Make Your Own Salad Dressing -- Thrifty Thursdays

I never cease to be amazed at the amount of shelf (and in some cases cooler) space grocery stores devote to salad dressings. There's a never ending array. I almost never buy any of them. Why? because it's quick, easy, cheap and environmentally friendly to make my own. Not to mention healthier -- just try to find a salad dressing these days that doesn't contain high fructose corn syrup.

If you have a food processor or mini food processor it's ultra quick to make dressing. Otherwise, use a whisk and incorporate the oil in a thin stream while whisking into order to emulsify the oil into the other ingredients.

And don't forget, vinaigrette dressings can easily do double duty as marinades -- now there's another supermarket aisle that's way too big.

Check out these recipe and forgo the dressing aisle of the market, you'll save money and valuable resources.

Variations on Vinaigrettes

• Cheri's Basic Vinaigrette
• Raspberry Vinaigrette
  
• Red Wine Vinaigrette
• Blueberry Vinaigrette
  
• Chipotle Sherry Vinaigrette
• Apricot Vinaigrette
  
• Fennel Vinaigrette

Favorite Homemade Salad Dressings

• Creamiest Parmesan Salad Dressing
  
• Classic 1000 Island Salad Dressing
• Classic Blue Cheese Dressing
  
• Orange Salsa Dressing
• Almost Caesar Salad Dressing
  
• Cilantro Lime Yogurt Dressing
• Lemon Avocado Salad Dressing
• Honey Mustard Citrus Dressing
  
• Creamy Tarragon Dressing
  
• Maple Mustard Dressing
• Asian Style Salad Dressing

Low Fat Salad Dressings

• Low Fat Creamy Italian Dressing
• Low Fat Citrus Ginger Dressing
  
• Low Fat Ranch Dressing
• Low Fat Blue Cheese Dressing
• Low Fat 1000 Island Dressing
  

Thrifty Thursdays is a blog event created by my fried Amanda Formaro from Amanda's Cookin' blog. I've agreed to participate, so look for a frugal themed post here each Thursday. In addition to reading my posts, be sure to visit Amanda's blog for a round-up of all the thrifty home and cooking tips and recipes that came in this week from folks around the blogosphere.