Family Chow Hall

Here’s a simple yet scrumptious dip that will be perfect for taking to your New Year’s Eve events…

My son suggested this one after having something similar at CHILI’S. Since I’ve never had it there, I had nothing to go on except that it must have spinach and artichokes.

Our family usually has nothing but munchies on Christmas — purchased appetizers, cheese dip, chips, candy, etc. (This tradition helps me stay available as the designated battery-hunter, instruction-reader, and box-opener.) One of the munchies this Christmas was this Spinach Artichoke Dip, which was served with a variety of chips and crackers.

Party Spinach Artichoke Dip

1 8 oz. package of cream cheese
1/2 c. mayonnaise
1 small jar of marinated artichoke hearts
fresh spinach, about half of a bag
OR frozen spinach, 10 oz.
salt and pepper to taste

There are two possible ways to prepare this — I have a small crock pot for serving dips and cheese sauces. This was perfect for this warm dip.

Cube the cream cheese. If you have a small crock pot, put it in there. If not, let it come to room temperature in a mixing bowl, then cream it with your mixer.

Add the mayonnaise.

Drain MOST of the liquid from the artichoke hearts and place them in a food chopper and give them a few pulses so there are no large chunks. Add this to the cream cheese/mayonnaise combination.

If using fresh spinach, chop and then saute until wilted with just a drip of olive oil. If using frozen spinach, thaw it and squeeze as much liquid out as is humanly possible. Add the spinach to the rest of the ingredients.

Dash your salt and pepper in.

Next, if using the crock-pot method, wait until it warms up and stir occasionally. If using an oven, mix it all up, then place in a small greased casserole dish. Bake at 325 for 20 minutes.

Serve with any of these possibilities: bread sticks, pita chips, bagel chips, crackers, corn chips, fresh bread…

We tried this a few days ago and really enjoyed it. DH and I have been feeling pretty darn good on our fruity-veggie diet (including plenty of cheats) and are continuing it.

I decided to try making chili, leaving out the meat and replacing it with larger and more numerous chunks of vegetables, such as a variety of peppers, onions, and mushrooms. Potatoes would have been good, too. I decided to leave out the spuds this time because we’ve been having quite a lot of them.

We liked this and I don’t feel like I missed out on the meat at all. I DID make cornbread as our traditional side dish to chili, so that was a “cheat” on the diet, but I to be fair, I only had a little bit of it, and I didn’t even butter it, just broke it up into my soup.

Here’s the recipe for the Vegetarian Chili:

1 can tomato paste
1 c. water
1 can petite diced tomatoes
1 can beef or vegetable broth
1 can kidney beans
1 sweet onion, diced, but not tiny
1/2 green pepper, cut in the same manner as the onion
1/2 poblano pepper, ditto on the cutting
1 jalapeno pepper, diced
5 fresh white mushrooms
1 t. minced garlic
2 T. chili powder
1 t. salt
1/2 t. pepper

Get out your best friend, the crock pot, and start dumping all of the canned items into it. Set it on low.

Chop up the veggies — start by seeding the peppers. If your skin is at all sensitive, use gloves when cutting the jalapeno. Proceed to chop the veggies and toss them into the crock pot. Add the seasonings and let your crock pot do its magic for several hours. If you don’t have that long, saute the vegetables first so they will be done when you are ready to eat.

Use your imagination on this recipe! There are SO many things you could put into Vegetarian Chili — zucchini, corn, hominy, peas, okra, white or black beans, diced potatoes.

Also consider topping it with avocado and maybe a bit of sour cream or shredded cheddar cheese. Serve with cornbread or corn chips. Or, serve the chili OVER a baked potato.

I don’t know - maybe I’ve lived in the South too long, but I ate something last week that I would never have considered before — Collard Greens. Growing up, I was the farthest thing from being a vegetable fan. (Ask my poor parents, who tried every trick in the book and invented some new ones to get me to eat my veggies) Nowadays, though, I have come to appreciate the health benefits of our green friends enough to try a few new ones.

Being on a temporary fruits-and-vegetables diet makes me even more eager to try new fresh foods, so I picked up some Collard Greens in the produce department and decided to give them a whirl.

I confess I was surprised that I genuinely liked them. I assumed that I could eat them, tolerate them, and make them occasionally for DH. But I was so wrong! I liked them so much that I’m making another batch this week.

Collard Greens, so I have heard, have a flavor that distinguishes them from other greens. Instead of being bitter, Collard Greens are mild and slightly smoky. Packed with Vitamin K and A, plus lots more vitamins and minerals, they are a good nutritional value for very few calories. AND they are also loaded with complicated health benefits which I don’t understand, such as phytonutrients and antioxidants.

So, folks, below you will find the method I used for making Collard Greens with Blackeye Peas… Even if you are not a veggie fanatic, give them a try. I suspect you will be pleasantly surprised.

Collard Greens with Blackeye Peas

2 bunches of Collard Greens
1 stalk celery
1 red onion
1/2 c. chopped green pepper
1 slice ham
1 t. vegetable oil
1/2 t. red pepper flakes
salt and pepper to taste
water
1 can Blackeye Peas - seasoned or plain

To prepare the greens, you need to rinse them well and then lay them out on a cutting board for deveining. (Sometimes you can find them already prepped.) To remove the vein, take a sharp knife and slice the leaf away from the thick stem-like part in the center of the leaf. Toss the veins in the trash can and cut the leaves into bite-sized pieces as if you were preparing a tossed salad.

Chop the celery, green pepper, and ham; slice the onion; and add them all to the collards.

Next, heat the oil in a large skillet and add the red pepper to it. Once warm, add the greens and other vegetables. When they have wilted, turn the heat to low, add a cup of water, and cover.

You want to let them simmer for about an hour or more — keep an eye on the water level and add more as you need to. When it’s almost time to eat, remove the lid and let the excess water cook out. Add the peas and salt and pepper to taste and give them a stir… Serve.

I can think of lots of foods this would go with — grilled meats, baked potatoes, sweet potatoes, fried chicken, etc.

ENJOY!