Savings & Superbowl Snacks...

Soooo...since I knew a calorie FEST was on the menu for Superbowl Sunday, I knew I had to start the day yesterday with some semblance of healthy:)  And after scrounging through some recipes, I thought this Three-Grain Porridge would fit the bill for "healthy," while still being a "warm winter breakfast" perfectly...

On Saturday night I combined:

• 3 cups of water
• 2 cups of unsweetened Apple Cider
• 1/2 cup Barley
• 1/3 cup Wheat Berries
• 1/3 cup Oat Groat
• 1 Cinnamon Stick

Stir all ingredients together and bring to boil over medium heat.  Once the mixture comes to a boils, partially cover the pot and lower the heat to a simmer.  Allow the grains to simmer for 1 hour, stirring occasionally.  (Once there is only a bit of liquid left = it's done!) 

Now here's where the fun "savings part" comes in!!  Since I didn't exactly have boxes of OAT GROAT laying around my house....I hit up the bulk bins at Whole Foods to pick up all my grains.

The beauty of this is that you ONLY have to buy what you need for the recipe!  So instead of buying a $3.50 box of wheat berries that may lounge around your kitchen for a year and a half....I bought nearly exactly what I needed and spent mere CHANGE one each item:

So from my 'bin' purchases + my little splurge on this yummy No Sugar added Cider & Spice juice (it tasted EXACTLY as if you were drinking applesauce....hahahahahahahah...odd, but VERY tasty!:) ....

...brought my little porridge to around 50 cents A SERVING!  How great is that??  We had enough for breakfast for the both of us, PLUS enough to "grab & go" for almost the whole week...

Not too shabby, right?? :)

We finished off our breakfast serving with some diced dried apricots, warm milk and a drizzle of maple syrup....yum!

For lunch I had another "Pretty Pink" Smoothie...made a little sweeter by a teaspoon of honey & a little more filling by a handful of chia seeds!  I'm tellin you:  Those seeds keep you FULL!!!  I was STUFFED for HOURS after this glass...

And finally...let's get to the big guns, shall we??? :)  Our friend got us started on our Superbowl festivities with a classic:  Wings:)

And as the game was starting, it was time to break into our dueling crock pots:)

We decided a little "Chili Bar" with all the fixins would be a fun idea this year:)

My friend made some Delicious AND Healthy "Confetti Chili" that was just PERFECT!

And after some pondering on some of my tailgating-type favorites, I came up with the idea for our chili dejour:  Pulled Chicken BBQ Chili!

We started by cooking up 2 pounds of chicken, coated in BBQ sauce, in the slow cooker for a few hours.  Once the meat was tender, Scott got busy shreddin....

Next in the slow cooker (along with the leftover BBQ sauce) went:

• 1 can of tomato paste
• 1 tablespoon chipotle powder
• 1 tablespoon chili powder
• 2 teaspoons cumin
• 1 can of black beans, drained & rinsed
• 1 can of kidney beans, drained & rinsed
• 1 can of corn, drained
• 1 can diced tomatoes
• 1/2 cup of EXTRA BBQ sauce
• 1 diced onion

...and finally, the shredded chicken....

Mix it all together and let it cook on low for another 3-4 hours.  Scott deemed it "couldn't have been better" :)  We have a winner, folks! :) hahahahahaha.... 

We had the chilies along with tortilla chips, cheese, sour cream and some cheese & scallion cast iron skillet corn bread, which I SOMEHOW forgot to include the picture of in this post...bummer:)  Let's just say:  it was goooooooooood!

And finally:  The desserts!  Since I loved the "Cheese stuffed Everything Pretzels" that I made LAST year, I thought I'd swap around some ingredients and try dessert flavored pretzels this time:) 

And I love the dough recipe because you mix it up in a food processor, where it goes from this:

To THIS in mere seconds!

For the dough, you need:

• 1 1/2 cups warm water, 110 degrees F
• 2 packages active dry yeast
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 4 cups all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 2 egg

1. Combine the warm water and yeast in a glass measuring cup and allow to sit for 10 minutes.
2. Combine the flour, salt, sugar & powdered sugar in the food processor and pulse a few times to combine the ingredients.
3. Next add ONE egg and the water/yeast mixture to the dry mixture and pulse until the dough comes together.
4. Turn the dough out on a floured board and knead until the dough becomes pliable (continuing to add flour until the dough is no longer sticky.)
5. Divide dough in half.  Starting with one half, roll out the dough in a large square.

Now, here's where the fun part comes in:  The Fillings!!!  And taking another cue from Guy Fieri, I made half of the pretzels with one of the best ingredients EVER:

6.- Spread about a 1/2 a cup of Nutella on the bottom third of the dough (the long end closest to you). 

7.- Fold the dough up and top with shredded coconut (or whatever you like:  Nuts, more nutella...anything!).

8.-Finally, fold over the last third creating a small rectangle, pinching all of the edges together.  Break out the rolling pin again and roll out the newly filled dough into a 11x15 square.

9.- Cut dough into one inch strips

Now here's the time consuming part:  You need to take each strip and seal all of the edges inward so you don't loose any of the filing:

And then roll into long strips:

And then, of course, twist them into pretzel shapes!!

If you are going to add any "extra" toppings, brush the pretzels with a beaten egg and coat before baking them in a 450 oven for 15 minutes.  (may take longer....my pretzels were on the "small side":)

OK, OK...so mine came out looking more like "knots" then pretzels, but they were still SOOOOOOOO good!

I topped half of the nutella pretzels with sugar & sea salt, while the other half I coated with Guy's spice mix which I realllllllly liked!  Who knew chili powder would go so well with Nutella?? :)

And as much as I liked the Nutella pretzels...I must say:  They were no match for the white chocolate:

...and coconut version!

I topped these with a little sugar & salt mix and they were just to die for!!!  Soooooo good!

MUST. MAKE. THESE!

Phew!  That was a mammoth post, if I do say so myself! :) hahahahahhahahahaha....and let's just say after all that chili/carbs/sugar/carbs/wings/carbs, I jumped out of bed this morning like a caged animal READY to workout and have a 'healthier' day today;)  It's all in the balance:)

Alright...I am OUT of here!  Have a great Monday! :)