Are You Ready for Some Football?

I'll be honest with you, watching the Super Bowl, like actually watching it, is not my favorite thing to do of lovely mid-winter's eve. It's actually not even physically possible for me to do; I get bored about 30 minutes into the game, and then I start wondering why I'm even watching the Super Bowl, and then I get to wandering around or wanting to change the channel to watch House Hunters. But ever year I end up watching it anyway because I need some sort of an excuse to serve a whole bunch of my appetizers and call it dinner. This year I suppose I have another reason as well, since the man who lives with me is from Wisconsin, and he keeps bringing up something called "Green Bay", I dunno, "Slackers", or maybe it was "Packers". I dunno. What I do know is that I need to get my game plan ready for this Sunday. Here are a few of my favorite game-day fares:

Hot Dips:
Garlic Artichoke Dip-ourbestbites.com
Chili Con Queso Dip-ourbestbites.com
Homemade Dulce De Leche-ourbestbites.com
White Bean Dip-ourbestbites.com
Buffalo Chicken Dip-allrecipes.com
Lighter Buffalo Chicken Dip-skinnytaste.com
Hot Chorizo and Cheese Dip-melskitchencafe.com

Cool Dips:
Pimiento Cheese Dip-thelunacafe.com
Carmelized Onion Dip (and a recipe for homemade potato chips!)-spoonwithme.wordpress.com

Bigger Fillers:
Bacon Wrapped Sausages-busycooks
Chicken Meatballs with Hney-Chipotle Sauce-noblepig.com
Buffalo Chicken Pizza-culinarycory.com
Skinny-Mini Baked Potatoes-familyfreshcooking.com
Sweet Hot Mustard Chicken Wings-foodwishes.blogspot.com
Slow Cooker BBQ Pork Sandwhiches-erinsfoodfiles.com
Super Bowl Chili-nookandpantry.com, or Boilermaker Chili-allrecipes.com

Sweet Treats:
Peanut Butter Oreo cheesecake bites-crepesofwrath.com
Football Brownie Bites-whatsgabbycooking.com
Super Bowl Oreo Truffle-bakerella.com


Tips for making your Super Bowl a smidge healthier:

• Use part skim ricotta cheese to substitute for mayonnaise in dip recipes. I do this for the Garlic Artichoke Dip and nearly anything else that calls for mayonnaise, because, in truth, mayonnaise is gross. It seriously gives me the creeps. I mean, who really wants to scoop up a big glob of flavored mayonnaise and shove it in their mouths and exclaim "Yum!"......And if you think it jiggles a lot on the outside, just think of how it jiggles once it's inside. Down with mayonnaise!
  
• Cottage cheese makes a good substitute for sour cream in ranch and french onion dips
• When possible, used reduced-fat versions of sour cream and cream cheese. I myself prefer to substitute Neufchatel cheese for cream cheese instead of reduced-fat cream cheese. It's 1/3 the calories but not rubbery-textured like reduced-fat cream cheese.
• Serve plenty of veggies and fruits alongside the crackers. And maybe place a few whole- or multi-grain, low fat cracker options out there too.
  
• Eat a real dinner before indulging in appetizers. In theory, you should eat less this way because you've already eaten a real meal. Note: I have no intentions of doing this.
• At half time, get up and take a walk around town. Go for a bike ride. If it's cold outside, play charades and really get into it.
  

Anyway you go, "full flavor" or "figure-friendly," just enjoy the fact that you get to round up some great people for some great food. And if anyone has a cheese head hat, please tell me where I can get one. I would like nothing more than to watch my cheese head husband wear one for 4 hours (am I kidding anyone??? you all that it's me who really wants to wear it, right?)-that would be a GREAT Super Bowl.