Well, guess what: according to people who are paid by the food industry to figure out what future food trends will be, eating veggies is “in” in 2013. Like, it’s cool…hip…way neato…to get your veg on with some funky brussels sprouts. Don’t believe me? Believe the Sterling-Rice Group, who say “In 2013, you’ll find garden-grown foods as entrées (cauliflower steaks), starches (squash noodles), and even delicious beverages”…looks like my Butternut Squashta recipe is ON POINT!
On top of being so hot right now, new research highlights how our natural tendency to seek variation can be manipulated to help us eat MORE of the good stuff. Investigators in a 2012 study gave study participants a meal of pasta and either broccoli, carrots or snap peas in a single, large portion and measured how much they finished. In one meal, all three vegetables were included together…and this inclined the subjects to consume a higher amount of total vegetable weight than when they only had one option at a time – here’s the kicker – even when the one vegetable presented was their “favorite” among all 3!
Another proven way to get people (both adults and kids!) to eat more vegetables is by serving them with a dip…only problem with that is that most dips are sour cream or oil based, and very high in calories. Enter: my guilt-free ranch dip. The secret (well, not anymore…) is using plain greek yogurt, which is incredibly high in protein instead of fat. A great crowd pleaser at parties (I heard there’s a football game coming up…), dinners, or as a kid’s afternoon snack. Or go ahead, eat the whole bowl yourself – you’ll only be better off!
To review, or in case you skimmed:
Ways to eat more vegetables
- Know that it’s the trendy thing to do; feel cooler
- Offer more than one kind at a time to trick your brain, which is hard-wired to seek variety
- Serve with a dip…preferably the below dip…
Guilt-free Ranch Dip
Ingredients:
●½ tsp dried onions
●½ tsp onion powder
●½ tsp garlic powder
●1 tsp dried chives
●½ tsp salt
●1 plain 6-oz low fat greek yogurt (do not mistakenly get vanilla, that would be a dire mistake)
Directions:
Blend all ingredients together, stirring with a fork until thoroughly mixed. Add more onion/garlic as desired if necessary. Enjoy with veggies or whole grain pita as a snack, or use as a spread for sandwiches or pasta salad.
Calories: 130
Total fat: 3.5g
Saturated fat: 2g
Total carbs: 7g
Protein: 17g
Calcium: 20% DV
This looks delicious AND healthy. Win! Can’t wait to try it!
I love ranch dressing but I admit I don’t eat much of it as I’m calorie counting. What a great idea to use Greek Yogurt!
If you’re going to use it as a salad dressing, it can help to thin it out with a few tablespoons of milk to make it a better consistency!
Thanks for joining the January Festival of Food! What a great recipe for Ranch! I never make it because it always seems too difficult to replicate but I am going to give this a go!
Glad to hear it! Easy, cheap, and those spices you’ll use in EVERYTHING. And it only gets more flavorful if you refrigerate overnight as the spices soak up more water and release more flavor.
You are hilarious! I love that vegetables are “in.” Whoda thunk it?
That dip looks delicious — I’d never have thought to try Greek yogurt instead of sour cream. Thanks for the idea!
Thanks for joining the Festival of Food! I love the flavour combinations here. It gets me in the mood for sweet potato wedges 😉 lovely!
Ooooh I haven’t tried it with sweet potatoes, but I bet that would actually be fabulous! Thanks for the idea 🙂
This recipe is great and I’d really like to try it on my daughter. can I use plain regular yopurt instead of greek? I know there’s less protein, but I already have the regular yogurt 🙂
Hi Misa….yes, I have done it with plain yogurt in a pinch, and it works! The flavor is the same, although the texture isn’t as creamy and it doesn’t stick to a carrot as well. Try it and let me know what you think!
I’m extremely impressed with your writing skills and also with the layout
on your blog. Is this a paid theme or did you modify it yourself?
Anyway keep up the excellent quality writing, it is
rare to see a nice blog like this one nowadays.
Thanks!! The layout is a free one, but I did pay someone to help me dress it up and make it look a lot cleaner (she’s Corinn at http://www.corinnpope.com/). Let me know if you every try any of the recipes – tweet or IG a pic to me if so!