Partially Hydrogenated Crap

I am a big Dr. OZ fan.  I think his book "YOU on a Diet" is great.  I think there is something to be said for all the crap that goes into processed food.  I know there is nothing new to anyone reading this.  People have been talking about partially hydrogenated whatever for a while now.  But do you even realize how much stuff it is in.  News flash......it is the third ingredient in my yummy Coffee-mate (oh crap - I really like this stuff)! The first two ingredients are water and corn syrup!  Ooops!  I'm usually pretty good at reading the labels.  So anyway, I am trying to rid our house of processed foods with or without the partially hydrogenated stuff.  It is really much harder than I thought processed food makes my life SO much easier.  So I'm taking baby steps.  The biggest processed food in my husbands diet is Caesar Dressing, it is the only dressing I have ever seen him eat.  I decided that I could just make my own.  At least once a week I'm going to try and make something that I would normally buy processed (although I'm not sure how I'm going to do this with my son's goldfish that he loves...) and I'll share it with you! 

My Caesar dressing was pretty good.  I don't think I would want to eat it from a jar anymore and my husband agrees!  It wasn't too bad to make either.  Now, there was a mess and some chopping that I had to do but overall, pretty easy.  I didn't use one recipe, I looked up a couple on the internet and then made my own, so here it is!  I guess it is kind of cheating because I use Mayo, but I checked the ingredients, not TOO bad (minus the fat!)  I'm not claiming this is a healthy recipe as far as fat and calories, but it has to be better for you than the jarred stuff!  Try it sometime! P.S. It is also Gluten free.

Caesar Dressing
3/4 c Mayo
3 tbs half and half
1/2 c Parmesan cheese
3 cloves of garlic (diced small) - I used my slap chop worked great
(you can leave garlic out or reduce if you are not a garlic lover)
salt and pepper to taste
3 anchovies (diced small)
1 tbs anchovy paste
(again I guess you could leave out the anchovy stuff if you don't like it, but normal bottled Caesar dressing has it, so you will probably like it, it really isn't too fishy)
1 tbs lemon juice
1-2 tsp Worcestershire Sauce

 Mix everything together and you are done!  Just be careful with adding salt since the anchovies are usually salted as well.  I tend to lean on the side of not even adding the salt.  You can always put some on your salad.  You probably get more bang for your buck by just adding it on your salad if you want it.  That way you are not adding it to the dressing and the salad.  On a side note - I feel the same way about salting pasta.  I find it completely unnecessary, although if I had a dollar for every time a chef on a cooking show said, "add salt to the pasta, it is your only opportunity to flavor the spaghetti" I would be rich!  Just ad salt to your meal if you need it.  We add so much salt to everything - where does the madness end!  Anyway, I don't know why I get so upset when I see people salting pasta, I just think it ads unnecessary sodium.   I'll get of my pasta salt soap box now. (Especially since I am a salt lover)!