Salads

My husband has made an effort to eat fewer calories while increasing nutrition on his journey to lose weight. He has begun eating large amounts of lettuce-based raw-veggie salads and he has lost a lot of weight, so much that he had to take pants to a tailor for alterations.

He's been making his own salad dressings so that he can control fat and calories. Watching him experiment is fun. He's like a mad scientist sometimes.

Here's a link to a dressing I make sometimes. It was a hit at the marching band banquet in November when I had fresh from Florida oranges to put into my salad. (Our high school marching band sells fruit as a fundraiser every fall and the oranges are just a day or two from the tree when we get them. Yum. The marching band banquet was the day after we got our fruit!)

Back to the husband: I knew exactly what to get him for Christmas. I found these salad dressing bottles at Target for around $4. The bottles have recipes on the sides that require no measuring cups. Simply fill with an ingredient to the line marked on the side of the bottle. (see close up photos below) I saw similar bottles at Macy's in the Martha Stewart line but when I went to buy them, our store had exactly one with no price and no way to look up the price. I was pleased to find them at Target and I'm positive the price was better at Target.

I also spent some time looking for specialty oils, vinegars, and spices. My favorite vinegar is the one at the very front, a cherry balsamic from Pastamore that, probably because it is my favorite, they have discontinued. I discovered pastamore at a local street festival. They carry gluten-free pasta, too.

Hubby is a little bit like a mad scientist as he mixes and measures and tries new combinations. ;)

 Close ups of two of the recipes on the salad dressing bottles: