Halloumi Summer Lunch

May 3, 2019 Amanda Plott

It’s been a strange week, to be sure. Within my family we have seen a birth, a death, and now this weekend a wedding! Needless to say, the emotions have been all over the place - along with my sanity. So, I’ve been keeping things as simple as could be lately. Even in the sense of food!

This Halloumi Summer Lunch is as simple and easy as they can come. Only one thing is cooked, and that’s the halloumi. Don’t know what halloumi is? Well, it’s time to find out! Halloumi is a Greek staple cheese that is generally made with goat’s milk. But, I’ve seen it made with other milks too. Halloumi is a fun cheese. It’s firm, salty, and doesn’t really ever melt…

Simple Wasa Cracker Snack

April 23, 2019 Amanda Plott

My fridge, just like most fridges right now, is stocked full of hard boiled bright colored eggs. And no matter how prepared any of us are for it… we always always have leftovers that we just don’t know what to do with. Thankfully, I was hungry this morning and was forced to rummage through the kitchen to put together some sense of a breakfast/brunch/lunch bite for myself.

It’s the day before I go to the grocery store so my pantry and fridge are running on fumes right now. Pickings were slim, but! Somehow I managed. What do you need for this snack? Crackers. Avocado. Tomatoes. Hardboiled egg. That is all…

Spring Onion & Mushroom Steamed Dumplings

April 21, 2019 Amanda Plott

With one of my little brothers coming into town this weekend from Colorado, I thought I would be a good sister and surprise him with food. That’s usually what I do for my guests. Shocking, I know. I wanted to surprise him with some of his favorites. And Asian food has always been one of his favorites. And being as he could eat vegetarian at almost every meal if it were left up to him, I thought I would make him some vegetarian steamed dumplings.

Hey, I’ll look for any chance I can to use my bamboo steamer. So, I got to work with planning out these dumplings. I decided to stuff them with one of my favorite veggie swaps. Mushrooms!…

Instant Pot Chickpea Curry

April 17, 2019 Amanda Plott

Meatless Monday is continuing to grow in popularity. To be very honest, there’s more than one meatless night in my house every week. As I’ve sad before, it would be really really easy for me to turn into a vegetarian. This Instant Pot Chickpea Curry really takes the cake though. Not only is it vegetarian, it’s vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free and only takes about 10 minutes to make. And that includes prep AND cook time. Don’t worry, you can thank me later.

This curry is started off with yellow onion and then loaded up spices. The trick to any good curry, is to let the curry powder and seasonings cook for a couple of minutes BEFORE adding in the other components. Warming the spices here gives you more depth of flavor and really wakes the seasoning up!…

Skinny Whipped Feta Dip

April 8, 2019 Amanda Plott

The weather here in Texas right now is all over the place. We’ve gone from near freezing, to sunny and 90 degrees, and on further to torrential downpours of rain all in the matter of a couple of days. I almost feel like I should be doing the reverse of a rain dance at this point. But, besides bringing in a plethora of allergens, the weather has left us with an immense amount of Spring flowers this season.

So, I’m pushing on with the Spring inspired recipes. And this Skinny Whipped Feta Dip is topping the charts. To go along with the Spring season, I picked up some Spring inspired essentials. Namely, fresh produce including zucchini, tomatoes, lemon, and dill!…

Old-Fashioned Southern Lunch Box

April 2, 2019 Amanda Plott

I’ve still been giving a lot of thought to lunches lately. Mostly because it’s a meal that’s pretty easy for me to skip out on. Which is never a good thing. Plus, my mom has needed some fun lunch ideas, so it just seemed to work out perfectly. Originally, I had thoughts of doing an ‘all American’ style lunch box but pimento cheese was being craved so… here we are.

I’m calling this an old-fashioned southern lunch box because when I was little, I remember my grandmother making me pimento cheese sandwiches on wonder bread. Served with a pickle and maybe some plain-jane potato chips. So this is a nod to that!…