Eat, Drink, and Go!

I know it’s been a while since I’ve written. My usual excuse is that it’s been so busy. Well, same again! I definitely need either a personal secretary or a clone. Anyways, anytime I get to spend time playing in the kitchen is good time spent for me!! So the other day, I was tasked with doin the dips for a party. I loooooove making dips and they usually go over very well.

This time I made a BBQ chicken dip and a spinach and artichoke dip. BBQ chicken came as an idea because I didn’t have buffalo sauce to make buffalo chicken dip, which I also love, so I thought of the BBQ idea because, well, that’s what I had!

So we’ll start with the BBQ chicken dip. I made the dips at the same time the night before the party and then baked them both together the day of. Letting dips like this set in the fridge before baking enhances all the flavors. I started by sautéing the chicken with some herbs and some bacon salt, then chopping it all up into small pieces.

I softened up a brick of light cream cheese.

Then I added about a cup of nonfat Greek yogurt and mixed in the chicken with some yummy BBQ sauce – Smoked Maple Barbecue Sauce by Sugar Bob’s Finest.

This sauce has a good kick to it! Sweet and spicy! I mixed the chicken, cream cheese, yogurt, and BBQ sauce til blended and then added about half a cup of shredded cheddar cheese. I put it into a baking dish and topped with more cheddar.

For the spinach and artichoke dip (which I almost always vary), I used frozen spinach. About two cups, thawed. Added a brick of light cream cheese.

Add in almost a whole can of chopped up artichoke hearts.

Then I toasted up some shallots (forgot to get a toasting shallots pic!) and added them in along with about half a cup of nonfat Greek yogurt.

I used some bacon salt as my seasoning for this dip – it’s got all those salty sweet flavors. Season to taste.

After mixing up the spinach, shallots, cheese cheese, yogurt, and artichokes, I added in some mozzarella cheese.

After getting the dip into the baking dish, I added more mozzarella cheese on top. I always have to top dips with something!

And now we’ve got two dips!! You really don’t have to be meticulous in following a recipe for dips, in my opinion. They’re very forgiving and almost always taste great. It’s the consistency and texture that takes some time to get down.

The next day, I got them into the oven to bake up.

Bake til the top is bubbly and a little brown on the edges.

And there ya go! Two dips!