Frosty, snowy weather is pretty ideal for non-stop eating, but if you cleaned out your Easy Mac and frozen pizza supply last night, you might be looking to make a meal with a little more bite today. Luckily, there are plenty of post-blizzard appropriate meals you can make pretty quickly, and since a magical rodent has promised us an early spring, this might be your last chance to celebrate winter bingeing. Here are five of our favorites:
ROSEMARY MAC AND CHEESE: Nothing says "comfort food" like a good dose of hot, cheesy macaroni. It takes no time to cook, it warms up your tummy in blistery, blizzardy weather, and it helps you out with that necessary carbo-loading for pre-or-post snow play. Check out this easy recipe for mac and cheese made with goat cheese; sprinkle in a little rosemary for some added winter zest.
SPICY VEGETARIAN CHILI: Chili is an old cold-weather standby, and for good reason. This recipe for a spicy, meat-free meal takes a couple of hours to prep and cook, but the hearty combo of vegetables, cocoa powder, crumbled corn tacos, garlic, cheese and dash of coffee (!) simmers into a super-tasty, warming dish. It's also pretty low in fat, so you don't have to worry about adding an extra layer of winter flab before the icicles outside your window thaw.
MINI TURKEY MEATBALLS: If you're a carnivore, these little mounds of turkey meat will nicely balance out that bag of Lays you downed at the height of last night's Nemo fury. This recipe calls for under an hour of prep and cooking time, plus all you need are some basic ingredients like dark turkey meat, ketchup and Parmesan cheese. And at 48 calories per meatball, they're a nice, lean alternative to all that fatty leftover holiday junk food.
NACHOS GRANDE: Of course, there's nothing wrong with putting a snow day on par with birthdays and holidays (i.e., days in which calories do not count), so you might want to hole up on your couch with a fatty snack for a good old-fashioned Netflix-fest. This hefty nachos-and-dip dish calls for some artery-beating—chorizo, refried beans and sour cream don't exactly make for a happy cholesterol count—but you've still got some time before bathing-suit weather hits, so enjoy it while you can!
CHOCOLATE DRIZZLED POPCORN/FONDUE: For a taste of something sweet while you're snowbound, heat up some Hershey's syrup (or, for best results, melt a big bag of dark chocolate chips) and drizzle it over some lightly-salted popped corn—you can also toss in a bit of caramel sauce for added richness. Let the dish cool off in the fridge for 5-10 minutes and dig in. If you've got some leftover chocolate sauce and it's still warm, you can turn it into a mini fondue pot for dipping bananas and cubes of cheese, an especially fun activity if you're stuck inside with a buddy.
