For football-indifferent people like myself, Super Bowl Sunday is a day devoted to hilarious commercials and delicious junk food. But since I have been successfully counting calories and eating healthier lately, today was a challenge for me!
Most of my friends are not big football fans, but we all love having an excuse to have a party, so each year for the Super Bowl we gather at someone's house, watch the game and pig out! This year Andy Whitaker graciously hosted the party and made baked potatoes and ribs (yummmmm). The food table was piled high with chips, dips (bean dip, salsa, guacamole, cheese dip, you name it), cookies, cupcakes, a ham and cheese roll... All amazingly delicious, and packed full of calories.
While I won't even pretend that I didn't partake in these yummy treats, I will say I tried my best to be good and not overdo it. And to help myself out, I brought a tray piled high with fruits, veggies, and cocktail shrimp.
This way, when I couldn't help but go back for seconds and thirds, I simply grabbed a few more strawberries and baby carrots rather than a plateful of Doritos and cheese dip. Though I'm sure I still went over my calorie goal for today (I'm not even going to bother adding it up today), I did much better than I normally would've done.
A few things to note:
1) I used this acrylic rotating tray (from The Lower Deck) that I got as a wedding gift. It is AWESOME, and I've been dying for a chance to use it! It has 3 removable sections (each divided into two smaller sections), plus a bowl in the middle. You can remove each section and put ice in the tray below to keep the food cold without getting everything soggy! Also, each section has its own lid (so you could keep the shrimp covered if you didn't want to smell it all evening).
2) I used a mandolin slicer from The Pampered Chef (also a wedding gift) to slice the apples and cucumbers. Not sure if they sell it any more, but this tool is wonderful for getting perfect, equal slices. It is also absolutely amazing for slicing tomatoes for sandwiches, and if you like peanut butter and apple sandwiches (one of my new favorite foods), it gets the apples just right every time.
3) On a separate platter, I had ranch dip (made with light sour cream), cocktail sauce, Anthos Greek-style hummus, and fruit dip (which I made by mixing 8 oz. marshmallow cream with 8 oz. fat free cream cheese...so easy and delectable).
4) The green flower-looking thing in the middle of the tray is the base end I chopped off the celery. As I picked it up to toss it in the trash, I stopped and thought, I never realized how cool that thing looks! My original plan was just to put toothpicks in the middle bowl, but this was much more eye-catching and fancy-looking! Here's a close-up.
That's all I've got to say for today. Hope this blog post made your stomach growl.
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