Cilantro Lime Salad Dressing

So you might just remember when I posted my last recipe for Pulled BBQ Chicken that I mentioned it might be pretty tasty in a salad? Well, tonight I tried a recipe for a dressing that mimics Cafe Rio's tomatillo dressing and guess what? It might not have been exact but it was DARN close. Husband asked to drink it. Maybe the best part is that I can pretty much guarantee mine's a whole lot lighter than the restaurant version. When I tasted it, I knew I was going to have to make a HUGE salad to eat it with. What did I have? BBQ chicken, black beans, tortillas and lettuce. Taco salad night!!! I literally threw this together in about 15 minutes with stuff I had on hand. Since I don't think anyone is interested in me telling them how to put together a salad, I will just post the recipe for the dressing. I got the recipe from those genius girls over at Our Best Bites. Check it out!

Ingredients:

1 packet Hidden Valley Ranch dressing mix

1 cup mayo (I used reduced fat) (sidebar, NEVER use fat free mayo in ANYTHING. It's wretched....Anyway, where was I?)

1/2 cup milk (I used skim)

1 lime

2 cloves garlic roughly chopped

1/2 cup cilantro leaves. Just rip the leaves off the stems, don't bother chopping them.

1/4 cup green salsa (Salsa Verde)

hot sauce (optional - mine didn't need it)

Directions:

Put it all in the blender....blend until smooth. Try not to drink it.

Asian Chicken Salad

This is a GREAT salad to take it light and easy. Have a relaxing night with this light salad.

Ingredients:
2 Chicken Breasts
1 Head of Romain Lettuce
1 Bunch of Green Onions
1/2 a Package of Wonton Papers
Rice Wine Vinegar
Sugar
Oil
Sesame Seeds

Directions:
Heat your fryer. While fryer is heating cut 1/2 of the package of wontons into either strips or squares. Fry up your wontons and set aside.

Place oil in the pan and cook your chicken. I like to brown both sides before I start cubing them. Make the cubes as large or as small as you would like. When the chicken is done cooking place in a bowl and set aside.

While chicken is cooking cut and/or tear your romaine lettuce and place in a large bowl. Chop your green onions and sprinkle over your lettuce. Shake on about 1/4 cup of sesame seeds and set bowl aside.

In a dressing shaker place equal amounts of rice vinegar, sugar and oil in and shake. Pepper it to taste.

Now you get to make your own plate. Place your lettuce on first, top with chicken, wontons and dressing. Enjoy your summer salad.

Bleu Cheese Dressing... From Scratch!

I have my fantastic mother-in-law to thank for this easy and super yummy recipe. As an added plus, with only five ingredients and two simple steps, this dressing is the definition of "easy-peasy." This is great as a salad dressing or a tasty dip for veggies (or plain potato chips, if you want a less healthy dipping option ^_^).

You can vary the amount of Bleu cheese if you want more mild or more potent Bleu cheese flavor.

Ingredients:

16oz container of Light Sour Cream

approx. 3/4 cups crumbled Bleu cheese

approx. 3/8 tsp. garlic powder (or to taste)

Salt to taste

Pepper to taste

Directions:
1. Blend the light sour cream and 1/2 cup of the Bleu cheese in a blender.
2. Empty dressing into a bowl and add remaining 1/4 cup Bleu cheese crumbles, garlic powder, salt, and pepper, stirring with a spoon to combine.