Zucchini Noodle & Mozzarella Salad with Lemon Basil Vinaigrette

September 8, 2016 Amanda Plott

After a couple of weeks of visiting family, busy schedules, and meat heavy meals, my brother and I decided to call it. Together we're going mostly vegetarian this week with just one chicken meal planned and one 'wild card' night in the mix. While I generally have kept most of my vegetarian recipes rather hearty, sometimes... less is more.

This light and simple zucchini noodle salad is completely bursting with bright flavors, and with such few ingredients and low effort too! It makes for a perfect little lunch or even a decently sized side dish for a dinner. I'm thinking along side some baked Italian chicken breast. Yum!...

5 Ingredient Whole Wheat Stromboli

May 19, 2016 Amanda Plott

Holy Stromboli! Lately for me, it seems like I've trying to get back to the more simple and wholesome meals. Things that were and still are familiar to me from my childhood. One thing that we cooked a few times when I was younger was Stromboli. Though, if I'm not mistaken, my mom would use refrigerated pizza dough and something more like pepperoni for the meat.

Me though? I'm all about salami. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't throw pepperoni out of my Stromboli. I just like the fact that salami has a few less calories and fat, while still having the same amount of protein. So, why not?...

Avocado Caprese & Olive Oil Caviar

August 19, 2015 Amanda Plott

I got to have some extra fun in the kitchen today with my lunch. With it still being rather hot here in Texas, I've been trying to keep my lunches pretty light and fresh. Caprese salads are always one of my staple go-to keeping it cool sort of lunches. They're easy to make, taste great, and are pretty healthy to boot.

I've had this little jar of olive oil caviar sitting on my counter for a while now. It's something that I haven't tried before and one of those things that I was nearly so excited to use that I couldn't think of a use for application that I felt would do it's genius justice. Then... it struck me!

Traditionally a caprese salad is drizzled with a little bit of olive oil, so I thought this would be the perfect way to show off the olive oil caviar in a simple and extremely tasty dish that takes little time and effort to toss together; using the olive oil caviar in place of the drizzle...

Skinny Mexican Style Caprese Salad

July 21, 2015 Amanda Plott

I've been in love with caprese salads for a long time now. I think that my love of them actually started some years ago when I worked as a waitress in a newly opening restaurant when I was visiting home for the summer one year from college. It was a horrific experience, but only because I am not good at the whole waitressing thing. That job takes a very skilled and specific type of person to do properly. And I am not skilled or specific to customer servicing!

It did give me an entirely new perspective though on restaurants and I have always had another level or respect for those that wait tables.

Anyway, the restaurant had a caprese salad and I felt like eating vegetarian that day; plus, I mean... I got half off meals and they had great food there so I was pretty set on trying almost everything on the menu. It was love at first bite...

Melon, Mozzarella, Tomato & Prosciutto Snack

July 17, 2015 Amanda Plott

So, I've found lately that eating a couple of lighter snacks in the afternoon instead of an actual lunch has been fitting into my crazy schedule a bit better. Especially when at least one of the snacks includes cheese, I mean... come on. Who doesn't look forward to a little indulgence with cheese? I know I do!

This past week I ordered up a local fresh mozzarella from my grocery service, which I have to say... tastes about a hundred times better from the fresh mozzarella that you get from the grocery store. I was absolutely shocked with the difference between the local fresh mozzarella and what I've become used to. So if you can get your hands on some local mozzarella, I implore you to do so.

You won't regret it!...

Skinny Pesto & Mozzarella Stuffed Chicken

October 17, 2014 Amanda Plott

How could anyone resist a stuffed chicken breast? Well, certainly not me! Especially when it's stuffed with my favorite pesto and fresh melty mozzarella.

Yes. I'm allowed to say 'melty' here because it's oh-so-fitting.

A few weeks ago I had this amazingly delicious caprese style salad with smoked chicken breast and some sort of lemon pesto involved. I sort of based this stuffed chicken off that idea by adding some lemon zest into the breading mix.

The addition of the lemon definitely adds a new dimension of flavor to the chicken here, so you'll want to be sure not to leave that out!...