Skinny Creamy Jalapeño Ranch

September 22, 2022 Amanda Plott

This is another fun one that I absolutely had to update with some new pictures.

If you've ever been to Texas... you may have heard of a little place called Chuy's Mexican Restaurant. Mhn, the mere thought that place makes my mouth water. Seriously. They have some amazing Tex-mex. One of my most favorite things at Chuy's is their Creamy Jalapeño Ranch. It's something that they will serve along side chips, but... you have to ask for it! It's also used as a salad dressing option.

I've been trying for years now to find a recipe that's even remotely close to the infamous dip that Chuy's serves. There's a lot of options out there, but none of them can hold a candle to the original, especially when making any healthy substitutions…

Pumpkin Spice Poke Cake

September 19, 2022 Amanda Plott

Not all poke cakes are created equal! This Pumpkin Spice Poke Cake is basically taking a poke cake and mashing it together with the deliciousness that is pumpkin spice. It starts off with a boxed spice cake mix and adds even more spice to it a long with a TON of pumpkin. In fact, whipping up a cake mix or brownie mix with pumpkin puree is an old trick I’ve used before to lighten up a cake!

Once the cake is baked, it’s poked through and topped off with some sweetened condensed milk that seeps through and makes that cake sweet and full of richness. Then it’s all topped off with some whipped cream and even heath bits for added crunch texture!…

Healthified Pumpkin Pound Cake

September 16, 2022 Amanda Plott

I haven’t made a pound cake in a good long while, and I certainly haven’t have the change to make a seasonal one. So today was the day! This Healthified Pumpkin Pound Cake is as good as it gets! It’s dense and buttery and perfectly delish - just as as good pound cake should be. It’s got even more moister packed into its spongy goodness with the addition of pumpkin in there too.

And the added flavors of pumpkin spice makes this pound cake the perfect thing to enjoy as we roll into Fall and hopefully cooler weather. Yes, I’m still hopeful that my Fall inspired recipes lately will continue to cool things off here in Texas…

Butternut Squash Salad + Maple Vinaigrette

September 13, 2022 Amanda Plott

Yes, another salad! This Butternut Squash Salad is a little different though since it’s got a lot of fun Fall flavors packed into it and it’s super easy to make. The homemade maple vinaigrette has to be one of my all time favorites, and it’s easy to see why. This salad starts off with a base of greens. I went with a mixture of baby spinach and a spring blend, but arugula would be a good option too!

After that it’s loaded up with oven roasted butternut squash, cranberries, feta cheese, and YES even bacon! The homemade maple vinaigrette might sound strange, but trust me, you’re going to love it. I used a bourbon aged maple syrup, but you can use any kind you want so long as it’s actual factual maple syrup, and not just flavored like maple syrup. Trust me, there IS a difference…

Instant Pot Chicken & Dumplings

September 10, 2022 Amanda Plott

It happens almost every year around this time. It’s still pretty hot outside and I’m over here trying to entice the cooler weather by cooking up hearty winter sort of meals. And this Instant Pot Chicken & Dumplings is one of those! I love chicken and dumplings and I will literally accept any reason at all what-so-ever to make them for dinner. So when they were brought up in passing conversation a few weeks back? I knew what I had to do. Make chicken and dumplings!

This Instant Pot version of chicken and dumplings is SUPER easy to make and can be done with no fuss and no muss - all in the pressure cooker. To start this out, you cook up the chicken on it’s own in the pressure cooker. Then you add everything else in with the drippings from that. Yes. Everything. Even the dumplings!…

Instant Noodle Jars

September 7, 2022 Amanda Plott

Lunch time meal prep at it’s finest! I’ve been on it with jar salads lately, and no one can stop me except for myself. I did decide this week to do something a little different than salad in my jars though. This time I went with soup! Look, we all like those cup of noodles or instant noodles. But, they’re filled with a LOT of nonsense and even more sodium. So - we’re changing that today with making our own version!

These Instant Noodle Jars are fresh, full of flavor, and couldn’t be more simple to make. They’re better for you than the dried pre-packaged ones, annnd you get to control everything that goes into them; which is probably the best part of it all…