Kids love ranch dressing. Make one you can feel good about serving.
I was in Pittsburgh for the Childhood and Adolescent Weight Management Certificate of Training class November of 2018. Registered Dietitian and past president of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, Donna Martin, gave a presentation on public school nutrition programs and weight management for kids.
Donna is the Director of the School Nutrition Program for the Burke County Board of Education in Georgia. Her accomplishments are numerous (see here and here). It would be hard to find someone more dedicated to childhood and adolescent nutrition.
I learned many things about school meals, federally mandated nutrition requirements for school meals, the limitations presented by school kitchen design and kitchen equipment, etc. I left the training with a completely different perspective on the nutritional value of meals provided in public schools, their importance to school children, and the creative efforts put forth by many working in public school nutrition services organizations around the country.
But two of the most important things I learned from Donna, who literally feeds thousands of kids every school day, are:
1. Kids will eat just about any vegetable if it is roasted (see my guide to roasting vegetables here).
and
2. Kids will eat just about any raw vegetable if you give them some ranch dressing to dip it in.
Donna has leveraged these two ideas to get the kids in her school district eating more vegetables by providing copious roasted vegetables, and by providing a made-from-scratch, fat free ranch dressing with raw vegetables.
If ranch dressing will get your kids eating vegetables, why not give them a healthy version?
Here is my own Buttermilk and Greek Yogurt Ranch Dressing/Dip recipe. You can make it as low fat as you want, or don't want, by choosing buttermilk and Greek yogurt with the fat content you desire.
Buttermilk and Greek Yogurt Ranch Dressing/Dip
Ingredients
1 cup Greek yogurt
1/3 cup buttermilk (more if you want a thinner dressing/dip)
1 T dried parsley flakes
2 tsp freeze-dried chives
1/2 - 2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 - 2 tsp onion powder
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 tsp salt
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1 tsp fresh lemon juice
Directions
Put everything in a bowl and mix well. If you wish to have a thinner dressing, add more buttermilk.
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