With a Side of Hope

Good Morning!  Happy Thursday!  I hope you are having a good week!  The weekend is near!  Yay!  I don’t know why I’m so excited for the weekend.  Maybe it’s because I want time to relax and just hang our.  Or maybe because Melissa and I are going to be having Bakefest 2011!  You can check out our baking adventures from last year here.

So I don’t know about you, but I am a huge fan of salads.  I love them for lunch or dinner.  For as long as I can remember I have been enjoying salads with dinner every single night.  I always make sure that I have ingredients on hand for us to have a salad before dinner.  I always serve salads to guests that come to my house for dinner.  It’s just a normal routine for me to have a salad.  It’s rare that I don’t eat a salad before dinner.  Sometimes it happens if I go out to dinner but if I’m home you can be sure I’m having a salad.  Do you eat a lot of salads?  Do you always have a salad with dinner like me?

When it comes to salad dressings, I am pretty picky.  Since I’m lactose intolerant, I tend to stay away from creamy dressings that contain milk.  Unless, I feel like taking my lactaid pill then I will have creamy dressings.  Most of the time I stick with something that I know is dairy-free.  I am always looking for new dressings to try.  I’m not scared to try any dressing at least once.

I was excited when I was asked if I would like to try Marzetti’s new line of salad dressings called Simply Dressed.

The Simply Dressed line comes in many varieties such as: Balsamic, Blue Cheese, Caesar, Champagne, Coleslaw, Ginger Sesame, Greek Feta, Pomegranate, Ranch, Strawberry Poppyseed, and Thousand Island dressing.  Keep in mind that not all stores and locations have each specific variety.  A good thing about the Marzetti website is that you are able to do a location search for a specific variety of the dressing you would like to try.  So you will know which store carries which dressing before you go! 

Simply Salad Dressings are typically found with the refrigerated salad dressings in the produce section of the grocery store.  The best part about these salad dressings is the fact that they are all-natural.  They are made with extra virgin olive oil, sea salt, canola oil, which provide omega-3′s.  They don’t contain preservatives, trans fat, high fructose corn syrup, MSG and artificial flavors.  Those are all important factors when deciding on a salad dressing that would be perfect for you and your family.  I’d prefer to have a dressing that is natural and doesn’t contain chemicals.

So I went to my local grocery store and browsed the refrigerated section for Simply Dressed.  The section at my store was very limited.  I did happen to see a dressing on the shelf that looked really good to me.  It was the Balsamic dressing.

Simply Dressed Balsamic

Explaining that it's all-natural on the bottle

 

Ingredients

 

I couldn’t wait to try this dressing on my salad last night!  Not to mention, I think the bottle is super cute!  It’s small enough that you could toss it in your lunch bag to bring with you to work or on the go.  I think the bottle is trendy and it definitely stands out on the shelves in the grocery store. 

 

So I opened the container and poured some in my salad and mixed it about.

 

My salad with Simply Dressed Balsamic dressing

 

Yummy dressing!

 

The first thing about the dressing that I noticed was the smell!  It smelled fragrant and delicious.  It had a creamy texture to it but it doesn’t contain dairy.  I was glad that it wasn’t like the typical balsamic which usually isn’t creamy at all.  It has some body to it.  I didn’t even need that much of the dressing to coat my entire salad.  It had great flavor.  It was really a delicious tasting dressing.  It was really unlike any other balsamic that I have had.  It almost taste homemade.  I liked it and I would definitely consider buying it again if it was on sale.

 

I think it would even be great to use as a marinade on chicken or fish.  I could also see it used maybe in a pasta salad.  If you are looking for a new dressing to try out for your holiday dinner, definitely consider this one. It’s really good! 

 

Do you like salad dressing?  What is your favorite dressing to use?

 

Have a good Thursday!  Be sure to check back tomorrow, I have something special planned for you guys!  You aren’t going to want to miss it!

 

I was one of the bloggers selected by T. Marzetti Company and Clever Girls Collective to host a Marzetti Simply Dressed review. They provided me with product to test myself and compensation for my time. However, my opinions are entirely my own.

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