BORING SALAD NO MORE

Last night for dinner, I wanted a light quick salad.  I opted for the boring romaine and any veg I had laying around.  I chopped up the romaine and added yellow bell pepper, cuc, and tomatoes.  Boring!!!

I've been watching a lot of You Tube videos about Fruitarianism and Low Fat Raw Vegan Diet/Lifestyles and thought I would try a version of one of their salad dressings.  I threw in the blender the rest of the yellow pepper I had.  I remembered that a mango was one of the dressing ingredients, so i threw in a chopped up ataulfo mango.  To add a hint of saltiness, I threw in one chopped celery rib.  And then for some added watery consistancy I threw in  a few grape tomatoes and a bit of fresh dill from the garden.  Blend, blend, blend.  No water needed to be added as there was enough from the tomatoes.

OMG!  This dressing was amazing!  Sweet, creamy, and delicious.   I could have probably eaten the dressing all by itself like a gazbacho.

My husband did suggest to add a bit of red onion.  But little did he know there was NO FAT in this salad dressing at all.  Only fruit and veggies.  As for Chris's suggestion, next time I will try a little red onion.  Maybe it will add another yummy dimention to my dressing.

I turned my boring salad into Extrodinary.

Try making your own salad dressings.  It's quick and easy and LOW FAT!!!
Fat makes you FAT!!!!
Use a dense fruit as the base.  Start with a mango, a peach, some pineapple even.
Add in a few veg like tomato, or cucumber or bell pepper ( any colour )or all of these.
Add in some celery for a bit of saltyness.
Finish with some fresh herbs, dill, basil, mint, etc.
Your dressing can be a mix of fruit and veg or fruit only or veg only.  Although I do recommend adding some fruit, they make any salad taste yummy with a hint of sweet.
Add a small piece of hot pepper if you want an extra little kick.
If you need to, add a bit of olive oil or any vinegar of your choice.  A bit of avacado can replace the olive oil, or a few pecans too.  But I would recommend using only fresh fruit and veggies as these make the dressing low fat and super fresh tasting.
Just blend everything as much or a little as you like.  Start with a few ingredients and work up to more.
The best part is you get to taste as much as you want through your entire new salad dressing journey.  Yum!

I have also tried fruit only dressings..
A whole peeled clementine orange and tomato.
Orange and mango.  Yum!
Pineapple and mango.

But the all sweet fruit dressings, I like to use for my all fruit salads only.

Here's the recipe for my NO MORE BORING SALAD.

INGREDIENTS FOR SALAD

1 head chopped romaine lettuce
1 large handful baby spinach
2 mini cucumbers ( these are my favorite, I find the english cuc's have very little flavour anymore )
1/4 yellow bell pepper, chopped
1 tomato, chopped

INGREDIENTS FOR SALAD DRESSING

1/4 yellow pepper chopped
1 rib celery
1 ataulfo mango
6 grape tomatoes
1Tbsp fresh dill

INSTRUCTIONS

Place all salad ingredients in a bowl.

Place all dressing ingredients in a blender and blend away. You can make it as chunky or as smooth as you like by how long you blend up all of the ingredients.

looking down into the blender.

Pour dressing onto salad and devour.  Yummmmy!

Enjoy!
Eat Well,
:)

LOW FAT WALDORF SALAD

Since I will be having a lot of tropical fruit this weekend with my family, as we celebrate my son Dylan's 17th birthday and I've decided to have a Jamaican theme, today I wanted something raw to eat that was still sweet but a little more towards a Canadian climate.

I definitely wanted an apple, so I began there.

I love, love, love Waldorf Salad.

I first discovered it and made this salad during my high school years while attending a Home EC. class. ( basically a class where you learn how to cook and sew )

My salad was sooo good, I made it every day for the next 3 days at home.

As years have gone by I've learned many new and exciting ways to make this delicious salad.  I've made the dressing with sugar, honey, mayo, yogurt, sour cream, lemon, lemon zest, to list just a few and not used all  of the ingredients at once of course.
But what has mainly stayed the same was the use of the salad ingredients themselves.
Apple, grapes, celery and walnuts.  Although, I have used pecans in the past as well, or whatever nut I happened to have at the time and in any style, sliced, slivered or chopped.

I made this salad a few weeks ago as part of a dinner with my in laws.  My father in law, Joe, has never in all of his years had a Waldorf salad.  So I made one.  This salad had the usual apple, I used mutsu, a sweet and crisp apple, red grapes, celery, walnuts (lightly toasted) and a dressing made with yogurt, mayo, honey, and lemon juice and zest.  Well I am happy to say that Joe loved it and had two helpings for himself.

Today, was different though.  I didn't feel like being bogged down with a lot of fatty dressing.  I need energy!  I kept things as simple as possible and here's today's version of my EASY low fat Waldorf salad..... maybe too easy, since I only used 3 ingredients!!!



EASY WALDORF SALAD

INGREDIENTS


1 apple ( I have organic golden delicious in the fridge)
2 organic celery stalks
12 red grapes



INSTRUCTIONS

Chop the apple and celery and toss them together in a bowl.  Cut the grapes in half and add them in the bowl. Grab a fork and dig in.
Enjoy!!!  Make this super easy salad for a filling snack or a light lunch.  You can use another apple, more celery and more grapes if you are not full yet.

I did have an orange standing by in case I felt like squeezing on some fresh orange juice, but I didn't feel like it today.  Maybe next time!

This salad is sweet, crunchy and tasty.  I know it seems too simple,  but you'll be surprised, this salad is good!  The bonus is... its raw, gluten free, and vegan and packs vitamins and nutrients all in one neat little package.

A variation for you if the simplicity is too much for you is to add that squeeze of orange or lemon and stir in some nuts and some vanilla yogurt.  Also why not add a little fennel or incorporate some cous cous to make a salad with some added grains.   Mmmm sounds good.

Eat Well
:)