Blueberry Breakfast Bake.

Since moving from the college dorm life to college apartment life, over the last two years I have really enjoyed learning what kinds of foods I like to make and enjoy! Definitely have decided I am more inclined towards cooking. I tend not to have enough patience for baking - which has resulted in many a odd shaped cake because I tried to frost before the cake (< yes, that happened) was cooled all of the way. Oh well!


This past week I tried a new recipe I came across on this healthy living blog. I made a few changes to the recipe to accommodate the food I already had on hand and thought now I would share it with all of you! This breakfast bake is tasty and filling, and smelled awesome while it was baking!

So here are the ingredients I used for my Blueberry Breakfast Bake:

Ingredients

• 3 cups Old Fashioned Rolled Oats
• 2 cups steel cut oats
• 1 teaspoon Baking Powder
• pinch of salt
• 1 large ripe Banana, mashed
• 3 cups Blue Diamond Almond milk vanilla unsweetened
• 3 cups Water
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla sweetener
• 1 cup liquid Egg Whites 
• 2 cups frozen blueberries
• Cooking Spray

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit with the rack in the middle. 
2. Spray a large, oven-safe 4 quart casserole dish with cooking spray. Combine dry ingredients in a bowl. In another bowl mix together mashed bananas, almond milk, water, egg whites and vanilla. 

3. Combine all in the baking dish, adding blueberries last. 

4. Bake about 45-60 minutes, until the liquid has been absorbed. 

I was not sure how much the oats would rise as they baked, so I placed my dish on a cookie sheet with edges just in case :) It took around 55 minutes for the liquid to be absorbed, but then finally it was time to enjoy the finished project!

5. Let the breakfast bake cool for about 10 minutes before serving. Top with additional fruit and/or yogurt, I added some more blueberries and bananas to mine - delicious!

You can use any other fruit instead of blueberries for the main part of the dish and/or for toppings! Here are a few ideas:

• Strawberries
• More bananas
• Raspberries
• Dried Fruit + Raisins
• chopped, toasted Nuts
• Greek Yogurt
• Whipped Cream
• ground Cinnamon

Enjoy!

I love weekends!

I must say that I LOVE weekends, and more than that, I love weekends more when Sunday night shows up and I feel both rested and prepared for my week ahead (This was last night for me, woohoo!!). While lots of life events are already behind me this semester, there are many more right around the corner - (Easter, finding out where my internship for the next year will be, a retreat, orientation for my internship, Big Day of Serving in Chicago...the whole school/classes/homework piece) - you guys get the idea! This weekend in particular was my last weekend of calm before the storm, so I tried my best to focus on relaxing - lucky me a few good movies were on tv to help!


Since my last post caught you all up (somewhat) on big life stuff that has been happening for me, now I can share some tools I have found and enjoy using to grow in my healthier lifestyle. Spiritual, emotional/mental, and physical health are all super important parts of any person's life so I divided my favorites up into those categories!

Spiritual

My favorite devotional tool is you version which is a great Bible resource! Best part about it that I LOVE are all of the reading plans and devo ideas they already have set-up for you to choose & they will even email them to you every day. I just started a new series on wisdom today.

Physical

To help keep up with what foods I am eating each day and making sure that I am consuming a healthy balance of calories/fats/carbs/proteins...etc, I find myfitnesspal to be very helpful, mostly because you can download it as an app for blackberry or iphone/ipod (in addition to using it online). Super user friendly, they have most foods you would ever eat already in their database AND a super fun barcode scanner built into their app to add foods that they don't have! EASY.

Workout/fitness wise, for the last couple of months myself (along with my awesome & encouraging boyfriend Adam, and our friend Kevin) have been doing the beach body Insanity workout series. We are currently on Day 40 out of 60. Every day these workouts find a new way to kick my butt, however its all cardio paced so the variety keeps me focused/motivated.


Now that the weather is nice (shocking for spring in Chicago!), I have also been able to start fitting running back in, and since there is a website/app for everything, I currently enjoy using dailymile to keep track of my runs! Best feature: in addition to keeping track of how far I ran/pace, it also lets me add details like how the weather was, how I felt, how much effort I put into the run...and some other fun ones!

Emotional/Mental

I find (and this is not really profound, just true), but I find that when I am in God's Word, eating well and working out consistently those together have the biggest influence on the stability of my emotional state! (Talk to me on a day when all 3 are out of whack, and its a BAD day!) So besides those 3, some other basics of this for me involve: calling my mom almost everyday, finding time to read, cooking and trying new recipes, and my girly and guilty pleasure - Pinterest. Ladies, you understand this! :) While I don't have any fun apps or websites (besides my pinterest) to share for this category of emotional health, and my mom probably wouldn't appreciate me handing her cell phone number out to the world, I WILL share a picture of my most recent recipe adventure (and link to the blog I found it from!)

Most recent! This was dinner Saturday night! (WORTH IT to make the pizza dough from the recipe if you have the time!) Here is the recipe link: YUMMY.

Any other fun tools you all use whether for growing spiritually, physically, or emotionally - please share!!! 

Blessings on everyone's Mondays (and week ahead!!!) Love, Kyla.

A living house.

Of the many writers whose works I enjoy reading, studying, and taking in - C.S. Lewis is hands down one who I respect and admire. As I look back over the summer months and begin to engage in school life, once again, I find much truth in his words: 


"Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make any sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of - throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself." 


This summer I was a Program Coordinator for Group Week of Hope in Charleston, SC. Last summer, I did the same job at the Loveland, CO site and while both summers were completely different experiences, the same truth held for both: God always has a bigger plan than anything I can dream or understand. 


In the context of my healthier eating lifestyle I embarked on in the spring, this meant that sometimes its not about the food. Camp food (for those of you who have never experienced it) is not exactly what I would label as "gourmet" or "organic". Camp food is designed to feed the masses in a timely fashion so that they have energy to enjoy their camp/mission experience. Most of the food that is readily available in the summer (and lovingly prepared by volunteers and campers) is not what I would choose to eat any other day of the year. But, in the perspective of 100s of people giving up their time to serve a community & people in need - my personal food preferences pale in comparison. 


One of the many ways I was humbled this summer, was by the reminder that I am blessed to be able to make a decision about what I eat the other 9 non-summer months of the year. And for the 3 months that God puts me in the position to direct a mission experience for 100s of people, the food doesn't matter. 


What matters is seeing God's love transform people. Transform attitudes and misconceptions about what it means to serve. Transform years of struggle with misunderstanding just how much God made each and every person out of His love. Transform a group of strangers on Sunday into a family connected through what Christ did for us on the cross by Friday. Transform a 21 year old me more and more through way only He can direct. 


"Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house...You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself"


I pray I continue to be amazed at how God will continue to use me, my goals of healthy eating, and life experiences as my Senior year of college is now underway...