Creamy dips make excellent party appetizers. They can be served in bowls with tortilla chips nearby, so guests can dip the chips into the bowls. Another serving suggestion is to spread the dip on toasted slices of French baguettes, garnished with small dices of red and yellow bell peppers or with halves of cherry tomatoes and parsley leaves. These nice mini-sandwiches will make your guests love your cooking talent and want to get invited by you more often. Yes, sometimes a simple spinach artichoke dip can do what other charms can't.

Ingredients:

• 10 ounces artichoke hearts, drained, chopped
• 10 ounces frozen spinach, thawed, chopped and very well drained
• 1/2 cup mayonnaise (you can replace it with low-fat mayonnaise)
• 1/2 cup sour cream or yogurt
• 1 cup Mozzarella cheese
• 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 4 small packs (4 ounces) of cream cheese
• Salt, pepper

Preparation time: 10 minutes

Cooking time: 30 minutes

Serves: 8

How to cook the creamy spinach artichoke dip:

Mix all ingredients in a bowl and blend them until they become a paste. Beware that sometimes canned artichokes can have a strange flavor, so it’s always best to rinse them well and drain them before use, especially if you’re not going to bake the dip. Even if you do, you can still rinse the artichoke hearts, as it won’t take you long anyway. Pour the blend in a casserole, cover it and cook it in the oven (preheated at 350 F) for 25-30 minutes. Serve it with carrot or celery sticks, or with any other dipping such as toast, chips or sliced pita bread. You can refrigerate the dip and serve it the next day.

Crockpot appetizers like this warm artichoke spinach dip can be successfully used for festive dinners and parties, because they are very tasty and easy to prepare. Serving dips at parties is also easy, because all you need to do is provide your guests some nice dipping "materials" such as tortilla chips or raw veggies sticks and you're done.

Ingredients:

• 8 ounces frozen spinach, thawed, drained and cut small
• 8 ounces artichoke hearts (preferably canned; marinated or not, at your choice), chopped small
• 8 ounces cream cheese
• 1/2 cup heavy cream (many thanks to Ryan for noticing I missed this from the list)
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1 small onion, grated
• 1 garlic clove, peeled and grated or minced very small
• 1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• Salt and pepper as needed

Preparation time: 15 minutes

Cooking time: 2.5 - 3 hours

Serves: 10

Cooking procedure:

Put the cream cheese together with the cream in the slow cooker, set it on low and let the cheese slowly melt. This would probably take between one and two hours. Cut the cream cheese in cubes before putting it into the slow cooker, so you can speed up the melting a little bit. After the cheese has melted, add the other ingredients, stir gently, then cover the food and let it cook for one more hour, with the slow cooker set on low. When finished, pour it into a nice bowl, spread some grated Parmesan cheese or breadcrumbs on top of it and serve it hot.

Use raw vegetables, toast bread, sliced and toasted pita bread or salty crackers for dipping. Optionally, you can serve the dip with diced tomatoes or with fresh parsley leaves cut very small. If yuo want, you can replace the parsley with minced dill, but make sure not to use too much, because dill has a very strong taste which can cover other tastes, so the food won't be what you expected anymore.

Ingredients:

• 10 ounces frozen spinach, thawed, drained and cut small
• 1 can artichoke hearts, drained and chopped
• 1 garlic clove, peeled, minced (if you want to go to a date after eating this dip, you can skip the garlic)
• 1 small onion, chopped (to be skipped as well if you intend to kiss somebody that night)
• 2 cups cottage cheese
• 1 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
• 1 tablespoon mayonnaise (light)
• 3-4 bacon slices (smoked bacon is nice; if it’s not smoked, it’s better if you pre-cook it a bit)
• Salt and pepper to taste

Preparation time: 15 minutes

Cooking time: 30 minutes

Serves: 8

How to cook it:

Mix together the cottage cheese, the garlic, the onion, the salt and the pepper, half of the Parmesan cheese quantity and the mayonnaise. Stir them well, or use a food blender if you want to be faster (although if we think how much time it takes you to wash the blender afterwards, you could use a fork as well). Add the bacon, the artichokes and the spinach and stir gently, until everything blends well. Oil a baking dish and pour the dip inside, then put it in the pre-heated oven for 20 minutes. After that, remove it, top it with the rest of Parmesan cheese and put in back in the oven for ten more minutes.

Serve the spinach artichoke dip hot with toasted pita bread cut in four or with French baguettes. Raw vegetable sticks can also be a tasty dipping. Try carrots or celery.

Hot spinach and artichoke dip with cheese ingredients:

• 1 can of artichoke hearts (buying them canned decreases preparation time), very well drained, chopped small. Frozen artichoke hearts can be used (thaw them before cooking)
• 1 cup frozen spinach, thawed, well drained, chopped
• 8 ounce cream cheese
• 2-3 tablespoons Parmesan cheese, grated
• 2 tablespoons of mayonnaise (get light mayo if you want a healthier version of this dip recipe)
• 1/2 cup sour cream (can be replaced with yogurt)
• 2 garlic cloves, peeled, minced (if you don’t have fresh garlic, you can replace it with garlic powder)
• Herbs and spices according to taste (use either basil or dried chili peppers flakes or parsley)
• Salt and pepper, according to taste

Preparation time: 15 minutes

Cooking time: 35 minutes

Serves: 8

Cooking procedure:

First of all, you need to preheat the oven to 350 F. Mix all creamy ingredients together in a bowl (the cream cheese, the sour cream, the mayonnaise), then add the spices, the garlic, the salt and the pepper and mix everything very well. Then add the spinach and the artichokes, stirring gently until you get a homogeneous mixture. Don’t stir too much, because if you do, you’ll transform the spinach and the artichoke pieces into a paste. If you don’t mind that, then it’s fine, but if you want to feel the separate foods textures, you’ll have to be gentle when stirring. Pour the composition in a baking dish previously greased with a teaspoon of olive oil. Make sure that the mixture doesn’t fill the baking dish up to the edge. Bake the food for 30 minutes, then take it out of the oven, top it with the grated Parmesan cheese and let it bake again for more 5 minutes. Serve hot.

Health tip: if you want to decrease the amount of fats in this spinach artichoke dip, you can leave out the sour cream and the cheese completely.