February 3, 2017 - Fun & Festive Football Game Foods for Super Bowl Sunday

Elisa's Daily Scoop
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Great Super Bowl Bites

It's Foodie Friday and there's munch food talk on our agenda today!

DRESSED AND READY FOR SPIRIT DAY (c)travelincouisins.com

KELSEY'S NEW KEDS WITH YELLOW LACES FOR YELLOW TEAM FOR SPIRIT DAY GAME SHOW (c)travelincousins.com

But first, let me tell you how my day and evening went yesterday.

As I mentioned to you, this entire week the kids have been celebrating Catholic Schools Week and with it, lots of fun activities and events.

Yesterday was probably the most fun, as it was Spirit Day. The kids got to dress down for the festivities.

One of the best parts of Spirit Day is the "Game Show" and let me tell you, there was some serious school spirit happening at this event! 

Of course, I was in the audience cheering her and all the kids on and snapping away.!!

The kids were broken up in to four color teams - Yellow, Green, Blue and Red.  

My Kelsey was on the Yellow Team! And Gianna was on the Blue.

We made a mad dash to the stores on Wednesday evening to get Kelsey some yellow-ware - a cool top as well as new black keds donned with yellow shoe laces!

Gianna, as part of the Blue Team found a cute Blue t-shirt.

GAME SHOW AT SPIRIT DAY 2017 (c)travelincousins.com

REAL BUZZERS FOR THE GAME SHOW (c)travelincousins.com

These kids were having a blast! This stuff wasn't around when I was a kid!!

A great game show panel was set up with a buzzer for each of the four kids representing their respective color team, fully equipped with a "buzzer" to hit when knowing the right answer.  

​There were questions and fun games in which the various colored teams competed against one another and lots of loud cheering!  The good news is that Kelsey's Yellow Team won!! Yay! Unfortunately, Gianna's Blue team didn't :-(

With the last day of Catholic Schools Week, (and the first Friday of the month), the girls have a half day today.

Gianna will be going to town with her friends for lunch and Kelsey and I will be spending some bonding time together, which she's been begging me for over the past few weeks.  

First we'll be having a special Mommy & Kelsey lunch at a local restaurant we haven't gone to in a while.  Then we'll be heading over to Kelsey's all-time favorite store - Bob's Furniture Store - as she is set on becoming an interior designer and loves to get "decorating ideas." 

I'll be taking pictures and hopefully doing a Foodie Friday feature on the restaurant.  

(credit: quotesgram.com)

SUPER BOWL SUNDAY
FOOD

Now, I'm not as much of a football fan as my dear cousin Tanya and her gang.  In fact, I don't even really like it.  I know the Super Bowl is  a big deal in the football world and even for those who only occasionally watch it.

But the Super Bowl is something different for me -it's about getting together, celebrating and eating lots of good, yummy party food!

Dee-Lish food is the one thing that Tanya and I both agree on when it comes to The Super Bowl!!

I found a few delightful snack items in Country Living 70 Amazing Super Bowl Party Recipes That Will Be Gone by Halftime that I plan on making this Sunday for me and the girlies to enjoy. Click the article link to view all the recipes for the snacks detailed below as well as the full list of 70!

Here's the goodie plan my gang this Super Bow Sunday...

1. LOADED NACHOS
I plan on making thee nachos but making a few changes to the ingredients.  First, I'm going to substitute the chorizo for ground chicken  and instead of avocados, black olives.  Otherwise, these nachos will include beans, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, jalapeños and jack cheese.

(credit: chef in training)

2. CRANBERRY PECAN BRIE CROSTINIS WITH MAPLE SUGAR GLAZE
So much sweet and savory goodness in these crostinis - made with brie, chopped pecans, craisins and brown sugar, topped with a maple syrup & brown sugar glaze. YUM!

(credit: diethood)

3. PEA &  FETA CROSTINI
This is what you get when you mix together and puree peas, chopped fresh mint, lemon juice, salt, pepper and feta cheese topped on toasted baguette. 

(credit; diethood)

4. PIZZADILLAS
These certainly look easy as pie and combine two of my favorite foods: pizza and quesadillas!

Flour tortillas stuffed with fresh basil, cherry tomatoes, oregano and shredded cheese as well as your favorite meat or meat substitute, fried up, make for what looks like an addicting snack!

(credit: Andrew Purcell)

5. CORN FRITTERS
My daughter Gianna is a corn lover!! It is definitely one of her favorite foods.  So, I thought these looked dee-lish.
Made with corn, red bell pepper, chopped cilantro, green onions, garlic, jalapeño, line juice, an egg and a combo of rice and all-purpose flour, I'm sure these will be a hit!


Now, I'm sure by comparison, Tanya will have a HUGE spread, but since it's only the three of us this Sunday, this assortment of 5 munchies will be more than enough!

Hey Tanya - what about "veganizing" some of these snacks for your gang???

Super Bowl 2017 - The Inside Skinny

Who's Playing
New England Patriots VS Atlanta Falcons

Where is the game?
NRG Stadium in Houston, Texas

Who is the entertainment line up?
 Luke Bryan will sing the National Anthem
Lady Gaga will take to the stage for the halftime show.

17 Fun Facts About Super Bowl Sunday Eating

1. Super Bowl is the second largest US food consumption day--only surpassed by Thanksgiving.

2. More than 1.3 billion wings are expected to be consumed during Super Bowl weekend, according to the National Chicken Council, a trade association for companies that raise broiler chickens and make chicken products.

3. One in seven (or 48 million) Americans will order takeout or have food delivered to them on game day. 

4. Sixty percent of takeout orders are pizza and 61 percent of people consider pizza a "must have" Super Bowl treat according to  recent survey completed by the National Restaurant Association.

5. Right behind wings and pizza are chips and 11 million pounds of chips are expected to be consumed this Super Bowl Sunday, as well as an estimated 4 million pounds of pretzels and 2.5 million pounds of nuts.

(credit: foodnetwork.com)

6. The average Super Bowl party has an estimated 17 guests.

7. Super Bowl is the biggest winter grilling weekend of and the second-biggest grilling weekend of the year behind 4th of July, which is number.
​
8. The Calorie Control Council (CCC) estimates that consumers will eat 30 million pounds of snacks total, with 3.8 million of those being popcorn and 8.2 million being tortilla chips.

9. On Super Bowl, it is estimated that Americans will consume 8 million pounds of guacamole.

(credit: olivethis.com)

10. Ten percent of Americans will serve some kind of grilled food, including hot dogs, hamburgers, bratwurst, steak  and 10 million pounds of ribs at their Super Bowl party.

11. Americans will drink 50 million cases of beer this weekend, spending more than $10.8 billion dollars.

​​12. Americans will also be spending $2.37 million on sodas and other soft drinks during Super Bowl weekend.

13. Antacid sales see a 20 percent increase the Monday morning after the big game.

14 Approximately six percent of Americans will also call in sick that same day. 

(credit: www.elementstark.com)

15. French researchers found those cheering for a losing team eat more than their winning pals.

16. The Super Bowl is the busiest day of the year for pizza restaurants, according to the National Restaurant Association.

17. ​Almost 57 percent of Americans who eat chicken wings say they like to dip their wings ranch dressing, according to a new National Chicken Council poll.  Only about 35 percent go for the bleu cheese dressing –unless you live in Northeast, where it’s nearly 50 percent.
​


Wow - that's a lot of food and a lot of mostly unhealthy food.  I think you will agree, that mine and Tanya's Super Bowl food is much more healthy and in my humble opinion -- going to be more tasty!!

Here's to the start of a great weekend!!

-E
xoxo

Tanya's Daily Scoop
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Plans to the Super Bowl

Woo to the Hoo!

It's not only Foodie Friday, but it's the last Friday before our BIG trip -
European Winter Wonderland Tour
And I'm happy to announce that with all of my hard work and effort yesterday that I am now 3/4 of the way through with stage 2 of our packing! Whew!

It is taking a lot of time doing all of this packing, repacking, planning, and organizing. It certainly didn't appear very organized at all while I was sorting through everything. lol

                 WHAT A MESS

And today will be filled with more little details. I sure hope that we are pretty well packed with all stages complete by tomorrow morning.

We've got a busy weekend ahead of us and really won't have much time to set aside to focus on finishing. So it really must be done today! 

Not to say that I don't have a ton of other things to accomplish today as well, but like the good juggler that I am - I think (hope) that I can manage.

And one of those things is some of the food prep for none other than Super Bowl Sunday - more on this in a bit, for now let me tell ya a bit more about yesterday..

As you can see, I've only got 3 days to go until we are gone until the beginning of March and around here there is always something to be done. I always have plenty on my calendar and therefore I am always working on a multitude of different trips simultaneously - yesterday I was continuing with some of the tour, tea and restaurant bookings for our Cousins Trip to London, as well as holding a travel committee meeting for the International Peace Choir for their annual trip - this year going to Idaho to record a CD. 

I decided that since many of our committee members reside in Orange County, that we'll finally have a local meeting, rather than trekking out to Long Beach (which is what we typically do). 
We met at The Green Tomato Cafe which had been recommended to me last year - and I still hadn't tried it...
So when we finally walked in and saw the vast menu of offerings for Vegans, Vegetarians, Omnivorous and more - well I really couldn't take me eyes off of all the choices!

Not being totally hungry Dave and I decided to try their Chipotle Corn Chowder, Crispy Chickpeas, and a Chili Lime Popcorn - which was all quite yummy!  

Chipotle Corn Chowder (c)travelincousins.com

Crispy Chickpeas (c)travelincousins.com

Now we can't wait to go back and make our way through the menu!

The meeting went well and we are all back on the same page regarding the August trip. More on this as we get closer to take off.

​
Now like Elisa was mentioning we do have a spread of food that we are planning for Super Bowl Sunday and we are people that LOVE to celebrate as much as possible. Just give us a reason and we'll find a food to celebrate it with!

While I do love sports and can appreciate a good game of almost any sport, football is definitely not one of my favorites.
But yet whenever I am around (not traveling) you'll find me watching the game (and the commercials) and munching away!  Heck I do the same for the Academy Awards and the Red Carpet show - which BTW I am totally boycotting this year!

Just give me a reason to cook and to eat! LOL

So of course we have been putting together a menu of eats for the big game!

Dave C. actually had a Pizza Making Super Bowl Party in mind, while I had ideas more of a finger food festivity.

Sooooo guess what I did.....

I combined them both. Why not do it all?!

I will be tackling a delicious
​SPINACH AND ARTICHOKE DIP

Spinach dip is a dip that uses spinach as a primary ingredient. Frozen spinach may be used in its preparation. Additional primary ingredients may include mayonnaise, cream cheese, sour cream and cheese - ours will be vegan of course and from past experiences I can tell you that it won't be around very long!!

Fried Mozzarella Sticks

Ooooey goooey and oh so yummy Fried Mozzarella sticks are simply elongated pieces of battered or breaded and then fried mozzarella. Usually served with a marinara sauce.
​
DID YOU KNOW: Mozzarella sticks dates back to 1393 in Medieval France, when a recipe for fried cheese sticks appeared in Le Ménagier de Paris.

POPCORN (un)CHICKEN

Small morsels of vegan chicken, battered and fried, resulting in tasty little crispy nuggets that resemble popcorn.

And Funnel Cakes for dessert!!!
​Funnel cakes are a regional food popular in North America at carnivals, fairs, sporting events, and seaside resorts. They are made by pouring batter into hot cooking oil in a circular pattern and deep frying the overlapping mass until golden-brown. 
Funnel cakes are typically served plain with powdered sugar, and that's the way I like them!

DID YOU KNOW: German immigrants brought the yeast dish to America, originally calling it "drechter kuche", and around 1879 developed the baking powder version along with its new name, funnel cake.

But on top of all of that, we'll also be having
​Mac & Cheeze

Traditional macaroni and cheese is a casserole baked in the oven; however, it may also be prepared in a sauce pan on top of the stove. The cheese is often first incorporated into a Béchamel sauce to give a Mornay sauce which is then added to the pasta. We are even gonna use it as a Pizza topping!

Plus there will be a do-it-yourself Pizza Station with all of the fixins...

• ​BBQ (un)Chicken
• Ham
• Pepperoni
• Sausage
• Bacon
• Mushrooms
• Onions
• Olives
• Peppers
• Pineapple
• and more...
  

While it will be do-it-yourself style, I will be making a ton of pizza dough and my fabulous pizza sauce for all to use and enjoy!

Think of all the possibilities and yummy combos...

Be sure to check Elisa's column for all the fun facts and scoop about Super Bowl Sunday eating.

And if you are still unsure as to what to make here's a list of
40 VEGAN SUPER BOWL RECIPES

I'm having a super busy day and have much to do, so I'm gonna end it here. But as always, I'll be back tomorrow,
​-T