Healthy Alternative to French Onion Dip for Veggies or Chips

May 7, 2013 Leave a comment

I served this dip at coffee hour last Sunday and got many questions about the ingredients and requests for the recipe, so here it is!  I actually developed this recipe for a coffee hour not long after I joined my church 17 years ago, when I was not as much into healthy eating as I am now–I had been planning to make the standard “stir a packet of onion soup mix into a pint of sour cream” dip, but then I found that one of my housemates had used the soup mix that I thought was in the pantry, so I had to come up with something….

This dip is healthier than one made with packaged soup mix because it’s much lower in sodium and doesn’t contain artificial flavor, artificial color, or preservatives.  The yeast adds some extra protein and B vitamins–though probably only a trace amount per serving.  UPDATE: I looked up the ingredients of America’s most popular onion soup mix and realized that it would be off-limits for people with several of the most common food sensitivities: It contains wheat, corn (probably genetically modified), soy (also probably GMO), and monosodium glutamate.  Furthermore, the soybean oil is partially hydrogenated=trans fat, and the mix also contains carcinogenic caramel coloring.  Yum yum.  I’m glad I discovered this alternative!

I usually make it with yogurt rather than sour cream because these days I eat lots of yogurt and always have it on hand.  Make sure to read the label of yogurt or sour cream; some brands contain surprising additives.  Buy organic if you can.  I like the organic yogurt from Trader Joe’s, and it’s reasonably priced.

To make a large bowl of dip, suitable for a party, you will need:

  • 2 cups plain whole-milk yogurt
  • 2 Tbsp. dried minced onion
  • 2 Tbsp. nutritional yeast flakes (Read more about them here!)
  • 1 tsp. dried dill
  • 1/2 tsp. dried oregano
  • 1/2 tsp. black pepper
  • 1 tsp. lemon juice
  • 1/2 tsp. yellow mustard (optional; I add this if the dip seems too bland)
  • dash of soy sauce, or salt to taste

Mix thoroughly at least 1 hour before serving, to give the onions time to soften.  Taste it and adjust the seasoning if desired.

For once, I served a quantity of veggies that was almost perfect to satisfy the crowd and use up most of the dip, so here’s my suggestion for a veggie tray to accompany this dip:

  • 5 enormous carrots, peeled and cut into sticks
  • 1 large cucumber, cut into sticks
  • 3 bell peppers of assorted colors, cored and cut into strips

Visit the Hearth and Soul Blog Hop for more healthy recipes!  Visit Works-for-Me Wednesday and Waste Not Want Not Wednesday for more great tips!

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Emergency Creamy Tomato Soup (healthier!)

February 6, 2013 5 Comments

Okay, it wasn’t really an emergency.  It was just that our eight-year-old Nicholas really wanted creamy tomato soup for dinner when both parents were recovering–more weakly than we’d hoped–from a stomach virus that the kid had several days earlier.  Daniel and I both were very sick Monday, a little better Tuesday, and then I went back to work yesterday but regretted it by mid-afternoon.  On the way home, I was dizzy and gurgling ominously in the lower abdomen, so instead of stopping to buy the chicken soup Daniel had requested, I went straight home, thinking I would go to the store later.  Nicholas was excited to go to the store and had decided he wanted tomato soup.  We even had a coupon for new Campbell’s 100% Natural (the existence of which makes me want to stop buying their other soups, because you see what they’re saying there?).

But I never got better enough to leave the house.  An hour past our usual dinnertime, I was still lying around moaning and had just added heartburn to my list of woes.  I didn’t even feel capable of heating up and stirring canned soup if we’d had some available.

Daniel to the rescue!  His first step was looking at a recipe for creamy tomato soup in the Better Homes & Gardens New Cookbook, which he describes as, “where I look when I want something classic and American.”  The recipe called for a large can of diced tomato.  What we had was homemade marinara sauce.  Since Nicholas is a fan of the creamy tomato soup at Panera Bread, which is Italian-flavored, we figured this would work.  Daniel cut the recipe in half and used it as a guideline for how to combine milk and tomatoes without curdling.  The result was this recipe: Read more…

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Less Acid Spaghetti Sauce, January 20 Version

January 22, 2013 5 Comments

Spaghetti with marinara sauce is my favorite food.  However, tomato sauce and spices can be irritating to a stomach that’s been having that burning “acid” feeling or a tongue with inflamed taste buds at the very back.  I have been having both problems lately…but I really wanted to make a new batch of spaghetti sauce…so I tried to make a mellow one, and I used a trick I read online to reduce the acid, and it really seemed to work!  This sauce is tasty but didn’t burn my mouth or stomach at all, even though I ate a big portion and then licked the pot! :-)

This recipe must be higher in sodium than most of my homemade sauces because it contains seaweed and baking soda as well as salt.  If you are on a low-sodium diet, leave out the salt and then add salt to your portion if you think it’s necessary–you’ll probably use less that way.

Other factors influencing this batch of sauce were that we happened to have run out of oregano, somehow, without anyone putting in on a shopping list, and that we were so low on fresh garlic that I knew it wouldn’t be enough for a whole pot of sauce and decided to use granulated garlic instead.  Spaghetti sauce is very flexible about this sort of thing.

Here are the instructions/ingredients/method for approximately reproducing this batch of sauce: Read more…

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Milk: What kind we buy, and why

October 31, 2012 6 Comments

I love saving money, yet I routinely buy half-gallon cartons of milk that cost twice as much as the cheapest milk in the supermarket!  Furthermore, two half-gallon paper cartons cost more than one gallon plastic jug, for the same amount of milk!  What am I thinking?!

Several years ago, Daniel and I decided that milk that is healthier for us and the Earth is worth more money.  The extra expense was hard to swallow at first, but the fact is that my overall thrifty shopping habits lead us to spend less on groceries than the average American family of our size, even with the expensive milk.  Also, we don’t use as much fluid milk as many American families–it’s mostly for cereal and coffee in our house, and it’s unusual (though hardly against the rules) for any of us to drink a whole glass of milk.  We get most of our calcium from yogurt and non-dairy foods.  Using less milk allows us to spend more per ounce without breaking the budget.

Here’s what milk we buy, when, where, and why: Read more…

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Babies and Television

August 8, 2012 3 Comments

Children younger than 2 years old should not watch any television at all.  The experts have been saying this for more than a decade, yet a lot of the parents I know think this is such an absurd idea that nobody could possibly comply with it.

We did.  Almost.  We occasionally took Nicholas to restaurants where a television was playing in the background.  We occasionally turned on the Weather Channel long enough to see the forecast.  When he was 13 months old and the Steelers were in the Super Bowl, Daniel and I watched about 15 minutes of the game even though Nicholas was in the room.

But we never, ever turned on television for him to watch before he turned 2.  When we were at someone else’s house and they had the TV on, we took Nicholas out of that room if at all possible.  I estimate that in his first 2 years, he spent a grand total of about 10 hours in the presence of a turned-on television.  We have limited his screen time since then (he’s 7 now) so that he averages less than 2 hours per day of TV and computer put together.

Why?  Because I’m a developmental psychologist, and I think those experts are on to something.  Early television viewing increases obesity and decreases school engagement. Early television viewing changes the arteries in the eyes, increasing the risk of high blood pressure.  Early television viewing swamps babies with stimuli they don’t understand yet find so visually compelling that it’s hard for them to look away.  The earlier television viewing becomes part of a person’s routine, the harder it will be for them to live without it–and watching television, though it can be fun, is in most ways a waste of time.  Even educational TV programs don’t teach very young children anything.  Before becoming a mother, I read The Plug-In Drug by Marie Winn (see my review here) and was determined to protect my child from television.  Daniel agreed with me.

But then, when I was 7 months pregnant, an odd sound made by the elevator at work reminded me of the “Rubber Ducky” song from “Sesame Street”, and I suddenly felt devastated–how could I deprive my child of the joy of knowing Ernie and Big Bird and…and LOVABLE FURRY GROVER?!  Read more…

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I don’t wear makeup.

July 18, 2012 16 Comments

I used to wear makeup.  From age 12 to 16, I added more types of makeup to my daily routine each year, and I went through that daily routine even if I wasn’t planning to leave the house.  I continued for a while into college before I realized that the insanely stressful life I was leading there did not allow time for makeup and many other students did not wear it–but I felt that college was an exceptional situation, so I still wore makeup to church, to my summer jobs, and whenever I went back to visit the town where I grew up.  After college, I wore makeup to work and church and social events very consistently at first, but over time I began to wear less and less, until at age 31 I quit almost completely.  Why? Read more…

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How We Survive Without Air Conditioning

June 6, 2012 13 Comments

Today’s Works-for-Me Wednesday lead article is about staying cool in the summertime.  The author lives in Texas, where it is a lot hotter right now than it is here in Pennsylvania–but we do get hot weather here, we’ve had several 90-degree days already this year, and we know a lot of people here who think air conditioning is absolutely essential to their survival of summer.  I grew up in Oklahoma, where every summer is oven-hot for weeks at a stretch, yet my parents never used their central AC more than a few days a year.  Air conditioning uses a lot of energy and therefore costs a lot of money, and in my opinion it’s just not that great–it feels and smells weird, and it’s often too cold!

I think there are three main techniques to living comfortably without air conditioning: Make long-term choices that set you up for success, make hot-day choices that improve comfort, and have the right attitude.  Here are some details in each category: Read more…

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Breastfeeding While Working Outside the Home

April 25, 2012 4 Comments

My only child weaned 5 years ago this month, and I’ve been meaning to write this article ever since!  I finally got inspired by a recent magazine article arguing that the whole concept of breastfeeding being any kind of good idea is A PLOT TO KEEP WOMEN DOWN!!! and supporting this argument by quoting outdated materials from La Leche League and a few carefully selected over-zealous Websites.  It was so silly, but it was promoting an idea that I’ve heard in lots of less-silly contexts: that feeding a baby nothing but breastmilk until he’s ready for solid foods is horribly difficult unless the mother is willing to be trapped in her home with the baby 24 hours a day.  That just isn’t true!  In my experience, it is entirely possible to pump milk at work and put it into bottles for someone else to feed your baby, even if you work in a non-private cubicle and get only 12 weeks of maternity leave.  To me it seemed hardly more difficult than preparing bottles of formula would have been.  So I am writing this article to share the details of what worked for me.

But first, the disclaimers, Read more…

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Important Information on Blood Types of Parents and Children

March 28, 2012 41 Comments

There are two important facts about the blood types of parents and their children that are not widely known.  One of them caused an unexpected health problem in my family, and the other could have caused a much more serious problem but didn’t.

No, I’m not talking about Rh factor.  The issue of “positive” vs. “negative” blood and how it affects pregnancy is well-known and mentioned in most books about pregnancy.  Here is a typical article about Rh factor.  Notice how it mentions antigens–the “letter” aspect of blood type, A, B, AB, or O–but then moves on, as if antigens aren’t important.

What most people know about antigens is that they are important if you are receiving a blood transfusion.  Putting blood with A antigens into your body, if your own blood does not have A antigens (Type A or AB), will cause an immune response that can kill you.  The same is true for B antigens.  If you are Type O, both A’s and B’s are dangerous, so you should not receive a transfusion of any type other than O.  It is pretty quick and easy for medical professionals to determine a person’s blood type, so we don’t need to worry a whole lot about being given the wrong kind of blood, but just in case, it’s a good idea to know your blood type.

These are the two things I didn’t know until after the point when it would have been medically useful to know them: Read more…

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Do you have the right to know if your food is Genetically Modified?

March 22, 2012 6 Comments

If you live in the United States, right now you do NOT have any way of knowing whether the food you buy contains genetically modified organisms (GMOs).  These are plants or animals whose DNA has been manipulated in a way that does not occur naturally, usually combining genes from two or more species.  More than 40 countries require GMO foods to be labeled, but the U.S. does not, although GMO crops are widely grown here.  Since GMOs entered our food supply in the 1990s, food allergies have skyrocketed, and thousands of acres of farmland have had to be abandoned to new super-weeds.

Sign the Just Label It! petition to tell the FDA that American consumers want genetically modified foods to be labeled.  This isn’t advocating a ban on GMOs.  It’s just asking that our food labels provide the information so that consumers can make a choice.  I mean, gee, if you want to eat GMOs, you should support labeling, too!

 

Visit Your Green Resource for other environmental articles!

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Don’t Save Room for Dessert!

March 20, 2012 5 Comments

One habit I am very grateful my parents taught me is this: When you finish your dinner, stop eating.  If you get hungry again before bedtime, you may have dessert.  In my childhood home, “dessert” was often canned fruit in syrup, homemade yogurt with jam, tapioca pudding, fruit crisp, a bagel, or something else that tasted sweet but also had some nutrients.  I have continued this habit into my adult life and taught it to my son Nicholas, who’s now seven years old.  Most of the time we don’t plan for “dessert” specifically but eat what we feel like eating for an evening snack–chips and salsa, a bowl of cereal, Raisin Bran Bread, or leftovers from a different night’s dinner are as likely to be “dessert” as are sweets.  At times we don’t have any real sweets (like candy) in the house at all, and when we do all three of us may forget to eat them for days at a stretch because we just don’t have a niche for super-sweet foods in our daily lives.

I cannot advise anyone on how to adopt this habit midway through life, since I’ve always had it.  My point is that this is a great habit to get into as a very young child, so if you are raising a very young child or planning to do so, try to establish this habit for your child.  Just by setting an example while your child is awake (planning to break out the sweets after his bedtime!) you might be able to wean yourself from dessert, too!

There are three main reasons delaying dessert is a good habit: Read more…

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Are you pregnant and dizzy?

February 29, 2012 4 Comments

I’m not–but when I was pregnant, I was dizzy much of the time.  At every prenatal check-up, my blood pressure was lower than the time before, and I have lower-than-average blood pressure normally.

My midwife was unconcerned, and all the pregnancy books agreed that it’s high blood pressure that is dangerous.  Some of the books confirmed that my dizziness was caused by low blood pressure and explained that the low blood pressure was caused by my body making the placenta and transferring water to the baby and thus spreading my fluids through a larger circulatory system than before–but they didn’t tell me what to do about it!  My midwife kept saying that all I needed to do was be grateful that baby and I were in no danger.

In the fifth month, I began to have spells when my vision would go black, my ears would ring so that I could hardly hear, and sometimes I’d completely lose consciousness for a few seconds. That seemed dangerous to me! Read more…

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Staying On the Ball at Work

January 17, 2012 3 Comments

This is an historic moment for The Earthling’s Handbook.

Almost 15 years after we started this Website, almost 5 years after we set up blog software so that I could write articles on my lunch break and post them easily, we have never posted any photographs.  I’ve explained my reservations about photos but also said it isn’t a strict rule.  I always thought that someday, I might write an article that really requires a visual illustration to show what I mean.

This is that article.

For a couple of years now, Daniel and I have been improving our “core strength” (abdominal and lower-back muscles) by sitting on an exercise ball and balancing with feet off the floor for a few minutes a day.  We keep a big red ball wandering around our bedroom for this purpose; it’s constantly rolling eagerly into our path to remind us to use it!  Read more…

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Raisin Bran Bread, Revised Recipe

November 18, 2011 10 Comments

Two years ago, I developed a recipe for Raisin Bran Bread to use up a bulk purchase of raisin bran cereal whose flakes were so big and hard and rough that it was painful to eat!  We love the bread, so I actually bought more of that aggressive raisin bran whenever Costco issued a coupon, so that I could make more Raisin Bran Bread.

After a while, though, I began questioning whether it really made sense to buy a processed product as an ingredient when I could instead be using the main ingredients from which raisin bran cereal is made, leaving out the preservatives and such.  It probably would be less expensive, too, given the low price of bulk wheat bran at our food co-op.

So, I once again mustered my nengkan, guessed at the proportions of ingredients to use, threw in some extra nutritiousness, tweaked it a bit more when it seemed too wet . . . and produced three yummalicious loaves!  I think it’s even better than my earlier recipe.  I have been eating at least two slices a day all week, and I’m not tired of it yet! Read more…

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Explaining Addiction to a Young Child

October 19, 2011 Leave a comment

You might think that addiction is a topic that wouldn’t come up until children are in late elementary school, going through whatever passes for drug education in their school.  You might be right.  Then again, your child might ask questions at a much earlier age after noticing that someone you know or a television character seems unable to quit using something that has obvious negative effects.  That’s what happened with my child. Read more…

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Thrifty All-natural Anti-bacterial Moisturizing Face Wash

August 17, 2011 5 Comments

A lot of skin care products contain scary ingredients and are pretty expensive.  Totally organic facial cleansers are really expensive and sometimes go bad before you can use the whole package–and a surprising number of them ignore organic-ness in packaging and put the stuff in a vinyl tube that slowly saturates it with carcinogens and endocrine disruptors.  There are some great natural soaps available at reasonable prices (Dr. Bronner’s soap looks expensive, but a few drops go a long way!) for washing the rest of your body, but some people’s faces don’t respond well to ordinary soap and get dry or dull-looking.

Luckily, there’s an all-natural, anti-bacterial, moisturizing, low-priced, minimally-packaged, easy-to-use alternative that’s sold in every grocery store, is often available from local sources, is so safe you can eat it, and even tastes delicious! Read more…

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Great lunch kit for school!

August 3, 2011 8 Comments

Nicholas will be starting first grade in three weeks, so we’ve got some shopping and organizing to do, but one thing we don’t need to do is buy a new lunchbox!  The one he used for full-day kindergarten is still in great shape for this year and likely for several years to come. Read more…

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How to use old tofu and turn ramen noodles into a full meal!

July 1, 2011 7 Comments


The trouble with tofu is, if you don’t use the whole block in one meal, you’re supposed to store it in a container of water and change the water every day.  That is pretty annoying!  It’s easy to forget it for a couple of days.  Then, when you remember, it doesn’t smell so good.  I mean, plain tofu doesn’t smell very good to me even when it’s fresh, but when it’s old…ewww…even a thrifty, waste-avoiding person could easily conclude that it’s not food anymore.  Well, there is a point when it’s no longer safe to eat, but it takes at least a week to get there (even if you forgot to change the water at all) unless it’s visibly moldy, so follow this handy 4-step process to give new life to old tofu! Read more…

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Homemade Frozen Shredded Vegetables

June 29, 2011 34 Comments

Like reusing glass jars, this is an idea I’ve mentioned before that has increased its importance in my day-to-day life to the point that it deserves its own article!

When you have more of a vegetable than you can eat before it goes bad, clean and shred the extra all at once, put 1-cup portions into small bags, and freeze it.  Now you have convenient quantities to use in future recipes!  Depending on the cooking technique, you may not even have to thaw them before using.  You’ll save time, compared to cutting up fresh vegetables in a bunch of separate sessions.  You’ll save money, compared to wasting fresh produce or buying more expensive pre-sliced frozen vegetables.  Read more…

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Glass Jars Galore!

June 5, 2011 28 Comments

My ravings about the joys of reusing glass jars got too lengthy for my “What Do You Reuse?” article, so I decided to give these versatile, durable storage containers their own article!

First of all, I want to rave a moment about how glass jars are much better for food storage than plastic containers! We save the jars from peanut butter, salsa, spaghetti sauce, etc., and use them over and over again. They wash so much cleaner so much more easily than plastic, especially with greasy or sticky foods or things that stain, like tomato sauce and blueberries.  Leftovers seem to stay fresh longer in glass. The threaded lids almost never leak.  Glass does not leach chemicals into food, like plastics do under some circumstances.  My very favorite feature is this: Read more…

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