Ranch chicken thighs

Another great way to use my Ranch seasoning is on chicken. Ranch seasoning was made to go on chicken. Chicken and ranch make a perfect pair.  This recipe is a great one for a quick fix week night meal, or served to some friends at a Super Bowl party. Just substitute the thighs for wings and you'll have a game day food everyone will be talking about for days to come.


Prep time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 25 minutes
Total time: 30 minutes

Ingredients
5-6 skinless boneless chicken thighs
2 tablespoons of my Ranch seasoning
Sea salt to taste
1 tablespoon of Olive oil

Directions:
Pre heat your oven to 425F. To a bowl add the chicken thighs, olive oil, ranch seasoning and sea salt, and mix well. Place chicken on a foil lined cookie sheet, and bake for 20 minutes, or until chicken is cooked through. Remove from oven, serve and enjoy! This chicken is great with my Ranch dip!

Ranch Potatoes

If you're still on the fence about whether or not to make my Ranch seasoning, this recipe, and the one I plan to post later this week, should get you right off of that fence. There really are so many ways that you can use my ranch seasoning, and every one of them will be delicious!

Prep time:5 minutes
Cook time: 20 minutes
Total time: 25 minutes

Ingredients:
2.5 cups of Yukon gold potatoes cubed
1.5 teaspoons of  my Ranch seasoning add more if you're so inclined
5 tablespoons of olive oil
Sea salt to taste

Directions:

Heat the olive oil in a cast iron skillet, add in the potatoes and cook until all sides are brown and potatoes are Cooke through. Transfer  the potatoes from the skillet  to a bowl and toss with ranch seasoning and sea salt. Enjoy like this or dipped in my Ranch dip, either way, you cannot go wrong!

Homemade Ranch Yogurt dip and salad dressing

Ranch Salad Dressing/Dip

So now that you've made my Dry Ranch Seasoning mix, it's time to have some fun with ways  to use it. The uses for my ranch seasoning are nearly endless, but this yogurt dip/salad dressing is a really easy way. This single dip is responsible for my daughters newfound love of carrots! She loves dipping carrots in this. Frankly she likes the ranch dip more than the carrots, but as a mom you pick your battles. Luckily this is a win-win for both of us, since this dip has no added oil and is made from yogurt and herbs, there really isn't any thing wrong with her love for it. Most ranch dressings contain mayonnaise as a base. Organic Greek yogurt is great for this if your main use for it is as a dip for veggies and chicken wings. I prefer Bulgarian yogurt, it's more tart than Greek and not as thick, it's the perfect texture for both a salad dressing and a dip, but go with a yogurt that you love. It's important to pick one that you love, because this is the base of your salad dressing or dip and you want the base to taste good.

Ingredients:
1/2 cups of Organic Greek or Bulgarian  yogurt
3 tablespoons of butter milk (optional)
1/2 teaspoon of white wine vinegar 
1 tablespoon of my Dry Ranch Seasoning, or the fresh ingredients below:

If you have fresh herbs you can skip my ranch seasoning and use the below:
1 tablespoons organic parsley chopped finely
1/2 teaspoons of organic dill weed chopped finely
1 clove garlic grated
1.5 teaspoons of onion powder
sea salt to taste 
pink peppercorns ground ( you can sub black pepper) to taste


Add the ingredients to a mason jar or glass bowl and mix well. 

Cover the bowl and refrigerate to allow the flavors to meld for at least 30 minutes. Serve with veggie sticks, over salad, or with my recipe of Lime and red pepper flake wings. You really can't go wrong! I have a few upcoming recipes that I've made using the dry ranch mix, stay tuned!

Homemade Ranch Dry Seasoning

One of my favorite condiments is salad dressing. I love making my own salad dressing from scratch. Most salad dressings are filled with way too many preservatives for my taste, not to mention hidden and not so hidden calories. I love simple vinaigrettes, but every now and again, I crave a creamy salad dressing. I resort to making this recipe for ranch, or my Caesar  salad dressing. Both are fantastic in their own separate ways. I've come up with a recipe for a dry ranch seasoning.  This ranch seasoning is extremely versatile, and can be used in a host of recipes, I'll post 2 more ways to use it in the coming week. But first let me give you the recipe for the ranch seasoning.

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Ingredients:
2.5 tablespoons of dried organic parsley
1.5 teaspoons of dried organic dill weed
2 teaspoons of garlic powder
2.5 teaspoons of onion powder
2 teaspoons of dried onion flakes
1 teaspoon of sea salt
1 teaspoon of pink peppercorns ground ( you can sub black pepper)


Add the ingredients for the dry ranch mix to a mason jar, or a re-sealable bag, and mix well. 1 tablespoon of this mixture is all you need to make my low calorie Ranch yogurt dip/salad dressing.

Lime and Red Pepper Flake Chicken Wings

I am not a huge sports fan, and thankfully neither is my husband! I can't sit through games. In our house politics is what has us yelling at the television and calling the players idiots. That doesn't mean that we don't enjoy game day foods like chicken wings. I for one am a huge fan of spicy buffalo wings, but they aren't huge on my husbands list of favorite things to eat. So if I want them, I have have to invent ways to indulge my craving and make them palatable for him. This recipe does just that. The tang of the lime, matched with the spice of the red pepper flake, make for a tasty and satisfying wing!

Prep Time: 5 minute
Cook Time: 25 minutes
Total time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:
1 lb of chicken wings
1/4 of lime juice
3 cloves of garlic crushed or grated
Zest of 2 limes
1/2 teaspoon of red pepper flakes
Sea salt to taste
2 tablespoons of olive oil

Directions: Pre-heat the oven to 425F. Pat dry your wings with a paper towel, In a bowl season the chicken with sea salt, then add the lime zest, olive oil, garlic, red pepper flakes and mix well. Place the chicken on a foil lined baking sheet and place in the oven, cook for 20-25 minutes, until the chicken is crisped and cooked through. Remove from the oven, sprinkle evenly with lime juice and enjoy!

Citrus Marinaded Chicken Thighs

Citrus Marinated Chicken Thighs

My husband gave me a food saver for Christmas. Most women would balk at such a gift, but not me, I've wanted a Food Saver for a long while now. Among the many great things that a Food Saver does, like resealing opened bags of chips, and preserving veggies for an indefinite amount of time, is marinating meat in under 15 minutes. Who knew that sucking the air out of something would create such great results. You don't need a food saver to make this, just marinate your chicken the old fashioned way, 30 minutes in this marinade is great, but longer is always better.


Prep time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 20 minutes
Total time: 25 minutes

Ingredients
5-6 skinless boneless chicken thighs
1/4 cup of green onions sliced
1 tablespoon of soy sauce
1/4 cup of mandarin juice/ orange juice
1 teaspoon of mandarin or orange zest
3 cloves of garlic grated
1/2 teaspoon of smoked paprika
Juice of 1 small lime
1 tablespoon of cilantro finely chopped
2 tablespoon of olive oil
Sea salt to taste

Directions:
 In a medium bowl whisk together all the ingredients for the marinade. Add the chicken, mix well, and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

Pre-heat the oven 425F. Line a baking sheet with foil, remove the chicken from the marinade, and place it on the foil lined baking sheet. Cook on 425F for 15-20 minutes, or until chicken is cooked through. Top with cilantro and enjoy!

Sautéed Kale with Mushrooms

Sautéed Kale and Mushrooms

One of the great things about Kale is that it's so versatile! You can dress kale up with almost any flavor and still end up with a soul satisfying side dish. I love pairing greens of any kind with mushrooms! Mushrooms give the greens a great counter texture, and let's face it, mushrooms make everything fantastic!

Ingredients
3 cups of Lacinto kale chopped finely
2 cloves of garlic
2 cups of sliced mushrooms
1 Tablespoon of soy sauce
2 tablespoons of olive oil
1 tablespoon of butter
Sea salt to taste

Heat olive oil and butter in a skillet. Add garlic and mushrooms and sauté until mushrooms take on some color(10 minutes) add in kale and sauté until greens wilt, add in soy sauce and cook for another 5-7 minutes or until greens are tender. Season with sea salt if necessary, serve and enjoy!

Wine Braised Kale

Braised Kale

Thank goodness that the Holidays are over. I feel like I've been on a fast moving train for the last 2 months! I don't know about you, but I love being home and settled into my routine. The Holidays always take me out of routine.  It's nice to get out of routine, but it's heaven to get back into routine also. While I've been away from you, I've been indulging in comfort foods, like stews in wine sauces! I love adding wine to sauces and stews. A wine sauce always makes me want to lick the plate clean! This recipe for Kale is so extremely yummy that if you're not a Kale lover, you may just become a kale lover overnight! Kale gets a bad rap, I think it's because most people don't know how to cook it. People always pull me aside in the grocery store and ask me how I cook it. They whisper the question as if my responding answer will contain the secrets of the earth! Maybe for them it does. If you are not eating kale because you haven't a clue how to make it, I hope that this recipe changes that!

Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 10-12 minutes

Ingredients:
1 bunch of Lancinto Kale washed and chopped finely
1/4 cup of shallots or brown onion finely chopped
1/4 cup or more of a good white wine (I used Sauvignon Blanc)
1 large clove of garlic sliced thinly
Sea salt and black pepper to taste
1-2 Tablespoons of olive oil

Directions:
Heat olive oil add garlic and shallots and  cook until you can smell the garlic, (20 seconds), add in kale, and sauté until wilted. Add in white wine, sea salt, and pepper, bring to a simmer and lower the heat. Cook covered for 5-7 minutes. It's done when Kale is tender.