your favorite tasty salad dressing?

[bankerkg]

I'm sure I would eat more salads if I could find a salad dressing I like? How about sharing your favorite store brand flavors or easy make at home dressings?

[Bumby]

I really like Kraft Free Caesar Italian. It has a few more calories than the usual fat free Italians, but I still count it as zero. My almost-5-year-old can't get enough of it!

My other two favorite salad toppings are straight vinegar! Balsamic vinegar is so delicious that I have been known to drink what's in the bottom of the bowl after I finish my salad, like people do with their cereal milk. I only do this when no one is looking, of course! I also like to use sushi vinegar, which is slightly sweetened rice vinegar. If you want, you could mix in a little sesame oil for an easy Asian dressing.

[Kelly_S]

Yum..... my favorite is Honey Mustard Dressing and Dipping Sauce. I use various kinds of mustard (Chinese Hot, Brown, Regular, Deli Style). Here is the recipe:
http://www.3fatchicks.com/ubb//Forum19/HTML/000001.html

I also have several other type so recipes at:
http://pub38.************/fdottisweightlosszonesalads.showMessage?topicID=19 .topic

and two Olive Garden Copy Kat recipes at:
http://pub38.************/fdottisweightlosszonesalads.showMessage?topicID=20 .topic

[Sasha123]

My two favorites are Wishbone Fat Free Red Wine Vinaigrette (3T=1pt) and Ken's Steak House Fat Free Raspberry Pecan (2T=1pt).

[MelissaL]

I'll second the Ken's Steak House Fat Free Raspberry Pecan...it's one of my favorites.

My others are:

Just 2 Good Ranch
and Balsamic Vinegar

Melissa

[Parsp]

Hellmans FF Honey Dijon. (The best FF Honey Dijon, and we've tried a lot.) My 12 year old DS loves it too!

[StraitLover]

I love Kraft's Caesar Parmesan Vinagrette. It's a regular dressing (not light or FF). BUT, what I do is when I first open the bottle (don't shake it up!), I carefully squirt out as much of the oil floating at the top as I can. I get out around 1/4 cup of oil! I then subtracted out the calories for the oil and recalculated the calories/fat and came up wiht 2 tablespoons for one point.

It is YUMMY!

[This message has been edited by StraitLover (edited 02-08-2001).]

[jhawk]

Two favorites:

Nakano Flavored Rice Vinegars (Basil and Oregano or Red Pepper or Roasted Garlic) - 0 points (In the Asian Food Section)

Litehouse FF Sesame Ginger - 1 pt. (This is generally found in the produce section, where refrigerated dressings are kept.)

YUM!!

[bankerkg]

thank you all so much for sharing your favorites. I shall begin the samplings this weekend. I love this website and all the support you all lend to make each person a success in their weight loss journey. Let's keep sharing and encouraging with ideas that work and recipes that satisfy.

[Tato]

I use any fat-free Italian dressing that is only 10 calories! I used to eat only Thousand Island (loaded with points!) and discovered I can't stand the fat-free versions. I never used FF Italian until I purchased it for a pasta salad and since I had left over dressing, I tried it on my salad, for zero points. I also sprinkle 1 teaspoon of parmesan cheese on my salad with the dressing and it adds so much flavor for again, zero points. With the parmesan added, it tastes alot like Olive Garden's salad.



[This message has been edited by Tato (edited 02-09-2001).]

[Jules]

Salsa Ranch. I love this salad dressing. Totally addicted to it. It is half light ranch, and half fresh salsa. So yummy!

[Lin S]

Hi,

I don't use commercial fat free dressings. I either use 1 tsp. of the real thing or I use one of my very simple substitutes, when I don't want to spend points on salad dressings.

1. Straight lemon juice or champagne vinegar or balsamic vinegar or raspberry vinegar with salt and pepper.

2. 0-point salsa is a great topping for salads.

3. For creamy dressings I use plain nonfat yogurt and put in whatever herbs and spices, some chopped onion, maybe some garlic, whatever goes with the veggies in the salad or the rest of the meal.

4. Mix some of the salsa with the nonfat yogurt. The blend of creamy dairy with spicy salsa is a great contrast in flavors that works very well with cooked veggies, too. Just be sure that the dressing is at room temperature if you use it on hot veggies because yogurt curdles easily.

Lin

[Jill]

Maple Grove Farms FF Balsamic dressing. I keep some at home, at my fiancé’s house and in the fridge at work!

[Lenore]

I've got no doubts: Bernsteins Roasted Garlic Balsamic Vinaigrette. It's extremely yummy, a point for two tablespoons, and actually has a little fat, which is a good thing in my case, since I otherwise eat very little fat most of the time. Sometimes I even add a teaspoon of olive oil to my salad, for another point.

They also have a lite parmesan dressing that's 25 calories and almost no fat for two tablespoons; it's pretty good, but the flavor is a little sharp for my taste.

Here's a trick to make a little dressing go a long way: Put your salad in a mixing bowl, add your tablespoon or two of dressing or whatever you like to add, mix well with a fork, and then put it into your salad bowl. Even if you use very little dressing, this method ensures that there's some dressing on every piece of lettuce.

[lighter]

Buttermilk Ranch Dressing
makes 1 cup 1/4 c. = 1 pt.

3/4 c. 1% buttermilk
1/3 c. bottled medium salsa
3 Tabl. light mayonnaise
4 Tabl. fresh parsley leaves
1 Tabl. fresh lemon juice
1/2 tsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. dry mustard
1/2 tsp. salt

Combine all ingredients in a blender, process unti smooth.

------------------

Ann P

[bankerkg]

Thanks so much for the Ranch Dressing recipe. I will try it tomorrow. So far I have several bottles of dressing in my refrigerator that are just taking up space now and I'm not really liking their taste. I am a creamy dressing lover so maybe this will fill the void....Thanks again friends for sharing ideas.

[meredith~]

Raspberry Vinagrette--any brand. It took me a while to get used to, now it is all I use. To help get a little more "oomph" in my salad, I crumble just a little bit of feta cheese. It adds so much flavor without a lot of fat.

[J.J.'s Grandma]

Jules: Is Salsa Ranch a dressing that you buy or is it something that you mix together yourself? If you mix your own, what brands do you use? It does sound yummy.

[Parsp]

Bankerkg,
I have a friend that orders 1/2 blue cheese and 1/2 italian dressing all the time. Sounded yucky to me, but them I tried it. Although I like all kinds of dressings, it never occurred to me to combine dressings!
Maybe you could try some of these combining tricks to use up the dressings you have in the fridge. (I did that with FF tarter sauce I bought and didn't like, but was too cheap to throw away. Added reg may to it 1/2 and 1/2 and although I had to start counting the fat, that "fixed" the taste.) Since you said you like creamy, maybe adding buttermilk, cottage cheese, yogurt or mayo to the dressings you have would "fix" them. Love to know if you find some combos that work since we all have those "flops" in the fridge we don't want to eat, but don't want to throw away either.
Paige

[This message has been edited by Parsp (edited 02-26-2001).]

[bankerkg]

Paige......what a great idea.....I will experiment and advise....

[Jules]

J.J.'s Grandma,

I have never "technically" made my own at home. Some of the restaurants around me offer the dressing. If they don't, I ask for a cup of their salsa and a cup of light ranch dressing, and mix and put on my salad. It laso makes a great dip for just about anything!

I have heard from a friend of mine, that if you make it at home, you really should use homemade salsa. I know around here, I can find fresh salsa in the deli section at my grocery store. I am sure something like that would work just fine.

Julie

[marybee]

I've been using the Lawry's stir fry sauces as salad dressing. There are ginger, herb & roast garlic, lemon basil and sweet & spicy (my favorite right now). They are 10 - 25 points per tablespoon, fat free, and strong enough I use just a fraction of what I use in regular salad dressings. I find them in the asian cooking section of my grocery store.

[Liza]

One more recommendation and I hope you can get it.

Paul Newman makes a Lite Italian dressing the best, not sweet at all. It is one point for 2 tablespoons. I am always checking the label to see if I am right. It has so much flavor, I use only one table spoon, I hope you can get it in your area.

Liza

[Water Rat]

For a regular salad I like the Nanko seasoned vinegars - any flavor.

For a quasi-taco salad, I use a mixture of salsa and FF sour cream. I also add 1/2 cup of warmed up beans - usually S&W Santa Fe flavor or Caribbean Black Beans - and voila, a Mexican lunch. Add a warmed lf or ff tortilla and it's still very low points.

[Steel Magnolia]

My absolute all-time delicious favorite is Ken's Steak House LITE Raspberry Walnut Vingrette. On the Weight Watchers Program it is one tablespoon for one point. It's really wonderful and that's the only dressing I've been using for awhile now. I'm from PA...so I don't know if Ken's is available everywhere. I wasn't able to find it on a recent trip to Arizona.

[Punky]

Anyone have a recipe for raspberry zinfandel dressing? They have this at work and get it from a restaurant supply store so I can't get it there. I can't find it in any regular stores so maybe someone could share a recipe. I love this dressing.

Brenda

[GOAL4IT]

Hi!
I'm new here, I've looked around a lot, but had to go off line, register and go online again just so that I could share this wonderful salad dressing recipe with you!

I didn't come up with it, but I've made it, and it's great. Hope you like it.

Chris

Note: I double the recipe and use the whole package Hidden Valley Ranch
*****************************************
2 PTS. PER CUP RANCH DRESSING OR DIP

1/2 of a 1-oz. packet of Hidden Valley Original Ranch Salad Dressing Mix (dry mix)
1 TB vinegar (less or more depending on how tart you like)
1/2 cup water
2 TB Kraft Philadelphia Fat Free Cream Cheese
1/4 tsp garlic salt (OR 1/8 tsp garlic powder)
15 Pringles fat-free, sour-cream-and-onion flavor potato crisps

Put all of the ingredients into an electric blender and blend on high speed until very smooth. Serve immediately, or let sit 10 minutes to thicken more. Refrigerate after using.


Yield: 1 cup of dressing or dip; 2 points per cup!!!

Point calculation:

Ranch dressing mix: 40 cal, 0 gm fat, 0 gm fiber
Vinegar: 0 cal, 0 gm fat, 0 gm fiber
Fat-free cream cheese: 30 cal, 0 gm fat, 0 gm fiber
Fat-free Pringles: 70 cal, 0 gm fat, 2 gm fiber

Entire recipe: 140 cal, 0 gm fat, 2 gm fiber

[Jilly]

I love most of Kens light dressings

Light Balsalmic and basil vinegrette
Light Ceasar
Light Creamy Parmesean
Light Northern Italian

[Ziner]

My favorite is the Good Season's Fat Free Italian. You mix it with just vinegar and water (I use balsamic), and it's delish!

[Kerrie]

Kelly S--you posted a link to a Honey Mustard dressing (I love honey mustard dressing!) but it doesn't work anymore!:( Can I get that recipe from you? Pretty please? I just did a search on "Honey Mustard salad dressing" and came up with two that you've posted--one with only 3 ingredients, the other with at least twice that many. Which is the one you really like? Thanks!

[runner]

My all-time favorite:

1 teaspoon sesame oil
about 1 tablespoon soy sauce
about 2 tea dijon (or other) mustard
some red wine vinegar
some balsamic vinegar

WOW! I make it at home all the time and use it on salads, rice, whatever... sorry the amounts aren't exact, I just guess except for the oil.

jodie

[mizlinn]

Take one of the light Thousand Island dressings (I use Kraft) and add an equal amount (or more) of Salsa. This cuts the WW points in half! and it is still thick and tastes good.