Make your party food a hit with George Foreman

Super Bowl XLIV is set for February 7th of this year. To make your Super Bowl party planning easy – and a little healthier – we’re giving you a few ideas on how to use your George Foreman grill to handle all the party snacks you need to satisfy your Super Bowl crowd.

Tailgate Party Fare

From cheeseburgers to hot dogs, your George Foreman grill can bring all your favorite tailgate foods inside for your Super Bowl party. Depending on where you live, it’s probably still too cold to BBQ outside, so your electric grill is the perfect way to keep your favorite football foods supplied. Hamburgers, cheeseburgers, hot dogs and brats can all be done in less than ten minutes, so it’s easy to make enough for all your guests.

Tex-Mex Treats

If you have a 360 Grill™ with quesadilla plates or our Quesadilla Maker, you can do stuffed-pocket quesadillas for another party platter. Since you make 6 quesadilla slices at a time, you can do several rounds of cooking to get a full spread with several stuffing options, like beef, chicken and vegetarian or plain cheese.

Another great Tex-Mex party food is fajitas. For quick and easy fajita meat, just marinate your chicken or beef in some lime juice with cilantro, cumin, pepper and chili powder to taste (you can do this the night before to make game-day cooking easier). Cook the meat, then cut across the grain in finger-length strips. To make this a party platter item, simply use mini tortillas, add the meat and let you guests go to town with toppings.

Mini Sandwiches

Finger foods make the best Super Bowl snacks because your guests don’t have to look away from the action to get a bite to eat – just reach and grab. Store-bought mini sandwich platters aren’t the most exciting thing in the world, but if you make the sandwiches from scratch at home, you can take standard party fare and make it masterful. You also get the added benefit of doing hot sandwiches, instead of cold, to make the platter a little heartier for all your hungry guests.

You can do this with any of your favorite sandwiches, but we highly recommend adding the Grown-Up Grilled Cheese recipe from this month’s recipe feature to your list.

Party Day Tip:

Making full-size burgers for a large number of guests may be too much. If you have a lot of guests coming, divide your burger meat into 3.5-ounce servings to make mini-burgers or sliders.

Party Day Tip #2:

Always check with your guests to see if you have a vegetarian or vegan in your group. If so, make sure to have some non-meat options on your party menu. Hot veggie sandwiches are a great way to ensure your vegetarian guests don’t get stuck with just veggie dip.

Game-Day Desserts

If you have a variable temperature grill with a deep-dish bake plate (needs to have high sides), you can do desserts directly on your grill, too. From sweet corn griddle cakes to brownies, you just have to adjust the cooking time for the different type of appliance. Simply set the cooking temperature to the same one listed on the package directions and check the dessert for doneness periodically before the listed cooking time to avoid overcooking.