Strawberry & Coconut Matcha Chocolate Bark

February 5, 2016 Amanda Plott

Valentine's Day is approaching quickly and I'm all for a little guilty pleasure every now and again. Especially when it involves a special holiday of sorts. Although, if I'm going to have any sort of treat, I always tend to throw in a few health aspects just to make it more guilt free. And this matcha chocolate is no exception!

I'm a pretty big fan of chocolate bark, in fact it's a pretty dangerous thing for me to make because tends to go pretty quickly around here. I've been toying with matcha powder for a few weeks now after buying my very first bag of it, and I have to say, it's good stuff.

I've even gotten my mom onto the matcha train too! So much so that she's asked me to come up with ways to add it into foods rather than just drinking it all the time...

Skinny Baked Cinnamon Sugar Donut Holes (Sponsored)

February 3, 2016 Amanda Plott

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

This New Year has gotten off to a great start around here, full of new friends, new family, and lots of fun. As always for the past few years, a better diet is always towards the top of my list. While I feel that I have a pretty good handle on that, there's always room for improvement and trying new things, of course!

Once a week we have a 'donut' day here at the house, which I tend to avoid like the plague. Most of the time I'll busy myself with work and enjoy my coffee and whatever healthy breakfast option I have going on at the time. And let's face it, sometimes I'm weak and treat myself to my favorite cake style donut.

So this week on donut day, I decided to make my own better-for-you take on donut holes that we all could enjoy!...

Skinny Sugar Cookie Bites

January 23, 2016 Amanda Plott

If there's one thing that we all know and love, it's raw cookie dough. I know that when I was little, I must have eaten my weight in the stuff. And I couldn't even begin to tell you the amount of beaters that I licked or bowls that my mom let me scrape the remnants out of.

These days though, it's a whole other story. I rarely ever let my daughter 'lick the beaters', especially when there's raw egg involved. The thought of it just sends my head spinning. Thank goodness she doesn't like the texture of raw cookie dough or cake batter or I'd be in a lot more trouble!

Even so, every time that I make baked goods that childhood inclination comes creeping in.

To eat and risk it, or not to eat and be sad...

Skinny Matcha-Monster Smoothie (Sponsored)

January 14, 2016 Amanda Plott

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

My mom is not only one of my friends, she's really my very best friend and she has been for as long as I can remember. Of course, just like any other set of besties, that doesn't come without our occasional squabble. She's my complete opposite in almost every way, even down to our hair color.

I stuck out like a sore thumb as a child. A perfectly blonde and blue-eyed fair-skinned child among a gaggle of dark brown hair and beautiful olive complexions. And although it sounds like it, I wasn't adopted. That's just how things turned out as my mom remarried when I was four years old.

All of my life I've known my mom to be one of the softest and sweetest souls out there. She's the sort of person that would give any of her friends and family anything and everything just to see them smile and be happy. She's kind, generous, easy-going and all about fun. On the other end of things, I'm independent, stubborn, and sometimes rather brash. I'm a perfectionist to the core and entirely a homebody. See? She's my complete opposite, hah!...

Skinny Dark Chocolate & Cherry Scones (Sponsored)

January 11, 2016 Amanda Plott

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

So, I'm kind of in love with scones. They're easy to make, delicious, and extremely versatile. Today I wanted to make some scones that would help me bring in the New Year and help me reach my goals while also getting me into the spirit of Valentine's Day (because you know that's just around the corner too!) What better way to achieve both other than with dark chocolate and some cherries? Yum, yum.

I used one of my older scone recipes to start out as the base for this one. And it worked out beautifully with the few changes and new additions that I made to it.

What can I say? It's fun to sometimes go back to revisit older recipes while also adjusting them to my ever changing taste and desire...

Champagne Soaked 'Drunken' Gummy Bears

December 30, 2015 Amanda Plott

It doesn't get much better than this!

For part of my New Year's celebration I wanted to include as much champagne as I could and in as many ways I as I could imagine. One of the first things that I got my hands on was some champagne flavored gummy bears. Yep. True story. My gummy bears were created using Dom Pérignon Vintage Champagne too! So they're extra fancy in two flavors, Brute and Rose.

I knew right away what I wanted to do with them, soak them in champagne. Now... I've seen gummy bears soaked in lots of things, mostly hard liquors and never in merely champagne. So, I decided it was my duty to attempt such a luxury...