easy cheesy spinach artichoke dip.

I just love appetizers. It's always nice to have a tasty, quick recipe that you can take to a friend's house to help out with dinner, or to serve at your own house when you have company, like we did this week for the LSU-Bama game. This spinach artichoke dip is sort of our "MVP" appetizer. Patrick and I may or may not have even made this for ourselves for dinner before. It's that good.

We've been asked for this recipe multiple times, so I thought I'd just go ahead and post it on here for all. I think it's just as good, if not better than spinach dips I've had at restaurants. It's also super convenient, since you can make it the day before, put it in the fridge, and just bake it right before you eat it. Enjoy! :)

E + P’s Easy Cheesy Spinach Dip

• 1 (10 oz) package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained
• 6 oz (3/4 package) cream cheese, softened
• 10 oz Alfredo sauce (we use Bertolli’s – 2/3 of a 15 oz jar)
• 1 (14 oz) can/jar of artichoke hearts (they can be marinated or not), drained and chopped 
• 4 cloves minced garlic (I just use the jarred kind, because it's easy)
• 1 to 1 ½ cups shredded mozzarella
• 1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese
•  a dash of cayenne pepper

Preheat oven to 350.

Add all the ingredients to a bowl and mix them up (the cream cheese is difficult to mix, but don't worry about that yet).

Drain the spinach by squeezing it with a paper towel. 

I don't like big chunks of artichoke, so I chop them pretty small. 

Made this batch the day before, put the lid on my bowl, and stored it in the fridge 

Spread into an 8 x 8 baking dish, cover with aluminum foil, and bake at 350 for about 30 minutes.

Uncover and check consistency. You will need to stir it to mix the cream cheese in well. Add more cayenne pepper if you so desire. I put it back in the oven for a couple minutes (without the aluminum foil), just to make sure it's hot and bubbly.

Serve with tortilla chips or toasty bread!

p.s. - We got the basic recipe for this (then tweaked it a bit) from allrecipes.com, which is our absolute favorite cooking website. We have an account, so we can save our favorite recipes and ones that we want to try (by category). You can also search for recipes by ingredients that you already have. The best part is all of the recipes are rated and reviewed, so you can read the changes other people made to make it even better. You should check it out!

the great closet clean-out.

If you read my post last week, you know that one of my main goals for 2012 is to have a more simplified and organized house (and life). Clutter annoys me, and I hate not being able to find things. The older I get, the more I realize that the "everything has a place" frame of mind makes life soooo much easier in the long run.

Organizing my whole house is a daunting task. We don't have a huge house, but we do have a LOT of stuff. That's why I like the idea my friend Bailey had about having monthly resolutions - it breaks your "New Year's Resolutions" down into manageable goals that you're more likely to accomplish (you can read her post about that here). I may try to choose about 2 to 5 projects for my house each month (depending on how expensive/involved they are).

This month, my first organizational task was organizing my Christmas decorations as we put them away. I like to leave them out to enjoy the week after Christmas, but the first week of January I am ready for them to be in storage. 

My mom bought me this great binder a while ago for organizing everything that involves Christmas. I like how this page of the binder has a place for describing what the box looks like, what's in it, and where it's located. Everything was such a mess this year, so it will be nice to have it all sorted out for 2012 :)

Once everything was boxed up, it went to the top shelf of our bedroom closet (which you really need a ladder to reach, so it's good for things that are only needed once a year).  

Speaking of the bedroom closet...

Since I'm going back to school next week (boooo) and I have had a couple days off this week, I decided it would be a great time to move onto organizational project #2: my closet. I've been dreading this since we moved in, so I decided I might as well just go on and get it over with.

Here's a picture of it as of Monday. Please try not to judge me too much. 

Oh the horror. It's shameful. I'm so embarrassed. But I needed you to see what a disaster it was, because now it looks like....

THIS.

Boom! Take that, closet! I feel so accomplished. Here's some more "before & afters" of the details: 

BEFORE

Even though I already had these shoe racks (from Target), my shoes were still a sloppy mess.

AFTER

I sorted out all my summery shoes that I definitely won't be wearing for the next few months, put them in a clear box (it's meant to roll under a bed), then put one of my shoe racks on top of it. I can still access my sandals pretty easily, but they're not cluttering up my space. 

BEFORE

This shelf was still cluttered with all my purses, tote bags, swimsuits, and whatever else I threw up there when we were moving last summer.

AFTER

 Now everything is sorted into containers - swimsuits, summer clothes, hats, and tote bags. I leave the black duffel bag and the canvas tote sitting out on the shelf since that's what I usually take on weekend trips to Knoxville and/or Carthage :)

BEFORE

I have no excuse for this. It's a disaster. 

AFTER

I bought this Elfa shelving unit at the Container Store (everything Elfa is 30% off now through the middle of February!). 

The drawers are the perfect size for my sweaters, t-shirts, jeans, and workout clothes (that I hope to be using when we join a gym..ahem...) 

It's also nice that I can store my jewelry on top of the shelf...thereby de-cluttering my dresser in the bedroom. 

I made the sharpie word art just for fun. I chose this Bible verse to remind me of what my Heavenly Father considers beautiful...for those mornings I reeeallly don't want to get ready, and don't feel pretty, and actually just want to get back into bed in my pajamas.

Tips + Tidbits 

• The necklace holder on the back wall was an idea from Pinterest - it's just a towel bar + shower curtain hooks
• Put rolled up magazines in your boots to help them keep their shape
• We use 2 hampers, each with 2 compartments, to sort clothes as we put them in the hamper. It really makes doing laundry easier when they're already sorted! 

Whew. I'm glad that task is (mostly) finished. Patrick's side of the closet needs a bit more attention, but I will give him credit in that the vast majority of the mess was mine. I need to keep working on getting rid of clothes I don't wear anymore (I still have a ridiculous amount of clothes from high school), but it's a process. I think I'm going to start giving them a quick go-through at the beginning of each month. How do you keep your closet organized?