Chicken Spinach and Artichoke Nachos

You read that right. I took everything good about nachos and spinach and artichoke dip and married it. Happily. Ever. After.
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I had a bunch of apps on my ever running “to make” list of ideas so a few became dinner one night.

Ingredients:

3 cups fresh spinach, chopped fine
1 pkg frozen artichoke hearts (not jared in oil)
8 oz cream cheese (or plain greek yogurt)
½ cup prepared alfredo sauce
1 tbs chopped garlic
1 chicken breast, shredded
8 oz shredded mozzarella
multigrain tortilla chips

Directions:

Cook chicken breast and shred when cooled slightly.
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Add artichoke hearts, cream cheese, alfredo sauce, and garlic to a large large saute pan over medium heat for about 5 minutes.
Once the cream cheese is melted, add the chicken and ½ cup of the shredded cheese.
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Stir the dip well, turn the temperature to low, and begin layering chips, dip and shredded mozzarella. Make one layer with about ⅓ of the dip, cheese, and chips.
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Melt in the oven at 375 degrees until melted.
Layer more chips, dip, and mozzarella.
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Melt in the oven at 375 degrees until melted.
Top with remaining.
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Trust me. The layers melted before more layers are crucial. If you layer, layer, and layer and then melting will mean your bottom layers aren’t going to be melted and the top will be cooked too much.
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I had some leftover chicken and sundried tomato alfredo pasta with lots of leftover chicken. I shredded it up which made for a wayyy better use of the leftovers than I planned!
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Thankful and Full

Are you still feeling full of thanks? I’m feeling ever so thankful lately. I love this season of thanks, kindness, and giving.

Mr. J and I spent some time last weekend handing out turkeys and Thanksgiving fixings with our local food pantry. It was a wonderful day and felt so good to know 130 deserving families in our area would have a meal to share with their families. They were so thankful. I was brought to tears when one woman I was helping to her car told me she hadn’t turned her heat on yet.

The food pantry had a great system in place and I was thrilled to see how much the recipients got. In addition to the turkey, they got to choose a pie, then they got a roasting pan for the turkey filled with sides. I was glad we could help since we’re so lucky ourselves. I’ve never been hungry and it breaks my heart to think about it.

My sis and I are signed up to deliver baskets to critically ill patients in a few weeks. My office has taken on filling these wish-list baskets before, and Mr. J and I did some last year. Community Servings delivers 395,000 meals to critically or chronically ill patients and their families annually. They offer nutrition counseling and hands-on job training. Their mission is inspiring. I love how much they fill gaps real people face and how genius they are in using what they already have to help others.
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It is lovely to read facebook posts expressing gratitude rather than complaints. I have so much to be thankful for and I this season is a great reminder of how lucky many of us are.

Apple Cheesecake Dip

It is almost Thanksgiving and I have an easy 3 ingredient dip/dessert for you to have on hand if you’re worried about what you’ve planned to make. Or maybe you need one more thing to keep the masses fed.
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I saw this apple cheesecake dip on pinterest and thought it sounded awesome. It is one of those foods that just can’t LOOK as good as it tastes. I added it to a dinner of appetizers and it was awesome.

Apple Cheesecake Dip

Adapted from Cooking Classy

Ingredients:

8oz cream cheese
¼ cup caramel ice cream topping
¼ cup toffee pieces
apples for dipping

Directions:

Allow the cream cheese to soften slightly.
Beat cream cheese, caramel sauce, and toffee bits.
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Serve with sliced apples.

This has such great flavor for just a few ingredients. I liked the apple dippers but graham crackers would be good, or animal crackers.

The original recipe has the apples dipped into the cream cheese dip and then into crushed graham crackers. I added the toffee in the dip instead for a pop of crunch.
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This is a crowd pleaser and a super easy one to whip up. Something about it says fall to me, but apples are available all the time so I’m not sure where my season-ness is coming from. I definitely recommend this dip for an easy appetizer or light dessert. I love to be sure there are a few simple items when I’m hosting for an easy check mark on your list.

Tip: a few drips of lemon juice will help the apples not to brown. Prep the dip and refrigerate until you serve it. Slice the apples when you’re ready to eat!

(Plus, this one got Mr. J eating some fruit. Shhh! Don’t tell him!)

Atlanta Eats

To celebrate Sis’ birthday we jetted off to Atlanta for the weekend. It was a fun-filled, sight-seen, deliciously-eaten weekend. Remember last year we went to Charleston?

We went to Juke Joint for a local dinner and were pretty surprised how much fun the jazz was. I wouldn’t say I’ve ever been into jazz but it was so fun with our southern dinner!
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I hemmed and hawed between a few entrees but just kept coming back to the fried chicken. I got to pick two sides so I went with mac & cheese and fried green tomatoes. When in the south…fried and fried and cheese!
atlanta_juke_chicken_590_390 The chicken was so good and actually unlike any I’ve ever had. It had the slightest sweetness to the crunchy batter. The mac and cheese wasn’t amazing, but good for a few bites. The fried green tomatoes had a little red pepper aoli and goat cheese. Ohh my word. It was a great meal.

Sis chose the grilled pork with peach barbecue sauce. Hers came with garlic mashed potatoes and bacon baked beans. The potatoes had a very genuine garlic flavor. They weren’t kidding. It was really garlicy and really good.
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Our drinks were fun. She went with the Miss Ceeley’s Fruit Punch. How could you go wrong in the south with a drink named that?! It came in a mason jar and had lemon moonshine and pineapple. Makes me want to sit on a porch!
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I got the Sneaky Sneaky with sweet tea vodka, lemonade, and lemon. It didn’t taste like alcohol at all. Very sneaky sneaky indeed. Sweet Tea Vodka needs to make it to the north.
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Our lunch/dinner another day was at a super cute bbq place. It was packed at 3pm which definitely is a testament to the food. Apparently Fox Bros.  is ranked #1 bbq in Atlanta. Wow!

We both got pulled pork and loved it. The bbq sauce was super tangy and vinegary. I got onion rings and she got tots, just so we’d have some variety.
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It was a warm day and sweet tea with bbq felt like just what we were supposed to be doing.

We had a fun weekend and we were glad to see a city very different than our own. I don’t think we’re in a hurry to get back, but it we loved the history (we toured CNN! MLK Jr. sites, Olympic Park, etc) found it super clean, friendly, and of course we thought the food was fun. What more could we ask for?

What I Ate: Top Your Own Oatmeal Bar

What I Ate series is a Friday post that was fun and/or delicious but doesn’t require a recipe. These guys are easy to whip up and can make your Friday fun and delicious. Happy Friday!

My office has the best appetites! We decided to have an oatmeal bar and it was a fun and quick meal to share. I brought in oatmeal and everyone brought fun toppings. We use hot water from our water cooler. It was easier than our usual elaborate potluck.

I offered anyone who doesn’t-do-oatmeal could bring-their-own cereal or yogurt/etc and enjoy our toppings. I had pumpkin butter, cinnamon chips, and a dash of cinnamon on mine. It was very festively fallish.

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I mayyy have thought it was more fun than anyone else. Trust me, it was awesome. Don’t listen to my colleagues.