Real ranch anyone?

Sorry all for the delay in posts. Life has been a bit busy recently and I can't wait for my life to be boring again! We are trying to get used to this time change and it is rather difficult. I don't see why we really do it in the first place, Arizona doesn't so I can't imagine it is an earthly thing we are supposed to do. I do like it being light later, more time to do stuff, but if we didn't change the clocks in the fall, we wouldn't have to worry about the adjusting. Oh well, gotta love the sunlight and warmer weather we have been having.

So last night Jose and I were enjoying the most delicious salad ever and I wanted to share the recipe with you. The most important aspect to this recipe is the fresh ranch. Real ranch is something I had the pleasure of enjoying as a child and if you have never had it, shame on you! Not only does it taste much better than the over-processed pre-made type but if you use it frequently, it will be less expensive. I really like the fact that I can control the ingredients I use for it. If I'm trying to be healthy you can substitute nonfat milk and light mayo or if I'm not caring, full fat is the way to go.

Ranch is very easy to make, all you need to do is go to the dressing isle and typically there will be a whole area dedicated to the dry salad dressing packets. I tend to go for hidden valley but I have been known to get the store brand to save a little $$ and there isn't a difference. In addition all you will need is 1 cup of mayo and 1 cup of milk and you will have ranch dressing!

So to go with this delectable dressing, I made a BBQ chicken salad. This salad was engineered by Jose and I.

1 head of romaine (or 2 heads of organic romaine, it was on sale Sarah...), chopped
1/2 head of iceberg lettuce, chopped
1 cucumber, peeled & diced
1 heirloom tomato (or 2 Roma tomatoes will be ok)
1/2 vidalea or mayan sweet onion, chopped
1 hand full of cilantro chopped
1 can of black beans, rinsed
1 ear of corn kernels (you can use canned too)
4 strips of bacon, diced (optional)and fried
3 oz of cheddar cheese
1 avocado
2 chicken breasts, butterflied or pounded to 1/4 inch thick and cooked either by BBQ or Grilled indoors with BBQ sauce, diced
Ranch Dressing

After cutting and cooking everything I combined all but the meats, cheese, avocado and ranch and used the lettuce mix as the base, then piled high with the rest. If you plan on serving all of this salad you can toss the lettuce with ranch before serving but we didn't use it all so I can have lunch leftovers.

Such a nice and refreshing salad. It makes about 4 servings for dinner or 8 for appetizer but the leftovers are delicious too!

Let me know if you try and it and your thoughts!

Live, laugh, love