Homemade salad dressing: can't believe it took me this long to go there

Just a quick post.  My husband LOVES bleu cheese salad dressing.  When we go out I don't normally pull the nutrition info on his stuff, but happend to and was positively shocked how bad it was.  I also just ran out of my favorite Light Raspberry Vinegrette.  Looked up a couple recipes online, made adjustments to lighten them up, and boom!  Liked the stuff better than store bought, cheaper, and I can make it on demand.  I know, duh!  A couple of substitutions: splenda for sugar, ff greek yogurt for olive oil (not quite all of the oil though).  I made the bleu cheese that clocked in at 70 calories for 4 tablespoons (note, that serving size is BIG for a normal serving) and my raspberry stuff clocked in at 30 calories for a couple of tablespoons.  Nice!

Okay, you got me wanting to try a new recipe now. LOL!! Bleu cheese dressing here I come. The last time I saw a post of yours was about Broccoli Cheese Soup in the Vitamix. Well, hubby and I have been enjoying that one at least twice a week now. We had it just last night. It's sooo good. My only complaint is that no matter how hard I try to clean the Vitamix, it still sort of smells like broccoli.

Can you please post your version of the bleu cheese dressing? I would love to try that one. I have a bleu cheese addiction and I've had to stop using store bought dressing for obvious reasons.  Your version sounds awesome, only 70 calories for 4 TB.

Here you go.  If you figure out a way to get it out of the Vitamix efficiently let me know!

1/2 cup ff plain greek yogurt (uh, not vanilla- that is just nasty!)

1 tbspn ff milk (you could lighten up more by using almond or flax milk)

1/4 cup Miracle Whip Light (we are not real may fans here- not sure if there is a light version of regular mayo?)

1 tbspn fresh lemon juice

1/4 tsp worcestershire sauce

Dash of cayenne (to taste)

Salt and pepper to taste (1/4 tsp of each if you do better with an amount instead of dealing with "to taste")

1/2 cup blue cheese crumbles- I made it with full fat stuff, but you can reduce even further if you find a light.

You can use your blender, but I think next time I will just whisk due to it being such a pain to get it out.  

Whisk everything but the blue chesse until well-blended.  Add in cheese, mix.  Store in fridge- takes a night to let the flavor get up to speed.  The stuff will also become less thick over night.  Some people online who use greek yogurt use a little extra milk... depends on what you prefer consistency wise.  Remember, easier to add it in then try to take it out or thicken with more yogurt. 

Good luck!

Oh, and the broccoli cheese soup has been a staple here as well. Insane how easy it is.  If I wasn't trying to be careful at the moment with calories, I would totally make up the potatoe cheese version.... looking forward to that.  Same goes with the squash soup. The tomatoe soup is Ok, but not as good as the broccoli.  The tortilla soup is Ok too, but I don't like it with the tortilla blended up in it.  Just add something crunchy on the top and it is better IMHO.  Now the greek yogurt ice cream is freaking fantastic, and completely guilt free!  

We just made pesto tonight in the blender- full fat ingredients.  OUCH! I am going to go online to see if I can figure out how to lighten that up.  

Greek yogurt ice cream?   Oh, please do tell!   

Super easy in the Vitamix

It is simply about ratios- 1 part yogurt/liquid 3 parts frozen

1 cup yogurt (ff greek)

1/4 cup or less liquid... I use ff milk

Splenda to taste (about 1/4 for me)

3-4 cups of frozen- I like it with all frozen strawberries.  You could cut the cals by using a little less strawberry and ice cubes.  

Liquid goes in first, then frozen.  You will need the tamper, as it is super thick.  Really smu**** in the blades the whole time.  It is done wihen 4 puffy cloud like formations are visible from the top of the blender. It comes out like soft serve, but you could pop it in the freezer for a while to firm it up more.  Not a big fan of it entirely frozen, but love the soft serve version. 

This makes a lot- 3 super generous portions or enough for 5 smaller sized portions (my family is 5 strong).  Cals are coming from yogurt and fruit the way I make it, so hence guilt free.  

Yum, this sounds delicious! Thanks so much. I can't wait to give it a whirl.  Other than the broccoli and cheddar, I still haven't tried any of the other soups in the Vitamix yet. I think the next one I'll try will be the Red Pepper Crab Soup. That one sounds pretty good to me. I also never made greek yogurt ice cream. I'll definitely need to check that one out too.

I called Vitamix earlier tonight about the smell in the blender from the broccoli soup. They said try to use 1 cup white vinegar and two cups ho****er. Blend for 2 minutes. I actually already tried something similar but didn't use nearly enough vinegar so that could be why the smell is still present. I'll give it another try again and see what happens.  She said to call them back if it doesn't work.

Thanks again for your Vitamix suggestions. I'm always trying to find new recipes that are easy, tasty, healthy and sleeve friendly.

I haven't noticed the smell, but I do have a smidge of discoloration at the bottom from my tomatoe based recipes.  Maybe I will run the vinegar thing to see if that helps, not that it bothers me.  The smell would be an issue.  I am meticulous about putting ho****er/soap and blending that right after... maybe this is why I don't have that issue?

We also blend ho****er and soap after each use and still got the broccoli smell even after it was cleaned a few different times.  I did the vinegar thing again,  but using more vinegar than usual and that seemed to help. C/S at Vitamix said that this does happen at times, but there are ways to easily fix it. She said sometimes the plastic container will hold onto the smell, especially if it's still pretty new.

I love homemade dressing.  It's so delicious and so much healthier since you can control what goes into it and skip all the preservatives and crap!