Snacking-Holy Guacamole

Now that it’s time to start thinking about the snacks you’ll serve when your neighbors accept an invitation to watch spoorts on your new Plasma.

Instead of the normal fare of Pizza with 40 pounds of cheese, barbeque chicken wings containing 400 calories each, or the traditional cheddar cheese ball and Taco chips with molten cheese, may I suggest some snack ideas that are simple, full flavored, and a snap to throw together?

Americans eat one billion pounds a year, with Super Bowl Sunday marking the biggest annual consumption day as the HASS Avocado Board estimates 49.5 million pounds of the fruit are eaten during game-time celebrations, states leading guacamole maker in the U.S.

Sloppy Joes are always a hit, but ground beef is a tad fatty, so use ground turkey breast meat. If you want to cut out most the fat, totally degrease the burger meat of use soy crumbles and add a teaspoon of Better than Bouillon beef paste. To darken the meat to look more like hamburger, use Mushroom Soy Sauce* like you would Gravy Master.
*Found at all Asian Groceries.

Soy crumbles can also fake out the family as meat in Spaghetti sauce. Brown with onions, garlic, and olive oil, and know one will be the wiser. Culinary love.

Be careful and read the ingredient label. If it doesn’t say ‘breast meat’ more than likely it has fatty dark meat and some skin in there, which is what you’re trying to evade. That’s the wisdom of reading labels . If you are not makinging the sauce, there are plenty of brands available at the grocer. Buy the one that does not contain High Fructose Corn Syrup or visit your local health food store and buy organic.

When it comes to buns, I know a good set when I see one. We all know that factory, assembly line, processed white flour buns are nutritionally bankrupt. Try Rudi’s Bakery brand whole grain Hamburger Buns.

Everyone offers the ubiquitous vegetable tray, but this time make it with Organic, low-fat Stonyfield Farms yogurt plain yogurt, fresh chopped dill weed, a squeeze of lemon juice, sea salt, fresh cracked black pepper, and some crumbled feta cheese. It can also sub as a dip for baked potato chips. However, corn chips are as fatty as potato chips, so I suggest purchasing the more nutritious Black Bean Taco chips. Spray each with Pam, not Spam Spray then cut them into 8th’s. Bake breifly.

My final snack suggestion: Organic Chicken Breast en Brochettes.

Purchase as many chicken tenders as you need and marinate them in low-sodium soy sauce, REAL maple syrup, several drops of toasted sesame seed oil, 2 cloves of minced garlic, 1 tablespoon of freshly chopped ginger, 1 tablespoon of garlic-chile paste. I say REAL maple syrup, because most pancake syrups, like Aunt Jamima are made from pure High Fructose Corn Syrup. Be sure that the wood skewers also get soaked and marinated over night or they will ignight. Yikes.

Snacking in this fashion will definitely add years to your life and “W’s” to the winning health column.

Hope Your Team Wins

Chef Wendell
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