That's Fit

I have a child who loves salad. If fact, we often make whole meals out of salad topped with shrimp. My boy is happy when I add carrots, cucumbers, tomatoes, and other sliced veggies on his salad, but if I even attempt to put a relatively healthy dressing on top he just about gags. He's a ranch dressing boy through and through. I'll keep offering him healthier choices, though.

After all, if you're eating a salad why add unnecessary calories with an unhealthy dressing? There are plenty of better alternatives that are every bit as tasty. Eating Light has several yummy salad dressing recipes to try:

• This Creamy Blue Cheese Dressing has only 38 calories and 3 grams of fat per serving (2 tablespoons).
• Each 2 tablespoon serving of this Creamy Dill Ranch Dressing has only 19 calories and 1 gram of fat.
• Tangy Herb and Horseradish Dressing has 46 calories and 4 grams of fat in each 2 tablespoon serving.
• Orange-Oregano Dressing has 27 calories and 2 grams of fat per 2 tablespoon serving.
• Don't be deceived by the higher fat and calories in Roasted Garlic Dressing. Most of the 154 calories and 14 grams of fat (in a 2 tablespoon serving) come from olive oil -- a good source of beneficial monounsaturated fat.
• There are only 19 calories and 1 gram of fat in this Roasted Tomato Vinaigrette. Plus, the tomatoes give you a healthy dose of lycopene!
  
• This Asian-style Sesame Tamari Vinaigrette has 37 calories and 2 grams of fat per 2 tablespoon serving.
  

Whether for breakfast, lunch, dinner or a snack, salad is one of the healthier options out there. But these days, salads are so rarely made up of only healthy stuff -- now once-healthy veggies are drenched in things like cheese and fat. But the most offensive salad ingredient? Too often it's the salad dressing.

Not all salad dressings are bad for you--vinaigrettes, for instance, are tangy and low in fat. But creamy dressings like ranch, Caesar, blue cheese and thousand island will pack a calorie wallop. In fact, some salads have a many calories as a cheeseburger, and it's all down to the dressing.

How can you dress up your salad without negating its health benefits? Make healthy dressing choices. Creamy ones are out -- instead, opt for vinegar and oil-based salad dressings. Noshtopia has a bunch of great ideas that you can check out here. And if in doubt? Make your own home-made dressings -- that way, you can control what goes in to your salad.

There's nothing precise about this salsa recipe. But there's everything healthy about it. And that's why you should give it try. It goes like this:

Cut up watermelon into chunks -- big chunks, little chunks, you decide. Then cut up a few fresh peaches into similar-sized pieces. Add some diced jalapenos to suit your desire for spice, some cut up bits of cilantro, a sprinkling of onions, and a dash of Light Balsamic Vinaigrette dressing -- which you could also leave out entirely. The juices from the fruit may do just the trick in exchange for less fat and calories.

Now mix it all up, and use your fruity salsa as a dip for the healthiest tortilla chips you can find (try blue chips from your grocery store's health food section), for a topping on your favorite fish, for a dressing on your yummy salad, or for anything your little heart desires. It doesn't really matter where your salsa lands. It's sure to spice up just about anything -- and in only the healthiest of ways.