Disclaimer: This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Tyson Foods, Inc. All opinions are entirely my own.
Like a lot of people in the US I love the Big Game. The commercials, the half time show, the food. Oh, and I believe there is a football game in there somewhere. I am also extra lucky because my birthday happens to fall right around the same time, so it gets to serve double duty as my birthday party. The benefit is that not only do I get to open presents during the game, I also get way better food. I don’t just get birthday cake; I get all the great snacks and appetizers that go with it. But that also means I get roped into making some of those snacks and appetizers. This isn’t a problem, since I like to cook, but I don’t want to spend my whole birthday/Big Game making food.
So that means I like to keep things simple and quick. I may spend the whole game making food, but its 5 minutes here and 5 minutes there, whipping up some pizza eggrolls or cheese wontons or pigs in a blanket, not three hours buried in the kitchen. So to make sure we aren’t buried in the kitchen the whole time we do a combination of prep ahead of time, as well as planning quick and easy things to make. Some of those are prepared snacks like Tyson® Any’tizers® (find them in the frozen aisle, the food, not the movie) which have always been a crowd pleaser around our house (I love the wings, my daughter loves the popcorn chicken).
But our main focus is always around making our fun traditional snacks. The things that keep everyone coming back year after year. So our first stop is usually to Kroger to pick up all the various ingredients. They have everything I need. Well, except the one year we decided to do an Aloha themed Big Game party and we needed grass skirts. That didn’t go well. But Kroger definitely has everything else you will need to prepare.
One thing we usually need plenty of is some Wright® Brand Bacon (in the refrigerated section). I mean after all, is there a more perfect food than bacon? But we also need some Ball Park® beef hot dogs (also in the refrigerated section) to make our famous Pigs in the Blanket. Now I don’t mean “World famous.” More like “Our Family famous” (if that’s even a thing) mostly because we like to customize them for a bunch of different people and we are always finding new ways to change them up. We really like Ball Park beef hot dogs because we know they are 100% beef with no nitrates or artificial preservatives.
Probably everyone knows the basic pigs in a blanket recipe. Take some hots dogs and wrap them up in a crescent roll. Now don’t get me wrong, those are pretty darn tasty in their own right, and have gotten us through many games. But we like to mix it up. Our first basic snack hack is to slice the Ball Park hot dog down the middle (not all the way, you want a little “pocket”) and stuff some cheese in there. You can go simple (American cheese) for the kiddos or super fancy (gruyere or brie) for the adults. Do you know someone that likes things a little spicy? I mean in the kitchen. Or rather with their food. I mean do you know someone that likes their food a little spicy.
Put a few drops of hot sauce in the hot dog before you put in the cheese. Or some pieces of jalapeno between the crescent roll and the hot dog. Are you a bacon lover? I am. Try baking some Wright Brand Bacon in the oven until it is mostly cooked (you want it still flexible) then wrap it around the hot dog before you wrap it up in the crescent roll. Do you know someone that is a vegetarian? I can’t help you with them. But if you know someone that loves to watch football and they are coming over for the Big Game and they like beef, you can probably come up with a combination that they will love. That’s the great thing about Tyson foods like Ball Park hot dogs, you can do so many things that everyone is sure to find something they love. Do you have a new take on the classic Pigs in a Blanket recipe? We’d love to hear about it. Leave a comment or send a tweet with #fanfoodleague to let us know.
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