Clam Dip Craving

I try hard not to eat junk food, much less feed my family junk food. I think I am pretty successful at keeping it out of the house, we don’t ever have packaged chips or sweets on hand, not even ice cream, and I finally got rid of the soda pop during Lent! I find it is far less tempting this way, out of sight, out of mind. (Don’t worry I am not about to go into some health food spiel right now!) My point is, despite these efforts to keep my family junk food-free (for obvious health reasons but also to try and set a positive eating example for my daughter) there are just those times, days, and weeks where you want to sit back and enjoy a good salty chip (Lays, Ruffles, Kettle, name your brand….) I finally caved to my chip craving this afternoon, and I made my favorite dip too. After all, everyone knows chips go better with dip! So tomorrow I will eat my veggies, but today I am eating chips……..

This clam dip is pure comfort food to me. When I was pregnant and dealing with morning sickness, clam dip and those little hostess chocolate donuts were the only thing I craved and wanted to eat. Weird and a little gross, I know. In college, I would make a big bowl of this anytime I was in the middle of exams or writing a big paper. I would eat it all week for breakfast, lunch and dinner, totally disgusting my poor roommate. (When you open the clams, the smell is less than appetizing, but once it is all mixed together, the smell fades away, promise!) The resulting dip is creamy, salty and super addictive. (My dad and I once chowed through a whole bowl of this one Thanksgiving day, it was just us two, so there was no one else around to bear witness to our gluttony!) I like to serve this dip alongside Reduced Fat Ruffles. Not sure how much lower in fat they actually are, but that label sure makes me feel better!

Clam Dip

1 lb lowfat sour cream or IMO substitute (If you want a light and airy dip, go with sour cream, if you want it thicker go with the IMO.)

1 6.5 ounce can minced clams, drained (reserve 1 tablespoon of the clam juice)

1 tablespoon clam juice (reserved from the canned clams)

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

1/2 tablespoon garlic salt

1/8 teaspoon pepper

Potato Chips

In a medium bowl put sour cream, mix in clams, clam juice, Worcestershire, lemon juice, garlic salt, and pepper. Taste, and add more garlic salt or Worcestershire as necessary. Indulge a little!