Good morning!
Ohhhh Saturday mornings are my absolute favourite time of the entire week! Eric and I watched some cartoons and ate cereal. Good times. :mrgreen:
I realized this morning that I have been keeping something from you all. Well, two things actually.
The first one is what I like to call Fudgsicle Soft Serve
Oh yes.
1 large frozen banana, a glug of almond milk, and 1/2 tablespoon of cocoa powder! It tastes just like a soft, melting fudgsicle. Process in a food processor for a couple minutes and…BOOM.
Now onto salad talk.
Salads are a staple in my diet. I love experimenting with different toppings and dressings. The lettuce is really like a blank slate- what ever you decide to put on it always comes out fabulous.
Better Than Bottled Balsamic Vinaigrette
The easiest and most delicious homemade dressing I have ever made!
Adapted from Dreena Burton’s Eat Drink & Be Vegan ‘Back-to-Basics’ dressing.
Ingredients:
- 2.5 tablespoons balsamic, white, or red wine vinegar
- 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
- 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard or regular mustard
- 2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
- 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
- Ground black pepper to taste
- 1/2 minced clove of garlic (optional)
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
Directions: Toss all ingredients into a bowl and whisk! Makes about 1/2 cup of dressing.
This was sooooooo easy. I can’t believe I bought bottled stuff for all those years!
This dressing has an array of delicious flavours:
- sweet– maple
- tang– vinegar
- Buttery and smooth– olive oil
It is SO GOOD!
I had a hunch this would pair perfectly with some dried cranberries. I also sprinkled on some sesame seeds for fun.
The next get together I host I am definitely going to make this dressing. It tasted like a gourmet salad!
Confession #2:
I have recently weaned myself off a long fat-free salad dressing kick.
I bought the fat free stuff for years and years. I was a die hard fan…even though I admit, I couldn’t pronounce many of the ingredients on the bottle.
I always thought that if I used the regular stuff with oil I would be consuming too many calories. But you know what I discovered? A little bit of the GOOD stuff- with fat!- is much more satisfying than drowning the salad in fat free dressing. I have just a couple tablespoons of this homemade dressing on my salad and it is perfection. The olive oil gives the salad more satiety too.
When you use the real stuff, less is more.
I used to be the fat free QUEEN, my friends. I bought fat-free cheese slices, fat-free yogurt, fat-free ice cream, fat-free cool whip, fat-free candy, fat-free cookies, etc!
It is quite funny because now I eat a ton of healthy fats in my diet, from avocados to nut butters, chia seeds to olive oil. I never used to eat any of these things in the past because I was scared of the fat. My poor body was deprived of healthy fat for years. Luckily I am making up for lost time! :mrgreen:
~~~
I’m off to shower and then hit the road to meet Krissy at a huge outlet mall. So excited!!The perfect activity for this rainy Saturday.
At least the snow is almost gone…
Have a Fabulous Saturday!
Happiness is a way station between too much and too little.
~Channing Pollock
YES homemade dressings are SO much better! i usually improvise mine — it always comes out different, but always better than what you buy. olive oil, different vinegars, lemon juice, honey or maple syrup, +/- mustard, and spices — so good!
and YAY outlets :)
I’m just adding nut butters and real, full-fat cheeses back into my diet.
I was really missing out!
And I love a good guacamole:)
Used to be a fat-free queen as well – I used to really like those salad sprays with “no calories.” Now I try to buy whole foods that haven’t been messed around with so fat-free stuff is out.
I switched to making my own salad dressings after I saw an episode of Barefoot Contessa and she showed how it is was to just whisk a few things together!
I eat a lot of (healthy) fat now too, and I would have never done it before. I still sometimes worry I am eating too much :(
I made those black bean quinoa burgers you posted yesterday for dinner last night and they did not turn out as well as I had hoped :/
I almost never order salads in restaurants (well. chains) for exactly that reason – plus, they somehow manage to hide THOUSANDS of calories into a salad. Ridiculous!??! I love experimenting with new dressings and toppings – dried fruit is a fave topping of mine.
Oh man! I use to be the Fat Free girl too! I would even proudly proclaim, “I eat fake food” Gross! My favorite was “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter Spray” I would drowned my veggies in it and think it was okay because it said it was fat free and calorie free. Yuck! I still can’t believe I did that some times! I find a little dollop of Earth Balance is so much better!
I am the same way! I used to eat fat free EVERYTHING. And it just makes no sense to me now. I used to stray away from nuts and nut butters, and now I eat them several times a day!
Have fun shopping on the rainy Canadian day!
I make a dressing similar to yours, but I add cumin and red pepper flakes. So good. So easy. I don’t buy fat-free anything anymore. I would much rather have a little less than eat all those chemicals.
Have a great day!
I used to do fat free dressings too, but switched a few years ago. Now I tend to make my own like you, but I love the full fat stuff! I am so with you Ange, I hate being serve a wilty weak salad!
I guess we were all fat-free at one time huh? Not only have I realized that adding healthy fats TASTE so much better, and give more satiety – like you mentioned, but the fat actually helps you absorb a lot of the nutrients in the salad so much better.
I love homemade dressings! Averie, at Love Veggies and Yoga has a GREAT tahini vegan Ceasar one!
that is a GREAT point about the nutrients absorbing better with fat!
I LOVE salads with full fat dressing… NOW.
I SO used to be the fat-free queen. Everrrrything was fat free, sugar free… yuck. Now I eat tons of healthy fats- avocado, chia, nuts and nut butters, seeds, olive oil, eggs and the dairy I do eat- yogurt, cheese… is generally full fat, and MAYBE low fat. It is less satisfying low fat, and I tend to eat more!
Less really IS more with delicious healthy fats!
I used to be the fat free queen also! My in-laws would always tell me I need to get off of it, but like you I was worried about the fat. Almost a year ago I stopped using “fat free” products and splenda! I love this dressing too, a little bit goes a long way! I also love the trick to put the dressing on the bottom of the bowl and then toss the salad when ready to eat!
Enjoy the week-end!
I switched over to fat free before starting to lose weight, and when the weight started coming off, THAT’s when I switched over to 2% or sometimes even regular and I’m still losing weight :) They’re just so much more filling! I make my own vinaigrette, and I’ve recently switched to regular yogurt (from stonyfield – so good!!!).
I am so completely with you on salads at restaurants. Makes me so mad really. And people will look at you like you’re being difficult by not finding wilted iceburg lettuce an acceptable meal. I mean really? Would they enjoy that as their meal?
Hi, off-topic question for you. What are knee sleeves? You’ve mentioned using them for running. I can’t run right now from a weird knee injury, just wondering if these are something I should look into…
Thanks!
see here: http://www.kneesupport.com/sleeves/index.htm :)
Two excellent recipes that I can’t wait to try now. I’ve given up all low fat stuff. Low fat usually means highly processed too. I don’t miss it at all. If I’m going to enjoy something fatty, I just have a little bit now, but for the most part I find that giving up highly processed, low fat things has also made me lose that craving for things that are bad for me. I love the taste of a homemade salad dressing with a little olive oil-one thousand percent better taste to me now than a low fat dressing that tastes like a chemical bath to my buds!
Fudgsicle soft serve? Seriously? SERIOUSLY?! I thought banana soft serve was good but the addition of the chocolate would be even more amazing! Thanks for the tip, Ange :)
I totally agree with you about salads. I hate when restaurants offer a “side salad” and I can’t even eat it because it looks so unappetizing. What’s the point of offering it – especially if it’s an additional charge? Your dressing looks phenomenal.
Say hello to Krissy!
I used to love fat-free everything too but I’m proud to say that my fridge is completely empty of that stuff now! I only use dressings that I make for the most part.
I use to be the queen of fat-free dressing… that was A LONG time ago!
Now I prefer either the lighter version or the real deal ;)
No more fat free in my arsenal. I also discovered that it was so much better tasting and better for me to use good products that were healthful and nutritious.
Can’t wait to try the Fudgiscal softserve.
Love your blog, I tripped over it by accident last week and have been back everyday!
Oh girl, if you were the fat free queen then I was the fat free princess :) I can’t BELIEVE the amount of junk that I poured into my body just because it had no fat (but God only knows what it DID have). I have now embraced fat in my diet, healthy fats in the form of nut butters, avocado, nuts, olive oil, salmon, etc. and guess what… the fat hasn’t made me fat! Ha but that was really something that I was afraid of in the past. Real foods, whole foods, do your body SUCH good.
Ugh– I agree!! I HATE going to a restaurant and paying 10 dollars for two pieces of iceberg lettuce and a tomato!