Comfort Food for the Cold
Top 5 Comfort food during winter
Mid-February weather, amirite?! Too cold to enjoy the outdoors but not cold enough to enjoy the snow! Let’s stay in and snuggle with a movie while we enjoy these comfort food fav’! Our top 5 favorite recipes from The Spruce Eats! Each recipe listed includes full step-by-step instructions and pictures so even the novice chef can tackle these without a worry or a fire extinguisher handy! Just click the links listed below on your favorites.
- Creamy Pasta and Tomato Sauce
Creamy tomato pasta is an easy main dish recipe that combines cream cheese with classic tomato sauce and spaghetti. It may sound a little unorthodox to add cream cheese to a pasta recipe, but it adds a tangy note to the sauce and a nice creaminess that turns this dish from an ordinary weeknight dinner to something you could serve to company. Serve this dish with toasted garlic bread, a crisp green salad or a sweet and tart fruit salad, and rosé or red wine.
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Easy Tuna Carbonara
This recipe for tuna carbonara is ready to eat in about 20 minutes, from start to finish. It uses ingredients you most likely have on hand in your pantry, fridge, and freezer, so it's a great choice to make when you haven't been to the store for a while or if you're stranded due to weather or illness. You can substitute leftover cooked tuna, or salmon for that matter, for the canned tuna in this recipe or use canned salmon or canned chicken if you'd like. The whole point of a recipe like this is to use what you have in the house. If you don't have bell peppers, use sliced mushrooms or some sliced zucchini, grated carrots, or yellow summer squash. If you don't have spaghetti, linguine or fettuccine will do just fine.
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Shepherd’s Pie
This simple and delicious Shepherd's Pie recipe is made from only five ingredients, so it's very quick to put together. You can have this dish on the table in under 50 minutes from the time you start! To make it even faster, use frozen vegetable crumbles that are sold as a substitute for ground beef. Just cook the onion in a tablespoon or so of olive oil, then add the frozen crumbles and cook until heated. Then continue with the recipe. Shepherd's Pie is an English recipe that was invented to use up leftovers. You can certainly use any leftover vegetables you have on hand in this easy recipe. Leftover cooked carrots, peas, broccoli, green beans, or cauliflower would be delicious. You can substitute leftover cooked steak or roast beef, cut into cubes, for the ground beef. You could even use pork sausage, ground chicken, turkey, or venison in place of the ground beef. Use your imagination and what you have in the fridge and freezer! For the potatoes, use refrigerated mashed potatoes you buy in the store, or make good use of your leftovers. If I don't have leftover potatoes, I find that the dried potato flakes are a perfectly good substitute when rehydrated, especially when dressed up with some sour cream.
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Creamy Italian Chicken
This simple and comforting recipe for Creamy Italian Chicken is not meant to be a gourmet treat. It is delicious and flavorful and perfect on a cold fall or winter night. Add a package of baby carrots for more color and nutrition. Some chopped garlic is good too.
This tasty recipe is rich and creamy because it uses condensed soup and cream cheese. It's excellent served over hot cooked rice, couscous, or pasta. Add a nice green salad tossed with sliced mushrooms and some grape tomatoes, with a vinaigrette dressing, and some crisp garlic toast for a complete meal.
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Chocolate Oatmeal Cake
This simple Chocolate Oatmeal Cake, made with oatmeal, chocolate chips, and coconut, is great for lunch boxes or a family dinner. It's very similar to German Chocolate Cake, but with more chocolate! The cake is easy to make because you don't have to cream butter and sugar together, and the topping is simply stirred together and spooned on the cake.
Experience comfort during winter with Outdoor Theater Systems
While having delicious foods to munch on will certainly help you get through the colder seasons, what better way to make the most of winter than watching your favorite movies on a theater system? Outdoor Theater Systems offer devices that are designed to work together in harmony and deliver a cinema-quality adventure in any location--including your own home. Contact us today and a member of our team will assist you in finding the perfect system for your preferences and needs.