A dip or dressing with half the calories tastes just as good—maybe even better! Top photo courtesy Vermont Creamery. Bottom photo courtesy Betty Crocker.

With those New Year’s resolutions that include “lose weight,” substituting mustard for mayonnaise wherever possible is an easy switch. French’s claims that, simply by substituting mustard for mayonnaise on your sandwiches three times a week, you could lose a minimum of four pounds per year.

To that, we’d add: Try Dijon mustard instead of sugar-laden ketchup as a dip for fries and on burgers. Mustard has no fat, no carbohydrates, is gluten-free and has as few as 5 calories per teaspoon (honey mustard has more). Ketchup has about the same calories (15 per tablespoon), but it’s mostly sugar, and thus 4-5g of carbs, compared to 0g for the mustard.

Mustard is an extremely versatile ingredient. Dijon is often used to add flavor to vinaigrettes, soups, sauces, as well as dips. You can vary the flavors with horseradish mustard, walnut mustard, spicy mustard.

The mustard at your specialty food store should be a gourmet paradise; a better supermarket also has a lot of choice.

Here’s a tasty cucumber dip recipe from French’s. At 45 calories per 2-tablespoon serving, it beats mayo-based dips that start at 100 calories for a single tablespoon.
 

RECIPE: COOL & CREAMY CUCUMBER DIP & DRESSING

Prep time is 15 minutes.
 
Ingredients For 1-1/3 Cups

1. COMBINE all ingredients in a blender or food processor. Cover; process until well blended. Transfer to covered container; chill in the refrigerator.

2. SERVE with salad greens or crudités.
 
Nutritional amount per 2 tablespoon serving: 45 calories, 4g fat, 2g saturated fat, 1g protein,
2g carbohydrates, 0g dietary fiber, 2g net carbs, 8mg cholesterol, 61mg sodium.
 
*Honey mustard is higher in calories. If you want honey mustard flavor without them, sweeten regular Dijon mustard with your noncaloric sweetener of choice. It’s that easy!

Only the males have blue claws; but both males and females end up the same color—orange—when cooked. Photo by Michael Thompson | IST.

– The hamburger buns are coated in lard
– There’s no lettuce on the burgers
– There’s no salad bar, but a fries bar, with as many fries as you want, fried in lard and laden with all the cheese sauce you want
– There’s no diet soda or light beer
You get the picture…and you’ll get much more when you watch the video.

– Our Diet Nibbles Section includes fat-free, gluten-free, low-calorie and sugar free foods (that also taste great—NIBBLE Criterion #1).

– If your goal is to eat more organic food this year, check out our NutriNibbles Section—all organic and wellness foods.

Happy New Year from all of us at THE NIBBLE.

Perhaps the most challenged are the nation’s 45,000+ Chinese restaurants, where the demand for, and the nature of, take-out food utilizes disposable containers, many of which include non-recyclable plastic and styrofoam. On January 5th, at the Annual Top 100 Chinese Restaurants in the USA Awards Show & Conference, a “Cooking Towards a Greener Future” educational seminar will discuss why it’s important for Chinese restaurants to create a sustainable business that is good for all stakeholders—the environment, employees, diners and the neighborhood—while saving energy and improving profits.