Vegetarian Frugal Housewife

Many people, when they first go vegetarian, tend to rely too heavily on salads. Over time, as they experiment more with vegetarian cooking and ethnic foods, they branch out. Once they’ve branched out, some are by then so loathing of salad that they never return it to their diet.

Others still, like some that I’ve met in online forums, say that salad is unhealthy, specifically because of the oils that we tend to slather it in.

Actually a salad, with or without oils and vinegars, is a great way to get some essential nutrients into your diet.

I have been a vegetarian for several months now and love the fact that my daily salad is an excellent delivery system for natural liquids that have been proven to be highly beneficial to the vegetarian diet.

Every day I choose one item from each of the follow three lists and make a dressing out of it in the blender or just mixed in a bowl….

Oils
Olive
Hemp seed
Flax seed (my fave)
Walnut
Peanut
Sesame
Basil/Olive

Other Liquids
Balsamic vinegar
Red Wine Vinegar
Cider Vinegar (the healthiest one)
Apple Juice
Orange Juice
Pineapple Juice
Tomato Juice

Solids
Peanuts
Raisins
Blueberries
Strawberries
Jalepeno Peppers
Sesame Seeds
Sun-dried Tomatoes
Hemp Hearts

Have fun with your dressings. You can make your own at home by mixing any healthy/yummy garden herbs with fruits and nuts and storing them for 30 days in vinegar, then mix with oil over greens and voila! home-made salad dressing.

My favorite is mint and strawberries kept in white wine vinegar for 30 days, strained and mixed with olive oil, to make an absolutely delicious dressing!!!

Don’t worry about oils, if they are not the trans-fat, saturated fat variety, you will have a hard time eating too much of them.

Oils are healthy fats in general, as long as they are natural oils.

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