This Simple Decor Trick Will Take Your Summer Party to New Levels

Ingredients For Our Easy Spinach Artichoke Dip

• 1 (10 oz) package of frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained
• 1 (14 oz) can of artichoke hearts, drained and chopped
• 1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
• 1 cup mayonnaise
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
• Salt and pepper, to taste

How To Make Easy Spinach Artichoke Dip

1. Preheat your oven to 375°F.
2. In a large mixing bowl, combine the drained spinach, chopped artichoke hearts, Parmesan cheese, mozzarella cheese, mayonnaise, sour cream, minced garlic, garlic powder, onion powder, salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes if using. Mix well until combined.
3. Transfer the mixture to an oven-safe baking dish, and spread it out evenly.
4. Bake for about 25 to 30 minutes, or until the dip is hot and bubbly, and the top is golden brown.
5. Once baked, remove the dip from the oven and let it cool for a few minutes before serving. If desired, garnish with chopped green onions for an extra pop of flavor!
6. Serve warm with tortilla chips, crispy bread slices, or vegetables for dipping!

Notes For This Spinach Artichoke Dip Recipe

• Using frozen spinach and canned artichokes makes this recipe easier and quicker. You have the option to use fresh ingredients, if you want to!
• Add a sprinkling of red pepper flakes if you want the spinach artichoke dip to have a kick of spice.
• Keep an eye on the dip while it bakes, making sure it doesn't bubble over. If you're struggling to get that golden brown layer on the top, broil the dip for a few minutes at the end of its baking time.
• You aren't totally limited to Parmesan and mozzarella cheese. Though these cheeses make for the most traditional flavor, you can throw in some different kinds of cheeses to amp up the taste.

Ingredients For My Easy Buffalo Chicken Dip Recipe

• 2 cups cooked chicken, shredded (I adore this pre-cooked shredded chicken from Target. It's such a time-saver! You could also use rotisserie chicken – yum.)
• 1 cup Buffalo sauce (The best buffalo sauces from my experience are the Primal Kitchen Non-Dairy Buffalo Sauce and the Noble Made Buffalo Dipping & Wing Sauce. They're both perfectly tangy and spicy.)
• 1 cup ranch dressing
• 1 cup cream cheese, softened (I soften mine in the microwave for ~30 seconds.)
• 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
• 1/2 cup fresh green onions, chopped (for garnish)
• Salt + pepper, optional to taste

Serve with Ruffles, tortilla chips, celery sticks, carrots, or anything else you'd like!

If you have a larger crowd coming to your Super Bowl party, you may want to consider doubling this recipe or preparing additional appetizers to make sure there's enough food for everyone to chow down on.

Directions For This Easy Buffalo Chicken Dip Recipe

1. Preheat your oven to 350°F.
2. In a large bowl, combine the shredded chicken, buffalo sauce, ranch dressing, softened cream cheese, and shredded cheddar cheese. Mix well until all ingredients are evenly combined.
3. Transfer the mixture to a lightly greased baking dish, spreading it out evenly with a spatula.
4. Bake for ~30 minutes, or until the Buffalo chicken dip is hot and bubbly around the edges. Look out for browning on the top, too – that's the good stuff!
5. Once baked, remove the dish from the oven. Garnish with green onion.
6. Serve the Easy Buffalo Chicken Dip hot with the dippers of your choice. It's also super yummy as cold leftovers, though there likely won't be any after you make this for friends and family!

As a Power of Women honoree, Mariska was recognized in regards to her work as an advocate for sexual assault survivors. She took the stage and used her platform to discuss rape and assault conviction reversals, shining a light on the recent overturned ruling in Harvey Weinstein's landmark NYC case. Here's what she said:

Today I want to talk about reversing convictions, and more specifically I want to talk to you about how impossible it is to reverse mine. It’s impossible to reverse my conviction that survivors matter. It is impossible to reverse my conviction that what happens to us matters, and that our society must respond to survivors with a more a compassionate, holistically, deeper, and more nuanced understanding of what healing means.

It is impossible to reverse my conviction that after a trauma, survivors can reclaim lives of hope, of possibility, of audacious risk, beautiful intimacy, and glorious, glorious abundant joy. And I stand before you as evidence of that statement.

It is impossible to reverse my conviction that we must listen to survivors as experts on what justice means. It is extraordinary how little their voices are consulted, let alone incorporated, in the process of deciding how to repair harm. Justice is not a one-size-fits-all journey.

It is impossible to reverse my conviction that patriarchal impunity has to end. Patriarchal impunity is when a male-dominated system exempts perpetrators from punishment. Studies show that only 20% of all rape cases in the U.S. are reported to the police, and that between 5 and 0% of all rapes result in a guilty plea or a conviction. So why do 80% of victims not report? Because they're met with a system that grants impunity to perpetrators; a system that blames victims; a system that accepts only those victims who are experienced as "real" rape; a system that completely misunderstands the neurobiology of trauma, which causes behavior in women that doesn't fit the picture of how a "real victim" would act.

Is that change needed that victims should just pull themselves together? Just buck up and report anyway? No. No, it's the system that receives them that needs to change

It is impossible to reverse my conviction — and the conviction of my extraordinary team, The Joyful Heart — that the backlog of untested rape kits can be brought to zero; that the testing of all new kits must be mandated; that we need a statewide kit tracking system; and that survivors have the right to access the status of their kits.

It is impossible to reverse my conviction that grammar — yes, grammar — that we use when we speak about rape must change. In the sentence, "A woman is raped," there's a crime and there's a victim, but there's no perpetrator. Where's the perpetrator? Where is he? Statistically, as we know, most likely he's walking free. He's so free that he doesn't even appear in the language about the crime that he committed. Is that not extraordinary? It's extraordinary that in the very grammar, the perpetrator goes free. Reintroducing perpetrators in the language of rape will make some very unwieldy grammar, but that's the nature of change. It's unwieldy, it's messy, it's uncomfortable, but it's necessary.

Hargitay continued on in her prolific speech to describe that rape shouldn't be considered a "crime of passion" because it's "not simply the next step in the trajectory of his passion" when a man takes a consensual hookup too far and assaults a woman against her will. She stated that it's "an exercise of power," doubling down that the language we use is important.

The speech went on to address that rape is both about power and control, as a "construct" that was "built, and assembled, and reinforced over time." She noted that there are people with these positions of power — and she specifically called out those in the entertainment industry — that could make a difference and aligned themselves to victims and survivors.

After this and some other remarks, Hargitay specifically called out the Weinstein conviction reversal. She said:

I do want to say something about the Harvey Weinstein conviction, specifically about the reason that it was overturned: too many women's voices. Too many women's voices were allowed to speak. Hallelujah! Amen! I can't imagine anything more beautiful than that. The Daily podcast episode talked about how it was so risky for the prosecution to have that many women testify. Risky to let women speak? You're damn right it is!

Too many women speaking brings change. Too many women speaking shakes the establishment. Too many women means we get listened to more, and people might actually hear what we have to say. Look what happened when women started saying just two words, right? Me too — just as an example — a tidal wave of change. Me too.

And then of course, there was the response: the Me Too Movement. The backlash. The examination of whether the changes that have come are lasting, or are even positive. Of course there's a backlash! What did they expect? For women to speak repeatedly, loudly, together, with a purpose — for there to be no backlash? The backlash is evidence of how powerful those voices were, how powerful those voices ARE.

Watch Mariska Hargitay's Full Speech Here

Turns out that your TV heroes really can be your IRL heroes after all. Long live Olivia Benson! Long live Mariska Hargitay!