Game Day Party Food Ideas – Sweet & Savory Snack Bar

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Hey party peeps! It’s playoff time and if you’ve been following me for a while you know that me and my family are huge football fans! During the playoffs we like to gather at each other’s houses to watch the game and enjoy game day food. This week it’s at my house and I’d love to share with you my Playoff Game Snack Ideas by setting up a Sweet & Savory Snack Bar featuring yummy HotPockets® and the new Butterfinger® Peanut Butter Cups Minis.

SWEET & SAVORY SNACK BAR!

I don’t know about you, but after I eat a savory meal I just get a craving for something sweet. So, when the playoff game party was at my house this weekend I decided to mix both together and create a Sweet & Savory Snack Bar. When it’s my turn to host a football viewing party I always setup a self-serve food or snack bar that my guests can enjoy throughout the game. This ensures that I can actually watch and enjoy the game with my guests instead of running around like crazy hours before the party cooking up a huge meal.

SET THE SCENE!

As a party planner I ALWAYS decorate the snack table in a football theme to display all the goodies just as an extra wow-factor to the game day excitement. Especially during the playoff season when everyone is so excited and cheering for their favorite teams. I normally decorate using generic football decor like this football field tablecloth, football shaped plastic trays, football party food picks and bleacher dessert stand instead of decorating with a specific team’s colors and logos since not all of my guests are fans of the same teams and during the playoff season my family all get together each weekend to cheer on our individual favorite teams. I also LOVE to incorporate black and white striped decor items into my table design inspired by the referees uniforms.

GIRLFRIEND TIP: Since I host football parties a lot during football season I like to use items that I can reuse over and over again. The football field tablecloth is vinyl with a felt backing so it’s super easy to just wipe clean and reuse. Same for the football plastic trays. I use them EVERY GAME DAY!

SERVE EASY TO MAKE & EASY TO EAT SAVORY SNACKS!

So, when I was shopping in Walmart for all the game day snacks I decided to pickup a few 12-pack boxes of Hot Pockets® in two flavors– Pepperoni Pizza with Garlic Buttery Seasoned Crust and Philly Steak & Cheese with Seasoned Crust.

Hot Pockets® are such a great game day food idea as they are already in individual portions which make them easy to eat with one hand–no fork necessary! And they are easy to make! Gotta love that! All you do is pop them in the oven and 30 minutes later they are ready to set out on your snack bar. The filling inside the Hot Pockets® will be very hot when they come out of the oven which I love since I don’t have to worry about them staying warm while displayed on my snack bar throughout the game. Just be sure to let your guests know they are hot if they go for them as soon as you take them out of the oven.

GIRLFRIEND TIP: For game day food I usually like to serve foods that I can serve in individual portions. When I’m busy, I like to look for foods that are already packed in individual portions and require little to no prep. This week has been super busy with Mommy-preneur stuff and Hot Pockets® was just what I was looking for to make my life a bit easier as the host of this weekend’s playoff game party.

SERVE EASY TO MAKE & EASY TO EAT SWEETS!

My daughter, Riley, is really into baking and it’s such a great way for us to enjoy some Mommy & Me time. So, when deciding on a few sweets for the game day spread, I decided to make a day of it and include Riley in the party prep by coming up with a few recipes that we could bake together using my hubby’s favorite Butterfinger® Peanut Butter Cups Minis. She was super excited to get in on the party prep fun! I asked her what she wanted to bake and of course they were both her favorites–muffins and brownies. I was excited about that since both of those are portioned individually and will work perfect into my Sweet & Savory Snack Bar idea. So, Butterfinger® Muffins and Butterfinger® Brownie Bites are what we made using the new Butterfinger® Peanut Butter Cups Minis.

Butterfinger® Muffins!

Here’s what you’ll need:
– 1 bag of Butterfinger® Peanut Butter Cups Minis (found in the candy aisle)
– 1 Butterfinger® candy bar
– 1 box of your favorite chocolate muffin mix
– milk (follow the ingredient list on your muffin mix pack)
– muffin tin

GIRLFRIEND TIP: I’m not a bake from scratch type baker! Boxed mixes for muffins, cakes and brownies are my go-to picks. When baking with my daughter I like to let her do everything (except cracking eggs) and with my favorite muffin mix, there are only a few steps so she can basically make them herself which always ends with a huge smile on her face!

Now Let’s Make Them!
– Place a themed or colorful cupcake wrapper in the muffin tin pan. This makes it super easy to remove the muffins from the tin when they’re done AND allows you to match your party’s theme and colors with cute muffin wrappers.

– Follow the instructions on your favorite boxed muffin mix. For me, Riley put the mix in the bowl, added the milk and eggs and stirred. I of course cracked the eggs 😉

– Pour the mix into the muffin tins about 3/4 of the way full using a liquid measuring cup.

– Place 1 Butterfinger® Peanut Butter Cup Mini down in the middle of each muffin.
– With a spoon, cover the candy with some batter so that they are completely covered.

– Bake your muffins according to your package instructions.
– While they are in the oven, take the 1 Butterfinger® candy bar and crush it up in to small bits. I use a knife to do this and just shave bits off of the candy bar.

– Remove from the oven and immediately sprinkle some of the crushed Butterfinger® candy pieces over the top while they are in the pan. This will be messy but don’t stress out trying to get the candy pieces only on the muffin. I just cover the entire tops and when I remove them from the pan, the extra shavings just stay on the muffin tin anyway.
– Let the muffins cool for a few minutes before removing them from the pan.

Now Let’s Decorate & Display Them!
Now that you have your muffins freshly baked, it’s time to decorate them and place them on the Football Themed Snack Bar. For the muffins, I place each one into a reusable green glittered cupcake wrapper and top with a plastic football themed cupcake topper like this football and goal post. To display them and give a little height to the table I use my bleacher dessert stand from Hello My Sweet to display the muffins.

GIRLFRIEND TIP: I like to use cupcake wrappers around muffins because let’s face it…the baking wrappers fade and don’t look very good when they come out of the oven and the bright gorgeous colors and patterned wrappers available now for cupcakes work great to give muffins a finished look.

Butterfinger® Brownie Bites!

Here’s what you’ll need:
– 1 bag of Butterfinger® Peanut Butter Cups Minis (found in the candy aisle)
– 1 box of your favorite brownie mix
– eggs, water and vegetable oil (follow the ingredient list on your muffin mix pack)
– baking spray
– mini muffin tin

Now Let’s Make Them!
– Spray your mini muffin tin with baking spray to make sure your brownies just pop out of the pan when they’re done.
– Follow the instructions on you favorite boxed brownie mix to create the batter.
– Fill each mini muffin tin with batter about 3/4 of the way full using a measuring spoon.
– Place 1 Butterfinger® Peanut Butter Cup Mini down in the middle of each brownie.
– With a spoon cover the candy with a thin layer of batter so that they are completely covered.
– Bake your brownies according to your package instructions.
– Remove from the oven and let cool before you remove them from the pan.

Let’s Decorate & Display Them!

For the brownie bites, I simply arrange them on a clear square plate topped with a black and white striped dessert napkin and insert a football flag party food pick into each one. Simple and easy!

GIRLFRIEND TIP: When you have a patterned linen or when the linen is the wow factor to the table like this Football Field Tablecloth is, always use clear plates when you can to display food as it will allow the tablecloth to show through as much as possible.

WHAT GAME DAY SNACKS ARE YOU SERVING AT YOUR PLAYOFF PARTIES THIS YEAR?

Cheers!
Tonya

WHERE DID SHE GET THAT?

– Styling & photography: Soiree Event Design
– HotPockets®, Butterfinger® Peanut Butter Cup Minis: Walmart
– Bleacher dessert stand: Hello My Sweet
– Black and white striped paper goods: Hoopla Events
– Glittered cupcake wrappers: Dress My Cupcake

WANT MORE FOOTBALL PARTY IDEAS?

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