Spinach & Strawberry Salad

March 27, 2023 Amanda Plott

Yes, I'm a huge salad fan. I love all the veggies and different ways to dress up your leafy greens with one dressing or another. Plus, there's just something refreshing about indulging in a crisp cool salad when it's upwards of 80... 90... 100 degrees. Which we’ve already gone over 80 here!

So I guess what I'm saying is... be prepared for the montage of salad recipes that are sure to come this way through the next few months. Strawberry and spinach salad is actually one of my old favorites. I think it was one of the first salads that I ever had feta cheese on. It could even be when I fell in love with feta cheese…

Skinny Antipasto Pasta Salad

March 5, 2023 Amanda Plott

I've been making Antipasto Pasta Salad for almost my entire adult life. It's one of those things that is readily asked for in the Spring and Summer in my house and everyone can find something about it at that they love!

The original idea for this pasta salad came some years ago back when I was in high school. There was a great italian restaurant that we used to go to on occasion that served something similar as an appetizer and we were all hooked on it…

Air Fryer Toasted Ravioli

February 11, 2023 Amanda Plott

These Air Fryer Toasted Ravioli are not only easy to make, but they’re pretty damn good too! I took some refrigerated raviolis that happened to be on theme this month, and I decided to see if air frying them would get the same effect as frying or toasting would. And it absolutely does! The ravioli turn out crisp on the outside and melty cheesy on the inside. Perfect for dipping and dunking into your favorite pasta sauce.

They can be served as a pain part of dinner or as a side, snack, or hot appetizer. I lightened them up by using a whole wheat bread crumb and of course by using the air fryer rather than deep frying. I found too, by seasoning the egg mixture rather than the crumb mixture you get a lot more even seasoning and the seasoning is locked in with the breadcrumbs!…

Dill Pickle Chex Mix

January 14, 2023 Amanda Plott

It’s been a while, but I had seen this idea a while back now for a pickle flavored chex mix which I’ve got to be honest, really intrigued me. I like pickles, and I like chex mix… but would I like them together? As it turns out, I do! As is usual with chex mix, this one starts out with - you guessed it - chex cereal. I went with corn, but you can really pick wheat, rice, etc. Whichever base you want to start with.

Then we’re adding in other tasty bits like cashews, pretzels, and even some bagel crackers. You can use bagel chips/crisps, but I couldn’t find any of those to save my life, so I went with some small round bagel inspired crackers that I found instead. That’s sort of the fun part about chex mix anyway, isn’t it? Getting to swap things around!…

Air Fried Stuffed Mushrooms

January 4, 2023 Amanda Plott

These Air Fried Stuffed Mushrooms are really just another way to cook stuffed mushrooms. I’m just being honest here. It doesn’t change their taste at all, but it DOES change their texture. Usually when I bake my stuffed mushrooms they end up a little bit soggy on the bottom from cooking in their own water as it releasing in the cooking process. These, however, don’t end up that way!

It helped too to top these off with some grated parmesan which gave a little bit of a crunch factor to the tops of these stuffed mushrooms. They’re completely loaded with cheesy goodness too. Cream cheese, cheddar, and of course the parmesan. There’s even some bacon in there for extra yum…

Air Fried Taco Stuffed Shells

December 29, 2022 Amanda Plott

Look, I don’t know. Food is fun and sometimes you just need to play with it. We’re going with Taco Thursday this week instead of Tuesday. So here we have these Air Fried Taco Stuffed Shells which are pretty much exactly what they sound like. Taco meat and cheese stuffed into some pasta shells and then fried for a quick and easy finger-food small bite of taco goodness.

The first thing I did here was to use a lean ground beef, but you can also go with ground turkey or even a vegetarian ground faux meat. I added onion and bell pepper to the meat along with taco seasoning to stretch the meat out and get a bit more bang for my buck here…