The Ultimate Football Lifehacks: Five Keys To Better Snacks

Courtesy of Miller Lite, through the month of November we’ll be showing you how to lifehack your way to a better football fandom experience, whether watching at home or tailgating at the stadium. This time, we’re talking snacks.

The football experience is improved, immeasurably, by snacks. But snacks can always be overhauled for the better — both in preparation and in serving — and we have a few hacks that do just that.

Add Flavor To Your Salsa

Most jarred salsa is bland, even the “hot” variety. So liven it up a little bit with a squirt of lime juice, or crush and roast a garlic clove, stirring that in for more flavor. Three minutes of prep can make even the worst salsa vastly better.

Get The Most Out Of Your Chips

First thing’s first: You know the delicious bits of flavor at the bottom of every chip bag? Of course you do. You know it’s there. You want it. But it’s impossible to get to.

Unless you turn the bag upside down and open it. That lets the flavoring fall back down through the chips and taste better. While you’re at it, push in the corners of the bag and push up the chips from below; that curls the sides of the bag down, and makes an instant bowl.

Cut Down On Your Cutting Time

You’re probably sick of snack prep that requires you to finely chop stuff. Know what’s really good at cutting stuff into slices? A pizza cutter.

It won’t work for tough or small items, but if you just need stuff chopped up fast and don’t want to waste a cutting board, just grab the pizza cutter and go to town.

Upgrade Your Crudite

Everybody shows up with one of these at some point. We’ve got nothing against raw vegetables, but you can turn a decent snack into a great one by pouring the crudite tray out on a sheet pan with a light coating of oil, and then roasting it for fifteen minutes. A little salt, and you have veggies good enough to eat on their own.

Add Some “Madness” To Your Food Ordering Process

Sometimes, you need more industrial snacks, but then comes the dreaded problem of getting two or more people to agree on what food to order. So solve it the way sports has taught us to solve all categorization problems: With a bracket.

Brackets let you list multiple options and punch through indecision or disagreement because it feels fair and forces a contrast between foodstuffs. It’s also something you can do over a commercial break: Just get a piece of paper, bracket the food, have a vote and settle the issue.

That’s all we’ve got for snacks, but come back next week, when we explain how to get a better game-watching experience… and even improvise an antenna for when the cable goes out.

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