My in-laws came to visit a few weeks ago. Since I don’t work Fridays, I was charged with the grocery shopping. It took FOREVER. The local supermarket has been remodeling since we moved here, so every time we go, everything’s in a different place. I got so frustrated, I just started throwing things in my cart until I had enough food to feed the Duggars on Thanksgiving.
I had some time to kill before The Husband got home from work and his parents arrived, so I got started on the spinach dip.
Light Spinach Dip
Makes 3 cups
- 12 oz lowfat cottage cheese
- 10 oz frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained
- 1/2 cup lowfat or nonfat sour cream
- 1/4 cup dry vegetable soup mix (Works out to 1/2 a packet, I used the whole thing because… what else do you do with 1/2 a packet of soup mix?)
- 2 tsp grated fresh onion (Unless you have need for the rest of the onion, feel free to substitute with dried.)
- 1 tsp lemon juice
- 12 oz water chestnuts, drained and chopped
- Process cottage cheese in food processor or blender until smooth. Place in bowl and set aside.
I’m not embarrassed to admit it took me 10 minutes to figure out I had to lock the bowl of the food processor bowl before it would work.
Don’t you hate when you need X amount of something but it only comes in Y size? What do you do with 2 extra ounces of cottage cheese? You eat it. Or at least try to. While my tastes have matured and I now like foods I hated as a kid (asparagus! beets! sweet potatoes!), cottage cheese? Still nasty. Its vomit-like consistency makes me gag. Blech.
- Press spinach between paper towels until barely moist.
I wasn’t sure if I dried it enough, but it didn’t impact the consistency of the dip much.
- Add spinach and remaining to cheese mixture; stir well.
- Cover and refrigerate three hours.
The recipe says to serve with store brand Triscuits (guess where I got the recipe?), but I prefer lightly salted pita chips.
Guess how much we ate during their visit? NONE. But I ate it after they left. It was fantastic and not at all reminiscent of vomit. I’m glad I used the whole packet of vegetable dip because otherwise I think it would’ve been bland.
Better way to drain Spinach. Remove frozen spin from package and place in a mesh strainer. Run hot water over it until it thaws. Squeeze out water by placing a round-ish bowl over spin and press. Turn over holding the bowl and the spin should be on top of the bowl (AND the strainer should be mostly clean of spin).
ReplyDeleteSuper lazy way: toss entire package of spin in micro. heat until not frozen. Open a tiny corner of the pack and squeeze with both hands over the sink!