For Super Bowl Sunday, I made “healthier” spinach and artichoke dip and “as healthy as I could make it” pepperoni pizza dip. I also toasted pitas to make whole wheat pita chips. I’m happy to report that both dishes were a total success! Sadly I only took a picture of the pepperoni pizza dip ingredients, so you can’t see the finished product, but it looked pretty much like the picture featured on the site where I found the recipe, except I let mine stay in the oven a bit longer so the cheese really started to brown, which I liked. I also altered the recipe to cut out some fat and calories and I think it tasted quite delicious. Below here is the original recipe and then you can see my modifications in blue. Thanks to Julie from Table for Two for the inspiration!
INGREDIENTS:
2 (8 oz.) packets of cream cheese, room temperature I used low fat / nonfat cream cheese
1/2 cup sour cream I used greek yogurt instead
1 cup whole mozzarella cheese, shredded, plus more for topping I used low fat mozzarella cheese. Note that in the author’s post she swears that lowfat mozzarella cheese just doesn’t taste as good in this recipe. I decided to ignore that and go for it — I (and the friends who ate the dip) thought it was yummy and tasted very decadent with the lower fat cheese. The choice is yours!
1 cup pepperoni, sliced to half moons
1/4 cup chopped basil
2 tbsp. olive oil
INSTRUCTIONS:
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
- In a large bowl mix together cream cheese, sour cream, mozzarella, pepperoni, basil, and olive oil.
- Place mixture into a casserole dish and evenly smooth out the top with the back of a spoon.
- Take extra mozzarella cheese and cover the top of the mixture. Then take whole pepperoni rounds and place them on top of the mozzarella.
- Bake for 25 minutes, or until mixture is bubbly and cheese has melted.
- Serve hot with tortilla chips or sliced bread.
I also made healthy spinach and artichoke dip, as described by Monica of the Yummy Life. This recipe I followed almost exactly (I didn’t have red pepper flakes or a bell pepper. I also added a pinch of cayenne pepper). It was a huge hit and I will definitely be making it again. The cool thing about this is that I made it in my crock pot which made it super super easy.
- 2 (14 oz) cans artichoke hearts, drained and coarsely chopped
- 1 (10 oz) package frozen spinach, thawed, drained and squeezed dry
- 1 cup shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese
- 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
- 1 cup low-fat Greek yogurt
- 1 (8 oz) block 1/3-less-fat cream cheese, softened and cut in 1/2″ cubes
- 1 (8 oz) block fat-free cream cheese, softened and cut in 1/2″ cubes
- 4 cloves garlic, minced (1 tablespoon)
- 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
- Coat the slow cooker with cooking spray.
- Add all ingredients. Stir to combine, cover and cook until heated through. 1-1/2 to 2 hours on high, 3 to 4 hours on low.
- That’s it! Serve with veggies, bread, pitas, etc.
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