Zucchini Taco Skillet

October 16, 2019 Amanda Plott

Sometimes on Taco Tuesday, you just want to try something a little more outside of the box. This Zucchini Taco Skillet is not only delicious, but it’s a one pot wonder and about as guilt free as you can get in the taco department.

This taco skillet starts off with ground beef and some onions. Pretty standard stuff. Then there’s tomatoes, black beans, zucchini, and of course cheese! Plenty of cheese to go around too! For being such a quick and easy dish, it is absolutely packed with flavor…

Roasted Beet & Butternut Squash Salad (With Beet Infused Vinaigrette)

October 14, 2019 Amanda Plott

I love beets.

And the saddest part is that I went most of my life so far without knowing that. It was just in the past 5 years or so that I came to realize that I love them. I had some roasted beets on a salad and immediately fell in love. Tender and full of flavor with such minimal effort? Sign me up!

Another thing I love about beets? Their amazing natural color. Generally when cooking beets, I find myself discarding the juices. Today though? I got the notion to reuse those juices along with some olive oil to make one of the best and simplest vinaigrettes that I’ve ever had…

Fresh Turkey Salad

October 9, 2019 Amanda Plott

I’ve decided to call this ‘fresh’ turkey salad because I loaded it up with plenty of fresh fruits and veggies. No nuts. No dried fruits. Fresh, fresh, FRESH! I borrowed the base of this recipe from my Skinny ‘Leftover’ Turkey Salad, and made just a few tweaks and adjustments to get it to something that was a little more… fresh!

And now for the speech! Turkey salad as in chicken salad. Not a salad with chicken or turkey on it. But, rather a ‘salad’ that’s made up WITH turkey and chicken. The sort of thing you can smear on some toast for a turkey salad sandwich, or load on top of crackers…

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…

Pumpkin Pie Smoothie

September 29, 2019 Amanda Plott

I’ve pretty much been in smoothie mode recently which is pretty strange since I wasn’t a big fan of them in years past. I always tended to rather eat my food as opposed to drink it. But, with it being 90+ degrees here still in Austin… I figured the best way to get my pumpkin in the start of this Fall would be in the form of a smoothie.

This Pumpkin Pie Smoothie is SO. Damn. Good. There’s just enough spice and pumpkin in there to really get the feel and taste of pumpkin pie. And for well under 300 calories for a full on breakfast? I’ll take it!…

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…