Salad Dressings

I've had a few people asking me about salad dressings recently, so I thought I jot down the list for you all! I will pair certain salads with a dressing made especially for it, but don't give one with the Green House Salad. Below is a list of flavorful dressings I've found with minimal calories, fat and/or carbs. Most can be found at Central Market, some at Whole Foods and HEB.

Hope this helps :)

Walden Farms Salad Dressing - Come in a ton of different flavors including Thousand Island, Blue Cheese & Bacon Ranch (my personal fav). After checking out the website it appears they carry a bunch of other toppings such as syrups, fruit spreads and pasta sauces. I've only tried the dressings so I can't vouch for the rest of their products. These dressings can definitely be found in most HEB's (normally on the shelf with the rest of the salad dressings). I've seen limited selections in both the north and south Central Market and I know they don't carry them at Whole Foods. The only downside to them is that they do use a decent amount of artifical flavorings to replicate the original full fat/carb/calorie dressing.

PROS - variety, availability, price, Gluten Free
CONS - Artificial ingredients

Briana's Salad Dressings - I just found these the other day & love, love, love them!! The whole line isn't low calorie, but there are two dressings in particular that make a great choice. The Lively Tarragon Lemon vinaigrette and the Santa Fe Blend (both designated by black labels) are super low in calories, have no fat and no artificial anything! They use xantham gum as a thickener, rather than a traditional oil emulsion. These dressings are a bit pricier, but full of flavor so a little does go a long way!

PROS - no artifiical anything, gluten free
CONS - price

Marie's Salad Dressings - Generally I shy away from all of the dressings in this line due to the amount of calories per serving, but recently one of my clients showed me his Raspberry Vinaigrette for approval. I was surprised to see the minimal amount of fat and calories in it. The website doesn't give nutritional analysis for it's products, so you'll have to do some label reading, but the Raspberry is definitely an option for you. I know that HEB & Central Market carry this line of dressings, but I'll have to check back with you to let you know which ones carry the "good" dressings.

Hopefully this will help you with your salad dressing woe's! If anyone knows of some other good options, please let me know and I'll post them up here for everyone to check out!

Good Eating on the Daily Plate

If you haven't already heard of The Daily Plate, it's a wonderful website that allows you to look up and track nutritional information for a wide range of restaurants, prepared and packaged foods. You can create a profile for yourself to enter what you are eating through out the day or can be used as a reference tool to look up foods that you are eating.

Designed as open source, any one can enter information and the site encourages its users to upload information on local restaurants and the like.

Annnnnddddd.... while doing a search for something, I can across a slew of entries for Good Eating! It seems one of my wonderful clients has been uploading information for our meals including the dishes name, description and nutritional information!

I know many of you are using Good Eating to help attain or maintain a certain weight. Whether you are one of our Elite Menu Plans or going it alone, having the meals listed on The Daily Plate is an excellent resource for you. If you've ever found yourself searching through old emails looking up nutrition information for a certain meal you've had, now you can find (almost) all of them in one place!

Good Eating Austin on the Daily Plate