“The reason women don’t play football is because eleven of them would never wear the same outfit in public.” –  Phyllis Diller… My home is a football home. I have some serious football lovers living here. Me? I have very little understanding of it all, but I like the food, I love having people over, and enjoy all of the excitement around it all. So in a way, I guess I love football too. I remember years ago, when Mike and I were first dating – His favorite team of all time, the Seahawks, made it to the Superbowl. Since we live just a couple of hours from Seattle, there was a LOT of excitement all over town for that game – it was a huge deal. Billboards all over town, stores were selling out of Seahawks gear, it was craziness. That was the first game I ever really watched – Mike explained how the game worked to me as it was played, and I finally “got” it. Alas, the Seahawks didn’t win {yes, I am a firm believer that those stinky ol’ Steelers stole the game. Sorry Steelers fans!} – but it did give me a much better appreciation for the game. These days, Mike manages his super-serious fantasy football team, we watch the games every week, and we love to have football parties. So that means I needed to come up with some creative new football party foods this year, since football season is in full swing now…

How to Build a Snackadium for Football Party Fun with #SNICKERSMinis

You might remember the Snackadium that I made last year, using chips and dips. I made that a couple of times for different parties, and it was a HUGE hit. So, I thought it might be fun to try to create a new Snackadium this year made out of sweets instead. My challenge was to find the new NFL bagged Snickers Minis at Walmart, and incorporate them into my dessert display. And I love a challenge! Here’s a list of what you’ll need to do this too:

• Snickers bagged candy, the minis and the fun size bars.
• Wilton white and milk chocolate candy melts, one bag each – and you’ll have lots left over for other projects too.
• A bag of rod pretzels
• Disposable aluminum baking pan {I forgot this, and had to use an old cookie sheet, which doesn’t look as clean and nice}
• Fruit dip {or make your own, mix half marshmallow fluff with half cream cheese. So good!}
• Caramel dip
• Food coloring
• Stadium fillers – I used 2 packages of filled sandwich cookies,1 big bag of apple slices, and the rest of the Snickers candy
• One giant Rice Krispies Treat, cut into squares
• Toothpicks

And, before you head out to Walmart to pick up all of these goodies, make sure to print out some of the new football party coupons – so you can get extra savings. {See my own Walmart search for NFL Snickers bagged candy on Google+.}  Because us busy mommas on a budget need all the help we can get, right? Once you’ve gathered all of your supplies, you’re ready to get started on your Snackadium.

How to Build a Snackadium

Ok, building a Snackadium takes a a bit of time, but it’s really pretty darn easy to do. First step is to gather all your supplies and Snickers candy. Now, let me walk you step by step through the basics:

• Playing Field: I used a fruit dip tinted green with Wilton gel color to make the field, and caramel dip on each end to make the end zones. To help keep the edges even, I put down two little wooden BBQ skewers where I want the divide to be – as you can see in the second photo above. Then just take them out when you’re done, and smooth any little shmears.
• Goal Posts: These look complicated, but are pretty much impossible to mess up, I promise. Take two Snickers fun size bars, and dig a little notch in one side of each one like the photo, so they fit snug around the pretzel rod. That’s your base. Break one pretzel rod in half, and another into smaller sections, to make the top of your goal posts. To put it all together, melt some milk chocolate candy melts – dip each piece in candy, stick ’em together, and arrange on wax paper to cool {once they harden, they’ll stick together sturdy.} My trick: I used a thin book {yep, that’s the Baby Brezza cookbook that Abby and I are in!} – Then I laid the pretzel goal post on it, with the bottom Snickers bars on the stovetop beneath, so the whole thing could lay flat. Worked great!
• Stadium Walls: Cut your giant Rice Crispy Treat into rectangles – then stick them together with toothpicks, to make a retaining wall around your stadium.

Congrats – The hard part is behind you! You’ve made your football field, set up a wall around the perimeter {love using that word. Perimeter…} and you’re goal posts are cooling down. Let’s fill the stands, and set up the field. Ready? Go….

“Thanksgiving dinners take eighteen hours to prepare. They are consumed in twelve minutes. Half-times take twelve minutes. This is not coincidence.” –  Erma Bombeck

Filling the Snackadium is simple – just take whatever goodies you’ve got, and fill them inside of your Rice Crispy Treat “stadium” walls. This makes your crowd of fans – ready and eager to see the #SNICKERSMinis players enter the marshmallow dip playing field…. To make the players, you’ll just melt a couple of handful of white candy melts in a couple of different bowls, and add a different color of food coloring to each one. Dip the tops of the Snickers minis in the candy, let cool – and now you’ve got two opposing teams. Grab your cooled candy and pretzel goal posts – put one in each end zone, with the caramel dip keeping them in place. Then place your chocolate football players on the field, however you wanna set ’em up. Now it’s time to cheer – and let the games begin!

“If winning isn’t everything, why do they keep score?” –  Vince Lombardi

Here it is – the Snickers Snackadium! Fun, right? When I make this to bring to parties, I’ll definitely be using the disposable aluminum pans, for a cleaner look. This was just kind of a test-drive, to see how this would all come together. I love it – and I’m sure it’ll be as popular as the chips and dips Snackadium of last year – if not more popular, because I mean, who doesn’t LOVE Snickers, right? Perfect football party snack. Love it!

Hope you have fun building your own Snackadium too!

You can find tons more ideas on building Snackadium creations online, there’s an actual site – Snackadium.com, totally devoted to it. There are some crazy-impressive ideas on there that make me feel like SUCH an underachiever, lol. And if enjoyed this little tutorial, I’d love for you to share it with a retweet or a pin!

How to Build a @snickers Snackadium – Perfect for fall football parties! sunshineandsippycups.com/2012/09/footba… #SNICKERSMinis & #CBias

— SunandSipCups (@SunandSipCups) September 6, 2012

If you decide to make your own Snackadium this fall, either the chips style, Snickers style, or something totally new – I would love, love, LOVE it if you’d come share pics on my Facebook wall! I might even feature them on my site – I love seeing the amazing creativity my readers have. You guys rock.

Like Snickers on Facebook, and follow them on Twitter @Snickers too!

{Disclaimer: I am a member of the Collective Bias™ Social Fabric® Community.  This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias™ and SNICKERS® Brand #CBias #SocialFabric. All photos and Snackadium creativity here are 100% my own work.}