Southwest Grilled Pork Tenderloin Salad

July 13, 2016 Amanda Plott

I've been challenged again this year! They say that the best cooks know how to utilize any ingredients placed in front of them. I'd like to think that my handy skills with creating 'pantry' meals from my kitchen aids me in this.

Today I put my chops to the test in this Chopped At Home Challenge with Sargento®! My goal was to create a recipe within the theme of 'grilling' using all of the secret “basket” ingredients; pork tenderloin, cherry/grape tomatoes, broccoli, and Sargento Chef Blends 4 State Cheddar. Of course, looking at the last three ingredients my mind instantly went to a chef or cobb salad. But, what to do with the pork? Being from Texas, my first thought was grilled pork with a spicy seasoned kick. The spice is what kicked this off into a twist on a southwest salad...

Healthified Crock Pot Beef & Broccoli

May 20, 2016 Amanda Plott

So, as you can see I'm busy blowing the dust off of some of my older and more popular dishes. I've been making minor changes and updating pictures along the way as I've needed to. Of course, Beef and broccoli is one of those things that is always a crowd pleaser. It's certainly one of my favorite asian dishes!

That being said, it's likely that a serving of it at your favorite local restaurant will cost you a good 600+ calories, a lot of sugar, and even more sodium. Yikes! No thanks...

It's take-out fake-out time...

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...

Steamed Vegetable Dumplings

April 16, 2016 Amanda Plott

I've been debating buying a bamboo steamer for a good long while now since I've been in full on wonton mode, and there isn't any better (or healthy) way to make potstickers or dumplings other than by steaming them. Needless to say, I finally broke down and got the steamer. I love it too because I can use it to steam other things too, not just dumplings.

I need something for steaming tamales too! So this was a good excuse to cover all my steaming bases.

The first thing I wanted to make with my bamboo steamer was some perfectly easy vegetable dumplings. These dumplings seriously couldn't be more easy to put together, and I'd like to think that after sealing up my fair share of wontons lately that I've become a lot more proficient with it...

Broccoli Turkey Cheese Pretzel Pockets

November 24, 2015 Amanda Plott

I've been working hard for the past few years with coming up with interesting ways to use up that leftover turkey from Thanksgiving. One of my most recent favorites was this Skinny 'Leftover' Turkey Salad, and one of my favorites from years past was the Skinny Turkey & Wild Rice Soup.

I still have another idea that I plan to have up some time after Thanksgiving, but I must say that this Broccoli Turkey Cheese Pretzel Pocket will be hard to beat!

What's better is that this Pretzel Pocket is easy to make and de{light}ful for both kids and adults. I mean, who doesn't love a soft pretzel that's been stuffed with turkey, broccoli, and oozy-gooey cheese?

San Francisco's Broccoli & Cheese Pizza (Sponsored)

November 9, 2015 Amanda Plott

This post was brought to you by Collective Bias, Inc. and it's advertiser. I received compensation to write this post … but, all opinions expressed are my own. #InsideOutMovieNight #CollectiveBias

It's here! It's here! It's finally here! The movie 'Inside Out' is out to buy, and just in time for movie night too. To celebrate the release I decided to re-create the infamous broccoli pizza from one of my favorites scenes in the movie.

"Congratulations, San Francisco! You've ruined pizza!" - Anger

I'd have to respectfully disagree with you, Anger.

"Who puts broccoli on pizza?" - Joy

I do! And I love it too. I mean... what goes better with broccoli than cheese? And what goes better on pizza than cheese? Besides, I will put vegetables in any sneaky place that I can to get my little one to eat more of them!...