By Emily McLaughlin

Here are some equations to ponder:

Football = Friends + good times

Football = Nachos + potato skins + wings + dips + quesadillas + chips

Football = Beer + drinks 

Football ≠ A ruined diet

If you attended any kind of football-viewing party, there was probably a coffee table full of not-so-good-for-you snack foods. How do you resist all of these treats when they are only an arm’s reach away? Well… you don’t have to. In the time leading up to the Superbowl, I will be posting healthy versions of your favorite football recipes that are just as delectable. First up: Buffalo Chicken Dip.

SkinnyTaste.com has a fairly healthy recipe that I have adapted to be even lower in calories and higher in protein. The magic ingredient…. drumroll… GREEK YOGURT. If you know me at all, you know that I love to put Greek yogurt in everything. While it is not always a success, this is an easy winner.

Here is Gina’s Skinny Recipe for Skinny Buffalo Chicken Dip:

To make it even healthier and even lower in fat? Sub out the sour cream and replace it with Greek yogurt. You can also replace the cream cheese with the yogurt. The Greek yogurt will bring the total calorie count wayyy down and contributes a significant amount of protein. Worried that the dip will lose its flavor? The Franks buffalo sauce it what make this dip fantastic. Still worried? Leave the cream cheese in.

The above recipe is 9 servings which is actually only 4 1/2 cups (little typo in the SkinnyTaste recipe). If you replace the sour cream with Greek yogurt a serving size measures out to…

Calories: 97.9 - Fat: 5.4 g  - Carbs: 2.8 g - Fiber: 0 g - Protein: 11.9 g

If you choose to replace both the sour cream and cream cheese once serving size measures out to…

Calories: 75  - Carbs:  1.9 g - Fiber: 0 g – Protein: 12.1 g

So, as you can see, you can bring the calorie count, fat content and carb count down quite a bit by substituting Greek yogurt in for the sour cream and cream cheese (assuming that all of my math is correct). If you are interested in bringing these numbers down even more… but don’t want to lose the texture of the blue cheese crumbles… cottage cheese, anyone? Sub the 1/2 cup of blue cheese out and replace it with cottage cheese. In all honesty, the blue cheese is probably the worst ingredient in this dip. This is the approximate blue cheese nutritional part in a given serving:

Call me crazy, but this all taste just as good, if not better, than the original–but I might just be saying this because I am clearly obsessed with Greek yogurt. Lastly, with all of these high-calorie cheeses out, indulge a little and sprinkle in some reduced fat cheddar before serving. ;)

Happy eating & go Pats!