Poppyseed Dressing {or Delicious, Fatty Goodness} ~ My New Guilty Pleasure

I first experienced poppyseed dressing several months ago when a co~worker brought in one of those yummy salad mixes that come complete with dressing and toppings. The mix was Fresh Express’s Pacifica mix, and I swear, I thought I’d died and gone to heaven after my first bite. Not only did the mix include the most delicious dressing I’d ever tried, but it also included soy beans and sunflower seeds for the salad topping ~ a pleasant change from the usual croutons that adorn my salads. Mmmm Mmmm good. Nate and I bought the mix a few times to have with dinner, and I soon discovered that I was addicted to the wonderful poppyseed dressing goodness.

As it’s not practical to make daily purchases of salad mixes that are $3.49 a pop (unless you catch the rare sale and can get them for $1.99 each), I began my quest for poppyseed dressing in a bottle. And as I’ve been trying to eat healthy lately, in my search I ignored any dressings I came across that were not low~cal and low~fat. I’m sad to report that this left for slim pickings. The only dressing I could find that met my qualifications was a store brand’s disgusting Poppyseed and Caramelized Onion dressing. It was maybe the worst stuff I’ve ever tasted. Really, they should offer free dressing samples at the grocery store so you know what you’re getting before you buy it and thus don’t get stuck with multiple bottles of nasty dressing filling up the door of your refrigerator… But I digress. And so the search continued. I searched every grocery store in our area. I searched online. And came up with a big, fat nothing. I’d given up. Low~cal, low~fat poppyseed dressing was not to be mine.

Which brings me to yesterday. My craving for poppyseed dressing was close to unbearable. I decided that I was going to find my dressing and enjoy it, regardless of the calorie and fat content. Our local Safeway pulled through for me ~ I found a delicious~looking poppyseed dressing in the refrigerated section next to the salad mixes. And delicious it was. With its whopping 150 calories and 13 grams of fat per 2 tbsp serving. How’s that for counteracting any of the benefits you might get from eating a salad?!? I did come up with a trick for enjoying my dressing and not adding ten pounds a week to my tush ~ I’ll limit myself to my new favorite dressing once or twice a week, and when I do treat myself to it, I’ll just put one tablespoon of it in a small container and dip my fork into the dressing before spearing my lettuce. That way, I’ll get the flavor of the dressing with (hopefully) a minimal amount of the calories and fat.

Thank you for reading this rambling ode to poppyseed dressing. I’m just so excited to have found some that I love that I had to share!