After trying and not liking Hidden Valley’s fat-free ranch dressing, I did a post about it. But a close friend of mine recommended trying Kraft Free Ranch Dressing.
So last night when I was at the grocery store to pick up stuff for dinner, I decided to try the Kraft fat-free ranch dressing. I picked up a bottle, and also picked up some salad mix as well.
When I got home, I placed the salad in a bowl. I sniffed the ranch dressing, and there was a touch of bitterness to it, but not as bad as the the Hidden Valley brand stuff. I poured some of the dressing on, tossed the salad a bit, and took a bite. It wasn’t bad. It wasn’t great, but it wasn’t bad. It was not nearly as bitter as the Hidden Valley fat-free stuff.
So the Kraft Free ranch dressing shows some promise. I will have to try it in some other contexts such as in a chicken sandwich, and with oven baked french fries.
I love ranch dressing. It is great on salads, and also for dipping veggies, and even french fries. And Hidden Valley makes the best ranch dressing. I think they may have invented it, but I am not sure on that.
But ranch dressing is not low fat. They also make a light version, and a fat-free version. I decided to try the fat-free version as a sandwich spread. I tried it with a ham sandwich, and the fat-free ranch dressing was strong and bitter. Too bitter. I didn’t totally dismiss it yet.
I made some low-fat KFC chicken (from my recipe), and my wife wanted to use it as a dip. So we tried it. My wife said it was “okay”, but I thought it was still too bitter.
I will try the light version, and see if it is better. I did a search for nutritional info on the Original version of Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing, and saw that a serving has 30 calories, with only 8 calories coming from fat. That works out to fat calories being about 27%. That is nowhere near as bad as I thought. But a serving is only 7 grams. 1 gram is protein, 5 grams of carbs, and 1 gram of fat. I will have to see how much dressing makes up 7 grams.
Along our driving trip to New England, we stopped at a gas station hoping to pick up some snacks. There were tons of junk food. But I was hoping to find something at least moderately low-fat and healthy. I searched the shelves, and amongst all the fat-filled stuff, I found some fat free Pringles! SCORE!!! I didn’t even know they made fat-free Pringles! They had two different flavors: Original and Sour Cream & Onion. I bought a can of each flavor. I have always liked Pringles, but haven’t had any for quite a while. Back in the car, we tried to decide which can to open. We settled on the Sour Cream & Onion. My wife popped the can open, and we tried the chips. They were pretty good. Not as good as normal fatty Pringles, but considering they were fat free, they were very good. We finished off the can over the next hour or so. Later that day, we opened the can of Original flavored Fat-Free Pringles. They were also very good. The store only had the two flavors, but it is possible Pringles makes other fat-free flavors. I will have to check a larger grocery store.
I keep a can of Molly McButter in my overhead cabinet at work. I also have a can of it at home. These butter flavor sprinkles are great for puting on potatoes, rice, vegetables, etc. I use it at work to add a little butter flavor to the often bland tasting vergitables that come in the Healthy Choice meals.
I originally learned about Molly McButter from Health & Fitness magazine having read that a lot of body builders used it on their food.
Well my Molly McButter can was empty, and it was time to buy some more. Right next to the Molly McButter on the spice shelf was Butter Buds. A good friend of mine said she used Butter Buds. The price was about the same. Actually the Butter Buds might be a few cents cheaper, the can cost a little more, but the can was 2.5oz as opposed to the 2.0oz can of Molly McButter.
The stuff looks the same, they both have 5 calories per 1 tsp serving. Even the ingredients are similar on the can. I decided to try the Butter Buds.
I brought the can to work today. For lunch I heated up a Healthy Choice meal in the microwave. It included peas and carrots. I opened the can and smelled it. It didn’t smell like butter at all. I sprinkled a little of the Butter Buds (about the smae amount I usually use of the Molly McButter) of the veggies and let it sit while I ate the Chicken Broccoli Alfredo. Then I went to try my vegetables. They were still bland. They didn’t taste like butter at all. I sprinkled some more on. I tried another bite of the veggies. There was a little more taste, but it didn’t taste much like butter.
Out of curiousity I smelled the empty can of Molly McButter, and the can of Butter Buds back to back. They don’t smell alike. The Molly McButter has a slight butter smell. The Butter Buds doesn’t even have that. I am not sure what it smells like.
The Molly McButter beat Butter Buds hands down! If you have a choice between the two, go for the Molly McButter!
Progressive International Vegetable/French Fry Cutter
SUMMARY: Fast! Works great so far!
I have wanted a french fry cutter for a while. Restaurant quality cutters were way more than I wanted to spend. I looked around and found some for under $10. The the sub $10 french fry cutters seemed cheaply made and got poor reviews. I found some more expensive models, but they also got poor reviews. I gave up looking for a while.
But then I looked again. I found a french fry cutter made by Progressive. It was under $10, and got pretty good reviews. Hmmm. I ordered it. Well the cutter came yesterday. I used the 25 hole blade to beging with. The size of the cutter will not allow for a whole russett potato to be cut into fries. I had to trim a little off the ends of the potato. It took a just little bit of muscle to pull the lever down to force the potato through the blades. But the cutter made the work quick and relatively easy.
Tonight we decided to make low fat french fries again. I decided to use the 49 hole blade. My wife offered to make the fries, but I suggested I better do it. Good thing. Using the cutter with the 49 hole blade took more strength. For me it was still not to difficult. But I doubting it would have been as easy for my wife.
The unit seems strong enough. Time will tell whether the cutter will hold up or not to repeated uses.
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