Trimming party dips means a slimmer you for the holidays

For lean folks like me, hosting a holiday get-together can be fraught with what-to-make decisions. I don't want my guests pointing accusingly at my party food saying "That's not diet food, is it? Come on, Don, it's the holidays - give it a rest."

But after having lost more than 100 pounds - twice - in 15 years, for me there's never a "give-it-a-rest" time. Too many "rests" or weight maintenance holidays played a significant part in my weight ballooning back up to 327 pounds by 2005.

So instead of taking a rest I take some time to plan healthful versions of party foods.

Most holiday dips are built on a foundation of sour cream, cream cheese and mayonnaise. Making your favorites with reduced-fat or fat-free versions cuts calories and fat significantly and most folks couldn't tell the difference.

Fat-free or reduced-fat mayonnaise, for example, delivers only 10 or 15 calories in a tablespoon compared to the 100 calories a tablespoon of regular mayonnaise delivers.

Consider this: Some dip recipes start with 1 cup of mayonnaise - 16 tablespoons - that's 1,600 calories and 176 fat grams. That same amount of reduced-fat mayonnaise yields just 240 calories and about 16 fat grams. Seasoned and served with low-fat chips and veggies, you needn't reveal your kitchen secret - the dip will fool just about any palate.

If you've ever made French onion dip you know that it requires 2 cups of real sour cream. Sure, it tastes terrific, but it yields a whopping 984 calories and nearly 100 fat grams - most of those saturated.

Reduced-fat sour cream has many of the flavor notes of "real," but fewer calories (653 per 2 cups); fat free sour cream, while not as richly flavored, delivers even fewer (358). Consider mixing a cup of each together for a dip and trim hundreds of calories.

Some dips use cream cheese as the flavor-building base. An ounce of "real" cream cheese delivers 99 calories. Neufchatel cream cheese, with one-third less fat, isn't a big step down from "real" with 74 calories.

Fat free cream cheese doesn't taste as good as "real" cream cheese or Neufchatel, but it also doesn't deliver the high-calorie wallop of the real stuff (99 versus 30).

The first time I tasted a fat-free cream cheese in the early 90s, I hated it. But today's fat-free cream cheese has a smooth, almost creamy texture. Just like reduced-fat or fat-free mayonnaise and sour cream, fat-free cream cheese tastes much better when mixed with other ingredients such as herbs, spices, or vegetables.

I frequently make two dips for my guests and then when they arrive we make our own dippers - oven-baked tortilla and pita bread triangles. Virtually free of fat, they can be seasoned however we all want from light dustings of cayenne pepper and crushed red pepper to dried herbs or just popcorn salt.

I also put out crudites - bite-size chunks and strips of raw vegetables. Since I make my dips before my guests arrive, no one knows whether I trimmed their calories or fat, or not. They're always suspicious though since they know I'm the Lean Wizard.

This season, give my dip-trimming methods a try. Make healthier dips for your guests, but don't tell them anything's different and see if they say anything. I'll bet the only thing they're going to ask you for is for the recipe.