

3 types of Stuffing!

Top to botom: Broccoli Salad, Green Bean Casserole, and squash

It seems like it would be very difficult to choose what to eat, but really if you take small amounts of everything, you can take one of everything! My favorite is usually the squash, and I really enjoyed the broccoli salad!

After the meal, and stuffing our bellies with the main course, we all waited a bit just chatting around the table and snacking on these delicious gingerbread finger shaped cookies that my uncle and cousin made! Everyone had one in the spot where they were to be seated. They were a delicious and different dessert. Another staple around the table at Thanksgiving is also pumpkin pie, my mom and I had a bite of some, but I had already eaten my cookie and wasn't very hungry!

We all trudged downstairs to watch some football and rest. I did feel a bit like this dog to be honest. Wish I would have been able to take a nap as well!

With a two hour intermission between meals, we stopped at home for a bit of a rest and relaxation before heading off to our dinner. Luckily, we didn't have to eat right away when we got there and were able to have a drink and chat with everyone as they got the food ready. The turkey was huge! The food was delicious as always. Another staple in a traditional meal in my family is gravy and bread. My mom made this delicious salad, having eaten salad everyday at school I was very eager to be getting it into my tummy as well as many other foods!

Aside from the traditional Pumpkin Pie, there is always Pecan and Apple Pie at the second home we go to. I had a thin slice of Pumpkin since I really didn't have any at the last house and a thin slice of Pecan which is my favorite!

There was also corn and sweet potato as well. I never knew I liked sweet potato before and now I know that I really love it! I even had sweet potato fries when we went out for a fish fry on Friday night!

Though Thanksgiving is a day centered around food, it's also really important to reflect about the people and things in your life that you're thankful for. For me, I'm thankful for all of you, that this semester is almost over, that I had no classes on Tuesday and got to go home an entire day early and that everyone that I know is healthy. Next up is Christmas! Can you believe it?

I hope you all have a great week! What is your favorite dish (whether it's Thanksgiving or not!) If you don't celebrate Thanksgiving, what would your perfect meal be? Can't wait to hear from you in the comments!

xx Kenzie

Almonds

Going Bananas for Bread

9:43:00 AM

I've written this time and time again. I love being home. I love being able to sleep in my own room not having to wait until my roommate leaves. I love the fact that I can just bake something homemade, with ingredients that I love. The last time I was home, I decided to whip up a batch of homemade whole wheat banana bread. I usually eat breakfast in my dorm room, gotta make use of that sleeping time you know. Banana bread is just something that is so easy to pop into the microwave to warm with some almond butter or regular butter

and eat before class! I thought I would share the recipe with you!

Here's What You Need:

1/2 banana

1/4 cup honey

1/4 cup brown sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla

1/4 cup skim milk

2 tablespoons milled flax seeds and 6 tablespoons water

3 mashed bananas

1 and 3/4 cups whole wheat flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoons alt

2/3 cup chopped pecans

Sliced Almonds

Semi-sweet or dark chocolate chips

Here's What You'll Need to Do:

Adjust the oven rack to the lower third position and preheat the oven to 350*F or 176*C

Spray 9x5 loaf pan with non-stick spray; though I used a bit of coconut oil all over the pan instead!

In a medium bowl, whisk 1/2 banana, honey, brown sugar, vanilla and milk together until combined.

Whisk in flax seeds, water and bananas until combined, this should be a smooth mixture.

In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda, cinnamon, salt and pecans

Pour wet ingredients into dry

Pour batter into loaf pan and bake for 30 minutes

Add the almonds and chocolate chips to the top at this point!

After 30 minutes cover with aluminum foil and bake again for 30 more minutes.

The bread is done when toothpick is inserted and comes out clean

I love baking, and I love this bread! You can enjoy it anytime for a healthy snack, just pair it with a little bit of butter or almond butter or even just eat it on its own! I hope you try this one out! Again, my parents are always the best taste testers (don't really think they mind it at all). I'm really loving their new oven! I cannot wait to see what I'll be baking for the holidays that are coming up!

Do you love a certain kind of bread? Any recipes that I should try next? I'm always looking!

Like always, thanks for reading!

Make sure to comment below!

Kenzie

Autumn

Cinnamon Spice and All things Nice

11:00:00 AM

That's the saying right? Or something along those lines I guess. I love the fall season, it's time for chai teas (with soy or almond milk thank you), everything tastes like pumpkin it seems, and the holiday countdown begins shortly after Halloween. This blog post comes a bit after Halloween, as I was home during the little holiday.

After finishing off mid-term week, I needed to get away from the confinement and slight frustration that comes along with living in close quarters with someone else. I went home. I really get into baking after one thing is done and find myself with three different timers and three different dishes. I love it.

I decided that my first thing to bake was going to be these Iced Snicker doodle cookies!

Though I had never done a hand in on making these before I was eager to try it out and put my own twist on the recipe as always!

Here's what you will need!

Cookies:

2 and 3/4 cups flour

2 teaspoons cream of tartar

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup melted, butter

1 cup granulated sugar

1/3 cup brown sugar

1 egg at room temp

2 teaspoons vanilla

Rolling:

1/2 cup sugar

1.5 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon and 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon ground allspice

Frosting:

3 spoon-fulls of Rich and Creamy Vanilla Frosting (I used Betty Crocker)

About 1.5 tablespoons of vanilla

Sprinkle of Nutmeg

1 tablespoon of cinnamon

Sprinkle of ginger

1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice

Here's What You need to do!

Cookies:

Toss Flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, cinnamon and salt together in a large bowl

In a medium bowl, whisk melted butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar together until smooth

Whisk in egg and vanilla until combined

Pour wet ingredients into dry and mix together with spoon

Cover the dough tightly and chill in the fridge for about 45 minutes.

Preheat Oven to 350* F, or 176* C

Line two large cookie sheets with parchment paper

Remove dough from fridge and roll dough into balls. (the cookies don't roll so make sure you flatten a bit!)

Rolling:

Mix spices and sugar together in small bowl.

Roll each dough in mix to coat evenly.

Place balls onto cookie sheets (about 10 per sheet)

Bake

For 10 minutes, though I only put mine in for 9 to get nice moist cookies

Frosting

Spoon out vanilla frosting into small bowl

Add in the Vanilla, and spices and mix with spoon.

With a knife, add a little bit to each cookie, or a lot depending on how much frosting you like!

The frosting is something I completely made up and went by taste for a lot of the spices

Baking is something that relives so much stress, and being away from home I really don't get to do that very often, so when I do come home I love to bake. These cookies were such a big hit for my house that my mom woke me up the next morning and we made a batch for my great-uncle and my grandparents. It's safe to say, this was another winning recipe for us all!

Do you have any favorite recipes that everyone loves? I hope you're weeks are all going great!

Hopefully the weather hasn't gotten to cold for you yet! I hope you try these out! Let me know in the comments what you think!

Thanks for reading!

Kenzie

(also if you follow me on twitter you will know that my fish Latte passed away, though it is sad, the semester was really stressful on him with having a roommate that doesn't have a set or even sane sleeping schedule and all.)

DaVinci

Restaurant Review: Mona Lisa's

12:00:00 PM

A few posts ago, I wrote about how my University put on Family Weekend, and we had all gone out to dinner at this amazing restaurant. The minute we walked in from the cold autumn air, we were met with room filled with photos of the Mona Lisa, and chandeliers made from wine bottles hanging from the ceiling. Two disco balls sparkled above the bar, and it was clear by the amount of people that this place was a good choice. A vast variety of interpretations of Leonardo Da Vinci's famous painting decorated the ceiling as well as the wall.

We were seating in a little corner of the restaurant which was spread between two rooms and we were served by the friendliest waitress, she told us that they always update their menu, creating new dishes about every two or three weeks. Which is fantastic if you ever want to go to a place and want to try something new with the comfort that you know it will still be really great food.

We devoured the delicious bread, that came with a selection of dipping choices. Olive butter, hummus and two types of oils. It was really great, and I'm sorry I don't have a photo to show you all! I did however, take photos of the food!

The dish on the left is mine, it was an elbow noodle with green sauce and veggies, while my mom opted for the mushroom ravioli. Both were very delicious. The sauce was incredible on mine, and my mom agreed that hers was great as well! I even had enough left for a little bit of leftovers to take to my dorm with me the next day. Which was good. The cafeteria isn't opened on weekends.

My stepdad raved that the scallops, like our waitress said, were amazing! Definitely one of our waitress' favorite dishes along with my dads girlfriends choice of gnocchi. My stepdad eats out a lot because his work requires traveling, and he's had a lot of scallops at nice places but he definitely stated over and over that these were the best.

While there are many pasta choices to choose from, you can also have a nice tenderloin like my dad chose, with a side of beans and potatoes that come along with it.

We all really enjoyed this meal and the owner even came over to introduce herself, Lisa is so kind and even stated that they're opening a new place next door and there is a patio for summer seating, and also a fireplace for the winter. Though we haven't tried a large number of places to eat, if you're ever in Eau Claire Wisconsin, Mona Lisa's should definitely be the one to go to.

Also, I should point out that we weren't even left with that uncomfortably full feeling, and it was great! The food tastes amazing and I cannot recommend it enough!

What are your favorite Italian dishes? Let me know in the comments!

Have you found any new places to eat near you? I'd love to hear about it!

Thanks for reading!

Kenzie

Baking

Spring Sweets

12:30:00 PM

I'm cutting back on eating so many sweets, I swear! While I've been away living at University, there are a few things that I've missed and that my sweet tooth misses as well. And that's homemade cookies. As soon as spring break rolled around, I knew I had to whip up a batch.

Still trying to eat healthy while being home can be a challenge, finding a few alternatives to certain ingredients in a recipe can actually be quite easy!
I've made oatmeal cookies before (you can read that post right here), this was a bit different.

These don't have flour or eggs!

For this recipe you will need:

2/3 Cup (58 g) old fashioned rolled oats

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 banana

1 cup peanut butter

6 Table spoons brown sugar

1/4 cup butterscotch chips

1/4 cup white chocolate chips

One thing that was special about this recipe that I tried, was that I actually made my own peanut butter using this recipe from Sallys Baking Addiction. It made it even healthier and it's very simple to make as well! Though it is a simple recipe, you certainly do not need to make these, and while Sally used honey roasted peanuts, I used just plain salted peanuts as I wanted to try it out for myself and did not have honey roasted in my cupboards!

To start making these, take a medium bowl and add in the oats, cinnamon, and baking soda. In a seperate bowl, mix in your peanut butter, banana, and brown sugar. It's okay if it's not creamy, as I didn't use an egg. While I was doing this I got quite nervous but it turns out well!

After mixing, add in the butterscotch and white chocolate chips!

Now chill the cookie dough for 30 minutes in your refrigerator and preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit! (176 Celsius).

You'll now need two baking sheets, and if you don't like cleaning them after I would suggest using parchment paper. It comes in quite handy. And after your cookie dough is done chilling, you can scoop small balls onto the sheet, pressing down lightly to make sure they flatten.

After this, my cookie dough balls were kind of greasy/oily looking and I blotted them with a napkin to take it off. I placed about 9 cookies on one try and 5 on the other. You can certainly spread these out more evenly than I did!

Bake for about 9 to 10 minutes. I think mine were in for about 9.

After baking, take them out and let them cool.
These cookies are delicious and I was pleasantly happy with the fact that I couldn't really tell I had even put banana into it. Thinking about it now, I don't think I can at all.

I think these are actually going quite fast at my house, which is always a good sign and I will probably make more! Especially if I can take them to my dorm room for a little snack at some point!

I hope you enjoyed this recipe! I love baking and the fact that I can when I'm home, is great!

Are you making any goodies lately? I feel like spring has brought the little baker inside of me!

Hope you all have had great weeks!

Thanks for reading!

Kenzie

Pages

Jestine's: Charleston

Making Lemons from Lemonade

Easy Healthy Snacks

Cauliflower Pizza

Diet Pizza

Feasting

Going Bananas for Bread

Cinnamon Spice and All things Nice

Restaurant Review: Mona Lisa's

Spring Sweets

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