Super Bowl party hosting tips and recipes

With the Super Bowl around the corner, it’s time to hone your hosting skills to make game day easier. As it is, it’s pretty stressful when it comes to watching the game itself — every play and pass counts. So, make the second most important part of the big game — the food — easy with some clever tricks and shortcuts.

Here are nine of our favorite Super Bowl party hacks to use so that you can better focus on the game.

1. Watch The Super Bowl For Free Without Cable

If you’re going to host a Super Bowl party, the first thing you’ve got to figure out is how you’ll watch the big game! Super Bowl LVI will air on NBC on Feb. 13. If you don’t have cable, you can still tune into the Super Bowl. You can stream it on Peacock or the NBC Sports app, for example. But if you want to avoid subscription fees, the original way to watch the Super Bowl remains the most cost-effective and reliable: install an over-the-air digital antenna. Since the game always airs on either CBS, Fox or NBC — three of the major over-the-air broadcast networks — it’s totally free for anyone with a TV and antenna to watch on their local affiliate.

If you’ve already got your over-the-air antenna set up and your local NBC affiliate is already scanned into your channel lineup, simply flip to that station on the day of the game and enjoy the coverage from start to finish, fee-free, including NBC’s pre- and post-game shows, all the commercials and the halftime show.

If you don’t have an over-the-air antenna, check out this guide on finding the best one for your needs, then install it and run a scan for channels on your TV. Your local NBC affiliate should be among the ones you receive and that’s where you’ll want to flip on game day.

2. The Best And Easiest Spinach Artichoke Dip — Ever

Hands down, this is the best and easiest spinach artichoke dip you’ll ever make. It has all our favorite things, and more — canned artichoke hearts, frozen spinach, various cheeses, sour cream and a little bit of milk.

3. Make Two Slow-Cooker Dips At Once

In the past, we’ve told you about genius slow-cooker tricks you definitely need to try, and making two dips at once was one of them. The trick? Just use some aluminum foil to divide your Crock-Pot in half, so to speak. You can watch this mini-tutorial from Delish for the 4-1-1.

4. Use Your Slow Cooker — For Everything, Especially Chicken Wings

In case you missed it, we love our slow cookers here at Simplemost. You can make so many different things in your slow cooker (aka Crock-Pot), from buffalo wings to spicy honey garlic ones. You can check out some of our favorite delicious slow cooker wing recipes.

5. Make Chili

Aside from dips and chicken wings, use your slow cooker to make chili. It’s hearty, easy and will satisfy all your Super Bowl party guests. You can make a meat-based one, as well as a vegetarian one. We like this chicken taco chili recipe from Skinnytaste. But don’t worry, it’s not skinny on flavor!

6. Use This Chips-And-Dip Hack

Presentation is everything when it comes to serving food, right? And aside from chicken wings, chips seem to be a Super Bowl party staple. We love this The Organised Housewife. Just grab a bowl and a margarita or wine glass, fill the glass with your dip and place it in the bowl, then fill the bowl with chips, and presto!

7. Stock Up On Alcohol From A Wholesale Club — Even If You Are Not A Member

Speaking of wine … Not everyone has a membership to places like Costco and Sam’s Club, but that doesn’t mean you can’t benefit from their perks. You can buy alcohol without a membership at Sam’s Club and at certain Costco stores.

8. Make A Football-Themed Dessert

If you want to make a sweet football-themed dish, why not try this football brownie cake? This is my favorite Super Bowl food item to make. It’s so easy, and people always eat it up, so to speak.

9. Line Your Trash Can — With A Lot Of Garbage Bags

On Super Bowl Sunday, aside from the game and food, your trash can will probably be popular, too. For a simple trash bag hack, try putting in 10 trash bags at once, each one inside another.

Okay, is anyone else as hungry as we are now after reading about all of these Super Bowl party hacks?

MORE: Get paid $10,000 to watch the Super Bowl in Las Vegas