On secret salad dressing ingredients and food processors

Happy 2013!

I made a variety of truffles to ring in the new year. From left to right, cookie dough truffles, peanut butter balls (also known as buckeyes), cake batter truffles and white chocolate peanut butter balls (white chocolate buckeyes?). (Sorry, no recipe for the cookie dough truffles because I can't remember what recipe I used!). I think they are very pretty. By the way, they are nestled in black and white polka dot mini-cupcake liners. So festive and classy! My favorite was the cake batter, but the white chocolate peanut butter balls were pretty amazing, too!

My mom bakes a lot. When I was in elementary school, she often made peanut butter balls or peanut butter bars (similar to the balls, just with one layer of peanut butter and then one layer of chocolate). She rarely makes those recipes anymore. . . maybe because my dad isn't such a fan of the pb-chocolate mixture, while my brothers, who no longer live with her, are. Peanut butter balls are for winners, and I wouldn't mind them becoming a freezer staple in my house.

On to salad dressing secret ingredients. Okay, not so secret but new to me, but I love adding a pinch of sugar to my salad dressings. When I am making salads for Seth and me, I tend to leave out the fat. Seth and I like the tart taste of vinegar, and I have concocted a wide range of dressings using balsamic, apple cider and rice wine vinegar. But, a pinch of sugar (maybe 1/4 to 1/8 a teaspoon) takes the dressing to a new level, cutting the tartness just a bit. 

Today, I had an unremarkable but tasty salad for lunch with a remarkable, easy and low-calorie dressing.

I hadn't planned on posting this salad, so I didn't even attempt to eyeball measurements. (Is that an oxymoron? To eyeball measurements?) I'll try my best to guesstimate. 

In the salad:

• 1/3 head of romaine
• 1 carrot
• 1 stem from a head of broccoli
• 1/4 can of black beans
• 1 Dr. Praeger's veggie burger

In the dressing:

• 2-3 pours of apple cider vinegar
• generous squirt of sriracha 
• a few shakes of granulated garlic
• a few shakes of onion powder
• pinch of sugar
• pinch of salt

Directions:

Chop and toss romaine, carrot, broccoli stem and black beans. Add dressing ingredients, toss. Microwave veggie burger and toss in. 

After lunch, I was craving one of the leftover cookie dough truffles (they keep well in the freezer) for dessert but knowing Seth and I will likely have a few for dessert tonight, I wanted something a little healthier. I decide to make this cookie dough dip. I made it once before using either my mini-food processor from college or the immersion blender (which is really more of Seth's kitchen tool). The dip was good, but not quite the texture I wanted. Given that we have been married nearly two and a half years and have had a beautiful 10-cup food processor off our registry even longer, I decided to take it out for a spin. I've used it a few times before, but unlike my stand mixer, it isn't in my regular kitchen appliance rotation. And wow, it is amazing. The cookie dough dip is so smooth that even Seth who gets nervous around chickpea-based desserts sampled it (only because he couldn't identify what it was, but that means the dip came out really smooth).

The food processor worked like magic, and I want to use it again. I just need a tutorial (why are there so many blades?) and some food processor friendly recipes.

I'm going to dig into the cookie dough dip now!