A guest post from Eat at Home’s Tiffany King…

Salad is my go-to way of getting more veggies in my family’s diet. I love homemade salad dressings but looking up the recipe, checking and rechecking for amounts and measuring seemed to take too much time for an ordinary week night.

But, there’s an easier way!

If you can remember a couple of quick ratios, the rest can be done by estimation and taste.

The Easiest Method

The absolute quickest way to dress a salad, and one of the tastiest is to sprinkle the greens with red or white wine vinegar, drizzle with olive oil and toss with kosher salt and fresh ground pepper. No need to remember ratios or measure anything.

Vinaigrette Ratios

To make a simple vinaigrette use 3 parts oil to 1 part vinegar. Another way to think of this is 1 Tablespoon of oil to 1 teaspoon of vinegar. Simple, right?

You can use olive oil or vegetable oil. I like either red wine or white wine vinegar, but balsamic is also good. Also try flavored vinegars.

To the oil and vinegar add:

• Fresh or dried herbs, such as basil, tarragon, rosemary, oregano, chives
• Dijon mustard
• Salt and pepper
• Fresh garlic or garlic powder

Use your imagination and let your taste buds enjoy your creations. You’ll come up with all kinds of interesting combinations to complement your main course.

For an Asian inspired dressing try:

• Rice wine vinegar
• Olive oil
• A drop of sesame seed oil or Hoisin sauce
• Salt and pepper

Ranch Ratios

Stir together equal parts of sour cream and mayonnaise. You can use low-fat versions to make it healthier. Some people like it a little heavier on the mayo than sour cream. Don’t be afraid to experiment.

Thin this with milk if you are using it as a dressing instead of dip. To the sour cream/mayo mixture add:

• Fresh garlic or garlic powder – fresh garlic can be minced or crushed or you can use a fork to mash a clove of garlic with some kosher salt.
• Chopped fresh herbs or dried herbs, such as dill, chives, basil, oregano
• Seasoned salt
• Salt and pepper

Play around with it, tasting and adding. As you experiment with making homemade dressing, you’ll find your perfect flavor combos and you’ll be able to fix it in a flash!

Tiffany King shares recipes, menus and complete grocery lists on her site Eat at Home, Everyday Food for Busy People. She’s married with 4 children who range in age from 18-7 years old, a couple of which are willing salad eaters. The others have to be encouraged.

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It’s Back to School everywhere you look…and you’re going to find some Back to School stuff happening around here too.  We’ll start with the morning, shall we?!

My friend Kate from Stolen Moments Cooking has written an e-book that contains 100 breakfast recipes that are sure to get you out of the breakfast rut!  And there’s some great news…

The Better Breakfast, 100 Breakfast Recipes E-Book is on sale for ONLY $3.97 until Thursday!!!

So if you’d like to save a little mental energy and let Kate’s creativity help you out in the mornings, then you’ll want to be sure to pick up a copy!

And for less than $4!  A steal!!!

Learn more about Kate and her e-book at Stolen Moments Cooking!

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Dearest Friends and Readers,

I’m really not sure if Subscription Feed Migration is the right title…but it sounds good, right?!

I know very little when it comes to techy things and the proper titles for these types of events…but I am going to try to migrate my subscription service all by myself.

Soooo…if I blow up the blog, or the email migration, or your inbox, I’m terribly sorry.  Rest assured I will call the bloggy fire department and bloggy bomb squad to restore things to normal as quickly as possible!

I will be moving my email subscription service from the unreliable Feedburner to the super reliable Feedblitz this weekend.  It doesn’t mean anything to you…other than you will be getting a MUCH better email from me in the near future!

But if for some crazy, wacky reason I blow up the internet and the site and you stop getting my emails, PLEASE come back and resubscribe.  I apologize in advance for the inconvenience!

(Really, there should be no issues at all!)

I can’t wait to get started with Feedblitz and to get the new emails branded with the NEW look…yes, a new site design will be up in less than a month!  There are some exciting new things happening behind the scenes…all to benefit YOU!

I’ll be implementing some of the new amazing features in the next few weeks…so be on the lookout for those changes!

Thanks for bearing with me as I try not to blow up improve things around here!

-Erin

A

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Alrighty friends, it’s tropical island time!  I have really enjoyed reading your responses and getting to know some of you a bit more!

Now that we have our foods, our utensils and our small kitchen appliances, it’s time to decide WHO we will be taking to this beautiful tropical isle.  I’d love to know who you’d want to take to this paradise!

(Please only include first names. Generalize, BFF, daugther, spouse, if you prefer.)

(And in case you were wondering, that photograph was taken on a small island off the coast of Samana, Dominican Republic. I miss it sometimes.)

Looking forward to who else will be on the island with us!!!

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So…I’ve got my chocolate, my garlic press and now my KitchenAid. Or perhaps my VitaMix.

That’s a toss up…but in the end, it’ll be the KitchenAid.

What on earth am I going to do with a garlic press, some chocolate bars and a KitchenAid?!?  Suggestions?

If you were going to be shipped off to an undisclosed location, for an undisclosed amount of time, that looks like the above picture and could only bring 1 small kitchen appliance, what would you take with you?!?

We are not talking microwaves, stoves, or dishwashers here either. Small. Electric. Sit on the counter-type appliances. Okay?!

What about you?!?  What small kitchen appliance could you not live without???

(And again. Don’t overthink this!)

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I’ll be back to blogging tomorrow. I’m stuck in the Atlanta airport… with what feels like 4,268 other people waiting in the C terminal.

Weather.

I’ve loved reading about what utensils you would be on our tropical adventure…we will be adding to our “collection” later in the week!

I miss you all. We have lots to catch up on!

Back to waiting.

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I had so much fun reading what foods you all would take with you on a tropical island, I thought I’d turn this into a mini-series…

If you were going to be shipped off to an undisclosed location that looks like the above picture and could only bring 1 kitchen utensil, what would you take with you?!?

Me. I would take my garlic press.  I use. it. all. the. time.

What about you?!?  What kitchen utensil could you not live without???

(And again. Don’t overthink this!)

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Now that summer is in full swing and the prices on spring and summer produce are hitting their low points, it’s time to start freezing that delicious fresh fruit. I keep a large plastic container in the freezer, filled with fresh fruits that I want to have for smoothies or for baking.

A few target prices for stockpiling fruit:

• $1 per pint of blueberries, raspberries, blackberries
• $1.75 per quart of strawberries
• $1.50 per 3 lb. bag of peaches
• $.50 per mango
• $.30 per lb. or less for bananas

What are some of your favorite fruits to freeze or favorite smoothie recipes?

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Looking for a few frugal recipe ideas for this July 4th Weekend?!?  Look no further…

• Red, White and Blue Smoothies
• Almond, Raspberry and Blueberry Muffins
• Homemade Potato Salad
• Roasted Red Potato Salad
• Homemade Cole Slaw
• Grilled Garlic Bread

And finally…all of our favorite recipes from the grill!

Happy Independence Day y’all!

Photo Credit: Love my Dog

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Let’s have a little fun…shall we?

If you were going to be shipped off to an undisclosed location that looks like the above picture and could only bring 1 food, what would you take with you?!?

Me. I would take chocolate.

Your turn. Don’t overthink this. It is safe to assume there would be other food there, including pina coladas…made using coconuts from that there coconut tree!

We want to know…what comfort food would you want to take on a trip to a tropical island!?

This is a photo, taken by yours truly, of a small tropical island off the coast of Samana, Dominican Republic.

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