Crock Pot Mojo Pork + Y-USA Food Desert Challenge

July 25, 2016 Amanda Plott

This post was sponsored by Y-USA as part of an Influencer Activation for Influence Central.

It's time to get serious for a minute, folks! When I was in high school my family came in on some pretty rough times and there were some scary moments when my mom even admitted to me that she 'didn't know what she was going to put on the table'. Life was hard and things were a struggle, but we made it through together as a family and were much stronger when we came out the other side because of it.

I learned a great deal from my experiences during those high school years. I'm definitely more mindful and knowledgeable about certain things in life; money and food being two of them. Let's just say that my brother and I can rock the socks off cooking ramen noodles.

Money comes and goes and there is nothing that is guaranteed. So when I was approached to take the Good Desert Challenge, it was something that I just knew I had to do.

Over the summer break, families welcome fun-in-the-sun and BBQ, but for those families who rely on school meal programs to ensure their kids eat three square meals a day, it can prove challenging...

Healthified Crock Pot Teriyaki Chicken Bowls

April 29, 2016 Amanda Plott

There are a handful of recipes that I have been developing off and on through the years for one reason or another. Some of them don't turn out the first run or two, others I burn myself out in, and some take a specific amount of tweaking to get it just right. This happens to be one of those recipes.

When I was younger, I ate a lot more fast food just as almost any young American. My mom was not nearly as excited about food and cooking as I am, and that is completely fine. Everyone has their own passion. So, my dad ended up doing the most of the cooking on the nights that he could, but sometimes he would come home way too exhausted to manage; this was around the time when I was in high school...

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...

5 Ingredient Lean Beef & Bourbon Stroganoff (Crock Pot)

January 21, 2016 Amanda Plott

I knew that when I woke up Monday morning, something was off. And sure enough later in the afternoon after my three hour drive home from visiting family this weekend, my throat started to swell up and get inflamed. By that evening my teeth were even hurting with all the congestion that had started to form!

Thankfully, I had gotten things pretty much in order before I left - for the week to come. My shopping list was ready to go and my meal plan was complete. Here's to planning ahead! All I had to do was make through the daunting trip to the grocery store and I'd be set.

With getting things back organized, I was sure to plan simple meals for this week, so this 5 ingredient stroganoff was a must....

Healthified Hoppin' John (Crock Pot)

January 2, 2016 Amanda Plott

Here in the south, black-eyed peas are a staple when bringing in the New Year. Funny enough, my mother was actually telling me the story this morning of how black-eyed peas became known in the south as a symbol of 'good luck'. Apparently though, there's a lot of stories out there that tie black-eyed peas and luck to one another.

No matter the actual and factual truth, having black-eyed peas on New Year's day has been a tradition in my family for as long as I can remember. Seriously, my mom wouldn't let us go to bed on New Year's day until we had at least one spoonful of what were then plain old canned black-eyed peas.

Thankfully, as soon as cooking came into my life our take on black-eyed peas changed. It sort of became my mission around New Year's to create better-for-you and delicious ways to enjoy black-eyed peas...

Cuban Black Beans (Crock Pot)

December 12, 2015 Amanda Plott

I was trying to use up some of the odd-and-end things that I had leftover in the kitchen this week (mostly to start making room for Christmas foods), and one of the ways that I like to do that is with a nice pot of homemade beans.

Black beans are one of out family favorites, in fact for several years there it was one of the only sources of protein that I could manage to get my little girl to eat. She was basically a vegan for the first four years of her life, by her own choice of course. She's always had a pretty sensitive palette, especially when it comes to spice, so I'll blame it on that.

Beans have always been in her 'safe zone' so, I've made myself rather familiar with making beans in my crock pot over the years. I've found that beans are one of my favorite and most versatile ingredients...