RANCH CHEESE BALL

RANCH CHEESE BALL
4 ounces sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
4 onces cream cheese, softened
1 teaspoon ranch dressing mix
1 teaspoon freeze dried chives or green onions
1 ounce sliced almonds, coarsely chopped, 1/4 cup

Put the cheddar and cream cheese in a food processor with the chopping blade inserted. Pulse to partially blend, then process until smooth, scraping down the sides of the work bowl often. Add the dressing mix and chives; process until well-blended. Put in a small bowl; cover with plastic wrap and chill about 2 hours or until firm. Using the plastic wrap that you used to cover the cheese, shape cheese into a firm ball. Place the nuts in a small bowl; roll the cheese ball to coat completely with nuts. It helps to quickly get a light coating all over the ball so that you can handle it easier to press it more firmly into the nuts to coat well. Once you have a good coating of nuts on it, you can reshape the ball if needed. Wrap in plastic wrap and keep chilled until serving time. Serve with low carb crackers and raw vegetables.

Makes about 12 servings
Can be frozen *

* I froze one for a couple days and thawed it to see how it would come out. It seems fine, but I don't know how longer freezing would affect the texture.

Per Serving: 86 Calories; 8g Fat; 4g Protein; 1g Carbohydrate; trace Dietary Fiber; 1g Net Carb

This, and the Garlic Cheese Ball, were my first attempts at cheese ball making. In fact, I'd never eaten them before either. I was surprised at how easy they are to make. They can also be seasoned in many different ways and coated with different kinds of nuts. I think that if you wanted to make a cheese log, instead of a ball, you could first make a ball, coat it with nuts, then reshape it to form a log. I think that might be easier than trying to roll a log of cheese in nuts. I suggest using very sharp cheese. I used medium cheddar for my test batch, because that's what I had on hand, and, by the time it was mellowed out by the cream cheese, it wasn't zippy enough. I've decided that I prefer the Ranch Cheese Ball flavor better than the garlic one. I don't care for the strong Worcestershire sauce taste in the garlic one.

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