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?
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.
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).]
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.
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).]
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.
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.
