Nutrition Month 2010:
How to Re-create a Healthier Version of Processed Foods

Most prepackaged convenience foods come with less-than-appetizing food additives, while home cooking lets you control what you're eating.

To recreate a healthy version of a favorite processed food, cheat from its ingredient list. Here's an example:

Processed food: Costco's spinach dip

1. At the store, read the main ingredients of the food and buy them.
   Sour cream, mayonnaise, spinach, water chestnuts, and vegetable soup powder. Since vegetable soup powder has processed ingredients, substitute with herbs and seasonings. Use celery flakes, garlic powder, and onion powder.
   
   
2. At home, to guarantee the healthiest ingredient makes up the bulk of the dish, start with it, then in small increments, add the rest.
   Mix the spinach with water chestnuts. Add sour cream, mayonnaise, and seasonings.
   Ingredients:
   • 1 10-oz box chopped frozen spinach, thawed and drained
   • 1 cup canned water chestnuts, chopped (in Asian aisle)
   • 1/3 cup reduced-fat sour cream
   • 1/3 cup light mayonnaise
   • 1/2 teaspoon each salt and celery flakes
   • 1/4 teaspoon each black pepper, garlic powder, and onion powder
   • 1 teaspoon lemon juice
   Nutrition info (2 tablespoons):
   • Commercial: calories: 70, fat: 7 g, saturated fat 2 g.
   • Homemade: calories: 20, fat: 1.5 g, saturated fat: 0.6 g.

Now that's a vegetable dip!