Quick Pickled Radishes & Carrots

March 7, 2017 Amanda Plott

I'm a little bit of a pickle fiend, y'all. I always have a jar (or several) of pickled vegetables of almost any variety in my fridge at all times. This past week I got my hands on some local radishes and well, I'm honestly not the most familiar with radishes. I know they are a little 'peppery' unless cooked, so part of me really wanted to try them roasted.

But, the pickle loving part of my decided to go another route since I had some verde chicken street tacos on the dinner plan. Street tacos always need something on them with a little tang and pop to brighten them up. Some people use a lot of lime juice for this, and others use pickled jalapeños or radishes...

Pimento Cheese Deviled Eggs

March 5, 2017 Amanda Plott

I'm a southern girl, born and bred (even through I spent a lot of my youth moving around the continental United States.) Home is where the heart is and my heart is in Texas, so... I'm a southern girl. One thing we have in the south that tends to throw northerners off, is pimento cheese. I've actually got friends that have never heard of pimento cheese!

That always blows my mind. How does anyone not know what pimento cheese is? I practically grew up on the stuff! It's one of my favorite things around the Spring and Summer too. Just a plain ole' pimento cheese sandwich made on white bread that's so soft it sticks to the roof of your mouth like glue... Ooooh yeah. That's the stuff right there...

Healthified Meatloaf Cupcakes & Cauliflower Mash

February 25, 2017 Amanda Plott

It's been a super long time since I made these Meatloaf Cupcakes. As in... years. A lot has changed since then, especially my tastes and cooking style. The very first time that I made these, they were in the traditional manner. Plain old ground beef and mashed potatoes. Nothing fancy. Nothing 'healthified'.

Today though, I've lightened these up and made them a little more wholesome by adding in some veggies like carrots, and zucchini too! I also used an extra lean ground beef which I kept moist and full of flavor by adding in an egg and reduced sugar ketchup. The vegges also help to keep the lean meat from drying out. Of course, I also used a cauliflower mash instead of straight up mashed potatoes to get even more vegetable goodness in there.

These are packed. PACKED. Loaded up entirely with vegetables, and the best part is that you would never guess it!...

Skinny Cherry Pie Monkey Bread

February 20, 2017 Amanda Plott

It's Monday, my daughter is out of school today, and we were up half of the night listening to the tornado warnings, rain, and heavy winds billowing around my house. To say that I needed some cheering up this morning would be nothing short of an understatement. So, after my morning cup of coffee and some Sudafed to unclog my head I was gearing up with this cheery cherry surprise!

Pie is one of my many achilles heels. And if it's cherry pie? I'm even more of a sucker! There's little to me that's more comforting to me (food wise) other than a nice slice of homemade cherry pie. However, since we were in the early morning hours, I thought I might not want to dive straight into an actual pie. Instead I opted for something a little more breakfast/brunch style...

Grilled Market Salad & Zesty Dressing (Chick-Fil-A Copy Cat)

February 18, 2017 Amanda Plott

So, I was telling my mom about one of my all time favorite salads at a pretty well known fast-food chain the other day when she was looking for some quick lunch options. Anytime the family wants to 'be bad' and have chicken nuggets at this place, I always tend to opt for their Grilled Market Salad. It's a really large hearty salad that's extremely filling and easily could be turned into two meals rather than just one.

That discussion got me to thinking about the salad, how good it is, and how simple it is too. Surely there had to be a way to make it myself! The hardest part would be the zesty apple cider vinaigrette. Thankfully, I found a good starting place and made a few more tweaks to that to get exactly what I was looking for after reading the ingredients on the actual dressing packet...

Healthy Freezer-Friendly Breakfast Burritos

February 12, 2017 Amanda Plott

I'm all about breakfast lately, but it's often difficult to find the time to be able to make myself something that's tasty and wholesome. I've tried to make freezer-friendly breakfast burritos in the past, but they never worked out quite the way that I wanted. Live and learn I guess, so I decided to give them another go with a few changes.

The first lesson that I learned was that freezer-friendkly breakfast burritos must be individually wrapped to keep them from sticking together. Plus reheating them can be a bit of a touch-and-go situation. I've found it best to use a loosened paper towel to wrap them up in for a quick reheat in the microwave...