Lazy Valentine Cookie Bars

January 14, 2021 Amanda Plott

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We all reserve the right to be a little lazy every so often, and with a quick trip planned for the weekend (followed by two weeks of self-quarantine) I’m feeling the laze take over. Either way, my daughter asked for some more cookies after all the GIANT Valentine Cookies from last week disappeared. Gee… I wonder how that happened…

Being as I was out of special Valentine sprinkles, and again… I’m being lazy, I thought I’d try my hand at a ‘lazy cookie bar’ recipe that was passed off to me. I did make one small change to lower the calorie count just slightly, but other than that it’s pretty much the same-same…

Orange Bundt Cake

December 31, 2020 Amanda Plott

Usually towards the middle of winter is when I start to crave all the bright citrus stuff. Grapefruits, oranges, and lemons - oh my! And this Orange Bundt Cake takes the cake. The bundt cake that is. With a light dusting of powdered sugar on top, this cake is perfectly light, sweet, and delicious.

This cake would be perfect for breakfast, brunch, or even as a dessert option. And with it being divided into 12 servings, it’s enough to serve a crowd, or have plenty on hand for meals through the week. With just enough sweetness and flecks of orange, this really is a very versatile cake…

Broiled Banana & Honey Grapefruit

December 23, 2020 Amanda Plott

It was pretty chilly here this morning, so I was looking for any excuse I could to turn the oven on to help warm the downstairs up quickly. Brrr...

Move aside pre-packaged 100 calorie snack packs! This is the real deal.

That's right. You can have all that you see here for 100 calories. Plus, it's clean, gluten free, vegetarian, paleo and has some nutrients to it. Plus, as an added bonus you get to warm up your kitchen on a frigid winter morning…

Mini Shortbread Christmas Cookie Bites

December 21, 2020 Amanda Plott

These tiny Mini Shortbread Christmas Cookie Bites are really one of the best things I’ve put in my mouth this week. They’re light, crisp, buttery and full of festive holiday sprinkles. Of course, I didn’t go with traditional ‘red and green’ sprinkles. I found some awesome colorful ‘gingerbread’ holiday sprinkles that really made these tiny bites pop!

The very same ones that I used in my Healthified 'Lofthouse' Soft Sugar Cookies! The sprinkles here DO make a difference, so be sure to use your favorites. Jimmies and ‘confetti’ style sprinkles work best because they don’t bleed out color into the batter as easily as some others…

Healthified 'Lofthouse' Soft Sugar Cookies

December 13, 2020 Amanda Plott

I've basically taken that original tried-and-true recipe and trimmed it down as best I could without losing the amazingness of that cookie.

The first thing I did was swapped out some of the regular flour for some whole wheat white flour. If you're going to be bad, you may as well get some good in there too! At least you can say you had some whole wheat, right?

I also substituted in some sweetener for about 1/3 of the sugar originally called for. Why? Well, if you can get away with less sugar, then why not? For the cookie dough, I used a light butter rather than full fat. Again, if you can get away with it... do it!

I made a few other minor changes as well, and still ended up with a perfectly light and decedent cookie that has over 50 calories less per serving than it's store bought counter part. Plus, I know exactly what in these cookies since well... I'm one that put it all there!

I'm telling you, they taste almost exactly like the original…

Instant Pot Cheesecake Bites

December 10, 2020 Amanda Plott

Most recently I found a fun way to make tamales in the instant pot, and being as I’ve also made a cheesecake in the instant pot too, I thought… is it possible to make mini cheesecakes? As it turns out, it is! These Instant Pot Cheesecake Bites are fun and easy to make. Plus, they’re lightened up just enough to be guilt free while still tasting great.

As it turns out, the instant pot is a great way to make cheesecakes, and these mini ones are made directly in my handy-dandy egg bite mold! I lightened them up by using sweetener instead of most of the sugar, and also used a reduced fat cream cheese…