I love salads. Always have. I tend to be someone who likes crunchy food. And salads are all about crunch to me. Since I’m low carb, I’m now making my own salad dressings. When I became focused on how many carbs I was eating, all of my low fat salad dressings in my pantry had to be tossed. I was shocked about how many carbs were in 1 servubg. I’m shooting for 6g of carbs per meal. And the low fat dressings alone blew my carb budget. So I decided to make my own.

It was amazingly simple. If you can follow directions, you can make a dressing. And with more people going low carb, you’ll find plenty of recipes online.

Last night I made this (photo taken before I added 5 slices of pepperoni, 4 oz of chicken). I whipped up a thousand island dressing in a few minutes. My hubby, not a salad lover, inhaled every last bit.

Tonight I’m making a NY Strip Steak Spinach salad with a simple oil & cider vinegar dressing.

Thousand Island Dressing
3/4 C low carb mayo (I use the mayo made with Olive Oil)
1/4 C low carb ketchup
2 tbsp finely chopped onion
2 tsp horseradish
1 tsp worcestershire sauce

I got this recipe from an Atkins forum. Very easy to make and tasty. Mix it all together and chill. Serving size is 2 tbsp. It does come out a bit thick, so I put the salads in a large mixing bowl and add in the dressing 1 tbsp at a time and mix it using a fork. Best way to spread the dressing and to make sure you don’t use too much (some times 1 tbsp is enough).

Oil & Apple Vinegar Dressing
1 C Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1/2 C Apple Cider Vinegar
Salt and Pepper to taste

You should have a 2:1 or 3:1 ratio between your oil and vinegar. Otherwise your dressing will be too strong. I usually add 1/2 – 1 tsp of salt and 1 tsp of pepper…it really is to taste. Add all of the ingredients into a container with a lid and shake. Serving size is 2 tbsp but I normally use just one for my salads as oil and vinegar spreads easily.