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!…

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!…

Pastitsio

August 20, 2022 Amanda Plott

I’m just going to start this one out by saying that this recipe does take time. While it’s fairly easy to make, there are layering components that each take some time to put together. That being said, this dish is a great one. It tastes like all the time and effort that’s been put into it. So, what is Pastitsio anyway? It’s a Greek style of lasagna basically. The main difference between lasagna and Pastitsio is that Pastitsio is made with a different style of noodle and also with a béchamel sauce rather than ricotta. It’s layered a bit differently than lasagna too.

Now, I’ve never made a béchamel sauce, and even with this being my first time doing so I found it to be pretty easy to do and is very similar to any sort of roux based sauce. The béchamel gave this dish life. There’s so much flavor packed into the sauce that the béchamel is needed to sort of cut through that intense flavor…

Bread Machine Banana Bread

August 17, 2022 Amanda Plott

I love banana bread, but I don’t like fussing around with it. And I really still don’t want to heat my kitchen up more than I have to with it being on the edges of triple digits here still. So! That’s why I decided to finally try out the ‘quick bread’ feature on my bread machine and I made some banana bread in it instead of the oven. What was the end result? Well, you tell me!

This Bread Machine Banana Bread is as easy as can be. Just dump all the ingredients in - no yeast required - and go! The bread machine does all the hard work for you, all the way from mixing to baking. And at the end of it all you have a nice loaf of fresh banana bread that you barely had to do anything for…

Air Fryer Chocolate Chip Cookie

August 11, 2022 Amanda Plott

Once again I find myself wanting something I’m not willing to turn the oven on for, so I decided to try my hand at making cookies in the air fryer. Can it be done? As it turns out - it totally can! But I decided I would make one BIG cookie instead of several little ones. Mostly for ease since I have a perfectly sized push pan that fits into the basket of my air fryer just barely.

This Air Fryer Chocolate Chip Cookie is super easy to make, and let me just say that it’s soooo good too. The air fryer gives it a unique texture that is gooey here and crisp there. And this cookie is LOADED with chocolate chip goodness. And when I say loaded, I mean completely full to the point that if you don’t like a lot of chocolate then you should consider having the chocolate chips…

Healthified Chicken & Mash Bowl

August 8, 2022 Amanda Plott

Okay, so there's this fried chicken chain restaurant that honestly I couldn't tell you the last time I ate at. They have these horribly amazing 'famous bowls' that I used to get back when I was younger and more naive when it came to food.

Fast-forward to today and I don't think that I could stomach sitting in that restaurants parking lot, much less eating anything that came out of it. Never mind that particular 'famous bowl' is nearly a whopping 800 calories and full of who-knows-what.

Even so, I decided to take on the task of re-creating that chicken bowl into one that I could eat and be proud of without feeling guilty...