Dressing Undressed

If you are trying to lose weight you are likely eating more salad than you used to. If you dress your salad the way most restaurants do you might as well eat potato chips instead.

The serving size for salad dressing is 2 Tbsp. The average salad at a restaurant has twice that and if you get it on the side they will give you between 4 and 8 tbsp. The ranch dressing will average 200 calories for 2 tbsp with a a whopping 20 grams of fat and 1/3 of the sodium you should eat in a day. Overdressed as most salads are you are looking at 400 - 800 calories and a ton of fat and sodium.

Pam and I share one side of the vinaigrette and leave 2/3s of it in the container when we're done.

The low and non fat options generally contain MSG which signals your body to store fat which is not very helpful either.

At home I make all of the dressing we use so I can control what's in it and what's not. Dressing is an easy thing to make and it is fun to play with different ingredients to make a dressing you like.

Basically you have an acid and a fat and flavoring.  Let's start with acids.

Your acids include citrus like lime, lemon, and even oranges and grapefruit. They also include vinegars. You will usually have less than 1/2 as much acid as fat in the mix.

Fats include oils and dairy. I don't use dairy in dressings anymore as I don't consider them to be a good fat. I normally use Extra Virgin Olive oil.

The main difference between a regular dressing and a vinaigrette is a vinaigrette generally has some good mustard included.

My Italian dressing recipe is as follows:

Spice Mix:

1 Tbsp Garlic powder
1 Tbsp Onion powder
2 Tbsp Dried Oregano
1 Tbsp Dried Parsley
1 Tsp Dried Basil
1/4 Tsp Dried Thyme
1 Tsp Ground Black Pepper
1 Tbsp sea Salt

This makes more mix than one batch of dressing!

Pour 1/4 Cup vinegar, 2/3 Cup Olive Oil, 1/2 Tbsp Honey and 2 Tbsp water in a jar with a lid and shake well. Add 2 Tbsp of the Spice mix and shake well.

I use either Apple Cider Vinegar or Red Wine Vinegar.

Variation One:

Use Balsamic vinegar for 1/2 of the vinegar and you have a balsamic Italian dressing.

Variation Two and Three:

Add 2 Tbsp of stone ground mustard and you have a Vinaigrette. If you add this to the Balsamic Italian it's now a Balsamic Vinaigrette.

Variation Four:

Swap out citrus for the vinegar for a nice tart dressing in any of the above.

Variation Five:

If you want spicy stuff use hot sauce half and half with vinegar or citrus.

You get the idea. There is no real magic to this and I would be disappointed if you stuck with the herb amounts in the mix. Want more basil? Add more. If you like your dressing sweeter add more honey. Don't like honey? Use Agave nectar.

So the thing is to enjoy your salads so they become a sustainable part of your daily eating. Don't forget to add some different ingredients to you salads so they aren't boring.

More soon....