Salad Dressings

Nutritional labels are tricky things! Put up at the top is the "most important" information. Serving size, calories and fat. What we should all be looking at is at the bottom in the tiny fine print: INGREDIANTS. Do you know how hard it is to find anything processed that doesn't contain sugar? Nearly impossible. Sugar has many different names that most of the general population are not aware of. I am not against all forms of sugar, but processed sugars do not have the same glycemic index (meaning they cause your blood sugar to go higher than unprocessed sugar).  Soy and wheat are other popular offenders in processed foods.

Now it is next to impossible for my family to live without processed food. There are a few items I do allow in the house. Not everything is "clean" eating but I'm making a conscious decision to eat said product. We make food choices multiple times a day. Don't let them be unconscious choices!

Salad Dressings:

Most salad dressings on the shelves have so many additives  (sugar, soybean oil, MSG, artificial flavoring, etc) that it really grossed me out once I started to read past the nutrition numbers. I tried making them all at home but it was a little more work that I wanted to put in. I encourage you to make your own if you have the time. Here are store bought ones I use and the few I do make at home .

Store Bought Caesar: Briannas Asiago Caesar.

Ingrediants: canola oil, water, rice wine vinegar, shredded asiago cheese (cultured milk, enzymes, salt), balsamic vinegar, garlic, egg yolk powder, salt, less than 2% of: distilled vinegar, mustard seed and other spices, white wine, sugar, soy sauce**, celery seeds, garlic powder, onion powder, caramel color, natural flavors, citric acid, xanthan gum, sodium benzoate to preserve freshness, tocopherols (natural antioxidant -- vitamin E). **contains wheat

Store Bought Blue Cheese: Marie's Chunky Blue Cheese (Found in the refrigerator section) 

Ingrediants: SOYBEAN OIL, CULTURED NONFAT BUTTERMILK, BLUE CHEESE (PASTEURIZED MILK, CHEESE CULTURE, SALT, ENZYMES), SOUR CREAM (CULTURED NONFAT MILK, CREAM), WHOLE EGG, DISTILLED VINEGAR, EGG YOLKS, CONTAINS LESS THAN 2% OF SPICE, GARLIC*, SALT, MUSTARD BRAN, XANTHAN GUM. *DEHYDRATED Contains: MILK, EGG

Homemade Dill Garlic Dressing/Dip

Equal parts of sour cream and mayo. (Usually 1/4-1/2 c depending on what I'm making)
Crushed garlic-start with a Tablespoon and do to taste
Dill-state with 1.5 teaspoons and do to taste
Salt-start with 1 teaspoon and do to taste
Pepper-start with 1 teaspoon and do to taste
Onion Powder-start with 1/2 teaspoon to taste

Optional-shredded Parmesan cheese

Mix everything together and store (mason jar or Tupperware) in the fridge. It does flavor as it sits so make a big batch and use it for days.Its a great way to get raw veggies down. 

Homemade Ranch

1 cup sour cream 

1/2 cup mayonnaise 

1 Tbsp. white wine vinegar

1 tsp. onion powder

1 tsp. dried chives

1 tsp. dried parsley

1 tsp garlic powder

1/4 tsp. ground black pepper

1/4 tsp. sea salt

1/2 cup shredded Parmesan cheese

As always the spices are to taste. I love garlic but am not so fond of chives so I tend to be heavy on the garlic. 

Oil and Vinegar

Choose your oil (usually olive oil)

Choose your vinegar (usually white wine/red wine/balsamic)

Mix with spices to taste (usually garlic powder, onion powder, salt, pepper, dried parsley, dill etc)

Bonus ingredients (Dijon mustard, lemon juice, honey)

I start with a 3:1 ratio of oil and vinegar then start dumping spices in. You can blend in a blender but I just whisk in a bowl and pour over the salad right before eating. I like to make each batch individually but you can also do a big batch and store in a mason jar for easy mixing. 

3-2-1 Grandma's Dressing

3 Tbsp. Mayo

2 Tbsp. Sugar/splenda

1 Tbsp. Lemon juice or vinegar

Mix together and serve. Can be made in bigger batches and stored in the fridge. 

If you aren't comfortable doing free hand dressings, there are millions of dressing recipes on the internet. After a while you will figure out what you like and what you don't and it will become easy to mix without a recipe. 

Favorites for salad dressings:

 Duke's Mayo is a southern brand. Nothing comes close to it, but you can use something else if you have to. Tip: Dollar Tree sells the 8oz jars if you can't find it in the grocery store.

Ingredients: Soybean oil, eggs, water, distilled and cider vinegar, salt, oleoresin paprika, natural flavors, calcium disodium EDTA added to protect flavor. Contains: Eggs

Daisy Sour Cream. I would say "nuff said" but that doesn't really work for a blog. Store bought sour cream tastes similar but the Daisy texture is what I love. Both the regular and the lite have smooth creamy texture. 

Ingredients: Grade A cultured cream