I got The Salad Dressing Blues

[HoneyB]

Wow.
So I've been in the States for a week now, enjoying a well-deserved holiday and soaking up the heat... also eating a lot of "topped" salads –*cobb salad, chef's salad... anything with a few hardboiled eggs, chicken, sliced cheeses that I can get my fork into. The carbs are being kept low by focusing on the fats and proteins on top of the lettuce, keeping dressing on the side and eating about a cup of the greens at each serving.

But twice now I've been caught by the sugar bandit and paid the price!

Two restaurants have given me plain vinegrette dressing they've sworn was homemade and "definitely sugar-free", and both times I've had serious nausea, headaches and acid reflux –*thanks to pre-packed catering dressing!
ARGH!

How can I avoid more of this diet-wrecking mess in the future if a menu doesn't offer plain olive oil/vinegar alternatives? I've got a week left here and can't take another sicky session!

[not2late]

I ask for plain oil and vinegar. Most restaurants will have cruets of oil and vinegar and you can mix the oil and vinegar to your preferences.

If they don't have it, then ask for a coffee cup, one or two lemon wedges and heavy cream. You pour about 1-2 tablespoons of the heavy cream into the empty coffee cup, beat it lightly with a fork and squirt the lemon in and continue mixing. It should thicken up. If it's too thick add a bit of water. Toss in some black pepper and pour it over your salad. This is a recipe based on one I read in a Jacques Pepin cookbook. His mother ran a restaurant/bistro and this cream dressing was one she used in her restaurant.

[JulieB]

Go buy a bottle & carry it with you...if anyone asks/comments, tell them you have allergies.

[krispysky]

I saw on Amazon you buy packets of Walden Farms dressing. It's like 6 for $5 though so a bit too pricy for me.

I had "real" salad dressing at a restaurant Wednesday and definitely paid for it on the scale afterward--it's like all that sugar keeps your body from processing anything. So frustrating.

[Elizellen]

Great recipe, Megs! One for my database

I always have my 'emergency box' with me. It is a small travelling toiletries accessory I bought from Boots and contains two little screwtop bottles and two screwlidded pots.
Boots Mini Travel Set - Boots

I fill the bottles one with vinegar and one with oil and put lemon/dill seasoning in one pot and seasalt/seaweed seasoning in the other (pepper is usually obtainable in most restaurants)

[Momma2threegirls]

I just posted a killer recipe for a salad dressing in the recipe's forum. It's my new favorite.

But I often bring my own or stick to blue cheese or cesear at restraunts. You can alos ask if they are homemade. Most restraunts are not and they can always show you the ingredient list or packaging.

[EmDee]

in a pinch, I ask for ranch on the side and use it very sparingly.

for salads with lots of toppings, I find that I don't need dressing at all usually (esp if it is a salad within a salad, like tunasalad or chickensalad ~ those are plenty "wet" enough)

good luck getting heavy cream! I recall when I started Atkins, I asked for heavy cream for my coffee and NO PLACE had any real cream, only half & half. And I am talking NOWHERE and in 3 different states...I finally gave up asking and just switched to tea.

[DarlingBri]

Honestly, I'd just find the nearest Trader Joes or Whole Foods and browse the salad dressing aisle. (If you've never been to one or the other, it's a retail adventure - very different than the supermarkets we have in the UK and ROI.) Stick some in a travel shampoo bottle (obviously the ones sold without the shampoo...) from CVS, Waldgreens or WalMart and discreetly put it on your naked salad if walking around with salad dressing makes you feel like a pillock.