Marzetti's Italian Dressing

With summer approaching, I have been attempting to eat fresher, quality foods. One of my favorite go-to meals is, of course, green salads. In order to keep my salads healthy, I usually add a small amount of light or fat-free vinaigrette to enhance the taste of the meal, rather than creamier dressing. When I had the opportunity to try out Marzetti's Fat-Free Italian Dressing, I was looking forward to a different take on the ingredients.

I happened to have a bag of Italian greens, which contained romaine and radicchio, and thought it would be a nice, light meal. I added approximately two tablespoons to a small dinner salad and didn't add any other toppings. Usually fat-free dressings have a weird aftertaste, but Marzetti's did not and that was a pleasant surprise. At 15 calories per serving (which was two tablespoons), it was a great choice to add flavor to the salad without increasing the caloric content by much. However, it didn't taste much different to other variations I've had, such as Wishbone or Kraft. Since I typically buy whatever is on sale, I probably wouldn't splurge on the Italian dressing while grocery shopping.

Since I had some leftover dressing, I decided to check out Marzetti's recipes for something to use up the rest of the dressing. I couldn't find anything in particular, so I took a chicken breast and poured the rest of the dressing into a Ziploc baggie and marinated the chicken for two hours, then grilled. The chicken was moist and had a great tangy flavor, and I didn't need to use any other condiments or spices.

As I was looking over the website, I noticed that they had a variety of flavors that I can't find in other brands at my current grocery store. With varieties such as Asian Ginger, California French or Italian with Blue Cheese Crumbles (okay, I'm looking for this one!) there are endless possibilities to the different meals you can try, and I'd be willing to splurge on one that isn't so common '" like Italian.

So, the Marzetti's Fat-Free Italian Dressing was good, nothing surprising though. After I tried the two different meals with the dressing, I much preferred it as a marinade. After becoming aware of the brand, I am definitely going to check out the different selections they have at the store next time I shop. The different varieties will keep salads from getting boring and make me feel like I'm eating a salad I bought at a restaurant.