Salt & Vinegar Roasted Fingerling Potatoes

June 12, 2022 Amanda Plott

It’s almost too hot outside here to grill lately. Almost, but not quite. And being as my kiddo is in love with steak right now, it’s become a part of the weekly rotation. Even if a good steak is on the meal plan each week, I like to keep things fresh and new as far as the sides go. That’s where these Salt & Vinegar Roasted Fingerling Potatoes come in.

I got my hands on some local fingerling potatoes recently, the yellow ones are ‘banana’ fingerlings and then I also got some purple fingerlings. Instead of just the usual oil and salt, I took them a step further this time and pre-cooked them in some vinegar. What’s the point of that, you ask…?…

Rainbow Pride Donuts

June 9, 2022 Amanda Plott

Continuing with Pride month and wonderful rainbow inspired eats and treats! I’m no stranger to colorful donuts, but these Rainbow Pride Donuts are the brightest and boldest ones I’ve made yet. It’s a happy coincidence that my donut pan is also heart shaped, which made these Pride donuts just that much more perfect!

To keep these donuts lightened up, I of course baked them. I also used less sugar and threw some whole wheat white flour in there. Other than that, these rainbow beauties are fairly standard to any other baked donuts. Except for being full of Pride and color!…

Strawberry Crunch Monkey Bread

June 3, 2022 Amanda Plott

So you know those strawberry shortcake ice creams with the crumbly bits of strawberry crunch on the outside? So I may have come across the crumbs, and yes, you can actually buy them! Now what does one do with strawberry crunch crumbs? Well, obviously make some sort of tasty strawberry sweet! That’s when the idea for this Strawberry Crunch Monkey Bread came to be.

Take it as a breakfast, brunch, or even dessert. This nostalgic twist on monkey bread has to be one of my new favorites. It’s ridiculously easy to make too, just as most monkey breads are. Now, there really wasn’t a whole lot to do in the ways of making this lightened up. But, I did sub out some of the sugars for natural sweeteners…

Confetti Shortbread Cookies

May 31, 2022 Amanda Plott

Pride month starts tomorrow and I’m going to play around with rainbows in the kitchen as much as I possible can to celebrate. So here’s to hoping that these Confetti Shortbread Cookies will be the first of many Pride friendly treats and eats to come along for the next 30 days or so. I’m no stranger to shortbread cookies and I can tell you first hand that the dough can be more than a little finicky. But, the dough for these Confetti Shortbread Cookies was simple, easy to make, and didn’t give me much fuss at all.

Shortbread cookies are crumbly and buttery and sort of melt away in your mouth, and these here are no exception. Even with less sugar, these Confetti Shortbread Cookies are perfectly sweet and cut out really well with hardly any spreading at all…

Vegetarian Cheeseburger Tater Tot Casserole

May 25, 2022 Amanda Plott

It’s been… a week. My kiddo is sick ahead of their final exams, decisions need to be made ahead of next year, and the world is on fire as far as I can see. It’s going to be a difficult next few days for the lost of us and I’m buckling up for this bumpy ride to continue. The very least that I can do is to have some good food on hand that’s easy and quick to prepare. So here we are. Vegetarian Cheeseburger Tater Tot Casserole.

I’ve made burger casseroles before, but none of them included tater tots and none of them were vegetarian, so we’re making progress here I think. Or at very least doing something a little different right? Right. So instead of being a noodle based casserole this one is… not. It’s vegetarian meat based and tater tot influenced? Sure. Let’s go with that…

Giant Monster Cookies

May 22, 2022 Amanda Plott

From Cookie Monster Cookies, now to these Giant Monster Cookies! I love making BIG cookies. These Giant Monster Cookies are peanut butter dough based and are loaded up with chocolate chips and M&M’s! They are fairly easy to make and all come together in one bowl with no chilling required, which quite honestly is one of my favorite parts.

The peanut butter in these cookies leave them perfectly soft and a little crumbly. I was sure to swap out all of the sugar for sweetener based alternatives. You should be able to use whichever brand you enjoy the most. My natural sweetener is stevia based and measures cup-for-cup like sugar, but the brown sugar blend that I currently have uses half of what standard brown sugar calls for…