Easy! Make Your Own Salad Dressing

Summer is the perfect time for cool, crisp salad. As convenient as bottled dressing is, why waste those lovely greens on plain old ranch? All you need is a blender and a few ingredients to bypass the bottled for chef-approved, easy dressings.

Spicy Tomato Salsa
3 roma tomatoes
2 tomatillos
1/4 white or yellow onion
2 jalapenos
1/2 habanero
juice from 1/2 a lime
handful cilantro

Wash and roughly chop all ingredients, put in a blender and pulse for 20 seconds, less if you want it a bit more chunky.

Savory Tahini Dressing
1/4 cup tahini
1 tablespoon lemon juice or apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon nutritional yeast
1 clove garlic
water to thin it out, if desired

Put all ingredients in a blender and mix, or whisk with a fork until combined. Tahini is sesame seed butter, found in the international aisle or peanut butter aisle at the grocer. It's used mainly in middle eastern food like hummus, or to top falafel. It has a light and earthy flavor. This dressing is super rich and almost cheesy, and works great on heavier greens like kale and collards.


Raspberry Dressing
1 cup fresh or frozen berries
1 packet stevia
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/4 cup lemon juice
juice from 1/2 an orange or one clementine

Put all ingredients into a blender and mix until smooth. This sweet and tart dressing is great with spinach, red onions and blue cheese.

Basic ingredients can combine in hundreds of ways to make new enjoyable dressings. Mix and match a fruit or vegetable with fat (oil, nut butter, avocado) and an acid (vinegar, lemon or lime juice) and blend. Salad dressing is really that simple. See what you come up with, you may surprise yourself with a new favorite! Enjoy your summer lunches, and until next time, keep it clean!

Loading up on the right Carbs

We've all heard about "carb loading" from our athlete friends. Carbohydrates are the first source of energy that our body burns, so often before a big race or sporting event athletes will eat a ton of grains like spaghetti to give them an extra energy boost. The way we burn carbohydrates is the reason sugary candy and sodas give us a quick buzz followed by a quick drop in energy. However, carbohydrates for the rest of us can also mean poor digestion, a spike in blood sugar and weight gain.

When breaking down the nutrition profile of complex carbs, you find that you get a lot of energy (calories) and very little nutrition per calorie. This was great when food was scarce as we could store grains for long periods of time and get the energy we needed from fairly little grain. However, now that we've streamlined our crops and food is abundant, many people in the first world battle weight gain and obesity. We have the same appetite we've always had, but we're filling ourselves with non-nutritious foods. This makes us remain hungry but gain weight from all the extra energy found in carbs. Potatoes and corn have had a bad rap for causing weight gain for years. But even whole grains like brown rice and quinoa are still far less nutritious per calorie than other carbs.

So what are the right carbs? Veggies! Vegetables have lots of fiber and water and tons and tons of nutrition. With the exception of cauliflower, the more rich and colorful the veggie the more nutrition you're getting. It's easy to pack away big fluffy slices of bread and bowls of pasta, but swap the spaghetti for thinly sliced zucchini or switch out your potatoes for a big bowl of broccoli and you'll be full in no time. All the water and hard to digest fiber will slowly move through you, keeping you fuller longer and satisfying your nutritional needs. Whole fruits (not fruit juices) are a great carb source too, but the more veggies the better.

Removing poor sources of energy from your diet can be a little difficult to get used to, but once you try it you'll wonder why you let yourself stay hungry for so long. Start by substituting one meal a day with veggies instead of the grain. Have extra veggies with your stir-fry instead of rice. Turn that burrito into a burrito bowl. Make that sandwich or burger into an interesting salad. Raw vegan and paleo diet websites are great sources for recipes that cut out complex carbs. Then watch your energy go up, your health improve from all that nutritional goodness, and your waistline shrink. Until next time, keep it clean!

The Incredible Edible... Dandelion!

Dandelions are a familiar weed in American backyards, known as a fluffy firework of seeds to kids and a bane to many gardeners. These sunny little plants are also a hardy, healthy, easy to grow food.

Every part of the dandelion is edible. Traditionally, dandelions have been used as an herbal remedy, mainly for digestion. The roots of dandelions can be dried or roasted. When boiled and steeped for a few minutes, the resulting tea has a rich, deep flavor reminiscent of coffee. Dandelion tea relieves heartburn and is considered an assistant to liver cleansing by herbists. I like to drink it after an especially heavy meal or the morning after having a few beers. The thick long leaves at the base of the plant are excellent in salads. Leafy greens are an excellent source of iron, magnesium, zinc and calcium and are alkalizing to the body. Dandelion leaves are also a mild diuretic, helping to prevent water retention and flush the body of waste materials more quickly. Dandelion flowers open up in sunlight, and their happy visage and fragrant nectar make a salad look happy and add an interesting floral flavor. With lots of potassium and more Vitamin A than carrots, they're also a welcome burst of additional nutrition.

Dandelions grow quickly and easily almost anywhere and in any soil. Since they are considered a weed, it is best to plant your own in containers rather than just picking them straight from your yard in order to avoid possible pesticides. Press seeds about an inch apart and 1/4 inch deep into moist soil and place in an area where your flowers can get full sun. In the right conditions, dandelions can grow up to 12 inches tall! Dandelions will take about 3 months to grow, but you can pull leaves off your dandelions for salads as much as you wish once they're grown. Dandelion roots, however, can take a couple of seasons to be ready to harvest. Dandelion tea can be purchased at many natural food stores if you don't want to wait to enjoy the roots.


Purchasing salad can get expensive. Since they grow so fast, dandelions are a cheap, healthy and easy way to stay healthy. Stay tuned for more tips on healthy living, and keep it clean!