Low Fat, Low Calorie and Healthy Salad Dressing Ideas

We asked our PEERtrainer Tip Of The Day readers to think about "the one thing that they were willing to do but have not yet." And then tell us their ideas. This is an excellent comment about salad dressings, and I thought this was a great time to bring up a very important point. One should aim to eat one VERY LARGE salad per day, but you need to be extremely careful about how you dress it. There are ways to have salad dressing taste great without excess oil, fat and dairy:

 

"The one thing that I am willing to do that I have not done yet is to measure my salad dressings. I know that sounds simple, but it's true. I adore salad, however I believe that it is the dressings like Blue Cheese, Honey Mustard, and Ranch that I really like. It often results in more dressing than salad especially when I eat at home.. Measuring is not my thing, but it needs to be. How easy it is to feel good about 'eating my greens' however it's the fat that my family table serves and glops on. I suppose my 'eye balling' is off and needs to corrected. Not just dressings, but other things too." 

Nice work. 2 tablespoons (do you know how little this is?) in a normal full fat salad dressing is usually around 200 calories. If you’re piling it on, you could easily do a ladel which could be around 5 tablespoons, which is 500 calories. If you’re counting WW points, that’s 10 points and in many cases, just that salad dressing is ONE HALF of your entire recommended points for the day. Just that one salad. Correcting your “eye balling” is a major next step.

One thing I would suggest is to find a dressing that you like that isn’t cheese and cream based. Olive oil, lemon and fresh crushed garlic with a bit of salt takes about 3 minutes to make and it’s delicious. I know some people who love just a bit of olive oil and squeeze lemon directly on the salad.

Another idea is using a quarter of an avocado mixed in as your ‘dressing”. You can combine with lime or lemon to make it go further and then you have a totally plant based fat. Ginger miso dressing can be delicious as well. I’ve seen some PEERtrainers love balsamic mixed with olive oil. When you try new things, your mind no longer has a specific expectation of “this will only taste good if I “glop” it on!”. Let me know what you try!

 

-Jackie

 

www.peertrainer.com/coaching

Comments

[jem]

I can't think of a better dressiing that the Wishbone Bountifuls Berry Delite dressing. Lo cal (35/2T), no fat, yummy, yummy, yummy!

[julie]

I have discovered Boat House Farms salad dressings. They are yogurt based and apx 50 cals for 2T. They have blue cheese, ranch and Caesar. They taste just like the real thing and you can stretch them by putting your measured amount into a small container, add a little water and shake. Another trick is to put your salad in a baggie or large tupperware, dress it lightly, and shake. This will coat all the lettuce and you don't need nearly as much dressing.

[momfirst]

I have found at most grocery stores now in the take out section or salad section you can buy single packages of salad dressing. There are lots of different kinds and you know exactly how many calories or points is in each package so you just put that on your salad and no measuring or weighing, it's pretty foolproof. Plus you get to try different kinds rather than buying a whole bottle of one kind you may not like :)

[janleigh]

Put salad dressing on the side and dip your fork in the salad dressing before you spear the lettuse. Less dressing but a taste every time

[Pearl]

My favorite salad is Chicken Breast + Avocado +Romaine+ Low fat Ceasar Dressing

[Jen Siskind]

I had 1/2 the romaine I wanted recently, so added some julienned baby bok choy to a salad. I was concerned about strong flavor. I usually make my own salad dressings & this time concocted 1.5 tsp Major Grey's Chutney, 1.5 tsp apricot jam, 1 tsp real mayo, and thinned it with almond milk. Enough to dress very large salad, with red pepper & clementine. It's become a new favorite, especially paired with Lebanese Red Lentil & Collard Green Soup, which has cumin & cinnamon flavorings (possibly found on AllRecipes?). Enjoy.

[Christine]

Olive Oil has 120 calories per tablespoon, ouch!

[Colleen]

Found this one somewhere on the web--it's fat free and yummy!

1 blob honey
1 blob dijon mustard
1 splash balsamic vinegar

adjust amounts to taste and enjoy!!! (For example, I like more vinegar and less mustard.)