Last week, we talked about eating salad. Our family did really well at the beginning of the week eating salads every day. The kids couldn’t be happier getting to eat as much salad as they wanted and it was sooooo nice having all the veggies cut up and ready to go for our salads, but then it happened. We ran out of lettuce! That’s not good. I HATE going to the grocery store unless I absolutely have to. It was a busy week and I just didn’t make it back until we’d already been out of lettuce a couple of days. So, while I think we did do well, we could definitely do better. This time, I’ll plan to make an extra stop to bring home some more lettuce BEFORE we run out.
Last week, when I started talking about eating salads, I had a couple of people comment here and on facebook that yes, salads are good, but…what about the commercial salad dressings? Great point! Commercial salad dressings are horrible for you! I always allowed myself the excuse to eat them because they were helping to get a good healthy salad in me, but then I looked at the ingredients.
This is a bottle of Tuscan Garden Ranch Dressing from Aldi that I pulled out of my refrigerator. Here are the ingredients:
- soybean oil
- water
- vinegar
- egg yolks
- high fructose corn syrup
- salt
- buttermilk
- sugar
- xanthan gum
- phosphoric acid
- garlic
- spices
- monosodium glutamate
- natural and artificial flavors
- sorbic acid
- calcium disodium
All of the bold words above are the ones I’m thinking we don’t need in a dressing! Especially not the MSG, which is linked to central nervous system damage and high fructose corn syrup, which is linked to diabetes, tooth decay and obesity. I’m sure you’ve heard of the health issues that they both have.
So what do you do when you need an alternative to the commercial dressings? If you’re in a crunch for time, you can keep on hand some flavored vinegar. Our favorite is Garlic Red Wine Vinegar. Put a little vinegar with some olive oil on your salad or just use the vinegar straight. Another alternative would be to use salsa. Sometimes, I’ll make a mexican type salad with fat free refried beans or other kinds of beans on it and I’ll use the salsa as the “dressing”. You may want to check that label though if you’re buying the salsa because it could have some of those bad ingredients in it.
When you don’t want something so plain as just vinegar or salsa, you could try your hand at making your own dressing with fresh ingredients you have on hand. Kat at KaydeeBunz shared last week about how she likes to make her own dressings. She shared a Lemon Dijon Dressing recipe and an Asian Twist recipe that are a couple of her favorites that sound really good.
Today, I thought I’d share a recipe adapted from the 12 Steps to Whole Foods book. It is a basic dressing that you can customize however you want to.
Basic Salad Dressing
Mix the following ingredients in a blender until smooth:
1 c. olive oil
2 Tbsp. unrefined flax seed oil (optional)
¼ C red wine, apple cider, or balsamic vinegar
1 Tbsp. Dijon mustard
Variations
- add 1-2 cloves of garlic
- add some fresh chopped parsley, thyme, or oregano
- substitute cream (or nuts like cashews or walnuts) for part of the olive oil, for a creamy-type dressing
- add tomatoes and basil
Have you ever tried making your own salad dressings? If so, would you consider sharing your favorite homemade dressings?
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