Easy & Healthy Tailgate Food Recipes Everyone Will Cheer About
by Amanda Keefer
These easy-to-make tailgating recipes can be made ahead of time and are prepped in under 30 minutes! Impress friends and family with these healthy tailgate food recipes this football season and beyond!
Football season is kicking off, and it’s time to think about all the delicious food that goes along with tailgating. Even if you aren’t a huge football fan, you can be a fan of the food that goes along with the big game.
Football Sundays were a big deal in our house growing up. The entire family would gather around the living room TV for the big game. The game was important, of course! But, the family time together and the food we ate was what made the memories stick. It was tradition for all of us to wear our jerseys or team colors. My favorite games were when we had family over who was cheering for the opposing team and our competitiveness was on display!
My mom always loved putting out a fun spread on game days. Our favorites were homemade dips, pigs in a blanket, and cheesy potato skins. Score major points with your guests by putting out a winning spread! The best part? All 3 of our game day recipe ideas can be prepped ahead of time, saving you time in the kitchen so that you can watch the game too! Or just enjoy your company 🙂
Tailgating Key Ingredients for our 3 favorite football appetizers
- Bag Pretzel Dipping Sticks
- Vanilla Greek Yogurt
- Chocolate Syrup
- Sprinkles – We recommend getting your favorite teams colored sprinkles 😉
- White Cheddar Cheese
- Green Veggies – We used broccoli, cucumber and bell pepper
- Wheat Crackers
- Pepperoni
- Salami
- Plain Greek Yogurt
- Shredded Cheddar Cheese
- Slivered Almonds
- Bacon Bits
- Green Onion
- Italian Bread Loaf
But tailgating food recipes don’t need to be unhealthy. That’s why we made three healthy tailgating food recipes for you to serve up this season and beyond! We’ve lightened up the typical football spread with some healthy cooking swaps without sacrificing any flavor. Greek yogurt is always a great swap for cream cheese or sour cream in a lot of the popular dip recipes you’ll find online. This cuts down on sodium, calories, and adds lots of protein to your game day menu.
How To Make Yogurt Dipped Football Pretzel Sticks
This sweet and salty game day snack could not be easier! Simply mix Greek yogurt and chocolate syrup in a bowl. Dip your pretzel dipping sticks or rods about halfway into the mix. Be sure to place them on a parchment paper lined baking sheet so they don’t stick. Freeze them for about 15 minutes, decorate with sprinkles and they’ll go into the freeze for 2 more hours.
Pro tip: These tend to melt quickly, so be sure to remove them from the freezer as soon as you’re ready to serve. You can always toss them back in, and they’ll harden again quickly.
How To Make a Touchdown Worthy Goal Post Snack Board
This goal post snack board will impress your guests. Before you make it, cut up your veggies and cheese. To start assembling, arrange your cheese cubes in a goal post shape. After that you have free reign to place your crackers, veggies, and salami as you please. We placed all of our green foods under the goal post to look like the football field and filled in the remaining space with pepperoni slices, crackers, and rolled up salami slices.
Pro tip: Buy cheese cubes this will save you on a bit of prep work.
Simple Substitutions For Your Healthy Tailgating Food Recipes
Yogurt Dipped Football Pretzel Sticks
If you use full size pretzel rods, you’ll probably end up with around 15-20 depending on how you dip them. We used dipping sticks (not to be confused with the thin pretzel sticks) and that made 34 dipped pretzels.
You can swap the yogurt and syrup mix with melted chocolate for dipping. The chocolate will hold up better at room temperature if you plan to have your pretzels out at room temperature longer.
Goal Post Snack Board
Feel free to use your favorite veggies on this board. We used cucumber, green pepper and broccoli to replicate the green football turf. You can swap in celery or add some green fruits into your board like kiwi and green grapes.
Football Shaped Cheese Dip
We used a large Italian bread to house the dip, but this dip can be served on it’s own with crackers, pretzels or veggies. Make it vegetarian by skipping out on the bacon bits.
Pro tip: if you are looking for a loaf of bread for this easy tailgating recipe, keep an eye out for something oval shaped to help give a football shape.
How To Make The Best Football Shaped Cheese Dip
We used a Chicago Italian loaf, it was kind of in the shape of a football…which is perfect for your game-day snacks! Don’t toss out the bread you cut out to make space for the dip, use that for dipping!
Feel free to set out as many sliced veggies or crackers and pretzels for snacking.
Football Shaped Cheese Dip
Ingredients
- 24 oz. plain greek yogurt
- 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
- ¼ cup slivered almonds
- ¼ cup chopped bacon bacon bits
- 1 tbsp chopped green onion
- Large round Italian bread loaf
- Pretzels, cucumber, broccoli for serving
- 1 slice white cheese – we used provolone
Instructions
- Mix 2 cups Plain Greek Yogurt with the shredded cheddar cheese and almonds.
- Refrigerate for 4 hours.
- Take bread loaf and cut football oval shape in center using a serrated knife.
- Remove dip from refrigerator and scoop into center of bread loaf.
- Sprinkle ¼ cup chopped bacon (we used bacon bits) on top of dip.
- Garnish with green onions.
- Cut four strips of white cheese and add as football thread.
- Serve with fresh veggies, pretzels, and remaining bread.
What is one of your favorite healthy tailgating food recipes?
