Snacks!

Ok, so maybe its ironic but although I love to cook I am not a girl that likes to sit down and eat a meal. I am a snacker by nature and would rather snack my way through any meal than actually sit down to a multi-course meal. So when Rex and I were planning our house-warming party and knew we were going to have lots of people coming in and out of the house I planned on making multiple dips. A snackers dream! I was able to make all the dips the day before and in just about 1 hour. It took another 30-40 minutes the day of to plate, chop apples and slice bread to dip into the dips, but I was very pleased with the outcome. I decided to do sweet and savory dips.

I will be posting all the recipes I used, but today I am sticking to the savory dips. I made spinach dip and salsa. I wanted to make guacamole, but by the time I went to the market on Friday night, nothing was ripe enough! I would've just stuck it in a bag with a banana to ripen it quickly, however, that seemed like a lot of work for the day-of the party. Regardless, we still had 2 very yummy savory dips that were simple and delicious. I make salsa a lot (usually 1x/month), so I don't actually measure my ingredients anymore but I think the ones given are good approximations. Also, if you love salsa- buy your ingredients at a Mexican market. I think I spend about $4 for 2-3 cups of fresh salsa on a bad sale day :) So cheap! This particular day was a good sale day and I spent less than $2 on all the ingredients (the cilantro was $0.10).

Spinach Dip (served w/ tortilla chips, sourdough bread bites, and carrots)

1 c mayo [I use SmartBeat- it's 10 calories per tbsp and tastes the same as the normal 100 cal/tbsp mayo]
1 (16 oz) container sour cream [non-fat of course!]
1 pkg dry leek soup mix [found next to onion soup mix]
1 (4 oz) can of water chestnuts
1/2 (10 oz) pkg frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained

Mix everything together well and chill for 6 hours! Really that's it :)

Salsa (served w/ tortilla chips)

6-8 Roma tomatoes
1 white onion
2-3 jalapenos [greener and darker = spicier; I usually use 3 but I wanted it mild I used 2 & removed seeds]
2-3 cloves garlic
1/2-3/4 c cilantro [I bruise mine w/ my knife before chopping for more flavor]
2 limes, juiced

1. Cut Roma tomatoes length-wise and remove fleshy interior of the tomatoes (otherwise you will have a very watery salsa!). Dice Roma tomatoes or if you are lucky like me, you have a chop-chop which means it'll dice everything for you!
2. Dice white onion and add to diced tomatoes in mixing bowl.
3. Mince garlic, dice jalapenos, and add to the tomatoes and onion.
4. Bruise cilantro and finely dice. Add lime juice to the bowl and a dash of salt. Mix well and refridgerate to allow flavors to marinate together. Enjoy!

* Since Salsa is labor-some in the amount of chopping it needs to have done, I literally throw all the ingredients (usually 1-2 at a time) into my chop-chop aka "Black & Decker Ergo 3-Cup Chopper". It literally chops everything so when I'm lazy or have a lot of chopping/dicing to do, I just throw my ingredients into this bad boy and it does everything for me. No work :) It is probably one of the best $20 we've spent in the kitchen. I rarely dice an onion anymore and when I do it's usually because I miss doing it (I'm weird like that!).