Tuesday Temptations

I've mentioned in other posts how much I love Pinterest and one of the main reasons is all the great recipes I find.  I think my recipes board is one of my biggest boards!  We usually end up trying at least 1 new recipe every week and I thought I would share the results with my readers.  Not all of the recipes will be directly from Pinterest.  We do have many cookbooks in the house and sometimes we will try recipes from those that we have never had.  Anyway, the point is I am going to try (providing I remember) to post a new recipe every Tuesday.  Nothing special about Tuesdays; it just kind of worked for a clever title.  As soon as our desktop computer is up and running again I will probably come up with some cute graphic for my "Tuesday Temptations" but until then, just imagine a pretty title at the top.

So for my first edition, I bring to you a recipe for Skinny Pool-Side Dip:

This is how mine turned out

Prep Time: 5-10 min.        Cook Time: 0 min.     Servings: Approx. 16 (2 tbs. each)

Ingredients:
16 oz fat-free or reduced-fat cream cheese, softened (obviously fat-free would be less calories but it is more expensive)
1 red bell pepper, chopped
2 jalepenos, unseeded and chopped (I just used a can of diced jalepeno; worked great!)
1 can of corn, drained
1/2 can diced black olives
1 packet ranch dressing mix

Directions:
 Using a hand mixer, blend the cream cheese with the ranch dressing mix.  Stir in pepper, jalepenos, corn, and olives.  Serve with crackers.

Nutrition Info:  (calculated using SparkPeople's Recipe Calculator...take it as an estimate)
Calories: 94.5
Fat: 5.8 (I used reduced fat-cream cheese, not fat-free)
Carbs: 7.8
Fiber: .8
Protein: 3.9

Review
This dip is super easy to make and very tasty.  Honestly I'm not sure how accurate the nutritional information is; I guesstimated on how many servings it actually makes.  I figured there's 16 tablespoons in 8 oz and I used 16 oz of cream cheese; but obviously the vegetables create more volume.  So it's entirely possible that there's 20+ servings in this dip (assuming each serving is 2 tbs.).  So if anything, there are actually less calories per serving than what I calculated.  Hope you enjoy the dip!