Skinny 'Day Before' Mashed Potatoes

November 3, 2016 Amanda Plott

Once upon a time my mom and dad were in charge of Thanksgiving (along with all other Holiday meals) and my mom always ended up pretty stressed out, just like every other mother out there. Then along came my adult self. Together with my mom, we found the perfect end-all to the stresses of the Holiday cooking.

I had basically stumbled onto a perfectly planned out and super delicious make ahead menu plan that was complete with days, times, oven temperatures, etc. You name it, it was there. I like to consider it my Holiday Feast Code Book. Or Holiday Cooking Bible. It has been a life saver ever since it came into our lives, and I'm so happy that I've never had quite the traumatic holiday feast that some do. Oh, the horror stories I've heard...

Bruschetta

October 6, 2016 Amanda Plott

All ideas, recipes, & opinions are entirely my own. A Glassful box of wines were provided to me for this recipe and review.

Want a little cheese to go with that wine? Why, yes I do! I'll take some bruschetta as well. And maybe a full on antipasti plate while you're at it.

It's been all too long since I posted much to pair with wine. One of my favorites from a while back was the Anatomy of a Cheese Plate, which gives a good break down of what all you could have available for a wine tasting or wine enthusiast sort of party. We live in an age of wine, people! My generation is said to drink nearly half of all the wine in the United States. That's a lot of wine for one generation. I guess we were all just raised right.

My inspiration for my antipasti tonight came from one of my dear grade-school friends over at Sweet Hersey Living. Her food and recipes always leave me drooling. She's truly one of the most creative people that I've ever known...

White Bean Avocado Dip

September 28, 2016 Amanda Plott

Thank you to Graze for kindly sponsoring this post. All opinions are 100% honest & completely my own.

I'm a little bit of an avocado fiend. Okay, so... a lot of an avocado fiend. I could easily go through a whole avocado every day and completely all on my own. So when I was trying to decide what I wanted to do with these Super Beet Chips, I figured it just had to be something with avocado and it needed to be a dip.

This White Bean Avocado Dip is super easy to make, full of flavor, and is the perfect dipper companion. It's somewhere between a guacamole (with it's Mexican inspired flavors of lime and cilantro) and a hummus (with garbanzo beans being my bean of choice.) The best of both worlds, if you ask me...

Italian 'Sub' Salad

June 15, 2016 Amanda Plott

One of my favorite 'sub' sandwiches is an Italian or a 'Grinder'. It's usually loaded with Italian meats such as salami and pepperoni, provolone cheese, and plenty of vegetables including tomatoes, olives, pepper rings and lettuce. Yum! It's a powerhouse of bold flavors with lots of zest and zing! Flavor, flavor, flavor.

So, today I decided to turn that favorite sandwich of mine into a salad. Why? Mostly because we're getting into the high end of the heat index here in Texas now and I don't even feel like toasting bread for fear of adding heat to the house. Yes, I'm absolutely serious about that...

Southwest 'Fried' Pickles

May 5, 2016 Amanda Plott

Recently, I had the honor to speak with Brooke Griffin, creator of SkinnyMom.com! I've been part of the SkinnyMom community for a while now, and it was truly a pleasure to get my hands on and review the new SkinnySuppers Cookbook that Brooke just released. It's full of 125 lightened healthier meals for your family.

She has some super yummy looking recipes, plenty of tips, tricks, and advice for the kitchen and surviving dinner time! It's a great read with plenty of home style and southern flavors. One of the first recipes that stood out to me was her Southwest 'Fried' Pickles. After all, who doesn't love a good fried pickle?...

Pesto, Spinach & Sun Dried Tomato Stuffed Sweet Potato (Crock Pot)

April 28, 2016 Amanda Plott

I've been a huge fan of cooking my potatoes in my crock pot for a good while now. It's a trick that I picked up a few years back and tend to use it when I'm feeling particularly lazy; being slammed by another good storm this week, I was just that. When it rains, it pours.

So, I decided to use this crock pot trick once again with making these amazing stuffed sweet potatoes. What I like most about cooking my potatoes this way is that they are entirely hands off, they don't really get 'over done' or 'under done', and I don't have to heat up my house with the oven being on...