Are you a meat-loving football fan who’s ready to dropkick the vegetable dip to the curb? If so, I’ve got you covered with a few replacement snack ideas. Each snack idea that I am about to mention received rave reviews from my family as well as my previous party guests. Here they are:
Game Day Muffins for Carnivores
Muffins aren’t just made with fruits and nuts, you know. There are also savory muffins made with meat. My favorite is pepperoni muffins. In order to make pepperoni muffins, you’ll need flour (1 cup), baking powder (1 teaspoon), diced pepperoni (4 ounces), whole milk (1 cup), and cheddar cheese (1/2-cup). Simply mix all the ingredients together and spoon the batter into a greased muffin tin. Place the muffin tin inside a preheated, 350-degree Fahrenheit oven and let it bake for 25 minutes. You can eat the muffins hot out of the oven or serve them cold. Personally, I like serving them alongside a bowl of three-alarm chili or spicy marinara sauce.
Sausage Cheese Footballs
If you are not a big pepperoni fan, you may want to try whipping up a batch of sausage cheese footballs, instead. I make them using a variation of the sausage cheese balls recipe available on the Betty Crocker website. I like replacing the mild bulk pork sausage with the hot bulk pork sausage or chorizo. I also like to shape the dough into footballs instead of baseballs. They taste good with or without a tomato-based dipping sauce.
Teriyaki Meatballs and Jasmine Rice
Are you tired of sweet and sour meatballs? Well then, you may want to remove them from your game day snack table and add teriyaki meatballs, instead. Just make a batch of raw meatballs using your favorite seasonings. Then, place the meatballs into a roasting pan and cover them with soy sauce (1/2-cup), water (1/4-cup), minced garlic (to taste), and ginger (1 teaspoon). Afterward, pop the meatballs into a preheated, 275-degree Fahrenheit oven and let them cook for about an hour. Prepare the jasmine rice while the meatballs are cooking. Once the rice and meatballs are ready, serve them side by side in individual serving dishes.
Hot Chicken Dip
In my experience, hot chicken dip is also worthy of a spot on a game day snack menu. It is easy to make and may be served with crusty bread, tortilla chips, or Triscuits. In order to make the dip, you’ll need Worcestershire sauce (1/2-teaspoon), sliced mushrooms (12 ounces), cream cheese (8 ounces), canned chunk chicken (15 ounces), and a can of creamy mushroom soup. You may also want to add some slivered almonds for texture, garlic, and black pepper. Just place all the ingredients into a sauce pan and heat it up. Once it’s hot enough to your liking, serve it alongside your dipping items.
Bacon Dip
If you ask me, the world is a better place with lots of bacon in it. Therefore, no football game snack table would be complete without a heaping bowl of bacon dip. There are several bacon dip recipes that I like to use. The simplest one is made from softened cream cheese, diced red onion, diced tomatoes, and cooked crumbled bacon. The other is made with crumbled blue cheese, a navy bean paste, assorted seasonings, and bacon. You may want to experiment and make your own version of bacon dip. Either way, it’s likely to taste great when served with a variety of breads.
Killeen Gonzalez has a degree in hotel and restaurant management. She is also a former special events planner.
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