Southwest Couscous Salad

September 7, 2018 Amanda Plott

I love couscous. I love it in traditional form and I love it Israeli style too. What's the difference though? Traditional couscous is smaller grained and the Israeli one is more of a 'pearl' couscous. Small little beads of 'pasta' that are extremely versatile and can be amazingly delicious!

The lunchtime struggle is real, and I know it is. I've found that if I don't have something prepared ahead of time for lunch, that I'll often go without or end up eating a less than stellar choice. With couscous being one of my favorite things, and pasta salad on the mind, I thought it would be a great time to make a couscous 'pasta' salad!…

Southwest Egg Bites (Instant Pot)

August 3, 2018 Amanda Plott

I've had a rough couple days of it. There were two recipes that I was SO excited about sharing, but... in the midst of testing them, they didn't turn out nearly as well as I had planned. They both tasted great. But, there was just something off about the process and the directions. ...Which means that I've still got some work to do.

So needless to say, it's been a couple of days in between recipes again. Which is not my favorite thing to do. I would much rather keep it fresh and new around here. But, I also don't want to put anything up here that I am not completely happy with. If I'm stressing over the cooking of a dish, that means you will be too! And that's just no good.

That's why today I woke up bright and early and reverted back to one of my current FAVORITES. Egg bites…

Low-Carb Farmer's Market Queso

June 13, 2018 Amanda Plott

Dear queso... Let me count the ways that I love thee...

Queso has been my Achilles' heel for years now. Melted cheesy goodness. I mean... who can pass it up? Well, not this girl! I'm always looking for ways to make my queso feel a little less guilty though. And maybe not just feel less guilty, but to actually be less guilty.

While this queso, and any proper queso, isn't exactly light. I can say that this queso is low-carb and absolutely loaded with veggies. Which, you know, makes anyone feel a bit better about what they're eating. Right? Right!…

Baja Chicken Tacos (Crock Pot or Instant Pot)

June 7, 2018 Amanda Plott

If you haven't noticed by now... I'm not exactly a fan of sea food.

Yikes! I know, I know... one of the leanest proteins and I won't eat it. And, to top it off... I have absolutely no reason as to why I don't like it. I lived on the Oregon coast for five years during my childhood and I can still count on one hand the amount of times that I've eaten seafood knowingly.

It's strictly mental. I can't say that it's the taste, texture, allergy or anything else. I just can't bring myself to eat seafood.

That being said, it's still ocean week here over at my house and I wanted to give this recipe a bit of an update in the looks department. Don't worry though! I haven't change the recipe at all…

Tropical Chicken Salad & Honey Balsamic Vinaigrette

May 16, 2018 Amanda Plott

Summer lovin' happened so fast...

This salad was inspired by the one served at a local Mexican Restaurant that I first went to a few years back now. I was first introduced to the salad while at lunch with my Sister-in-Law and Aunt. I think it was of the best salads that I had ever eaten. And that's saying a lot since I have eaten my fair share of salads over my lifetime.

I've haven't been back to that restaurant in a good long while. Maybe that's because a couple of years back I cracked the code on their salad!

Vegan Queso

May 5, 2018 Amanda Plott

This is it, people. This is what we've been training for. ...Happy Cinco de Mayo! In honor of my most favorite excuse of the year to eat Mexican food, I decided to make a Tex-Mex 'must have' into the ULTIMATE vegan bite of goodness.

That's right. I made VEGAN QUESO.

I will say that making vegan queso has been much trial and error. The handful of recipes that I came up with and/or tried out were atrocious. They were textured strangely, tasted weird, and were anything other than queso. This queso though? It's good. Real good. It's smooth, creamy, and has just enough kick to it…