Touchdowns for taste buds: Big Game dips and super sneakers
via Finishline

The day is January 1, 2021. The resolutions are: “Drink less. Eat better. Exercise more.”

The day is February 7, 2021. The resolution is: “Let’s start again on Monday…or maybe Tuesday.”

Super Bowl Sunday doesn’t care about your diet and it definitely doesn’t care about “Dry January.” Super Bowl Sunday cares about your cheat days, food, and prop bets. 

So what we’re going to do is spice up our dip game. We’re already suffering a pandemic; we don’t need to suffer from mediocre and overplayed party dips.

Do you know what else we don’t need to suffer? Hiding our kicks in the closet. We’ve stayed inside so much the last year, only dressing from the waist up for our Zoom meetings. Let’s make Sunday our day. Let’s heat up our slow cookers, wipe off our soles, and scream at the TV from our couch.

Banana Pudding Dip // Nike Air Max 90

If you live anywhere in the South, then every single holiday has a banana pudding. This dessert has spread all over the country from banana pudding tacos to banana pudding cheesecakes and is still evolving.

Air Max 90s are the shoe that started an entire Air Max movement. There have been new versions, colors, and fads still being modified and continuously released including this recycled/sustainable pair from 2020.

DESSERTS HAVE FEELINGS TOO! And so do the shoes in the back of your closet. If you don’t have a pair of AM90s, then this is where you need to be. Likewise, if you do have 90s, then you definitely have multiple pairs, and this is still exactly where you need to be. This “second season” release uses at least 20% recycled materials to give us three different color schemes that scream durable and sustainable.

Meanwhile, banana pudding began from those brown/black bananas on the counter that most people throw away. Instead of throwing away your “new-year, new-me” bananas, let’s take 20% of our mom’s or grandma’s banana pudding recipe and make it a dip.

BANANA MAX 90S

~3 hours (including prep, mixing, and chilling time)

Ingredients:

• 3-4 bananas ripened and mashed**
• 1 (3.4oz) instant vanilla pudding packet (bonus points if your grocer has the banana or banana cream pudding packet)
• ½ cup cold milk, plus 1 cup (add last cup gradually for consistency)*
• 8oz cream cheese – softened
• 8oz frozen whipped topping — thawed
• 2 tbsp sugar
• ½ tsp vanilla extract (if you have banana pudding mix, if you have vanilla this isn’t necessary)
• 1 box vanilla wafers

Directions:

1. Mush all your bananas. This really isn’t scientific. Use a fork, a potato masher, or your bare hands, it truly doesn’t matter. 
2. Using a mixer/large blender/large food processor, add pudding mix and ½ cup milk on low until slightly blended. Add milk ½ cup at a time until pudding/milk mixture is incorporated, but not totally thickened.***
3. Add the softened cream cheese on medium-low until it’s completely incorporated/smooth.
4. Add your banana mush on medium-low until it is incorporated/smooth.
5. Add sugar and vanilla extra and beat for about 30 more seconds on low.
6. Fold in 2/3 of your whipped topping.
7. Scrape into a refrigerator friendly serving dish.
8. Smooth out remaining 1/3 whipped topping on dip evenly and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.
9. Serve with vanilla wafer cookies for dippers. For extra flare feel free to crumble some ‘nillas and/or banana slices on top of the dip before serving.

Notes:
*whole, skim, oat, etc. any milk is okay to use as long as you start gradually and watch for thickness. You might only need ½ cup, but depending on your milk it might take more or less.
**if you only have fresh bananas: put the entire thing (peel included) into a 350-degree oven for 10-15 minutes (depends on initial ripeness). They will look scary and black, but they will turn into a delicious scoopable mush.
*** don’t go over 1 ½ cups.

Mushroom Mascarpone Dip // Adidas Ultra 4D 5.0

Mushroom Mascarpone Dip is actually inspired by a crossover of “too much stuffed mushroom stuffing” and “cheesy beef rotel dip.”

These Ultras are the shoes that evolved from “let’s make the running style shoe fashionable” to “I want to look like I run” to “I actually need fashionable and functional running shoes.”

Once upon a time (about six years ago), the Mushroom Mascarpone Dip was born out of a severe miscalculation of stuffed mushroom filling for a Friendsgiving. Sometimes that crossover between excess, want, and need leads to something great (and also really delicious).

Read more on FinishLine