Skinny Crock Pot Coke Zero BBQ Pulled Chicken (Sponsored)

March 17, 2015 Amanda Plott

Here in Texas, we're extremely passionate about two things; BBQ and sports! What better than to bring the two together with your friends and family in a fun and creative way? Since my dad is a BBQ professional, I am all about making my own BBQ sauce. I've been known to make it with lots of interesting and sometimes rather uncommon things.

NCAA® March Madness is here and Coca-Cola is celebrating with new Coca-Cola NCAA® Final Four Packs that are available at Walmart. The four packs of cans come in three flavors; Coke Zero, Vanilla Coke and Cherry Coke. I know that when my friends and family get together to watch the games, we're all about home-gating with traditional drinks and 'game day' style foods that are easy to make, versatile, lean, and delicious!

After all, what's more 'game day' than BBQ and Coca-Cola?...

Whole Wheat Broccoli Rabe & Ricotta White Pizza

March 2, 2015 Amanda Plott

I haven't had broccoli too many times in my life. In fact, I could probably count on one hand the amount of times that I've eaten it. Now, that isn't to say that I don't like it. No, no, no. That isn't the case at all. It's just that rapini was never something that my parents cooked, so I guess it just never became a part of my personal food culture.

For a while now, I've been playing off and on with an raw food service that offers delivery of organic whole groceries directly from their farmers and/or local businesses to your house. Pretty nifty, right? Well, I always like to get their 'local box' which is loaded with different local seasonal produce each week. It's fun because I have gotten a lot of interesting new things to try. It's a fun little challenge for me as a home cook.

What can I say? I watch a lot of Chopped...

Healthy Mixed Berry Gummy Bears

February 4, 2015 Amanda Plott

My little one is entirely obsessed with anything that is gummy. Hearts, bears, and bunnies - oh my! Lately, I've been buying some fancy all natural, gluten free, organic gummies to put in her lunch, because it makes me feel a bit better. But, oh-my-goodness those things are expensive! Especially when she's eating her weight in them every day.

Sort of defeats the health benefits I'm trying to get into her too!

So as I was sitting here pondering my gummy dilemma I happened to remember a while back I came across this great idea on how to make your own gummy fruit snacks. I was a little early since I've tried to do this a time or two before and could never seem to get them to come out right. But, I thought it was time to give the homemade snacks another try anyway.

And boy am I glad that I did!...

Healthified Crock Pot Cheeseburger Sliders

February 2, 2015 Amanda Plott

This weekend was more than a little exhausting and for numerous reasons too. So ,I was more than elated that I happened to have this recipe planned ahead for. Somewhere between the weather, family dropping in, and an injury for my four year old... I was in need of something rather hands free to cook up for dinner for more than my usual table setting.

These burgers are super easy to do and rather guilt free (especially if you used the Annie's cheese sauce packs in stead of the alternative.) Now, I'd never made a cheeseburger in a crock pot before, so I was more than little skeptical of what the outcome would be but as it turns out, it was pretty stellar!

Even as I was preparing the meat to go into the crock pot, my mom was asking me 'what is this for' and 'what is that for'... 'are these sloppy joes'. Nope! Well, not exactly. Though the the texture does end up being rather similar to that of a sloppy joe; being as the meat is held together with cheesy goodness rather than a tomato sauce...

Skinny Turkey 'Pigs in a Blanket'

January 28, 2015 Amanda Plott

I'm not the world's biggest football fan. Okay, not a fan at all. But, I love my Longhorns (Hook'em!) and I adore the Superbowl, though If I'm being honest... it's mostly for the commercials, camaraderie, and food! Yes, yes, yes! I love, love, love game day food! I couldn't tell you exactly why either, but I think it has something to do with the fact that it's all snackable little bites of finger foods.

There's just something really awesome about eating tiny food. Maybe that's the girl in me. Or... the kid in me.

Anyway, every year when the big game rolls around I always love to try my hand at healthifying and/or making traditional game day foods both skinny and delicious.

Today, I'm going with 'pigs in a blanket' which of course is usually made using little pork sausages; giving them the 'pig' in 'pigs in a blanket'. However, turkey sausages are healthier and have a lot less fat and calories to them.

So does that make these... 'gobblers in blankets' or... 'turkey in blankets'?...

Skinny Peanut Butter Cheesecake

January 26, 2015 Amanda Plott

This post was brought to you by Collective Bias, Inc. and it's advertiser. I received compensation to write this post … but, all opinions expressed are my own. #GoldfishMix #CollectiveBias

What can I say? I have a four year old, and one thing that I've always got plenty of is Goldfish snacks! I think I have a pantry full of nearly every flavor that's offered. Some sweet. Some savory. All delicious. I'm always trying to come up with fun and playful things to do with the tasty little snacks that we all know and love. Today, I'm thinking way outside the box (and the bag) though.

With spring fast approaching I knew that I wanted to create something light, sweet, rather guilt-free, and easy enough that it could be done while chasing around the kiddos or even make use of some helping little hands. This rich and creamy Skinny Peanut Butter Cheesecake was the perfect solution! I'm sure you're wondering by now... why I'm talking about a cheesecake rather than some sort of trail mix. Well, the answer is simple. The Goldfish pretzels are what makes up the crust of this decadent beauty!...