Low-Carb Copycat 'Chili's Queso'

June 21, 2018 Amanda Plott

Oooooh, yes I did.

I've said it before... and I'll say it a million more times. Cheese and/or queso are my biggest weak points. I will legit do almost anything for a good cheese or queso. And one of my all time favorite guilty-pleasure quesos? Yep. The one at Chili's.

Now, their queso isn't like a traditional tex-mex queso. It's more of a chili cheese dip actually. Which, obviously I'm totally down with since it's one of my faves. Again... it's cheese. So, yes. Please, get in my mouth hole. The one thing in which you may notice about their queso is that it's clearly made using their house chili, sans beans. After a bit of plugging around a few copycat recipes, I've finally put my more 'healthy' spin on a proper knock-off…

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!…

Low-Carb Cauliflower Pizza Dip

May 24, 2018 Amanda Plott

Ever crave pizza but not all the guilt that goes along with it?

Yeah, me too!

I think though, that I may have finally found a way to sate that pizza urge without all the guilt to follow. This cauliflower pizza dip is low-carb, gluten-free, keto-friendly, and... wait for it... absolutely freaking amazing.

You can trust me when I say that no one who eats this dip will ever guess that it's better-for-you in any way, shape, or form. That's because it feels rich and decadent. It feels naughty. It feels so bad... but tastes so good…

Vegan Queso

May 5, 2018 Amanda Plott

This is it, people. This is what we've been training for. ...Happy Cinco de Mayo! In honor of my most favorite excuse of the year to eat Mexican food, I decided to make a Tex-Mex 'must have' into the ULTIMATE vegan bite of goodness.

That's right. I made VEGAN QUESO.

I will say that making vegan queso has been much trial and error. The handful of recipes that I came up with and/or tried out were atrocious. They were textured strangely, tasted weird, and were anything other than queso. This queso though? It's good. Real good. It's smooth, creamy, and has just enough kick to it…

Baked Feta

May 3, 2018 Amanda Plott

I'm tired, y'all. It's the last few weeks of school until summer break and I am dragging my booty just as much (if not more) than my sweet little girl. I'm tired and the struggle to eat real food couldn't be any greater. It's so easy to talk yourself out of eating the right things, the good things, the healthier things. I have found one way to make it easier to not fall into that trap though, and that's by following the K.I.S.S. method.

Keep. It. Stupid. Simple.

This baked feta isn't fake. It's simple. It's a REAL dish. It's a REAL bite. It's REAL. It's RAW. And it is beautiful…