Salads are a great way to whip up a meal quickly, and a healthy meal at that!

All you need are a few fresh(!) ingredients and some fantasy. There is absolutely no limit to what can go into a salad, and once you start experimenting with your salads, you'll see that green salad, mixed saladas and the classical 'Chef's Salad' are not the end of what's possible.

Here are a few hints what's important when you prepare salads, and how to make them taste unlike any salad you've tasted before.

It does matter that you have great ingedients, but that's not all, and especially, it can be all killed again when you add the dressing.

So if you want to present great salads, you need to master the skill of preparing great salad dressings , home made! The stuff you can buy in bottles in supermarkets will never taste right again, once you start making your own!

There are different techniques to making a great dressing, I'll list a few basic types and their main ingredients here:

A vinaigrette dressing, i.e. oil and vinegar are the principal ingredients

An oil dressing, i.e. a great tasting and valuable oil is the basis, no vinegar, or just a few drops of an aromatic very high quality vinegar is added

A yoghurt dressing, i.e. yoghurt is the basis for the dressing.

A vinaigrette dressing is usually composed of approximatley one third of a good oil and two thirds of a good vinegar.

I propose you experiment a bit and try different oils and vinegars to find out which ones you like best. If you have an ethnic shop in your area, that sells, Italian, Spanish or Greek food, go see the owner and tell him you're looking for a great olive oil to prepare salad dressings.

You might actually be able to taste the oils befor you buy them, that depends a bit on the owner of the shop. Otherwise take his advice and buy a small bottle of tow or three of the oils that he will propose.

Ask for vinegars that will go with these oils, there are great Balsamic vinegars (Italy: aceto balsamico), there are flavoured vinegars (not so much my personal taste, but you might like them, and there are viengars made from apples, grapes and mayn other fruit. Again, if possible, taste. To start with get yourself a mild, not too expensive balsamico vinegar and an apple vinegar. The balsamico is brwonish, the apple vinegar is clear, yellowish. To these two will give your dressings a different basic color.

Now that you have the basic ingredients, what to do with them?

Take the mixing cup that you use to mix and cut up small quantities and add one third oil, tow thirds vinegar. Personally I like to use one these small immersion hand mixers for dressings. It's quick and easy to prepare small quantities without wasting too much.

So you now mix these two ingredients. They will form a smooth emulsion, the oil and the watery vinegar will blend and form a homogenous liquid. Go ahead and taste!

If you feel it's a bit too oily, add a little more vinegar, if it's a bit too sharp and the vinegar tastes too strong and hides the smooth taste of the oil, add a few more drops oil. Taste again until the dressing tastes right for you.

Now we start adding other ingredients, and here you can experiment to no end! This is what I love most about salad dressings and I rarely prepare exactly the same dressing twice.

For me a good salad dressing also contains onions and garlic, preferably fresh. To cut up onions, you should not use the blender, the onion will be tasting too trong that way, as the knives of the blender will smash alsmost every cell of the onion, and the taste will become overpowering. I only rarely want such a strong onion taste.

But go ahead and try it once, you'll be astonished how hefty an onion can taste. Make sure to onyl add a small pieve of onion if you blend it in! I prefer to chop the onion, using my prefered onion chopper:

Obviously garlic! Fresh garlic. Depending who you invite you might want to go slow on garlic, but add just a small clove in any case! You should chop the garlic with a very sharp knive into tiny (1-2mm) dices.

Now, what if you don't have fresh onions and garlic in the house? You can get dried and allready finely chopped onions and garlic. If you used these, add them to the oil and vinegar and and blend them in, then let the dressing stand for about 10 to 15 minutes, so that the dried ingedients can rehydrate, i.e. pick up some of the water that was removed. This will allow the taste to develop. I usually add a tablespoon or two of water to the dressing to compensate for this and mix it together with oil and water.

Using dried ingredients means a bit less taste, but if you give them time to absorb the necessary water, it's OK.

For ideas what to add to dressings, these books are a great source:

OK, these authors have great ideas, but so do I! :-)

From my basis of oil, balsamico or clear vinegar, onion and garlic, I now 'contruct' my 'dressing of the day'. Total freedom!

Consider these ingredients and play with them and combinations of them:

1. mustard (go slow and small quantites at the time, taste!)
2. mayonnaise (PLEASE: either make it yourself of use a really good, expensive mayonnaise, the stuff you buy in big jars is not mayonnaise!)
3. persil - fresh (dried is an option, see notes above for dried ingredients)
4. chives - fresh (dires is an option, see notes above for dried ingredients)

5. pepper freshly ground from the pepper mill. I use a mix of white, black and rose pepper and grind it relatively coarse.

OK, that's it folks, these are the ingredients I use for my vinaigrettes.

Oil dressings are special. They do not contain vinegar and usually contain very little else. If you chose an oil dressing , it's because your salad contains ingredients that have a great taste by themselves already and you really only want to add a great oil to enhace the taste.

Maybe some pepper, maybe some dill, some salt, to me these are the ingredients I add to an oil dressing.

The key for a great oil dressing is an oil that tastes divine! Let's go back to the specialty shop and this time tell the owner that you're looking for oils to sprinkle over salads, and maybe add just a little pepper, salt or dill. Ask him to show you the oils he would use.

You will be presented with small bottles that are very expensive, but usually are well worth their money! Taste, listen to what the seller has to say! These oils are astonishing in their different ways - if you've never smelled or tasted such oils, you will hardly beleive the differences and great aromas ther are!!!!

Yoghurt dressings are great, if you try to reduce calories. By not using oil, you can enjoy nearly unlimited quantities of veggies salads without having to worry about the caloric intake.

The basic ingredient is a low fat yoghurt, to which you add spices like dill, persil, a little bit of salt and pepper. If you add garlic or onions, use them sparingly, as they will develop a different aroma in yoghurt and tend to overpower the dressing.

I prefer yoghurt dressings to green salads, that can also contain different nuts or fresh mushrooms, but no cheeses or meats.

Most people are anxious to improve their diets, but in today’s hectic, fast food oriented world, eating healthy can be quite a challenge. Sometimes you feel as if it’s a choice between making smart food choices or enjoying your life and family.

Making your everyday diet a healthier one is one of the best things you can do to improve the way you look, and the way you feel, and possibly even how long you live.

That can be hard to do; however, when there are so many health, diet and eating plans out there. How do you know which one is right for you and which is all hype?

This is the most comprehensive audio on healthy eating you will ever listen to! Not only does it include timely tips and advice on understanding how understanding the place of fats and carbohydrates in a healthy diet, but also clues to help you zero in on how to create a healthy fridge, get the most from fruits and vegetables and how to eat healthy without eating meat. This comprehensive special guide covers the following topics:

• Healthy snacks for healthy living
• Brown bagging it the healthy way
• Get your antioxidants the natural way - through your diet
• Healthy eating for a healthy body
• Choosing the healthiest frozen meals
• Making smart food choices with practical foods
• Healthy eating for vegetarians and vegans
• The importance of high fiber low fat foods
• The importance of fiber to a healthy diet
• Choosing the best meat for healthy eating

No stone is left unturned in this wide-ranging guide!

One of the biggest challenges facing those trying to follow a healthy diet is the local restaurant. Eating out presents special challenges, such as not knowing how the food was prepared, how much fat it contains, and whether or not the healthiest ingredients were used. After you listen to this audio guide, eating out will never present a barrier to eating healthy again!

Look at everything covered in this audio:

• Determining if your diet is healthy enough
• Variety - your key to a healthy diet
• Planning healthy meals for yourself and your family
• Your key to healthy eating
• Living and eating for maximum nutrition
• Healthy snacks for healthy living
• Brown bagging it the healthy way
• Get your antioxidants the natural way - through your diet
• Healthy eating for a healthy body
• Choosing the healthiest frozen meals
• Making smart food choices with practical foods
• Healthy eating for vegetarians and vegans
• The importance of high fiber low fat foods
• The importance of fiber to a healthy diet
• Choosing the best meat for healthy eating

You won’t want to miss out on this! Learn to eat healthier for a happier, healthier, leaner life!

Listen to a sample recording here:

A Guide To Healthier Eating - Andy Guides - MP3 Audio Book

There are some lucky folks who actually have their own garden and can grow their own salads and herbs. If you are one of them - are you trying to grow your veggies and herbs organically? Do you already know all about organic gardening? Maybe this book is interesting for you:

An interview with Elaine Ingham, PhD, author of the Compost Tea Manual, The Field Guide for Actively Aerated Compost Tea, and President and Director of Research at Soil Foodweb, Inc.

Our world is rich in life of all sizes. We live together and support each other in ways you may not be aware of. Good soil is not dead; it’s alive with a huge array of organisms. If we want healthy food we need healthy soil, for that we need healthy life within the soil. In this interview you’ll discover what organisms are present in the soil and on the foliage of your plants, which organisms benefit which types of plants, which organisms harm plants, how can these organisms be managed to grow plants with the least expensive inputs into the system while maintaining soil fertility. Topics covered:

• What Are All Those Organisms Doing in the Soil?
• "Going Biological" Saves Money, Reduces Pesticide Use and Increases Yields
• Growing Method Determines Nutritional Value of Food
• Healthy Soil -Loaded with Bacteria and Fungi!
• Fungal/Bacterial Balance Determines Which Plants Can Grow Where
• Grass-Roots Question: How to Improve Soil for Pasture and Hay?
• Raised Beds - Same Principles?
• Is Your Soil Sick? Diagnostic Testing and Treatment
• Can We Really Eat Soil Bacteria? And is it Helpful?
• How Do We Get the Governments to Support Healthy Soils, Rather Than Chemical Companies?
• Is it Possible for Anything to Grow in Las Vegas?
• How Can We Know Which Crops Like Which Kinds of Soil?

Elaine earned her Master of Science in Microbiology at Texas A & M University and her doctoral degree from Colorado State University. Elaine's doctorate is in microbiology with an emphasis on soil. She maintains a website where the results of work done at Soil Foodweb Inc. and her University research program are posted. Her publication, The Compost Tea Brewing Manual, is updated periodically to include the latest results in compost tea work. Elaine is a strong advocate of sound ecological testing of all genetically engineered organisms before they are released into the environment.

Liz Lipski, PhD, CCN Is the host of the Access to Health Experts interview series. She holds a doctorate and is board certified in Clinical Nutrition, is the author of Digestive Wellness, Digestive Wellness for Children, and Leaky Gut Syndrome. She’s the Director of Doctoral Studies at Hawthorn University, and the nutrition editor for Pilates Style Magazine. Dr. Lipski is the founder of several web-based health information sites including Innovative Healing and Access to Health Experts.

How Healthy Soils Produce Healthful Foods - Liz Lipski - MP3 Audio Book