Eating Snack Food – Yum!

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By Diane Forrest

With the recent Super Bowl game, you may be surprised to learn how much food was consumed during that one sporting event.  According to statistics, Americans will eat 30 million pounds of snacks on Super Bowl Sunday. Those snacks break down to 11.2 million pounds of potato chips, 8.2 million pounds of tortilla chips, 4.3 million pounds of pretzels, 3.8 million pounds of popcorn and 2.5 million pounds of nuts. Viewers will also consume more than 1.23 billion chicken wings during Super Bowl weekend, according to the National Chicken Council’s 2013 Wing Report. Chicken wings are not the only junk food on the palates of Super Bowl viewers. They will be reaching for pizza, millions of slices of them. According to PizzaMarketplace.com, two of the largest pizza chains report that on Super Bowl Sunday sales for pizza will skyrocket. Pizza Hut will sell more than two million pizzas or 16 million slices and Domino’s will sell 11 million slices.

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I am giving you these stats to let you know that the Super Bowl is the start of National Snack Food Month.  The super bowl is the second largest food fest, following Thanksgiving, and people consume around 1200 calories in snacks during the game.  Normally, when I think of the super bowl, I think of the commercials, the half time show, and all the great food.  Football is the last thing on my mind.  So, it makes sense that we start the snack food month with a bang.  Also during the month of February, there is not much to do other than stay inside.  It’s usually too cold and wet to go out, and there are so many colds and germs floating around.   Newswise.com lists these activities that occur during the month of February:

Watch an old movie on TV (53 percent)

Eat a favorite snack food (45 percent)

Call an old friend (45 percent)

Reread a favorite book (35 percent)

Bake cookies (34 percent)

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Another favorite activity is snacking, adding on that extra layer of heat to your body.  When I think of snacks, I think of chips and cookies.  However, I have been trying to eat healthier, and have been munching on celery sticks.  Even when eating my favorite thing, chocolate, I have been eating the dark chocolate covered raisins.    You can still snack, but choose healthier foods such as fruits, vegetables, nuts, even low salt, and low fat popcorn.

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You don't have to be perfect; even I have to have some McDonald's French fries or puffy Cheetos every now and then.  But you can start off slow, and incorporate some healthy choices along with some of your favorite snacks, and before long, who knows, you may just want the healthy food.

Diane, 

We decided to be healthier this year during the super bowl and enjoyed these two platters:

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International Chicken Wing Day

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By Chef Diane

I have known my father my whole life, but 2 days ago I found out something new about him.  I was shocked to learn that the chicken wing was his favorite part of the chicken!  All this time I thought he liked the breast.  Guess that just goes to show you that you can always learn something new about those you thought you knew everything about.

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I really don't know how the subject came up, but it seems like there has been an explosion of chicken wing popularity in the last couple of years.  Now you can go to almost any restaurant and find them on the menu.  I imagine that is why they earned their own day for celebrating.

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Today is International Chicken Wing Day.  They are cooked in many different ways, and have several different sauces for dipping.  Many like the buffalo wings, my husband loved the Asian wings that they served at Wendy's. They can be fried, baked or bar b qued.  A great snack during sporting events, or appetizers at a party.  If you can't find any where you live, here is a recipe from allrecipes.com for the buffalo wings.  Give them a try and let me know what you think

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Buffalo Chicken Wings

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon paprika
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 10 chicken wings
• oil for deep frying
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/4 cup hot sauce
• 1 dash ground black pepper
• 1 dash garlic powder

Directions

1. In a small bowl mix together the flour, paprika, cayenne pepper and salt. Place chicken wings in a large nonporous glass dish or bowl and sprinkle flour mixture over them until they are evenly coated. Cover dish or bowl and refrigerate for 60 to 90 minutes.
2. Heat oil in a deep fryer to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). The oil should be just enough to cover wings entirely, an inch or so deep. Combine the butter, hot sauce, pepper and garlic powder in a small saucepan over low heat. Stir together and heat until butter is melted and mixture is well blended. Remove from heat and reserve for serving.
3. Fry coated wings in hot oil for 10 to 15 minutes, or until parts of wings begin to turn brown. Remove from heat, place wings in serving bowl, add hot sauce mixture and stir together. Serve.