Lightened-Up Peach Cobbler

July 6, 2024 Amanda Plott

Everyone likes a good cobbler. Okay... well, except for my little brother who doesn't like any sort of 'hot fruit', but he is a strange and unusual creature. Most of us though, we enjoy it. In fact, most of us in my family enjoy it so much that I think we may end up going against the grain and swap out cobbler in the future for birthdays. Rather than the usual cake that either doesn't get eaten, or isn't eaten until the next day.

When I got a handful of local Texas grown peaches this week, I just knew that I had to make a peach cobbler with them. This cobbler right here is pretty special. I might even go so far as to call it magical…

Crispy Roasted Beans & Whipped Feta

May 16, 2023 Amanda Plott

This Crispy Roasted Beans & Whipped Feta is possibly my new favorite appetizer or snack that I’ve come across in a good long while. No only are the beans seasoned up just right, the whipped feta is on point. The two together make for one of the most tasty snacks there is. I used Cannelini beans here, but butter beans, lava beans, or any large white bean will work here. The larger the bean the better for the dipping.

When I say that the beans are seasoned well, I mean they are seasoned well. There is a lot of garlic and onion per capita here. And the fresh rosemary being baked with them? Mm-mm! You can’t go wrong here…

Skinny Balsamic Vinaigrette

March 24, 2023 Amanda Plott

I actually made this Balsamic Vinaigrette back in 2013, so naturally after 10 years I thought it was due for an update. Balsamic Vinaigrette is one of my favorite salad dressings. It’s tangy and light and full of flavor.

I've lightened up this classic dressing by subbing water and chia seeds for some of the oil. It's an old but rather faithful trick that I picked up from my mom some years ago when she would make her own Italian salad dressing. And by 'make her own', I mean mix oil and water with a packet…

Skinny Cranberry Bliss Bars

December 16, 2022 Amanda Plott

Here’s another recipe from years back that needed an update in the looks department… but, not so much to the recipe itself! Here’s the original post below.

The madness is just about over here with the mass of holidays! Phew, thank goodness! I was happy to step back and have a few days to spend with my family, but now it's time to get back to work. Okay, so... here we go.

I've been wanting to make a skinny variation of the Cranberry Bliss Bar that they have Starbucks for a long long long time now. I have, in fact, had this recipe in my handy-dandy little note book for quite a while now (about two years actually) but for whatever reason it keeps getting pushed back each year.

Well, a few weeks before Christmas one of my aunts sent me a special request for a Skinny Cranberry Bliss Bar recipe. She mentioned that the one at Starbucks is something like 360 calories for one bar. Yikes! And just like me, it's one of her favorite holiday treats! So, of course I was more than happy to oblige…

Simple Mango Salad + Lime Dressing

September 1, 2022 Amanda Plott

It may be cooling off outside finally, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t love salads any less. I was in need of a good ‘tropical’ style of salad to pair with something else that I’ve been working on for a couple of weeks now and this Simple Mango Salad + Lime Dressing slid into fill that role perfectly. This small and simple salad is deceiving. It’s delicate and delightful while being big and bold in flavors. And one of the best parts is that it only takes a handful of ingredients to make.

Being as it’s got just the limited ingredients, it doesn’t take long at all to make - including the homemade dressing which, let me just tell you, is SO good. That being said, there isn’t a whole lot here to substitute for lighter alternatives…

Rainbow Soda Cake

June 15, 2022 Amanda Plott

Another continuation of rainbow inspired eats and treats geared towards PRIDE month! This fun and vibrant rainbow cake is made with literally just a handful of ingredients and fairly little hands on time. This cake uses one of the oldest tricks in the book as far as cake mixes go, and that’s simply using sparkling soda with the mix and nothing more!

That’s right. You can make a cake with a box of mix and a can of soda. Pretty impressive, huh? It’s so super easy to do too! Outside of that, you divide the batter and color it accordingly. I went with the rainbow colors of the PRIDE flag, but you can use whatever colors you wish…