It takes a village to build a snack stadium. That, patience, and upper-body strength.
Okay, so that's an exaggeration. The truth is, when we set out to create a snack stadium, we did the research. We looked at all the pins on Pinterest, the amazing stuff created by our sister brands, the crazy ideas dreamed up by rabid football fans around the country. And we quickly came to a conclusion: everything looked kind of HARD. Like, too hard for us. People seemed to have unheralded engineering degrees, backgrounds in carpentry, or training in the fine art of cardboard origami. All we wanted to do was make something awesome that anyone—even us—could handle.
Then our art director, Mike, had an idea: What if we created a snack stadium straight out of the stuff you'd want to eat—no structure required? It was a revelation. All it would really be was a study in placement. And, we thought, if we carefully showed how we placed everything, anyone could do it.
So here we are. We did it. And it was awesome. PIN IT, and you'll have it forever:
It looks totally dramatic and complicated, but you can do it, too. Ours started with a trip to Costco, but everything is available at your local superstore or supermarket. It's built in basically four parts:
1. The outer ring: Drinks. We created an ombre wall of Gatorade—what could be more sporty?!—and an inner ring of sparkling water (something for all tastes). Then we padded the sides (the stands, if you will) with soda on one side and beer on the other.
2. The end zones: Chips and dips. With drinks as a foundation, we created cardboard levels to hold guacamole and hummus (the individual cups available at Costco were perfect for this set-up—guests can just grab and go). In each corner, we kept it simple (and avoiding dirtying bowls) by propping up open bags of chips and snacks.
3. The cheering sections: Pre-portioned cups. Individual cups of Pringles (best. party. snack. ever.) line up in front of the cans—and in front of them, cups of mozzarella sticks (each with a marinara-sauce base) and buffalo wings.
4. The field: Sandwiches and more. We took pre-made platters of sandwich wraps and placed them at the ends of the field. Then, with a spinach dip at the 50-yard line, we created a face-off between chips and veggies (taken from a pre-made veggie platter). At our party, chips won by a landslide. Duh.
Beyoncé and Coldplay better bring it to the halftime performance: this snack stadium might just upstage them.
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