No Ranch, Blue Cheese or Caesar. Stick with dressing you can see through. While I realize this sounds like a death sentence, this can be done over time. I used to be the ranch queen, but like anything, you need to sort of ween yourself off of these artery cloggers. Eventually you will crave balsamic. I swear. Kind of like swapping out white bread for whole wheat. It takes time and re-programming your taste buds.
Here’s how:
Ranch, Blue Cheese, CAESAR dressing….bad news! I had to put Caesar in caps because so many people order Caesar salads at restaurants thinking they are doing something good for their body. Unfortunately, they are fat laden (saturated…the bad stuff) and are all too hard on the heart. Not to mention full of high fructose corn syrup. HFCS translation= sugar.
Caesar Salad: looks good, but BAD NEWS... and don't even get me started on the croutons.
image from Kraft
What are you supposed to use?
In short: anything “oil based”.
If I had to give awards to salad toppers, here is how they would rank.
1st place: oil and vinegar. Top choice for sure. Especially in restaurants because you never know what brand dressings they are serving up. Oil and vinegar are always top choice. Bonus: Vinegar has amazing health properties and can help speed up metabolism. All around winner.
2nd place : some sort of vinaigrette dressing. Balsamic vinaigrette, anyone?
3rd place: something with an oil base. i.e. Italian. One caveat: many are soybean oil based. Try to get one with olive oil.
The worst dressing choices:
- Anything creamy or all of those”white dressings”
If you can’t give up your dressing:
If you seriously just can’t ditch the ranch, cut your serving size with the options below! Maybe start with 3:1? Small changes, right?
Start by reducing the amount of ranch that you use and then load your salad with any (or all) of these add ons.
LEMONS: Add a few fresh squeezed lemons for a bonus dose of vitamin C.
Do not buy one. Buy a bag. You'll be forced to use them.
SALSA: Pile it on your salad for flavor, and to cut out the amount of creamy dressing needed.
I think most people like a "wet" salad. Salsa definitely helps balance the salad's crunch/wet ratio.
EXTRA VIRGIN OLIVE OIL: Switch out half of your favorite dressing with this heart healthy oil. Most dressings are made of soybean oil. Not good.
Make sure it is "extra virgin". Less processed, always better.
image from Star Fine Foods
*****GOAL FOR NEXT YEAR. Eliminate store-bought salad dressing. Yes, it can be done. *****
My Foodie Call 