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...

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...

Roasted Butternut Squash & Chickpea Salad with Pesto

March 9, 2017 Amanda Plott

It's this wonderful time of year where I'm starting to see more and more fresh 'spring' vegetables coming into the produce department; which always excites me. Especially when there's still plenty of winter squash to be had. I love to take seasonal produce and mix them together as the seasons start to turn from one to another. It always gives you something interesting and exciting.

This Roasted Butternut Squash & Chickpea Salad is the perfect blend of winter and spring coming together for a wonderful bite. The butternut squash is what's coming in here from winter, while the pesto and fresh baby spinach and pop of lemon are a sure sign of spring approaching...

Grilled Market Salad & Zesty Dressing (Chick-Fil-A Copy Cat)

February 18, 2017 Amanda Plott

So, I was telling my mom about one of my all time favorite salads at a pretty well known fast-food chain the other day when she was looking for some quick lunch options. Anytime the family wants to 'be bad' and have chicken nuggets at this place, I always tend to opt for their Grilled Market Salad. It's a really large hearty salad that's extremely filling and easily could be turned into two meals rather than just one.

That discussion got me to thinking about the salad, how good it is, and how simple it is too. Surely there had to be a way to make it myself! The hardest part would be the zesty apple cider vinaigrette. Thankfully, I found a good starting place and made a few more tweaks to that to get exactly what I was looking for after reading the ingredients on the actual dressing packet...

Classic Cobb Salad

January 21, 2017 Amanda Plott

It's no secret that this week has been kicking my tail, though more so in a humorous way at this point. I couldn't even list out the amount of things that have gone wrong because it's almost been everything that I've been a part of or a hand in. I'm pushing past it though, and rocking it out now that it's the weekend.

Next week will be better because it just has to be.

Food has been my savior this week. There have been few disasters that I've had in the kitchen, with a flop of a recipe and a broken egg splat on my kitchen floor, but still nearly everything has come out tasting amazing. Even if it's not exactly what I had planned out on my menu...

Kale & Apple Quinoa Salad

January 16, 2017 Amanda Plott

So, this salad today is actually somewhat inspired by my dad who is having some health issues at the moment. We're not entirely sure what's going on, but he's been told to eat better for the time being until his next round of testing. One thing he was told to do was to 'stay away from white stuff', which clearly isn't something I stuck to here because I have to have cheese in my life. I literally think I might explode if I didn't have at least a bit of cheese every day.

What can I say? I've got to be honest here! I'm one that believes strongly in that you can enjoy everything as part of a healthy diet as long as it's in moderation. (Except of course if it's something you've been warned of by a professional.)

A few days back now, my dad and aunt were chatting at me on Facebook about how my dad is now eating more healthy and that he had tried quinoa. He wasn't a huge fan. So, I gave him some suggestions and got to thinking that some quinoa sounded really good actually. And here we are with this lovely Kale & Apple Quinoa Salad!...