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!…

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!…

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!…

Club Sub in a Tub

June 11, 2018 Amanda Plott

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Buddig. All opinions are entirely my own.

So, back when I was in high school, my parents had a boat. It wasn't a big boat or an expensive boat. Just an old clunker of a boat. In fact, it ended up sinking. At the dock. ...And almost with my grandmother on it too! ...Even so, our family had a lot of great fun and adventures on that boat. Many a summer night and day were spent out there on the water, together, as a family. It's truly some of my fondest memories.

Almost anytime we'd go spend the day out on the boat, we'd stop by this old gas station along the way to fuel up good ole' Titanic and grab some sub sandwiches. I almost always got the same thing, a simple club sub sandwich.

Several months back, my dad went out and bought another old boat; after years of not having one and living within near walking distance of a lake now. He's been working on fixing it up and hopes to have it in full working order for the beginning of July for my mom's birthday. That got me to thinking about my old long lost friend 'club the sub sandwich'…

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…

Baja Chicken Tacos (Crock Pot or Instant Pot)

June 7, 2018 Amanda Plott

If you haven't noticed by now... I'm not exactly a fan of sea food.

Yikes! I know, I know... one of the leanest proteins and I won't eat it. And, to top it off... I have absolutely no reason as to why I don't like it. I lived on the Oregon coast for five years during my childhood and I can still count on one hand the amount of times that I've eaten seafood knowingly.

It's strictly mental. I can't say that it's the taste, texture, allergy or anything else. I just can't bring myself to eat seafood.

That being said, it's still ocean week here over at my house and I wanted to give this recipe a bit of an update in the looks department. Don't worry though! I haven't change the recipe at all…