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Need to lose weight? Go eat a salad! I think there is a grain
of truth to this cliche. Salads can be healthful, tasty, filling, and low calorie. Perfect
weight loss fare. Of course, they can also be fatty, gloppy, calorie laden messes that can put
a double quarter pounder with cheese to shame. Knowing your way around the best way to make a
salad and still have it be enjoyable can be a cornerstone to a successful weight loss regime. It sure
is for me, I ought to buy stock in whatever company it is that makes those bags of pre-washed and cut up salad
greens. Hovenkamp's Gourmet Salad Dressings: 4 Stars. You know what I think would be a perfect salad dressing? One with little or no calories and a fantastic taste that could make me forget I was eating a low calorie product. You know what I think comes pretty close? Well, you will if you keep reading this review. Hovenkamp's Produce in Decatur, MI, makes a line of no sugar added, splenda sweetened, diabetic and diet friendly salad dressings that actually taste good. Coming in at between 2 and 6 calories per 2 tablespoon serving, these vinaigrette style dressing have short ingredient lists that aren't full of scary looking words, and decent flavors that tend to be liberal with herbal or spice notes. I actually had a hard time deciding whether to give them 4 or 5 stars; I ultimately decided on 4 because to my tastes, they are balanced too far on the side of sweetness. I have a pretty big sweet tooth, but in these I thought that a bit more emphasis on acidic and less on sweetness would have made for better dressings. Still, this is purely a personal preference on my part, and I could see how someone else with just slightly different tastes than mine would give this an enthusiastic 5 stars. And even with my tastes, knowing that the non-fat dressings I typically buy in the supermarket come in at around 50 calories per serving, well, it makes good sense to me to adjust the flavor by adding a bit of lemon juice or vinegar to my salad as well. This is one line of products that truly does live up to the way it's advertised. If you don't happen to live in MI/IN area where these are sold in a farmers market, they can be purchased through their ebay store (how I happened to find them). You can also reach them at their email address of ahealthygourmet@sbcglobal.net, or at their snail mail address of:
Hovenkamps Produce They sell their bottles by the each, or lots of six. If you do buy a lot of six, the shipping comes to just over a dollar per bottle, making the price pretty reasonable for a shipped item. Hovenkamp also sells a package of samples of each of the seven flavors, so you can try them all without committing to buying an unknown. You can mix and match the flavors you want if you do buy a lot of six. They have 7 varieties available. Here's a quick breakdown of what I thought of each kind, with my listing my favorite first and then downward to my least favorite. I'd like to keep it clear that even the one at the bottom of my list is something that I have no problem splashing on my salads and eating often. Gingered Apricot Dressing: Bold with the tastes of fruit and spice, this dressing is very balanced and and satisfying. Good on a salad, it would also be home in a stir fry or used as a dipping sauce or marinade. Fans of oriental style gingered dressings might do very well to check this one out. Raspberry Dressing: Strong with the flavor of berries, this also is well balanced with sweetness. I like it as well as the sugared non-fat versions I used to buy at the store. Candy Onion Dressing: Are Candy Onions the Northern Midwest's answer to Vidalias? They certainly do work well in this dressing, anyways. The sweetness of the dressing is offset by the bite of the onions, and a strong flavor of thyme. Heirloom Tomato Dressing: Now we get into territory where I feel the sweetness of these dressing is a bit out of place. The taste of the tomatoes and basil is still pronounced, though, and this makes a nice, very light alternative to a heavier French dressing. Balsamic Dressing: Just a tad too sweet for me, but there is a decent balance of acid flavor here as well. One of the few dressings that isn't buffered with a heady dose of herbs, the flavors of the various acidic ingredients really does come through pretty clearly. Italian Herb Dressing: Quite a bit sweeter than I would prefer. However, I see bottles of Sweet Italian Dressing on sale at all the supermarkets around here, so clearly there is a demand for this sort of product. A generous dose of herbs does give this a more interesting flavor than the other types of sweet Italian dressing I have tried. I can see how this would be a favorite of fans of this style of Italian. Dill Dressing: Way too sweet for what I would expect from a dill dressing. Maybe I've just been conditioned from years of eating pickles, but my brain just doesn't like putting "Dill" and "Sweet" together. There are acid notes in this as well, and a very generous dose of dill as well giving it a full flavor, even if it is one that is a bit unsuccessful to my tastes. This might work well to some people, but it just doesn't for me.
McDonald's Asian Salad:
3 stars. I know that some people consider McDonald's to be evil incarnate. After all, isn't that what Morgan Spurlock says in "Supersize Me"? But still, I have to give them credit for trying, and for delivering a pretty tasty, satisfying salad that doesn't have to wreck one's attempts to eat better.
Walden Farms Classic French Salad Dressing:
1 star.
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