Healthy Snacks for Football Season

Whether you're tailgating, having a watch party on the big screen, or curled up with your honey watching the game on a rainy Sunday afternoon...snacks are a must: and it doesn't have to be junk food.
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Like most houses with teen aged inhabitants, pizza is a staple at my house. But, my husband got food poisoning when he was a teenager from a popular National Chain Restaurant, and I don't care for the frozen variety, as they usually taste a step up from eating cardboard. So about 3 years ago, I started making my own. It's great because I can customize them to fit the batch of people that are here at the time. I've got a daughter who only likes cheese. My son wants all the meat I can pile on there, and then a pound of cheese on top of that. One daughter wants hamburger, mushrooms, ham and extra cheese. Well...you get the point.
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You can purchase the crust in a mix where you add water and vegetable oil and roll out your own dough. This is great if you want to make a huge square pizza. Or you can also purchase the crust premade (In the refrigerator section) and simply fill and bake.
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But since we're all trying to watch our weight, cholesterol, fat and sale intake I started to really watch what I was putting on my pizza. This has become a family favorite.

Paula's Pizza Pie

Preheat Oven to 450*

2 Chef Boyarde Pizza crust mix (Made according to package directions)
Roll this out onto a 9X13 inch cookie sheet that has been sprayed with fat free non-stick cooking spray

On top of this add the following in this order:

2 cans (6 oz) tomato sauce
Sprinkle all the sauce with Italian Seasoning, then Oregano, then Basil Powder
4 teaspoons of canned minced garlic (spread this out over the sauce)

1 pound Ground Round, crumbled and browned
1 package turkey pepperoni
6 fresh mushrooms, sliced
1/2 of a sweet Vidalia Onion, cut into strips

1 package (8 oz) Kraft Five-Cheese Italian Blend (if you like more cheese--you can use 2 packages)

Bake pizza for 8-10 minutes. Cheese will be completely melted and slightly browned!
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Now, Pizza is good, but it doesn't seem like football without chips and dip. And just because you're watching your weight, or your fat content...doesn't mean you have to abstain from this watch party favorite!

Spinach and Artichoke Dip with Water Chestnuts.

1 box (8 oz) Fat-Free Cream Cheese: softened
1 package (10 oz) frozen chopped Spinach (thawed)
1 can (14 oz) Artichoke Hearts, drained
1 cup Miracle Whip Light or Kraft fat-free mayonnaise
1 stick of Heart Smart Spread
1/4 cup sun dried tomatoes
2 tsp lemon juice
1 cup Gorgonzola cheese
1 small can of green Chiles
3 cloves of garlic, chopped
2 tsp onion flakes or fresh onion
1 (8 oz) chopped and drained water chestnuts
1 cup grated Alpine Lace non-fat Cheddar Cheese

Preheat oven to 375*
Press spinach between paper towels to soap up moisture
In a large bowl, mix Cream Cheese, Heart Smart Spread, lemon Juice and Miracle Whip until smooth. Add Tomatoes then fold in Gorgonzola Cheese, Green Chiles, Garlic, Onion, Spinich and Artichokes.
Add Water Chestnuts and mix well. Pour into a 9x9 inch baking dish. Spread Cheddar Cheese on top.

Put into oven and heat until cheese is melted and bubbling. It should also brown a bit on the top. Mine takes about 10 minutes, but every oven is different!

Then serve it with fresh carrot and celery sticks, bread sticks or better yet...how about
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Homemade Corn Chips

1 package Corn tortillas
Mrs. Dash Original Blend or Garlic & Herb Blend
Grated Parmesan Cheese

Cut each tortilla into 8 wedges. Spread wedges onto a 9x13 inch baking sheet sprayed with Olive Oil flavored Cooking Spray. Sprinkle each wedge with Mrs. Dash and Parmesan Cheese.
Bake at 375* until chips are crisp and dry. (about 10 minutes) You may want to turn them halfway (at 5 minutes) to make sure both sides are cooking evenly.
If you don't serve these immediately, put them into the microwave for 1 minute. Then let them sit for 5 minutes and they will freshen right up.
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If you're having a potluck, you'll have a variety of things come in. So you will need your recipes to be different so they will stand out! Zucchini and Carrot Sticks will definitely stand out. They are super easy and so good that everyone will be asking for your recipe.

Zucchini and Carrot Sticks

2 large zucchini
6 large carrots
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoon Greek Seasoning
Non-stick Fat Free Cooking Spray

Cut Carrots and Zucchini lengthwise into sticks, about 1/4 inch wide
Spray nonstick skillet with cooking spray. Put in carrots, 1 tablespoon each of Olive Oil and Greek Seasoning. Saute for 6 minutes: making sure to cover all the carrots with the oil and seasoning.
Remove from Skillet, add the remaining oil and seasoning and the zucchini. Saute squash for 4 minutes: Again making sure that you coat all the zucchini with the oil and seasoning.
Both vegetables should be crispy tender, meaning you don't want them mushy and over cooked. They should have a little bit of crunch to them when you bite into them, so adjust your cooking times accordingly.
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All right I know what you're thinking. Enough with the vegetables. Where's the sweet stuff? Well the wait is worth it! Here come the desserts!
All of these are original. I took old recipes that were full of sugar, eggs, butter and shortening and tweaked and changed and varied them all until I got healthy substitutions that taste just as good.
. For instance. Banana-Nut Muffins became:
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Dried Fruit and Nut Muffins

1 & 1/2 cups Self Rising Flour
2/3 cup Splenda
4 large Bananas, Mashed.
1 stick Heart Smart Spread, melted
4 egg whites
1 tablespoon vanilla
1/2 cup blanched almonds
1/2 cup pecans
1 cup of your favorite dried Fruit.
I use Welch's Tropical Sensation which has Pineapple, Papaya and Mango AND
Welch's Mixed Fruit which has Pineapple, Cherries, Apples, Raisins, and Apricots.
( But...I do have to admit I don't like Raisins and will pick them all out!)
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Cream together Bananas, Sugar, Heart Smart Spread, egg whites and vanilla. Combine flour and chocolate and mix well. Add to banana mixture and beat with an electric mixer for 3 minutes, making sure all flour is mixed in well.
Fold in Dried Fruitand nuts.
Spoon into muffin cups, or spray cupcake tin with non-fat cooking spray coating all sides if you don't want the paper cups.
Bake 20-25 minutes until toothpick inserted in middle of muffin comes out clean. Let stand for 5 minutes, then remove from pan.

Hint: We LOVE these hot from the oven! My son will eat them when they're so hot that the chocolate burns his tongue!
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Hello, my name is Paula and I'm a chocaholic! There, it's out in the open for all to see! No more hiding it and eating Hershey Bars in the darkness of my bedroom or when I'm out of town and nobody knows me! And what is better to feed my addiction than chocolate cake? Absolutely nothing.

Sugar-Free M&M Cake

8 egg whites
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
2/3 cup boiling water
1 & 3/4 cup flour
1 & 3/4 cup Splenda
1 stick Heart Smart Spread, melted
5 egg beaters
2 tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp. cream of tarter
1 pkg sugar-free M&M's. (I know they have them at Walmart...or if you can have sugar, use Regular M&M's)

In a large bowl, let egg whites warm to room temperature. About 1 hour.
Place cocoa in small bowl and add boiling water, stirring until smooth
Let mixture cool about 20 minutes.
Preheat oven to 325*
Into a second bowl, sift flour with sugar. Add Heart Smart, Egg Beaters, Vanilla, M&M's and cooled cocoa. With an electric mixer beat at high speed until smooth.
Take your egg whites and add cream of tarter. Mix with electric mixer (Clean beaters) until stiff peaks form. Pour batter over egg white mixture, . With a rubber spatula, gently fold together until batter is just blended into egg whites.
Grease a 10 inch Tube pan with Non-Stick Cooking Spray or Heart Smart Spread and a dusting of flour. Pour in cake batter and bake on middle oven rack for 65-70 minutes, or until cake tester or toothpick come out of cake clean.
Let cool for 10 minutes in pan, then turn out onto cake plate. Let cool for 1 hour.
This is good without frosting, but if you must have icing, you can either purchase a can of sugar free frosting or if you can eat some sugar drizzle with glaze
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Glaze:
2 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla or butter flavoring

Mix together then add just enough milk: 1 tsp at a time; to make it smooth, where it runs easily out of the spoon.. You don't want it too thick, because you need it to drizzle and run down the sides of the cake. But, you don't want it too runny either or it will all end up on the cake plate, with none on the actual cake.

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Football Season is so much fun in the Carpenter household. This year, we are all 5 playing in a fantasy football league, along with my brother, my sister and my brother in law, and 4 of the young young men that are friends with my kids. So naturally all day Sunday, and again Monday night, there is always a group planted in front of our newly purchased flat screen television!
It's nice to know that I can feed them without sending their cholesterol souring into triple digits!

I hope you enjoy these recipes as much as my family does, and as much as i had creating them!