Halloween Amaretti Cookies

September 28, 2022 Amanda Plott

I’ve taken Amaretti cookies and turned them into a lightened up version that also happens to be seasonal to Fall! They’re lightened up easily with a simple swap of half of the sugar for natural sweetener. I prefer to use a stevia or monk fruit sweetener. The important thing here is that the sweetener should measure cup-for-cup like sugar. Other than that, feel free to use whichever you prefer.

The only real thing I did here to make them ‘Halloween’ was the sprinkles that I used. So honestly, you could swap out sprinkles for other seasonal colors and themes to change these cookies up! These also call for cake batter extract, which can be tricky to find in some places. If you don’t have it and can’t find it, no big deal, just use some vanilla extract instead!…

Cheeseburger Salad Jar

September 25, 2022 Amanda Plott

It’s the weekend so why not do a little bit of meal prep work ahead of the work week? These Cheeseburger Salad Jar are super easy to make and are the equivalent of a cheeseburger turned into a salad and then shoved into a jar for ease of grab-and-go lunch on the run. It’s got everything in there that you know and love about a traditional cheeseburger.

Ground beef, lettuce, tomato, pickles, cheese, and of course special sauce for dressing! It doesn’t have to stop there either. I also drizzled a little bit of ketchup and mustard over mine because it gave it even more of that cheeseburger feel!…

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…

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!…

Apple Pecan Jar Salad

August 23, 2022 Amanda Plott

So, while it may be starting to cool off, it’s still very hot here. That being said as we slide into the end of August I am READY for Fall this year more than I even usually am. Which is saying a lot since Fall is probably my favorite season next to Spring - which we entirely skipped this year somehow and instead just went Winter straight into Summer. Bleh.

This Apple Pecan Jar Salad gives me all the vibes of Fall while also being light, cold, and crisp while we’re in the middle of this heat still. So it’s definitely a win-win situation. Plus, these jar salads are absolutely perfect for having on hand when you want and need a bite for lunch but also don’t have time to whip something up. Make ahead meals for the win!…