Spinach Dip

Happy Super Bowl Sunday!  The Super Bowl is a great excuse for me to make lots of party/finger foods that are impractical for a household of two. I love cooking dinner for Chance and myself, but it's nice to have other people as taste testers once in awhile. For our little get together, I made Sante Fe Chicken Pinwheels, "Slutty" Brownies, and my Aunt Erina's spinach dip.  The first two recipes are via Pinterest, and they were delicious. I highly recommend.

The ingredients: cream cheese, swiss cheese, miracle whip, green onions, and spinach. 

Thaw and cook the spinach according to the directions. Once its cooked, put it on a few layers of paper towels to drain the extra liquid.

Wrap the spinach up in the paper towels and squeeze out the extra liquid. Repeat 4-6 times until all the water is drained out.

In a large mixing bowl, combine spinach, cream cheese, swiss, green onions, and miracle whip. 

Mix ingredients well. I tossed some black pepper and garlic salt in for good measure.

Put the dip in a small baking dish and bake in the oven at 400-425 degrees until bubbly and golden brown on top. I was really excited to make this dip in my pretty baking dish. My aunt bought me it as part of a set for Christmas before she passed away this December. 

I forgot to take a picture of the dip right out of the oven - but everyone seemed to like it. And as you can see, someone decided to bring a 20 piece chicken nugget from Burger King for their food contribution. Lovely.

Aunt Erina's Spinach Dip

8 oz. 1/3 fat free cream cheese, softened

1 cup swiss cheese, grated

1 small cup Light Miracle Whip

1 package frozen spinach

3 tbsp. green onions

Garlic salt & black pepper

Preheat oven to 400-425 degrees. Grease or spray non-stick spray in a baking dish. Cook the spinach according to the box directions. I microwaved mine for 5 minutes. Put cooked spinach in a few layers of paper towels, wrap up the spinach, and squeeze out the excess water. Repeat this process 4-6 times until almost no water drains out when you squeeze it. In a large mixing bowl, combine the spinach, cream cheese, swiss, Miracle Whip, green onions, and garlic salt and pepper. Mix it well and put in your baking dish. Bake for about 30 minutes until the top is golden brown. 

The original version of this calls for regular cream cheese and whole mayo. I used lower fat cream cheese just to save calories, and I used Miracle Whip because I thought I had mayo in my fridge but apparently, I did not. The Miracle Whip actually gave the dip a nice tang, and I think I'll sub it in from now on. Some artichokes and horseradish would be great in this too. My aunt also makes a casserole version of this dip that includes eggs and toasted pine nuts. It is absolutely heavenly. I'll try and make that soon.