Quick and easy salad dressing recipes

to drown it in a bottle of heavy dressing. Let your dressing enhance your food and let the flavor pop.

What these recipes tell you is that you can use what you have and develop a dressing that suits your taste.

The below are all oil-free (get your oil from the whole food — avocado, olives, etc.)

• 2 tablespoon balsamic vinegar, 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard, 1/2 teaspoon agave/ Maple syrup and 2 tablespoon water.

• 2 tablespoon balsamic/ apple cider vinegar, 1-2 tea- spoon any fruit preserves and 2 tablespoon water.

• 1 tablespoon rice vinegar, 1 tablespoon lime juice, 1 teaspoon agave syrup, dash of turmeric, dash of ground ginger , 1 tablespoon chopped fresh scallions (green onion), 2 tablespoon water and light Asian-inspired vinaigrette.

• 2 tablespoon apple cider vinegar, 1 tablespoon mustard, ½ tablespoon agave/maple syrup, dried Italian herbs of choice and 2 tablespoon water.

• 1 tablespoon hummus, 1 tablespoon lemon/lime juice, ½-1 tablespoon agave/maple syrup and 2 tablespoon water.

• 1 tablespoon tahini, 1 tablespoon lemon/lime juice, ½ tablespoon agave/maple syrup, 2 tablespoon water.

• 2-3 tablespoon of your favorite salsa added directly to your salad.

• ¼-½ ripe avocado, massaged into the greens of your salad before adding other vegetables. Top completed salad with a squeeze of lemon.

• 2 tablespoon hummus massaged into the greens of your salad before adding other vegetables. Top completed salad with a squeeze of lemon.

• A generous squeeze of fresh lemon or lime juice all over your salad right before serving.

Other flavor filled ingredients to experiment with are:

Flavored wine vinegars

Hearty Mustards

Fresh herbs

Dates or Figs

Nut butters

Cat Wilson lives in South Bend and transitioned from a vegetarian diet to eating a plant-based diet over two years ago. She may be contacted at cwilson@the-papers.com.

Longevity costs more money

Everyone wants to get to heaven but no one wants to die.

Longevity on this earth is the goal and grail of all living things. But living a long life has problems besides failing health and eroding motor skills.

The longer you live, the more money you need.

Medical advances indicate the human body is built to last about 120 years.

If you want to live that long and plan to retire — or have retired — at 65, you will have to find some way to support yourself for 55 years after leaving the work force. That’s longer than most people spend in the labor force, since most start their careers around age 20, giving them a working life of about 45 years.

A man’s life expectancy is currently 77 years in this country. For women, it’s 79.

At the turn of the previous century, only one out of every 25 people was older than 65. At the end of that same century, one out