Top 5 Eating With A Game Day Snacks - Get Ready for the Super Bowl!!

Last year I did a Top 5 of my most successful Game Day snacks from the football season, so it's time for me to do that again. There are just days before the Super Bowl and if any of these strike your fancy, go get the ingredients!


My husband had some definite favorites throughout the season, so here are my Top 5! And I have to add for his behalf, GO GIANTS!!! (Sorry if you are a Patriots fan, we are NY'ers).


Number 5: Mozzarepas!

This street food was found at the Long Island Oyster Festival back in October and we loved them SO much, I had to try and make them on my own. The first time was a little rough, but they came out pretty tasty anyway and are a perfect little snack to munch on during the big game. The recipe for the Mozzarepas is here! Enjoy!


Number 4: Dips!

I made two very successful cheese spreads this season. One I couldn't eat (the Beer-Cheese Dip) and one I could (the Cranberry Habanero Cheese Spread). My husband devoured both, and I immensely enjoyed the one I could eat. The Beer-Cheese dip can be used on steak sandwiches as well! Many different things can be dipped in eat one, vegetables, chips, pretzels, etc., so they are very versatile. If you want to try a new spread/dip for the big day - try one of these!

Here is the recipe for the Beer-Cheese Dip!

Here is the recipe for the Cranberry Habanero Cheese Spread!


Number 3: Pepperoni Polenta Pizza Wheels!

This recipe was one of the more simple ones, yet one of the most delicious! I had bought a polenta log from Trader Joe's to try out and needed something to do with it. Being a lover of pizza (and all things pizza), I used the base as a crust to make a little pizza wheel. It was delicious! And the polenta is a little less carby than regular crust! These little bites would go fast at a Super Bowl party! Yum! Here is the recipe!!


Number 2: PITACHOS!!

This was one of my earlier snacks in the season, but definitely one of the yummiest. It was also the first time I made my own pita chips - and they were flavored pita chips at that! My husband and I were little piggies this day as we gobbled up this delightful snack.

Try it out, but careful, it can get a little messy! Here is the recipe!


Number 1: Chocolate Covered Pretzel Bites!

My last recipe of the season was mine, and my husband's, favorite, yet it is probably THE MOST simple recipe out there. Thanks to my friend Carly, who made it and posted it on her running blog, I decided I had to make these, and guess what? I've made two more batches since! These take just mere minutes to make and are the perfect salty and sweet snack to pop while watching the game. Try them out! Here is this recipe!


So there are my top 5. Hopefully you are inspired to make one of them!

Lastly, I leave you with this fun little snack - perfect for any football game!

Mini Football Subs!

You can't have a Super Bowl party without these tasty little meatball treats!

Enjoy February 5th everyone! I know the game will definitely be on in my house with my husband decked out in his Giants jersey, hat, slippers, etc. I know he's hoping they will win so he can buy little baby boy a Super Bowl t-shirt once they hit Modells.


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Game Day Snack Week 14 - Spicy Cheese Bread!

Sorry for the delay in posting this, since games started an hour ago where I live, but it was worth the wait!

Last night I was searching for a recipe to make and I typed "game day foods" into Google. I tried the word foods instead of snacks so I could hopefully get a little bit of a different search. it worked, and I found this list of 20 "hearty" game day recipes.

This one here (called Judy's Cheese Bread) caught my eye and my recipe was inspired by it, but I changed it completely. Well, I used different ingredients, the idea is still the same.

When I sent it to my husband for his approval he said "eh, it looks good but it isn't blowing me away." Well, too bad, I wanted to make it. (Yet as he was eating it he was like, "this is really good!!!"). Men.

It was REALLY easy to make, the cooking took the longest time. You can throw this together pretty quickly for people watching the game or a pack of hungry kids.

The original recipe contained sourdough bread, jack cheese, onions and melted butter. I used a hard wheat roll (I made individual sized instead of a huge loaf), a mix of sharp cheddar and Parmesan cheese and olive oil mixed with onion powder and paprika with a dash of crush red pepper flakes sprinkled over the top.

Click the link above for the original recipe, or follow mine below. You can always pick the cheese you like to use the most too and make your own creation!

And now, the recipe. Enjoy!!

Ingredients:

1 loaf round sourdough bread, unsliced ** (I used a hard wheat roll from our grocery store's bakery. You just need a "harder" bread, and mine made an individual size)
1/2 pound grated sharp cheddar and Parmesan mix (about 6-8 oz)
1/4 cup dried parsley
olive oil
onion powder
paprika
crushed red pepper flakes

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cut bread into diagonal slices, about 1 inch apart, stopping before you cut through the bottom of the loaf.

Cut bread in the opposite direction in the same manner, creating diagonal shaped cubes, taking care not to cut through to the bottom.


Carefully stuff the space in between each cube with cheese and parsley.


Pour some olive oil into a small bowl and mix in the desired amount of onion powder and paprika. Then, drizzle over the bread, making sure to get some in the cracks between the cubes. You can also brush some on top of the bread for extra flavor.

Wrap in foil and place in the oven for 20 minutes. Unwrap the top of the loaf and bake for 15 minutes more, to crisp up the crust.

Serve immediately.

Game Day Snack Week 12 - Chocolate Chip Cinnamon Mini Cakes

I got the recipe for this week from a coupon circular a few weeks ago. It was called Chocolate Chip Coffee Cake, but after making this and eating it, my husband and I can't figure out why it would be classified as coffee cake (unless since the instructions say to serve with coffee brings in the coffee part..), but they sure were tasty little afternoon treats. So, I am calling them mini cakes.

The recipe was very easy to make. It took me about 10 minutes to put all the ingredients together, and then 24 minutes to bake them.

They are easily transportable too!

I also had all of the ingredients in the house so I didn't have to buy anything special. That was great!

Here are the ingredients:

Non-stick cooking spray
2 1/2 cups Buttermilk pancake mix OR 2 1/2 cups light pancake mix
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Topping:
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 cup walnuts, finely chopped (optional, we did not use)


Here are the directions:

Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees F.

Coat an 8 or 9 inch square pan with non-stick cooking spray.

Combine the pancake mix, 1/3 cup sugar and chocolate chips in a medium sized bowl. Add in the water, sour cream and vanilla extract.

Blend well.

Using a cake scoop or an ice cream scoop, shape dough into 16 2-inch balls.

Place in 4 rows of 4 each in prepared pan.

Combine the topping ingredients in a small bowl and sprinkle over the dough.


Bake 24-26 minutes or until golden brown.

Cool for 10 minutes before serving.

Enjoy a sweet game day treat!

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Game Day MEAL Week 11 - Hearty Mac n Cheese Bake

Sorry for the delay, but with our team on at 8:30 pm (EST) tonight, my husband found no reason to hurry me along in making a snack for while he was watching football. So instead, we have something we can eat for dinner! A hearty Mac n Cheese bake - yum!

It's definitely very easy and it could be even easier depending which route you go. I cheated today (after cleaning up our backyard and getting all our patio furniture into the shed for winter) and used Kraft Mac n Cheese as my base.

If I wasn't feeling so lazy, I probably would have made the Mac n Cheese from scratch - so if you do that, just start with making your favorite recipe with nothing else in it besides the noodles and cheese.

The other ingredients we used were frozen mixed vegetables, chopped up turkey pepperoni (Hormel!), mango chicken sausage (from Trader Joe's, my favorite, but you can use whatever sausage you like), breadcrumbs and a little shredded cheddar.

Once the Mac n Cheese was done, we used half a bag of frozen mixed vegetables that we nuked slightly in the microwave to get them a little softer and mixed it into the noodles. Then we added the chopped pepperoni and sliced sausage and mixed everything until it was evenly distributed.

Then we sprinkled some breadcrumbs on the top, along with some shredded cheddar and baked it at 350 degrees F for about 20-25 minutes, until the breadcrumbs looked golden and crunchy.


The end result was deeeeelicious! (We stole some bites since it is for dinner). The pepperoni we have has a slight kick so it added that, while the sausage gave it a sweet element. It's definitely a heartier way to eat Mac n Cheese that will keep you full for a long time.

Although quick and easy, this turned out well and we'll definitely be making it again. Though I might try making my macaroni and cheese from scratch next time when I am not feeling so lazy!

Enjoy and happy game day!

Game Day Snack Week 9 - Sweet Potato Biscuits (a Paula Deen recipe)

My November Food Network Magazine was FULL of yummy things that I want to try. But one stood out for a game day recipe and that was Paula Deen's Fluffy Sweet Potato Biscuits.

I love sweet potatoes, and I love biscuits, and biscuits can easily be a fantastic game day snack. You can eat them plain, you can put spreads on them or you can dip them in things like flavored dip or chili.

The recipe was relatively easy. It took me about 40 minutes from start to finish, and I only had a little trouble at the end working with the dough (as usual, doughy products usually are my downfall but I succeeded today, just had a bit of trouble). And the only other "issue" was that for some reason, I do not have a round cookie cutter. I could have used a glass to form the biscuits, but decided to use my Star of David cookie cutter instead. Hey - it worked and now we have fun star-shaped biscuits!

The biscuits turned out delicious and my husband and I both really enjoyed them. Part of me wonders if I used too much milk (I think I did, if I didn't second guess myself at one point I think my biscuits would have been a tad fluffier).

All in all, we were excited to eat these today (in addition to my husband's favorite game day creation from last season, the Pepperoni Cheese Fries), and we are excited to eat the extra biscuits with dinner this week.

I could also see making these for Thanksgiving!

I am happy to say this recipe was a success after last week's meringue disaster...

And now... the recipe (from FoodNetwork.com). I did not alter this in any way but next time I might just to add my own spin :-)

Ingredients:

3/4 cup cooked mashed sweet potato (about 1 large sweet potato)
1/3 to 1/2 cup whole milk, as needed
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into small bits


Directions:

Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 425 degrees F. Grease a baking sheet (with butter, oil or cooking spray).

In a small bowl, whisk together the sweet potato and 1/3 cup milk. Set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Cut in the butter with your hands, a pastry blender or two knives until the mixture resembles coarse meal.

Add the sweet potato mixture and fold gently to combine.

Add the remaining milk a little at a time until all the flour is moistened. The amount of milk you will need will depend on the moisture of the sweet potato. (This is where I second guessed myself. I poured in some of the remaining milk and mixed and wondered if I needed more. Thinking back, I think I shouldn't have poured the rest in...oh well!)

Sprinkle a small handful of flour on a work surface. Turn the dough out onto the surface and knead lightly 2 to 3 times with the palm of your hand until the mixture comes together. (This was the only part that gave me trouble because I suck at working with dough. At least the recipe turned out okay!)

Pat the dough out into a 1/2-inch-thick round.

Using a 2 1/2-inch-round biscuit cutter, cut the dough into biscuits. (Or Jewish Stars, haha!)

Gently re-roll the scraps and cut out more biscuits.

Place the biscuits on the prepared baking sheet and bake until light golden brown and firm to the touch, 12 to 14 minutes.

Serve these fluffy biscuits warm or at room temperature.

Enjoy!!

Game Day Snack Week 7 - Sweet n Tangy Dogs

So this week is definitely an easy snack, and halfway cheating on being creative. My husband and I only had Saturday to get him a new baseball autograph at a show for a picture he has been doing, pick up our baby stroller before they sold out of the one we wanted, pack, get my husband a hair cut, have him pick up his new glasses and have our exterminator come to do an outside soil treatment to keep the house safe from pests for the next year. Sounds like a lot, huh?

Since we're going on our last minor jaunt before I can't travel much anymore, we had a lot to cram in on one solitary weekend day. So I needed this week's recipe to be easy.

I found this AWESOME recipe for a delicious sounding watermelon slushee (sans alcohol for me) that I wanted to try but we didn't have watermelon in the house and I just didn't feel like going to buy some (especially since it is so overpriced now because it is not watermelon season!) So that recipe will be done another time. It would have been easy to make for the afternoon but oh well.

SO instead, I used my dinner from Friday night to be my inspiration. I had turkey dogs (hot dogs for people who don't eat turkey dogs), so I found a way to dress it up into something more unique, and add some fruit into it as well! My combination turned out tasting fantastic.

I had a cheddar and red grape hot dog. YUM!! I always like having cheese on my hot dogs, so that was nothing new. We had a bunch of red grapes in the house because I have been on a grape kick, so I sliced a few up.

After the hot dog was cooked, I put a thin layer of ketchup down, then some grapes, then a little more ketchup and then some shredded cheddar. This combination resulted in a very sweet and tangy taste and I definitely enjoyed it.

I knew the fruit would work from when I made the Surf Dogs back in the summer of 2010 and those had pineapple on them. And it is a good way to sneak some fruit into a fussy little one that doesn't want to eat healthy!

I could also see finely dicing some onion and sprinkling that on the dog as well.

This is obviously very easy to make, and can be made on the road if you have all your ingredients prepared. (like chopping grapes and onions and bringing them already cut). You can use it on mini cocktail wieners or full sized dogs.

It's a fantastic game day food.

So, enjoy your football games this week! And if anyone has any requests or ideas for something they would like to see, leave a comment or go to the Facebook fan page and leave a suggestion!

And sorry for the lack of creativity but vacation calls. Next week I will have a special Halloween treat!

Game Day Snack Week 6 - Mozzarepas!

First, yes, this game day recipe is definitely after the first kick-off, but, well, sorry. My husband and I have some busy busy weekends ahead of us before we have an invasion of the little one, so we were running some errands this morning.

I can guarantee that next week's recipe will be up by Saturday since we are away on Sunday!!

Second, this week's recipe was inspired by the Oyster Festival we went to on Long Island yesterday. I love the Oyster Festival. And don't worry - this recipe has nothing to do with seafood... this was something we ate in the main food court. The food court at the Oyster Festival is usually full of new and different foods that we have never eaten, as well as traditional fair foods like hot dogs and pickles and roasted corn (yum!).

While we were roaming to find some things we never ate, we found polenta fries, which unfortunately we didn't get to try because that food truck was having a problem with the deep fryer. We ate butterscotch chicken wings, which were good until butterscotch got all over you (including in my hair, which did not make me too happy). We also walked past something called "mozzarepas." We had never heard of these, but people were going crazy for them and one woman remarked "these are outrageous," when I inquired as to what they were.

So, what are mozzarepas? Well, they are basically a corn bread grilled cheese, just for an easy explanation. It's 2 pieces of corn patties with melted mozzarella cheese in between. And it was delicious. So we decided to make it for game day.

It was actually hard to find a recipe for these - they are kind of limited on the internet. But, I found this one and it seemed easy enough. I did have to make a few last minute substitutions, only because we didn't have something in the house, but it still turned out just fine.

I used white corn meal instead of yellow because we only had white in the house (not much difference in taste, I had researched this in the past), and I had to omit the ground corn kernels because we didn't have any in the house either, so we just added a little more corn meal instead.

But next time - I will make sure I have some frozen corn to try that out!!

We also added a special touch for some more zing - we have mango habanero jelly in the house so when we put the cheese in the middle, we also added a dab of that jelly. It tasted delicious with the extra added taste!! (But the original version is very tasty as well.)

We also made an original version and dipped it in pasta sauce - YUM!!

Our home made mozzarepas were nothing compared to the pros at the festival, but they were tasty enough to eat at home and serve during a party. Maybe with some more practice I can master the true form of the mozzarepa. At least they were easy to make!!

The whole process took us about 20-25 minutes, so definitely not too shabby!!

The recipe listed below makes 8 patties or 4 sandwiches. We halved it because we were just trying it out.

Ingredients:

1 cup milk
5 tablespoons butter
1 cup frozen corn kernels (we omitted just because we didn't have in the house)
1 cup finely ground yellow corn meal (we used white only because we had that in the house)
1/4 cup flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup sugar
1 cup grated mozzarella cheese
mild swiss or mozzarella cheese, sliced

Directions:

Bring the milk to a boil in a small pan, add the butter and let stand and cool slightly.

Grind the frozen corn kernels in a food processor.

In a large bowl, mix the ground corn, corn meal, salt, sugar, flour and shredded mozzarella.

Make a well in the center of the mixture and slowly add the milk and butter mixture. Stir until there are no lumps.

Heat a lightly buttered griddle to medium - spoon the batter on the griddle to form pancakes. (We used our little "perfect pancake" rings - they helped soooo much!)


Cook the pancakes in batches until crispy and golden brown on each side.

Place the sliced cheese on one pancake and cover it with another to make a sandwich. Cook over low heat until the cheese is melted - flip it a few times.

Serve warm and enjoy!!

I am so glad this person at the website above listed this recipe so I had something easy to work off of.

Game Day Snack Week 5 - Mini Football Subs

First, sorry for not getting this post up early enough in the day. I've been battling a nasty cold-type disease the past few days so I am just not moving fast enough.

Second, luckily, despite feeling like crud, I still have an appetite so when my husband stumbled across this little recipe, I thought it was so cute that I just had to make them.

These little subs can be pre-made at home and taken on the road with you for tailgating...just warm them up in the grill when you get there! Kids will also get a kick out of them and will hopefully gobble them right up!

They are very easy to make as well. All you need are small rolls, cheese, sauce and your favorite meatball recipe. (Or if you have a market that sells meatballs near you, you can just cheat and buy a few meatballs that are already pre-made!!)

Ingredients:

Meatballs
Spaghetti Sauce
Shredded Cheese
Individual sized rolls

Directions:

First, prepare your favorite meatball recipe, shaping each meatball into a mini football before cooking. (If you cheat and buy pre-made meatballs, just cut them in half and shape them slightly).

Once they're cooked, add the meatballs to a skillet of spaghetti sauce and warm them through.

For each sub, cut a V-shaped notch from the top of an individual-size roll, place a meatball in the roll, and top with cheese shred laces.

Finally, put the subs on a baking sheet and in the oven for a few minutes to melt the cheese just slightly.

Enjoy!

Game Day Snack Week 4 - PITACHOS!! (Pita Nachos)

Nachos are ALWAYS a fun snack at our house. I made a few different ones last football season. So last weekend I decided to search through our fully stocked cabinets to create a snack for my husband. We had several different salsas in the house, canned corn, pita bread left from my Spaetzle Pizza and some other odds n ends.

I thought about making my own pita chips and then some kind of dip, but once I spied the taco seasoning, I knew what I was going to make... PITACHOS!! (Pita Nachos).

This recipe is very easy to make. It probably took me about a half hour from start to finish with making the pita chips and assembling the finished dish.

I decided to make this quickly, so I decided against opening the ground beef and sauteing it, so these are "vegetarian," per say. I can't claim it 100% because I don't know if any of the other products I used could be classified as non-vegetarian. I just know there is no meat!

First, I made the pita chips using the whole wheat pita bread I used for last week's recipe. I cut the pita into 8ths and dipped each piece lightly into olive oil. Once all the bread was dipped, I sprinkled some taco seasoning over the chips and baked them in the toaster oven for about 15 minutes until crisp. I did turn them over half way to make sure each side was dusted in taco seasoning and baking up nice and crispy.

While those were heating up, I cracked open a can of yellow corn niblets and heated them up.

I also diced some red onion very finely - just a little though. I didn't want to overwhelm the palate.

For the cheese, I used Tostito's Spicy Nacho Cheese dip. We had this 4 pack lying around the house because we bought it before Hurricane Irene hit us in case we lost power. The single serve travel packs were great because they didn't need refrigeration until opened, and you could finish one pack in a serving. So it totally worked as my cheese!

The salsa I used was actually from Canada. My parents went on vacation last year and brought us back a jar of Cherry Salsa from Prince Edward Island and we just never opened it. I decided to give it a try for this recipe. Any salsa will work, but if you can find a sweeter, fruity salsa, that would work best. We also had pineapple salsa from Trader Joe's in the house, but the cherry won.


A dollop of sour cream topped off the nachos, and I presented them to my husband with joy. He dug in and said "wow, these are actually REALLY good!" Score. I successfully made my own pita chips with a taco flair, as well as finally using a gift my parents got us a long time ago. I apparently made him too much and he couldn't finish, so I did, and surprisingly, I enjoyed it too, despite not really liking salsa.

I think PITACHOS will become a staple here in the future. I would have loved to add some scallions or jalapenos for my husband, but we just didn't have any in the house. I could also see adding some chopped lettuce. Maybe next time!!

So here is a rundown of the ingredients in case you missed anything in the description:

Homemade pita chips
(whole wheat pita bread, cut into 8ths, drizzled in olive oil and taco/fajita seasoning)
yellow corn niblets
red onion - finely diced
nacho cheese (Tostito's Spicy Nacho Cheese Dip)
cherry salsa from canada
sour cream

Assembly:

Place the baked pita chips on a plate and layer some corn and red onion over the chips. Pour some of the cheese on, and add a little more corn and onion.

Another splash of cheese, a few spoonfuls of salsa and a dollop of sour cream will finish off your PITACHOS.

Enjoy!

PS - serve with a fork too, just in case!

Game Day Snack Week 3 - Spaetzle Pizza!

Whew... I am a little late posting this week's game day snack - it's only 25 minutes before the first kick-off here on the east coast and I am just sitting down to write this!!

Anyway, this week's treat is Spaetzle Pizza.. and it's a two step post! I will post the recipe I used to make my own spaetzle, and then what we did to create our little pizza's.

Once the spaetzle is made, you can bring this on the road and make while tailgating on those little grills. or you can pre-assemble the whole pizza and just grill it up or reheat it there.

I was surprised that my spaetzle turned out decently, not being anything close to German, and not usually enjoying working with dough. In fact, most of my dishes I attempt where I make my own dough turn out only so-so. But this worked for once, and I was happy.

The spaetzle is easy to make. It took me about a half hour total from set up to when I finished off sauteing the spaetzle. It was delicious on its own as well, and I could see my husband and I eating this for dinner with a side of our favorite sweet and sour meatballs.

Here is the spaetzle recipe:

Ingredients:

1 cup flour
1/4 cup milk
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground pepper (recipe suggested white, I used black because it is what I have, only difference is color)
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons butter

Directions:

Bring about a gallon of water to boil.

Mix together flour, salt, pepper and nutmeg.

Beat the eggs well and add it alternately with the milk into the dry ingredients. Mix until smooth.

Press the dough through a spaetzle maker if you have one. Or you can use a large holed sieve or metal grater. I used a spaghetti colander. It worked totally fine.

Drop a few spaetzle dough pieces into the boiling water at a time and cook 5 to 8 minutes - drain well.

Saute the cooked spaetzle in butter or margarine. If eating plain - sprinkle some fresh parsley on top and serve!


And now, the pizza's.

I had bought whole wheat pitas to use as our base.

For the "sauce," we used Philadelphia's Cooking Cream in the Italian Herb flavor. Spaetzle went on next, followed by some mozzarella cheese and those crunchy onions that come in a can.


The little pizza was baked in the oven at 375 degrees F for about 10-12 minutes until the cheese began to brown slightly.

Serve warm!

This was a very satisfying dish and my husband really enjoyed his treat!

Game Day Week 2: Chocolate Chip Potato Chip Cookies!

This week's Game Day snack was supposed to be something with spaetzle, but that will be coming up next week now. That recipe is half done (the spaetzle is made, but I didn't put the rest of the snack together yet), because I got distracted yesterday by something I saw on the Cooking Channel.

My husband and I were watching one of the Unique Sweets episodes and it was about cookies - one of my favorite subjects. There is this place in Chicago that had these really delicious looking cookies, some including potato chips.

I don't know about the rest of you, but I have had chocolate covered potato chips in my life and they are simply, awesome. I love them. They have the right combination of sweet and salty, and, in my opinion, I like them much better than chocolate covered pretzels.

So the thought of chocolate chip cookies with potato chips really excited me - and I couldn't believe I never thought to experiment with that before. So, to make me happy, my husband sent me out to get some Baked Lays and he started whipping up a batch of our favorite chocolate chip batter.

With the first batch of cookies, we decided to just sprinkle some potato chips on the top of the cookie after they had been baking for a few minutes. The result was okay - I didn't think you tasted the potato chips enough.

So for the second batch he sprinkled some crushed up chips into the batter first, and then also put some on top of the cookie a few minutes after they had been baking. This time they were fantastic! You tasted the chocolate chips with the salty potato chips and I LOVED them!

We ended up bringing some of them over to a friends house last night and their three year old dove right in and thought they were pretty tasty! She didn't even seem phased that the chocolate chip cookies had a little something different about them!

So these are the perfect Game Day snack, whether you are at home watching the game or our tailgating. Salty and sweet, people will munch on these happily!

They are easy to make - just use your favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe, but use half of what the salt content is because the potato chips will add their own salt factor. We found that crushing the chips and adding some into the batter worked best.

After we put them in the oven to cook (usually 8-10 minutes), we opened the oven after just about 3 or 4 minutes and pressed some potato chips onto the tops of the cookies and returned them to baking.

Happy Munching!

Another Delicious Pretzel Snack!

The other day, my husband and I were feasting on pizza-flavored Lean Pockets. Classy, I know, but we keep these around for quick lunches on the weekend when we have no idea what else to eat.

Anyway, we wanted something to go with the Lean Pocket, and the frozen pretzels were calling to me. When I saw the salt packet, I decided to use the opportunity to create a flavored pretzel, and decided on making “Italian Pretzels” since we were eating pizza…sort of.

First I wet the pretzel gently and patted it with a paper towel. Then I smeared a light layer of margarine on the pretzels. Garlic powder was sprinkled next, over the margarine. After the garlic powder I sprinkled some oregano and crushed red pepper flakes, topped off with some sesame seeds.

I popped my concoction into the microwave for about 50 seconds and out came some garlic Italian pretzels!

They were delicious. My husband suggested for next time, to also sprinkle some Parmesan cheese over the pretzel as well, and I couldn’t believe I didn’t think of that to begin with, being the cheese lover I am.

Enjoy!

A's Top Game Day Snacks

As the nation gears up for Superbowl Sunday, I felt I should post my top favorite game day snacks from this season. My husband and I carefully evaluated what I made and compiled a list for you all. Maybe this will inspire you for Superbowl Sunday!

We, sadly, planned a getaway for that weekend, which we didn't realize at the time and if the weather is nice to us (please cooperate, Mother Nature!), Eating With A will be on hiatus for a little bit but I'll be back!

I'm going to try to do some Sunday recipes for baseball season too once that gets going.

Without further delay, here are our top 5 faves!!

#5: "Quick & Easy Snacks"

We couldn't decide between 2 of my "quick & easy" snacks, so they both landed as #5 on the list. The first one is the "Crescent Roll-Ups" I made back in November. In fact, one of my readers commented that she made these for a party and everyone loved them! Thanks for trying that, Cynthia!! Glad it worked out for you.

The second "quick and easy" snack we loved is the "Snack on the Go" that I improvised while my husband and I were in Florida. I just loved these cracker treats! They are so easy to make and really delicious to munch on.


#4: Potato Chip Chicken Bites!

I made these Potato Chip Chicken lollipops for my husband and I to munch on during our New Year's Eve pig out on appetizers. They came out surprisingly good and I can't wait to try these again with a different flavor potato chip!


#3: NACHOS!!

Nachos were a theme this season, it seemed. I made several variations, but two of them really stood out for my husband and I.

Pick #1 are the Asian Style Nachos I randomly created one Sunday. Combining an Asian flavor and a Mexican flair was seriously delicious and we wouldn't hesitate to make these again.

Pick #2 is the Pretzel Nachos we created. AND I am excited that I created these before Food Network Magazine put out their January/February issue feature different pretzels you can make. I guess I started a trend, right? Haha. Unfortunately I didn't take the time to make my own pretzel - we cheated and used the frozen Super Pretzels, but it's all the same. No matter how you make it, the Pretzel Nacho was a tasty treat for the afternoon.


#2: SANDWICHES!!

The number two spot will again be split between 2 recipes we tried and loved so much. The first sandwich we picked is our Open-Faced Knish Sandwich. This is a really meaty sandwich and definitely fills you up. It's perfect for after some lighter appetizers and before dessert while watching the BIG game! Plus, it's different, and a crowd pleaser. In fact, just a few days ago my husband almost went to the store to pick up knish's so we could make this sandwich for lunch. However, his laziness prevailed and we ended up eating some leftover's we had in the house. :-)

The second sandwich is our Turkey & Pepperoni Panini. These can even be made into finger sandwiches for easy munching. Serve with some pickles (or fried pickles) on the side and you have one tasty appetizer!


#1: Pepperoni Cheese Fries!!!

Last, but certainly not least, the Pepperoni Cheese Fries. This was by far, the tastiest snack I made during football season this year. It could definitely get a little messy, but it's just too good not to try.


So there ya go - our favorite snacks and appetizers. I hope you all have a a fantastic and fun Superbowl Sunday. And if all goes well, I'll have some new recipes to post up in mid-February, so stay tuned.

Happy Eating!