WishBone Dressing review and giveaway

This is a compensated review from BlogHer and Wish-Bone.
Delicious as a Dressing. Remarkable as a Marinade. Now you can get a chance to Upgrade your salads with Wish-Bone Dressings... free! For a chance to win a Wish-Bone Dressing prize pack and a $100 grocery gift card, keep reading.

Growing up, I ate way too much meat and rice, and not nearly enough vegetables. I remember the first time I tried lettuce and tomatoes. I was eleven years old and I nearly gagged! When Alfie and I started a family, I was determined to introduce vegetables to my kids at an early age. It hasn't been easy, but I'm happy to say that my kids have grown to like quite a decent range of vegetables, both raw and cooked. This year we're working on salads. They'll eat anything covered in caesar, blue cheese or ranch dressing, but I'm an ambitious type-A mom, and I'd love for them to try other kinds. So I was beyond thrilled when BlogHer asked me to review Wish-Bone salad dressings for their latest campaign and sent us a whole kaboodle of dressings to try. The kids had already been introduced to Wish-Bone Italian dressing a couple of months ago when I made Italian Picnic Chicken and Finger Lickin' Chicken from Gina von Esmarch's cookbook, Taste This! (Gina actually specifies Wish-Bone dressing in her recipes). And I marinated some chicken in Wish-Bone Italian dressing for our first 2 barbecues of 2009 -- so the kids already know that Wish-Bone makes a great marinade. The Wish-Bone Chunky Blue Cheese dressing was a big hit, and I don't think I don't think they would have tried the falafel I served the other night without that bowl of Wish-Bone Ranch dressing to dip the falafel in. The corresponding light versions were great, too; not as creamy but still flavorful. Getting them to try the vinegar-based salad dressings -- in actual salads, not as marinades -- would be trickier. For the kids' first vinaigrette dressing, I decided to try Wish-Bone's Raspberry Hazelnut Vinaigrette -- I figured they'd be more likely to try it because it has pictures of raspberries on the bottle. I searched Wish-Bone's recipe database for dishes that use this particular flavor, and settled on two salads that I personally love -- Pear and Blue Cheese Salad and Baby Spinach with Warm Raspberry-Bacon Vinaigrette . I set them in front of The Pea, 3Po and Jammy, and let the dressing work its magic.
What a success! We made a couple of modifications to the recipe (romaine lettuce instead of mesclun, and walnuts instead of almonds) but the result was still delicious. Alfie said the dressing tasted light and refreshing. He's right; it's not oily at all. The Pea loved the sweet berry taste. 3Po and Jammy were much too busy wolfing down the salad to say anything.
The spinach salad was also a great hit. The kids were a bit dubious about the idea of a warm salad, but once they saw the bacon they dug right in. You know they like it when they realize there are red onions in the salad -- and they keep eating it. Here is a video of my kids scarfing down their plates of spinach salad. As you can see, my boys can barely pronounce "Raspberry Hazelnut Vinaigrette", but they sure can eat it.

But the biggest (and best) surprise of the Wish-Bone recipe collection was the revelation that salad dressing can be used in dessert. I found a recipe for a Berry Parfait that is absolutely scrumptious. The dressing brings out the tartness and sweetness of the berries and gives them a lovely shine. The kids couldn't believe that the same dressing we used in the spinach salad was also in their dessert, and I can't believe how much better it tastes with the dressing.
The Berry Parfait recipe is definitely a keeper -- and so is Wish-Bone's Raspberry Hazelnut Vinaigrette. My kids love it, and what's more, they're now eager to try all the other Wish-Bone dressings! Thanks, Wish-Bone, for getting my kids to enjoy salad! Would you like to Get More out of your Dressing too? One lucky Bonggamom Finds reader will be selected to receive a Wish-Bone prize pack worth $46.10 -- plus a $100 grocery gift card! Here's how to enter: Go to Wish-Bone's website and take a look at all their yummy salad dressings. Then come back here and leave a comment telling me which Wish-Bone dressing -- other than Ranch, Blue Cheese, or Caesar -- you think I ought to serve next to my kids, and what kind of dish I should put it in . Should I stick with the Raspberry Hazelnut Vinaigrette? Will they go bonkers over Honey Mustard Buzz sprayed on chicken nuggets? Is there such a thing as strawberry pie made with Bountifuls Berry Delight? You tell me..... (Remember, this must be completed to enter, before any extra entries will count) You can also receive additional entries (maximum of 3 extra entries) by doing any of the following: 1) Follow Bonggamom on Blogger and leave a comment with your Blogger profile name. 2) Blog about this giveaway and leave a comment here with a link to your blog post. 3) Follow me on twitter AND spread the word with this tweet: Win a $100 grocery giftcard and Wish-Bone prize pack from @bonggafinds and @BlogHer http://tinyurl.com/phqb7z please RT! and leave a comment here with a link to your tweet (Make sure it's a link to the actual tweet, not a link to your twitter homepage -- I do check). The rules: * The contest will begin on May 18, 2009, 9:00 a.m. PST and will end June 30th, 2009, 5:00 p.m. PST. * Please leave a valid e-mail address so we can contact you. * No duplicate comments. * This giveaway is open to US residents over the age of 18. * Winners will be selected via random draw, and will be notified by e-mail. * You have 48 hours to get back to me, otherwise a new winner will be selected. * Read the Official Rules for the full details. Don't forget to check out the other BlogHer Reviewers' Wish-Bone recipes successes. Each one of them is giving away a $100 Grocery Gift Card and Wish-Bone prize pack, so visit the BlogHer Special Offers Page, and get a total of 12 chances to win! Good luck -- I hope the winner has as much fun upgrading their salads with Wish-Bone Dressings as much as we have!