Kayla's Kitchen: March Edition

This has been a BUSY month. I haven't cooked as much as I wanted to, but I did try some new recipes! I'm trying to do a new recipe a week. There's something fun about trying a new recipe.; they always don't turn out how you want, but failure leads to success, right? Practice definitely makes perfect and as a chef, you need to know what NOT to do. Here's some food from March. 

This is the easiest, healthy snack. I know I didn't have to make this, just prepare it. Coconut oil has so many health benefits, especially helping with the bacteria in your stomach. Peanut butter is basically my favorite food. Mix the two, and it's the healthiest dip to your fruits!

This would be a great appetizer. I made it for a dinner, but it felt like more of an appetizer. It's a ham and cheese roll with a poppyseed glaze (Pinterest). The only thing I would change with this is put thinner ham. I got the nice, thick ham, but the bread to ham&cheese ratio was off. Less meat and cheese. Maybe I'm just too much of a bread person. They were pretty tasty though! I would make them again and cut them in half for a party.

This is probably one of my favorite salads I've made: Southwestern chopped salad with a cilantro dressing. Romaine lettuce, corn, black beans, peppers, tomatoes, and a cilantro/avocado dressing (Pinterest). So good! Plus it lasted us like 3 or 4 days and still stayed pretty fresh. I would also just make this without the lettuce for a salsa type thing. I like lots of veggies, so I was a fan.

This is probably one of my favorite lunches I've ever made. I love our George Foreman, it makes my life so much easier. This was made with all leftover food that I had sitting in my fridge. I used whole wheat bread, ham, pepperjack cheese, avocado, tomatoes, salt&pepper, pesto and light mayo. SO FREAKING BOMB. Go try this right now if you haven't already. It's fun making up new creations that I know I will make the rest of my life.

Growing up, we had salmon about what seemed like once a week. My bishop was a fisherman that would go to Alaska and he would bring us the best salmon ever. I miss those days. Though Utah salmon is not as good, I still crave it. Costco is usually the way to go. I keep it simple because I really like the taste of the fish without any sauce or anything. I just put on Johnny's seasoning, lemon pepper, olive oil, and bake it on 400 degrees for about 12 minutes. Comes out absolutely perfect. Serve it with rice and you're good! Such a healthy, easy, easy meal.

One of the best days of the years as far as meals go is St. Patty's day! I've never posted a pic of me in action, so there ya go (note the green scrubs). Also one of the easiest meals because it takes almost zero preparation. The corned beef already has all the seasoning you need. Just cut the potatoes, put them in the crockpot with the meat and cook on low about 8 hrs. Add in the cabbage and cook another hour. My Mom would make this every year and I'm keeping it a tradition!

Okay, this is one of those meals that was good to try, but I would change it up a bit. I made cajun shrimp tacos with cilantro rice. The rice is delish and I make it almost every time I cook something Mexican. You just put the rice in the rice-maker with chicken broth, cilantro, cumin, butter and lime juice. The tacos have shredded carrots, cabbage, spinach, herbs, onion, garlic, and a lot of chipotle. It has a jalapeño cream sauce that was actually pretty good. Only make this if you like spicy things. I think it had too much chipotle and might even remove it all together. I would need to figure out a substitute so maybe I'll make it again...

The best comfort meal ever! I have eaten chicken noodle soup since the beginning of time. So easy. I am going to start buying the rotisserie chicken from Costco from now on, it's just way easier. But it's your classic egg noodle soup with carrots, onion, celery, chicken. Buy some Costco rolls and you're good!

I'm going to start sharing pictures from the favorite places I ate during the month. The first picture is a healthy acai bowl from Ivie Juice Bar in Provo. So yummy and pretty filling since they put granola and fruit on top. I am definitely going back. Second picture is from one of my favorite restaurants in Provo: Station 22! If you have not gone here, you are missing out BIG TIME. Best side salad I have experienced, the hush puppies are amazing, and I got the memphis chicken sandwich. They are known for their chicken and waffles, and Alex FINALLY got them. Every time we go in, something just looks better. But OH MY, they were delicious! I am totally getting them next time. They're mostly Southern cooking. You can't find a place like it in the area. The last two pics are from Bona Vita in Lehi. Very good Italian. I got butternut squash pasta that was really tasty and had a sweet flavor. Alex got the "famous" burger that everyone talks about. Honestly, I wasn't impressed and it didn't have a lot of flavor. Maybe I'm just a fan of burgers with lots of "stuff" on it. This one was basically the burger and cheese and mushrooms without a lot of flavor. The fries were good though!

I LOVE FOOD!

xoxo, kay

Make It Happen

Remember how my blog title is French Toast Crunch? Totally random---however, the whole point of this blog for me was to become a new person, try different things, serve, and then post it in a place where I could remember it forever. French Toast Crunch was my favorite cereal growing up, it got discontinued, then made a comeback!! Well, so far in 2015 I've made a comeback with my life that was on a plateau. Here's a pic of me getting some FTC when it came back to stores! Macey's for the win! Yes, I bought 4 boxes. And yes, I will buy more.

Alright, so earlier this year I prayed for service opportunities. Of course I couldn't just sit on my butt and expect things to happen, so I went out into the community to find ways to help out. I only work Mon-Thurs and have a lot of free time since I'm out of school, don't have kids, etc. After that lady at work told me I would be a good coach, I contacted the Orem Rec Center to find out about coaching positions. I had just missed bball, but volleyball is going to happen in the fall so I'm going to do that! (Sorry, have to post a pic of my HS glory days! ha)

I also came across a program called People Helping People about a month and a half ago. I've been doing it for about 4 weeks and it is AMAZING! One of my goals in life is to have a non-profit that helps out women in some way whether it's helping them with their teeth, or helping them get over an abusive marriage. I'm going to figure it out. But for now, I volunteer weekly at PHP. PHP helps mainly single moms try to find jobs to support themselves and their kids. About 95% end up getting a stable job and 80% of those women get health insurance. I'm a coach with these women and help them type up all of their hard and soft skills and talk with them about what might be holding them back. These women don't even know how many skills they have and their potential. It's really rewarding.

Now, of course service doesn't have to be a big thing like helping at a nonprofit. I've also found small ways to help the people around me. It really is the small acts of kindness towards others. I really like this, because this is how it should be:

In my church, there's a lot of ways to serve. Alex and I moved into a townhouse, where there are a lot of young families and a LOT of women having kids :) We'll be there someday... but I figure that when I'm in that position, I'll want a little help. Thinking about having kids stresses me out, because there's never going to be enough time. I volunteered to make freezer meals for women having babies. Something small, but hopefully what goes around, comes around. We also had an auction with the women in our church. I auctioned two free dental cleanings. I love having a skill that I can use for the good. I also loved doing the Give Kids a Smile event last month and am going to do it every year.

When you move to a new place, you also get a new calling at church. I am SO FREAKIN' EXCITED for what I got called to. I get to be the stake 3rd year girls camp leader! I'm one of those weird people that went to like all 6 years of girls camp. And now I get to go again, but on the opposite end. I can't wait to help serve all the youth girls in our area and hopefully help them become better women :) I always brought friends to girls camp because ours was sweet. Horseback riding, canoeing, rock wall, floating the river, shooting guns, water slides...so much fun. Got to reminisce on some GC pics back in the day. This is when I was a youth leader with Natasha and Lauren (upper left)

Since I've asked to help serve others and my community, God has not waited or kept me from any opportunities. I love serving because A) it keeps me from thinking about myself and B) i really do feel happier. Something about helping people just makes the sun come out! There's so many opportunities for us, we just gotta make it happen! My boy Dieter puts it into great words:

xoxo, kay

Fantastic February

Another month down and 2015 is flying by. I woke up a little angry going to church today, because it was snowing. I know it can be magical and all, but that only applies to before Christmas. Utah is all backwards in the weather. I miss the sunny days a few weeks back! But despite the backwards weather, February was a good month. Obviously the highlight was going to Santa Barbara. I did forget to mention an important part of the trip! Stopping in Vegas and going to SHAKE SHACK. After our trip to the east coast, I would dream about that place. It wasn't quite as good as NY, but it was enough for me!

It's kind of obvious how excited I get about food. And no I am not ashamed. While we are talking about it, I have to highlight one of my favorite restaurants in all of Utah. My office went here a year and a half ago to celebrate birthdays: Molly's Cafe. The cutest little cafe right in Provo. Definitely the best home-cooking you'll find. It's a catering company so they are only open friday nights and lunch friday and saturday. Oh my gosh if you haven't gone here, you have missed out on so much happiness. Since it's right by the D.I., we went on a date to the D.I. after. Ha, so classy. Alex bought a throwback BYU sweatshirt. Woot! (btw I think Alex's hair is long enough now...he's donating it to children's hospital, but refuses to cut it yet)

My brother-in-law, Ryan, is dating a girl right now, Melody, that he's pretty serious with. Alex and I didn't know her super well, so it was way nice when she texted me and asked if we could get lunch or dessert. And that's the kind of person she is. She seeks out friendship and is very kind. We get along great and ended up staying at the Chocolate for like 3 hours, talking about everything. The poor workers kept coming over to try to take our cazookie away (but seriously, if there's some left, I'm eating it). Now I have completely given up sweets for lent (super sad). But good!

sorry for bad phone quality pics.

Living in Utah in your 20's means that you're going to go to a million weddings. I mean, at least once a month. Alex and I went to the cutest wedding for one of my coworker's son Matt. Matt actually used to work with us too. He and Jayna were so cute and looked so happy! It was at the Lindon barn and just darling. I especially loved the candy bags we got that I filled with Cadbury eggs and cinnamon bears :)

Yesterday was spent at my old stomping grounds (UCDH) where I went to dental hygiene school. They put on an event every year called Give Kids A Smile. Over 150 kids got x-rays, dental cleanings, sealants, and any treatment needed. There were over 20 dentists with their assistants, all of the UCDH students, and random volunteers like myself. My dentist didn't participate this year because of health reasons. I wanted to go anyways because who doesn't love helping out kids? I was over helping the students with x-rays and helped coordinate where the kids were suppose to go next. It was so fun and rewarding and I met a ton of great dental offices. I swear dentists are some of the nicest people on the face of the planet. Oh and I randomly met a girl going to UCDH who grew up with Alex and all of his friends from Meridian. Small world!

I have to end with one more highlight of the month of February. Can we just talk about gas prices? They're starting to go up again, but what the $16 for my gas tank?! Unreal. Thank you, Costco. Happy days for Barney (my purple car).

xoxo, kay