Saturday, January 31, 2015

A Homemade Healthy Super Bowl

This is my third Super Bowl on Weight Watchers, which creates quite a challenge.

For those of my readers not in the United States, a brief explanation.  Super Bowl Sunday (tomorrow) is the final, championship game of our football (meaning American football, not football meaning soccer -oh, never mind) season. People gather to drink lots of beer, eat lots of snacks, gorge on mass quantities of fried chicken wings with caloric sauces, and watch commercials that cost millions of dollars.  And, somewhere in there, there is a sports match and a half time show featuring a celebrity singer.  This year, it's Katy Perry.

"Healthy" and "Super Bowl" normally do not go together. And, if you aren't careful, "delicious" and "healthy" variations of high fat items do not go together, either.

The first time we tried to make healthy snacks, it was New Years Eve, 2012, I was new to Weight Watchers and much of the food my spouse made was inedible.  Dry. Tasteless  Ugh. We decided that, in the future, we would not try to do "healthy" makeovers of fatty food, but rather, forge our own trail.

So, we have (no pun intended) lightened up a bit.  It's a splurge day.

We will have guacamole, although we won't make it in this device.  It is so simple - peel ripe avocadoes, mash (we like ours a little chunky), add chopped sweet pepper (orange, yellow, red), garlic, scallions, a little salt, a touch of homemade ground chili pepper (my spouse's own secret mix, so I can't tell you) and a touch of lime juice. Just don't eat too much.  Easier said than done.

We serve with chips - these happen to be local chips made about an hour away from us.  Or, make your own baked ones - take fresh corn tortillas, cut into triangles (pizza cutter works great for this), spread on cookie sheet, bake at 400 degrees F until they start to turn light brown.  (Celsius folks, you are on your own-sorry.)

Salsa makes a wonderful dip - and fat free salsa has no Weight Watchers points. It's so easy to make, too, if you have good fresh tomatoes available. If not, use canned dice tomatoes (preferably fire roasted diced tomatoes).  Simply chop up ripe fresh tomatoes or use the canned ones, combine with chopped pepper and onions, season with cilantro, lime juice, salt to taste, jalapenos if you like it spicy.  Or, buy it pre made in the refrigerated section of your market.

We'll be serving fresh fruit although, at this time of year, there is little local fresh fruit to be had here in upstate New York.  This is the time of year we are grateful to Florida, California and Chile.

We don't bother with low fat versions of high fat dips - we are not fans of fat free mayonnaise or fat free sour cream.  You can substitute fat free Greek yogurt with a touch of lime juice (for zing) for sour cream, too.  An easy dip can be made with the fat free yogurt, a can of black beans, some cilantro, salsa, just blending it to consistency.  Add jalapenos for spice.

And last, instead of those chicken wings, how about some Thai Chicken Skewers?  We haven't tried this recipe yet but I am a big fan of powdered peanut butter.  We have used a product called PB2 but decided to use "Just Great Stuff" which we found locally.  It is organic, and uses organic coconut sugar, sustainably harvested and low glycemic.  I know some people shy away from this type of product, but I don't have a peanut allergy, and this is a good alternative for me.

Do you make your own snacks?

18 comments:

  1. Yum I LOVE guacamole! I'm not the States anymore BUT I might be watching the superbowl tomorrow if I make it to the bar. I don't really like football to be honest. My favorite part about the superbowl was chatting with friends, eating guacamole and dip and having a drink. Enjoy!

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    1. I had three family members over for Super Bowl, and it was a lot of fun - until the snow started, and they all had to leave.

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  2. guac and chips sound like a great party treat! and the chicken skewers sound interesting as well.

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    1. I love guacamole, and it's healthy. And so easy to make.

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  3. GO SEAHAWKS is all I can say! I wish I could watch the game, but the timing doesn't work out too well here in France....

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    1. Sorry to say the Seahawks lost - and it went literally down to the last few seconds. Might have been one of the best Super Bowls I ever watched. You missed a good one, sorry!

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  4. I am a super fan of...avocados. My great great aunt had a tree in her backyard when I was growing up. I loved your ideas of things to do and had never even heard of peanut butter powder. I have to try that.

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    1. I would have loved an avocado tree. Years ago I visited San Diego and saw the trees. They wouldn't live for long outside here in upstate New York, alas.

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  5. That looks delicious! I am a UK blogger but I will certainly be taking in some of the action for the Super Bowl (although probably not all of it as it'll be on until my alarm clock goes off).

    My co-watchers will likely have the less healthy form of snacks that you mentioned... so there goes my post Christmas weight loss :(

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    1. Well, I wasn't totally healthy either, after a relative brought brownies over. Ah well.

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  6. Go Sea-hawks. Not sure what we will be having. I might make a nice bowl of Turkey Stew..I'll be weigh in on Tues with my T.O.P.S (taking off pounds sensible)...Coffee is on

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    1. We had some turkey meatballs, and I hope to blog about the recipe later this week.

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  7. Alana,
    :) Since I was an ESL teacher for so long, I love your explanations to your nonnative readers! Guacamole was one of my sister's favorite dishes. I will never think of it in the same way again. Have a wonderful Superbowl Sunday!
    Amy

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    1. You will have a lot of memories, some bittersweet, and hope you will continue to enjoy guacamole as a tribute to your sister. I grew up with immigrants from several countries (many of them Holocaust survivors) and I try to provide "translations" for my readers in Great Britain, France, India, Canada and some other countries.

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  8. I enjoyed reading about the food you made for snacks. hehe. It sounds like a proper meal to me. Love guacamole although we probably don't make such a good one as yours, being English and very unsure of how it 'should' be. I can never understand why Americans sit around and eat while the super game is on television. Ah well. I guess each country has its own traditions.

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    1. I guess SuperBowl is a tradition. I remember the first one, and the one yesterday was the 49th. Happy to have been given the opportunity to see it grow from such a small beginning. And hope my husband's instructions will help enhance your next guacamole.

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  9. Great Ideas for some healthy food for Super Bowl Sunday and it will work well if this happens to be the first day of your New Years Resolution...yap, we start ours on Feb. 1st so for us, this is day one.............

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    1. Thank you for the praise, Chef. I did like your idea of starting resolutions on February 1. My word for 2015 is DIFFERENT and this idea is good - and different, too.

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