Taco Dip = Lotsa Happy People

My mom used to be the salad department manager at a fancy local restauarnt. It was connected to a Holiday Inn and she would design all salads and dips for the restaurant and hotel catering parties. Once she left the restaurant, she took a lot of what she made at the restaurant with her. Luckily one of these dips is the Taco Dip. I know this is no secret recipe, as I have heard others talk about it before on the WC board. However, only my mom would worry about having the right amount of different colors on the dip! I was told I needed a little red, green, orange and black and in a certain order of course! She cracks me up but she does make a great presentation (so good in fact that she did the food for our wedding). This Taco Dip is a favorite among my ILs. They had never seen or heard of this dip before I arrived at their family Christmas eight long years ago (god, was it really that long ago!). This is requested every year and every year my mom calls to make sure I "have enough color" on my dip.

This year, I made it more WW friendly, which was easy to do with this dip! I used FF sour cream, FF refried beans, FF cheddar cheese and low sodium taco seasoning. I was skeptical at first when my mom let me know what I could substitute (she made the same thing for a dinner party last weekend with these substitutions) but I of course listened to my catering knowledge of a mother and made it using all fat free ingredients. You could of course make it with all regular ingredients, no fat free, as I have in the past.



Taco Dip
(Source: My Mama)

2 cans fat free refried beans (the small cans)
8 oz fat free sour cream
1/2 packet of taco seasoning
fat free cheddar cheese, diced scallions, sliced black olives, seeded/diced tomatoes to garnish with

Spread beans in an 8x8 dish. I always use one of those metal disposable pans so I can just toss it when we go to a party.
Mix the taco seasoning with the sour cream. You may use more or less taco seasoning depending on your tastes. Add a little at a time because it's hard to take out too much seasoning than needing to add more. Trust me, I know this from experience. If your sour cream is bright orange, it has too much taco seasoning in your sour cream and your guests will need some water!! :o) Spread the sour cream over the beans.


Here are the steps my mom stresses for garnishing:
sprinkle cheese over the dip mixture
sprinkle drained black olives next
sprinkle diced tomatoes over next (de seed them so they don't make the dip soggy)
diced scallions last



Of course I won't tell if you go out of order or gasp! add more toppings or decide you don't want to use all of these garnishes. LOL! :o) My mom just really cares abouthow people receive her dishes, and I think that is great! I hope that I make her proud most of the time (please don't tell her I posted pics with paper plates though! LOL!)

I serve this with Tostitos scoops but I also bring celery and carrots too. That keeps points down and gives me my "crunch."

Serving size: a good scoop!
Points Per Serving: 1-2 POINTS per scoop (depending on scoop size of course)

Don't forget to add points for tositos (try baked!)


Oh and while I am thinking about my mom and her food style, here are some pics from our wedding. This is our food table that my mom put together. We loved it! It was perfect.

Here are our salads, watermelon/fruit basket and note the taco dip? :o)

Here is the cheese and meat tray.

Cheesy Spicy Dip - It's Like Crack?

My favorite kind of dip is commonly called "Crack Dip" on the What's Cooking? board on the Nest. This is a buffalo chicken dip that combines the flavors of ranch, cream cheese, hot sauce, cheese and chicken. It's DELICIOUS!! Like buffalo wings, Crack Dip is not healthy at all. I figured out the points for the dip I love so much, I knew I had to find an alternate. I decided to use fat free cheese and cream cheese. This was, eh, ok. I personally don't like the texture of fat free cheese... I am sure the points would need to be altered if you used a light cheese and cream cheese, but for me it just isn't worth the points. I would rather have the real thing in this case or not at all. But here is the recipe, should you all want to give it a shot. I did leave out the chicken though (again, to save points and since this was my snack I didn't want to add the extra points in). It could easily be made into a meal (for me anyway!) if you add chicken OR I love putting this on a tortilla and making a quesadilla. Yum!!

Crack Dip minus Chicken

8oz fat free cream cheese
1 1/2 cup fat free cheddar cheese
1/2 cup lite ranch dressing
1/4 cup Frank's Hot Sauce

In saucepan, melt cream cheese and ranch dressing together. Add the hot sauce, mix well. Add in cheese and melt, stirring until smooth. Serve.

POINTS: 3

I ate this with Baked Scoops, for this add 3 more points for a total of 6 points. It receives a so-so rating. I don't think I will make it again unless it's the real deal. :)

Hummus Virgin No More...

But I wish I was! I am not a fan of the hummus...ick, yuck, blech. I am not sure if it's the consistency, the flavor, or smell.... My husband, however, has been munching on this all day, so I know it is edible and blog worthy...just not my cup of tea. I got this recipe from the New Complete Weight Watchers recipe book that I have been cooking out of for the last month or so. Really, I haven't had a recipe from this book fail me yet, I just don't like hummus.

Hummus
(Source: New Complete Weight Watchers Cookbook)

15 oz. chickpeas, rinsed and drained
1/2 cup plain fatfree yogurt
2 tbsp lemon juice
3 garlic cloves
2 tsp olive oil
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/8 tsp allspice

In food processor or blender, puree all ingredients with 1 tbsp water.

Yields: 8 Servings

Calories: 91
Fat: 2
Fiber: 1

Total POINTS: 2

I served this with Stacy's Pita Chips. I LOVE these! I like all of the different varieties! When served with this chips, the POINTS per serving is 5 POINTS.