Super Bowl

Traditional buffalo wings are fattening, but sometimes you still crave that buffalo flavor. Instead of over-indulging, opt for this burger to get those visions of dripping wing sauce and tangy blue cheese out of your head and into your tummy. Look for preshaped patties (because they’re also preweighed) to save time. This burger can be cooked in a grill pan or on a nonstick grill, but I love outdoor grilling when possible for optimum flavor without added fat.

Gina: This is Pat’s “feel like a king” dish, and if you are married to a meat-and-potatoes man like I am, this dish will make him feel—you guessed it, girl—like a king. The secret to this sauce is two ingredients: bacon and beer. There isn’t a man anywhere in Memphis who would turn up his nose at a steak lacquered with both of those. We like to serve this steak sliced on the diagonal, with plenty of extra sauce on the side. When Pat takes a bite of this and gives me one of his sly winks, honey, I know it’s a slam dunk!

Gina: Lord knows I love a hot, sizzling grilled sausage, but sausage served all by its lonesome is kind of like a basic dress without accessories, you know what I’m saying? A classic is always improved by a dash of color and a bit of sass. That’s why this dish is a nice change of pace—pork sausages are braised with an array of peppers (in assorted colors and heat levels), onions, beer, and mustard. The resulting sausages and piquant braising liquid are especially good served atop steamed rice, grilled Italian bread, or creamy grits made with cheese.

Pat: If you haven’t figured this out by now, in Memphis we find a way to barbecue everything. One day Tony and I turned our attention to flatbread and—surprise, surprise—we came up with a recipe for barbecue pizza! We make ours with a crispy grilled crust, sautéed onions and peppers, and barbecue sauce, and then top the whole thing with one of our favorite cooked meats. It’s a Neely game-time staple, because the dough and toppings can be made hours in advance, so the pizzas can be assembled in minutes and popped into the oven. Don’t be intimidated by the crust—our homemade dough is easy to make and a great project to work on with your kids. In our house, it’s not a pizza party until everyone is dusted with flour.

Gina: This appetizer—a Neely Señoritas’ Night favorite—couldn’t be easier to prepare (or more satisfying to eat). I use the meat from a store-bought roasted chicken, and combine it with tortilla chips and a homemade version of that molten guilty pleasure, cheese dip made from processed cheese (hola, Velveeta!). I also add Southwestern flavors, like green onions, pickled jalapeños, and cilantro, and a Neely finish, Barbecue Pico de Gallo, which gets its sweet, tangy undertone from our sauce (and comes together in minutes in the food processor). Chicken nachos are a great appetizer, especially when there’s a game on television, but they also make a fun end-of-week dinner with a couple of cold beers. So, whether the occasion is Señoritas’ Night (put on the salsa music, girl) or game day, these nachos are always a hit.

Gina: They call me the spice fairy on our show, but my husband is the hot man! If you can’t take the heat, you might want to reconsider this dish. Pat: Living in the South, I have, of course, acquired a taste for both spicy food and fried chicken. In fact, I love fried chicken so much that I eat it at least once a week. And the wings happen to be my favorite part of the bird. No cut is more succulent or flavorful, especially when dusted with fiery seasonings, dipped in batter, and fried. To fire up the flavor in this recipe, I season both the wings and the batter with cayenne, red-pepper flakes, black pepper, and even a little hot sauce. Like Gina says, I just can’t seem to get enough spice or fire. I should add that Gina not only understands my fried-chicken affliction, she encourages it, and several years ago, she went so far as to purchase me a countertop fryer. This has made it easy for me to come home any night and fry up some chicken (it has also saved on time and mess). You will definitely want to adjust the heat levels in this recipe. I have to do the same thing at home, because if it’s too hot my girls won’t eat it.

You may be used to the large, pizzeria-size version of calzones, but I’m offering you this more typical Neapolitan version. Once you have the knack of making and filling the dough, the rest is easy. You can put whatever you like inside. Just make sure the fillings are drained of most of their excess liquid—the way I drain the ricotta overnight or squeeze the excess moisture from the spinach.

If you haven’t bought a deep-frying thermometer yet, this is a good time to do it. A few of the pizzette may “spring a leak” while they fry—you can minimize the risk by not overfilling the pizzette, and by wetting and sealing the edges well as you form them.

This is a healthy version of one of the greatest inventions of the 1980s: the hollowed-out deep-fried potato skins filled with sour cream, bacon, and cheese that first appeared on the menu at T.G.I. Friday’s in New York City. There are a few differences, though. Here, the potato skin is baked until crisp, not fried, and the fillings are all reduced-fat products. The result is a pretty spectacular loaded potato skin at one-third of the calories and less than one-fourth of the fat of the original.

“Loaded” doesn’t have to mean loaded with calories. The combination of black beans, salsa, and nonfat Greek yogurt makes this version of nachos a multicultural feast without the fat. Be sure to buy ground turkey made just from turkey breast—not regular ground turkey, which is made from white and dark meat and skin. The fat and caloric content of the two is significantly different.

Buffalo wings are, hands down, one of the greatest dishes ever created. The combo of hot sauce and butter on a crispy chicken wing is sublime. Here’s the downside of these tasty things: Wing sauce is high in fat, chicken wings are high in fat, and the accompanying blue cheese dressing is high in fat. It all adds up to an astonishing 1,188 calories per serving. Here, the wings have been replaced with low-fat chicken tenders, the buffalo sauce with a great low-fat store-bought product, and regular blue cheese dressing with reduced-fat blue cheese dressing.

At most chain restaurants, just one serving of this very popular appetizer (I love them!) can register between 500 and 1,000 calories, half of which come from fat. The fat content in this version has been reduced from 36 grams per serving to a paltry 5.3 grams per serving. The combination of a reduced-fat cheddar cheese and baking instead of deep-frying is the secret. Jalapeños bake so nicely, I wonder why poppers were ever deep-fried in the first place!

Unreal! Forget Buffalo wings—not only are these healthier than deep-fried wings and way lower in fat, they simply are the best chicken wings you’ll ever have! They are super, über-snacks that can be a simple supper, with salad or veggies on the side. The only carbs come from natural juice and honey. Unlike the small, snipped wings served in some bars and restaurants, homemade wings are larger and have more meat. Allow three or four for a full dinner portion per person, though my sweetie and I can eat all twelve if we’re watching a double feature that night!

When you’re watching the big game it’s important to have some smashmouth, tough-guy food like this.

Take a pizza Margerita, make it on a tortilla, then fold it like a quesadilla and you get a pizza-dilla!

Serve with barbecue chips and oil-and-vinegar dressed slaw. So much better for you than wings, you could eat two!