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...

Skinny Leftover Turkey & Mushroom Pot Pie

January 5, 2019 Amanda Plott

Can you believe it…? I STILL have meat in my freezer that’s leftover from Christmas, y’all! The turkey has now OFFICIALLY been all used up. (Though there is still plenty of ham socked away. - Someone buy me a deep freezer please and stop this madness!) With all this meat still taking over my freezer, I’m still working on coming up with delicious ways to use it all up.

So far… it’s been in a quiche, which is one of my favorite ways to use up leftovers. Another fun way is… pot pie! Even though I’m a southern girl, I don’t think I ever had a homemade pot pie. And now that I’m an adult and sticking with this healthier lifestyle, this Skinny Leftover Turkey & Mushroom Pot Pie is as close as we’re going to get!…

Garden Vegetable Soup

June 15, 2018 Amanda Plott

Last week it was 'ocean' week here in my house, and this week we're going with the theme of plants! In doing so, I decided to throw a LOT more veggies and vegetarian dishes into the mix this week. We always have a couple of vegetarian dishes every week, for health reasons, cutting the cost of food, and also because it just makes me feel better all around.

I could easily be a vegetarian. In fact, my daughter was basically a vegetarian of her own accord up until she was about 5 years old. Meat just wasn't something she was a fan of. And I can't say that I was far off from that myself with I was a little girl too.

Ready for a true side story about myself? My parents used to have to tell me that meat came from a meat tree when I was little to get me to eat it!…

Healthifed Tater Tot Casserole

November 21, 2017 Amanda Plott

Tater tot casserole. It's one of the great American classics. Almost all of us have eaten it before, mostly during our childhood years when it was one of those quick weeknight meals that the parents would put together at the end of a busy work week.

Well, that wasn't my first experience with it but I know for many of you it was. For me, it was something that I had made for my own family. At least... I'm pretty sure my mom never made it for us. She was much more about the Hamburger Helper and cans of La Choy back when I was in grade school...

Parmesan Pork Chop Sheet Pan Dinner (Sponsored)

April 17, 2017 Amanda Plott

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #AllNaturalPork #CollectiveBias

I don't know about the rest of you, but my life is still in chaos with Easter now being over and the summer fast approaching. Sometimes all I can do is a quick throw-together dinner that's in, out and done. That's why lately, I've been really geared towards 'sheet pan' dinners. The idea of a sheet pan dinner is simple, you toss dinner onto a sheet pan and bake it in the oven until it's one. No fuss. No Mess. One pan dinner.

Now that's what I'm taking about.

This Parmesan Pork Chop Sheet Pan Dinner couldn't be any more easy to prepare (really you're just chopping up veggies here.) Nor could it be any quicker to cook with merely 30-45 minutes of bake time. It's absolutely perfect for those busy weeknights!...

Cauliflower 'Fried Rice'

March 3, 2016 Amanda Plott

This week I've decided I'm going to start eating a more plant based diet. It's something that my subconscious has been slowly seeming to lead up to for the past months, and honestly I hadn't really noticed until I sat down to write out my weekly meal plan for myself last week.

I think what really got my wheels spinning on 'plant based' meals was a quote that I heard a long time ago.

"Eat food. Not a lot. And mostly plants." - Michael Pollan

It's sort of been my mantra ever since I first came across it, though sometimes I stick to it more than others. I'm not saying I'm going vegan or vegetarian by any means, just that this is what I'm trying to do more actively at home and on a more regular basis. And one of the first things to come to mind with my veggie-forward thinking was this Cauliflower 'Fried Rice'...