This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #CollegeFootballChampSweeps

I love this time of year.  Where I live, the temperatures were in the upper 80s and low 90s throughout September, so it didn’t feel like fall weather, but football season is definitely in the air, and that is a great thing! Dr Pepper®  is a sponsor of college football and the college football championship, and they are teaming up to offer shoppers great deals at Publix for all their football watch party and tailgating party needs.  Since our Saturdays are filled with football, family, and food, I have to keep a lot of drinks and snacks on hand, and I’m always happy to find deals on the snacks we love.  Today I’ll be sharing a few of my ideas for how you can take advantage of these great deals at Publix and make Dr Pepper and Nestle HOT POCKETS® brand sandwiches a part of your football celebration.

Prepare to take your college football experience to the next level! Dr Pepper®, DIGIORNO®, HOT POCKETS®, EDY’S® and STOUFFER’S® are giving you the chance to win tickets to the 2017 College Football Playoff National Championship game in Tampa, Florida! Three lucky winners will receive two tickets to the game, airfare and hotel accommodations! In addition, Publix gift cards will be awarded to several other lucky winners. Don’t miss out! Visit CollegeFootballChampSweeps.com for your chance to win. Enter between 10/1/16-10/21/16.

Dr Pepper can be found in the drink aisle at Publix. Be sure to be on the look out for the special limited edition 2016 College Football Packages. Publix also has great deals on HOT POCKETS® and other frozen snacks from Nestle.  Look for these in the freezer section.

You will be the star of your own football party when you create your very own Dr Pepper Floats Bar.  This is such a fun and delicious idea!  You’ll of course need some and a couple of flavors of ice cream for the main ingredients of the floats.  Here I used French vanilla and butter pecan, but I have to tell you that chocolate ice cream is great for  Dr Pepper  floats as well!

And of course, you will need glassware.  I like to put out a couple of different sizes and types of glasses out, simply because in our family one person may want a large float, while someone else may want just a small serving.  You should also have some toppings and add-ins like chocolate syrup, whipped cream, cherries, and candy toppings.  And if you’d like to give your guests the option of blending their float, you should have a blender or hand blender on hand.

As you can see, it is a very simple, yet nice and presentable set up.

Apart from floats, I absolutely love blended floats and shakes.  Today I’ve got a very simple recipe for Dr Pepper Shakes.

Recipe for Dr Pepper Shakes

Ingredients:

1 cup french vanilla ice cream (or other flavor of your choice)

2/3 cup milk

1 tablespoon chocolate syrup

1/2 cup Dr Pepper

splash of Dr Pepper to create foamy top (optional)

Directions:  Blend together ice cream, milk, and chocolate syrup.  Mixture should be pretty thick; if it seems thin, add additional ice cream and reblend.  Next blend in your Dr Pepper.  Pour shake up into a glass and add a splash of Dr Pepper to create foam at the top.

Other Topping Options and Substitutions:

• Whipped cream and cherry.
• Whipped cream and a drizzle of chocolate syrup.
• Whipped cream with chopped candies or sprinkles.
• You can also leave the chocolate syrup out and go with plain vanilla, or use other syrups like caramel, butterscotch, and strawberry.
• To change this recipe from a shake to a blended float, leave out the milk and add extra Dr Pepper.

Just as the Dr Pepper can be used as part of a float bar, the HOT POCKETS® brand sandwiches can used in a bar of their own.  This works out great for us, because we  like to put out a number of finger foods and snacks so that everyone can come, eat, and go, as they please, and making your own HOT POCKET® is as easy as you can get!

Simply lay out a few of your favorite HOT POCKETS® flavor options.  I love Ham & Cheddar, but the rest of my family love the Cheddar Cheeseburger and the Pepperoni Pizza varieties.

Then add a few dipping sauces to add on the side.  A few suggestions I have are ranch dressing, ketchup, mustard, honey mustard, and barbecue sauce.  You’ll also need some ramekins for your sauce, food plates, and forks.

In about 2 minutes anyone can fix up their own snack. (That means it can even be done during the commercials!)  And the best part is that you don’t have to spend a lot of time in your kitchen cooking while everyone else is enjoying the games.

For more fun ideas for the college football season from Dr Pepper and Nestle, check out visit this site.