Dinner, Fall, Lunch, Main Dish, Savory, Sides, Summer, Vegetables, Vegetarian

charred corn polenta with herb + tomato salad

It is officially PSL season (pumpkin spice latte, in case you didn’t know), which means it should be time for all things pumpkin, right? While I adore pumpkin and pumpkin-flavored things, I have a hard time switching gears so rapidly from summer cheeseburgers and popsicles, directly to warm and hearty pumpkin-filled fall dishes without anything to bridge the gap between the seasons. In my neck … Continue reading charred corn polenta with herb + tomato salad

AmandaSeptember 20, 2015September 16, 2015Leave a comment

Appetizers, Dinner, Fruit, Party Food, Savory, Sides, Snacks, Summer, Sweet, Vegan, Vegetables, Vegetarian

fresh mango-cantaloupe salsa

GEORGE: Salsa is now the number one condiment in America. JERRY: You know why? Because people like to say “salsa”. “Excuse me, do you have salsa?” “We need more salsa.” “Where is the salsa? No salsa?” – Seinfeld, Episode 43 “The Pitch” It’s already begun. The ubiquitous gearing-up-for-summertime-heat, and the dread that sets in around this time of year in the Phoenix area because of … Continue reading fresh mango-cantaloupe salsa

AmandaApril 26, 2015September 13, 2015Leave a comment

Party Food, Savory, Sides, Snacks

crunchy fried pickles with herby ranch

If memory serves me right, the first time I ate fried pickles was like six years ago at a Five and Diner restaurant. A friend heard I was going there for the first time, and she said I must try the fried pickles. I admit, the idea sounded kinda strange to me at first, but I gave ’em a go. Two words: Holy crap. Two more … Continue reading crunchy fried pickles with herby ranch

AmandaJanuary 18, 2015February 16, 20191 Comment

Dinner, Fall, Holidays, Main Dish, Party Food, Savory, Sides, Snacks, Vegetables, Vegetarian

sweet potato, sage + ricotta tart

Hooray, Thanksgiving is almost here!

For the most food-centric holiday around, I wanted to come up with a dish that wasn’t the usual green bean casserole or sweet potatoes with little marshmallows on top (though I do love both those dishes dearly!), but that still encompassed all the flavors and colors of Fall. I have to give props to one of my favorite Phoenix pizza joints, Federal Pizza, cause they came up with this flavor combination before I did, and I adore it!

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AmandaNovember 23, 2014September 13, 2015Leave a comment

Breads, Dinner, Lunch, Savory, Sides

classic soft dinner rolls

I can say with extreme confidence that any kid in any school cafeteria in America ate these rolls growing up. At my school, they were ubiquitous with a tray full of mushy spaghetti that, no matter how gross, everyone still seemed to love.

Here’s something strange that maybe you witnessed during lunch — kids would hollow out the dinner roll and shove the spaghetti inside it, then devour the whole thing. Somehow, this was a thing. Even kids who went to school in other states knew of this! How did this strange method of spaghetti-eating become widespread knowledge? The world may never know.

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AmandaSeptember 21, 2014September 13, 2015Leave a comment

Dinner, Lunch, Main Dish, Meat, Savory, Sides, Snacks

pepperoni pizza eggrolls (my 100th post!)

Hooray! Today I bring to you my 100th blog post, all wrapped up in shiny paper and a pretty bow.

Oh, what? Sorry about those drips of marinara sauce… and the parmesan cheese. Wrapping pepperoni pizza eggrolls is a messy task!

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AmandaJuly 6, 2014September 13, 20156 Comments

Dinner, Lunch, Savory, Sides, Snacks, Vegan, Vegetables, Vegetarian

golden roasted cauliflower with tahini + fried onions

This has been my most popular post for a while now! I revised this recipe recently to work out any potential kinks with the tahini sauce seizing up (if this has happened to you, I’m sorry). Scroll down to see the revisions in bold type! -A

If you’re not from Arizona (or southern California, for that matter), then you probably haven’t been to a lovely little restaurant called Pita Jungle. For the uninitiated, Pita Jungle serves all manner of Mediterranean-inspired dishes from cilantro-jalapeno hummus to chicken shawarma sandwiches wrapped in lavosh bread. It’s a veggie-heavy menu, and they also have a lot of items that can be modified to vegan, which is great for people like my vegan sister. My favorite item on the menu happens to be vegan as well, even if I’m not. (Hell, I had a double-double from In N Out for dinner last night.) It’s the caramelized cauliflower with tahini sauce, and it’s wonderful. Since the first time I tried it, I’ve been scheming how to recreate it at home, and I’m proud to say I’ve finally done it. Continue reading “golden roasted cauliflower with tahini + fried onions”

AmandaJune 22, 2014September 29, 201512 Comments

Dinner, How-To, Lunch, Main Dish, Meat, Savory, Sides, Snacks

mini taco salad cups!

I’m not usually much for sports.

I enjoy sports, but I don’t actively watch them on TV or in person. There is one exception, and that’s the Super Bowl! Sort of like those people who only go to church on holidays, the only time I watch football is the Super Bowl. And not even for the commercials which, I admit, can be pretty entertaining. I get genuinely excited about the game (even if I don’t understand all of it sometimes), and it’s a lot of fun! The thing I look forward to most about Super Bowl Sunday, though, is the food. Obviously!

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AmandaJanuary 29, 2014September 17, 20156 Comments

Dinner, How-To, Lunch, Main Dish, Meat, Salads, Savory, Sides, Vegetables, Vegetarian

salad jar shenanigans (happy blogiversary!)

Today marks one year since my first blog post!! My one year blogiversary. Can you tell I’m excited?!
I’ve come a long way as a blogger in the last year. I started this site to share my recipes and all the fun stuff I create in my kitchen, and it’s been a total learning experience for sure. Of course, not everything came out perfect on the first try, and some recipes I’ve tested and then held back from the blog because I wasn’t fully satisfied with them. I’ve pushed the boundaries of my creativity and had a blast doing it. I hope you have enjoyed reading everything, and I hope you’ve been inspired by my creations! Here’s to another awesome year of pretty, tasty food. I have lots of ideas for 2014, and I hope you’ll enjoy what my brain dreams up.

It’s a new year, and in that relatively small window from January 1st through, say, February 13th, most people have at least a partial goal in mind to lose weight/eat healthier/get more active, or any combination of the three. Whether I verbalize it or not, I usually have some plan in mind to be a better version of myself as the year begins. Those aspirations are so easily shattered, especially once Valentine’s Day rolls around and every store is chock-full of heart-shaped, chocolate-coated everything. Basically, I have zero willpower when it comes to sugar.

Even if I can’t lose 20 pounds or run a marathon by the time this year is out, I can make little changes. Working in a bakery as I do, I’m not only constantly surrounded by sugary, fatty temptation (it’s mostly organic, so there’s that, anyhow), but I also don’t have a scheduled lunch break. I’m free to sit down and eat something whenever I have the time but more often than not, I simply don’t make the time. I feel much more productive in my work if I can just keep going straight through my 8 hour shift without much distraction. If I sit down and eat something for lunch, I have a hard time getting back to the same head space I was in before. It majorly derails my concentration, and ain’t nobody got time for that.

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AmandaJanuary 14, 2014September 13, 20156 Comments

Breads, Dinner, Lunch, Main Dish, Savory, Sides, Snacks, Vegetables

olive focaccia with tomatoes + onion

If there’s one thing I haven’t truly mastered in the kitchen, it’s homemade bread. I just haven’t made all that much of it. I can hold my own with pizza dough and no-knead bread, and I did make some damn good challah once, but that’s sort of the extent of my bread-making experience.