Salad and Dressing Recipes

These dressings are easy to make ahead and refrigerate, they last up to two weeks. Any dressing with pure olive oil will have to be taken out a while before eating so it can warm up. Cold olive oil tends to go a bit solid.

These dressings have all been approved by my children who let me know they like them by licking their plates off once the salad has been eaten.

1 lime juiced
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup olive oil
fresh ground pepper

shake together before pouring.

In a variation on the one above, you can add one tsp liquid honey and some green herb style seasonings. This one does not do well when it’s cold because it gets clumpy.

Here’s another.

Juice of one half grapefruit
1/4 cup olive oil
small clove of crushed and chopped garlic
Fresh ground pepper
Pinch of salt

This tastes really good on avocadoes.

The first time I tried serving my children spinach this is what I made. (They ate it.)

Baby spinach leaves, washed and dried.
Pomegranate seeds
Apples cubed
Chopped almonds
Goat cheese-crumbled (mine already really liked goat cheese, ate it by the spoonful when I wasn’t looking, so this was safe for me to use. Use a milder flavored cheese that you will like.)

For a dressing I combined

1tbsp concentrated grape juice
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1/3 cup olive oil

Once again, just make it pretty. My kids predictably ate all of the toppings first before the spinach, but with a little encouragement to try the spinach too, and some carefully assembled forkfuls on my part with a bit of everything on them, they ate their spinach in record time.

For spinach I find that a fruity sweet combo works best for children.

I have made a similar salad with peaches, dried cranberries, a 4 cheese Italian blend, on a bed of spinach. Annie’s Naturals raspberry vinaigrette is a good sweet dressing because it has only a little bit of honey in it as an extra sweetener and no harmful ingredients.

Any combination of the above works, apples raisins and walnuts. (Also works with cabbage and celery if you use a creamier sweet dressing like yogurt and honey or fruit juice. This is a variation of a Waldorf Salad.) You can add raw sunflower seeds, any kind of raw nut that you enjoy, or fruit. You can also substitute any dark green leaf for the spinach, or use a combination.

I find that men aren’t all that excited by these salads, they are too sweet for them. Women and children on the other hand really enjoy them. If you are at home with your kids, try making some of these for lunch.

Here is a savory spinach salad that I eat often for lunch.

Fresh baby spinach
1 hard boiled egg-sliced
mini tomatoes-halved
red or green pepper-chopped
raw sunflower seeds
avocado-optional

Top with Annie’s Roasted Red Pepper dressing or a bit of olive oil and balsamic vinegar and fresh ground pepper with a pinch of salt.

More to come later, but I have to go and feed my kids a snack now.

I posted my Bean Dip Recipe below also.