first of all, i have to say ~ i have 61 followers!!!  OMGeeeee!!!!!  thank you so much for following my “blerrrrg” and loving clean, healthy, beautiful food as much as i do!  at times, i feel silly having this little blog.  i’m not a chef.  i don’t always have time to post as much as i want to.  and i don’t have a big, fancy camera to take sexy food pics like other bloggers do.  i don’t even have a the kind of blog style you pay for.  but i really love doing this.  it’s the only thing i do that doesn’t involve my having to be extroverted, and i really need that balance in my life.

ENOUGH ABOUT ME!  SHEESH!

let’s talk about salad dressings.

now, i know i’m lucky that i get to make my lunch at home every day, and a lot of you out there work in an office and have to make your lunch in the morning or the night before, and schlepp it from home.  my hat goes off to you!

and maybe you think that you just don’t have time to even think about making your own dressing.

but this dressing takes just as long as it takes to wrestle with that plastic wrap around any store-bought salad dressing.  seriously.  i swear.  i’m not exaggerating.

you can whisk this dressing up in seconds in a tupperware bowl, drop in your salad on top, put the lid on, and throw it in the fridge.

if you’re using kale, you can even toss this salad and let the dressing marinate the kale and other veggies.

that’s what i had today ~ a kale salad with roasted veggies on top.  all seasoned with this new, light, lovely dressing i created today.

oh.  red peppers. you are so vibrant.  talk about extroverts.

i don’t know if you can see any of the other unassuming, shy vegetables underneath those attention-hogs, but i also added asparagus (roasted with the peppers for just 10 minutes), and little broccoli florets.  all atop a bed of kale.

before i post the dressing, i have to tell you that i woke up feeling so incredibly horrible.  i ate so poorly yesterday and my body was screaming profanities at me this morning, from the moment i opened my eyes.  i ran at the park anyway, and dragged myself to the grocery store to get some brightly colored healing foods.  then i came home and barely had the energy, or desire, to put away said groceries.

sound familiar?

i had to get some fresh, clean food in me!  stat!  but all i wanted to do was lie down.  what on earth did i eat yesterday?

and then i forced myself to turn on my oven, and cut up some veggies to roast.  i cut open that beautiful red pepper…and just the SMELL energized me.  i felt my headache start to disappear even before i got this healing food into my mouth!

that’s how powerful veggies are.  don’t let even one meal go by without cutting into a fresh vegetable and reaping the benefits!

at last…here’s the dressing.

here’s what you need:

• 1 tablespoon feta, or goat cheese (just enough to give it a tangy bite and a creamy texture)
• 1 teaspoon avocado oil or olive oil
• 1 tablespoon dijon or stoneground mustard
• juice of one orange
• 1 tablespoon your favorite vinegar (i got a new vinegar in the mail from thrive market yesterday ~ raw coconut vinegar ~ so i used that.  it’s really delicious!)
• salt and pepper to taste
• herb of your choice ~ i used fresh basil today, but dill would be heavenly.

whisk it all together until creamy. use a fork to smash the feta up, if you need to.

as you can see, i’m really trying to reduce my oil intake, and treat cheese like a condiment only.  i’ve already lost some weight due to those efforts.  plus, it turns out i really didn’t need all that oil to make salad dressings, or roast vegetables beautifully.  huzzah!

the cheese is a little harder to do without, but using it in the dressing, not on top of the salad, means i get the flavor in every bite, without using too much.  i mean, a tablespoon for the entire salad?  that’s pretty amazing.

just cleaned my plate, and i feel so much better.  my mood is even better.

i hope you give fresh, homemade, EASY salad dressings like this one a try!

WW POINTS: 2  🙂