My Kind of Super Bowl

I read an article online the other day that guys don’t want healthy food for the Super Bowl – they like the full-fat dips, pizza, subs, ribs, meatballs, etc. Honestly, all that stuff sounds gross and processed to me. I really wanted something more natural, but decided I would let my husband decide what we’d have to eat, since he’s a guy and the Super Bowl only happens once a year. At first he said ribs, and I said, “Fine, but let’s get grass-fed ribs from Earth Fare and you’re in charge of making them since I don’t know how do to ribs.” When we got to Earth Fare he changed his mind and said he wanted a steak, baked potato, and salad instead. He also wanted some cheese, olives and bread for an app. That brightened my day because that’s definitely more up my Super Bowl food alley.

Here was our Super Bowl menu:

Appetizer

Platter of:

• Manchego cheese
• Mixed Greek olives
• Organic grapes
• 100% whole-wheat bakery bread
• Dipping sauce of homemade pesto topped with balsamic vinegar, extra-virgin olive oil, and some red pepper flakes

Glass of red wine (of course!)

Dinner

Grass-fed beef tenderloin steaks

Organic baked potatoes

Spinach, red onion, tomato and goat cheese salad with balsamic vinaigrette

Dessert

My semi-healthy “Oatmeal, Walnut and Dark Chocolate Chunk Cookies.” I'm telling you, they are REALLY good! The next time you want cookies and feel guilty, try these. I definitely feel less guilty about eating them over regular cookies and they taste even better to me.

This is a recipe I tweaked from one I found on-line. You can find the original link on my “snow day” post. Here’s what I do:

Ingredients

• 1/3 cup unsalted butter
• ½ cup light brown sugar
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 cup 100% whole-wheat flour
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ¾ teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• ½ cup quick-cooking oats
• 1/3 cup chopped walnuts
• 1 dark chocolate bar chopped (3.5 oz)

Bring butter and egg to room temperature. Beat butter and sugars together in a mixer. Add egg and vanilla and beat again. In a separate bowl, mix together flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Slowly mix in with wet ingredients. Stir in oats, walnuts and chocolate.

Bake at 350 degrees for 10-14 minutes.

FYI - Now you might be thinking, “Did your husband actually like the whole wheat bread with the appetizer and the semi-healthy cookies?” His response when eating the appetizer was “this bread is awesome!” and he loves those cookies. If I don’t tell him it’s somewhat healthy before he eats it, he never notices and always comments that he loves it. Then I tell him it’s whole wheat or that I used whole-wheat flour and he responds, “Really? Yum!”

Hope everyone had a happy Super Bowl doing it “your kind of” way!