My roasted garlic dressing has been a family favorite for many years! A whole head of roasted garlic combines with dijon mustard, balsamic vinegar and extra virgin olive oil to create one awesome dressing (if I do say so myself)! It is super easy to prepare on your prep day for the week and then you have a much healthier alternative to bottled salad dressing for the week 🙂
Big ‘ol salads are my lunch staple. I pretty much have one every day of the week. I love that I can have ton of salad and still not kill my calories for the day!! And I love to make up a batch of my roasted garlic dressing to go on my salads!! I buy the 1 lb. tub of organic spinach at Sam’s Club each week and challenge myself to eat the whole thing by the end of the week. The tub of organic baby spinach is a great deal at Sam’s for under $5! In fact, I try to buy as much of my produce and other clean eating staples as possible at Sam’s. It just saves me money and I like  LOVE a good deal!!
I also buy my boneless, skinless chicken breasts there. (Nope, I am not being paid by Sam’s Club to write this post…this is just what I do and wanted to share.) At $1.99/lb, you are not going to find a better deal on chicken (well…most of the time). It is a HUGE package so when I get home, I divide it up into smaller packages and vacuum seal what I am not going to use as my protein for salads that week.
Power Cooking
I ‘power cook’ my chicken by either baking it or throwing it in the slow cooker on my prep day. If I am baking it, I spray a large baking dish with extra virgin olive oil using my Misto and then load it up with chicken breasts. Then I spray the top chicken with olive oil and season with sea or himalayan pink salt, fresh cracked pepper and crushed red pepper (I like things spicy). Then bake at 400 degrees until the chicken is cooked through (about 30 minutes). Then chop and bag for the week.
If I am using the slow cooker, I line the bowl of a slow cooker with a slow cooker liner, load it up with chicken and the same spices as above, add a splash of chicken stock and cook on high for 4 hours or on low for 8 hours. Then chop or shred and bag for the week.
I like to use about a 4 ounce portion of chicken for a salad. The small snack size zipper bags work perfectly for this. I use a food scale (I know…I am a total dork) and portion out 4 ounces into the baggies. If you don’t have a food scale, then the snack size bags hold about 4-5 ounces, so you can go by that. Then I have all my chicken ready for the week. I just refrigerate until needed.
Now we need to make the roasted garlic salad dressing…
- 1 whole head of garlic
- 1 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
- 2 tbsp. balsamic vinegar
- 2 tbsp. dijon mustard
- 1 tsp.honey or agave nectar
- ½ cup extra virgin olive oil
- sea or pink himalayan salt & fresh cracked pepper to taste.
- Pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees.
- Chop off the top of head of garlic to expose the bulbs and place on a sheet of aluminum foil. Drizzle olive oil over the exposed bulbs.
- Seal up tightly and roast for 30 minutes or until all the bulbs are soft and light brown in color.
- Remove from oven and let it cool to the touch.
- Once the garlic is able to be handled, gently squeeze out each bulb of garlic into a food processor or blender.
- Add the balsamic vinegar, mustard and honey or agave nectar.
- Blend until smooth. With the motor running, slowly pour in the olive oil. Season with salt and pepper, to taste.
- If it is still too thick, add water, 1 tbsp. at a time, until the desired consistency is reached.
- Store in mason jars or other air tight containers. Shake well if serving after the dressing has set.
Get creative with your salads! Switch up the protein! Any leftover protein is great to throw in a salad.  I like to add a little bit of crumbled goat or blue cheese. I love these particular cheeses because a little goes a long way 🙂 Add whatever veggies you like…clean out that crisper in your frig!  There are also vegetarian proteins that would be excellent like hummus 🙂 Sometimes I add a tablespoon of hummus 🙂 Need a recipe for hummus? I’ve got a couple for you 😉 Here is my Garlic Lover’s Hummus & Supremely Spicy Hummus Recipe. It is soooo easy and frugal to make your own hummus 🙂
Now it is your turn….what is your favorite salad?