Friday, August 07, 2015

Recipe Pins



If there is one thing I cannot be without in this house, it is ranch dressing. Emily loves it on almost everything - it has become kind of a joke! I usually buy light ranch, but have long been intrigued by making my own - the sheer quantity of recipe options available is a bit overwhelming, but here is the one I tried.

Well, my kids did not like it and I will admit it was very spicy compared to store bought - so I need to tweak the seasonings quite a bit in order to try this again.

As a side note, the above salad was a picnic we took while out running errands about an hour from home. Have you ever taken a picnic lunch to the mall food court? We cashed in our July Chick-fil-A calendar offer {free chicken strips} and cut that up on our salads. Yum!




Comfort food that looks like this always appeals to me - yet I've tried many recipes similar to this and have never landed on just what I hope it to be. The fact that you get to puree the tomatoes makes it an instant possibility in my non-chunky-or-fresh-tomato-eater book.

The result was that we loved this! It was exactly what comfort food should be and was a definite win at my table!

When we nearly ran out of chocolate sauce and Samuel wanted chocolate milk, I tried this homemade version. It is extremely thin/runny so the consistency has issues. Anyone have a good recipe to recommend?

Also, made our own Swiffer liquid - water, vinegar and lav/pep essential oils. I don't love the smell of vinegar and can't smell the EO's in this but the price was definitely right so I will make it work!



This summer, we got to go to Pizza Ranch while in Iowa and enjoyed their Cactus Bread! Emily asked if we could make some - so we found this recipe and it was delish! I used this recipe for the crust {minus onion/garlic powder} and then topped as directed in the first recipe.

Every bite was gone and my children declared this, "just like Pizza Ranch!" I'm not sure I'd go that far, but it was tasty!




Found a recipe for grilled corn on the cob in the most recent Life: Beautiful magazine. I tried it including the recipe for basil parmesan topping to sprinkle over it. The grilled corn was delish! We all thought it had too much basil in it - but I tasted it before adding that and just the grilled corn alone was really tasty! 


I always love to make some tasty treat when I have CC moms over which this time of year is frequently! One of these recent times, I tried Skinny Double Chocolate Zucchini Pecan Muffins.

For a second evening of CC mamas coming over, we had this Maple Glazed Rustic Apple Tart:



A little update on the homemade French Toast Sticks: we all loved them and they were more filling than the store bought frozen ones!

8 comments:

Unknown said...

Thanks for sharing the recipes!:) I've tried a few good ones this summer too! (Via pinterest)My 14 year old loves ranch too. He puts it on almost everything :)
Christina

Anonymous said...

I also read Life: Beautiful. Nice to see a recipe review here. We'll give it a try. I am enjoying reading your adventures on the homemade dressings and mixes. I have also converted to making our own dressings. I like dressing recipes from the blogs, Heavenly Homemakers, The Nourishing Home, and 100 Days of Real Food. There is one ranch dressing I occasionally buy that's got much better ingredients in it than the shelved ones. It's in the refrigerator section by the produce (in our store), "Marzetti Simply Dressed dressing 'Ranch.'" It is a common brand.

I couldn't help but laugh at your photo and story of having a picnic in the food court at the mall. So funny! But hey, if there's no sign saying, 'no outside food', dive in! :) Bringing my own food to public restaurants is something I do all the time for food allergy reasons, but to see a little family that can generally eat anything do it, is fun. Plates and all! ;)

Andrea L.

Mrs. U said...

This is our favorite ranch dressing. We always hear rave reviews. http://www.hillbillyhousewife.com/ranchdressing.htm

His
Shari

Bonnie said...

My homemade ranch is actually dip, but you can thin it with milk: 1/2 c. mayo (I use homemade), 1/2 c. sour cream, 1/2-1tsp. each dried chives, dill and parsley, 1/4-1/2 tsp. each garlic powder, onion powder and salt, ground pepper to taste, mix well. My kids love it and it's mostly junk free!

Lisa said...

Is Life Beautiful still being published? I cannot find it anywhere. Thanks

Mom said...

These all look yummy. I'm especially interested in the Cactus Bread recipe - tastes good and brings back fun memories!

Monica Wilkinson said...

Hi Lisa - yes! I have a subscription, but have also seen it at Barnes & Noble. I think you can look up on the Life: Beautiful website where to find it in your area.

Lisa said...

I am not sure the website at Life Beautiful is current. We were in Macon, GA this weekend, and the Barnes and Nobles is listed as having it. However, I searched the magazine racks and could not find it. Maybe they were out of the current issue. I am wanting to order for my daughter and me to share, but I would have liked to see an issue first. Anyway, Barnes and Noble is an hour and a half from me so maybe I will just order for Christmas.