Spring Onion & Mushroom Steamed Dumplings

April 21, 2019 Amanda Plott

With one of my little brothers coming into town this weekend from Colorado, I thought I would be a good sister and surprise him with food. That’s usually what I do for my guests. Shocking, I know. I wanted to surprise him with some of his favorites. And Asian food has always been one of his favorites. And being as he could eat vegetarian at almost every meal if it were left up to him, I thought I would make him some vegetarian steamed dumplings.

Hey, I’ll look for any chance I can to use my bamboo steamer. So, I got to work with planning out these dumplings. I decided to stuff them with one of my favorite veggie swaps. Mushrooms!…

Camp Out Trail Mix

April 13, 2019 Amanda Plott

This past week, my girl turned 9 years old! As part of her ‘birthday week’ of celebration she got to miss out on a couple days of school so that we could go with a few of her friends to a local kids resort. The theme of the resort is a lodge style camp setting. And since I’m always looking to take snacks to keep on hand during our trips, I decided to mix us up a batch of camping themed trial mix!

This trail mix is full of fun little bits that I tried to keep somewhat ‘healthified’. One of the first things I think about with camping is tents and firewood. So I used some bugle chips and pretzel sticks! After that I aded some fish and bears. I mean, hopefully you won’t see a bear while out camping, but bears are out in the woods so…

Spring Vegetable Crudités Plate

April 10, 2019 Amanda Plott

To go along with my Skinny Whipped Feta Dip from yesterday, I decided to make a beautiful plate of Spring veggies! The plate is half Spring inspired and half Mediterranean inspired to go along with the feta dip. Along with the other disable bits, there’s some olives and capers on the plate too.

The plate of Crudités starts off with the Skinny Whipped Feta Dip. Then there’s plenty of slices zucchini, salami, tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, berries, and of course… olives and capers! I’ve made my fair share of plates, trays, and other sorts of sharable appetizers before. But, I have to say that this Spring Vegetable Crudités Plate is well balanced and one of my new faves!…

Skinny Whipped Feta Dip

April 8, 2019 Amanda Plott

The weather here in Texas right now is all over the place. We’ve gone from near freezing, to sunny and 90 degrees, and on further to torrential downpours of rain all in the matter of a couple of days. I almost feel like I should be doing the reverse of a rain dance at this point. But, besides bringing in a plethora of allergens, the weather has left us with an immense amount of Spring flowers this season.

So, I’m pushing on with the Spring inspired recipes. And this Skinny Whipped Feta Dip is topping the charts. To go along with the Spring season, I picked up some Spring inspired essentials. Namely, fresh produce including zucchini, tomatoes, lemon, and dill!…

Overnight Blueberry French Toast Bake

March 31, 2019 Amanda Plott

Sundays are for brunching, and this Sunday is no different. With knowing tomorrow is Monday, and that today was going to be a lazy day for the most part, I decided to go ahead and make breakfast yesterday. Well, what does that mean? It means Overnight Blueberry French Toast Bake, that’s what it means!

This Overnight Blueberry French Toast Bake is made ahead of time and sits overnight in the fridge where the big cubes of hearty bread cans oat up eggs, cream cheese, blueberries and the like. Then in the morning, it’s ready to be baked and enjoyed!…

Lightened Up Carrot Cake

March 27, 2019 Amanda Plott

I’ve made a good lot of carrot cakes in my time. Anywhere from traditional to gluten-free, and a few others along the way. There’s a few things I’ve learned in my carrot cake making journey. One is that you always ALWAYS need a good simple cream cheese frosting with it. And two is that it needs to be chunky.

I like my carrot cake loaded up with plenty of the good stuff. Carrots, raisins, pineapple, coconut, and yes… even nuts!

I based this ultimate carrot cake off of the one that I made for my daughter’s 2nd birthday. It’s an ingredient heavy cake, just like most carrots cakes are, but I promise you that the cake itself is rather easy to make. No overly complicated instructions…