My girlfriend’s trying to do it all. She’s working 30 hrs a week in the public school system, going to college part time to get her teaching degree, raising two daughters and wistfully thinking about what it might be like to have a personal life.
So on days when she had custody of her girls and she has to take a class (because the custody schedule alternates days during the week just like it alternates weekends) she drops her girls over at my house to play with my boys. (Wow…that’ll sound dirty when they’re all teens. Luckily that’s several years away.)
The point being that her girls say “Yeah! We’re having dinner at Heather’s house!” Because I’ve managed to learn how to cook meals that kids love, well, because they’re the ones I have to make sure get fed.
About ten years ago my Aunt introduced my mother to a garlic salad dressing that I fell in love with. Over the years I’ve modified it and my kids adore it. They’ll scarf a salad down with this dressing and sometimes I use it as a marinade. And it’s light on the calories so I love it on rice and pasta, too.
I know, your thinking…make my own salad dressing when I can buy the stuff off the shelves…WHY! Well, I only know the reasons I do it. It’s cheaper, I can’t find anything with this taste, and I know the ingredients I’ve put in it. And I’ve got a great Tupperware container made specifically for salad dressings, with measurements on the side, that makes this incredibly easy for me.
The recipe is as follows and this is my changes from some other recipe.
4 oz Seasoned Rice Wine Vinegar, 1 oz Olive Oil, 1 tablespoon Grey Poupon, 2-3 shakes of Maggi seasoning sauce (or soy sauce) and 4 cloves of crushed garlic.
So my dressing container reads in ounces so I go up to 8 oz vinegar and 2 oz olive oil and then double the rest of the ingredients. And when I crush the cloves I dump everything into the dressing because raw garlic is so great on your cholesterol.
And I have a large Tupperware I use to keep my premade salad in, serve what we’ll be eating into a bowl, add cucumbers & any other wet ingredients like cut tomatoes and the dressing. So the salad is pre-prepped for at least several servings. Saves me time and hassle. And I’m selfish enough to want to free up every moment I can for myself.
Try it, you’ll like it. The dressing tastes like a very garlicky light creamy Italian. It’s also great as a meat marinade on flank steak.
If you like your dressing a little sweater.. I’ve recently added about 2 tablespoons pineapple juice.. (since we add pineapple to our pizza from a can I use the juice for my dressing.) AMAAAZING flavor addition.