How to Lighten Up Game Day Food

If you’re hosting any game days this football season you’ll probably be putting out some food for your guests. Sticking with the classics is great, except that a lot of them are not diet friendly. Here are some tips for lightening up game day food that will please your guests and not wreck your diet when you’re snacking on the leftovers all week.

The Sliders

Instead of preparing beef sliders with buns, try switching to ground turkey sliders that are bun free to lighten up on fat and calories. You can cook up all the mini turkey patties at once and then let guests put together their own sliders. One option is doing an Asian inspired platter with lettuce for wraps, peanuts, limes, sriracha, etc.

Potato Skins

Switching from white potatoes to sweet potatoes will give you a boost of nutrients as well as flavor. You really won’t need to cover them in bacon bits, but if you want to try cooking up and crumbling some turkey bacon to use instead. Sprinkle with cheese and chives and simply bake the partially scooped out skins in the oven. Instead of sour cream serve them with a dollop of Greek yogurt to lighten up on saturated fat.

The Dip

Instead of serving a high fat cheese dip with your veggies and pita chips, try an eggplant dip that only tastes high in fat. All you need to do is roast an eggplant cut in half, and then throw it in a food processor with some olive oil, garlic, salt, parsley, and black pepper. It tastes great, but it’s totally guilt free.

The Brownies

You don’t have to skip desserts like brownies, just look for recipes like this one that swap out some of the necessary stuff for pure goodness.

Ingredients

1 can black beans, well rinsed and drained
2 large flax eggs
3 tablespoons melted coconut oil
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1/4 tsp sea salt
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup raw sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder

Directions

1. Start by preheating the oven to 350 degrees F and grease a normal sized muffin tin
2. Next make the flax eggs, by mixing a tablespoon of flax and three tablespoons of water for each one in the food processor and then letting it sit. (It’s basically just a sticky ball.)
3. Then add the rest of the ingredients to the food processor and mix it until it is all pureed. The mixture should be pretty thick but if it gets too thick you can add in some more water.
4. Next pour the mixture into the muffin pan. At this point you can add on any toppings that you might want like walnuts or chocolate chips.
5. Bake this for about 25 minutes. You’ll be able to tell they are done when the brownies start to pull away from the edges of the tin.
6. Allow the brownies to cool completely before you try to take them out, because they will be gooey. (Think around 30 minutes.) Don’t worry about how gooey they are, that’s what makes them so delicious! They also don’t contain eggs so there’s no worry about them being undercooked.