Lightened-Up Cookie Monster Brookie Cake

April 6, 2019 Amanda Plott

As it turns out… I have a cookie monster living in my house and she’s turning 9 years old tomorrow. Though maybe she’s more of a cake monster since she’s somehow managing to get three birthday cakes this year due to a series of fortunate events. Yes, FORTUNATE events.

Every ear for my daughter’s birthday, I make her something special that I can take up to her school at lunch and let her share with her friends. This time around she requested a cookie cake. Which… is what I made last year. And we can’t do the same thing over again. So! I decided to take that cookie cake a step further and make it into a BROOKIE cake. What’s a brookie, you ask? A brownie and a cookie combined together!…

Healthified Taco Salad

April 4, 2019 Amanda Plott

This is a quick and easy salad to toss together for a weeknight meal that everyone in the family can enjoy! Yes, even the little ones. All in all I would say that the meal takes just at 30 minutes to prepare and cook in it's entirety. That's it!

Taco salad is one of those great ways to enjoy all the flavors of a taco without quite so much guilt as you would have if you scarfed down 3-4 regular tacos - shell and all. I've kept this recipe light and yet still very filling and satisfying...

Old-Fashioned Southern Lunch Box

April 2, 2019 Amanda Plott

I’ve still been giving a lot of thought to lunches lately. Mostly because it’s a meal that’s pretty easy for me to skip out on. Which is never a good thing. Plus, my mom has needed some fun lunch ideas, so it just seemed to work out perfectly. Originally, I had thoughts of doing an ‘all American’ style lunch box but pimento cheese was being craved so… here we are.

I’m calling this an old-fashioned southern lunch box because when I was little, I remember my grandmother making me pimento cheese sandwiches on wonder bread. Served with a pickle and maybe some plain-jane potato chips. So this is a nod to that!…

Overnight Blueberry French Toast Bake

March 31, 2019 Amanda Plott

Sundays are for brunching, and this Sunday is no different. With knowing tomorrow is Monday, and that today was going to be a lazy day for the most part, I decided to go ahead and make breakfast yesterday. Well, what does that mean? It means Overnight Blueberry French Toast Bake, that’s what it means!

This Overnight Blueberry French Toast Bake is made ahead of time and sits overnight in the fridge where the big cubes of hearty bread cans oat up eggs, cream cheese, blueberries and the like. Then in the morning, it’s ready to be baked and enjoyed!…

Greek Pita'za

March 29, 2019 Amanda Plott

It’s pretty common knowledge that in this house, we have pizza (in one form or another) at least once a week. This time around, I decided to have a little more fun with it than usual. And I even had the aded bonus of having my mini-me chef in the kitchen to help!

As is often the case, I asked my daughter if she wanted to help out with dinner. Surprisingly enough, she actually said yes to me this time! It’s been a long stent of her not wanting to. Good thing I had something simple and easy planned. During these last couple of months ahead of summer, I’m looking for all the hacks on quick and easy eating. And this pita or naan crust pizza is perfect…

Lightened Up Carrot Cake

March 27, 2019 Amanda Plott

I’ve made a good lot of carrot cakes in my time. Anywhere from traditional to gluten-free, and a few others along the way. There’s a few things I’ve learned in my carrot cake making journey. One is that you always ALWAYS need a good simple cream cheese frosting with it. And two is that it needs to be chunky.

I like my carrot cake loaded up with plenty of the good stuff. Carrots, raisins, pineapple, coconut, and yes… even nuts!

I based this ultimate carrot cake off of the one that I made for my daughter’s 2nd birthday. It’s an ingredient heavy cake, just like most carrots cakes are, but I promise you that the cake itself is rather easy to make. No overly complicated instructions…