We're giving your bellies and your kitchen a break after all the eating and cooking from Thanksgiving. These two dips are quick to prepare and fun to share, and the cabbage "chips" are a great snack alternative to unhealthy bagged potato chips.

Tahini Dip

Ingredients:

• 1 pound tofu
• ½ pound silken tofu
• 4 cloves garlic
• 2 teaspoons ginger sliced
• 2 tablespoons tahini (1 tablespoon oil from top of tahini)
• hot sauce to taste
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• ½ teaspoon turmeric
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• ¼ teaspoon granulated garlic
• ¼ cup olive oil
• ½ juice of one lemon
• salt to taste

Artisan Cheeses From Capriole Farms

Capriole Farms will celebrate 30 years of making artisanal cheese next year, but in the beginning, Judy Schad & co. struggled to have their cheeses embraced. "I didn't understand why people didn't want to support their local communities," she says in an interview with News And Tribune. "I guess people just don't realize what's right in their backyards."

Now, her cheeses appear on menu across the country and have won over ten first place awards from the American Cheese Society.

When they became Certified Organic in 2009, they realized that those practices had been in place for 20 years. "Since we were not proper dairyman, we let the animals ‘tell' us what was needed."

Chef Daniel Orr especially enjoys Capriole's wide variety of cheeses. In fact, it is rare when he doesn't crumble some goat cheese on top of his dishes, like Fried Green Tomatoes, Bison Pumpkin Lentil Chili, and various salads. We highlighted three Capriole cheeses with the Rhubarb Compote. "All of my good friends like goat cheese, otherwise they're not good friends," he jokes.

Goat Cheese Dip

This recipe uses Capriole goat cheese. It still has that goat'y flavor but it is mild, almost close to a cream cheese. Consider this cheese a blank canvas!

Ingredients:

• 1 cup fresh Capriole goat cheese, broken up
• 1 cup mayonnaise
• 1 cup sour cream
• ½ cup pesto
• salt and pepper to taste

Method:

2. Whisk goat cheese, mayonnaise, and sour cream together.
4. Mix in pesto and season with salt and pepper.
6. Serve with chips, pita triangles or as a spread on a sandwich.

Making Your Own Chips

To make some easy and healthy homemade chips to serve with these dips, split and quarter whole wheat pitas. Toss them in a bowl with some olive oil, salt and pepper, fresh garlic or garlic powder. Put them on a cookie try, and cook them at 250 or 300 until they get nice and crispy. Using slow heat will get all the moisture out of the pita slices, and they will be sturdy enough to stand up to a hearty dip.

Cabbage "Chips" with Thai Spices

"Make a big bowl of this and it'll be gone before you know it," says Chef Daniel Orr. "Especially if you have a few friends around, and you don't tell them it's healthy for them." This recipe gets that addictive Asian flavor from the fish sauce and sambal chili paste. Keep these magic ingredients in your fridge to add a mystifying flavor to your dishes.

Ingredients:

• 1 head cabbage
• 1/4 cup Thai fish sauce
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 tablespoon sambal chili paste
• 1/4 bunch cilantro, roughly chopped
• 2 tablespoons lime juice
• 2 tablespoons honey
• salt and pepper to taste
• 2 tablespoons white vinegar
• 1 toe of garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon ginger, minced

Method:

2. Rip cabbage leaves into chip-sized portions.
4. Mix cabbage chips with oil, sambal and honey.
6. Peel ginger and mince ginger and garlic.
8. Add the juice of one lime and add fish sauce.
10. Toss together and serve.