Friday Bowl- Toasted Marshmallow

Happy National Toasted Marshmallow Day.

Everyone loves sitting around a campfire with a stick and a marshmallow. Dipping the sugar pillow in the fire just enough to char the outside creating a unique taste with a melted gooey center. If you have never done this. You must do it!

This morning I did not build a fire to create this yogurt bowl. I just chard the marshmallow over the flames of my gas stove. The marshmallows cut easy with a spoon so I was able to get a piece of the flavor with every bite. I was a little iffy about the flavors this would create but to my surprise, the combination of the plain yogurt, sweet marshmallow and crisp topping was delightful and for just a moment I felt like I was sitting by the campfire.

Toasted Marshmallow Yogurt Bowl


1/2 Cup- Fage 0% Plain Greek Yogurt
2 Toasted Marshmallows
2 Lotus Biscoff Cookies

185 Calories- 13 g  Protein


🍓🍌🍉🍊🍒🍏🍅🍈

I have decided to reserve each Friday to share some of my creative food bowls. I have been eating these at least 4 times a week and I feel great. They are easy, healthy and fun. This is part of my new "Clean Eating" Plan. Wish me Luck.

Signs of Fall

The weather here in North Carolina is still peaking into the 80's and 90's during the days, but the mornings and evenings are dipping into the 60's and 70's. This is one of the first signs I notice of Fall.

I have also noticed that my mornings are not as bright at 7 am as they have been the past few months. I wake up with the sun, so until we move our clocks back, I will struggle getting out of bed before the sun fully rises.

Our afternoon walks are a little cooler now and before we know it, the afternoons will be too dark to get in our walk after I get home from work.

Yesterday during our power stroll through the neighborhood, Mother Nature was showing off some of her Fall accessories. This little acorn was perfect.


What's funny about this acorn is after snapping a photo of it, I threw it toward a storm drain on the side of the road. The drain was a good ways away so I did my ole Micheal Jordan, one arm throw, but instead of a point shot, It hit and knocked an empty soda can into the drain and the acorn bounced right back toward me. We got a good laugh. Nick said that could never happen again in a million years. I put the acorn in my pocket and kept walking.

On down the road I noticed these mushrooms growing in a neighbors yard. 


I always find mushrooms fun to photograph and interesting to look at. I made this quick as I do not know these neighbors and they are watching me through their window.

As we were almost home, we could smell a sweet floral aroma in the air. At first we thought someone was drying clothes. We can sometimes smell the fresh sent of fabric softener through outside vents as we pass. But there were no houses close, so I leaned over to sniff some white flowers growing in a vacant yard. “That’s it!” I said. “These flowers are what we smell”. I grabbed my phone from my waistband and asked my face book friends for a clue as to what these were called. 


After no legit answers, I turned to Google. I learned that they are called “Autumn Clematis”.
We are also seeing turning leaves fall from trees and before we know it, the sound of leaf blowers will take the place of roaring lawn mowers.

Speaking of Fall, remember the loofahs I planted in the beginning of spring? They are not doing as good as I thought they would, but I do have a few almost ready to harvest. I can't wait to give you an updated post on those toward the end of September or maybe sooner.



Air Fryer Steak

OK this one is for all my meat eating friends out there. No veggie bowls or smoothies today. I wanted to share with you a nice juicy steak I made in the air fryer the other day.

We met some friends at the beach that recommended putting a steak in the air fryer for eight minutes and it was as good as grilled and faster too.

While shopping for some dinner the other night, Nick and I decided to have just a simple salad and baked potato. As I was passing the meat counter, I remember the steak idea my friends suggested and grabbed a nice little sirloin steak and placed it in the buggy.

I mentioned to Nick that I would like to try the air fryer trick and only purchased one steak to share. That way, if it was not good then we only wasted one steak. Besides, we were not in the mood for a big dinner anyway.

By golly it worked!


Set heat to 400 and let the air fryer heat up for 3 minutes then just throw the steak(s) in there and cook for 8-10 minutes, flipping it once. No need to add any oil. Just add the spices you normally use with the grill. 


I cooked mine for 10 minutes and it came out medium-well. It was nice and tender with lots of flavor, just like grilled.



Friday Bowl - Apple Cinnamon

They say, "An apple a day will keep the doctor away". I have always believed this but have not been eating enough apples lately. I just always felt like they are full of sugar. Then I realized that it contains natural sugar which includes fructose. Fructose is not harmful when it comes to fruit. With this bowl I found a new way to enjoy apples and plan to add them more to my diet.

After I took a photo of this bowl, I swirled in the cinnamon and mixed the apples around. I loved the two flavors together and the granola added that extra crunch. I closed my eyes and pretended I was eating apple pie.

Apple Cinnamon Yogurt Bowl


2/3 Cup -Fage 2% Plain Greek Yogurt
1/4 Apple
2 Teaspoon- Cinnamon
2 Tablespoon- Oat& Honey Granola

179 Calories- 17 g Protein


🍓🍌🍉🍊🍒🍏🍅🍈

I have decided to reserve each Friday to share some of my creative food bowls. I have been eating these at least 4 times a week and I feel great. They are easy, healthy and fun. This is part of my new "Clean Eating" Plan. Wish me Luck.

The Dreaded Dental Exam

I never suffer anxiety the way I do when I need to go to the dentist. I dread it so much. Even though my dentist has never hurt me, I am scared to death to go. Growing up, we never went to the dentist unless we had a pain level above an eight. Those habits have carried on with me into my adulthood. However, I always made sure my daughter went regularly. Her teeth are still beautiful. Mine, not so much.

I am ashamed of my teeth as they have become more and more crooked and stained through the years. I admit, I do not get regular cleanings like I should. In fact, it’s been years. They are sensitive and hurt. So a couple weeks ago I bit the bullet and went with the intentions of getting another bad tooth pulled. That’s usually how long I wait to go. I can’t afford root canals so I have had three pulled in my life. 

During my visit, the dentist took an xray and examined my hurting tooth. He said, “We are not going to pull this tooth. I see nothing wrong with it and your pain is just tooth sensitvity”. I was given a tube of special toothpaste and advice to come back for a full exam. 

So yesterday I went for the full dental exam. I was scared and nervous that It was going to be painful. After the dentist took full xrays, he began stabbing my gums with a prison shank. It was not comfortable, but It was bearable. I’m glad that’s over.

Good news: I did not have any cavities or serious issues. No bone loss and my gums are healthy. I was so surprised! I just suffer from tooth sensitivity.
Bad news: I need a couple old fillings replaced, one crown and .....braces.


This is a big deal for me. I need to think about seeing the orthodontist about the braces. This is a decision I will need to make. I do not have dental insurance and my health insurance breaks me each month. I mentioned braces to Nick and he is not 100% on board. 
He’s thinks my teeth are fine the way they are but I know they are not, but do I really need to go through all the expense when I can just have the fillings fixed and have them bleached of the stains? I may loose sleep over this one. 

The plan: I have a cleaning scheduled in two weeks. I am already nervous just thinking about that. Yikes. Then I plan to call and set up a consultation with the Orthodontist just to see what braces will cost me and whats all involved. I just paid my car off so maybe I can afford a payment plan. I just don’t know. I don’t want any bills. 

I would love to have pretty teeth. I would feel better about my appearance and smile a lot more, but then again, I am 50 years old and could live out the rest of my life with them crooked and save a few grand. Decisions, decisions.

Do you have braces or ever had them?  If so, what is your experience?

Vacay Wrap Up

Just wanted to wrap up my beach trip with some show and tell photos. As I said in a previous post. It was one of the best weeks we have had in a long time. I didn’t have any issues with my inner ear problem, no camper problems, there was no rain, and a lot of family and friends came together for a day of fun. But all and all we enjoy our time together. Just the two of us. It was no paradise island, cabana boys (but my husband made a pretty good personal one). We did not stay in no fancy hotel or have room service. We walked mostly barefoot in the sand and the temperatures were in the 90’s during the day and 70's and 80’s at night. We enjoyed our hammocks I purchased before we went. They were new and only 6.00 each from Curt's Outlet store in the mall.


While on our morning walk around the campground, there was a gentleman selling some garden produce. He had the best tomatoes we have had this year. They were perfect. Every day we would eat a tomato sandwich with chips on the beach. I never got tired of them. We also purchased a cantaloupe the was very good. And of course, I had to use the shell for a breakfast bowl one morning. 


A couple nights we stayed in and ate a simple such as this salad and grilled baked potato. We didn’t even miss the meat!


We visited our favorite hamburger place one night called Hamburger Joe's and made a trip to McAllister's Deli one evening. But the place we loved the best was Taco Mundo. We always get Mexican food at least once a week no matter if we are home or on vacation. We absolutely love Mexican food. Taco Mundo sits on the water way in Barefoot Landing. 


We love eating on the patio and enjoying the view. I had the Black Bean Nachos and Nick had a crab taco and a shrimp taco. The nachos plate was huge so he helped me out on that. Just look at that pile! Best ever!


After dinner we walked our meal off in the shopping area of Barefoot Landing. We had a lot of laughs visiting some of the novelty shops. I thought this bubble bath was a hoot (or toot). Luckily I didn’t make my own bubble bath after eating all those black bean nachos!


Here I am barely dressed (sorry). I was sporting this free tank top gifted to me in a give-away by Low Tide Ocean Products. I had a lot of fun wearing this over my bikini or with shorts. 


Ignore the cellulite and baby faces on my knees and focus on how cute this shirt is! But it’s not the shirt that is so great about this company.

Low Tides Ocean Products makes beach chairs from plastic collected from the beaches of Haiti and the Yucatan Peninsula. Wow, talk about trash to treasure! They are the most adorable beach chairs that are stylish durable and people can feel good knowing that when they purchase one of these chairs, they helped clean the ocean.


Read their story HERE
LowTides_Process_3
I was not asked or compensated to write about or review this product 
(or restaurants mentioned in this post).

I am not affiliated with Low Tides Ocean Products. 
I just love what they are doing and how darn cute their chairs are


Friday Bowl- Blue Butterfly

I could hardly wait to share this bowl creation with you today. I am not a fan of artificial coloring so I was excited to find some 100% natural food coloring. The blue color comes from Butterfly Pea Flower. The flowers are dried and turned into a powder. It's tasteless and can be added to any food or drink. 
Not only did it add some fun color to this yogurt bowl but it has some great health benefits such as, boost brain health, boost immune system, great for skin and eyes, enhances mood and vitality and stabilizes blood pressure. 
And then there is all the other good stuff thrown in to make this breakfast bowl a win for the day. 

I purchased my Suncore Brand blue butterfly pea flower powder from luckyvitamin.com.


Blue Butterfly Yogurt Bowl


2/3 Cup- Fage 0% Total Greek Yogurt
2 Tablespoons- Unsweetened Coconut Flakes
 2 Tablespoons- 100 % Natural Bear Naked Granola
10- Blueberries
1 Teaspoon- Blue Butterfly Pea Flower Powder

202 Calories- 19 g Protein



🍓🍌🍉🍊🍒🍏🍅🍈

I have decided to reserve each Friday to share some of my creative food bowls. I have been eating these at least 3 times a week and I feel great. They are easy, healthy and fun. This is part of my new "Clean Eating" Plan. Wish me Luck.

Somewhere on the beach

"Somewhere on the beach" was my slogan last week while on vacation.

I think this was one of the best weeks we had at the beach in a long time. When we first arrived, we met up with some friends on the sand. It was suppose to be a couple we met last year and could hardly wait to see them again this year. Sadly there was only one. He and his wife split up, but we got to sit with him for a while and had some good laughs with him and his best friend. I really wanted to see my other new friend though. Maybe I will run into her some other time.

Nick has a brother that lives on a campground a mile from our campsite and we always take a walk down to see him when we are there. Nick has another brother that brought his family of five plus two friends down the same week. They were staying at a hotel between the two campgrounds. We all met up to play with the kids on the beach and had fun in the sun. Later that evening me and Nick walked up to the tikki bar to hear some music and relax under the sunset.

Toward the end of the week my daughter and her boyfriend came down to spend the day on the beach with us. They were staying near Wilmington and I was so excited to see them. After spending some time on the beach, we all cleaned up and met the rest of the family for dinner.

The arrows point out the brothers. They are all handsome but I think I ended up with the best looking one (yellow shirt). Dontcha think?


We tried a new spot about thirty minutes away in Little River called Crab Catchers. It was a small but mighty place that sits on the waterfront. I ate two pounds of crab legs. I hate I failed to get a photo but there was so much going on that I forgot. Me and Nick liked this place so much that we plan to go back again sometime.

It was a great week. It was nice getting to spend a day or so with family and friends. We never are all together like this except at Christmas. I’m thnking his parents were probably smiling down from heaven.

Home Made Falafels

After being on vacation all of last week, I need to get back to my healthy eating. For the most part, I did eat healthy in portion but I did not let anything hold me back from a plate of seafood or fried bologna sandwich from Hamburger Joe's. Then I had to enjoy an ice cream cone during our afternoon stroll. OK maybe two afternoon strolls. OK OK, I had a cone of ice cream almost every night! I will not lie. It’s my favorite thing to do at the campground.

We need to go to the grocery store and stock up but I never go to the grocery store hungry. It's a bad idea. We needed to eat dinner first. I had a craving for something meatless. Falafels are a great option. I can't seem to find them anymore where I shop so I just decided to make my own. I went to Pinterest for a recipe. I found an easy one that called for all the ingredients I already had in the house. Supper was saved.

Falafels are a Middle Eastern food made with Chickpeas (Garbanzo Beans). The taste is pretty bland so it's important to find a dipping sauce that brings out the flavor. We like eating these sometimes as they are quick, filling and nutritional.


Falafels are great added to a salad or wrapped in Pita bread topped with cucumber sauce. I skipped the bread then added Tzatziki sauce for dipping and a side of cilantro rice.
I like how they turned out despite how ugly they look. It was the perfect nutritional meal.

Original recipe can be found HERE.





Friday Bowl- Extra Protein

I do a lot of walking while I'm here at the beach. So I knew I would need a little extra protein for breakfast for extra energy and also so I don't get hungry before lunch time. This yogurt bowl is loaded with protein for the save. Sometimes it’s hard to make a tablespoon of peanut butter go a long way. The trick is to melt it in the microwave for about 20 seconds and drizzle away. 


Peanut Butter Banana Yogurt Bowl


1 Cup- Fage 0% Plain Greek Yogurt
2 Tablespoon- Oat& Honey Granola
1/2 Banana
1 Tablespoon- Jif Natural Peanut Butter (melted)
Honey Drizzle

303 Calories- 27 g Protein



🍓🍌🍉🍊🍒🍏🍅🍈

I have decided to reserve each Friday to share some of my creative food bowls. I have been eating these at least 4 times a week and I feel great. They are easy, healthy and fun. This is part of my new "Clean Eating" Plan. Wish me Luck.

Beach Rules

Growing up, the only rules on the beach I remember were, no thong bikinis, and no glass bottles. 

Things have surely changed. I see a lot of glass bottles. I also see a lot of thong bikinis. Girls (and some guys) do not leave much to the imagination now days. Some girls look to be as young as twelve showing everything God gave them with no shame or modesty. Where are their parents anyway? 

Through the years there have been new rules for our beach here in South Carolina. 

No Pets can be on the beach between during the summer months except before 8 am and after 5 pm. I think this a good rule. No one wants to have to listen to dogs barking or dodging dog poop all day. This also protects children from getting bit by someones dog that “never bites”.

No drinking allowed on the beach. This is the most unbroken rule and never enforced unless someone gets out of hand. 

No bikes are allowed between 8 am and 5 pm. 

No tents or canopies are allowed.

This is what the beach looks like at 7:30 am,


Umbrellas can not be open until 8:00 am. All umbrellas have to be placed behind the lifeguard stand. Everyone gets up early and rushes out to reserve a spot on the beach as it gets crowded quick. The first blue umbrella with the striped chairs you see are ours. Nick makes sure he is in line with the others. This is also the high tide line. The day begins.

By noon, this is what the beach looks like. It’s has been crazy crowded this week.


No matter where you set up, there is always that one family that will put there chairs right slap dab on top of ya and either using fowl language or smoking. Never fails. We just bite out tongue and wait for them to go back in. 

All and all, its has been nice here so far. It’s bright and sunny each day and the water feels great. We ran into some friends and made new ones. 
I love playing in the waves and wish I had a surf board. Ha. I haven’t heard of any jelly fish stings or shark bites so far and hope it stays that way.


Three Ingredient Pancakes

Happy Monday. I am on vacation this week so It really is a happy Monday for me.

Today I would like to share with you these delicious Banana Pancakes I made using only 3 ingredients. 


I love pancakes and waffles, but they can wreck my diet, so I am delighted to have found this healthier option and they are oh so good. You may have heard of two ingredient pancakes which consist of only banana and egg. I have tried them before and they came out flat and gooey. Sorry but that is below my healthy plan. 

You have to add a tad of flour to make these babies fluff. 


Three Ingredient Pancakes
265 Calories, 50 carbs, 10 Protein.

1 Egg
1 Ripe Banana
1/4 Cup self rising flour. 


Mix well and pour into sprayed frying pan. Cook on med/low until it starts to bubble then flip.

These pancakes are good alone or topped with your favorite topping. (Go ahead, no one is judging). 
I used zero calorie spray butter and sugar free syrup. I added a few blueberries just to make them pretty.

This recipe makes 2 large pancakes but I made 4 small ones so I could share one with Nick. He gave it a thumbs up. The inspired recipe with larger serving size can be found HERE.

Friday Bowl- August

Can you believe it's already August? I hate to see Summer fade away. Fall will be here before you know it. Meanwhile I created a scrumptious mess of a breakfast this morning. There is just something about the colors in this bowl that screams August to me.

This is my favorite bowl so far.
I never knew cantaloupe would be so tasty with yogurt.

August is also Fig season. If you read my blog you may remember me mentioning some fresh figs I received from a member of my church. I could not hardly wait to add these to my breakfast. The combination of these flavors made my taste buds dance while giving me the vitamins and nutrients I needed to start my day.

Cantaloupe Fig Yogurt Bowl


1/2 Cup Fage 0% Plain Greek Yogurt
3 Figs
1/4 Cup Cantaloupe
3 Tablespoons- Low Fat Oat& Honey Granola
Touch of Raspberries
Touch of Blueberries

217 Calories- 14 g Protein

Bowl & Spoon by: Cocoboo

🍓🍌🍉🍊🍒🍏🍅🍈

I have decided to reserve each Friday to share some of my creative food bowls. I have been eating these at least 4 times a week and I feel great. They are easy, healthy and fun. This is part of my new "Clean Eating" Plan. Wish me Luck.