With the winter upon us, the days are getting shorter, and the nights are getting longer. Dark is drawing in, and the sun is out less and less. As a result, the days and nights are becoming much colder. It’s important to wrap up warm, but it is of equal importance to eat right.
Our bodies crave different things dependent upon the time of year. And during winter time our body wants us to eat hot and filling meals. This is your body’s way of preparing you for the cold months ahead.
Whether you’re craving a Donald Russell beef wellington or a hot rabbit stew, you should be favouring hearty dishes.
These will help keep you energised and strong through the day or night. Now hearty doesn’t have to mean unhealthy, in fact, it is possible to make food that is both hearty and healthy.
In the winter, you may find yourself busier than usual. Maybe you have things to do before it gets dark and maybe you take a more cautious approach because of the cold, dark and wet. Maybe you don’t want to be slaving away over a hot stove for hours on end. Or maybe you would like to but you just don’t have the time.
Well, you’re in luck because there are plenty of hearty foods perfect for winter. Most need minimal preparation and will not take up too much of your time.
Casseroles are perfect for the winter as they are easy to prepare and can feed a lot of people. You can also add leftover food which prevents waste food and helps to save money.
Another advantage of casseroles is that they include a lot of vegetables. In the winter months, it is important to eat filling foods, but it is of equal importance to eat immunity-boosting foods. There are more illnesses spreading around in the winter than at other times of the year.
Serious cold and flu can be debilitating so for extra protection eat foods that develop and boost your immune system.
You can even make a variant on casseroles and go with a stew, broth or soup dishes. These are full of vegetables, can be seasoned to suit all tastes and will keep you warm. None of these dishes need an abundance of preparation and all them are one-pot meals.
If you have a slow cooker this is even better as you can just toss everything in the cooker as it is, turn it on and leave it for hours. This saves you a lot of time and means you don’t have to be present during the cooking process.
This is perfect for the working man or woman. Prepare everything the night before and in the morning sling everything in the slow cooker and turn it on. You can then drop the kids at school; head to work and enjoy your day. And it means when you return there is no cooking to do.
If you fancy mixing things up a little, you can take a more cosmopolitan approach and go for a foreign variation. Algerian lamb stew with couscous is a wonderful example, and the preparation is almost identical.
This article was provided by Choco-Lush Blog
