Tasty Dips - quick, cheap, easy and such a success

Dips are great as a pre-dinner treat, as nibbles and also in a lunchbox for you OR for the kids. But buying pre-prepared dips is expensive and often not a very healthy choice.

You can make tasty, quick dips at home which are excellent with crackers, vegetables or chippies and can be made in minutes - and look just like the ones bought in the shop for three times the price!

My own favorite is the simplest of the lot:

Chilli Yoghurt Dip

Sweet chilli sauce (absolute favorite kind: Mae Ploy - it lacks the bitter aftertaste some sweet chillis have. But choose your own favorite)
Greek yoghurt (you can also use a plain acidophilus with a thick texture and a slightly sour taste - from my own experience, De Winkle works well, but Naturalea does not. But it tastes the BEST made with Yoplait Greek Yoghurt.)

Take a small bowl - glass for a pretty effect, but any kind will do.* Pour the sweet chilli sauce carefully around the edge of the bowl so that it runs down and coats the inside, all the way around. I find it's best to work fast with a generous pour.

Spoon the chilled greek yoghurt into the bowl. I use about 3 generous tablespoons in each of my bowls. Top with a little more chilli sauce - you can drizzle it in a pattern, or just pour over.

It's at its best with raw veges like carrots and celery, but really, this dip is wonderful with anything at all.

Garnish with sprigs of parsley if you want.

A New Twist on an Old Fave

Everyone knows how to make the good old Kiwi Nestle Reduced Cream and Maggi Onion Soup dip, right? Well, you can spice that up for the new millenium - and not just by using a different flavour soup, hee!

1 tin reduced cream
Fresh mint - you can grow mint in your garden very easily, and if you dont have a garden, mint lends itself very well to pot-life. Even if you're no good at gardening, mint will grow for you.
Cucumber
1 t white vinegar
Salt and pepper (the kind you grind are best for this one)

Chop the mint finely and dice the cucumber. You can blend these in a food processor if you want but I prefer to dice and chop with a sharp knife, as it doesn't bruise the leaves and flesh.

Mix through the reduced cream, and add a splash of the vinegar. Season (add salt and pepper) and give a final stir, then cover with cling wrap and chill for at least an hour and preferably four.

Yummy with chips!

Avocado Dip

When avocado is in season and they're cheap!

1 (or more!) ripe avocado
lemon juice
salt to taste

Scoop flesh out of avocado and discard stone. Place in reasonable sized bowl. The flesh should already be squishy - if it's not, it's not ripe enough, and you'll have to slice it up for sandwiches or something instead!

Whip avocado gently with a fork until it makes a thick paste. Add a squirt of lemon juice, and if you're that kind of person, a sprinkle of salt (I leave out the salt).

Stir again, then cover with cling wrap and chill til required. It shouldn't be very cold, but the lemon juice, covering it and the chilling prevents the fruit browning.

Wonderful with crackers.

*I bought a set of six textured glass dip bowls that are oval-shaped, each about the size of a breakfast cup, from an op shop, and I paid a dollar for the whole set. Every time I use them, people exclaim over them.

TOP TIP: Use a small container (such as the smallest kind of the Glad ones you can get in the supermarket). Put a tablespoon of one of these dips in the container, and take 6 water crackers or alternately fresh chopped veges for your lunch! Kids love dipping and it's a great way of getting some veges down them during the day! It's also a top after-school snack.