Roasted Beet & Butternut Squash Salad (With Beet Infused Vinaigrette)

October 14, 2019 Amanda Plott

I love beets.

And the saddest part is that I went most of my life so far without knowing that. It was just in the past 5 years or so that I came to realize that I love them. I had some roasted beets on a salad and immediately fell in love. Tender and full of flavor with such minimal effort? Sign me up!

Another thing I love about beets? Their amazing natural color. Generally when cooking beets, I find myself discarding the juices. Today though? I got the notion to reuse those juices along with some olive oil to make one of the best and simplest vinaigrettes that I’ve ever had…

Edible Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough (Vegan & Gluten-Free)

August 26, 2019 Amanda Plott

Who else sneaks bites of raw cookie dough all the while knowing that you shouldn’t do it? I know that I sure do despite my greatest efforts not to. I’ve made raw edible cookie dough in the past, and it was pretty damn delicious. But, I thought I would take it a step further and make a gluten-free version of it!

Yep, that’s right. This edible cookie dough is not only egg-free, vegan, and vegetarian, but it’s also gluten-free AND dairy-free. Covering all the major bases here while also getting to indulge in some cookie dough. Sounds like a win-win situation, right?…

Homemade Almond Milk

August 11, 2019 Amanda Plott

A few years ago, I started to switch more and move over to almond milk. My kiddo isn’t (and has never been) a big fan of milk. Not in her cereal. Not with cookies. Nope. None of that. So with that I began getting almond milk for myself unless there was a specific recipe for which almond milk just wouldn’t work. And trust me when I say that there are some out there.

The problem is that I’m generally the only one in the house that uses any sort of milk at all for anything. And you can’t really buy a small container of almond milk unless it’s some over priced organic or local product. If I buy a half gallon of almond milk the majority of it goes to waste. My solution? Make my own damn almond milk…

Fairy Garden Salad

June 14, 2019 Amanda Plott

We’re coming to the close of our ‘fantasy’ themed week of summer in my house. And since the initial recipe that I made was geared more towards the kiddos, I figured for this go-round I’d create something for the ADULTS. This fairy garden salad is loaded up with greens, sprouts, berries, and of course… edible flowers!

The way I see it? If I were a fairy, I would totally be eating flowers. That just seems like the fairy thing to do. Right? Right. That pretty light pink dressing there is definitely one of my new favorites. It’s got just enough tang and zip to make this salad really stand out. And of course… you can’t go wrong with PINK dressing…

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!…

Instant Pot Chickpea Curry

April 17, 2019 Amanda Plott

Meatless Monday is continuing to grow in popularity. To be very honest, there’s more than one meatless night in my house every week. As I’ve sad before, it would be really really easy for me to turn into a vegetarian. This Instant Pot Chickpea Curry really takes the cake though. Not only is it vegetarian, it’s vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free and only takes about 10 minutes to make. And that includes prep AND cook time. Don’t worry, you can thank me later.

This curry is started off with yellow onion and then loaded up spices. The trick to any good curry, is to let the curry powder and seasonings cook for a couple of minutes BEFORE adding in the other components. Warming the spices here gives you more depth of flavor and really wakes the seasoning up!…