Football Food -- Spinach Artichoke Dip

Matt and I hosted a little football gathering at his house on Saturday for the Alabama, LSU game. I made spinach artichoke dip and taco dip. Here is the recipe for the spinach artichoke dip. Unless you are allergic to artichokes, which one of our friends is, you will LOVE this dip!

You will need:

• 1 14 oz. can quartered artichoke hearts
• 1 cup chopped spinach
• 1 package cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup parmesan
• 1/2 cup mayo
• 1/4 cup sliced almonds

Open can of artichokes and cut into small pieces. 

Add spinach and softened cream cheese. Stir. 

Add remaining ingredients and stir until everything is mixed well. 

Be sure there aren't any large chunks of cream cheese!

Spread in pie pan. Cover with almonds.

Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.

Allow to cool and serve with Wheat Thins, I like the reduced fat ones, or Triscuits.

Matt was digging in all night. Everyone wore college t-shirts with their favorite team EXCEPT Alabama or LSU. They are the #1 and #2 teams but none of us went to either school. Matt is an Auburn Alum and I was sporting my Michigan State tee.

Mike enjoying himself before all the guests arrived. I put Softpaws on him that morning, blue ones! Now he can't ruin Matt's furniture. I don't believe in declawing cats, no matter the circumstance. Surprisingly, Mike let me clip his nails with no fuss, he laid much like he is in the picture above. I had 8 of the 10 Softpaws on his claws before he started to fuss. He's such a funny cat.

Mmmmm.. You HAVE to try this recipe. You can leave out the spinach if you'd like, and it's still fantastic. I got the recipe from my friend, Sarah, big surprise. (EDIT: It's from the side of a box of Wheat Thins. I always ignore those recipes, turns out they actually are worth reading.) It was just artichoke dip but I added spinach. AND it makes great leftovers the next day if for some crazy reason it isn't finished by your guests.

Hope you are all enjoying your week. Back to my sewing machine!