Super Bowl

Calzones are more popular in Italy than in this country, but they are great kid food and are a little easier to eat than a conventional pizza slice. Each one is a little surprise package; stuff whatever you like inside. Let the kids fill, roll, and seal the calzones before you pop them in the oven.

There’s a lot of flavor in these little crackers, which are the perfect blend of flakey and cheesy. I add these to a bread basket, crumble them over salads, and float them in soup. They keep well in a sealable plastic bag, so make a double batch; you’ll find lots of ways to use them.

Sometimes an onion ring is all about the sweet, tender onion, and sometimes the coating is given the chance to share the spotlight. Well, if you are looking for an onion ring that falls into the latter category, this is the one for you. Beer acts as a leavening agent, making for an extremely tender batter, and the deep malt flavor of dark beer makes this delicious to boot.

I never turn my nose up at potato chips out of a bag—what’s not to like? But there is something incredibly satisfying about making your own, and eating them when they are hot. Considering how easy homemade potato chips are to make, there’s no reason to deny yourself this pleasure. Just make sure that the potatoes are uniformly cut into thin slices and that you salt them as soon as they come out of the fryer. Now I like these chips just plain out of the fryer, but I love them dipped into warm, tangy, gooey Blue Cheese Sauce (page 110).

I’m not talking about bison here; I’m talking about the sauce that made Buffalo, New York, famous. I took two of my favorite football-watching foods and melded them into one. Buffalo wing, meet the burger! Hot sauce and tangy blue cheese have found a new home. For an appetizer, make bite-size sliders if you want. Another way to go would be to make this burger with ground turkey or . . . that’s right, ground chicken.

Top oven fries with the works—tender beef, broccoli, brown gravy, and a bit of blue cheese. You can use leftover roast beef, such as part of the extra Tuscan Braised Beef (page 172), or buy the lowest-fat, lowest-sodium cooked beef you can find.

You can enjoy this protein- and fiber-packed, easy-to-prepare dip on baked tortilla chips or in Vegetarian Taco Salad (page 94).

Most mashed potatoes are full of butter, cream, and other added fats. But this dish pairs wing sauce with blue cheese, packing tons of flavor and thus eliminating the need for added fats or butter.

Instead of buffalo wings, I love buffalo shrimp at times. The shrimp is great because it’s nice and meaty, yet you don’t have to worry about tenderizing it. Plus this dish is lean, but will still satisfy that craving for hot sauce that makes us want buffalo wings in the first place. Buy easy-peel or peeled shrimp to save time and have the kids help with the peeling, if possible.

These insanely simple chips provide a very fresh twist to an otherwise packaged product. The idea comes from family friends of my test kitchen director, Stephanie. Over the years, she’s attended a few of their “Parrot Head” Jimmy Buffett backyard barbecues. They love creating dishes that are margarita-inspired, and they always fry their own tortilla chips and sprinkle them with lime zest and salt. My version is healthier, not to mention much easier, as you don’t have to stand over a pot of hot oil to cook batches of chips. When you make these, be sure to layer the lime with the chips in the bowl so it doesn’t all end up at the bottom.

These potato chips are shockingly fresh and tasty right from the microwave, and they’re healthier than almost any chips on the market. Plus, they’re likely to save you a lot of cash since baked chips tend to be quite expensive, yet large bags of fresh potatoes are not.

It can be a bit tricky to spread the cheese over the cucumber because the cucumber pieces are so moist. But this super-simple snack is more than worth the mini-challenge!

When making these “wings,” be sure your pan is piping hot and the chicken isn’t overcrowded. The tenders should brown on the outside, and there should be no liquid in the pan as they cook to yield optimum—that is, decadent—results.

Who doesn’t love pepperoni pizza? This recipe is a quicker, healthier alternative to the ordinarily fat-filled pie. It’s also simple enough for kids to take part!

You really can’t beat this ridiculously easy and much healthier version of the pizza rolls you might find in your grocer’s freezer. It’s just as gooey, and it’s guilt-free for you . . . and the kids. In fact, it can even be made with all-natural ingredients.

Having been raised on the East Coast, I thought everyone knew what stromboli is—you really couldn’t go into a casual Italian restaurant without seeing it on the menu. Plus, my mother made it often. When I moved to the West Coast, I found most people had no idea what stromboli is. In case you aren’t familiar with it, stromboli is traditionally made by taking bread dough, flattening it into a rectangle, layering it with Italian ingredients (my family’s favorite was pepperoni and provolone), and then rolling it, jelly roll style. You seal the ends and bake it, so it’s like a stuffed loaf when it emerges from the oven. When we served it at cocktail parties, we would always cut it into slices and serve the pieces on their sides so they looked like pinwheels. This recipe is a much less fattening version of this Italian favorite. It is still a treat, but you won’t need to spend hours and hours on a treadmill after you eat it.

Every New Year’s Eve when I was a kid, we had pigs in blankets, chips with dip (see my makeover, Fixed-Up French Onion Dip, on page 100), and mini-pizzas. And that was pretty much the only time we ever had them, so I have such warm, celebratory memories associated with these foods. The very first time I was on Good Morning America, it was on New Year’s Eve and I was showing America how to throw together a last-minute, healthy New Year’s Eve party. I made bite-sized pigs in blankets. Here, I’ve sped up the preparation time so you can eat this favorite in minutes any time of the year. Be sure to buy biscuits with only 1.5 grams of fat or less per 2-biscuit serving. I’ve found that many private labels make them (so be sure to check those), as does Pillsbury.