Before You Dial for a Pizza – Try These 5 Easy Winter Meals
April 5, 2010
•Le Cordon Bleu
•Las Vegas
• 0 Comments
Before You Dial for a Pizza – Try These 5 Easy Winter Meals
When cold winter days turn dark early, it’s tempting to order out. But for the Las Vegas budget and health conscious, having a handful of easy winter meal ideas on hand is critical. Before you pick up the phone to order that pizza – AGAIN - try these five easy wintertime favorites.
Make your own pizza
Making pizza is easier than you might think. In fact, it only takes 25 minutes to make the dough and then another 20 minutes to bake the pizza. Start by combining water (1 cup) and yeast (1 package). After resting for five minutes, add 2 ½ cups of flour, 1 teaspoon of each salt and sugar, and 2 teaspoons of oil. Once combined, give the dough 20 minutes to rise. Then, press the dough into a pizza pan and add your toppings, which can either come from a can or fresh, whichever you choose.
Casserole
Casseroles are a popular Midwestern dish, but that doesn’t mean Nevadans can’t enjoy these one dish meals too. Try your hand at a tuna casserole, chicken and rice casserole, or a black bean and tortilla casserole. Most all casseroles allow you to be creative in your recipe and they freeze easily too. Make the dish in advance, so all you need is time in the oven to warm up the wintertime meal.
Crock pot
Start the crock pot in the morning and by the afternoon your home is filled with the scent of a delicious meal. A pot roast along with a few root vegetables in a tomato sauce or your straight forward barbecue ribs make for tasty crock pot meals.
Chili
Chili – a Las Vegas favorite – is another easy-to-make crock pot meal, but it can easily be made on the stove top as well. Most all of us have a simple chili recipe of ground beef, green peppers, onion, red sauce, and chili seasoning that we swear is the easiest meal to make, but try spicing things up from time to time by adding unusual ingredients that blend nicely in a chili.
For example, some chili recipes call for these odd additions:
· Peanut butter or a chocolate bar
· Ginger and pineapple
· Tequila and lime
· Oysters instead of beef
Roasted chicken
Some Las Vegas grocers offer a whole or half roasted chicken pre-made and ready-to-eat, but you can also try your hand at roasting a chicken in your crock pot or in an oven roaster. What will really add to this succulent and easy-to-make meal idea are the delicious side dishes that go well with it. Macaroni and cheese, mashed potatoes, and green beans, for example, can be purchased pre-made and frozen or thrown together at home with little effort.
All of the items listed here make for ideal leftovers. Nothing spells easy wintertime meal better than m-i-c-r-o-w-a-v-e.
This article is presented by Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in Las Vegas. Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in Las Vegas offers culinary arts and pâtisserie and baking training programs in Las Vegas, Nevada. To learn more about the class offerings, please visit http://www.Chefs.edu/Las-Vegas for more information.
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