One thing I strongly encourage my family to eat is salad. I love salad, and as luck would have it, my two oldest boys do too! My hubby not so much, although he will occasionally eat an Italian-style chopped salad.
One way I keep salad interesting for my family is by using a wide variety of veggies/fruit/nuts and salad dressings. I prefer to make my own dressings, as the commercial salad dressings in the supermarket are full of undesirable ingreedients such as hydrogenated fats, high-fructose corn syrup and artificial flavors and dyes.
I've included here a few of my favorite salad dressing recipes:
Classic Italian Salad Dressing (makes about 1/2 quart)
1 c. extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 c. fresh lemon juice
3-4 cloves minced garlic
1/2 tsp. sea salt
1/2 tsp. fresh ground pepper
1 tbsp. Italian seasoning mix
Combine all ingredients in a jar with a lid; secure lid tightly and shake vigorously until well-combined. Store in jar in fridge for up to one month.
Poppyseed Dressing (this is my personal favorite...great on sliced avacado!)
1 c. mayonaise
2 tbsp. apple cider vinegar, raw with the mother if possible
3 tbsp. dijon mustard
4 tbsp. poppyseeds
1 minced garlic clove
Combine all ingredients in a small mixing bowl; whisk rapidly until well-combined. Stores in the fridge covered for up to two weeks.
Mandarin-Sesame Dressing
2 tbsp. sesame oil
1 c. extra-virgin olive oil
2 minced garlic cloves
2 tbsp. toasted sesame seeds
1 tbsp. rice wine vinegar
juice of 3 small mandarin oranges, roughly 1/4 cup
pinch of ground ginger
Combine all ingredients in a small mixing bowl; whisk rapidly until well-combined. Best if used immediately.