Cranberry Jalapeño Cream Cheese Spread

November 6, 2020 Amanda Plott

This Cranberry Jalapeño Cream Cheese Spread has been in my family for years. The base of cream cheese and green onions is topped off with a homemade cranberry sauce that’s kicked up a bit with the warmth of jalapeño and bright citrus notes from orange and lime.

You can serve this dip warm or cold and pair it with bread, crackers, or fresh veggies for the perfect snacky appetizer to have on hand for the holidays. One of my favorite parts of this spread is that you can make it ahead of time and have it ready to go to serve as needed or wanted!…

Vegetarian Sushi

July 10, 2020 Amanda Plott

So… I don’t like sea food. That is why you will never see any sea food recipes around here. No, I’m not allergic to it, I just don’t like it. It’s not a taste thing or a texture thing. It is flat out just that I don’t like sea food. BUT. I do like sushi. I love vegetarian sushi.

Sushi can be a little pricy. Especially consider what it is. Seaweed, rice, and an assortment of veggies, meats, and sauces. Seems simple enough, right? While there is a certain art to making sushi traditionally, I’m a modern girl and a simple girl. So, let's make some damn sushi…

French Bread

June 15, 2020 Amanda Plott

I’ve been doing a lot of baking lately. Especially now that I got ALL NEW appliances in my kitchen finally! I’ve been waiting to do it for years and years now and I finally was able to do so. Between that, limiting trips to the store, and having my hands on a handy-dandy bread maker, I’ve been a bread making fool!

This French Bread is simple. It’s as standard as bread comes and is made with just a handful of pantry staple ingredients. Flour, oil, salt, sugar, yeast, that’s pretty much all there is to it. I have to say, even if you don’t have a bread machine, this bread is still pretty easy to make and will easily rival any fresh bakery bread…

Roasted Red Bell Pepper & Tomato Soup

November 22, 2019 Amanda Plott

During the colder end of Fall and on into Winter months, I like to stick to comfort food classics. And there isn’t much that’s more of a comfort food or a classic than a nice warm bowl of homemade tomato soup. I’ve made a lot of tomato soup in my past, and for this Roasted Red Bell Pepper & Tomato Soup I used one of my favorite recipes and changed it up just a bit.

With at least one person in my house trying to avoid onions, I decided today to swap the onion in my original recipe for some red bell pepper. The end result was this delicious, hearty, Roasted Red Bell Pepper & Tomato Soup…

Skinny Butternut Squash & Apple Soup

October 4, 2019 Amanda Plott

Oh, my goodness. Oh. My. Goodness.

The first time I intended to make this soup, I had it planned for a while , and oddly enough a similar butternut squash soup was served to me at The King's Feast of The Texas Renaissance Festival. I had never had butternut squash soup before then, but I immediately fell in love. It was thick and rich and served with some sort of toasted seed and herb topping.

It was such a good soup that I thought I would have dreams about it that night.

I was a bit curious when I got home if the recipe that I had come up with would be anything similar to the amazing one that I had at the feast. Needless to say I was somewhat skeptical that so few of ingredients would actually come together to make such an amazing soup…

Carrot Ginger Dressing

September 24, 2019 Amanda Plott

I’ve been playing around a lot lately with adding more and more vegetables to my meals and trying to do so in a sneaky and more clever way than just cooking them and plopping them on my plate. This Carrot Ginger Dressing is a fun asian twist on a vinaigrette.

I’m not quite sure how, but somehow the dressing ends up with an almost creamy texture. It’s light and bright and has just enough of a kick of ginger in there to keep you coming back for more. With it being so quick and easy to make that I’ll be using it this entire week for my lunches…