Low-Carb Copycat 'Chili's Queso'

June 21, 2018 Amanda Plott

Oooooh, yes I did.

I've said it before... and I'll say it a million more times. Cheese and/or queso are my biggest weak points. I will legit do almost anything for a good cheese or queso. And one of my all time favorite guilty-pleasure quesos? Yep. The one at Chili's.

Now, their queso isn't like a traditional tex-mex queso. It's more of a chili cheese dip actually. Which, obviously I'm totally down with since it's one of my faves. Again... it's cheese. So, yes. Please, get in my mouth hole. The one thing in which you may notice about their queso is that it's clearly made using their house chili, sans beans. After a bit of plugging around a few copycat recipes, I've finally put my more 'healthy' spin on a proper knock-off…

Low-Carb Chili (Keto-Friendly!)

June 19, 2018 Amanda Plott

There's a great debate somewhere out there in this world of ours on whether chili should have beans in it or not. Is it 'technically' chili with or without beans? {Shrug} Who knows? ...Now, being a native Texan... I've got my own opinions on the matter. And I can honestly say that any chili I've ever been served before has always had beans in it.

But, that doesn't mean that I'm not open to a bean-less version! In fact, these days... it's all about those low-carbs it seems. So when deciding to make my take on my mom's Chili Con Carne for our camp themed week this summer, I thought I'd try my hand at taking all those beans out and instead filling it full of more veggies and protein…

Garden Vegetable Soup

June 15, 2018 Amanda Plott

Last week it was 'ocean' week here in my house, and this week we're going with the theme of plants! In doing so, I decided to throw a LOT more veggies and vegetarian dishes into the mix this week. We always have a couple of vegetarian dishes every week, for health reasons, cutting the cost of food, and also because it just makes me feel better all around.

I could easily be a vegetarian. In fact, my daughter was basically a vegetarian of her own accord up until she was about 5 years old. Meat just wasn't something she was a fan of. And I can't say that I was far off from that myself with I was a little girl too.

Ready for a true side story about myself? My parents used to have to tell me that meat came from a meat tree when I was little to get me to eat it!…

Club Sub in a Tub

June 11, 2018 Amanda Plott

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Buddig. All opinions are entirely my own.

So, back when I was in high school, my parents had a boat. It wasn't a big boat or an expensive boat. Just an old clunker of a boat. In fact, it ended up sinking. At the dock. ...And almost with my grandmother on it too! ...Even so, our family had a lot of great fun and adventures on that boat. Many a summer night and day were spent out there on the water, together, as a family. It's truly some of my fondest memories.

Almost anytime we'd go spend the day out on the boat, we'd stop by this old gas station along the way to fuel up good ole' Titanic and grab some sub sandwiches. I almost always got the same thing, a simple club sub sandwich.

Several months back, my dad went out and bought another old boat; after years of not having one and living within near walking distance of a lake now. He's been working on fixing it up and hopes to have it in full working order for the beginning of July for my mom's birthday. That got me to thinking about my old long lost friend 'club the sub sandwich'…

Skinny Spinach Dip (AKA Seaweed Dip)

June 3, 2018 Amanda Plott

This summer I decided that my daughter and I were going to up our summer game by having a different 'themed' week for all 10 weeks. We've got arts, crafts, and even some recipes planned to make in accordance with each theme. Our first week is going to be 'ocean' themed! We'll be going to a water park, the aquarium, and learning a lot bout the ocean.

Of course, it doesn't stop there. I really wanted to involve the kitchen in our weeks of fun too. Being as we aren't really seafood lovers here in this house, it's been more than a little tricky to find 'ocean inspired' recipes to create that are kid friendly and not seafood. This Skinny Spinach dip was my first idea!…

Low-Carb Spinach & Mushroom Egg Bites (Keto-Friendly!)

May 26, 2018 Amanda Plott

I've been playing around with egg bites for a while now, and I've come up with a few fun flavors to change it up from week to week. Yes, homemade egg bites are generally in my personal regular rotation for one of my usual breakfast options. They are ridiculously easy to make, taste great, and are perfect for meal prepping. Did I mention they're also low-carb, gluten-free, and keto-friendly? Yep! All that too.

This time around, I decided to go with a spinach and mushroom style egg bite. To be honest, I wasn't too sure how well they would turn out since both spinach and mushrooms tend to have a pretty high amount of water in them. But, it ended up working out super well!…