Kenzie Blogs Life: easy

5 Ways to Do Oatmeal

7:00:00 AM

If you were to ask what my favorite breakfast was, or one that I eat almost every other day, the answer would be oatmeal. It's quick, and easy, and you can easily change it up whenever you'd like. If I need something to warm up my insides on a cool morning, oatmeal is my go-to. When I was little I used to ask for "oakmilk" and requested raisins to be put into it. Since then, I've learned to say oatmeal correctly, and switch up the ingredients to keep my breakfasts different and not so boring.

Here are a few things to consider when you make your next bowl of oats and are stuck on how to switch it up:

1. Different fruits.

This is easier now that the weather is warmer, usually in the cooler months I go for bananas and occasionally blueberries. Strawberries, raspberries and blackberries are coming into season and will be added into my bowls!

2. Crunchy Toppings.

I love having a bit of crunch in my oats, usually a handful of raw almonds, cashews, or even some walnuts is great!

3. Power toppings

This comes in the form of chia seeds, hemp hearts, and cacao nibs. Personally I go for chia seeds as they're more available for me.

4. Nut butters

If you love nut butter like I do, then adding a little scoop of peanut butter, cashew butter or almond butter will conquer that craving right away in the morning. Sometimes, if I know I didn't get that much protein in the week, I will use powdered peanut butter. Just put it in before making the oats and stir it up to get the not-so-overwhelming and peanut-y taste!

5. Spices

I love adding cinnamon to top off my oatmeal. I read somewhere that cinnamon is really good for your metabolism, and it tastes great.

Oats are so great for you and I love a nice warm bowl. What are your favorite toppings? What is your favorite breakfast or your most common breakfast that you have?
Have a great week! x

Kenzie

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Cake

Mother's Day Recipe: Lemon Cake Cookies

6:00:00 AM

Can you believe that it's already May? And the second week of the month already? We're almost halfway through this year and that's crazy. Last weekend, my family, as well as many other families all over, celebrated Mother's Day. This is a day where we recognize our mother's or mother figures and shower them with chocolates, cakes, and flowers. I mean, they kind of deserve it...they did a lot of butt wiping for us when we couldn't do it ourselves.

Because we might not say thanks as much as they might want to hear, Mother's day is a day to not only say thanks but show just how much we appreciate our moms.

My Mother's Day Weekend consisted of walking up our favorite mountain, and just spending time with the rest of the family outside in the sun. I made some of these delicious lemon-cake cookies. I have hardly made any dessert foods, and I was excited to make these!

Here's What You'll Need

1 package lemon cake mix (I used the box cake mix from the store)

2 eggs

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1 teaspoon lemon juice

1/3 cup powdered sugar

Here's What To Do

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees (190 degrees Celsius)

Line baking sheets with parchment paper

In large bowl, combine cake mix, eggs, oil and lemon juice until well blended.

Put sugar into bowl and roll about 1 tablespoon of dough in it

Bake 6-9 minutes and let cool on cookie rack.

These are beautifully chewy, and refreshing, and just remind me of spring. I love them and can tell you that my family loved them as well! On real Mother's Day (Sunday) we ventured out to a great little place and had brunch.

What did you do to celebrate Mother's Day this year? Who are some of your favorite memories with your mom/mother figure? What women figures do you look up to?

I hope all the moms/moms-to-be had an amazing day!

Almond Butter

Easy Cashew Butter

8:00:00 AM

I love nuts. But seriously, I've been making homemade nut butters for awhile now and there is nothing I love more. One thing about store-bought peanut butters is that there are way too many ingredients. Unless you're willing to pay a bit more, making it at home could save you a few bucks too! If you accidentally run low on peanut butter, almond butter or cashew butter this is also an easy fix! No need to run off to the shop in your slippers!

Currently, my favorite nut butter is cashew butter. I've gone through Almond butter and natural peanut butter and both are great but cashews have a sweeter taste. I tried making this in our mini food pulser/processor and it just didn't turn out as well as when I used the big blender.

What You'll Need:

A blender or food processor

3 ounces of nuts = about a cup

Choice of nut (in this case Cashews)

How:

Place little amounts in if you're using a food processor, if using a blender then just pour 3 ounces in!

Blend until a creamy texture forms

Empty contents into jar

Enjoy!

Things I've put cashew butter on include:

These AMAZING blueberry vegan pancakes

Waffles

Oatmeal (the organic kind)

A spoon (hah)

I know! It's seriously that easy! I love that my blender makes the butter warm right away so I may or may not sneak a taste before putting it away. It's best to store in the fridge if you plan on not using it in the next week or so. The recipe is completely up to you, if you want salted nut butter then use salted nuts, honey roasted-nut butter, and on and on. Anything is possible. I don't like the salted nuts so I always stick to unsalted cashews!

I hope you enjoyed this post! I love homemade butter and I hope you enjoy it too!

What are your favorite nuts? Have you ever made homemade nut butter before?

Chicken

Cashew Chicken Zoodles

8:30:00 AM

I love Chinese food. There's just something about it that is so good tasting to me. When I saw this recipe from my favorite food blogger, I knew I had to give it a try and put my own twist on it. If you love Chinese food like I do, but want a healthier take on it. You have got to try this recipe out right now.

Link

It's not too spicy and not too hot, and perfectly real food.

Here's What You'll Need:

2 skillets

Spiralizer

2 Tablespoons seasame oil

2 teaspoons minced garlic

1 cup shredded carrots

1 cup sliced cabbage

1 large bell pepper

1/2 chopped green onion

2 medium zucchini (spiralized)

3 chicken breasts cooked and shredded

3 ounces cashews

Sauce:

1/2 cup creamy peanut butter

1/3 cup honey

1/3 cup low sodium soy sauce

2 tablespoons sesame oil

2 tablespoons rice vinegar

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1-2 teaspoons Sriacha (or other hot sauce)

Here's what you do:

Cook Chicken and shred, set aside and cut up veggies
Heat 2 tablespoons sesame oil and garlic over medium. Add carrots, cabbage and pepper. Cook about 5 minutes until tender.
Add zucchini noodles and shredded chicken along with onions and cashews. Cook and stir for about 3-5 minutes Turn to low heat
Combine Sauce ingredients in small saucepan over low heat. Whisk until peanut butter has melted and everything is combined. (About 5 minutes)
Add sauce to chicken and veggies, toss together and combine. (about 2 minutes)
Enjoy!

This was our favorite recipe so far, and I hope you give it a try! I love spiralizing and creating new recipes and now that I'm on a 10 day break from school, I'm excited to try even more and share them with you all!

What is your favorite dinner recipe? Do you have any plans for Easter? Find anything new that you've loved lately? Let me know in the comments! I am so ready for the weather to get warmer now!

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

Banana

Easy Healthy Omelette!

1:00:00 PM

I haven't posted a recipe blog in awhile now, I'm sorry! This one is a two-for-one!

Let’s just get straight to the point here. Eating healthy is difficult! The entire Summer, I’ve decided to tr my best at staying healthy and eating less sugar. Though it’s always a good thing to allow yourself to have a “cheat” day once in a while. Mine have usually happened during family events and other gatherings, I mean..you really can’t expect me to pass up that chocolate covered dessert can you?

Recently, I had been left home alone. Meaning I would have to fend for myself and make my own dinner so I wanted to share what I made with you! I learned this recipe from my mom who actually made the omelets first, and ever since then I have fallen in love with them!

Being home alone, also meant I had to come up with something that would satisfy just one person!

You will Need:

-2 eggs

-About a cup of diced peppers ( you can pick and choose which ones you like and dislike in the mix)

-about a cup of diced onion

-Salt

-Pepper

-Bacon bits (only if you want!)

First, get out the peppers and onions and dice them, unless they're already diced. You probably won't use all of them if you're using a whole one, again it depends on how many you're making! I used frozen red and yellow peppers and frozen onions just because they had already been chopped up nicely into little squares for me! The green pepper as sliced so I cut a few into squares as well!

Put the pan on the stove top, first spray it with PAM or wipe it with margarine, it'll be easier to clean at the end.

Add in the peppers and onions

Once they start sizzling, add in the eggs ( you can choose whether or not you want the yolk or not, it's good either way!)

Then add in the bacon bits

A little salt, and as much pepper as you see fit.

You can also add cheese! Which I did and it was great!

I know it doesn't look like much, but it was really filling for me!

I was actually pretty proud of myself for making this by myself. I hate cracking eggs open but I did it anyway!

I hope you give it a try!

But wait! There's more!

I also had dessert! I have been loving making myself some smoothies this Summer, so I decided to listen to my sweet tooth and try something new!

I used a banana, three scoops of Caramel Ice cream, and a handful of strawberries.

It was delicious and perfect for the hot day outside!

Do you have a favorite healthy recipe? What's your favorite thing to bake? Do you have a favorite smoothie?

I'm thinking of doing a separate smoothie-recipe/idea blog post, leave a comment if you like that idea!

Thanks for reading! See you next time!

Kenzie

caramel

Caramel Crunch Bars

1:00:00 PM

Being home now on Summer break means I get to try out some recipes! This one was actually brought on by my mom, who wanted to get rid of the caramel bites we had in the cupboard! They're really easy to make, and don't take that long at all!

You will need:

8 inch square pan

4 and a half graham crackers

1 package caramel bites

2 tbsp Milk

1/2 cup cocktail peanuts

1/2 cup mini marshmallows

1/2 cup coarsely crushed pretzels

4 oz semi-sweet melted chocolate

First things first, line the pan with tin foil, leave the ends of the tin foil extending over the sides of the pan. Grease the foil, I used regular Pam spray.

Place Graham Crackers on the bottom of the pan. I'm not really sure if I actually used four and a half crackers. I just put them on as they fit. Besides, at the end when you eat this, it really doesn't matter if they do break since you have to break it apart to snack on it anyway!

Microwave the caramel bits and milk (together) in a microwavable bowl for 2 minutes. Stirring every 30 seconds. This being said I just did four segments of thirty in the microwave!

Make sure the caramel and milk are well blended.

Then pour the the mixture over the graham crackers.

Don't forget you can definitely lick the spoon if you really have to! ;)

I put all of the peanuts, marshmallow and pretzels into one bowl, so it would be easy to spread them on top!

I didn't have any mini marshmallows so I used big ones instead and I cut them up into fourths!

Then melt the chocolate, I used semi sweet and milk chocolate, since we didn't have a full bag of semi sweet!

Drizzle the top with chocolate.

Refrigerate the entire thing for an hour.

When you're ready to eat, use the foil handles to remove the Caramel Crunch from the pan before cutting into it!

Serve and enjoy!

I really enjoyed this one and I'm really glad I found this recipe! I hope you give it a try! :)

See you next time!

Make sure to share this post (as well as others) on twitter. instagram, pinterest, and wherever else you may be!

bars

Easy & Quick Peanut Butter Bars

5:26:00 PM

There's something you should know about me. I love peanut butter. A lot. I love the Reese's peanut butter candies, I love spooning it out of the container and spreading it on my sandwich, it's so yummy! I know these aren't super healthy, but they are great if you have to bring a dish to a party or you're the one throwing a party! I know I haven't written a recipe post in awhile (sorry) but my sister is having a graduation party so there are many in the works!

There are a few things that you're going to need of course:

1 cup butter (that's two sticks or 8 tbsp), melted

2 cups Graham Cracker Crumbs

2 Cups Powder Sugar

1 cup Peanut Butter

1 and a half cup Chocolate Chips

4 Tablespoons of peanut butter

To begin, melt the butter. After you've melted the butter, pour it into a medium sized bowl.

Add in the two cups of Graham Cracker Crumbs, Powder Sugar and 1 cup Peanut Butter.

Once you've done this, mix the ingredients together. It should look like this when you're done. Though, I did decide to add a little bit more Graham Cracker Crumbs in the end.

Once you've mixed the ingredients together. Take out a 9x15 pan and spread the mixture into it.

Once you've done that, put it in the refrigerator while you get the chocolate part all set!

For the chocolate part, melt the chocolate chips, I did say this in another post that had me melting chocolate chips. It does say it on the bag if you are unsure of how long to put them in the microwave for. Mine says a minute per cup, and since there was a cup and a half, I put it in for a minute fifteen seconds.

After you take out the chocolate, do mix it up right away that way it'll be smooth. Then add the Four Tablespoons of peanut butter to the chocolate and stir until smooth.

Take out your pan from the fridge and pour the topping over it.

Looks good doesn't it? Trust me, it is.

After that's all done, just set it in the refrigerator again for about an hour before you cut it.
This is the part where you can go have what's left in the bowls you've just used. Don't worry, I won't tell anyone ;)

These took me no time at all, I also had a lovely view of Sadie catching some sunshine near the patio door.

These are my favorite, and whenever my mom makes them they go pretty fast. I hope you give them a try!

Kenzie

Pages

5 Ways to Do Oatmeal

Mother's Day Recipe: Lemon Cake Cookies

Easy Cashew Butter

Cashew Chicken Zoodles

Easy Healthy Snacks

Easy Healthy Omelette!

Caramel Crunch Bars

Easy & Quick Peanut Butter Bars

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