I am a very cheap and lazy paleo/primal life-styler. I go by the 80/20 law, so I’m not incredibly strict, and I’m a poor, poor grad student who simply cannot afford a lot of fresh ingredients. So, I cheat.
By “cheat” I mean, I buy the little salad dressing packets from Good Seasons (about $1 each) and make my own dressing. I like it because it is all easily measured out using the Good Seasons dressing carafe that you can buy; I control the type of oil and vinegar used (olive oil, as opposed to all the vegetable and soy oils so many off-the-shelf dressings are infested with); and with a little creativity with added seasonings I can make a wide variety of flavors of dressing with almost no extra cost.
I know people like to jump in with their favorite, totally from scratch salad dressing recipe here and I’m not arguing that isn’t a better plan. It is. But honestly, fresh herbs and ingredients are expensive, and half of it goes to waste because only a small amount goes into the dressing. Also, I’m not inclined to be an adventurous cook. When I make it up to a five-figure income again (yes, five figure: I’m that poor!) maybe I’ll be more willing to experiment; chances are, I’ll just be more willing to hire someone to cook for me. 🙂
In the meantime, I’ve cut out corn/soy oil completely with this one move, which is both cheap and easy and works really well for me a single person. If you’ve been wondering how to migrate away from the processed-food salad dressings, this is a good first step, I think.
[If you are curious as to why I want to cut out supposedly “healthy” oils like corn oil, soy bean oil, and canola, read Mark Sisson’s Definitive Guide to Oils — he explains it all better than I am able to.]
