Healthy Snack Series - Chips and Dip

Chips and dip are an American favorite, but can it be deemed a healthy snack? If you find chips that avoid seed oil, or better yet, make your own, this can be a healthy option! You can also use vegetables or vegetable chips in place of potato chips or tortillas.

This is the second in our healthy snack series highlighting delicious options for healthy, make-it-yourself snacks for feeding your family, serving at parties, and carrying to potlucks.

Our family's favorite stand-by dip choices:

Layered Taco Dip - For this dip, we layer refried beans, sour cream, salsa, and cheese. You can mix in homemade taco seasoning with the refried beans, or with the sour cream for a slightly different and more flavorful variation. You can also turn it into a seven+ layer dip by adding a layer of avocado, and topping with your selection of chopped olives, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, etc.

Salsa -  We like to make and can our own salsa whenever we have a bounty of tomatoes and peppers from the garden. In place of growing our own, we have purchased tomatoes and peppers in bulk from a farmer or a farmer's market. You can also find quality salsas at most grocery stores.

Pico de Gallo - Tomatoes, onion, cilantro, jalapenos, and lime juice - so easy! You can add garlic, do without the lime juice, or add salt if you so wish. Here is a recipe if you want to know quantities, but basically you chop the ingredients, mix them together, et voila, you are done!

Guacamole - Guacamole can vary greatly in ingredients and ratios. One of our favorite renditions takes avocado, finely chopped onion, cilantro, fresh lime juice, and seasoning salt. We often toss in chopped tomatoes to bulk it up. We don't use a recipe, we just keep add ingredients to taste.

Kenai Cheese Dip - In order for this one to be deemed healthy, you will need to either find a healthy mayonnaise or make your own healthy mayonnaise at home. Making your own mayonnaise is not as intimidating as it sounds. You can read about our experience here. We love this mayonnaise recipe from Inspired Taste.

You can find sooo many recipe variations online. Some use fresh jalapenos, some use canned, and some used candied. The recipe we used was simple: 

3 c. shredded cheddar cheese

1 c. mayonnaise

1/4 c. chopped jalapeno

1/4 t. liquid smoke

1 t. garlic powder

2 t. jalapeno juice

1/4 t. cayenne pepper

Mix together and enjoy!

I couldn't find the origin of the recipe we use, so if you find it somewhere online, would you kindly send us the link so we can credit them?

Other favorites:

These are ones we love, but don't make as often, so we always have to look up a recipe. We are listing some links below so you can easily find the recipes, too.

Cowboy Caviar - This recipe from Cookie and Kate gets high ratings. What I love about this one is that they include instructions to make your own healthy Italian dressing.

Spinach Dip - This is a simple recipe that one of my mom's coworkers shared years ago:

1/2 t. seasoning salt
1 t. oregano
1/2 t. dill weed
2t. lemon juice
2 c. sour cream
2 c. mayonnaise (make your own healthy mayo!)
4 green onions, chopped
1 pkg spinach, chopped, and water squeezed out

Mix together and enjoy!

Crab Dip - We made imitation crab dip a few times long ago, but we really enjoy a good crab dip. It is such a treat! If you are motivated to try making a real crab dip yourself, we found this recipe that looks absolutely amazing.

There are so many options for dips, including the classics such as Ranch and Onion Dip. Do you have a favorite dip recipe? We would love for you to share it in the comments!

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