Dinner Ideas Across Super Bowl Weekend

I'm torn between two ideas for the Super Bowl, so I think we'll do one tonight as a sort of preview.  Some years ago, I made some lightened Buffalo-style chicken fingers from a source I can't locate in the limited time I currently have.  So it looks like tonight's version will be as close as I can quickly come, which is Buffalo chicken fingers from Allrecipes.com.  Sprouts has value packs of boneless skinless chicken breasts for just $1.88 a pound for these, and with the oven already heated, some organic yam spears will go into it as well, as a version of fries, also in the junk-food-goes-healthier spirit.

Not wanting to sustain a Super Bowl-type culinary atmosphere for three straight days, we'll veer back into something more sophisticated for tomorrow, which I think will be the MSC-certified halibut fillets Whole Foods has on sale for $17.99 a pound. They'll be done simply on the grill pan, unless I can convince the family griller to head outside in the dark to the grill, with buttermilk mashed potatoes to go alongside (five pound bags of russets are still super low at Sprouts at $1.99 each).  Sprouts also has fresh wild Sea of Cortez halibut fillets for $11.99 a pound, although the last time they did that, I wasn't terribly impressed.

For Super Bowl Sunday proper, we have something of a tradition around here.  I indulge in buying some really good (and actually not greasy) Buffalo wings from Whole Foods, sometimes even in a small bucket size, then we make amends by having my favorite vegetarian (and very veggie-oriented) chili, which is black bean chili with butternut squash and Swiss chard from Bon Appetit.  I usually make my own cornbread from scratch to go on the side (a recipe with scallions from Bon Appetit is a favorite, but I don't have time to grab it), but Whole Foods offers a prepared cornbread that is pretty darned good as an alternative, and also mighty tempting as a timesaver.

And happy February, all.  Does anybody else say "rabbit" on the first of the month for good luck?  (I think it's an East Coast thing, but once you get going on it, you fear the world will implode if you stop.)