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Bowl game season is here!
With many college games happening this week and the NFL playoffs in full swing, many folks are gathering together to hold their watch parties and cheer on their favorite teams (Go, Cougs for us!)
Our team just so happens to be in the Cheese-Its bowl game this year, which is airing just after Christmas. This is perfect timing because we have a few left overs from our holiday dinner and I love using them up for bowl game snacks.
We actually did this for our Thanksgiving bowl games too and all these leftover snacks were a hit! Best part is, these snacks make hosting a breeze and helps to clear out the fridge.
Below I’ve listed my five favorite Holiday Bowl Game leftovers snacks to share with you. Be sure to let me know which one(s) you’ll give a go!
Need to do some last minute shopping for your game day snacks? Then definitely let Walmart Groceries help you out! You can order online and pick up later at the store or have it delivered straight to your house! Learn more about the service here and use this link here to get $10 off your first pick up order with them.
Turkey Layered Nacho Dip
Of course, my ‘turkey’ was a vegan one, but you can do this with any meat–real or otherwise.
Pre heat your oven to 350 degrees
Grab a casserole dish or dutch oven (I’m loving this one!) and pour enough nacho dip to lightly cover the bottom of the dish.
Add a layer of spinach or artichoke dip on top. Then, take some of your left over meat and a layer on top of the dip.
Sprinkle some mild cheddar (or Cougar Gold in our case) on top of that and then repeat your layers until your dish is full. Cover top layer with more cheese and a bit of left over meat.
Pop the dish in the over for about 15 minutes, until the cheese is nice and melted.
While your dip is warming, warm up some tortia chips in the oven for about 2-3 minutes.
When your dip is done, add some sour cream and salsa to the top and enjoy warm!
Cranberry Sauces for Meatballs
This meatball sauce recipe come together very quick and can be used for both vegan and real meat balls a like.
In a pot over the stove, take your cranberry sauces and combine it with 1 pack of pre cooked meatballs, 1 tablespoon of maple syrup, 1/4 cup of orange juice, 1 tea spoon of liquid smoke and about 1/2 cup of ketchup.
Let simmer in sauce mix for about 30 minutes, staring occasionally until meatballs are throughly cooked through.
Alternately, you can cook these meatballs in a slow cooker for a bout 4 hours, to give them a wonderful depth of flavor!
Mulled Cranberry Wine
This yummy mulled wine can be made non alcoholic for those of us who can’t/ don’t drink! Just simple replace your favorite red wine with this one here
In a deep pot on the stove, set your temperature to medium high and empty a bottle of sparkling cider and your favorite red wine into it. Add 1 cup of orange juice to the wine mixture
Cut up an apple and orange and place them in the pot with the wine. Next, add about 1/2 cup of leftover cranberry sauce to the wine (Note: If the cranberry sauces has been contaminated with other leftovers, use fresh cranberries, or just omit from this recipe!).
Toss your favorite holiday spices into the wine. I love using whole cloves, cinnamon sticks, cardamom and whole vanilla beans in ours. you can use a tea strainer to hold your spices while your wine cooks.
Let wine come to a slight simmer and then drop temperature to low and cover. Let simmer for at least 30 minutes.
After 30 minutes, add 3 tablespoons of honey. Stir until throughly mixed into the wine.
Remove all whole spices after about 30-45 minutes and use ladle to sever hot into a mug.
Bacon Wrapped Potato Jalapeno Poppers
This is another simple dish to make, but BE SURE TO WEAR GLOVES AND KEEP YOUR HANDS AWAY FROM YOUR EYES. We don’t want to burn ourselves before the game starts!
Pre heat oven to 350 degrees.
Take about a pound on jalapeños and halve them. Using a peri knife, de seed and de vein the peppers. Rinse in cold water and then soak in vinegar for about 5 minutes.
While your peppers are soaking, mix together your left over mashed potatoes with about a cup of sour cream until smooth (Note: if you want this to be vegan, use a soy based sour cream like tofutti)
Drain your peppers and then add a spoon full of potatoes to each half. Top that half with your favorite cheese for poppers (again, we used Cougar Gold here).
Wrap each popper up with bacon (you can use a vegan/ vegetarian bacon as a replacement) having the end piece tuck under the bottom so that they don’t unravel.
Cook in the oven for about 10-15 minutes (make sure your bacon is fully cooked!) and sever with blue cheese or ranch dip.
Easy Brie Dip
If you need to make a side quick, this is the go to leftover dish for you!
Pre heat your oven to 350 degrees.
Take a brie wheel and cut off the top. Place in oven safe dish.
Top the brie with left over cranberry sauces, nuts and thyme or rosemary.
Place in oven and cook until brie starts to get melty–about 10 minutes.
Sever immediateily with crackers and leftover roasted veggies or fruit.
These are some of our favorites to enjoy for bowl games and I hope you end up enjoying some of them too. Let me know which ones you try and If you snap a pic, tag us on instagram so we can see!
Happy bowling everyone!