Back at the beginning of this football season I promised to publish a few heathful alternatives to the usual football snack items that tasted just as good as the junk food we all absolutely love. One of these items is Touchdown Taco Hummus. It has all the benefits of hummus plus a nice taco flavor that literally drove us wild here.
The Boss loves hummus way more than I do, so she's always taken charge of this snack dip. She uses a recipe from the guys at "Eat This, Not That" and modifies to her taste (as all cooks can and should do). I then decided that I'd make my own version from an idea off the internet and created Touchdown Taco Hummus.
As with hummus in general, the recipe is quite simple:
-- Touchdown Taco Hummus --
Ingredients
2 cans chic peas, drained and rinsed
1 large clove of garlic (or 2-3 small gloves)
1/2 teaspoon ground cummin
Juice of one lime
1/4 cup olive oil
1 package of taco seasoning (or 1-1/2 to taste)
Directions
Add all the ingredients into your food processor
Blend until proper consistency is acquired
(You can use the water from the chic pea cans or add an additional teaspoon or two if necessary)
Scoop into a serving bowl and garnish with cilantro, parsley, or chives.
Most hummus recipes call for lemon, but for Touchdown Taco Hummus I put in a lime. The traditional lemon would work, but I like lime with other Mexican inspired dishes, so I kept up the tradition with this one.
The other great thing about this hummus recipe is it's a "two-for-one" recipe, because you can make it again on May 5... except you'd have to call it Cinco de Mayo Hummus.
Until next time...
Old El Paso offers up this super quick video that gives a slightly different visual version of this dip.
Tacoly Yours,
Michael
I should know by now, the first time I make something it rarely turns out as pretty as I picture it in my head. Sometimes I'm pleasantly surprised, but most of the time I'm slightly disappointed in the dish's appearance. That's why I continue to "practice," and each subsequent attempt turns out better and better.
The first new item I decided to tackle for Opening Day of the NFL Season (Broncos v Panthers) is the traditional Baked Potato Skins. An appetizer staple in many restaurants, both small and franchised, this simple little item is fun and quite tasty.
I began by frying the bacon the night before. This had the benefit of saving me time during the game, and had the added benefit of filling the house with the smell of bacon and driving The Boss The Boss crazy because I wouldn't let her have a strip.
The next evening, prior to the game we had T-bone steaks and fresh green beans. Once that meal had settled a little and I finished my beer, I headed back to the kitchen and prepped the potatoes in time with the opening kickoff.
Unintentionally, I kind of did them backwards. Many people put the bacon in first and then the cheese on top. It allows for monitoring how much the cheese melts and determining when to pull them out of the oven. What I did, though, was to put the cheese into the skins first and then sprinkled the top with the bacon. As the cheese melted, the bacon sank, and made it hard to judge the state of the cheese, and also made these less visually appealing than most renditions of the recipe. So
while they may not have been the prettiest thing to come out of my
oven, they were tasty enough that The Boss and I ate way more than we
should have.
I did learn a bit from these those, including how essential it is to drizzle the potato skins with olive oil prior to adding the ingredients and sticking them back in the oven. If you skip the olive oil, the skins don't crisp up.
Directions:
- Bake approximately six potatoes (feel free to use a microwave if you want)
- Cut the potatoes in half, remove most of the pulp
- Drizzle in olive oil.
- Add your chosen ingredients, for instance, cheddar cheese, bacon, chives/green onions,
- Put dressed potatoes in oven pre-heated at 400 degrees or more
- Remove once cheese is melted and skins look crisp. Can be 7 - 15 minutes depending on your oven.
- Add sour cream or yogurt if you desire.
Easy enough? Of course. And you can have fun by experimenting each Sunday with new ingredients. Which has me thinking - The Boss and I both like anchoivies. I wonder how those would be.....?
Until Next Time,
Here's how a professional makes this same appetizer.
Potatolly Yours,
Michael
I'm always emotionally torn this time of year. I love Summer and nearly everything about it. But I like Fall as well. Fall, though, has an additional advantage that Summer lacks - Football!
Yes, it's that time of year again when The Boss losses me every Sunday until February. From years of experience she's learned that if she wants anything out of me, she better ask for it on Saturday.
This year will be only slightly different. Oh, I still won't be doing any major projects on Sunday, but as far as dinner and cooking, that will be taken to a whole new level and realms unexplored.
In the old house, Sunday dinners were quite an ordeal as I ran back and forth between the kitchen and television, eventually leaving us with a subpar meal or one that was prepared so late it was nearly time for bed. But now, with the new house, I have a clear view of the large screen television from the kitchen, and as an added bonus, I have DirecTV NFL Sunday ticket. I won't miss a single Seattle Seahawks game while I party in the kitchen. Can you say "awe inspiring"?
The
temptation to cook more and more elaborate snacks and appetizers will
only increase with each week of the season as I try to add variety and
originality from the previous weeks. It will be Football Food Heaven - all varieties of chicken wings, imaginative pizza combinations that will spin your head, and chips with salsa, cheese, and chili that'll leave ya bloated until next week.
But when I think past these immediate exalted images and sensations, I realize that this approach may not necessarily be a healthy one - afterall it was over ten years ago when I quit smoking and spent entire Sundays at a local sports bar, watching football and drowning myself in hot wings and beer, eventually earning an additional 60 pounds of bulk to carry around by the time Spring hit.
So with that in mind, I've decided that each Sunday of this coming season I'll have one of the traditional, often high calorie, snacks paired with at least one healthful alternative. And I'm talking more than just your average veggie tray (which for many football fanatics is usually nothing more than scooping large amounts of Ranch dressing with a celery or carrot stick).
A quick search of the internet has landed two new appetizers already. The first snack
comes courtesy of Old El Paso and is simply called Taco Humus (let that
idea roll around in your head a moment). I figure I can pair this with the traditional Loaded Nachos, and have a Mexican theme snack day.
The second snack is Zucchini Parmesian Crisps directly stolen from The Food Network website. Since it's zucchini and parmesian, I'm guessing this might go well with my personal favorite - Pizza. The Italian spices on the pizza will be a good compliment with the sprinkled parmesian baked on the zucchini.
If you can't wait to see how they turn out for me, follow each of the links I provided above to find the recipes and discover for yourself.
In the next few weeks, I'm going to continue to comb the internet and pull all the cook books off the shelves in my search for inspiring healthful alternative. I'll share each one here, as well as post pics on my Instagram account. So bookmark this blog, follow me on Twitter and Instagram, and I'll see you on the field....er.... I mean, the kitchen.
Until Next Time...
Here are two videos (Video #1 and Video #2) that tackle the theme of gastronomically entertaining football parties.
Scoringly Yours,
Michael
The NFL is a religion at my house and the Super Bowl this Sunday is always a special event. But unlike others across the nation, I never host a Super Bowl party nor attend one. Why? you ask. Well, unlike many people, I watch the Super Bowl to actually see the game. I don't care about the commercials, the half-time show, the pregame concerts, or all that other crap. I don't care that Lady Gaga is singing the National Anthem, and if the NFL truly wanted me to watch the halftime show, they would NOT have booked Coldplay as the midgame entertainment. I'd rather watch old F Troop reruns than one second of a Coldplay performance.
Too many people gather just for "party" aspect of the event, and I've found that the party people at a gathering make watching the play action on the field difficult to follow. It's a basic problem of two groups of people with two different priorities occupying the same space. As such, I choose my Super Bowl watching companions with great care and the number one priority is that they must want to watch the game first and foremost.
But with all that being said, the traditional foods expected at Super Bowl gatherings must be maintained and easily accessible during the game so that I don't miss a single snap of the ball. Beer, brats, wings, pizza, chips, nachos, etc. These are staples, and you have to prepare ahead of time, because the game starts when all that pregame hubbub is over, and you don't want to miss the opening kickoff.
And when it comes to getting a game spread ready, many choose to order take out. Many choose to DIY.
Obviously I'm a DIY guy.
Note: (The last time I can remember ordering take-out was from KFC. The Boss wanted a specific type of specialty chicken. I got there, got mixed up, panicked, and brought home the wrong stuff. She got stuck with a lot of chicken she didn't want, and I felt super guilty.)
So as a DIY guy, I've been thinking about this for a few weeks now, and decided to put a spin on the traditional nachos snack and make a chorizo sausage dip inspired by the new appetizer item of the Mexican restaurant down the street. I haven't worked out the details yet, and I wanted to get a chance to do a practice batch before Sunday, but time is running out, so I'm going to have to wing it (yes, pun intended) and see what happens. If it's a success, I'll post the recipe online. If not, I'll give a summary and include my mistakes.
Until Next Time...
Here is a really fun and funny video by ProductJunkieXoxo DIY'ing some pizza and hot wings. Even if you don't do this for your party, take ten minutes to give it a watch. It's well worth the time.
Hail Marily Yours,
Michael
-- Touchdown Taco Hummus --
