It’s all about applied learning and adapting.

First, regarding cycling. Since becoming the Ops Officer at VOmax (performance sportswear) and driving to and from Northampton everyday, I’ve had to adapt to splitting time between rippin’ it on the real road, which I love, and crankin’ it on the “living room bike” (trainer), which no matter how hard I pedal never gets me to the kitchen.

Still, hopping on the living room bike keeps me in good enough shape physically, mentally, and spiritually that I don’t skip a beat when I get the chance to ride both for the love of it and to make sure I’m good to go for group century charity rides, like Bicycles Battling Cancer and Ride to Remember.

Now food. The fast fresh salad dressing you’ll see here is just like the instant 5-ingredient salad dressing posted fairly recently with one minor change. Instead of using garlic powder, the “fresh” in this recipe comes from real, fresh garlic, which I show how to chop with step-by-step picture book help.

Regarding learning and adapting, what you see below are the ingredients I used for years to make a fully flavorful, quick, fresh salad dressing – certainly more than 5 ingredients. But then while working with some fellow military veterans, some of whom had either or both high blood pressure and/or diabetes, I improvised the dressing on the fly in their presence to cut out the added salt and sugar. I even cut out the paprika because, as one of the guys said, “You can’t taste that (stuff) anyway”.

Here are the five ingredients I now use to make a richly flavorful fresh dressing that will go great on just about any salad – or anything – you can imagine: fresh garlic, mustard, ground black pepper, oil, and vinegar (yah, I count the two vinegars you see below, balsamic and cider vinegar, as one ingredient).

Click any picture on this page for a complete, easy to follow step-by-step picture book recipe.