The 'magic' part of this is how it adapts to almost any combination.

This is a recipe I came up with about three years ago. Since then I've made this so many ways and for so many functions, pot lucks, luncheons, church suppers, company dinners, even Sunday lunch for just DH and me. No one has ever known they were eating LC!

Basic Recipe:

1 pkg chopped spinach, thawed and sqeezed dry
1/4 cup chopped onions
6 slices bacon, crisply cooked and crumbled
6 slices American cheese, diced
2 lg eggs
2 cups heavy cream
1 can quartered artichoke hearts, tough ends removed
garlic powder to taste
onion powder to taste
S&P to taste
2 tsp nutmeg or to taste
1/2 tsp cayenne or to taste

Preheat oven to 375.
Cook and crumble bacon, pour off all but 2 TBSP dripping. Reserve extra dripping.
In the same frying pan saute onions until golden.
Add 1 TBSP butter and melt.
Add spinach and artichoke hearts, cook lightly, remove from heat.
Into a casserole dish, pour remaining bacon dripping. Put the dish in the oven for five minutes to heat dripping and coat the bottom of the dish.
Finely dice cheese slices, add to spinach mixture.
In large mixing bowl beat two eggs, add cream and spices, continue to mix.
Add spinach mixture and bacon crumbles to combine.
Pour into heated casserole dish, dot with butter and bake for 35-40 minutes until brown and bubbly on top.
Let the casserole rest out of the oven for 10 minutes before serving.
Makes 4-6 servings.

Additions: canned or fresh cooked chicken, canned tiny shrimp, canned crab, diced cooked ham, browned ground beef, etc. Be creative!

Variations: swiss cheese (I use Kraft Delux Swiss and American slices, I like the creamy way they melt), brie with rind removed, havarti, jack or any other creamy cheese. I haven't used cream cheese, though, don't think it has enough flavour for this dish.

I've also tried putting the bacon crumbles on top for a little crunch, but found they became too hard and solid, so went back to combining them with the rest of the ingredients.

I've also made it without the bacon when I used ground beef, just as good. Could be left out of any variation.

Hi there!

just wanted to say that we just made this recipe last night and it was very tasty!! having some of the leftovers as I speak!

We did use ground 'beef' instead of the bacon and used 1 C. cream and 1 C. hood milk to reduce the calories a little (I have to watch them). It reminded me of a twist on creamed spinach or something. Very tasty!

next time we make this I might change up the cheese a little just for fun.

Thanks for the recipe!

glad you enjoyed it, substituting Hoods is a good idea!

We brought food to work yesterday, and everyone liked this dish. I also used 1/2 Hoods and 1/2 cream. I left out the butter, and I used a reduced fat bacon so I put 1T Macadamia nut oil in the bottom of the casserole dish. I used a 10 oz bag of fresh pre-washed spinach, and I used Havarti cheese. Instead of mixing the bacon in I sprinkled it on top, which looked very pretty. Dh was jealous that I was taking it to work. When I put the recipe in fitday using my ingredients it came to 24 net carbs for the whole casserole! I divided it into 12 servings, although if you were serving it at home 8 servings might be better. In any case, lots of flavor for very few carbs!

Jen