easy healthy salad dressing

Today is a quick post, I wanted to write a longer one but the garden is keeping me very busy (we already have huge ripe pumpkins!)...

Salad dressing- one of the most expensive (for what it is) and laden with crap products in the grocery store. Most conventional salad dressings contain high fructose corn syrup, canola oil, maltodextrin and many other preservatives in it to make it shelf stable. I personally don't eat any of those ingredients- HFCS we pretty much all understand, by now, is evil. Canola oil... well, that is going to get its own post here in a few weeks- in a nutshell, you really don't want to be eating any Canola oil- if it's not organic it is made from GMO plants, it is usually made by heating at high heats, which creates cancer causing compounds in the oil, and too much vegetable oil in your diet throws off your Omega 3: Omega 6 ratio, which we know is already totally screwed up via the Standard American Diet.  And preservatives- well, why would you want to eat something that is supposed to preserve a food to be on a shelf for years? Also, homemade salad dressing is actually really easy to make, and if you have a food processor or an immersion blender with a processor attachment (which is what I have) it is all the more easy. You could whip up a basil feta vinaigrette, a honey lemon vinaigrette, or my personal favorite, an herbed balsamic vinaigrette... the list goes on. You get the health benefits of your healthy (unheated!) oil that you choose (we generally use cold pressed organic olive oil or avocado oil, but cold pressed organic walnut oil and sesame oil are great too) and all the antioxidants and nutrients from the fresh herbs- a nutritional powerhouse on top of your already healthy salad! For basic herbed balsamic vinaigrette, follow these "steps"... (well, "step" actually!)

you will need:
cold pressed organic nut/seed/fruit oil of your choice
fresh herbs (I like oregano, thyme, rosemary, a little bit of parsley- but whatever you like)
1-3 cloves of raw garlic (if you don't like garlic or just don't like it raw, omit this. We love raw garlic for its antibacterial/viral properties, and put it in everything, but some people can't eat it raw. You could also get fancy and roast the garlic first and then put it in the recipe)
juice from one half of a lemon (you can also omit this if you want)
Balsamic vinegar

Just throw it all in the food processor, run it until it is a blended, slightly creamy consistency, and serve! We make a batch every week and store it in a jar in the fridge so we always have it on hand- its also great on eggs, potatoes... really whatever you want. It is SO MUCH BETTER then store bought dressing- it has no scary ingredients, and it really does taste great. Let me know what you think, and if you give it a try!