Twinkle's Kitchen | Five Super Appetizers

Prepping your appetizers for any game day celebration doesn’t mean you’ll need to throw your healthy eating habits out the window. Substitute low-cal, low-fat apps for heavier, greasier fare.

Photos: Big 10 Delicious Dips and Dunkers

These fun finger foods are good for keeping around for those spontaneous snack attacks and perfect for appeasing the kiddos when they get home from school. My kids love the edamame guacamole, and I can’t keep enough of the baked chips on hand.

Easy to make, and easy to store, these delicious dishes will make your big game buffet the winner.

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Edamame Guacamole

• 1 cup frozen edamame
• 1 peeled, pitted and chopped avocado
• ½ cup of cilantro
• ½ cup red onion, chopped
• ½ fresh jalapeño, diced
• 3 tbs. fresh-squeezed lime juice
• ¼ cup water
• Salt and pepper to taste

Thaw your edamame in warm water or microwave and let cool to room temp.

Place edamame, avocado, cilantro, onion, jalapeño and lime juice in a food processor or blender and process until smooth.

Add water if needed for smoothness, and salt and pepper to taste. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

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Baked Dill Chips

• 10 small potatoes - whatever kind you like
• ½ cup white vinegar
• ½ cup pickle juice from a jar of dill pickles
• 2 cups ice
• 1 tbs. dried dill weed
• 1 tbs. black pepper
• 1 tbs. sea salt
• 2 tbs. grapeseed oil

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Slice your potatoes as thin as you can get them. A mandolin or food processor attachment works well, or carefully slice potatoes with a knife.

Soak the potatoes in vinegar, pickle juice and salt in the refrigerator for 1 hour, covered with ice.

After an hour, let potatoes dry completely on a towel.

After drying, toss potatoes with dill, pepper and grapeseed oil.

Spread out flat onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and bake until potatoes begin to turn brown and crispy, about 6-8 minutes.

Turn potatoes over and bake for another 5-6 minutes, cool and serve.

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Sriracha-Lime Popcorn

• 1 cup popcorn kernels
• 2 tbs. olive oil
• ¼ cup melted butter
• 3 tbs. lime juice
• 2 tbs. sriracha

First make your seasoning. Melt your butter in a small saucepan or in the microwave.

Whisk in the sriracha and the lime juice and set aside.

In a large heavy-bottomed pot, place the 2 tbs. olive oil and popcorn kernels.

Make sure you only have one layer of kernels, and they aren’t drowning oil, otherwise you’ll have oily popcorn and many unpopped kernels. Also be sure you’ve got a good fitting lid. You’ll want to keep this on the entire popping time.

Turn on medium high, gently shaking the kernels around every so often.

Once your popcorn starts popping, move the pot back and forth over the heat until there is about 2-3 seconds in between each pop. You should have most of the kernels popped at this time.

Remove lid and pour butter-lime-sriracha mix over the popcorn and toss.

Serve in a large bowl or individual containers.

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PB & J Drop Cookies (gluten-free)

• 1 egg
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup creamy peanut butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 cup  jelly (your choice)
• Coarse sugar for garnish

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Prepare a baking sheet by placing parchment paper on it and set aside.

Blend all ingredients, except for the coarse sugarand jam, for two minutes or so in an electric mixer or by hand until incorporated.

Use a cookie scoop or soup spoon to portion tablespoon-sized balls of dough, placing them on your baking sheet.

Press the top of each cookie with fork tines twice crosswise to form a classic crosshatch pattern.

Press into the center a bit and drop a small teaspoon of jam.

Sprinkle tops of unbaked cookies with coarse sugar crystals or additional granulated sugar if desired.

Bake for approximately 10-12 minutes.

Allow cookies to cool on baking pan at least 10 minutes. This is very important. These cookies are very fragile and need to set. Once cooled, then place on a wire rack to cool completely.

Makes about 2 1/2 dozen cookies.

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Roasted Red Pepper Dip

• 4 red bell peppers, roasted
• Recipe for roasted peppers
• 1 tbs. olive oil
• 1 16 oz. package of silken tofu or reduced-fat cottage cheese
• ½ cup shredded cheese
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 5 fresh basil leaves, chopped
• Pinch of salt
• 1 tsp. fresh ground pepper

Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.

Mix all ingredients, except shredded cheese, in a food processor or blender until smooth.

Place dip in a small 3-cup, lightly-oiled baking dish.

Cover with cheese and bake for 20 minutes or until cheese is brown and melted.

Serve with the Baked Dill Chips or other crackers or bread.

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Twinkle VanWinkle was born in a small town in Mississippi. A life-long lover of music, media and food, she grew up following those three things along her path. She has almost 20 years of professional cooking under her apron strings, feeding thousands of friends, family and other folks while working in restaurants and bakeries in Oxford, Miss. She baked apple pies for the “Oprah Winfrey Show” and appeared on Food Network's “The Best Of...” in the same year. Along with producing dynamic lifestyle content for LIN Media, she is a mother, musician and social media fanatic.

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