Dinner's On The Table – The Personal Chef & Home Cooking Resource

     Helloooo Salad! As Norton from the Honeymooners would say if he were addressing his salad instead of a baseball. We always fall back on the tried and true salad to cut back on our calories and fat when we’re looking to drop a few pounds. Besides, a big hearty salad tastes really good every once in a while.

     But the best way to blow the salad ideal is overload it with toppings. Gobs of shredded cheese, too many croutons and who has the time to measure a serving size of dressing anyway. Grab the bottle and pour on the goopy goodness!

     For one, skip the croutons and go for a small dinner roll. Choose a lower fat cheese. And if you can, make your own salad dressing using light or extra virgin olive oil, fresh cheeses, low fat mayonnaise, low fat cream cheese, low fat milk, low fat sour cream or low fat yogurt. and don’t forget the herbs, spices and a conservative amount of salt – to taste. (Stay tuned for some awesome salad dressing recipes in future posts). By making them yourself you avoid all those wonderful chemicals and scientific food additives.

     If you don’t have the time to make your own salad dressings or we’re not there to make them for you, here are a couple of tricks you can use to fully enjoy salad using store-bought dressings.

1. One way to avoid using too much salad dressing is to dip your fork into the dressing and then attack your lettuce, cucumbers and tomatoes. The last thing to hit your lips and taste buds is the dressing that has been pushed to the top of the fork.

2. Find a large enough Tupperware or Rubbermaid container that will hold enough salad for the servings you want to serve. Add salad. Measure out the suggested serving size of salad dressing. Cover tightly and shake it up! Keep shaking until the salad is covered evenly with the salad dressing. You can leave the tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots and other salad foods out of the container so you can arrange them appetizingly on the salad plate after plating the lettuce.

     Of course you could use those salad spritzers when you’re on the run, but you can over spritz yourself too!