Easy Bleu Cheese Dressing

Easy Bleu Cheese Dressing

• 1 cup mayo
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 TBSP white wine vinegar
• 2 TSP Worcestershire Sauce
• ½ TSP pepper
• ½ TSP garlic powder
• 6 OZ crumbled bleu cheese

(I use a 5 oz container of Treasure Cave Blue Cheese and that amount works fine.  You can also leave this out and still get most of the great flavor without the chunks.)

Mix well.  It will be thick.  You can thin with a little milk or cream if you prefer. 

 

Easy Ranch Dressing

Easy Ranch Dressing

• 1 cup mayo
• 1 cup yogurt (I use the 7 oz Fage Total full fat yogurt and then use the empty container to measure out the mayo)
• 2 TBSP parsley
• 1 TSP onion powder
• ½ TSP garlic powder
• ½ TSP salt
• ⅛ TSP pepper
• dash dill weed

Mix well.  It will be thick, but you can thin it with milk, buttermilk, or cream if you prefer.

Ranch Dressing From Scratch Recipe

 

“Once you make this simple dressing you will never buy another bottle of the stuff. This is far superior even to the name brand. From hillbillyhousewife.com. I always use buttermilk but yogurt is ok too.”

That description sounds like pretty high praise.  But, I’ve heard high praise before and come away disappointed, so I wasn’t expecting much.  Boy was I wrong!  This is the best Ranch dressing I think I’ve ever had in my life!  I followed the recipe twice – the 1st time I used buttermilk but honestly, I didn’t care for it that much.  It was runny and I just didn’t care for the buttermilk flavor like the original poster did.  The 2nd time, I used yogurt.  Just plain, Greek yogurt, I believe Fage is the brand name, and wow!  Now, I like it thick but you could thin it out a bit with either some of that buttermilk, or cream, or even plain milk.  Just a little though.  It’s great on salads, and as a dipping sauce for veggies too. 

Here’s a nutritional breakdown as made with yogurt: (Awesome for a low-carb lifestyle!)

• Per tbsp or ½ oz =
• Carbs – .5
• Fat – 11
• Protein – 1

Ingredients:

Servings: 6

Units: US | Metric

• 1 cup mayonnaise
• 1 cup buttermilk (dry buttermilk is fine) or 1 cup yogurt (dry buttermilk is fine)
• 2 teaspoons parsley
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 dash dill weed
• 1/8 teaspoon pepper

Directions:

1. Get out a medium sized bowl.
2. Measure the mayonnaise into it.
3. Gradually whisk in the buttermilk or yogurt.
4. If you use powdered buttermilk, whisk in the powder first, and then slowly add a cup of water.
5. Then add the seasonings. Whisk again.
6. Or you can make it in the blender by putting everything into the blender and whirling until smooth.
7. The mixture will be a little thin, but it will thicken on standing. Store in a pint size jar, makes 2-cups.
8. Keep in the refrigerator for a few weeks. Tastes really good with yogurt by the way. This is my favorite way of making it. It tastes good with powdered buttermilk too, but the consistency is thinner than with yogurt.
9. Note: If desired, you may add a tablespoon of Parmesan Cheese and/or a tablespoon of lemon juice to the dressing in addition to the seasonings above.

Copied from: Ranch Dressing From Scratch Recipe – Food.com – 245439

Roast Chicken

So, the whole cut-up chicken was on sale and you bought some, but now you’re not sure what you want to do with it.  I have something really easy and tasty.  :)  It takes only 10-20 min to prepare and you’re done.

Rinse off the chicken and pat it dry with paper towels, then toss it into a big bowl.  Pick out your favorite salad dressing.  Pour about a half cup of dressing over the chicken, and with your big spatula or wooden spoon, mix until all the pieces are evenly coated.  Place skin side up into a glass 10×13 baking dish and bake at 350° for 90-120 min. 

You can also pour some fresh dressing into a separate bowl and use as a dipping sauce if you want after the chicken is cooked.

This has so many variations it’s not even funny, so you can always have something “new” even though it’s the same old chicken.

Some that I’ve tried:

• Ranch dressing with some chili powder and parsley (or without the chili powder if you don’t care for it)
• Blue Cheese dressing
• Mandarin Orange dressing – next time I think I’ll add some canned mandarin oranges to it, or drained crushed pineapple
• Miracle Whip (or mayonnaise) with about a half cup of parmesan cheese and Italian seasoning
• Honey Mustard dressing
• Creamy Italian dressing

The leftovers from this are great in a cold lunch the next day, too.  🙂