Cilantro Lime Dressing

Creamy Lime-Cilantro Ranch Dressing
Recipe by Our Best Bites 

1 pack (1oz) Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing Mix
ignore directions on the packet
1C mayo
1/2 C milk
1 lime
2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
1/2 C roughly chopped cilantro
1/4 C green salsa*
hot sauce

This is tough folks. Place milk, mayo, and ranch mix in a blender. Juice the lime in there too, you should get about 2T juice. Toss in the garlic, cilantro and green salsa. Blend ‘er up. Sample it and add hot sauce to taste. Make it several hours ahead of time to allow it to thicken.

*A note about green salsa:
There are several brands of green salsa available in most supermarkets and they have various degrees of heat. One of the most commonly seen brands is Herdez. Herdez brand is a lot spicier than any of the others I’ve tried. Even their medium green salsa is way too spicy for my liking. There’s no way I could put the whole 1/4 C in my dressing like the recipe calls for (but then again, I’m a wuss.) I like to buy La Costena (pictured below) because their medium is actually really mild. That way I get all of the flavor of the tomatillos but I control the level of heat with the hot sauce. If you’re not used to buying green salsa, make sure to sample it first before you put it in the dressing so you know what you’re getting into!

Bean and Corn Salsa

 We love this recipe! It's easy, quick to make, and delicious. 

Ingredients: 2 boxes of twisty noodles, 1 bottle of Italian dressing, 1 can of olives, 1 can of corn, 1 can of pinto beans, 1 can of black beans, 2-3 tomatoes, one onion, one cucumber, 1 avocado

Directions: Cook the pasta. Drain and cool under cold water. Mix in large bowl with chopped veggies and drained beans. Add Italian dressing and chill until ready to serve. 

Fresh Homemade Salsa

Fresh Homemade Salsa 

  Ingredients: 

Three 28 ounce cans stewed tomatoes-drained , 1/2 bundle of cilantro 1 bundle green onions, 2 garlics 1 or 2 jalapenos (Take the seeds out for mild salsa), 1/8 tsp ground cumin, fresh lemon juice, salt, tortilla chips

• Cut cilantro, green onions, garlic and jalapeno to small pieces.
• Add to blender and blend away.
• When ingredients are cut up fine, add the drained tomatoes
• Blend.
• Add cumin, lemon juice and salt to taste.

Hints: It is best to keep the tomatoes out of the blender until the other ingredients are added and chopped to keep a good texture.

Brooks' Bread

Brooks' Bread 

Recipe from "Cook's Illustrated" 

Posted by Brooks 

 Makes 1 loaf 

 Ingredients: Dry 18 3/4 oz AP Flour (about 3 1/2 cups) 1 t Salt 2 1/4 t Instant Yeast Wet 2 T Unsalted Butter (Melted) 3 T Honey 1 c Whole Milk 1/3 c Water 

 Directions: Turn on the oven to 200 (it will become a proofing box) Mix the Dry ingredients (minus 1/4 c of flour) in a stand mixing bowl Mix the Wet ingredients and heat to approximately 110 Turn on the mixer to low Introduce wet into the dry Mix for about 10 minutes If, after about 5 minutes, the dough is too wet, add from the reserve 1/4 cup (1 T at a time) Turn off oven (the oven should have been on for 20-30 minutes by now) Remove bread from bowl and knead a few times, shape into a ball and place in a greased bowl Cover with plastic wrap and place in proofing box (oven) until doubled (40-50 minutes) Shape into loaf and place in greased bread pan Start heating oven to 350 Let rise until about doubled (Not in your heating oven)(20-30 minutes) Bake until interior reaches 195 (30 minutes or less)

Cheese Balls

Another delicious recipe from MaJo! We make cheese balls every Christmas. Not only are they delicious, but they make easy gifts for friends AND if you take the labels off the little cheese spread jars (soak them under hot water) then you have perfect little glass cups! Tripled recipe makes 8 regular sized balls.

  Ingredients:

• 1 (eight ounce) cream cheese
• 1 (five ounce) Rocha Blue cheese spread
• 2 (five ounce) Old English (cheese spread, not the cologne)
• 1 tablespoon grated onion
• 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1/4 cup chopped nuts (walnuts or pecans)
• Couple tablespoons fresh parsley-chopped
• 1/2 cup chopped nuts
• Choice of crackers (Ritz, etc.)

Directions:

• Mix all ingredients EXCEPT the 1/2 cup of nuts, the parsley and the crackers.

(You still mix in the 1/4 cup of chopped nuts, just not the 1/2 a cup. Make sense?)

• Lay down plastic wrap, enough to wrap around a ball and tie.
• Mix the 1/2 cup of nuts and the parsley.
• Lay out a small amount (enough to cover the outside of your ball) of nut/parsley mixture on plastic wrap.
• Drop desired amount of cheese ball mix onto this.
• Wrap up plastic wrap to form a ball and tie closed.
• Refrigerate until ready to eat!

Cabbage Beef Soup

Okay, I know that a cabbage soup doesn't sound good, but trust me on this one. This soup is GOOD! Super easy to make and healthy too! I found the recipe online somewhere a few years ago, but we modified and changed it according to what we like. 

Cook Time: Approx. 30 minutes

INGREDIENTS:

One pound of ground beef, cooked

1 16 ounce can of kidney beans. un-drained

1/2 to 2/3 a head of chopped cabbage

1 28 ounce can chopped or stewed tomatoes (We used a "fennel and red pepper" can) 

2-4 bouillon cubes (We use the little jar of soup base found next to the bouillon cubes at the store. It is easy to add a little extra flavor without having to use another cube since it is liquid. 2-3 teaspoons of this base was perfect.)

Spices: Garlic salt, pepper, oregano, minced onions... and whatever else suits your fancy.

1-2 cans worth of water

DIRECTIONS:

Mix all of the ingredients together and cook until the cabbage is tender, approx. 20-30 minutes. (TIP: You can start everything else cooking while you cook the ground beef to save on time!) The great part about this recipe is it is so easy to add extra ingredients if you want more. Another can of tomatoes, extra beans, etc. Also, it re-heats very well so leftovers are still delicious!

Ham Roll-Ups

Recipe passed from Grandma Buis to Mother and down to us. Ingredients:

• 1 box of cream cheese
• 2 large containers cottage cheese
• 1 seasoning packet of Onion Soup Mix (NOT both packets that come in the box.)
• 2-3 packages of very thinly sliced lunch meat

Even though these are called HAM roll-ups, I think the turkey lunch meat is a thousand times better. It is thinner and easier to roll too. We usually buy the pre-sliced meat that you would find near the bologna. Directions:

• Warm cream cheese on the counter until soft.
• Mix cream cheese, cottage cheese and onion soup mix together until blended and there aren't any big clumps of cream cheese.

Feel free to add more cottage cheese if the onion taste is too strong for your liking.

• Put small amount onto middle of a slice of lunch meat.

Fold bottom part of meat up. Then fold in the sides and last the top. These keep their shape easier if they aren't over filled and if you stab them with a toothpick after making them. Good luck getting these onto a serving tray. We eat about half of ours just in the assembling process!

Soft Pretzels

Soft Pretzels

Recipe adjusted for us, but I found it on cloverlane.blogspot.com who got it from allrecipes.com who got it from someone else.

Yes, this recipe has been passed around a lot.

Ingredients:

1 pkg active dry yeast (or 2 1/2 tsp.)

2 TBS brown sugar

1 1/8 tsp salt

1 1/2 cups warm water

3 cups all purpose flour

1 cup bread flour

2 cups warm water (110 degrees)

2 TBS. baking soda

5 TBS melted butter

2 TBS coarse kosher salt

parchment paper

If you don't have parchment paper, you can spray your cookie sheet instead. Just remember to spray it between each batch. 

Directions:

In mixer, dissolve yeast, brown sugar and salt in a 1 1/2 cups warm water. Stir in flour, and knead dough (we used our mixer) for 6-8 minutes. Place in a greased bowl, and turn to coat the surface. Cover, and let rise for one hour.

Combine 2 cups warm water and baking soda in an 8" square pan.

After dough has risen, cut into 12 pieces. Roll each piece into a 3 foot rope, pencil thin or thinner. Twist into a pretzel shape and dip into the baking soda solution pan. Place on parchment covered cookie sheets, and let rise for 20 minutes.

Bake at 450 for 8 minutes or until golden brown. Brush with butter and sprinkle with coarse salt, garlic salt or cinnamon sugar.

OVEN ADJUSTMENTS: Our oven runs REALLY hot, so I had to adjust the recipe and cook the pretzels at about 390 degrees for 6 minutes to get them perfectly soft instead of hard rocks. Adjust the time and temp. for your own oven to get them just right!

Italian Noodles

Recipe from Melinda. I'm not sure where she got it from. If you love those summery pasta dishes, this one will be a new favorite! Super easy. You can adjust the amount you make based on how many noodles you cook. I usually make way too much! 

  Ingredients:

• Spaghetti Noodles
• One bottle regular Italian Dressing
• 1/4 -1/2 an onion
• Optional Veggies: Cucumber, Broccoli, Olives, Tomatoes, etc.

Directions:

1. Cook noodles and strain.
2. Run cold water over noodles until they are no longer hot.
3. Put noodles in a large bowl and add the Italian dressing.
4. Dice onion into small piece and add to noodles.
5. Stir in chopped/sliced veggies.
6. Chill until ready to serve.

Greenbean Casserole

A Thanksgiving favorite! Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup of milk
• 1/8 teaspoon of pepper
• 1 small can of cream of mushroom soup
• 2 (14.4 ounce) cans cut green beans, drained
• 1 1/3 cups French's Original French Fried Onions (Usually comes in a can, often in the pasta isle.)

Directions:

• In 1 1/2 quart casserole dish, mix all ingredients EXCEPT the French Fried Onions. Make sure the beans are drained!
• Bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees or until hot.
• Stir.
• Top with French Fried Onions.
• Bake another 5 minutes or until onions are golden.

Ham Roll-ups

No pictures, because we eat them too fast, but here is the recipe for the ham roll-ups that our mom made every Thanksgiving, passed down through her family. Aunt Sandy and a lot of the cousins still make these too, and Brooks is so attached to them now that he won't let a Thanksgiving go by without me making them.
Here's the SUPER easy recipe!

Ingredients:

2 big containers cottage cheese

one softened 8 ounce cream cheese

one packet of dried onion soup mix

3-4 large packages of thinly sliced ham or turkey lunch meat (I prefer the smoked turkey) 

Directions: 

Mix cottage cheese, cream cheese, and dry packet of onion soup mix. Best if done in the mixer, just to get the cream cheese mixed up really well. 

Next, drop one spoonful of the mixture onto the middle of a slice or two of the lunch meat.
Fold in all the edges to make little "packages". You can use a toothpick to keep them folded if needed. 

And that is all! One of the easiest and yummiest recipes out there!
One bit of advice, make the mixture a few hours ahead of time so that the onions in the mix have a chance to soften.

Blueberry Zucchini Bread

This bread is simply yummy! The fresh blueberries give it a hint of flavor, and the zucchini makes the bread incredibly moist. Oh so delicious. This recipe makes two regular-sized loaves or four mini loaves.

Ingredients:

-3 eggs

-1 cup vegetable oil (healthy tip: use only 1/2 cup veg. oil and 1/2 cup applesauce)

-3 teaspoons vanilla

-2 cups white sugar

-1/4 cup brown sugar

-3 cups grated zucchini

-3 cups all-purpose flour

-1 teaspoon salt

-1 teaspoon baking powder

-1/4 teaspoon baking soda

-1 tablespoon groung cinnamon

- Fresh blueberries (I usually use about 4 ounces)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease four mini-loaf pans or 2 regular sized loaf pans.

2. In large bowl, beat together eggs, oil, vanilla, and sugar. Fold in zucchini.

3. Beat in flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon. Gently fold in blueberries. Transfer batter to loaf pans.

4. Bake at 350 for 50 minutes (if using four mini loaves) or 1 hour and 20 minutes (if using 2 regular loaves), or until toothpick comes out clean. Enjoy!

Tips:

-Sprinkle bottom of greased loaf pans with small amount of brown sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

Warm Wheat Bread

Oh My Goodness, this is really great wheat bread! Of course, I didn't just come up with  the recipe myself- I'm not a good cook, I just use other people's good recipes! This recipe is from a wonderful recipe blog, called www.justgetoffyourbuttandbake.com. You should head over there and check out all of her amazing recipes. This recipe is copied and pasted directly from her website. Try this, it's better than Great Harvest wheat bread (at least, that's what Dallin says)!

(sorry, not the best picture, again)

 

*** I cut this recipe in half and it made two loaves, and you can freeze the extra loaf in two large ziploc bags***

WHOLE WHEAT BREAD

4 cups water
1/2 Cup shortening or butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup Molasses
1 Tablespoon salt
2 Tablespoons yeast
and
1/2 teaspoon sugar in 1/2 cup warm water.
9 cups Whole Wheat Flour
2 cups White Flour
DIRECTIONS:
Mix above ingredients together.  Add 6 cups of whole wheat flour and mix well, until smooth. Cover this dough and let rise til doubled (about 20 minutes).  Now add 3 cups more Whole Wheat flour and 2 cups White flour.  Mix well, and knead for about 10 minutes.  The dough should be a soft firm, but not sticky.  All the dough will pull away from the sides of the bowl, and you can form a nice ball of dough.
Cover and raise till double.  (about 45 minutes).  Punch down (knead for 5 minutes) and put into 4 loaf pans.  Let rise until dough is risen about 1 to 1 1/4 inches above the sides of the pan.  Bake at 350 degrees for about 40 minutes.  I like to bakes my loaves in the middle of the oven.  For the last 10 minutes of baking time, I place a loose foil tent over the tops, so that they don’t get to brown.
You will know that the loaves of bread are done, by tapping the tops of the loaves.  If it sounds hollow, that is a good indication they are not doughy on the inside!

Lion House Rolls and Bread

My sister-in-law gave me this recipe for rolls and bread. It makes the yummiest rolls! I decided to give it a shot (after many failed attempts at bread-making). This is the best recipe! Just don't forget: let your yeast/water/sugar mixture sit for at least 10 minutes (cover the bowl, and maybe turn on the oven and open the door for more warmth in the room). 

Ingredients: 

-2 T yeast

-1 cup hot water

-1/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup butter

1 1/2 cups milk

-6 cups flour

-2 eggs

2 tsp. salt

Directions:

Mix together the yeast, sugar and water. Let sit until it gets all bubbly and weird-looking. 

Put butter and milk in a bowl and microwave for 3 minutes. Set aside. 

Add 3 cups flour to yeast mixture and mix well. Add eggs and mix well. Add milk and butter mixture and keep on mixing! Add salt and the rest of the flour a little at a time until dough is elastic and there are no lumps. Knead for 5-10 minutes. 

Make into rolls and place on greased cookie sheet (or put in two separate bowls if you're making bread), cover with a hand towel and let rise 20-40 minutes (make sure they're in a warm environment!). 

For rolls: Bake at 375* for 15-20 minutes. 

For bread loaves: Baked at 350* for 30-35 minutes. This is my adaptation, since the recipe didn't say what temperature for bread. It could be different if you're not living at sea level elevation, so keep checking on the bread and go by how golden-brown the top looks. 

The rolls and bread are done if they sound hollow when you tap on the top. 

Wheat Tortillas

Wheat Tortillas

These are really great, and they can be refrigerated or frozen if you have extras. One recipe batch makes about 18 tortillas (depending on how big you want them). 

 Ingredients: 

1 cup flour

4 cups wheat flour

1/2 cup shortening

1 tsp. salt

1 1/2 cups boiling water

Directions:

Stir flours and salt. Rub in shortening by hand until the mix reaches the texture of oatmeal. Make a well in the center of the dough pour in boiling water. Mix with a fork until evenly mixed. Knead until dough is not sticky. 

Make mix into balls the size of golf balls. Place on greased tray; cover with a cloth and let sit for at least 1 hour, up to 8 hours. 

Heat frying pan over medium-high heat. Roll out tortillas until desired thickness. Fry for 30 seconds on one side, then flip and fry for 30 seconds on other side. 

Lettuce Wraps

 These are delicious! The crispy lettuce, special sauce, mushrooms and water chestnuts, it's all a perfect combination. Just a warning, your husbands probably won't LOVE them like you will, because they contain lettuce and healthy food. :) But give these a try and you will see what I'm talking about! A couple of tips: These require a bit of chopping, so maybe chop the vegetables and make the special sauce beforehand. Also, for the fried rice noodles, I just used plain old chow mein noodles and didn't fry them, just put them on top of everything inside the lettuce cup. AND, one more thing, I have some rice wine vinegar if anyone wants to borrow it. Thanks to my sis-in-law Chelsea for the recipe!

Ingredients
3 tablespoons oil
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 cup water chestnut
2/3 cup mushroom
3 tablespoons chopped onions
1 teaspoon minced garlic
4-5 leaves iceberg lettuce
Special Sauce
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
2 tablespoons ketchup
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/8 teaspoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon hot mustard
2 teaspoons water
1-2 teaspoon garlic and red chile paste
Stir Fry Sauce
4 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon rice wine vinegar
Taste it and add more if it needs it
Fried Rice noodles
· Dry rice noodles
· Oil
Directions
Make the special sauce by dissolving the sugar in water in a small bowl.
Add soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, ketchup, lemon juice and sesame oil.
Mix well and refrigerate this sauce until you're ready to serve.
Combine the hot water with the hot mustard and set this aside as well.
Eventually add your desired measurement of mustard and garlic chili sauce to the special sauce mixture to pour over the wraps.
Bring oil to high heat in a wok or large frying pan.
Saute chicken breasts for 4 to 5 minutes per side or done.
Remove chicken from the pan and cool.
Keep oil in the pan, keep hot.
As chicken cools mince water chestnuts and mushrooms to about the size of small peas.
Prepare the stir fry sauce by mixing the soy sauce, brown sugar, and rice vinegar together in a small bowl.
When chicken is cool, mince it as the mushrooms and water chestnuts are.
Make the Fried rice noodles by heating oil in a fry pan Add small amounts of rice noodles let them fry until they puff up, take them off and let them drain extra oil on a paper towel. I like to add a little salt to them.
With the pan still on high heat, add another Tbsp of vegetable oil.
Add chicken, garlic, onions, water chestnuts and mushrooms to the pan.
Add the stir fry sauce to the pan and saute the mixture for a couple minutes then serve it in the lettuce"cups". And fried noodles
Top with"Special Sauce". Serve with Chili paste and Mustard

Healthier Stuffed Peppers

I found this recipe on All Recipes (www.allrecipes.com). I've never made these before, and we were all surprised at how great these tasted. They are healthy and yet satisfying, with brown rice, ground turkey (or ground beef), and spaghetti sauce filling. I did make a few revisions, which are in italics on the recipe. Otherwise, this is copied and pasted directly from the website. These are also really great as leftovers the next day. One more thing, don't forget to start this early, because it takes about 45 minutes to cook the rice and defrost/cook the hamburger, and THEN it still bakes for one hour.

 

Mel, this picture is for you, since you need to see what it looks like!

 

 Ingredients

• 1 pound lean ground beef (I used ground turkey, which is healthier and not so gross to cook)
• 1/2 cup uncooked brown rice
• 1 cup water
• 6 bell peppers, assorted colors
• 2 (8 ounce) cans natural tomato sauce (I used one 26-ounce can of regular spaghetti sauce)
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 medium onion, chopped (I only used about 1/4 of an onion)
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning (I didn't have that, so I just put used parsley, oregano, and garlic powder, season to taste)
• 1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese, optional (I did use this, and it added flavor, so I would recommend it, but you won't die without it. I also put a small amount of mozzarella cheese on top)
• I also added mushrooms (chopped)
• I also added about 1/2 a can of olives (chopped)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. Place the rice and water in a saucepan, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover, and cook 45 minutes. In a skillet over medium heat, cook the beef, garlic and onion until meat is evenly browned and onion is softened.
3. Remove and discard the tops, seeds, and membranes of the bell peppers. Arrange peppers in a baking dish with the hollowed sides facing upward. (Slice the bottoms of the peppers if necessary so that they will stand upright.)
4. In a bowl, mix the browned beef, cooked rice, 1 can tomato sauce, Worcestershire sauce, salt, and pepper. Spoon an equal amount of the mixture into each hollowed pepper. Mix the remaining tomato sauce and Italian seasoning in a bowl, and pour over the stuffed peppers.
5. Bake 1 hour in the preheated oven, basting with sauce every 15 minutes, until the peppers are tender. Sprinkle the peppers with grated parmesan cheese after baking, if desired.

Artichoke Bruschetta

I made this with the stuffed pepper recipe. Delicious! A very interesting and yet wonderful combination, with marinated artichoke hearts and Parmesan cheese. Just try it once, I think you'll like it (unless you're Megan's kids.... sorry Megan, but I don't think they'll like the artichokes, but you and Brooks will!). Again, my revisions to the recipe are in italics.

Ingredients

• 1 (6.5 ounce) jar marinated artichoke hearts, drained and chopped (make sure they're marinated, and I used THREE jars for one big loaf of french bread)
• 1/2 cup grated Romano cheese (I didn't have Romano, I used Parmesan, still really good!)
• 1/3 cup finely chopped red onion (um, nope, didn't have this either, so I didn't use it...)
• 5 tablespoons mayonnaise (I used only ONE tablespoon, and it was perfect. Five is way too much)
• 1 French baguette, cut into 1/3 inch thick slices
• I also sprinkled them with some garlic powder, for a little more flavorful kick

Directions

 **** Important Tip: After slicing the bread, place on a cookie sheet alone and broil for 1-2 minutes. This will keep the bread crunchy and not soggy when it broils with the artichoke mixture on it*****

1. Preheat the broiler.
2. In a medium bowl, mix marinated artichoke hearts, Romano cheese, red onion and mayonnaise. Top French baguette slices with equal amounts of the artichoke heart mixture. Arrange slices in a single layer on a large baking sheet. (I put more Parmesan cheese on top too)
3. Broil in the preheated oven 2 minutes, or until toppings are bubbly and lightly browned. 

Warm White Bread

This bread is sooo easy, and by far the best most delicious foolproof recipe I've ever found. Really, if I can make it, anyone can! Try it!!!

Ingredients:

1 tbsp. yeast

1/2 cup sugar

2 1/2 cups warm water

2 tsp. salt

5-6 cups flour

Add warm water, sugar, and yeast to a large bowl. Let sit for 5 minutes, then add salt and flour slowly, Knead and add more flour as needed until dough not too sticky. Let rise until twice its size. Cut dough in half and form into two loaves. Let loaves rise until doubled in size. Bake @ 350 for 25 minutes or until slightly golden on top.