Cilantro Lime Ranch Dressing

So, I'm in love with this dressing. 

I found several variations, most of them somewhat similar, for a cilantro lime dressing. Some were a ranch type dressing like this, some were vinaigrette, some had lots of other ingredients like avocado (which does sound good), and some just sounded weird. I decided I'd make one of the ranch dressings because I already had some Hidden Valley ranch dressing mix. I took a recipe I found on Pinterest (I'll link to it later when I'm not on my phone) and made a few changes and voila! Cilantro lime ranch dressing goodness. 

Ingredients:

1 packet dry ranch dressing mix 

1 cup mayo 

½ cup half n half

1-2 tbsp lime juice

3 cloves garlic

1 cup chopped cilantro (I used extra) 

¼ cup salsa verde

½ tsp sugar (optional)

Salt & pepper to taste (optional) 

Combine all these delicious ingredients in a food processor or blender and blend it up until it's smooth and creamy. It should turn out like a pale greenish white color, and in my opinion, it's gorgeous. I tasted mine after I blended it all up, and to me, it needed another splash or two of lime juice, a few more cilantro leaves, and some salt and pepper. I also added just a tiny bit of sugar because it still had that slight fatty-mayo taste. Next time I might try a bit of honey instead of sugar and see how that turns out. You might also consider adding a little hot sauce if you want it spicy, but I didn't. 

Oh, also, you can totally use milk instead of half and half, I just had some left from another recipe and wanted to use it before it went bad.

Anyway, once it's how you like it, pour it into a jar or whatever the hell you want, cover and chill. I let mine sit in the fridge for about 4 hours before eating it. 

I should mention here that when I first finished blending it and tasted it, I wasn't too sure about this dressing. But I thought, well it's room temperature, I bet it'll be awesome when it's cold. Then when I tasted it after letting it chill for a few hours, I STILL wasn't 100% sure about it, but I went ahead and made a chicken taco salad with it anyway. I said to myself, "Self, all these ingredients are delicious, and anything with cilantro is delicious. It's gonna be perfect, I'm sure."

Well, let me tell you something. 

It WAS. 

I don't know if it was simply the dressing or the dressing and tasty chicken combo over all that lettuce but it was the best taco salad I've ever made in my life, and it might even be in the top five taco salads I've ever tasted at all. And I didn't even make a complicated or fancy salad. I'd baked some chicken breasts with melted butter, taco seasoning, onion powder and garlic powder earlier in the day, sliced up about half a breast, and put it on top of a salad made of spinach AND iceberg lettuce, with some tomatoes and shredded cheddar and pepper jack cheeses. Then I poured the dressing on top, and that was it. That dressing was simply amazing. Seriously. It was delicious. 

Now, I personally like a LOT of cilantro. And a strong cilantro flavor. Some people don't. So when I said that I used more than a cup of cilantro in this recipe, that's how I like it--anyone else might not. Like my mother. She probably wouldn't like the way I made it because it would probably be too strong for her tastes. So, for the cilantro, just use how much you think you'll want and you can always add more if you decide it's not cilantro-y enough, like I did. 

My apologies...and fajitas!

Okay, okay. I said I was gonna keep up with this blog, and I didn't, I know, I suck. I'm a terrible blogger. BUT, I'm trying really hard to get back into it and keep up with it. Anyone reading this (if there's even anyone, who freaking knows) is probably only reading it because they have similar stay-at-home mom/housewivery woes, so surely you can understand my predicament of not having any free time. Well, let me rephrase--I technically do have free time, like when my youngest is napping and my oldest is either in school or (now that he's out for summer) practically living at my mother's house. But my "free time" is oh so rarely dedicated to myself, it's usually dedicated to chores. And yet, for some reason, my house is never clean...

Luckily for me, I'm an extravagantly fast typist, and it will take me about 5 minutes to get this blog post typed and posted. I'm hoping by the time I've hit PUBLISH, my 18 month old will have stopped yelling "MAMA! MAMA!" from his crib and will actually be asleep for his nap. Fingers crossed, everybody, because otherwise, mama's evening beer schedule might get moved up a few hours. Kidding, kidding...probably kidding...

BUT, in an effort to apologize (mostly to myself) for my obvious lack in commitment to my blog, I am going to share one of my personal favorite recipes: BEEF FAJITAS!!!! Look guys, I even took a few pictures! So, I mean, really, you can tell I'm making an effort here...

This recipe is so simple and so delicious. Seriously, when I first told my husband I was making fajitas the next day for dinner, he didn't seem all that interested. Then suddenly it dawned on him what I meant and he asked, "Wait, you mean the fajitas you make that have like the green sauce on them?" To which I replied, "Well, umm...duh." His response was a very emphatic, "YESSSSS!!!!!" Apparently he thought I meant "plain" or "regular" fajitas. What a silly man.

Anyway, so the beef marinates for...well, however long you want it to, really, and every time you take it out of the fridge to stir it up, it makes your mouth water. It smells so good, and it tastes even better. I usually make pico de gallo to go with it too, which I didn't have time to make THIS time around, but I suppose I could post that recipe as well...

So, let's continue!

Don't you love the cluttered-island-counter backdrop for this photo? I think it really adds charm to the picture of the food. But oh just look at all the yummy stuff in that food processor...

...waiting patiently for me to hit the button and CHOP IT UP INTO TINY BITS!!!! BWAHAHAHAHAHA. Okay no really, every time I use my food processor, I act out a ridiculous and hilarious murder scene and pretend my food knows exactly what's about to happen to it. I have my fun when I can. "Don't tease me about my hobbies, I don't tease you for being an asshole."

I took this picture right after dumping the marinade over the beef and stirring it up. It sits in a glass baking dish, gets covered with foil, and gets put in the fridge. And then a few hours later...

...the cooking begins, and then your whole fridge smells heavenly, and your husband tries to steal the meat out of the pan until you threaten to make him watch you and the kids eat the fajitas while he eats nothing but plain tortillas for dinner. PLAIN tortillas. Not even any butter. That'll make him stop, I promise.

Lime-Cilantro Marinated Fajitas

Servings: I don't know...9 or 10 or so? I'm not very good at this.

Prep/cook time: Prep time about 15 or so minutes, cook time about 5 minutes. With several hours of longing for food in between, while waiting for the marinating process to be complete.

Ingredients:

• 6 cloves garlic
• 1/2 red onion, roughly chopped
• juice from 2-3 limes, or if you're like me and forget to buy limes at the store and have lime juice in the fridge, I'd say use about 3 tablespoons of lime juice, maybe a little more
• 1 jalapeño pepper, seeded and roughly chopped
• 1 tbsp dried thyme
• 1-2 cups loosely packed cilantro leaves (in case you've forgotten from my taco soup post, I LOVE cilantro, and in my opinion you just can't have too much of it)
• 1 cup corn oil
• 2 tbsp honey
• 2-3 lbs steak***
• 10 flour tortillas (or corn tortillas, if you're weird and prefer those)
• pico de gallo (see recipe below)
• shredded Mexican blend cheese
• sour cream

***I will freely admit that I don't know the first thing about steak, and don't know what kind of steak would be best for this. Flank steak, probably, in which case you can wait until it's done cooking before slicing it up and leave it whole while it's marinating. If you do that, you'd probably want to GRILL the steak instead of cook it on the stove like I do. HOWEVER, I always buy that "fajita steak" that comes in bags. I know, it's probably not as healthy, but steak is often way overpriced (to me anyway) and the fajita meat is already cooked, so I don't have to cook it for very long! I think I usually buy that John Soule's brand...?

Directions:

1. Add the garlic, red onion, lime juice, jalapeño, thyme, cilantro, corn oil and honey to a food processor or blender. Puree the ingredients until they're mixed well, and yes, the color will be sort of off-putting, but the smell will remind you of why you're making it.
2. Place the beef in a shallow baking dish and pour the marinade over it (or, you can put the meat and the marinade in a large Ziploc bag, which might actually be easier). Stir the meat up to make sure all the meat is covered in the marinade, and cover the dish with aluminum foil. Place it in the fridge, and force yourself to wait...for a while. Note: You can marinate it overnight if you prefer, but I usually make it in the morning and let it marinate all day, and I stir it about once every hour or hour and a half to make sure the meat is well incorporated with the marinade. If it's all in a Ziploc bag, however, there's no real need to stir it over and over, so you can easily let it sit in the fridge overnight instead.
3. Pour all this limey-cilantro-goodness covered steak into a pan and turn your stove on medium heat. If you buy the "fajita steak" like I do, the meat itself is already cooked, so you just have to cook it long enough to warm it up--hence why I prefer MY method, because it's way easier and faster. And cheaper. Did I mention cheaper?
4. You can drain off the marinade (or most of it) if you'd like, or you can leave it on and use it as a sauce on your fajitas. I usually drain off about half of it, only because of the corn oil, which can make a big mess for when you reheat leftovers (just ask my husband about our white sheets and how I dripped that marinade mess all over the place when I was trying to eat these fajitas in bed).
5. Serve on tortillas with whatever the hell you want, and enjoy!

Homemade Pico de Gallo

Prep time: 20 minutes or so, because chopping 6 tomatoes is really damned annoying and tedious work, especially when you have to chop up all this other crap with it too.

Ingredients:

• 6 roma tomatoes, diced
• 1/2 red onion, minced
• 1/4 cup chopped cilantro
• 1/2 jalapeño pepper, seeded and minced
• 1/2 lime, juiced (or about 1 tbsp lime juice, again, because I often seem to forget to buy limes)
• 1-2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 pinch ground cumin
• salt and black pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Combine all the ingredients in a large bowl. 
2. Refrigerate about 3-4 hours before serving.
3. ...That's it. Enjoy!

Taco Soup

So, since I promised there would be some recipes on here, I made sure to take pictures while I was making my taco soup the other night.

Note: I do not give a shit about taking fancy pictures of food or anything else I might be making like most cooking and crafty blogs do. I take pictures on my iPhone as I go, if I remember to, and all I care about is whether or not they're in focus. So if you're looking for fancy pictures of food, then visit someone else's blog. I do not have the time, patience, or even the desire, to try to impress anyone with pretty, neat pictures of all my spices and herbs poured out onto a flat surface next to the nicely minced garlic and already chopped onion, arranged neatly around whatever meat or "main ingredient"the recipe calls for. Who's got the f*ing time for that? Not this gal.

End rant.

This recipe is actually (mostly) the way my mom makes her taco soup, and one day I asked her to write the recipe down for me so I could make it. I don't do it exactly the way she does every time, but it's almost exactly like hers. It's REALLY easy to make and I often have most of the ingredients I need already on hand. If you know how to brown beef, then you can probably handle the rest. It's one of those foods that's just perfect to make on really cold nights.

Anyway, here's a few pictures and brief descriptions of the steps (and some self deprecating comments about my picture taking), but don't worry, the full recipe is at the bottom. Oh, and if you're wondering why I used such an enormous pot when clearly I am not going to be filling even half of it, it's because I just freaking can.

Not that anyone doesn't really know what browning beef looks like, but hey, I remembered to take pictures as I was cooking, which is impressive enough on its own. After browning the beef you simply add some onion, garlic, taco seasoning, water and beef bouillon cubes...

This doesn't look attractive at all. But I promise, the smell is amazing, and you'll thank me for the wonderful aroma that fills your kitchen (or at least masks the scent of dirty diapers in the trash, whatever), especially when you move on to the next two steps.

Here it looks much better, unless you don't like corn or pinto beans or tomatoes. In which case I suggest you not even bother making this dish.

Ahh, this is really my favorite part, besides devouring it. This is where you add the cilantro! If I could put cilantro in everything...I probably would. 

The final product, topped with sour cream and shredded cheddar cheese.

Once it's all mixed up and ready to be stuffed into my mouth, it looks like this, and I like to break a few tortilla chips into it for some crunch. Also, aren't you just loving the fact that I've still got my Christmas tablecloth on my dining room table?

Taco Soup

Servings: I have no idea the exact number of servings, I can tell you it makes plenty for my family and we've still got a lot left.

Prep/cook time: It literally took me over two hours to make this dish ONLY BECAUSE of all the times I had to stop what I was doing and kiss bo-bo's and change diapers and deal with homework and whiny kids. But if I didn't have to do all that, it would've probably taken about 30 minutes total.

Ingredients:

• 2 lbs ground beef
• 2 tbsp chili powder, or more/less as desired
• 1/2 white onion, chopped (you can do a whole onion if you prefer, but I don't have the patience to chop an entire onion unless I absolutely have to)
• 4-5 garlic cloves, minced
• 4 cups water*
• 2 packets taco seasoning mix**
• 2 beef bouillon cubes
• 4 cans Rotel (Mild or Original)
• 1 can whole kernel corn
• 2 cans pinto beans, drained and rinsed
• Chopped fresh cilantro, to taste (I like a lot of cilantro so I used 2 cups of cilantro leaves - which turns into much less once you actually chop them up)
• Sour cream (optional)
• Shredded cheddar OR Mexican Blend cheese (optional)
• Tortilla chips (optional)

*The amount of water is totally up to you - if you want more soup and want it to be a bit more liquidy, then 4 cups or even more would probably suit you better. If you want more veggies and meat than soup, than 2 or 3 cups would work fine.

**When I made it this time, I only had one packet of taco seasoning mix, so I added a tad bit more chili powder and a little cumin, and it came out just fine.

Directions:

1. Brown the beef in a deep pot. Drain grease and return beef to the pot.
2. Add the onion, garlic, chili powder, taco seasoning, water and beef bouillon cubes. If you're adding any cumin or other spices, dump those in too. Stir until the taco seasoning and spices are dissolved into the mixture. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally.
3. Once it's boiling, add the Rotel, pinto beans and corn, and stir them all into the beef mixture. Cover and turn the heat down to medium-low; let it simmer for as long as you want (I usually let it simmer for about 10-15 minutes or so, or however long it takes me to chop my cilantro and get kids rounded up at the table). Stir occasionally.
4. Uncover, mix in the cilantro and remove from heat.
5. Ladle soup into bowls and top with the shredded cheese and sour cream. Serve with tortilla chips for dipping or breaking up/adding to the soup.
6. Also, if you generally like jalapenos on your tacos or at all, you could try adding some chopped up and seeded jalapenos on top with the cheese and sour cream!