Posts Tagged ‘fresh salad dressing’

Senior Kitchen Empowerment Progress and Fresh 5-Ingredient Nonfat Yogurt Salad Dressing

Senior Empowerment Progress and Fresh 5-Ingredient Nonfat Yogurt Salad DressingI’ve mentioned before here that I’ve started working with AARP and Eastway Rec. in Charlotte, NC, to provide skills to senior citizens, like me, so that they can empower themselves in the kitchen and make quality of life/life-promoting foods on their own. We’ve only had 5 sessions together, but we’ve already max’d out attendence and gotten positive feedback from those participating that they’re actually using the demo recipes and techniques at home. That’s where the rubber hits the road!

Here’s one of the recipes we worked on last Thursday: Fresh 5-Ingredient Nonfat Yogurt Salad Dressing, which is an easy way to change the flavor and calorie content of the fresh 5-ingredient salad dressing shown in the previous article: Fresh 5-Ingredient Salad Dressing.

Fresh 5-Ingredient Nonfat Yogurt Salad Dressing All you have to do is replace oil with nonfat yogurt. See the nonfat plain Greek yogurt to oil nutrition fact label comparison below and note that a serving of nonfat plain Greek yogurt is 1 cup (8 ounces) while a serving of oil is 1 tablespoon (1/2 ounce). That means that 1 cup (8 ounces) of oil contains 1920 calories and 224 grams of fat as compared to the cup (8 ounces) of nonfat yogurt shown below containing 130 calories and 0 grams of fat.

Nonfat Yogurt to Oil Nutrition Comparison

Here are the ingredients needed to make this dressing. Though any nonfat plain yogurt will work to make this dressing, I like using nonfat plain Greek yogurt for this dressing for its high protein content, thick texture, and rich flavor.

Fresh 5-Ingredient Nonfat Yogurt Salad Dressing IngredientsClick any picture on this page for a complete, easy to follow step-by-step picture book recipe.

Fresh 5-Ingredient Nonfat Yogurt Salad Dressing Picture Book Recipe

Easy Fresh 5-Ingredient Salad Dressing Picture Book Recipe

About a month ago, I posted this extremely easy-to-make Instant 5-Ingredient Salad Dressing that’s so versatile, it goes great, of course, on salads, but also on pasta, rice, sandwiches, cooked vegetables – imagination is your only limit.

This post is about how to make that dressing fresh-er just by substituting garlic powder with fresh garlic. 

I’m a big fan of fresh garlic for its rich, bold flavor – and its broad spectrum health benefits that include: improved immune system, lowered blood pressure and cholesterol, cancer prevention, improved athletic performance – and more (for more details in short, easy-to-read form, click this Spice World link).

Two quick practical tips about fresh garlic. First, choose fresh garlic bulbs, like the one shown below, that are firm to a hand squeeze, heavier in weight (more water content) and show no signs of dark grey mold under the skin or green shoots growing out of the bulb.

Second, to make peeling the garlic skin easy, which is the least fun part about dealing with fresh garlic, first crunch the individual garlic cloves with a forceful press and satisfying garlic skin pop using the side of a wide-bladed chef’s knife, as shown here.

Once you chop the fresh garlic, as shown briefly below, the rest is all down hill. Just add mustard, ground black pepper, vinegar and yogurt.

Peeling the skin off a fresh garlic clove, then slicing and chopping that fresh garlic clove

You can see all the above – and more – by clicking this link for the complete Fresh 5-Ingredient Salad Dressing picture book recipe.

How to Use Easy-To-Make 5-Ingredient Fresh Salad Dressings Examples

Two recent posts showed how to make an Instant 5-Ingredient Salad Dressing and a Fresh 5-Ingredient Salad Dressing. The only difference between the two: the instant dressing uses garlic powder to avoid any cutting or chopping; the fresh dressing just substitutes garlic powder with fresh garlic – and shows how to chop that garlic as easily as possible with picture book directions.

Regarding how to use the dressing, of course, either dressing goes great on any savory or sweet and savory salad, like the ones shown below – with picture book recipe links: Peach, Avocado & Baby Pepper Salad (top middle), Fresh Spinach and Berry Salad (bottom right), and Heirloom Tomato with Fresh Basil and Feta Cheese Salad (bottom left).

But, then here are just a few examples of how I used either dressing with dishes I’ve put together on the fly like: Pan Fried Chicken, Tomatoes and Parmesan Cheese (top left), Beans and Cheese with Fresh Tomato Onion Salad (top right), and Open Face Grilled Cheese and Tomato Pepper Salad (bottom middle).

Bottom line: your imagination is your only limit to how you use either dressing – or any dressing. For another example, here’s something I just had: Spinach and Ricotta Cheese Pancake topped with tomatoes, avocado, cilantro and fresh salad dressing. Yes, all easy and fun to put together – more about that pancake pretty soon – and all always with a keen eye on full-on flavor!

Change We Can Manage: Food, Body, Mind Plus Fresh 5-Ingredient Salad Dressing

I don’t think you’ll find a person on the planet who would agree that our current state of affairs points to a positive future in any sense. Instead, I’ve heard more people than I can count say they hope the extreme nature of what we experience daily – across the board – will finally force positive change.

Hope, no matter how passionately felt and expressed, won’t do it. Action is the only way forward. And that action, at it’s most basic yet most powerful level, starts with what we eat, moving our bodies and how we think. Food, body, mind: three simple words that make a world of difference to both our personal quality of life and to the world as a whole.

For now, right here, just planting the seed of personally managed change is enough. I’ll follow up – always briefly.

Regarding simplicity in an entirely practical sense, how ’bout something easy and fresh to make that both tastes great and is extremely versatile: fresh 5-ingredient salad dressing, which goes great, of course, on any kind of savory raw or cooked vegetables, over pasta, rice, fish, chicken or meat, on sandwiches – imagination is your only limit.

Here’s all you need to make this dressing (yes, you’ll see six ingredients below because I used two vinegars – all about flavor!).

Click this link or any picture on this page for complete, easy to use step-by-step picture book directions that show you how to make this dressing.

How Learning and Adapting Applies to Cycling and Fresh 5-Ingredient Salad Dressing

 

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.

Read more »

Designed by Free Wordpress Themes and Sponsored by Curry and Spice