CEiMB - Warm Spinach and Artichoke Dip

This week in my CEiMB group, my really good friend Cathy of the Tortfeasor made a fantastic choice with the warm spinach and artichoke dip. Cathy and I work together and we have some really good laughs about our cooking experiences. If you have never read her blog, you have missed a treat. She never fails to make me laugh. She is such a kind, caring person and that showed through even in her choice of recipe for us this week. I'm sure there were lots of recipes she personally wanted to try, but she thought of everyone that might be going to Superbowl parties and how this would be easy for them. And she was right!

It was easy and quick to mix up . ..
and then easy to bake. I used a big jar of marinated artichoke hearts instead of the frozen.

We usually spend superbowls with our good friends Tom and Rachel and Randy and Phyllis. This year Rachel hosted. I took the spinach dip and some fruit and Rachel served us some great chili, cornbread, mexican pizza and a great chocolate chip pie. Phyllis also brought a chocolate pie.

Apparently it is really difficult to pose sampling the spinach dip.

And beer might have been involved.

One thing I loved about this dip is that it did not have parmesan cheese in it. I'm not a fan of parmesan in anything. We all loved this dip. What little tiny bit was left the next night we dished out on our plate as our side dish to go along with ham and fruit. We scooped it up with frito scoops.

Thank you Cathy. We truly loved it.

And now to leave you with a little eye candy. Lately I've just really been into the Lost men! My girlfriend once said that Locke was "sex on a stick," but I much prefer Sawyer, Jack, or Sayid!!!
Recipe:
1 tablespoon canola oil
1 medium onion, finely chopped (about 1 1/2 cups)
3 cloves garlic
1 (9-ounce) package artichoke hearts, defrosted, rinsed and dried
1 (10-ounce) package frozen chopped spinach, defrosted, excess liquid squeezed out.
1/2 cup reduced fat sour cream
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
1/2 cup (4 ounces) Neufchatel cheese (reduced-fat cream cheese)
2 ounces (about 1/2 cup) shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
Directions
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
Heat the oil in a saute pan over medium heat. Add onions and cook stirring occasionally, 4 to 5 minutes. Add garlic and cook an additional 3 to 4 minutes, or until onions are light golden but not browned. Remove from heat and cool.
In the bowl of a food processor combine artichoke hearts, spinach, sour cream, mayonnaise, Neufchatel, mozzarella and salt and pepper. Process until smooth. Add cooled onion-garlic mixture to the food processor and pulse a few times to combine.
Transfer mixture into an 8-inch glass square baking dish or 9-inch glass pie plate which has been lightly sprayed with cooking spray. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until heated through. Serve with pita wedges or crudites.