Salad Dressings

Continuing where I left off a while back, there are plenty of things to take into consideration when trying to lose 35 pounds or any weight for that matter.  Here are a few things to think about before you start:

- Why do I want to lose the weight

- Do I want to just lose the weight, or do I want to lose only fat and gain muscle mass at the same time

- How much weight do I want to lose

- How committed to losing the weight will I be

- How will I stay motivated

- What things will I do differently in my lifestyle to make this weight loss happen

- When do I want to lose this weight by

These are all great questions to get you started on your weight loss goals.  I started off with the intent to lose 30 pounds and ended up losing 35 lbs, but even after that I have not gotten to my target weight.  I just took a break for a while, but I am going to start losing the weight again.  I want to get down to 175 lbs by September and right now I am at 203 lbs.  This means I have to make a goal of losing at least 2.14 pounds per week for the next 14 weeks.  This is my current goal and will keep you updated on my current goals as well as how I lost the first 35 lbs.

Not being a great fan of Catalina dressings, I was reluctant to try this dressing but there are obviously some people who like this dressing because they keep making it. Personally I don’t know anyone who does love this style of dressing. When I first smelled this dressing I immediately thought of ketchup because it had the look and smell of tomatoes. This pretty much describes the taste as well. It does taste of tomato sauce but with a little sweetness to it and this gave the dressing a little more depth of taste. It was not unpleasant to eat but like many others it was little more than tolerable for me.

The list of ingredients for this dressing is pretty much what you would expect with tomato puree (water, tomato paste) being the leading ingredient. This is followed by high fructose corn syrup, vinegar, corn syrup, water, salt, and less than 2% of modified food starch, soybean oil, potassium sorbate and calcium disodium EDTA (preservatives), dried onions, phosphoric acid, dried garlic, guargum, xanthan gum, yellow 6, vitamin 3 acetate, red 40, blue 1. This is fat-free and cholesterol-free which is desirable but it is not carb-free because it contains 11g (4%) with 7g of sugar and 350 mg of sodium which causes it to rated high in my list of dressings. The calorie rating is in the low range with 50 calories per serving.

As I stated earlier, this is an offering in the Catalina line with typical tomato smell and taste. It does contain Vitamin E (from the tomatoes) but no other vitamins. Since my preferred taste in dressings is not oriented toward Catalina dressings it is hard for me to rate this one. I would like to hear from someone else’s experience with this and other Catalina dressings.

Taste Rating = 3 bottles

Overall Rating = 3

Style Category = Catalina

Fat Category = fat free

Calorie Category = low

Nutritional Category = low

Sodium Category = high

This dressing from Wishbone is billed as “Delicately Sweet & Tangy” and I think this one does resemble the moniker. When you first taste this dressing you automatically think “Chinese food” which is most likely because of the combination of ginger and soy sauce which is linked to Chinese dishes. This dressing does contain both of them. My first impression notices the “tangy” more than the “sweet” but if you concentrate you do notice the sweet taste but it is not too obvious. The “tangy” is not overpowering but a pleasant and unique taste and the smell is similar. The appearance is a little different as well; medium brown with light colored particle suspended in it. Many of the particles appear to be sesame seeds.

The calories in this dressing are a little higher than some (70) as is fat calories (45) but is in line with other “light” dressings. Carbs and sugars are in the med range at 6g and 5g respectively. serving size in order to be able to taste the dressing. The ingredient list is pretty much on par with the other but does include a few differences. In addition to the soy sauce and ginger it does contain vinegar from rice wine (distilled), sesame oil and orange juice concentrate.

This dressing is definitely a change-of-pace in a dressing. I don’t see it as being an “every day” type of dressing but only an occasional choice. Since it does have a “Chinese food” taste and since I only want that every now-and-then I wouldn’t want it too soon after eating Chinese food and if you don’t’ like that taste then you probably won’t like this dressing either. I found it to be a refreshing taste after some of the blander tasting dressings.

Taste Rating = 7 bottles

Overall Rating = 6 bottles

Style Category = Vinaigrette

Fat Category = med fat

Calorie Category = med calorie

Nutritional Category = none

Sodium Category = med

Most of my life my dressing of choice has been Thousand Island dressing. That was until I started trying to lose weight and could not find any good low-calorie dressings. Needless to say I couldn’t wait to try the Calorie Free/Fat Free/Sugar Free offering from Walden Farms and once again I was disappointed by this one. The smell of it hinted of tomatoes but not really in a pleasant way because it also smelled of vinegar. Just like the Honey Dijon Vinaigrette the taste was very weak but the flavor of this one was not really good either. When I finished with my salad each day I found I had not enjoyed my salad at all. Even though the flavor was weak I didn’t really like it either. After eating it I felt that I had wasted a good salad by using this dressing on it.

The main ingredient of this dressing, like the Honey Vinaigrette dressing I tried previously was water. Once again it is listed as “Purified Triple Filtered Water” (as if this makes a difference!). Next in the list is white vinegar, tomato paste, cellulose gel, natural flavor, natural spices, salt, garlic powder, onion powder, pickle relish, lemon juice, xanthan gum, propylene glycol, alginate, sodium benzoate, food color, sucralose. This is very similar to the Honey Vinaigrette except for the tomato paste and pickle relish (probably not too surprising).

This is another dressing that I won’t be in any hurry to use again because of the vinegary taste of this offering. I guess I have to keep trying to find a good low-calorie Thousand Island dressing.

Taste Rating = 2 bottles.

Overall Rating = 2 bottles

Style Category = 1000 Island

Fat Category = fat free

Calorie Category = no calorie

Nutritional Category = none

Sodium Category = med

Losing 35 pounds seemed like it was going to be impossible a year ago.   I really didn’t want to work out or eat right, but I knew I needed to lose the weight.  After 8 months of trying to lose the weight I had lost 35 pounds just in time for Thanksgiving and Christmas.  How did I achieve this you ask; well, it will take a few posts to write the whole story.  I will cover the main motivations and factors in losing the weight and how I did it each step of the way.  Who knows, maybe I will get myself motivated to do it again as I still have about 30 pounds to lose to get to my target weight.

This offering from Kraft distinguishes itself by the fact that it is not just a low-fat dressing but completely fat free while retaining the flavor of a regular Italian dressing. It has the typical thinness of an oil-based dressing with the different bits of light, dark, and red particles floating in it. The smell is vinegary (as could be expected) and the taste is strong enough to cause a little pucker on the first bite. But this dressing has another factor that makes it a reason to choose it and that is because it is low calorie along with being fat free. It only has 16 calories per serving which is the normal 2 tablespoons.

The list of ingredients contains mostly the expected ones such as water, vinegar as the largest percentage but then adds high fructose corn syrup which is not always present. After these comes salt and then less than 2% of the following ingredients; dried garlic, soybean oil (this is new also), garlic, modified food starch, xanthan gum, dried onions, dried red peppers, spice , yellow 5, yellow 6 (what are these?), potassium sorbate and calcium disodium EDTA as preservatives. It offers very little in the way of nutrition, however, but it does have a couple of drawbacks; first, it contains 2gs of sugar (which is not terrible) but second, it contains a whopping 480 mg of sodium or 20% of the daily recommended value. This alone lowers the overall rating one point on my scale, but may make little difference if sodium is not a problem for you.

This dressing is a good choice if your preference leans toward an Italian style dressing. It has a lot going for it – mainly the fact that it is fat free and low calorie. It has a full-bodied taste and typical texture and appearance. The only drawback I find is the large amount of sodium in it and a small after-taste which is not especially pleasant but not too bad either.

Taste Rating = 5

Overall Rating = 4

Style Category = Italian

Fat Category = fat free

Calorie Category = low calorie

Nutritional Category = none

Sodium Category = high