Ranch Dressing Recipe (Garlic, Corn and Egg Free)

First, I'd like to say that sorry I've been out.  Or, "out of it" would be more apt in this case.  It's been crazy around here with end of the year school stuff going on and in the middle of all of that my husband and I finally found a house that we REALLY want (and yes, we've been looking pretty darn near constantly for 11 years now), so I've been trying to figure out the ins and outs of first time home buyer loans and the like (we rent right now).  I'm really TRYING to curb my excitement and praying that the Good Lord has this home in mind for us and will help us to get it at the payments we'd need, but it's in His hands (and finding a bank that is willing to work with us).

In the middle of all of that craziness I ended up with dental problems.  I'm not sure if it's due to gluten issues when I was young (the ND's theory, which makes sense honestly), but when I hit about 12 years old my teeth went to crap on me and I have MULTIPLE fillings in a lot of my molars.  I had to get one cap on a couple of months ago as I had a terribly deep cavity that was on the verge of root canal status if I didn't take care of it ASAP, so the dentist and I decided to try and hold off putting a cap on one of my lower molars that I felt was stressing under the pressure of all of the fillings and just pray it held together until my other cap got paid off.

Well, it didn't.  While eating, of all things, a VERY soft piece of bread (I didn't even TOAST it first!) my molar just plain disintegrated on me.  I'm now missing 1/2 of one of my bottom molars and unfortunately the fillings that ended up falling out after the tooth disintegrated were also deep fillings, so I'm in considerable pain.  And my dentist is out of town until Tuesday, so I'm on Vicatin and Penicillin until then.  Fun times.

Anyway, I couldn't let tooth pain get me down with my daughter's last day of preschool party.  I had gotten a veggie tray at the store (I know, overpriced, but it fit the schedule this time) and it came with some prepared Ranch dressing full of all KINDS of neat sounding preservatives, corn and other allergens.   Not ideal by any means.  So, I came up with this alternative to combat the multiple allergies in my daughter's class:  corn (my son and daughter and another kiddo), peanut and garlic (in case my son was there), gluten, soy and pork.

This recipe DOES contain dairy, but if you can't do dairy, I've got a cool alternative for you.  This is a mix of dried seasonings you can mix up and throw into a jar to mix up later (handy dandy :) and I'll give you some alternatives at the end here.

Ranch Dressing (Garlic, Corn, Egg Free)

• 2 TBS Ranch Dressing Dry mix (recipe follows)
• 1 Cup Buttermilk
• 1 Cup Sour Cream (Tillamook, available in Alaska and other places is corn free, Nancy's sour cream in the Organic foods section is also corn free)

Whisk together well and store in a mason jar or other "dressing" container.  This is a tangier than regular Ranch due to the lack of mayonnaise (unfortunately most egg free mayo has that darned corn in it), but it's pretty darn good.  If you want it less tangy just add a squirt of honey and whisk again until it's the right sweetness you like.  This should last at least a week in the fridge, although I doubt it'll last that long.

Ranch Dressing Dry Mix (garlic free):

• 5 TBS dried minced onion
• 4 TBS dried parsley flakes
• 4 tsp salt (I use a fine grain sea salt for this)
• 1 tsp onion powder

Mix together well and store in a spice container (1/4 pint mason jars are wonderful for stuff like this :).  Use directions above to make ranch dressing. 

If you can not do dairy, but can do eggs, here's a good alternative recipe for you.

Ranch Dressing (dairy and garlic free)

• 2 TBS Ranch Dressing Dry Mix (recipe above)
• 1 Cup Mayonnaise or Vegannaise
• 1 Cup Dairy Free Sour Cream (it's made with sunflower seeds, so it's really allergy friendly looking and looks relatively simple to make :).

 Whisk together and store in a mason jar or other dressing container.  Use within 1 week.

No one with allergies should have to eat boring :).  Enjoy all!