CopyCat Recipe: Olive Garden Dressing

Italian Dressing
I combined a recipe I found with a cruet of Italian Dressing that I prepared from 2 envelopes of Good Seasonings, and I had my dressing!

• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 1/4 cup white wine vinegar
• 1 teaspoon dried Italian spices
• 1 teaspoon salt
• black pepper
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 tablespoon mayonnaise
• 3 tablespoons water
• 2 envelopes Good Seasonings Italian Dressing, prepared

1. Combine all ingredients in a blender on high until combined, about 30 seconds.
2. Pour into small bowl and cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.
3. Stir before serving.
4. **Don’t forget, add your 2 prepared recipes of Italian Dressing from the envelopes (I used Good Seasonings Brand) to this. Yes,yes, it makes a ton of dressing. Put it in the fridge, you’ll drink it later.

Berry Poppy Seed Vinaigrette

Recipe by Our Best Bites
http://www.ourbestbites.com/2011/06/berry-poppy-seed-
vinaigrette/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ourbestbites%2FdjLu+%28Our+Best+Bites%29&utm_content=Yahoo%21+Mail

Try it on a spinach salad with fresh strawberries, walnuts or almonds, grilled chicken, and maybe some red onion.

So for this, you’ll need fresh berries–I used strawberries, but I’d bet my children raspberries or blackberries would also be delicious. You’ll also need white wine vinegar, garlic, some onion, salt, pepper, canola oil, poppy seeds, and honey. Or sugar, if you’re in a pinch. But really, honey because there’s something amazing about honey and fresh berries together.

 1/2 c. white wine vinegar

1/2 c. honey (or sugar)
1-2 cloves garlic
1 tablespoon grated onion
1 tsp. kosher or other coarse salt
About 10 cracks of freshly ground black pepper
1 c. raspberries, blackberries, or strawberries
2/3 c. canola oil
1 1/2 tsp. poppy seeds

Combine the vinegar, honey, garlic, onion, salt, pepper, and berries in the jar of a blender. Blend until smooth and then, with the blender running, add the oil in a steady stream. Turn off the blender and whisk in the poppy seeds. If possible, refrigerate for at least an hour before serving.

I probably wouldn’t keep it for more than a couple of days because of the berries.

Suzanne's Caesar Salad Dressing

Recipe via Suzanne Purnell

Seriously this is the BEST Caesar Salad Dressing ever!! Simple, quick, easy, - cheap!!

Mix all ingredients together and shake or whisk until well blended

   1 cup Mayonnaise

   1TBSP lemon

   1 TBSP milk

   1 squirt (1/2 TSP) Anchovy Paste

   2 -3 garlic cloves minced

   1/4 cup Parmesan cheese or shaved Parmesan petals (Costco)

   1/4 tsp pepper (to taste)

Greek Salad Dressing

Recipe via Suzanne Purnell

This is a quick, simple and easy go to recipe for Greek Salad Dressing - it has great flavor and is a favorite

Mix together:

   1/3 cup Olive oil

   1/3 cup Lemon juice

   3 Cloves Garlic minced

   1 TBSP Parsley

   1/2 tsp Oregano

   1/2 tsp Italian seasoning (optional)

   1/4 tsp red pepper flakes (optional)

   Salt

   Pepper

Salad:

   Cucumbers

   Tomatoes

   Green, red, orange, yellow peppers (any combination of)

   Red onion -sliced

   Feta cheese

   Handful of romaine lettuce

   Olives - optional

Pork Wraps

Recipe via Suzanne Purnell

2 -3 lb pork tenderloin roast

Put in slow cooker until cooked and tender - shred

Add:
     2/3 cup salsa
     1/3 cup brown sugar
Let simmer in crock pot for a couple of hours

To make wraps add any of the following combination as desired:
Tortilla shells
shredded pork meat
lettuce
tomatoes
corn
black beans
grated cheese
cooked rice
Cilantro lime dressing


Cilantro Lime Dressing:
Recipe via Suzanne

1 1/2 cups sour cream
3/4 cup mayonnaise
1 pkg Hidden Valley Ranch dressing
1 fresh bunch of cilantro
2 cloves garlic
4 TBSP Salsa Verde (green salsa)

Blend

Use for salad dressing or on pork tenderloin wraps

Hidden Valley Dressing Mix

Mix together and store in container:
     4 TBSP parsley flakes
     4 TBSP onion salt
     5 TBSP salt
     1 TBSP pepper
     3 tsp garlic salt

Dressing:
     1 TBSP above mix
     1 cup buttermilk
     1 cup mayonaise

Creamy Lime-Cilantro Dressing

Recipe via Our Best Bites

I love, love, love this dressing. I totally can't resist it!

1 pack (1oz) Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing Mix ~ ignore directions on the packet
1 C mayo
1/2 C milk
1 lime
2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
1/2 C roughly chopped cilantro
1/4 C green salsa*
hot sauce

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.

*A note about green salsa:
There are several brands of green salsa available in most supermarkets and they have various degrees of heat. One of the most commonly seen brands is Herdez. Herdez brand is a lot spicier than any of the others I've tried. Even their medium green salsa is way too spicy for my liking. There's no way I could put the whole 1/4 C in my dressing like the recipe calls for (but then again, I'm a wuss.) I like to buy La Costena (pictured below) because their medium is actually really mild. That way I get all of the flavor of the tomatillos but I control the level of heat with the hot sauce. If you're not used to buying green salsa, make sure to sample it first before you put it in the dressing so you know what you're getting into!

I use this dressing on salads, and also as a dip for things like chicken fingers, veggies and steak fries.

Do you love Cafe Rio/Costa Vida type salads?
You've got all of the ingredients to make an Our Best Bites version right here. Start with a fresh homemade tortilla, layer on some lime-cilantro rice (pineapple optional) and black beans, then some crispy romaine lettuce. Top with either taco chicken or lime-chili steak, some fresh salsa and guacamole and fried tortilla strips for the big finish. Smother it in this salad dressing and you've got a salad ready to send you to food heaven!

Related Post: Chili-Lime Steak Salad

1 don't pick off the leaves of the cilantro, just bundle it all up and cut it stems and all. Just stop cutting when you get about 2/3 of the way down, or when you start seeing more stem than leaf....same concept with parsley