Healthified Crockpot Low Country Chicken Boil

June 13, 2017 Amanda Plott

My local box of produce over the past couple of weeks has gifted me with a bounty of red potatoes that I can't bare to let go to waste! My mother asked me a couple weeks back about this recipe that I had put together a couple of years back now. With my brother not being a seafood eater and my dad being mildly allergic to shellfish, she wanted to put together a Low Country Boil that omitted the shrimp or crawfish. Being as I'm not a seafood fan either, I had tried my hand at a seafood-free low country boil, like I said though, this was a couple of summers ago.

So with an idea in mind and plenty of red potatoes to go around, I got to work on my Low Country Chicken Boil once again. Here among the southern states, summer time is when everyone starts to have crawfish boils! It's always sounded amazing to me; sausage, potatoes, corn - who wouldn't like it? Well, me! If you haven't noticed yet, I'm not a seafood eater. I wish that I could be, but it just isn't a possibility. Sadly...

Roasted Beet & Pistachio Salad with Citrus Poppyseed Vinaigrette

June 10, 2017 Amanda Plott

Can we just take a moment to enjoy and revel in the natural beauty of this salad? Just take on all the glorious colors that are straight from nature's bounty! Reds, yellows, greens, oh my! This salad is truly one of the most bright and vibrant things you could put on a plate. Naturally. Over the past couple of weeks, I've been collecting a montage of beets from my local produce box and for the first time ever... I got my hands on some golden beets!

Don't worry though, I also have a plethora of traditional red beets too for those traditionalists out there. I love beets. All the beets. Red. Yellow. It doesn't matter. One of my favorite ways to enjoy them is roasted; cooked in the oven in their own yummy juices and then tossed into a salad. For me, there's no better pairing than beets and feta...

Crockpot Carrot Soup with Basil Herb Oil

June 7, 2017 Amanda Plott

I'm barely a week into summer break over here and I already seem to have lost track of what day it is. Is it still the weekend? Almost the weekend again? Where am I? What am I doing? One of the only things that's managing to keep me somewhat grounded, is cooking. For the past few weeks, I've been getting loads and loads of carrots in my local box of produce. I've been trying to use them up as quickly as I could, but... the bag of them only continued to expand.

I've got to be honest, raw carrots are definitely not one of my favorite vegetables. So, thinking of a way to use up over 2 pounds of carrots was a rather daunting task for me. Especially considering that I wanted to be sure to use them all up before any went bad. Waste not, want not...

Naked Summer Burger Bowls

June 5, 2017 Amanda Plott

This post was sponsored by Eat Smart as part of an Influencer Activation for Influence Central and all opinions expressed in my post are my own.

Y'all! It's been so busy around here ever since my daughter got out for summer. I mean... yikes! The day after my little one got out of school, we took a quick overnight trip a couple of hours away to see my mom and hang out at the drive in movie theater there near her place. It was so much fun and a great way to kick off summer vacation! Today though? It's back to reality and the real world.

I don't know about you, but when I think of summer, I think of burgers and grilling! However, a lot of us are also working on maintaining (or achieving) our best summer bodies. And what does that mean? It's naked burger time! I haven't done a naked burger in a long time, so I thought it would be super fun to infuse one with all the flavors of summer and make it into one fun power bowl...

Summer Breakfast Scramble

June 1, 2017 Amanda Plott

Today is bittersweet! It's the last day of my daughter being in the first grade. Eek! Where does the time go? Somewhere in between rushing her around to school this morning and dealing with a bit of a family emergency, I had to find time to get some food in my system. Since we're on the verge of summer, I thought it would be a great time to make myself a fun summer inspired breakfast scramble!

I'm calling this a Summer Breakfast Scramble, mostly because I'm making use of some summer greens, light feta cheese, and some tomatoes to boot. I've been on a bit of a breakfast kick lately, can you tell? It's just been eggs on top of eggs on top of eggs around here for the whole week. You can't blame me! The farm fresh eggs got me like 'whoa'...

Crustless Zucchini & Corn Summer Quiche

May 25, 2017 Amanda Plott

Today was the last Saturday for school here and I can tell that summer us on our heels with all the beautiful corn and summer squash coming in. I got some of the biggest zucchini in my local produce box this last week and pondered for a good long while over what I wanted to do with it. With my dad bringing me in some fresh local eggs, my mind instantly went to a quiche. Not just any quiche though. A summer quiche!

Quiche was always a staple in our house when I was growing up. Usually towards the end of the week my dad would put together a quiche using up all the leftover veggies, meats, and cheeses in the house. So, that's basically what happened here but in a completely perfect seasonal way. I love that it's quick and easy to toss together while being a light and festive too!...