Saturday, April 16, 2016

Cilantro Dressing Recipe and link

I was pretty sure I had this recipe here already, but I cannot find it.

http://ourbestbites.com/2009/03/creamy-lime-cilantro-dressing/

Ingredients
1 pack (1 oz) Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing Mix (ignore directions on packet)
1C mayo
1/2 C buttermilk (or milk works, too)
1 lime
2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
1/2 C roughly chopped cilantro
1/4 C green salsa*

Instructions
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.

Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Week 53, Day 1

LAST DAY!!!!!!!!

Breakfast: leftover oatmeal for Dai, Phyllis and I but it was all gone by the time Cress got up so she had fried eggs.

Lunch: Cress and Phyllis had the rest of the chicken salad on two of the remainng hambuirger buns.  Dai had the last of the turkey lunchmeat on the last hamburger bun.  I had leftover Garden of Eden salad, an atulfo mango (they looked good but probably need a couple days) and some (a lot) Cheez-its.

Dinner: Pot roast with carrots, onions and potatoes.  Salad with lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber with feta and toasted pine nuts on the side.  Cream biscuits.  Martinelli's and blueberry ice-tea. Mini wienies with bacon and brown sugar as an appetizer.  The wienies were on sample at Costco and someone nearby suggested the bacon thing so we will try that.

Tuesday, December 30, 2014

Week 52, Day 7

Can you believe it?! Tomorrow is the last day of this!!  It was an interesting experience, but I am glad it is pretty much over.  I wonder if I will ever look back and find it fascinating.  Or maybe someone 100 years from now, "They ate what?!  Who in their  right mind would eat that?!"  What I am sure of is tat it is a good place to put a recipe that I want to hand on down or to which I want easy access, but I will just put them in my regular blog going forward.

Breakfast: oatmeal with brown sugar and raisins plus your choice of regular or almond milk.  Cress prefers almond milk.  I think the other two don't much care.  I definitely prefer cow milk, but almond is better than soy.

Lunch: Cressida and I had chicken salad.  Dai and Phyllis had BLTs.  Phyllis had a sliced apple.  The rest of us had a mandarin orange.  We all had a few Cheez-its.  (I am trying to go back to no sugar.)  I was planning to have a BLT, also, but I burned the last few pieces of bacon and it was already going to be light on the bacon so I had leftover chicken salad.  We used church sourdough bread.

As a kid I remember thinking that people who froze bread were even poorer than we.  Now, I love freezing bread.  My kids' sandwiches are thawed by lunchtime.  If we sandwiches eat at home they are just toasted, either lightly or a lot depending on the kid.  Cressida really prefers not toasted.  She reminded me, "Mom, next time can you remember I don't like toasted bread for my sandwiches?"  I told her it was either toasted or frozen.

I love freezing bread because it lasts forever.  Yesterday, Lucky had bread on clearance.  I am sure it was close to its expiry date.  It was a good brand and cracked wheat or wheat berry and white hamburger buns. We are having hamburger buns tonight since I think they probably need to be used quickly (which means beef two nights in a row plus I plan to do a roast tomorrow!) but I just tossed all the sandwich bread in the freezer and I know it will last until the day that it is pulled out to be used.

Dinner: Hamburgers, pan fried rather than grilled because we still need propane. Beans and cornbread.  I tried a different recipe and used bacon fat in it - fresh from lunch.  That means you really cut down the salt that goes in the beans, so they were a bit salty.  Cress and Phyllis didn't eat theirs.  We are letting the rest sit overnight with potatoes to remove the salt so Jason can take them and the rest of the cornbread for lunch tomorrow.  We also had canned green beans.

I made it without sugar.  I did have four dates after dinner.

Monday, December 29, 2014

Week 52, Day 6

Breakfast: eggs and toast.  Jason got up and left early so he had cereal at work like usual.

Lunch:  I made chicken salad sandwiches for Kaitlyn, Dai and I.  Phyllis had her Cup'o'Noodles from Heather Castro and Cress had her microwaveable mac'n'cheese, also from Heather.  we cut up some apples and had Cheez-its, too.

Dinner: Two New York steaks, total precooked weight 1.25 pounds.  We were out of propane so we did them on the stove top.  We also had roasted butternut squash, sautéed mushrooms and Garden of Eden salad with it.

Jason got a cookbook called "Eat the Bible" for Christmas.  It has some recipes and some questions and scriptures and other stuff.  He thought that would be a good ready made FHE.  So, tonight, with much pleasure, we chopped, diced and sauteed together.  I had pre-cooked the wheat.  Hopefully we will do that often and try some new foods.  It is almost enough to make me sad I won't be doing this anymore next year.  Almost, but not quite.  I can always reference anything particularly memorable.   

Sunday, December 28, 2014

Week 52, Day 4

Breakfast: cold cereal and bananas at Grandma and Grandpa's.

Lunch: We ate at Del Taco in Sacarmento after attending my brother's ward before heading home.

Dinner: Eggs and toast for Dai, Phyllis and I.  Jason and Cress had bean and rice burritos.  

Saturday, December 27, 2014

Week 52, day 4 - at Grandma and Grandpa Hansen's

breakfast: cold cereal with almond milk and hot chocolate for the girls. To be fair, I think grandma and grandpa have made them hot chocolate every day we have been here. I actually did not eat because it was almond or soy milk only. Well, I had some raisinettes and Pero.

Lunch: I realized it was lunch time and figured Granada was a bit frazzled so I made chicken noodle soup out of a can for phyllis and Kraft macaroni and cheese and green beans for lunch. I think Grandma Lisa didn't eat, but Larry did plus our family.

Dinner: hamburgers grilled by Larry. We had brought some produce that would have gone bad in our fridge if we had not brought it. One of these was Brussels sprouts and another was fresh cranberries. We made roasted Brussels sprouts that used the cranberries, maple syrup and some walnuts. The girls found walnut and pecan trees on our dog walk and cracked them for us when they got home. 

Friday, December 26, 2014

Week 52, day 3 - at Grandma and Grandpa Hansen's

Breakfast: Larry made pancakes because the girls requested it and we are the leftover egg muffins because Lisa didn't want pancakes to mean the leftovers stayed there.

Lunch: Jason, Daitarih, Phyllis and I ate at a taqueria in Yuba city after our movie. Then we went to a little homemade ice cream place for dessert. Cressida stayed here with grandpa and he took her to Jack in the Box for lunch.

Dinner: leftovers from the taqueria, Jack in the Box and what was in the fridge. Very unorganized and eating was done in their own schedule.

Thursday, December 25, 2014

Week 52, Day 2 - Christmas at Grandma and Grandpa Hansen's


Breakfast: egg, sausage and potatoes muffins. Basically it is breakfast casserole in muffin tins. She has made some variant of it before but it is never very good. Usually dry. This was the best yet. We also had mandarin oranges from gheir tree, bananas and apple slices. We finished the cranberry, pecan, rye bread that Michelle LaVanaway made us for Christmas.

Lunch: not a formal lunch. Olives. Chips and dip. Candy from stockings, etc. 

Dinner: pot roast with onions and carrots, garlic mashed potatoes wih heavy made from the pot roast juice, steamed broccoli and steamed beefs. Dessert was either Christmas candy or cinnamon apples. 

Wednesday, December 24, 2014

Week 52, day 1 - at Grandma and Grandpa Hansen's

Breakfast: French toast, Larry's specialty

Lunch: bean burritos for everyone except Dai who had oeNut butter and jelly. They only have chunky peanut butter but even forewarned, she chose it

Dinner: Papa Murphy's pizza. We really like Hawaiian in our house, buy apparently Larry doesn't do ham so we got half Hawaiin and the other half chicken garlic and a cowboy pizza.

Also much junk food. Almond rocha. Chips. See's candy. Popcorn. And do on. Before dinner though we did have cucumber stocks do that's something, i guess. 

Tuesday, December 23, 2014

week 51, day 7

Breakfast: the girls got processed foods from heather Castro. They were thrilled and I think it was easy for her. So this morning thy had instant oatmeal packets. She put in two. The maple and brown sugar variety. Phyllis didn't like it. She had only made one packet to start so she gave her other unopened packet to Dai. I didn't eat.

Lunch: dim sum with Jason and a co-worker and his daughter. The last couple years we have gone to dim sum over winter break at a place up in Sunnyvale. I think it is officially a tradition. The first time it was just us the next we went with one of Jason's co-workers from NetApp. This time his coworker was Chinese so we tried some new dishes. Whole baby octopuses and chicken feet and sticky rice. Crews liked the sticky rice but the other two weren't big hits with the girls or Jason. I ate three octopuses at least. Cresida's tentacles, Phyllis's head, I ate most of cressida's tentacles jn a spind one that her tried and I had two of my own. I actually thought the chicken feet were so much. Rotter than my last experience with them that I ate mine and most of Phyllis's and Cressida's. We had never had sticky rice before. It is really filling. I ate half of more of Phyllis's and one of my own and the last couple bites of cressida's. She did like it but was full.

Dinner: not much. We were packing and getting ready. Jason had two bean and rice burritos. I ate more homemade almond rocha than I should have. Cressida ate th rest of the leftover carrots.

Prep ahead: we packaged and froze the pumpkin purée from yesterday and the chunks from the second half that we did not get pureed. Actually letting it sit all day really dried it out. It is almost like the canned stuff! Last time we learned that trick only a few hours before we had to start the pie, so it drained off some liquid but not as much. We took most of our produce  and  some bread up with us to Larry and Lisa's house where we I'll spend Christmas and the weekend. 

Monday, December 22, 2014

Week 51, Day 6

Breakfast: Jason ate at work and we ate lazily over the morning.  We had oatmeal and persimmons and some of Aunt Michelle's Christmas bread she sent last night.  It is a cranberry, pecan, rye bread.  Dai and Cress didn't care for it.  Phyllis ate theirs, except the crusts.  I put cream cheese on the two toasted slices that I had.

Lunch: chicken salad sandwiches on regular store bought sandwich bread, leftover steamed carrots and/or Brussels sprouts and Cheez-its.  The girls had some of their ginger bread houses for dessert and I am having leftover pie.

Dinner: bean burritos. We didn't bother to season and refry the beans even. We just cool them in chicken broth and use whole. That sure makes it easier and faster. We had lettuce and tomaotes and rice, even, if you wanted it.

Prep ahead: we roasted the second pumpkin. Dai looked up different instructions on line. They had us cover it in tinfoil. Let me tell you- don't do it. Toasts muchich more quickly uncovered. We puteed one half of the pumpkin. It is over half a gallon of puree I bet. We put in the salad spinner with a cheese cloth  to let the water drank off. We poured off quite a bit of liquid even just in the few hours before we went to bed. We didn't have time to puree both and we don't have two salad spinners to let it drain so we just peeled the other half, cut it up a bit, put it in container and covered in it plastic in the fridge. 

Sunday, December 21, 2014

Week 51, Day 5

Breakfast: oatmeal for the girls.  Fried eggs and toast for Jason and I.  Cress and I also had a persimmon.

Lunch: I had church baguette toasted with cream cheese and a persimmon (our neighbor gave us a bunch.) I had a bit of a headache, so I am not positive but I am pretty sure everyone else had turkey sandwiches on some sort of church bread.

Dinner: Christmas dinner at my dad and Susan's place.  My brother Sam also came.  It was traditional turkey, gravy, stuffing, rolls, cranberry jelly and we did roasted maple bacon Brussels sprouts (recommended by Susan) and steamed carrots.  Dessert was indulgent.  Black cherry pie with whipped cream, brownies, Ghiradelli chocolates and snicker doodles.  

Saturday, December 20, 2014

Week 51, Day 4

Breakfast: rice cereal for the girls and an egg burrito for me and Jason

Lunch: Turkey sandwiches for lunch with persimmons for Cress and I

Dinner: Soup and corn bread at the Tervalons.  We brought stuff to make cream biscuits, which were a big hit.  Also, others brought various hors d'oevres.

Friday, December 19, 2014

Week 51, day 3

Breakfast: breakfast burritos

Lunch:Dai had left over combo pizza, pickles ,cucumber, carrot, and salt water taffy. Cress had left over combo pizza, pickles, cucumber, prunes, and cookies.  Phyllis had left over combo pizza, cucumber, carrot, and cookies - and a third produce that she cannot recall.

Dinner: Dai ate at Kaitlin's. Phyllis ate at Gillian's. Jason played volleyball in Sunnyvale with his brother after work so he didn't come hone until after 10 PM. So, cress and I didn't really have a plan. We ended up going to Heather Castro's and they were eating and we are some of their food. 

Thursday, December 18, 2014

Week 52, Day 2

Breakfast: Cress and I had breakfast burritos and apple slices.

Lunch: The girls all had leftover pizza.  Jason had burritos using the last of the taco beans.  Cressida had a mandarin orange, a carrot and xxx.

Dinner: taco bell

Wednesday, December 17, 2014

Week 52, Day 1

Breakfast: Cress, Dai and I had fried eggs and toast.  Jason said the farm eggs that I got yesterday are bigger and the shells are harder.  Jason and Phyllis had breakfast burritos.

Lunch:  Dai and I had pizza.  She was home sick again, but she had no fever at lunch ,so I think she can go tomorrow.  Cress and Phyllis also had leftover pizza.  Phyllis had carrot sticks, an apple, and pickles.  Cressida had pickles, carrot sticks and a mandarin orange.  They also had a potluck at school, so I not sure if she ate it or not.

Dinner: Baked ziti, leftover cheesy bread, balsamic roasted brussel sprouts. 

Tuesday, December 16, 2014

Week 50, Day 7

Breakfast: the girls had rice cereal with almond milk.  I had a PBJ.  Jason ate at work, as usual.  He did get out early today though for a change.  That used to be his normal.

Lunch: Jason had leftover taco salad and carrot sticks.  Cressida had a half a turkey sandwich on church sourdough, a mandarin orange, pickles and some cucumber sticks.  Phyllis had a whole turkey sandwich on church sourdough, some pickles, some cucumber sticks and some carrot sticks.  Both girls got to take sugar cookies for dessert.  Dai and I had potato ham soup that Heather made for us.

Dinner: Papa Murphy's pizza.  Abuela and her boyfriend, Bret Ray, were with us.  They actually paid and we cooked.  

Monday, December 15, 2014

Week 50, day 6

Breakfast: oatmeal and I ate the last egg on toast

Cressida had half a turkey sandwich, prunes, pickles and tomatoes.  Jason had some turkey sandwich and the last of the black beans. I junkfood at work. someone made this great cheese dip. Dai had a PBH on church sourdough, tomatoes, pickles and a carrot.  Phyllis had black beans, pickles, tomatoes and a carrot. Cress had sugar cookies and fudge and the other girls just had sugar cookies. The cookies were made with the babysitter last Friday.

dinner: taco salad. I cooked the beans before I left to go grocery shopping. Jason got home before I did. He called to ask what he could do to help with dinner. So when we got home dinner was ready and the table is set. I am so grateful for his help.

Prep ahead: cooked brown rice for breakfast tomorrow

Sunday, December 14, 2014

Week 50, Day 5

Breakfast: oatmeal still with almond milk, but I had boiled eggs on toasted church sourdough.

Lunch: baked ziti, green beans and toasted church rye bread.

Dinner: Carrot sticks, string cheese, turkey sandwiches on church sourdough rolls, the last piece of leftover pizza, dates, prunes and hot chocolate in a thermos.  In the car or at the temple grounds since we will go up there today.  We will leave about 4:30 and be back about 9.  

Saturday, December 13, 2014

Week 50, Day 4

Breakfast: oatmeal with raisins and brown sugar.  We used almond milk because we are out of milk and pay day isn't until Monday and I am trying to wait.  We have float that could cover it, but it is the principal.

Lunch:  chicken salad sandwiches on church bread or church croissants.

Dinner: Jack in the box because Phyllis was supposed to be picked up at 5 to go to Christmas in the Park with Gillian and we were on our way home from the play at after 4.  Then it turned out it got cancelled.  Otherwise we could have eaten at home.