If I didn’t already have you at Bacon-Ranch, then hopefully “Cheddar” did the trick! After all, there’s some great football watching on the horizon, and this tasty game day recipe is easy to whip up and guaranteed to score big with the football fans in your own home.

And speaking of entertaining for game day at home, I’ve teamed up with Coca-Cola and Ritz this month to bring you some creative – and doable! – game day recipes and party ideas in conjunction with their “Home Bowl” Campaign. We’re also giving HWTM readers the chance to win one of THREE Home Bowl prize packs valued at $350 each, which should provide a very nice kick off to the ol’ party budget, right? ;)

WINNER UPDATE – Friday, January 24, 2015
Just finished selecting the winners of the contest, and it was SO much harder than I anticipated… the Pinterest boards were all so creative! Thank you so much to everyone that entered – I loved looking through the ideas every board. And the winners are: Sheri Lee, Ashley Reece, and Serena Adkins. Congrats, ladies! I’ll be in touch via email to help facilitate your prize!

And now, back to the bacon… and the ranch… and the cheddar! :)

BACON-RANCH-CHEDDAR PIGSKIN CHEESE BALL RECIPE

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You’ll Need:

• 2 packs dry ranch dressing mix
• 1/4 cup sour cream
• 16oz cream cheese* (regular or light)
• 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
• 1 lb bacon, cooked & chopped

*Set aside 2-3 tablespoons of your cream cheese to use for piping football “laces” on to the finished cheese ball. I just cut about a 1” strip off the short end of one of the cream cheese blocks for this.

Instructions:

1. Combine dry ranch and sour cream in a medium bowl. Stir until well mixed.

2. Fold the rest of the cream cheese and cheddar cheese and mix until all ingredients are well combined. It should look something like this:

3. Move the cream cheese mixture onto the middle of your serving plate, and form it into the shape of a football with your hands. (It helps to first form the mixture into an oval shaped ball, then press down and flatten it into the football shape.)

4. Cover the football with small pieces of bacon. We used a “mosaic style” method here… it only took a few minutes to completely cover it with both of us working.

5. Using your extra cream cheese and a plastic sandwich bag, pipe a few laces onto the top of the football.

6. Cover and chill for at least an hour, then serve with buttery Ritz crackers. Enjoy!

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Disclosure: Compensation was provided by Coca-Cola® for this post. As always, the content and opinions are my own. Thank you for supporting the companies that make it possible for us to keep the creative content coming!