Another Yummy!

Today's Rest Day hosted a yummy indulgence with my lunch ... spinach dip!! Oh yeah!!! But! Hold on to your hat, because it's not a spinach dip I've ever had 'til now! You see, I have a friend who is the friend to investigate healthy swaps that I would never otherwise know existed. I mean to tell you, this gal digs deep! What's really cool is she tries them (and has her family try them) and gives me an honest review. This latest one is a Winner Supreme to me, so I had to share! Ready? We're making Tofu sour cream (which I then turned in to a dip!)!

That's right: Tofu Sour Cream. Who knew?!

Get yourself some tofu (most recipes call for 10 oz; I used 14.5 because it was less expensive than 10, and it turned out great), 5 teaspoons of lemon juice, 2 teaspoons of apple cider vinegar, one packet of artificial sweetener and a quarter teaspoon of salt. That's it. (If you're my friend, you're bagging the sweetener. If you're me, you're adding about 4 cloves of garlic. Mmmm.)

I would think you could use a real lemon,
and I would think that would taste devine.
But, at this point, I didn't think we had one.
The bottled juice would do.

All you have to do is take all of your ingredients, throw them into a blender, and blend. Like so:

You're supposed to crumble the tofu before putting it in the
blender, but I'm not sure why I'd spend time crumbling
something that blends so easily. So, I didn't.

Blend until smooth. That's it! So easy! Who doesn't love easy?! It turns out looking like this:

Looks mighty sour-creamy to me! I hadn't yet put in the sweetener
packet because I wanted to taste the difference. I prefer the packet,
but it was still good without. And, there are my vampire repellants
waiting to be pressed and added. So fabulous!

Check out what I found when I went into the refrigerator for the garlic:

Really? I can find a blackened penny on asphalt, but I could
not spy the lemon in the white fridge ...

Oh well. Once everything was blended, I added a packet of spinach dip mix, stirred it all up and tried one with a veggie chip:

Mouth watering goodness ...

I *highly* recommend this swap!! As with others, the first few bites don't feel right in your mouth because you know what the original tastes like, then you're getting something else. But, give it a whirl, and I think you'll like it! We're looking forward to trying the tofu sour cream with taco salad soon!

In case you're curious, a serving (3 oz) of this tofu has 7 grams of protein, 15% RDA calcium and 3.5 grams of fat (no saturated). The sour cream I would have used for a dip has (per 2 T serving) 1 gram of protein, 4 % RDA calcium and 5 grams of fat (3.5 saturated fat) regular/2.5 grams of fat (2 saturated) lite. So, for a more substantial serving of tofu, it nutritionally trounces the sour cream. Good to know.

I should probably note that I'm a huge fan of finding yummy ways to have tofu because any additional source of protein is a great score to me! And, now that there's a swap for sour cream (beyond my usual Greek yogurt swap), make way for a mid-summer spinach and artichoke dip!! It's not just for Thanksgiving anymore!

Mid-summer thoughts and visions of Thanksgiving are getting me way too ahead of myself, though! The next big event is right around the corner! Back to the pavement tomorrow! See you after!