easy cheesy spinach artichoke dip.

I just love appetizers. It's always nice to have a tasty, quick recipe that you can take to a friend's house to help out with dinner, or to serve at your own house when you have company, like we did this week for the LSU-Bama game. This spinach artichoke dip is sort of our "MVP" appetizer. Patrick and I may or may not have even made this for ourselves for dinner before. It's that good.

We've been asked for this recipe multiple times, so I thought I'd just go ahead and post it on here for all. I think it's just as good, if not better than spinach dips I've had at restaurants. It's also super convenient, since you can make it the day before, put it in the fridge, and just bake it right before you eat it. Enjoy! :)

E + P’s Easy Cheesy Spinach Dip

• 1 (10 oz) package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained
• 6 oz (3/4 package) cream cheese, softened
• 10 oz Alfredo sauce (we use Bertolli’s – 2/3 of a 15 oz jar)
• 1 (14 oz) can/jar of artichoke hearts (they can be marinated or not), drained and chopped 
• 4 cloves minced garlic (I just use the jarred kind, because it's easy)
• 1 to 1 ½ cups shredded mozzarella
• 1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese
•  a dash of cayenne pepper

Preheat oven to 350.

Add all the ingredients to a bowl and mix them up (the cream cheese is difficult to mix, but don't worry about that yet).

Drain the spinach by squeezing it with a paper towel. 

I don't like big chunks of artichoke, so I chop them pretty small. 

Made this batch the day before, put the lid on my bowl, and stored it in the fridge 

Spread into an 8 x 8 baking dish, cover with aluminum foil, and bake at 350 for about 30 minutes.

Uncover and check consistency. You will need to stir it to mix the cream cheese in well. Add more cayenne pepper if you so desire. I put it back in the oven for a couple minutes (without the aluminum foil), just to make sure it's hot and bubbly.

Serve with tortilla chips or toasty bread!

p.s. - We got the basic recipe for this (then tweaked it a bit) from allrecipes.com, which is our absolute favorite cooking website. We have an account, so we can save our favorite recipes and ones that we want to try (by category). You can also search for recipes by ingredients that you already have. The best part is all of the recipes are rated and reviewed, so you can read the changes other people made to make it even better. You should check it out!