Ten Cold Weather Meals

With the weather in a lot of the Northern hemisphere getting cooler and wetter, now is a good time to take a look at some foods that will help shake off the chills. Here, I’m going to walk you through ten of my fall and winter favorites.

Where I am in Miami, it’s been unseasonably cold and wet, and I’ve also been extremely busy with a teaching schedule. So the focus here will be on things that are fairly easy to put together as well as seriously hearty. Instead of full recipes, some of which I have done in the past, I’ll give one or two tips per recipe that will elevate it or make it a lot easier for you to cook.

It’s hard to beat a good bowl of chili after a long day of work. With that said, the recipe on the back of the packet is often a one-way ride to bland, uninspiring chili.

So, to keep things both easy and excellent, I simply take the seasoning package, ground beef, tomatoes, and chili, and dump them in a slow cooker on the lowest setting for 10 hours. This gives the flavors a lot of time to get to know each other, especially if you add some diced jalapenos, onions, and garlic like I often do. Bonus, it will be hot and ready when you get home.

The standard of cheap college eating doesn’t have to be dull. With just a little preparation, it can be good food, rather than good for the money. I’ve been experimenting with ramen lately, and here’s where I’m at in the process:

If you have the time to make your own chicken stock and freeze it, it can be an excellent base for the standard packet noodles. Then, toss the included flavor pack right in the trash and simply add a little soy sauce. When the noodles are done, I top it with at least a soft-boiled egg, but some stir-fried mushrooms, chicken, or pork along with some green onions make for an excellent and filling meal.

My grandmother, who taught me how to cook, also passed down her potato soup recipe, which I will in no way be posting on the internet and thus becoming persona non grata at the family table.

Instead, I suggest you take the time to start with some online recipes for potato soup, especially ones that can be put together quickly. When you’ve been getting rained on and stressed out, there’s little better than a thick, carb-loaded soup to get you feeling like a human being again.

Sauce out of a jar is the go-to for a lot of family pasta nights, and I see why. It’s cheap, it’s pretty good, and everyone has their favorite.

But, if you have time over the holidays, get a bunch of quartered tomatoes, some salt, pepper, Italian seasoning, and give them about three hours to simmer in a pot. The result will be a lot richer than you’re used to from the jar, and you can use other ingredients and an immersion blender to make it a basis for everything from meat sauce to pizza sauce.

Since I’m assuming you have a slow cooker, don’t forget about its ability to make an awesome pot roast. One of my favorites takes four ingredients and turns it into enough meals to feed a person for a week of excellent dinners.

Often, I get a cheapish chuck roast, trim it, and pat it dry before adding some salt and pepper. While it’s resting in the bottom of the slow cooker, chop up some carrots and potatoes. On top, pour about two cups of beef stock with more salt pepper, and a bay leaf mixed in.

If you’re reading this before Thanksgiving, chances are you’re going to have a lot of leftover turkey in your fridge by the end of the week. Thus, it’s time to consider what to do with a lot of it.

I like my turkey sandwiches on toasted sourdough bread, with a fair bit of mayo, and gouda cheese. If you have a panini press, this is the time to press it into service for an awesome sandwich.

For a heartier breakfast to get me ready to face cold, rainy weather or to recover from a night where you had perhaps one too many eggnogs, biscuits and gravy are the way to go.

Making it yourself is also super easy: all you need is flour, sausage of your preferred spice level, and some whole milk. This does require constant attention though, so it’s best left for a morning where you will have some time.

While you might not think of Louisianna as a place with cold weather, a day spent out in the bayous hunting and fishing can be work that will chill you to the bone thanks to being so humid.

Thus, this spicy cajun classic is one of my go-to meals for warming up after a long, wet day here in Miami. It does take a fair bit of work, but the results are more than worth the time put in.

Not dissimilar from the beef roast mentioned above, I think using a slow cooker to get barbecue pork done right is often an excellent idea.

Usually, I get a pork tenderloin and rub it with a mix of brown sugar, salt, pepper, paprika, and cayenne pepper, left in the fridge overnight. In the morning, I pop it in the cooker for 10 hours with half a bottle of my favorite sauce over it. The results, whether eaten as pulled pork or sliced, make for a hearty meal.

It strikes me as odd that most people have no issue roasting a whole turkey, but won’t try it with the smaller birds. Using much the same techniques and a meat thermometer, you can get amazing results from roasting a chicken and some stock when you’re done!

These ten picks round out a lot of the cooking I’ll be doing over the next few months, and I hope you get at least one good idea from this list. If there are any recipes you’d like to see me write on in further detail, let us know in the comments!