French Bread

June 15, 2020 Amanda Plott

I’ve been doing a lot of baking lately. Especially now that I got ALL NEW appliances in my kitchen finally! I’ve been waiting to do it for years and years now and I finally was able to do so. Between that, limiting trips to the store, and having my hands on a handy-dandy bread maker, I’ve been a bread making fool!

This French Bread is simple. It’s as standard as bread comes and is made with just a handful of pantry staple ingredients. Flour, oil, salt, sugar, yeast, that’s pretty much all there is to it. I have to say, even if you don’t have a bread machine, this bread is still pretty easy to make and will easily rival any fresh bakery bread…

Roasted Red Bell Pepper & Tomato Soup

November 22, 2019 Amanda Plott

During the colder end of Fall and on into Winter months, I like to stick to comfort food classics. And there isn’t much that’s more of a comfort food or a classic than a nice warm bowl of homemade tomato soup. I’ve made a lot of tomato soup in my past, and for this Roasted Red Bell Pepper & Tomato Soup I used one of my favorite recipes and changed it up just a bit.

With at least one person in my house trying to avoid onions, I decided today to swap the onion in my original recipe for some red bell pepper. The end result was this delicious, hearty, Roasted Red Bell Pepper & Tomato Soup…

Skinny Butternut Squash & Apple Soup

October 4, 2019 Amanda Plott

Oh, my goodness. Oh. My. Goodness.

The first time I intended to make this soup, I had it planned for a while , and oddly enough a similar butternut squash soup was served to me at The King's Feast of The Texas Renaissance Festival. I had never had butternut squash soup before then, but I immediately fell in love. It was thick and rich and served with some sort of toasted seed and herb topping.

It was such a good soup that I thought I would have dreams about it that night.

I was a bit curious when I got home if the recipe that I had come up with would be anything similar to the amazing one that I had at the feast. Needless to say I was somewhat skeptical that so few of ingredients would actually come together to make such an amazing soup…

Carrot Ginger Dressing

September 24, 2019 Amanda Plott

I’ve been playing around a lot lately with adding more and more vegetables to my meals and trying to do so in a sneaky and more clever way than just cooking them and plopping them on my plate. This Carrot Ginger Dressing is a fun asian twist on a vinaigrette.

I’m not quite sure how, but somehow the dressing ends up with an almost creamy texture. It’s light and bright and has just enough of a kick of ginger in there to keep you coming back for more. With it being so quick and easy to make that I’ll be using it this entire week for my lunches…

Skinny Southwest Egg Rolls + Avocado Vinaigrette Dip (Sponsored)

September 5, 2019 Amanda Plott

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #ChooseMazola #CollectiveBias

Here's another 'take-out fake-out' today for one of my old favorites. It’s no secret that I'm a big fan of baking things as opposed to most other cooking methods out there. I find that it's better-for-you and that it often comes out tasting even better than other versions. The flavors just seem to stand out more. This is also why I use Mazola.com.

Want to find out more? A clinical study showed Mazola Corn Oil reduces cholesterol 2x more than extra virgin olive oil. To learn more about this claim, see Mazola.com.

With September being National Cholesterol Awareness month, and the fact that I'm not all about frying, I put my noodle to work to come up with a better-for-you baked version of Southwest Egg Rolls. So, with a little research and a lot of love, I'm pretty sure I got this one 100% right.

Egg roll and wonton wrappers have been a pretty big part of my kitchen play time lately. I just love how versatile they are. Plus, they are lower in calories than most other doughs. So, to keep these Southwest Egg Roll better-for-you, I made a few careful swaps. First, I used chicken breast as a leaner cut of meat. As a second swap, I used a reduced fat shredded cheese instead of a full-fat version. And finally, I used Mazola Corn Oil on the egg rolls and also in the vinaigrette dip!

Mazola Corn Oil is an all-purpose, cholesterol free cooking oil that is a smart heart-healthy* choice for your family. *See Mazola.com for more information on the relationship between corn oil and heart health. It has a variety of uses including baking, grilling, sautéing, stir frying, or mixing up a marinade or dressing…

Skinny Turkey Taco Breakfast Bowl

August 28, 2019 Amanda Plott

Good morning sunshine!

Who wants a breakfast that's full of protein, under 300 calories, and gluten-free? This girl! This lean breakfast bowl is full of flavor, easy to toss together, and can even be made ahead for up to 4 days at a time; saving you time and calories.

I know when I was first introduced to the idea of a breakfast bowl with rice and turkey, I was a little skeptical. I've never had rice for breakfast, unless it was in the form of a 'rice cereal' or sweet 'breakfast rice'. It was a notion that I quickly threw out the window this week...