We do good convenience food in this country, probably too good, as many people just don't cook any more. I very rarely eat convenience food. Up here in the North of England I think it's even worse than down south, in terms of food variety, you hardly ever see new lines in shops.
I miss my Australian salad dressing, Red Kelly. It is produced by a couple, it is low in fat, and gorgeous. I brought two bottles back with me last year, and have almost finished them.
I use a very small amount of salad dressing when I use any, but although I tend to favor simple balsamic vinagrettes (or some of the fat-free yogurt tricks posted above), I really like Cascade Farms' Sun-Dried Tomato Vinagrette. I also like to pick up some antipasto from the antipasto bar at the local grocery store (I prefer the sweet italian peppers and whole marinated garlic cloves or button mushrooms), chop up a few pieces, and use those as a salad dressing. I wouldn't recommend the antipasti as a snack - slicked in oil, they have too much fat to eat many of them - but they bring alot of flavor and are great as salad dressing. Alternatively (if I've been doing that too much), I'll pick up an assortment of antipasti pickled in vinager rather than marinated in oil - more bite, no fat - and toss them with some good greens and a drizzle of olive oil.
Finally, I like to "dress" fresh spinach with a few chopped hearts of palm (packed in brine or vinager - not the marinated ones). I love the flavor, and I think the canned hearts of palm taste better than canned artichokes. They're sweet and mushy and nutty and feel quite extravagent. They're a bit expensive, so I make them last a while, chopping one or two for the salad each night for the week, and keeping the rest in a plastic container in the fridge. I'm really addicted to this. When I really need a treat, I'll add quartered artichoke hearts, a sprinkle of fresh parmesan, chopped sun-dried tomatos, and some good fresh olives. So delicious! Between the hearts of palm and the spinach, you won't need a dressing - and the mushy texture of the inside of the hearts of palm tends to spread over the spinach leaves.
i like paul newmans..olive oil and vineagar.... but they dont have that one in the uk so i have to end up stocking up on it when go home in april lol.. but when i dont have that i get what i can get here which is paul newmans italian dressing... i am not much a salad person.. my mother-in-law makes a good dressing with balmic vingar.. with some olive oil and a pinch of salt
My husband bought me a bottle of fat free balsamic vinegarette from Safeway grocery store, and it's really good. It was the store brand. I also like Kraft Light Done Right Italian, it has a couple grams of fat, but it's really good, too.
I love the Paul Newman Oil and Vinegar dressing, but in an effort to save a few calories I tried the Paul Newman Light Balsamic Vinaigrette. It has a sharper flavor than the oil and vinegar dressing, but it's very good. 2 tbsp have 45 calories and I find even that is often too much dressing.
I also really enjoy drizzling the light balsamic vinaigrette over slices of tomato and fresh mozzarella.
Galeos Cafe has three dressings available. I bought all three and like the honey mustard and the Caesar.
http://www.galeoscafe.com/products.html
MISO CAESAR
DRESSING
MARINADE & DIP
Our very low fat MISO dressing/marinade and dip is the World's best choice for salads, fish, chicken, meat, and is the World's best marinade for cooking, made only with fresh and natural ingredients. Pure MISO fermented soybean paste with generous amounts Anchovies, Capers, Mustard, rice vinegar, Pure Olive oil, canola oil and other fine ingredients.
One taste and you will know why this dressing/marinade and dip deserves the title of the World's best.
Nutrition Facts
Serving Size 1 tbsp. (15g)
Servings per Container 22
Calories 14
Calories from fat 10
*Percent Daily Values (DV) are based on a 2,000 calorie diet.
I know it sounds a little weird, but I like to make my own hummus (canned garbanzo beans, lots of garlic, a little of the liquid and a squeeze of lemon in the food processor) and mix with balsamic vinegar for a great salad dressing.
I didnt see anyone mention Wishbone's Red Wine Vingarette. It's got 35 calories (2 Tbs), and zero fat, zero calories for fat. It's fantastic stuff really. Tastes sweet with little bite to it. Great stuff, goes horrible with croutons (more motivation not to have any!) and I've found it works for me.
I also like Ken's Lite Northern Italian dressing (I use 1 Tbs and it's 25 calories) it's a light colored Italian, with tiny bits of seasonings and cheese in it. It's got 5gs of fat per 2 Tbs so if you're a 1 Tbs user it's half that.
In recently tried the newman's light raspberry and walnut and its great! It goes SO far because its so flavorful and I find that vinagrette dressings are so much easier to portion out because they mix better than creamier kinds.
I also found a caesar dressing I like. The Kraft Caesar Vinagrette dressing thats part of their "special collections" isnt listed as low-fat, but its only 5g of fat per 2 Tablespoons. Which is the same as the newman's light. I LOVE Caesar dressing and have been looking for a decent substitute for awhile (I tried the kraft fat free caesar-italian one and didnt like it)
Also - anyone found a good light honey mustard? I love the stuff as a dip and especially on chicken sandwiches. My mom said that O-Charley's has some dressings in the refrigerated section and she loves their light honey mustard, but I've had trouble finding it around here. Any suggestions?
I am glad you enjoyed the Paul Newman's Light Raspberry & Walnut, that is my favorite right now (and also the Ken's Light Raspberry & Walnut).
I don't know about a store brought Light Honey Mustard, but just yesterday I had the Manderin Chicken salad at Wendy's and instead of having the full fat oriental sesame dressing that usually comes with it I asked for their LOW FAT Honey Mustard dressing instead and it was very good. Be careful though because they also have a "regular" honey mustard so make sure they give you the low fat version. I did not use the little packets of almonds and oriental noodles that they give you. I was surprised the salad that I had yesterday had chicken that was very moist and it tasted very good. Sometimes the chicken on the McDonalds's salads can be dry.
Pookie that is so funny!!! I just had one of those salads this week before I read this thread and was coming on here to tell you guys about it!! The honey mustard was Great! It was reminiscent of Chili's Restaurant Honey Mustard that comes with their chicken crispers. I used to get these a lot in high school, so that salad now fills one of my cravings!!!
I did manage to find the low fat O'Charley's honey mustard at Walmart and tasted it last night. It seemed pretty good, I'm going to try it sometime this weekend and I'll let you know if it stands up.
Also - about that salad - I tried a few almonds on it and wasnt impressed. So I gave the acket to my kids and let them eat them. the rice noodles I actually did use. for 60 cal/ 2g fat it was worth it, to me. I like having different textures in my salad. total with the noodles and dressing the salad is 340cal and 7g fat. And it was really pretty filling. I think I'm going to ask them for an extra dressing packet next time to save for home use
By the way, in case anyone goes to Wendy's to get their grilled chicken sandwich... their sandwich is 360cals and 7g of fat. However - by simply asking for a regular bun instead of the kaiser bun, it cuts 40cal and half a gram of fat. And if you cut the sauce on it.. it cuts another 35cal and 2g of fat. It ends up being 285cal/4.5g fat. Not bad I figured this out because I dont really like the kaiser bun in the first place.
Shopaholic, That Wishbone Red Wine Vinagerette sounds interesting I will give that a try. I am just so hooked on the Raspberry Walnut right now.
I was glad because my store was out of the Newmans light Raspberry Walnut for awhile but they just got it back so I grabbed it.
Gina, I really like the Wendy's Mandarin Chicken salad. I like it much better than the McDonald's salads where the chicken is sometimes too dry and I really do like the Wendy's low fat honey mustard too. Unfortunately there are not as many Wendy's as McDonalds so I have to travel farther to get there.
Like you I leave the almonds off, but I sometimes do throw on a few of the oriental noodles for the crunch. You also mentioned the Chilli's honey mustard--I have not been there for a few years but we used to get the Chilli's house salad with the honey mustard dressing and it was so good!
Wendy's Mandarin Chicken is where I got the idea to buy some containers of mandarin orange slices to throw on the salads I make at home sometimes.
They add a nice touch of sweetness and I like the moisture they add as well.
I try to pick the bagged salads that have the carrots and radishes etc to add an extra crunch to the salad.
One other thing I discoverd this week that I am enjoying throwing onto my salads. I found a brand (Mt Olive) of no sugar added Bread & Butter pickle slices and no sugar added sweet gherkin pickles --they are both made sweet with Splenda instead of sugar and they both taste great on salads or as a snack. I just had some of the bread & butter pickle slices in my tuna salad and it was great. Last night I had a couple of the sweet gherkins as a snack. --Pookie
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A really great Caesar dressing
