When winter comes, across the country, comfort foods become essential. The colder temperatures encourage warm soups and comfort cooking. From crockpot meals to leave it and forget it soups, we could all use a collective break. Let’s dig in!
Crockpot meals are the best at comfort foods because you can pour the ingredients in and let it cook while life goes on. This chicken and stuffing crockpot meal combines frozen, boxed, and canned ingredients for a tasty creamy crockpot casserole. If creamy, cheesy goodness is your jam, this crockpot savory cheese soup using broth, fresh vegetables, herbs, and cheddar cheese is perfect for a busy day. Put all the ingredients in and let your crockpot do the work for you for the next 7-8 hours.
Soups are the perfect winter food. This white bean soup utilizes and rehydrates dried ingredients with fresh winter vegetables for a delicious, veggie-full comfort soup that begs to be eaten cuddled under a blanket in front of a fire (or the yule log on your television)! If a creamy clam chowder is more your speed, check out this clam chowder combining chopped clams, potatoes, onion, and celery with spices and topped with bacon that takes about 30 minutes to cook. Make it dairy-free by putting in vegetable broth instead of fat-free milk. Another delicious bean-based soup of Navy Bean Soup is perfect for feeding the family, with leftovers, using canned beans, fresh and sautéed vegetables, and potatoes.
Casseroles are wonderful winter meals. Toss everything in a dish and bake it up, which allows for the mingling of all the flavors. This Tater Tot Casserole is a classic and favorite. This casserole mixes ground beef, sausage, and beef with frozen vegetables, pantry items, cheese, and spices is topped with frozen tater tots and makes enough for two casseroles! The second casserole’s bonus is perfect for hungry days or for freezing one for use at a later date. This burrito casserole is perfect for Taco Tuesday! The casserole layers the ingredients of a taco of ground beef-cream of mushroom soup mix, onion, taco seasoning, bean, cheese with tortillas, and topped with hot sauce for a spicy casserole ready after 20 minutes of baking.
Pasta dishes are wonderful comfort foods. They are quick to prepare. They combine cheese, tomato, and starchy pasta for a quick, filling meal. What is better than pasta? Well, this creamy spaghetti pie! It combines all the pasta goodness of pasta, parmesan cheese, ricotta cheese, egg, mozzarella cheese, pasta sauce, and herbs in a pie dish. Bake the dish for 30 minutes to melt the cheese into the herby, tomato-ey goodness, and viola – a dish that is for sure to be a new comfort food favorite.
Comfort desserts are the perfect combination of a warm hug and a fuzzy blanket. This Peach Bread Pudding is the perfect comfort dessert. Combining evaporated milk, butter, peaches, bread, egg, sugar, and spice for a warming and well-seasoned dessert. It is rich in flavor and taste. In winter, frozen peaches can be used in place of fresh peaches. Peanut butter-chocolate pudding parfait is the perfect chocolate comfort dessert, and it is easy too. It combines milk, whipped topping, and peanut butter with instant pudding mix for a quick and easy treat. You can even change the pudding mix with vanilla, chocolate fudge, or butterscotch to change the flavors. Make it like a sundae with toppings like nuts, fresh or canned fruit, and extra whipped topping!
Winter can be a hard month with cold days that make us stay indoors in the warmth. Enjoy these comfort foods this winter, and maybe find a new favorite! Which one will you add to your meal planning this season?
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