Creamy Ranchy Dressing

One of my New Years Resolutions was to find a Ranch dressing recipe for my husband. I am quite content with pretty much any of the EVOO and ACV variations, so I have been eating healthy salads all year long. But I suddenly realized that it was October and I had been letting my husband slowly destroy himself with rancid soybean oil for the past 10 months! (OK, I'll admit that I am slightly dramatic, but store-bought salad dressings are ever so bad for you and my dear husband just loves his Ranch on EVERYTHING (pizza, roasted potatoes, etc). So last night I was fixing us a taco salad for dinner and randomly decided to try out a recipe that I had bookmarked several months ago. And I was so glad that I did, because after 10 months of only eating oil and vinegar dressings, this creamy dressing was just heavenly to me! My husband said it was pretty good, that it didn't taste exactly like Ranch, but was close enough and a good enough dressing for him to be happy to eat. So here is the recipe that I got from Heavenly Homemakers (a fabulous blog, by the way!)

Note: I don't recommend using the mayonnaise version, unless you make your own, because store-bought mayonnaise is also filled with rancid vegetable oils that are bad for you. The dip version is healthy, though, and I actually made up my own version utilizing the dry mix and a cup of buttermilk, a pkg of cream cheese, and several Tbs olive oil. Oh, and I added some dill because we love dill :) (Sorry, I know I can't ever leave a recipe alone :) But the mix is good to use with whatever creamy sauce you like :)

Ranch Dressing Mix

5 Tablespoons dried minced onions
7 teaspoon parsley flakes
4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon garlic powder

Mix together and store in an air tight container.

For dressing: Mix 2 Tablespoons dry mix with 1 cup mayonnaise and 1 cup buttermilk or sour cream. (I use buttermilk.)

For dip: Mix 2 Tablespoons dry mix with 2 cups sour cream or kreme fresh.

Mix up a few hours before serving, so the flavors all blend nicely.

Taco Salad Dressing

My sis-in-law gave me this awesome recipe for an easy, healthy, and delicious salad dressing that satisfies my current lime and cilantro obsession!

Ingredients:
2 cloves garlic, pressed
4 oz fresh lime juice, lemon will also work if needed
1/4 tsp. salt
splash of tobasco, optional
finely snipped cilantro to taste (between 1-2 TBS)
8 oz. olive oil

Directions: Mix all the ingredients except for the olive oil together really well then add 8oz. olive oil and mix again. Try to make it early in the day to let it sit so the acidity of the lime juice will blend the flavors well.

Italian Dressing Mix

One of my favorite bloggers, Donielle, posted this great mix on her blog and I was so excited! My husband likes me to marinade all of our meat in Italian dressing before grilling and I hate to do it because of all the rancid and "bad-for-you" oils in the store-bought kind. This mix is really handy for other things as well. I actually used it last night when I tried to make a pizza and realized that I didn't have any pizza sauce. I just mixed some tomato paste, diced tomatoes, coconut oil, honey, and a couple teaspoons of this mixture together and warmed it on the stove. (I wish I could give you that recipe, but I didn't measure a thing! It is definitely something that I'll try to keep on hand!

• 1 tablespoon garlic powder
  
• 1 tablespoon dried minced onion
• 1/2 tablespoon sugar (something like evaporated cane juice would work well)
• 2 tablespoons dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• 2 tablespoons salt

Use as Italian seasoning in breadcrumbs or sprinkled on grilled chicken. Can also be used as a dressing or marinade by mixing 2Tbsp of the mix with 1/4 cup vinegar, 2/3 cup extra virgin olive oil, and 2Tbsp water.

Vollmer Farm Poppyseed Salad Dressing

We joined Vollmer Farm's CSA this summer to get some organic, fresh veggies and fruit. I was so excited when they gave us a bottle of their dressing AND the recipe for it! So here it is. I love it! My version does solidify in the fridge so I usually just make enough to last a few days :)

Ingredients:
1 cup olive oil (I used my basic oil blend :)
1/4 cup sugar (I used organic maple syrup instead)
1/2 t. dry mustard
1/4 t. black pepper
1/2 apple cider vinegar
1 t. salt
1/2 t. garlic powder
3/4 T poppy seeds

Directions: Mix all ingredients and shake vigorously. Enjoy!