Low-Carb Copycat 'Chili's Queso'

June 21, 2018 Amanda Plott

Oooooh, yes I did.

I've said it before... and I'll say it a million more times. Cheese and/or queso are my biggest weak points. I will legit do almost anything for a good cheese or queso. And one of my all time favorite guilty-pleasure quesos? Yep. The one at Chili's.

Now, their queso isn't like a traditional tex-mex queso. It's more of a chili cheese dip actually. Which, obviously I'm totally down with since it's one of my faves. Again... it's cheese. So, yes. Please, get in my mouth hole. The one thing in which you may notice about their queso is that it's clearly made using their house chili, sans beans. After a bit of plugging around a few copycat recipes, I've finally put my more 'healthy' spin on a proper knock-off…

Sunny Summer Strawberry Lemonade

June 17, 2018 Amanda Plott

Summer time means lemonade. And lemonade for me means MUST BE FRESH. Fresh lemonade is some of the best lemonade, because obviously... it's made fresh and not all garbaged up with a bunch of junk that no one needs.

Now... it used to be when I was younger that my grandmother and my mom were in the habit of making a little something called 'sun tea'. Which is basically just like it sounds. A tea, that's made in the sun. The bad thing about it is that I can't drink tea anymore due to migraine issues. SNARF. So what's the next best thing to make in the sun? Lemonade!…

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!…

Mermaid Treasure Bagel Crisps

June 9, 2018 Amanda Plott

Ocean week is coming to a close over here, and you know that I couldn't go out without a mermaid inspired treat. Since my daughter currently has an obsession with mini bagels, I thought it would be fun to make a sweet kid-friendly version of bagel crisps. Being as we're going for the mermaid look, I decided to swap a traditional cinnamon sugar topping with a more colorful option.

As you can see, the end result is pretty cute and surprisingly good too! I've never made my own bagel crisps before, so I wasn't quite sure what to expect. But, they turned out perfectly crisp; just the right amount of crunch and chew together…

Seashell Pasta Salad

June 5, 2018 Amanda Plott

We're a few days into our week long theme of the ocean over here and we're really having a fun time of it! Since we're not big on seafood in this house, coming up with clever non-fishy ocean themed recipes has proved to be... well... a little challenging. It's also been so very worth it too though!

The inspiration behind this pasta salad actually came from one of my daughter's cook books. I had to do a lot of tweaking to the original though to suit our tastes. So much so, that by the time I was done with it... it's basically a whole new recipe…

Skinny Spinach Dip (AKA Seaweed Dip)

June 3, 2018 Amanda Plott

This summer I decided that my daughter and I were going to up our summer game by having a different 'themed' week for all 10 weeks. We've got arts, crafts, and even some recipes planned to make in accordance with each theme. Our first week is going to be 'ocean' themed! We'll be going to a water park, the aquarium, and learning a lot bout the ocean.

Of course, it doesn't stop there. I really wanted to involve the kitchen in our weeks of fun too. Being as we aren't really seafood lovers here in this house, it's been more than a little tricky to find 'ocean inspired' recipes to create that are kid friendly and not seafood. This Skinny Spinach dip was my first idea!…