Now that I'm in the zone and ready to get back down to a healthy weight, I was wondering which salad dressings are best?? The best diet I have been on is the South Beach Diet, but it is time consuming and the groceries are really expensive. This diet encourages low-sugar moreso than low fat. Kraft makes a bunch of dressings but there are so many varieties out there ...it's a bit confusing. I try to eat 1-2 salads every day - typically a large salad with lean meat and veggies on it, then a side salad with dinner. I know salad dressings can be a source of bad calories. One time when I was in my early 20's I lost a bunch of weight - I would just get a lemon and squeeze lemon juice over my salad, but that was disgusting ...made me shiver with every bite. I was just wondering if there were more appealing alternatives!

so what do you all do? Make your own? Buy pre-made?

Thanks!

I buy salad dressing at Whole Foods. It has no added sugar and is made with extra virgin olive oil. I use it very sparingly. A little bit of dressing goes a long way, imo.

We buy the pre-made. My husband can't believe he eats so much salad now, and has actually started trying different dressings. Our neighbor gave us some regular homemade Caesar dressing (his favorite) but he wouldn't eat it because it wasn't worth the calories!
If you are worried about the amount of calories/dressing you put on, you can try keeping the dressing on the side or try one of those spritzers (or make your own spritzer by transferring your dressing into a spray bottle). As for which ones to use, I hate to say it, but it's a matter of taste. Right now in our refrigerator we have Kraft Free Catalina, Kraft Free Italian, Wishbone Low Fat French, and Ken's Raspberry Walnut Vinagrette spray.

I usually just do balsamic vinegar and a little EVOO. If I don't use that I'll use a littel ranch. I found a really good reduced cal ranch made with yogurt in the produce section. It has 80 calories per serving vs. like 200-300 for other brands.

Great suggestions...thanks! i have heard balsamic vinegar is a good choice, it just doesn't sound appetizing...not when you're used to honey mustard or thousand island!

The spray bottles sound like a good idea - i think I use too much straight from the bottle.

Balsamic vinegar is actually sweet. Sometimes I do add some herbs and salt and pepper to jazz it up.

Any creamy dressing is pretty much going to be on the no-no list. Other than that, look at the calories and look at the sugar.

Most fat free and calories free dressings are pretty dreadful, IMO, and not worth it at all, but I do like Newman's Own "light" dressings. The honey mustard is really good, as is the balsamic and the Asian. It's 70 calories per 2 tablespoons. I don't like my greens heavily dressed, so that's usually enough for me, but if not, I sometimes cut it with 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar (0 calories) per serving to make it go a bit further. It still tastes good!

JS

I like oil with balsamic vinegar, and I add basil, parsley, garlic, salt and pepper. I also make ranch from those Hidden Valley Ranch dry packets they sell. I make it with skim milk and ff mayo. I don't follow the directions though, I only add enough mayo to thicken it. I just heard though that you can substitute avocado for may - that sounds delicious!

Also, if you make a salad with a lot of flavors, you really don't need that much dressing. Tonight I made a salad with leaf lettuce (I don't like iceberg), carrots, purple cabbage, 5 black olives, 1 tbsp feta cheese, 1tbsp pecans, and just a little dressing. Sometimes I add dried cranberries or currants, too.

I love making my own salad dressings! You can make such delicious dressing without all the preservatives and crap that goes in the botled ones. It's really easy. This is my current fave, it goes great with a mixed greens salad with some grilled chicken and a little sprinkle of feta or goat cheese.

Start with 4 parts Extra Virgin Olive Oil, one part vinegar (your choice of what kind, depends on the salad). I add a squeeze of fresh lemon juice, some garlic, a piece of onion, a little bit of tomato, marjoram, thyme, rosemary, parsley and a squeeze of grainy brown mustard. I use my handblender because it chops up the onion and tomato. Yum!

I haven't looked at alot of different dressings but I did find one that I LOVE that is better than my normal Ranch. It is Fat Free Rasberry Vinigerette. Really good and kinda got that sweet taste I need sometimes.


Lost

I haven't tried that one. My power went off earlier in the day, and I thought I recorded biggest loser, but I didn't. Where can I go to find out what happened tonight.

renee, welcome! You can check out the episode thread on the main page.


Wow, thanks boosma, that sounds amazing!!!

^^^Thanks Veebs! I love cooking and have always found it to be a creative outlet. Now that I am eating healthier I have definitley added more salads into the mix and far prefer home made dressings. I figure the lack of additives and preseratives make up for the higher fat content.

In my opinion, if you're looking to lose weight, the only salad dressings you should use are fat free low calorie dressings. For example, Kraft Calorie Wise dressings: awesome fat free and very low calorie italian vinaigrette and cesar. Otherwise, I just don't use any dressing at all.

I like some of the dressing made by lite house. The have a line that is lo cal, low fat. The website is www.litehousefoods.com/ but you can find the dressing in the salad/produce section.

I LOVE Lighthouse dressings!

I made my own yesterday -

EVOO
vinegar
a bunch of different spices from the spice rack (sea salt, pepper, garlic, onion flakes, basil, parsley, spinach flakes, and I dunno what all else)

It was sooooo good and had so much flavor! There is no going back to bottled.

I got so frustrated with Fat-free dressings having so much sugar (and still so many calories in them) and the so-called 'sugar-free' ones being laden with oil that I started making my own, it's not hard, just open the spice cupboard and get creative! I gave "recipes" and tips in another post, so tp avoid double posting, here's the link; *salad dressing* (post #15) <-(clicky)

I make my own honey mustard dressing for my salads or to drizzle on my wraps. I just take Tbsp. dijon mustard or whatever mustard I have on hand. I add 1 tsp. of honey, and 1 tsp. of olive oil.

It's more dressing that I can actually eat on a salad. I usually put a little in the bottom of my salad bowl, add my salad on top and then toss to coat it. A little goes a long way when you do it this way.

I like a medium hot salsa on salad. There are many that are low in calories.

WHOA WHOA, please for the love of god don't buy a dressing because it says "low in fat." For one, you can't live without fat. For two, the reason dressings taste a little bit different, but fairly similar is because they increase the amount of sugar that is added. If you don't know sugar is turned into fat if not metabolized (exercised) off within a few hours. To answer the question, i like the person who suggested salsa its high in vitamins and nutrients while low in calories compared to any other dressing. Quantity is ALWAYS the issue, don't put it on top put it on the side and dip it sparingly, you get the taste without the cals.

I'm all about Balsamic V. a little EVOO and Dijon mustard.

I try my best to measure out the amount. I always read to see which has the lowest amount of sugars in it myself.

I wish I had more patience to make my own dressings in different flavors but I dont