Super Bowl Recipe Ideas

 

Happy Groundhog’s Day/Super Bowl Sunday! For those of you who are coming to Jersey City for the big game, there’s still time to check out the guide Jeremy and I put together to watch the game here in town.

Since I’m actually not a huge football fan, my favorite part about the Super Bowl is the excuse to eat yummy party food and enjoy a few drinks with friends.  Here are some of my Super Bowl party-friendly recipes:

• White Bean Hummus
• Herbed Garlic Toasts
• Veggie Tacos
• Chili, my way (a quick and easy chili that takes less than 30 minutes to cook!)
• Spicy Chicken Enchilada Chili (a slow cooker recipe, so it needs some planning ahead time, but it’s one of my recipes on this blog!)
• Tortilla Soup (another slow cooker recipe that needs some planning ahead)
• Almond Butter Ice Cream Bread – a great dessert that requires few ingredients, you can substitute in your favorite flavor of ice cream

And here are some fun Super Bowl party recipes from around the web:

• Crispy Buffalo Cauliflower from Just Prepare It Deliciously
• Cheesy Jalapeno Pull Bread from Simply Recipes (I’ve brought this to Super Bowl parties several times and it’s always a hit!)
• Edamame Black Bean Salad from Peanut Butter Fingers - this looks like a tasty healthy alternative to dip
• Healthier Seven Layer Dip from fANNEtastic food

No matter which team you are rooting for tonight, I hope you all have a happy and safe Super Bowl Sunday!

Snacks I've been obsessed with lately

I have a tendency to become fixated on things, for about two weeks, then when the novelty wears off, I forget about them. So in a way to help me remember these awesome snacks, I'm making a list.  And to prove to you how portable they are, I took these snacks to work and photographed them at my office!

This is my latest obsession.  I discovered them last Friday at Target, and I've had a bar everyday since, sometimes even two bars!  I love peanut butter and jelly, and I love granola bars, so I knew I would love these granola bars! What I like about Annie's products is that I can pronounce all the ingredients, so I can feel good about eating them.  Plus they are relatively  small and portion-controlled at only 120 calories a bar. 

Before that, I was obsessed with these toasted coconut almonds. (And yes, that is my keyboard and Lexis Nexis printouts in the background there.) I kept a can of these in the drawer of my desk at my office.  They are so good! They remind me of some sort of tropical cocktail. What I do to control my portions is a pour out a small handful into a cup, and then bury the container back in the drawer out of my sight.  The second step is key, or I would just keep eating them all! 

I've talked about yogurt with fruit preserves before for breakfast.  But you can also make your own "fruit-on-the bottom" yogurt cup.  Put a tablespoon of fruit preserves in a leakproof container, and pour in about 3/4 cup of plain yogurt. Cover and bring with you to work/school/wherever you need to go! (Okay, I took this picture in my kitchen at home, but I promise you I brought a tupperware of the stuff to work!) 

So there you have it, my latest snack obsessions.  What do you bring to snack on during the day?

Note: I was not compensated for mentioning any of these products.  I just really like them! 

White Bean Hummus

Last night, I tried to cook dried cannellini (white) beans in the slow-cooker, using this method. I've done this before with black beans and it worked quite well for me. But this time, I ended up with falling apart, mushy white beans. I am not sure what went wrong. Maybe I soaked the beans for too long beforehand, maybe I let them sit in the crock for too long after they were done cooking. Maybe white beans just weren't meant to be cooked this way. No matter what the culprit was, though, now I have to make a lot of white bean dip.

White Bean Hummus
Adapted from the Food Network

Ingredients:
1 2/3 cups cooked white beans or 1 can, drained and rinsed
2 Tbs tahini
2 Tbs fresh lemon juice
1/2 tsp dried oregano, crushed
1/4 tsp cumin
1/8 tsp garlic powder
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
salt and pepper to taste

Method:
The original recipe calls for blending all the ingredients in a food processor. But all I have is a mini-food processor, which would have made it a huge pain to blend all the ingredients in batches. So first I mashed the beans, tahini, and lemon juice with a potato masher, which worked quite well, especially since the beans were already mushy. Then I stirred the spices in with a fork, tasted it and adjusted the spices to my taste. Blending by hand makes a more "rustic" dip, which is fine by me. But if you have a regular-sized food processor, and want a smoother dip, then by all means, pulse it in the food processor until smooth.

Serve with raw vegetables or pita bread.